In This Issue:
PG-13 Rating Keeping Viewers at Home?
Studios Give Nod to Early Adopters
Movie Review: A History of Violence
Welcome to another edition of the new Cobalt Cable Newsletter. You may have noticed we are trying a slightly different format these days. We still aim to provide you with the same interesting commentary, cutting-edge industry news, and now we have added reviews of newly released DVD’s and High Definition video games.
Why? Well, we are guessing that you are tired of being bombarded with the latest and greatest marketing ploys that most web-based companies consider worthy of newsletter material. Also, what good is a home theater if you cannot find great material to watch? As you read the initial review offerings, keep in mind that we set out to provide an opinion based on content and home theater experience. You will not find a plot synopsis, or spoilers, within our reviews. You will find solid information on entertainment value, special effects, and surround channel usage. This content is provided exclusively for you. If you feel we could do a better job of presenting this information, or you have a great idea that you feel would improve this new format, please speak up! This is your newsletter, help us mold it into a service you find useful!
Is the PG-13 Rating Keeping Viewers at Home?
by Jeff Simon (contact me)
Cobalt Cable
The year was 1984, and Hollywood was seemingly pumping out blockbuster movies every month. Ghostbusters, Gremlins, Beverly Hills Cop, The Karate Kid, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Amadeus, Footloose, and The Terminator name only a few. Yet there are two titles in this list that would forever change the landscape of major motion pictures.
When the Temple of Doom was released May 23, 1984, millions of families flocked to see the new adventures of Dr. Indiana Jones. What they did not expect was to watch the evil Maharajah plunge is hand into a slave’s chest, extracting his still-beating heart, and showing it to the victim before dropping him into the pit of fire below. In tandem with the constant danger that “Short Round”, Indy’s young partner, is constantly exposed to, parents were left wondering if they should have kept their pre-teen children at home.
Later, in June, viewing audiences were introduced to a cute, cuddly mogwai named Gizmo and his ugly white-Mohawk-sporting, mischief-making Gremlin counterpart, Stripe. The blockbuster-hit Gremlins was the second movie in under a month that terrified unsuspecting young ones and their often agape-mouthed parents expecting a slightly edgier “E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial.”
Public outcry prompted Steven Spielberg (who produced Gremlins and directed Temple of Doom) to suggest to MPAA founder Jack Valenti a new rating that established a middle ground between the PG and R ratings. After approval from theater owners, the PG-13 rating was officially introduced to the public that July. The first movie to be released with a PG-13 rating was Red Dawn. Technically, The Flamingo Kid had received the first PG-13 rating but was shelved for five months, allowing Red Dawn to be released first. The new rating still allowed children under 13 to be admitted without a parent or guardian, but cautioned parents about potentially violent or offensive content. While a step in the right direction, the new rating confused movie-goers as to what the difference between PG and PG-13 really encompassed. Movies that borderlined the PG-13 rating often resulted in the MPAA rating them PG, again prompting parental protests and outcry against questionable material being shown to their young children.
Within a few years, the shift to PG-13 movies became more common as standards were tightened and better defined. With the exception of 1994, the number of PG-13 films has outnumbered the number of PG films since the early ’90s.
Here is where the problem begins. The 2004 Movie Attendance Study available from the MPAA Web site (www.mpaa.org) states, “The 12-39 age group makes up 30 percent of the population, yet represents nearly half of all annual theatrical admissions.” Within this group, nearly two-thirds are between the ages of 12-20. Thus, it is in the movie studios’ best interest to get their films approved for a PG-13 rating to ensure they are not neglecting half of their potential audience.
So what does this do to the quality of the films being currently released? To answer that, let us look at the ratings of the recent American remakes of Japanese horror films. Movies like: The Ring (PG-13), The Ring 2 (PG-13) and The Grudge (PG-13) were based on Japanese movies that were either originally not rated by the MPAA --- or in the case of Ju-On (of which The Grudge takes it’s origin) have an R rating.
The American versions are filmed with every intention of being rated R, yet they become, pun not intended, butchered in the editing room to fulfill the needs of the PG-13 rating. Once these films reach your local electronics store in the form of a DVD, they are available in three flavors: Original and Director’s Cut, or under the clever branding guise of Unrated. These Unrated films are actually the full strength rated-R solution to the watered-down counterpart that was released in theaters just months before.
