DVD Review: THE CURIOUS CASE ON BENJAMIN BUTTON

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON

DVD review by David Blackwell

DETAILS:   165 minutes, audio commentary, making of documentary, still galleries, trailers

VIDEO: 2.40:1 (Anamorphic Widescreen)

AUDIO: English, French, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital

Subtitles:   English, French, Spanish

STUDIO: Paramount Pictures/ Warner Bros. Pictures/ The Criterion Collection

RELEASE DATE:   5-5-2009

Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) was born in his eighties and he age backwards through his life. He encounters Daisy (Cate Blanchett) whom he is destined to love forever. THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON is the life of a character’s unique journey in life told through his journal. It is a unique and yet sad romantic tale where death touches all of the characters in the story. Director David Fincher brings to life a vivid tale enhanced by visual and audio effects that was mostly shot in New Orleans months after Hurricane Katrina hit the city.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

THE CURIOUS BIRTH OF BENJAMIN BUTTON is an extensive almost three hour making of documentary that chronicles the journey of the movie from development (the different writers and directors that tackled it before David Fincher came abroad) to production (the process of shooting the film in New Orleans, Montreal, and on studio stages in Los Angeles) to post-production (the extensive CGI effects, audio design, and music). The documentary features interviews with cast and crew. This documentary is my second favorite making of documentary behind DANGEROUS DAYS (on the BLADE RUNNER set). Also on the second disc are four still galleries (costume design, art direction, storyboards, and production stills) and two theatrical trailers. The sole extra on disc one is the audio commentary with director David Fincher.

FINAL ANALYSIS: THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON is a fascinating gem- one of David Fincher’s best. The two disc Criterion set maintains the high standard on other Fincher discs- the PANIC ROOM Special Edition and ZODIAC Director’s Cut. The two disc set comes highly recommended.

This DVD review is (c)5-7-2008 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. Send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com

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