Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Amores Perros Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov November 9, 2010

Winner of the Critics Week Grand Prize for Best Film at the Cannes Film Festival, Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's "Amores Perros" a.k.a. "Love's a Bitch" (2000) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Optimum Home Entertainment. The supplemental features on the disc include deleted scenes with audio commentary by director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu; a standard behind the scenes featurette; the film's original theatrical trailer; and three music videos. In Spanish, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

One broken man

Give Optimum Home Entertainment a lot of credit for what they have done this year. The British distributors were the first to produce an English-friendly release of Jacques Audiard’s Un prophete, as well as Olivier Assayas’ highly acclaimed Carlos, which does not even appear on Blu-ray in its native France. They also released David Lynch’s Inland Empire, Johnnie To’s Vengeance, Bong Joon-ho’s Mother, Atom Egoyan’s Chloe, Julio Medem’s Room in Rome, and a wonderful restored version of Lionel Jeffries’ classic The Railway Children. We also saw new additions to the terrific Studio Canal Collection, amongst them Joseph Losey’s The Go-Between, Jean-Luc Godard's Pierrot le fou, David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, Jean-Pierre Melville's Le cercle rouge, Mike Nichols’ The Graduate, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro’s Delicatessen.

The latest addition to Optimum Home Entertainment’s impressive catalog is Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Amores Perros a.k.a. Love’s a Bitch. The film won the Critics Week Grand Prize and Young Critics Award for Best Feature at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000.

Amores Perros is a long, demanding utmost concentration film. It is divided into multiple episodes, each focusing on a group of different characters, of which only one is somewhat easy to like.

The first three characters are Octavio (Gael García Bernal, The Motorcycle Diaries, Bad Education), his brother Ramiro (Marco Perez, La sombra del sahuaro), and his wife Susana (Vanessa Bauche, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada). Octavio is a kind and sensitive guy who likes Susana a lot. In fact, Octavio likes Susana so much that eventually he asks her to run away with him. Susana is tempted because Ramiro does not seem to care much about their baby. She has also discovered that he has become a robber. Octavio isn’t a perfect guy -- he has become involved in illegal dog fighting -- but at least he occasionally gives her money to buy what the baby needs.

Daniel (Alvaro Guerrero, Otilia Rauda) and Valeria (Goya Toledo, Sandrine in the Rain) are madly in love with each other. He is a respected magazine publisher who has decided to leave his wife and two children and live his life the way he should have. She is a stunningly beautiful supermodel whose face is on large billboards all over Mexico City. On the day when the two move into their brand new apartment, Valeria is seriously injured in a car accident that puts an end to her modeling career.

Chivo (Emilio Echevarría, Y tu mama tambien, The Alamo) is an aging ex-revolutionary who wanders the streets of Mexico City with a pack of dogs. Years ago, he left his family to fight a battle that should have changed his country. But he lost the battle and his family. Now he is a lonely hitman who often thinks about the past. When an old friend asks Chivo to do a job, he suddenly realizes that there is still time for him to be the father he never was.

Amores Perros hits hard and in a notably uncompromising fashion. It is also devoid of political correctness and the cheap melodrama other similarly-themed films are often plagued with. Bad things happen to each of the three characters in it for different reasons -- most of which supposedly have something to do with love.

But they don’t. The violence and suffering in Amores Perros are bred by poverty, social insecurity and corruption, which now, ten years after Amores Perros was filmed, many political analysts believe have irreversibly damaged the Mexican society.

Director Inarritu's eye for detail is impressive. Born and raised in Mexico City, he is the perfect guide to have in the beautiful but chaotic and dangerous Mexican capital. One can literally feel its pulse in his film. Director Inarritu also knows well the people who live there, and especially the ones the local government has apparently stopped caring about.

Amores Perros Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Amores Perros arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Optimum Home Entertainment.

This high-definition transfer has been struck from a dated source. As a result, there are some inherited limitations. Generally speaking, fine object detail ranges from good to very good. The dog fights and the numerous close-ups of Chivo, for instance, look a lot better than they do on the R1 DVD release of Amores Perros; the pixelation and blockiness that plagued the DVD are also nowhere to be seen. Clarity and contrast are greatly improved. The color-scheme is also a lot more convincing; blues, reds, browns, grays, and blacks look substantially richer and better saturated. This being said, mild sharpening is occasionally easy to spot. Because of the manner in which the film was shot however - the majority of it was shot with a hand-held camera, and later on contrast was manipulated to make it look gritty - I was rarely bothered by it. Some minor noise corrections have been applied as well. However, there are no serious stability issues. I also did not see any purely transfer-specific anomalies to report in this review. To sum it all up, despite the fact that the high-definition transfer used for this Blu-ray release has been struck from a dated source, there are substantial image improvements, and I have absolutely no problem recommending that you seriously consider adding Amores Perros to your collection. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

Amores Perros Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: Spanish DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and Spanish LPCM 2.0. For the record, Optimum Home Entertainment have provided optional English subtitles for the main feature.

The Spanish DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is exceptionally strong, and as far as I am concerned a good enough reason to upgrade. The bass is potent and punchy, the rear channels very intelligently used, and the high-frequencies not overdone. There are key scenes in the film, such as the opening crash scenes, that sound quite incredible. The dialog is crisp, clean, stable, and easy to follow. There are no balance issues with Gustavo Santaolalla beautiful score either. The hip-hop tunes sound great as well. Lastly, I did not detect any disturbing pops, cracks, hissings, or audio dropouts to report in this review.

Amores Perros Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Trailer - the original theatrical trailer for the film. Music only, not subtitled. (3 min, PAL).

Deleted Scenes - a collection of deleted scenes with an audio commentary by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. In Spanish, with optional English subtitles. (17 min, PAL).

Behind the Scenes - a standard featurette with raw footage from the shooting of Amores Perros complimented by various comments from the cast and crew, etc. In Spanish, with optional English subtitles. (8 min, PAL).

Music Videos - three music videos. Two of them directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.

1. "Chico Groove" performed by Gustavo Santaolalla (4 min, PAL).
2. "Me Van A Matar" performed by Julieta Venegas (4 min, PAL).
3. "De Perros Amores" performed by Control Machete (4 min, PAL).

Amores Perros Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It was great to revisit Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Amores Perros. It is such a powerful, uncompromising, brilliant film. I cannot wait to see Biutiful. Despite a few minor issues, the Blu-ray disc herein reviewed, courtesy of British distributors Optimum Home Entertainment, looks good and sounds terrific. Consider an upgrade, folks. It is worth it! RECOMMENDED.