This type of editing is not limited simply to horror films. A perfect example of softening a movie before the release would be 2004’s The Big Bounce in which it is very apparent (through woefully bad lip-syncing) the foul language has been redubbed to be less offensive.
A notable example of tampering with subject matter to meet a rating would be Alien vs. Predator, also released in 2004. This film garnering a PG-13 rating was laughable considering the previous four Alien movies and both Predator movies were all rated R. A quick jump to the Internet movie database IMDB.com provides information on every movie ever made. When you look up AVP, you will find a comment regarding an apparent special industry screening, in which the director stated that the film was always planned as an R-rated movie and shot that way. Only three weeks prior to the movie’s release, the studio changed it by cutting the film severely to ensure a lower PG-13 rating. It later was revealed that this "press-screening" never took place and was only an Internet rumor started by fans. That being said, the DVD release of AVP was available not only as the theatrical version, but also in an Unrated Director’s Cut version that includes eight minutes that expanded explanations of certain events and delivered the gore-filled content Alien and Predator fans were hoping for. In fact, it was the script and poor acting that held this movie back more than the few minutes of excessive violence and gore. But the possibility exists that it could have performed better at the box office had the fans of the two original franchises felt the material was better represented.
This subtle shift in focus has helped the PG-13 rating stray from its intended use. No longer is the PG-13 rating used as a regulatory system to help consumers decide what is appropriate for their children, but rather a device that movie studios use to gain access to a wider target audience no matter the subject matter.
Removing content to conform to a rating system can rarely be seen as a good thing. When studios remove situations and ideas to conform to an acceptable level of content deemed “potentially offensive,” they essentially are censoring the material. This often convolutes the meaning of any art form, including film, giving it significantly less impact. That, in turn, creates a lackluster response from viewers. More than anyone, consumers understand the need to protect young children from the increasing amount of shock material in major media today, but are studios really protecting them by removing the gore yet still showing the violent action? We have reached a point in today’s cinematic world that studios now compromise their films for the wrong reasons, leaving behind sub-standard material that no one can relate to.
We at Cobalt Cable feel that film is truly an art form and should not be compromised by the almighty dollar. We encourage the film industry to hold true to the original concepts that evolve from each individual film project. Diluting ideas only breeds mediocrity and creates a final product that will, more often than not, disappoint audiences. The decline of the cineplex has been looming in the distant future for some time now and is nearing rapidly. As home theaters become the chosen venue for movie viewing, it certainly could be noted that savvy audience members avoid going to movies not only due to the conveniences that their home theaters provide, but also to experience the original, unabridged content of a film, now released as an Unrated DVD. That, or maybe they are just tired of watching movies in a theater packed full of 12-year-old kids.
Studios Give Nod to Early Adopters on High-Definition Discs
by John Coleman (contact me)
Cobalt Cable
Joining MGM, Fox, Buena Vista, and Paramount, Universal has announced that they will not engage the "Image Constraint Token" (ICT) on their titles for the next-generation high-definition disc format in their initial release.
The function of the ICT is to force non-encrypted video connections (e.g. component video) to be down-converted to 960 x 540 pixels instead of the full resolution of the disc (e.g. 1080p). Under this scenario, only HDCP-Equipped HDMI (or DVI) Connections would transfer the film at full resolution.
This move was obviously done to not completely enrage the owners of the millions of HDTV sets which lack HDCP HDMI/DVI inputs (currently estimated to be between seven million and eight million in the US). Since almost all HDTV's sold pre-2005 fall into this category, this is a large group of early adopters, who are traditionally the torch-bearers of any new technology, to aggravate.
However, this policy is not guaranteed in perpetuity. It is Universal's (or any other studio for that matter) prerogative to re-enable ICT at any time. Enabling this feature has always seemed like a silly policy (much like the broadcast flag in digital tv signals), but the feature is out there to be enabled by the content provider at any time.
To further complicate things, there are two sides at play here too, each jockeying for position. On one side, you have the backer's of the Blu-Ray format, developed by Sony, which include MGM (Sony), Fox, Buena Vista, Disney, and Paramount. On the other side, you have the Toshiba developed format, HD-DVD. Backers of HD-DVD include Warner Bros. (technically backing both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray), New Line Cinema, and Universal Pictures.
