One of the hottest DVD and Blu-ray films right now is Adjustment Bureau, a modest hit that grossed $160 million worldwide but is proving to be a durable home entertainment hit. The Matt Damon-led sci-fi film has the company of a handful of classics now available on Blu-ray and they include The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Both films are adult material. Adjustment Bureau won excellent reviews and proved once again that Damon can take up an offbeat project and turn it into a modest success. And yet it remains a complex film involving fantasy and real life issues. To get under its multiple layers requires more than one viewing and here the DVD and Blu-ray editions are of immense help.
Watch the film without any distractions and understand why it did not become a runaway hit. It surely is on the way to become a cult hit. Extras on the DVD include an audio commentary track, deleted scenes, and a trio of short featurettes. The Blu-ray has an interactive map of New York City, and activities connected to the film.
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert became a cult hit about two decades ago. It was called a daring film for its time as it dealt with gay and cross gender issues openly. The movie became quite a hit worldwide. Recently the musical inspired by the film has had a solid run in Australia, the UK and Canada and is now showing on Broadway in New York.
With an excellent transfer to Blu-ray, with sharper images than on DVD, the cult classic becomes even more watchable. This is one of the best Blu-ray experiences I have had in a long time in the past year.
It is a hilarious, often charming and ever poignant story of two cross-dressing drag performers and one transsexual who rough it across the Australian outback in a bus.
There is wonderful music here and anyone who grew up with the pop sensations of the 1980s will connect with the film in no time.
Terence Stamp (Superman, The Limey, Wall Street, and Far From the Madding Crowd) offers a benchmark performance as the transsexual Bernadette.
But watch out for other performers, especially Hugo Weaving, who would become famous in such films as The Matrix, Lord of the Rings, V for Vendetta) and Guy Pearce, one of the finest character artists of our time, famous for films such as Memento, L A Confidential, and The Hurt Locker.
Seeing them in this vintage classic makes one admire them even more than in their recent films.
This smart Blu-ray edition has content from the 'Extra Frills' edition of the DVD including audio commentary with director Stephan Elliott. The outtakes add to the film's charm and the featurette offers a glimpse of Weaving and Pearce in the early period of their careers.
