Children Of Men: HD DVD And DVD Combo Format Disc Review

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Title: Children Of Men: HD DVD And DVD Combo Format

Media: HD DVD-30/DVD-9 Combination Format Disc

DVD Region: One

Genre: Sci-Fi Action Drama

Stars: Clive Owen, Jullianne Moore, Michael Caine, Chwetel Ejofor, and Charlie Hunnam

Writers: Alfonso Cuaron, Timothy Sexton, David Arata, Mike Fergus, and Hawk Ostby

Based On The Book By: P.D. James

Director: Alfonso Cuaron

Feature length: One hour and fifty minutes

HD DVD Exclusive Extras: U Control Picture In Picture Interviews With Director Alfonso Cuaron And The Cast And Crew And Info & Commercials Detailing The Advertising World Of 2027 With Full Commercials, Billboards, And Ads While Watching The Movie

HD DVD & DVD Extras: The Possibility Of Hope Documentary, Under Attack Action Featurette, Children Of Men Comments By Slavoj Zizek, Deleted Scenes, Theo & Julian Featurette, Futuristic Design Featurette, And A Visual Effects Featurette

HD DVD Languages: English and French Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Plus Surround Sound

DVD Languages: English, French, and Spanish Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

HD DVD/DVD Subtitles: English Subtitles For The Deaf And Hearing Impaired and French and Spanish (DVD Side Only) Language Subtitles

Packaging: Elite Red HD Case

Chapter Stops: 20

HD DVD Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Plus Surround Sound

DVD Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Year of Theatrical Release: 2006/HD DVD And DVD Combo Format Release: 2007

Theatrical Distributor: Universal Pictures

Home Video Distributor: Universal Studios Home Entertainment

MPAA Rating: R

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

Though I am sure some will accuse me of being biased because my last name is Rivera and I’m half Puerto Rican, (the other half is Polish), it seems to me that some of the most interesting genre filmmakers working today are coming out of Mexico and they include Robert Rodriguez, Guillermo Del Toro, Guillermo Arraga, and Alfonso Cuaron. I realize that for some these names are hardly new and there are probably many more Latin filmmakers from all over that I should list. Both Robert Rodriguez and Guillermo Del Toro will be main stream filmmakers by Hollywood standards even if they make their films independently for the rest of their careers simply because they attract a mainstream audience that crosses cultures and have also attracted a strong cult following. In another few years both will have been commercially successful for twenty years too. What I really liked about Alfonso Cuaron’s work on Children Of Men is the way he choreographed the action with long camera takes. One of my favorite scenes involves a car door and two men riding a motorcycle armed with a gun. If you have seen the film then you know exactly what I’m talking about, but if you haven’t I wouldn’t want to spoil it for you.

Set in the year 2027, Children Of Men presents an England somewhat reminiscent of the future England portrayed in V For Vendetta in that most of the world has fallen into anarchy and the devastating effects of war and England is the last “civilized nation” on Earth, but it has deteriorated into a fascist shell of it’s former self and has resorted to crimes against humanity to quell it’s immigration problems since refugees from all around the world have flocked their in the wake of a phenomena that has rendered human beings incapable of procreating a new generation for the last eighteen years. Terrorists groups have arisen, as have various sects that have pretty much turned to barbarism or blind repenting in the belief that God has punished the human race for their sins. In between this chaos are people who see themselves as freedom fighters and champions of human rights for all people in England, including so called illegal immigrants, and then there are those who simply either live in denial, apathy, or just about completely given up, in which case the government has sanctioned legal suicide capsules within food rations. Theo (Clive Owen) is kind of a disheveled low-level bureaucrat that simply gets by day in and day out with a bit of booze in his coffee and regular visits to the country where his aged hippie friend Jasper (Michael Caine), a former political cartoonist and humorist turned marijuana dealer, offers him the only optimistic view of hope he knows by talk of an independent think tank called The Human Project that operates somewhere in the vicinity of the Azores attempting to find the cause of the problem and repopulate the Earth. Unfortunately there isn’t much left since even England is rotting from within with the wealthy living life in denial and in the expected splendor not realizing that sooner or later the problem that effects them all will overwhelm them too.