HD-DVD will beat Blu-Ray to market by at least a good month. Also, with the delay of the PS3 (the launch of the PS3 is now looking to be November of this year), there does not seem there will be a "reasonably priced" Blu-Ray Disc Player on the market for some time. Samsung, Panasonic, and Pioneer have announced Blu-Ray Disc players, but the price of each is set to be above (in the Pioneer and Panasonic models' case well above) $1,000. On the other hand, Toshiba has announced two HD-DVD Disc Players for less than $800. However, to complicate things even further, at the time of launch, the two players announced from Toshiba cannot handle the new 1080p super high resolution format, while both the Samsung and Pioneer Blu-Ray Disc players can. It is also likely that when both formats launch, there will only be a handful of titles available for each.
This change of course on ICT is an interesting turn of events. Up until recently, it was speculated that analog and/or non-encrypted digital connections (e.g. component video or non-HDCP DVI) would either be "down-converted" to 480p (the resolution of standard DVD's), or turned off altogether. It will be interesting to see what both Warner Bros. (HD-DVD and Blu-Ray) and Disney (Blu-Ray only) do to respond to this, since they seem to have been cuckoo about ICT in the past. Being that there will be a format war, there will most likely be concessions continued to be made on both sides to attempt to make one technology more consumer friendly. However, the most consumer friendly option would have been to not have a format war at all. With this much money to be made (look at the sales of HDTV's, and combine that with the sales of DVD Players) , though, it looks like we are in for a long, hard battle that no consumer wants.
DVD Movie Review: A History of Violence (2005)
Director: David Cronenberg
Runtime: 96 Minutes
Reviewed by: Jeff Simon (contact me)
General Information:
A History of Violence is the film adaptation of the graphic novel bearing same name. The novel, originally written by John Wagner and Vince Lock, portrays Tom Stall (played by Viggo Mortensen), a humble restaurant owner placed in a situation that brings up his violent history and is forced to confront the secrets of his past. Stand out performances in this film include Ed Harris who won the LA Film Critics Association award for best supporting actor for his performance, William Hurt who garnered an Oscar nomination for best performance by an actor in a supporting role, and Viggo Mortensen who was nominated for three Best Actor awards (Empire Awards, Satellite Awards and the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films Saturn Awards).
The film, regarded as an independent film by everyone except the director (who wished it was not released to the film festivals for judging, wanting smaller non-studio films to be recognized instead), was nominated for many awards including 2 Oscars, and won several film festival awards as well as being nominated for the Cannes Film Festival “Golden Palm” award.
Video Content:
Viewed with progressive scan playback this movie is very well presented. The color and brightness levels stay consistent throughout the movie. Cronenberg’s composition is excellent as the action scenes are relatively in-frame as he does not resort to the often overused extreme close-up, shaky cam technique that seems to have become common place for Hollywood action sequences. While there is nothing to write home about in terms of mind blowing special effects, it was in no way hard on the eyes.
Audio Content:
This subject matter of this film is very gritty and realistic. For this reason there is very little in the way of wild surround sound usage within this movie. The usage is mostly apparent in the action sequences and is really the only time the “surround sound” experience takes place. Music is consistently dark and moody throughout and will often lay the groundwork for the action that is about to take place.
Experience & Conclusion:
This movie, while entertaining from beginning to end, is a little slow to start. The opening scene does however set the tone of this film, which is to say, dark and macabre. As stated, the acting in the film is exceptional; I especially enjoyed Ed Harris’s performance. For those familiar with the graphic novel this film is based on, you can expect much less by way of violent content comparatively, yet the potency of the movie remains intact. This film is much more about content and context than it is about fancy special effects and surround sound usage. While I would not recommend it to an individual that cannot handle violent and graphic material, I would recommend this movie to anyone who would enjoys an interesting and engaging, dramatic storyline. This is, for all intensive purposes, a modern-day western about truth and redemption. If you have SinCity, Road to Perdition or Reservoir Dogs in your DVD collection, A History of Violence should be on your “Next to Buy” list.
