Robin Hood and his Merry Men fight for justice for the little man. They live as outlaws in Sherwood Forest. They steal from the rich and give to the poor in opposition to Prince John's oppression and taxation of the people while King Richard is away on the Third Crusade. These are the conventions one might expect from a Robin Hood film. Don't expect any of them from this Robin Hood film.

In this version there is a Sir Robert Loxley (Douglas Hodge, VANITY FAIR), but he is not Robin Hood. In this version Robin Longstride (Russell Crowe, GLADIATOR), an archer in the army of King Richard (Danny Huston, EDGE OF DARKNESS), becomes the outlaw of legend. This version is the story of how he became that legend. While fighting in France, Robin is challenged by the king to tell him the truth about the crusade. Robin's answer ends him in the stockades. As fate would have it, King Richard dies on the battlefield and Sir Loxley is assigned the task of taking his crown home. On the way, he is ambushed by English double agent Godfrey (Mark Strong, SHERLOCK HOLMES), who is looking to assassinate King Richard for France. Now free Robin and his friends come upon the plot and run off Godfrey. He takes a vow to Loxley to return Loxley's family sword to his father Sir Walter (Max von Sydow, THE EXORCIST).

Since the beginning of cinema there have been adaptations of Charles Dickens’ classic holiday ghost tale. Many think of the 1951 version starring Alastair Sim. I have a soft spot for A MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL for its great humor. Director Robert Zemeckis makes his version with puppets as well, only digital puppets. Performance capture has allowed him to do anything with the tale.

Jim Carrey brings to life Scrooge, who here is sickly thin and more vulture-like than ever before. With the performance capture technology, Carrey is able to play the three ghosts as well. The Ghost of Christmas Past is a flicker of fire, who speaks with an ethereal tone. The closest to Dickens’ description I’ve ever seen. The Ghost of Christmas Present is as he has been portrayed before as a large jolly fellow. But I really like his haunting transformation as the hour chimes and he chuckles as he turns to bones. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is often just a shadow creeping on the wall and pointing a skeletal finger.

Read my review of SECRETARIAT.

Disney's transfer of their latest inspirational sports movie isn't an inspiration, but nowhere near a loser either. The 1080p Blu-ray has a running issue with softness and noise. In darker lit scenes, the picture ranges from muddy to fuzzy. These same scenes don't have the same lush color palette as the rest of the disc. But like its namesake, the disc excels where it needs to -- the race scenes are gorgeous. Details are crisp and the colors are luscious. Even the lower grade cameras used for the horse mounted shots look great.

The disc really makes good its potential with its DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack. The sounds of the horses racing washes over the soundscape and puts the viewer in the race. The LFE track is used so effectively in this instance to create a real sense of the power of these animals. Likewise, ambiance is nicely done in crowd scenes, putting us in the middle of the enthusiastic fans. Directionality is quite immersive. Voices and sound effects come from the speakers as if we are sitting in the camera's seat.

Jason Eisener won Robert Rodriguez’s SXSW Grindhouse trailer contest for his fake trailer HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN, which was featured in Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s GRINDHOUSE. Unlike that film and Rodriguez’s fake trailer turned feature film MACHETE, this film is simply an exploitation flick. The film has little purpose other than being violent and bloody.

Here, the Hobo is played by Rutger Hauer. It is a testament to his professionalism that he gives a real performance within this muck. He’s a homeless vet looking to save enough money to buy a lawnmower so he can make an honest living. He comes to Hope Town, which is like a cross between Detroit in ROBOCOP and some punk run town in MAD MAX. Why he thinks this is a good spot to beg is unknown? I would have picked the suburbs before panhandling in a place where the town’s welcome sign is spray painted over to read Scum Town.

Interwoven throughout Clint Eastwood's biopic of J. Edgar Hoover is Hoover dictating his "Untitled FBI Story" to a series of young agents. One agent asks if the story of Hoover and the FBI can be separated. It's hard to say because for better or worse Hoover was the FBI for most of its existence. He became the Bureau's head in 1924 and stayed there through eight presidents. He asks another agent who the most famous man in the world is and the agent replies, "You, sir."

Leonardo DiCaprio crafts a subtle portrait of a man who few truly knew because Hoover didn't even know himself. In the film, Hoover is portrayed as a do-gooder whose biggest joy is to impress his mother Annie (Judi Dench, JANE EYRE). It is believed that Hoover was a secret drag queen, but the film doesn't delve into salacious details. It presents the facts fairly straight forward. He was a life long bachelor who lived with his mother until she died. And once the tall, handsome Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer, THE SOCIAL NETWORK) joined the Bureau, they were inseparable. Hoover seems to have a classic case of transference where he moralizes to the public and struggles with secrets behind closed doors.

