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Disney+ | Tales of the Jedi

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review | Star Wars: Visions

The quality of some of these Star Wars-themed animated shorts can vary, but the series as a whole is well worth checking out

by Dennis Burger
September 27, 2021

I honestly can’t decide if Star Wars: Visions represents a huge risk for Lucasfilm and Disney+ or a sure bet. So let’s just agree that it’s off the beaten track but following a path that seems obvious in retrospect, and leave it at that. The new anthology series comprises nine disconnected shorts built on a single premise: Give the Star Wars mythos to nine different anime directors spread across seven anime studios and let their imaginations run wild, with no imposed ties to the existing Star Wars timeline or canon.

Given that the shorts range from 14 to 23 minutes long, with the average running length coming in at right around 17 minutes, it’s understandable that none of the concepts are fully developed, and there’s not a lot by way of story in some of them. But that really sort of misses the point. I think the intent here was to riff on the themes and iconic visuals for the Galaxy Far, Far Away from a different perspective. And in that respect, it’s a stunning success. Every single film in this collection is a wonder to behold in terms of color, design, detail, and motion (the latter despite the fact that a lot of it seems to be animated on threes or fours).

Does that mean you’ll like it? Well, of course not. Even as a self-described Star Wars scholar, there were episode of Visions I simply hated. And there were a couple (“Lop and Ochō” and “Tatooine Rhapsody”) that had potential but turned me off with their hyperbolic, uber-kinetic cutesiness and sensory overload.

But there are five shorts in particular that deserve your attention, even if you’re not a fan of Japanese animation in all its diverse and disparate forms, nor a dedicated consumer of every ancillary Star Wars program to roll out on Disney+.

“The Duel,” directed by Takanobu Mizuno and animated by Kamikaze Douga, the studio behind JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, is such a perfect but unusual blending of Kurosawa, Leone, and Lucas that it feels essentially Star Wars despite breaking so many rules of the universe.

“The Village Bride,” directed by Hitoshi Haga and animated by Kinema Citrus (Tokyo Magnitude 8.0) is a hauntingly beautiful little fable that resonates despite its predictability.

“The Elder,” directed by Masahiko Otsuka and animated by Studio Trigger (Little Witch Academia) is delightfully creepy and, in its English dub, features a great performance by David Harbor of Stranger Things and Black Widow fame.

“Akakiri,” directed by Eunyoung Choi and animated by Science SARU (probably best known in America for their work on the trippy Adventure Time episode “Food Chain”), is an absolute audiovisual masterpiece and a deliciously ambiguous morality tale at that.

But the best of the bunch, for my money, is “The Ninth Jedi,” directed by Kenji Kamiyama and animated by the legendary studio Production I.G, best known for Ghost in the Shell. Of all the shorts here, this one really felt like it should have been developed into a feature-length film, even if most of its substance comes from its style.

Check out those five shorts first if you’re unsure about whether or not you want to dip your toes into this weird experiment. If I may, though, I’d like to recommend watching each of them twice: Once in the original Japanese and once in the dub of your choice. As for the latter, I can only speak to the quality of the English dubs, but they’re incredibly well done throughout, with great voice acting and none of the awkward fumbling that normally comes from trying to match vocals to lip movements animated for a different language.

Furthermore, turning off the subtitles gives you the opportunity to soak in the Dolby Vision presentation of the animation, which looks a bit different from short to short, but always impresses with gorgeous contrasts, sumptuous color, and oodles of detail. (I did notice a brief moment of aliasing in one shot of one short, but I think that was a consequence of production, not the online delivery.)

In either the original Japanese or in dubbed English, the Dolby Digital+ 5.1 soundtracks vary a bit in terms of intensity and expansiveness but always deliver the goods on dialogue intelligibility and musical fidelity. By far the best of the bunch in terms of sound is “Akakiri,” which benefits from a decidedly Eastern percussion soundtrack almost entirely devoid of musical notes, but which nonetheless feels right at home in the Star Wars universe, or at least this version of it.

Also worth noting is the fact that Visions is accompanied by a pretty healthy collection of bonus features: 5 to 8 documentaries for each short that give some background on the filmmakers, their love of Star Wars, and their unique approaches to each episode.

All in all, Star Wars: Visions isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of blue milk, but it’s nonetheless exciting to see Lucasfilm exploring, taking risks, and expanding the scope of what Star Wars can look like. It may not have been entirely successful for me, given that I really only enjoyed five of the nine shorts, but still—I want to see more of this sort of thing going forward.

