{"id":5819,"date":"2009-06-08T22:26:58","date_gmt":"2009-06-08T21:26:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/?p=5819"},"modified":"2009-06-10T04:51:02","modified_gmt":"2009-06-10T03:51:02","slug":"uk-dvd-releases-monday-8th-june-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/2009\/06\/08\/uk-dvd-releases-monday-8th-june-2009\/","title":{"rendered":"UK DVD Releases: Monday 8th June 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"UK<\/a><\/p>\n

DVD PICKS<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button<\/a><\/strong> (Warner):\u00a0A high profile big budget adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald<\/a>‘s short story, which stars\u00a0Brad Pitt<\/a> as the title character, a man who is born as an old man and ages backwards throughout his life. Directed\u00a0by\u00a0David Fincher<\/a>, from a script written by\u00a0Eric Roth<\/a> and\u00a0Robin Swicord<\/a>, it also stars\u00a0Cate Blanchett<\/a>,\u00a0Taraji P. Henson<\/a>,\u00a0Julia Ormond<\/a>,\u00a0Tilda Swinton<\/a> and\u00a0Jason Flemyng<\/a>. Told in flashback, it is an epic tale of one man\u2019s life during the 20th century, from in 1918 to 2005.<\/p>\n

On first viewing I admired it more as a technical exercise and was puzzled as to why a director like Fincher was attracted to this material. Why did they alter the original story so much? What were the contemporary references all about? And wasn\u2019t it\u00a0a bit too similar to Forrest Gump<\/a>? (also scripted by Roth). However, on second viewing I found it to be a much richer experience – it is essentially a fable about love and loss and gains its power from the central concept of living life in reverse.<\/p>\n

Far from being a gimmick, it actually becomes a profound way of dramatising the ageing process. Forget the\u00a0Oscar fuelled hype<\/a> and\u00a0snarky<\/a>critical hate<\/a> surrounding this film and approach it with an open mind. The\u00a0makeup<\/a>,\u00a0visual effects<\/a>,\u00a0cinematography<\/a>,\u00a0score<\/a> and performances make it an unusual and affecting big budget rarity.<\/p>\n

Disappointingly Warner Bros (the UK distributor) have put all the extras on the Blu-ray version and the regular DVD is a barebones single disc with only audio commentaries.<\/p>\n

If you have a multi-region player I would strongly recommend getting the US Criterion edition on import<\/a>, although I imagine there will be a 2 disc DVD at some point in the future.<\/p>\n

The extras on the DVD and Blu-ray versions break down like this.<\/p>\n

Single-Disc DVD<\/strong> – Includes the film presented in 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen with English and Italian DD5.1 Surround and English Audio Description; The only extra is commentary by director David Fincher.<\/p>\n

2-Disc Blu-ray<\/strong> – Extras include:<\/p>\n