For a continuing franchise it's so often the quality of the villain that makes the series longevity. The hero never changes, or we think that is the case. It's a good villain that pushes the protagonist to the edge. This is the case with the introduction of Professor James Moriarty into Guy Ritchie's steam punk version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's great detective.

Moriarty was only hinted at in the original, but here he is played with intelligent ruthlessness by Jared Harris (TV's MAD MEN). Holmes (Robert Downey Jr., IRON MAN) has linked the university professor to a series of bombings that have been attributed to an anarchist group. His longtime beau Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams, THE NOTEBOOK) is still working for the man who has no qualms murdering to meet his goals. But what are his goals? Holmes boldly confronts him, which makes the dastardly schemer attack Holmes where it matters.

In my review for SHREK THE THIRD, I said, "[it] doesn’t walk the edge like the other films, but there are still enough flares of that same good ol’ SHREK that you remember why you were friends in the first place." Three years later those flares have completely burned out. This "what if Shrek were never born" fantasy is the kind of desperate plot that tired sitcoms resort to.

Shrek (Mike Myers, AUSTIN POWERS) has given up his kingdom to settle down in the swamp with Fiona (Cameron Diaz, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH) and the kids. The only problem is his repetitive and safe domestic life doesn't sit well with the ogre who can no longer scare a child. So when Rumpelstiltskin (Watt Dohrn) makes Shrek a deal to trade one day from his childhood for one more day as a real ogre, the big green dummy signs on the dotted line.

From Warner Bros. Animation comes another beautiful looking HD release. The most memorable element is the vibrant colors. Darkly lit sets often find their way to bright locations whether it be the glow orange ooze bubbling in vats or train stations. Flashbacks to happier times utilize a wider color palette, helped by the presence of Robin’s costume. I say this with every one of these DC Direct titles, but animation looks so good in 1080p and Warner Direct serves it up well. The picture is so crystal clear that it makes for increased engagement. The stormy title sequence looks amazing. Just seeing the episodes of BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES on the disc one can see the difference high definition makes in picture quality. Now this isn’t a perfect release. There is some banding in backgrounds, but I never noticed artifacts, aliasing, pixelation or noise like I read in other reviews. But the problems are minor in the larger scope of the release.

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is dynamic. I was impressed the directionality of the soundscape. Machine gun blasts sound like they’re buzzing past you. It really helps make the sound seem more robust than it really is. This isn’t the most immersive experience, but it feels like a full sonic world, which is important for animation. One element no one will miss is the LFE channel because it booms during explosions.

Read my review of A CHRISTMAS CAROL.

Whether you hate performance capture or like it, this Blu-ray release will only support your opinion no matter what it is. That’s because the crystal clear presentation shows off everything. The color palette is rich with festive reds and golds in the cheery moments. The darker scenes are balanced wonderfully as well. Blacks are bold and there is no digital problems as characters emerge from the dark into light. Overall the picture shows no signs of aliasing, banding or any other kind of digital distortion.

The audio equals the picture very well. The soundscape utilizes the more action filled moments well. In one screen Scrooge is overwhelmed with chimes and clocks and we understand his feelings. Directionality flows nicely across speakers as characters move across the environment. The soundtrack is presented in DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless.

Director Mark Romanek's haunting aesthetic and Adam Kimmel's gorgeous cinematography is masterfully brought to Blu-ray. The muted color palette is brought forth in a crisp image that finds a right balance between film grain and bold detail. The greens of the Hailsham Boarding School yard are deep, while keeping inline with natural look of the entire film. There is some noise in low-lit scenes, notably an early one where Carey Mulligan stands in an observation room at a hospital, but these moments are fleeting.

The 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack is respectful for the quiet film. Good for a dialogue oriented production, the voices are clear throughout. Volume of the dialogue, music and sound effects is mixed well. The soundscape however relies on the front speaker predominantly.

The special features are limited. The making of doc, "The Secrets of Never Let Me Go," talks with the filmmakers and actors about their approach to the metaphoric sci-fi material. Considering there is no commentary track on the disc, this is all we get and it's a pretty solid 30-minute look into the film's production. The doc lays out how the project came together; it's funny how serendipity plays a role sometimes. Then it moves into the artistic choices for bringing the beautiful, but sad tale to the screen. There is also still galleries of Romanek's on-set photos, the Tommy character's artwork, as well as the theatrical trailer.