Dennis Burger is an avid Star Wars scholar, Tolkien fanatic, and Corvette enthusiast who somehow also manages to find time for technological passions including high-end audio, home automation, and video gaming. He lives in the armpit of Alabama with his wife Bethany and their four-legged child Bruno, a 75-pound American Staffordshire Terrier who thinks he’s a Pomeranian.

PICTURE | The Dolby Vision presentation of the animation, which looks a bit different from short to short, always impresses with gorgeous contrasts, sumptuous color, and oodles of detail.

SOUND | The Dolby Digital+ 5.1 soundtracks vary a bit in terms of intensity and expansiveness but always deliver the goods on dialogue intelligibility and musical fidelity.

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Review: Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian

Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian

review | Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian

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Disney’s behind-the-scenes look at The Mandalorian harkens back to the glory days of DVD extras

by Dennis Burger
June 3, 2021

One of the biggest concerns I’ve had about about the home video marketplace in the years since we started to transition from discs to online distribution is the decline in well-made behind-the-scenes supplemental material. We’ve seen some exceptions, like Beyond Stranger Things on Netflix, but bonus goodies of this sort almost seem like a vestige and little more, and they’re far too rare even at that.

I’m not sure if Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian is a full-blown reversal of this trend but it’s certainly a welcome addition to the ever-growing library of content available on Disney+. You know what? Strike that. To call Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian a return to the glory days of behind-the-scenes documentaries that flourished during the DVD era would be to sell it short. Unlike far too many of those bonus features, this eight-episode exploration of the making of the first live-action Star Wars TV series doesn’t have a promotional or congratulatory bone in its body. Nor does it lean on all of the tropes that practically defined the making-of doc in decades past.

Few and far between are the stereotypical shots of creatives or performers answering questions in front of a green screen. In fact, one almost gets the sense that director Brad Baruh has never seen a behind-the-scenes documentary and is making up his own formula as he goes along.

That’s actually not the case. Baruh has been involved in the making of a few Marvel Cinematic Universe docs and even had a hand in a couple of the best “one shot” short films set in the MCU. But with Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, he breaks the mold, structuring the series around a series of roundtable discussions, each focusing on a different aspect of the series or its legacy, rather than following the making of the series in chronological order.

The first episode takes a deep dive into the directors who worked on the show, and subsequent episodes explore its place in the Star Wars universe from a storytelling perspective, as well as a pop-culture phenomenon perspective, along with the actual grunt work of production and post production.

But what really makes Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian such a joy is that it’s wildly unpredictable. Rambling discussions that would have been left on the cutting-room floor in the hands of a more seasoned pro instead become the centerpiece of an episode. Actors, directors, producers, and effects artists are allowed to take the conversations in directions that interest them, rather than simply pandering to the voyeuristic tendencies of the viewer.

(Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of the trailer for this series, which seems intent upon cherry-picking the few shots and discussions in which it does gravitate toward tried-and-true territory, but oh well. Marketing people are gonna market. Don’t let that turn you off.)

The series even treats some of the controversies behind the making of The Mandalorian—like the fact that star Pedro Pascal wasn’t really behind the mask of the titular Mandalorian all that much, and was instead played primarily by stuntmen Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder depending on the needs of the scene—with unapologetic honesty.

The best episodes of the series so far are those that focus on the technical wizardry that made The Mandalorian possible, like the advances in virtual set technology and the reliance on video-game engines for real-time rendering of backdrops that responded to camera movement. But at its heart, what makes Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian such a pleasure to watch is that every story it tells is ultimately a human story. While watching the series, my mind has been blown on several occasions to discover that things I thought were special effects actually weren’t, and things I never would have suspected to be special effects actually were. But instead of treating these technological wonders as the subject of interest in and of themselves, Baruh treats them as the efforts of creative humans solving problems in a way that no one ever solved them before.

And in a way, that’s a bit of a metaphor for Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian as a behind-the-scenes documentary. You’ve certainly seen bonus features that aim for the same end goals. But you’ve rarely seen ones that approach those goals quite like this.

Even if you’ve never been a fan of supplemental material, this one is so original in its approach to deconstructing the creative process that you owe it to yourself to give it a shot. And if nothing else, the title of the series—not The Making of the Mandalorian, or Behind the Mask, or anything of the sort, but rather Disney Gallery—gives me hope that this series isn’t a one-off, that indeed Disney+ will be home to future series of this nature, which maintain the spirit of old DVD making-of supplements by documentarians like Charles de Lauzirika, Van Ling, David Prior, and Laurent Bouzereau, but in a fresh new way that embraces the streaming era of home cinema.

Dennis Burger is an avid Star Wars scholar, Tolkien fanatic, and Corvette enthusiast who somehow also manages to find time for technological passions including high-end audio, home automation, and video gaming. He lives in the armpit of Alabama with his wife Bethany and their four-legged child Bruno, a 75-pound American Staffordshire Terrier who thinks he’s a Pomeranian.

