Audio Video News

Norah Jones—Come Away with Me (SACD, Blue Note)
For some reason, I never got around to buying Norah Jones' zillion-selling CD, or maybe I misjudged her talent. Silly me, I thought she was just a hipper Sade. Now that I've lived with the Come Away with Me SACD, though, I'm a believer. I found it impossible to resist Ms. Jones' understated piano and seductive pipes. Her suite of well-crafted originals and cover tunes keeps this disc in heavy rotation in my SACD player.

Jones has surrounded herself with a handful of top-notch musicians. Check out Tony Scherr's extra-fine acoustic slide-guitar licks on "Lonestar." Jones turns up the sultry heat on "I've Got to See You Again" as Jenny Scheinman's vaguely Middle Eastern–influenced violin adds a bit of soul. The title track's gentle sway feels warm and organic.

I admire this SACD's unhyped production, and the 5.1 mix is a doozie. It's not the least bit heavy-handed, but it isn't one of those "band in the front/ambience in the rear" deals, either. No, this time, the multichannel mix fleshes out the sound's dimension; switching back to the stereo SACD mix kills most of that. Reverting to the CD layer crushes the remaining life out of the music. If you already own Come Away with Me on CD and love the music, buy it again on SACD.—Steve Guttenberg

DVD: Shanghai Knights—Buena Vista
Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 4
There's a brief supplement on the Shanghai Knights DVD that puts Jackie Chan's genius in perspective. Called "Action Overload," the sepia-toned, scratched-up film set to music from the silent era highlights some of the movie's many intricately choreographed fights. The amazing thing is how much the action looks like vintage slapstick, as if Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd were executing it. In fact, the film's climax pays homage to Lloyd, with Chan and Owen Wilson dangling from the big hand of London's Big Ben.

This sort of action and fighting is at the core of any Chan movie; the story and other elements merely provide an excuse for the stunt work. While the fights aren't always as inventive as they were in Shanghai Noon (one sequence around a revolving door is particularly silly), the action star's legion of fans will find them sufficiently entertaining, even if the revenge plot isn't.

This DVD is a first-rate presentation. The 2.35:1 anamorphic picture reveals the rich palette of reds and blues in the set design, costumes, and lighting. The Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS soundtracks serve up lots of ambient sound effects that never overwhelm the dialogue. Other extras include 30 minutes of deleted scenes, commentary tracks by the director and screenwriter, and a featurette in which Chan reveals that he's more proud of his choreography than his fighting skills. Even Keaton might have been impressed. —Gary Frisch