DVD Review:
August Rush
Movie
There is music in the wind and the sky. Can you hear it? And there is hope. Can you feel it? August Rush can! Going into this movie I was prepared not to like it. I talked to my wife and said, this looks like a movie that you would like. By the end of the film I was surprised by how much I did like it. The movie is about an Irish guitarist and a cellist who have a magical night together right above New York’s Washington Square. They are soon separated leaving a baby August Rush orphaned. August ends up performing on the streets of New York for a very weird character named The Wizard. Using his talent for music August hopes the music will lead him to his parents. I was humming the tunes and this is not the type of movie that would usually interest me. The ending to the movie I could see coming from miles away but I didn’t care, I really was happy for August. This is the perfect film for the whole family. This movie stars Freddie Highmore. He has been in other movies such as the currently playing Spiderwick Chronicles and he was also in Finding Neverland. This kid is a really good actor for his age. The movie also stars Keri Russell, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Terrance Howard and Robin Williams. I do have to say one thing though; the movie expects you to go along with a lot of the coincidences that happen in the movie. But for me I just went along with everything and enjoyed the ride. There are a lot of really good songs in the movie. Warner Bros included a copy of the soundtrack and I have been listening to it quite frequently. If you end up liking the movie I can bet that you will be picking up the soundtrack as well. This is one of those rare films where everything seems to fit. If they didn’t get the music right the movie would have failed miserably. Obviously they got the music right as one of the songs (Raise it Up) was nominated for an Oscar.
8 out of 10
Video
The palette of colours in this movie is very subdued. Therefore it transfers to a very subdued transfer as well. There is some grain to certain parts of the DVD as well. It just seems like there wasn’t much care put into this release. The transfer gets the job done but it could have been a lot better with a little bit more care.
6 out of 10
Audio
Thank goodness for the music! It play’s excellent in this 5.1 track. The music is what sells the film and if they didn’t get the soundtrack right there wouldn’t be much of movie. The guitars sound awesome and every piece of music turns out great. Everything builds up to the final concert where your speakers come alive with the sounds of an orchestra.
8 out of 10
Extras
I was trying to remember if I have ever given a zero for extras. Well I will be giving my first zero today. All you get in the way of extras are some deleted scenes. These scenes are not good either. They seem like small extensions of scenes in the movie. I hope this movie gets a special edition because there is so much that could have been done. I would like to see how they went about creating the original songs for the film. It would be interesting to see how the actors handled learning their instruments. I could go on and on. What they included is not worth your time.
0 out of 10
Overall
Since the extras or lack thereof were so bad, normally I would not recommend this DVD. But I liked the movie so much that it still deserves some credit. Here is hoping they release a new edition with some better extras. In the mean time, go out and rent this movie. If you like it and don’t care about the extras you might want to pick it up as well.
7 out of 10
Recommended.