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Cineluxe is the only website dedicated to highlighting the best streaming movies & series—based not just on the content but on the quality of the picture and sound as well. Everything we recommend is not only satisfying as entertainment but will both look and sound terrific in your home theater or media room.

Just to be clear, though, we’re cinephiles first and foremost. So, for us, the content always comes first—the story, the acting, the directing, the music, the photography—all of it. While everyone who writes for Cineluxe is skilled in recognizing and evaluating picture and sound quality, we would never recommend that you watch something just because it looks or sounds good.

Plus, we’re selective, not exhaustive. With so many movies & series available online, and with so many services offering hundreds—if not thousands—of titles, it would be impossible to consider everything that’s out there if we want to maintain the highest possible standards for what we recommend. We won’t praise everything we review—far from it—but we will make sure to choose content that has the potential of offering an amazing and satisfying entertainment experience.

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Review: Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw

Hobbs and Shaw

review | Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw

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This frenemy spinoff from the main series features an excess of car chases for showing off your system

by John Sciacca
updated August 28, 2023

After eight films that have amassed nearly $5 billion worldwide since 2001, it isn’t surprising that Hollywood looked for more ways to get some gold from the Fast & Furious goose. Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw really isn’t part of the main series, but a new story set in the same universe involving two spinoff characters: Former Diplomatic Security Service agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson), and former British Special Air Service Major, Deckard Shaw (Jason Stratham). 

Fans of the series will know there has been little love lost between Hobbs and Shaw, and calling them “frenemies” would be generous as the two have a history of animosity and trying to out-macho each other while wanting to beat each other to death. This movie embraces that, with the two frequently trading barbs and insults to comedic effect. The chemistry between the actors works well, as does the juxtaposition between the Rock’s hulking mass and rough-around-the-edges ways, compared to the posh, stylish, and subtle Stratham. Two big stars, Ryan Reynolds and Kevin Hart, make uncredited cameos, and their scenes are some of the best and most hilarious, showing that the movie doesn’t take itself too seriously. 

At 2 hours and 17 minutes, the movie never feels slow, but it does feel a bit long. There are only so many fights and chases one can handle no matter how well they look, how many people are involved, or the weapons and choreography involved. Though even the most jaded car-chase viewers will find it tough to not feel a bit of an adrenaline rush during the terrific London chase with Shaw behind the wheel of a McLaren 720S being chased by Idris Elba on a Triumph Triple Speed motorcycle.

Filmed in ArriRaw in a combination of 2.8 and 3.4K, Hobbs and Shaw is taken from a 2K digital intermediate. Detail in closeups is always sharp and clear. There are plenty of opportunities to see fine details, like the well-groomed stubble on Shaw’s face, individual drops of sweat glistening on The Rock’s significant dome, or the texture and grain in Lore’s black-leather uniform. The image is always totally clean and noise-free, with blacks that are deep and pristine.

What really makes the image look great is the use of HDR throughout. Many of the big scenes are at night, and come to life with the HDR grading. This is apparent from the opening nighttime robbery in London, with bright lights against deep blacks, along with vibrant greens, golds, and reds, and near the end when lightning flashes and huge fireballs had me squinting while the image maintained lifelike, deep-black levels. 

Sonically, Hobbs & Shaw is a big film, with a dynamic soundtrack with some significant bass when called for, which is often, due to the fights and explosions throughout. Unfortunately, NBCUniversal continues to refuse to provide Kaleidescape with the Dolby Atmos soundtrack, so the digital download only contains a DTS HD-Master 5.1-channel mix. While not as impressive as a discrete Atmos or DTS:X mix, the soundtrack is quite exciting and immersive when run through an upmixer like Dolby Surround or DTS:Neural. Drones zip past overhead, cars screech along the sides of the room, glass shatters and debris falls all around, and even the gentle outside wind, ocean, and bird sounds fill the room.

If I had one quibble with the audio. it’s that the dialogue was a bit hard to understand during some scenes. Whether this was due to the music and effects levels, the British accents, or just poor dialogue recording or mixing I can’t say. Fortunately, these moments are infrequent.

If you can look past some moments that defy credibility—like Hobbs lassoing and holding down a Blackhawk helicopter —Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw can make for a fun night at the movies.

Probably the most experienced writer on custom installation in the industry, John Sciacca is co-owner of Custom Theater & Audio in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, & is known for his writing for such publications as Residential Systems and Sound & Vision. Follow him on Twitter at @SciaccaTweets and at johnsciacca.com.