Xbox 360 Game Review: Oblivion
Title: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Reviewed by: Jeff Simon (contact me)
Resolution Reviewed: 1080i
Speaker Configuration: 5.1
As I write this review I think of the thousands of families that are left without tech support and electronics help because their favorite techie/geek/gamer friend has been locked away for days straight playing this game. I know personally this game has affected my entire family. You see, my 360 sits close enough to our home temperature monitor that it will actually trick our heating system into thinking it is much warmer in our house than it really is. Currently, my wife has been telling my 3-year old son that his father is single-handedly ushering in the new ice age!
First let me say that I am not an RPG gamer. “Role Playing Games” are typically reserved for the Dungeons and Dragons “my +4 broadsword of Light defeats your magic resistant Hammer of Fire!” sort of individual. My main complaint with this style of game can be summed up in one word: Management. Nothing takes me out of an experience like having to jump into a menu to add points to my characters attributes. Give me action! Give me thrills! Give me something to pretty look at! Without question Oblivion delivers on all these levels.
Before you begin, you have the obligatory “create your character” sequence that helps you define your game persona, first starting with basic attributes and finishing with physical appearance. In the end, if you spend the time to play with all of the options given you should have an avatar that looks unique from anyone in the game. Your quest starts you off in a very specific direction and helps you learn the controls by doing some basic dungeon crawling. After you learn to move around, wield your melee weapon, and use a little magic, you emerge from the dungeon to be told something rarely heard in video games. Essentially: Do what you want.
This approach to open-ended gameplay really makes this title shine. While the main quest of the game is said to take less than 30-40 hours of gameplay, in total there are 500+ hours of entertainment to be had (according to Bethesda themselves). To put it in perspective, there are approximately 16 square miles of world to explore and while you can use a “travel” feature that will quickly get you to your destination, getting there is truly where the fun lies. There are countless unmapped destinations in the world as well as random scripted events that truly convince you this is a living, breathing world. Character variation is good. Don’t expect every bartender or town beggar you meet to be a clone. The variety of voice acting is also excellent as every line in the game is spoken and you are even treated to a few special guest voices by the likes of Patrick Stewart and Sean Bean.
Speaking of audio, the use of surround sound in this game is very well done. If it sounds like someone is following you, well, you better turn around. You are presented with music at the right times, mainly the cut scenes. When you do get music it feels epic and grand. Weapons sound great as well as the ambient noises of the towns and countryside.
You might be wondering why I have not mentioned Oblivion’s graphics yet. Good question! The graphics are so absolutely stunning that I wanted to make sure I covered a few other key points in this game before I recognized this title’s robust visuals. Next generation gaming is all about quality high-definition graphics and this title delivers in spades. Without question this is an area Bethesda spent a great deal of time perfecting and detailing a world that is interesting to look at and fun to explore. There is a plethora of flora and fauna of varying types that you can interact with. Have you found an interesting flower? Pick it. You can collect flowers and other organic items to use in your mortar and pestle to create your own potions. As time passes, the flowers and herbs you pick will grow back. Wake your character up early and watch possibly the best sunrise ever to be included in a video game, complete with beautiful orange and rose colored clouds. At night, gaze at the twinkling stars and passing clouds, that is, provided it is not raining of course.
Weather system aside, the characters are all very well modeled. When you add armor or weapons to your character they are reflected on your avatar. Terrain, towns, and creatures are all well done with one possible exception. It seems as though the horse models and animation were a bit rushed. More polish in this area of the game could have made horse travel much easier on the eyes. Other complaints in the graphics department would be the occasional drop in frame rate. I experienced this most often when there was a great deal of fire or enemies onscreen. The draw distance is scaled well, yet traveling across a grassy meadow you can absolutely see the details being created just in front of you. In most instances though, you will never notice it.
My final gripe about this game would be the amount of doors and the load times associated with said doors. These are necessary evils that are a symptom of having such a large and detailed game space. You will find that there is way more to this game to like than there is to complain about. I and many other reviewer of this game agree: This is the best title available for the Xbox 360 to date. Even those that never found themselves rolling a seven sided die or attending a L.A.R.P event (Live Action Role Playing, otherwise known as the people dressed in chain mail in July whacking each other with sticks at the park), this game is still worth looking at. If you are still hesitant as to whether this is a purchase or a rental, rent it. Odds are you will be buying when your rental is due. And for the record, it wasn’t me that ushered in the next ice age; it was the Dark Lord Abercrombie and his “Spell of Unreasonably Priced Sweaters."
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