When Theo returns to London he is kidnapped by The Fishes, a political group dubbed terrorists that are supposedly fighting for human rights. Their leader happens to be a romantic love interest of Theo’s from about twenty years earlier. Julianne Moore plays her. It is suggested that the two may have even been married or at the very least it is obvious that they had a serious relationship before their child died in a global flu pandemic that preceded the sterility of the human race. Theo is thrust into a situation that gradually brings life and hope back into him when he is asked to help get an African woman out of the country so she can get to The Human Project because she is the first woman to be pregnant with a child in 18 years. What follows then is an odyssey through an apocalyptic England where danger lurks everywhere.

In the high definition DVD exclusive U Control interactive features, the picture in picture cast and crew video comments feature Cuaron describing his approach to the story as following the same paradigm of the story of Moses. This interactive feature, which can be turned on either through seamless interactive menus or directly by pressing the A button on one’s remote also features advertising and periodicals made for the film to bring the world of Children Of Men to life as well as the various commercials seen in the early portion of the film. One can control the volume level of these features, but I wish I could magnify them and or switch the positioning of the picture in picture feature on the HD DVD to better enjoy and appreciate the behind the scenes elements as well as the creative designs like the newspaper clippings and commercials since unless you have a TV larger than 42 inches, odds are you will have trouble reading or simply not being distracted by the film still overshadowing the other windows. I also think that an auto setting, which gives the user the option of perhaps only viewing the commercials or reading the press clippings would have been appreciated since sometimes I think people just want to sit back and enjoy the show regardless if they are in an enhanced viewing mode or not without needing to keep the remote always in their hands. As it is, it ‘s better than nothing, but I think the feature could have been easily achieved with better results using seamless branching and still galleries that standard definition DVDs have been using just fine for ten years now.

Non exclusive content that is available on both the HD DVD and standard definition DVD sides of the disc include a documentary directed by Alfonso Cuaron entitled The Possibility Of Hope (27:12), which features various speakers commenting on the world of the film as it relates to contemporary times. Select Children Of Men comments by Slavoj Zizek (5:44) are also included as are two deleted scenes (2:21), a look at how the filmmaker’s created the extended take action sequences (7:34), an illustration of how the baby was brought to life using a mix of practical and digital effects (3:06) production design (8:37), and a featurette with Clive Own and Julianne Moore discussing their characters (4:40). These features are presented in MPEG2 (1.33:1) letterboxed or full screen aspect ratios on both sides.

One of the nice things about the HD DVD and DVD combo format disc is that you can truly appreciate the superior picture quality and sound quality true 1080p VC1 high definition with Dolby Digital Plus Surround Sound has over upconverted standard definition DVD MPEG2 and Dolby Digital Surround Sound easily and quickly. To be blunt there is no contest, the HD DVD side looks and sounds better than the DVD side though being able to view both versions makes for an truly eye opening experience especially because the Toshiba HD DVD player does such a great job of upconverting standard definition DVDs that it’s easy to take that alone for granted and then once again be rocked out of your seat when you view a film on HD DVD.

The HD DVD side is a dual layered HD-30 gigabyte disc with the film presented in a native 1080p, where available, widescreen (1.85:1) aspect ratio with a choice of English or French Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Plus Surround Sound and English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired as well as French Language Subtitles encoded as options. The standard definition DVD side is a dual layered DVD-9 with a 480p picture that can be upconverted to virtual high definition resolution anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) aspect ratio presentation coupled with English, French and Spanish Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound encoded as options along with English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired and French and Spanish Language Subtitles too. The standard definition DVD side also features Universal Previews for Smokin’ Aces, The Good Shepherd, Heroes, Hot Fuzz, Alpha Dog and The Hitcher (2006), as well as an HD DVD promo spot (4:38). The menus on both versions are easy to navigate too and the HD DVD side also features favorite scene marking capability.

Children Of Men: HD DVD And DVD Combo Format is available now at retailers on and offline courtesy of Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

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