PICTURE | The use of HDR throughout makes the images look great 

SOUND | The DTS HD-Master 5.1-channel mix provides a dynamic soundtrack with some significant bass when called for

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Review: Sharper

Sharper (2023)

review | Sharper

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This noirish thriller on Apple TV+ is worth a look but isn’t quite as clever as it thinks it is

by Roger Kanno
February 28, 2023

The psychological thriller Sharper is a twist-filled mystery examining the interconnected lives of its characters through a series of non-linear vignettes. Not all is as it seems as we are introduced to Tom (Justice Smith), the owner of a used bookstore; his girlfriend Sandra (Briana Middleton); Madeline (Julianne Moore), the wife of a wealthy businessman; and her mysterious and troubled son, Max (Sebastian Stan). The film is directed by Benjamin Caron, who has previously directed episodes of the critically acclaimed Andor and The Crown and is produced by Apple Original Films and A24 among others. It was released on Apple TV+ on February 17 after being released in select US theaters the week prior.

The complex plot unfolds as the self-contained vignettes reveal the background and events that shape the lives of the characters, and each chapter tells its own story while contributing to the overall narrative of the film. Things are a little slow to start but the action ramps up once the enigmatic Stan appears on screen and especially when he appears with the equally shady characters played by Moore and Middleton. Without giving too much of the plot away, the story does come together in the final act in a satisfying conclusion but is not as elegant, surprising, or as intelligent as other modern classics such as The Usual Suspects, or, more recently, the original Knives Out. And while there are a lot of twists and turns along the way, they’re not always as surprising or as unexpected as they should be.

In addition to the fine performances, the film benefits from slick production values and excellent cinematography that showcases its stylish New York backdrop. There are many scenes featuring magnificent shots of the Manhattan skyline and more rustic and grittier looking locations in the Soho district. Shot on 35mm film, the look of Sharper perfectly captures the film-noir atmosphere of the story. The picture can appear a touch soft at times but exhibits some slight but very natural film grain and a dark but warm color palette that is simply gorgeous. Unlike most films now shot on digital, colors don’t constantly pop, but they do so when appropriate, such as a night scene where HDR highlights make car headlights realistically bright and cool blue and red neon reflections flow across the windshield and eerily illuminate Sandra’s face. Most of the film is shot in subdued light, giving a somewhat gray tinge to things, but dark silhouettes of the characters appear absolutely jet-black and are often backlit with moody, pastel-colored tones that look fantastic.

There are still a handful of movies shot each year on film. And even though I watch movies on a digital medium, either on Blu-ray or streamed, there is just something about a movie shot lovingly on film that is quite special. Sharper is one of those films and will look exquisite on a high-quality display device with Dolby Vision.

The sound design is also superb. There aren’t a lot of boisterous sound effects, but the Atmos mix is used to effectively enhance the mood with judicious use of the surround and height channels to provide ambience throughout much of the film. The soundtrack features a variety of songs ranging from cool jazz to R&B and modern pop, and the object-oriented mixes are some of the best music in spatial audio I have heard. For example, the Talking Heads’ “Slippery People” features a simpler arrangement than the original version of the song with an extremely taut drum beat and percussion spread widely between the speakers, and synth cords and electric guitar set back in the soundstage, but presented with tremendous clarity. The vocals are also extremely present with David Byrne clearly delineated from the backing singers. This is the best I have ever heard this song sound including the 5.1 channel version on the DVD-A side of the Speaking In Tongues DualDisc and the more recent Dolby Atmos remix for Apple Music’s Spatial Audio. There are other examples of well-mixed songs, such as Curtis Harding’s “I Won’t Let You Down” and “Just a Lonely Christmas” by the Supremes, but “Slippery People” sounded so arresting that I actually stopped the movie and replayed it a couple of times just to enjoy its superb multichannel mix.

Sharper looks great and sounds even better on Apple TV+ with a story that is full of twists and turns. The problem is that you can see many of those twists and turns coming even though you may not know where the story will eventually end up. But there are still enough surprises along the way and some solid performances to make this stylish thriller a worthwhile watch.

Roger Kanno began his life-long interest in home cinema almost three decades ago with a collection of LaserDiscs and a Dolby Surround Pro Logic system. Since then, he has seen a lot of movies in his home theater but has an equal fascination with high-end stereo music systems. Roger writes for both Sound & Vision and the SoundStage! Network.

PICTURE | Shot on 35mm film, the picture can appear a touch soft at times but exhibits some slight but very natural film grain and a dark but warm color palette that is simply gorgeous 

SOUND | There aren’t a lot of boisterous sound effects, but the Atmos mix is used to effectively enhance the mood with judicious use of the surround and height channels to provide ambience throughout much of the film

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