HD DVD / Blu-ray Reviews and Recommendations

[Centurion]

The Orphanage had a nice, clean picture and the DTS HD-MA soundtrack was awesome! The story is also very good if you like ghost stories with a twist.
I highly recommend this one.

[Zen Peckinpah]

I'm about 5 minutes into Rambo, and this is my reaction to the DTS HD MA track:

HOLY SHIT.

The floor of my bedroom was literally shaking during the opening scene. I saw the film twice theatrically*, and this easily replicates the theatrical experience. I can't imagine how crazy my system will be at the end...

* - I intentionally saw it the first time in the smaller, cheaper theater, not because of money, but because I wanted to feel more like I was watching an 80's action movie with a less-advanced theater.

[Zen Peckinpah]

Just started digging into my Dirty Harry box yesterday and finished watching the original.

Video: 4/5...A startling restoration effort. Grain is appropriately placed, and there is clearly pop involved. Look for one shot late in the film of Harry at the Golden Gate Bridge, as well as many daytime scenes.

Audio: 4.5/5...dialogue sounds appropriate for the period, but I'm completely, utterly speechless with how good the TrueHD track is. All of the sound effects and music are beautifully remastered to pristine condition.

Watching the extras on the first one right now. I started cracking up upon seeing John Milius (who, if you don't know was the inspiration for Walter in The Big Lebowski) in the "Dirty Harry: The Original" featurette.

[brianluvdvd]

Watched the newest Rambo on BD and loved it. I noticed that there is a BD boxset with the first three films but the newest one is left out. Am I overlooking a set with all 4 films on BD or is the 4th one by itself? (and why if that's the case)

There is a SD set with all 4 together.

[Bill Geiger]

Originally Posted by Zen Peckinpah

Just started digging into my Dirty Harry box yesterday and finished watching the original.

Video: 4/5...A startling restoration effort. Grain is appropriately placed, and there is clearly pop involved. Look for one shot late in the film of Harry at the Golden Gate Bridge, as well as many daytime scenes.

Audio: 4.5/5...dialogue sounds appropriate for the period, but I'm completely, utterly speechless with how good the TrueHD track is. All of the sound effects and music are beautifully remastered to pristine condition.

Watching the extras on the first one right now. I started cracking up upon seeing John Milius (who, if you don't know was the inspiration for Walter in The Big Lebowski) in the "Dirty Harry: The Original" featurette.

I too watched this last night and the video is at best (in my opinion) 3/5. Plenty of dirt and grain (and not the expected grain either.) Many times the image was soft as well. Blacks were either too black or too light...depending on the frame. The audio was fine but not earth shattering. 2.5 to 3 at best. My overall is an easy 3.

[Daytripper]

Finally got "The Other Boleyn Girl" on BD and the PQ is absolutely stunning. Jaw dropping in fact. THE best Blu-Ray image I've seen to date. Even beating out "No Country For Old Men". It's the one I will demo to my friends. Now I know the movie got mixed reviews. But if you liked the "Elizabeth" movies, you will like this.

[fryinpan1]

I received One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Blu-ray today from Warner Bros. I already sold my 2 disc DVD, but the Blu-ray picture quality is a definite improvement. I think all of the bonus features from the DVD have been carried over.

[Mr. Cinema]

A Nightmare on Elm Street - September 2

Interview With the Vampire - October 14

http://www.releaselists.com/BLURAYNorthAmerica.html

Also, these titles have been added for October:

Gremlins
The Goonies
John Carpenter's The Thing

[JackBurton]

^ Cool! But I think this should go in the release announcement thread.

[Mr. Cinema]

I watched The Lost Boys last night. Looks pretty good for its age. What surprised me was the default track on the disc is DD 5.1 and not TrueHD. This is the first time I've encountered this on BD. Reminded me of the old DVD days when DD 2.0 was the default over 5.1.

[GizmoDVD]

Originally Posted by Mr. Cinema

I watched The Lost Boys last night. Looks pretty good for its age. What surprised me was the default track on the disc is DD 5.1 and not TrueHD. This is the first time I've encountered this on BD. Reminded me of the old DVD days when DD 2.0 was the default over 5.1.

Funny, I noticed the same thing. I usually always check anyway, but it was a but of a surprise to see it defaulted to DD5.1.

Disney will sometimes default to the DD5.1 instead of PCM track, but nearly every other studio has either DTS MA, TrueHD or PCM already selected.

[Mr. Cinema]

Originally Posted by GizmoDVD

Funny, I noticed the same thing. I usually always check anyway, but it was a but of a surprise to see it defaulted to DD5.1.

Disney will sometimes default to the DD5.1 instead of PCM track, but nearly every other studio has either DTS MA, TrueHD or PCM already selected.

I wonder if that was a hint that they originally planned only a DD 5.1 track and then threw the TrueHD on there later.

[GizmoDVD]

Originally Posted by Mr. Cinema

I wonder if that was a hint that they originally planned only a DD 5.1 track and then threw the TrueHD on there later.

I thought that, but Lost Boys was planned for last year on both HD DVD and Blu-ray but was pushed back (the rumor going around...though it makes sense) to tie in with the sequel. I bet they had TrueHD planned for both releases.

[dkny75]

I watched the UK BD of The Assembly last week and I can wholeheartedly recommend it as a great movie. The video is great with a thin veil of grain and the audio rocks also. There is some dust and debris on the film but nothing distracting. The extra features are in PAL so they did not play in my PS3. There is also a HK release of the movie without the bonus features available.

[Drexl]

Originally Posted by GizmoDVD

Funny, I noticed the same thing. I usually always check anyway, but it was a but of a surprise to see it defaulted to DD5.1.

Disney will sometimes default to the DD5.1 instead of PCM track, but nearly every other studio has either DTS MA, TrueHD or PCM already selected.

I think most discs with PCM don't have it selected by default. (Well, except for that Elton John concert that doesn't have DD at all, but even then I don't remember if the 5.1 or stereo PCM was the default.) I've always had to select it manually.

Many Warner titles default to DD 5.1 because of how they're authored. They don't have the DD track as "hidden" like Sony and others. I believe this may be due to authoring for both HD DVD and BD, so maybe this has changed or will change with titles only authored for BD.

[matome]

Watched my region-free UK BD of Escape From New York last night and it was a decent disc. Definitely no reference PQ here, as detail is fairly muted and unremarkable, though the colors (what few of them there are) are much richer, e.g. the escape pod. I'm not one who will generally look for or is bothered by EE, but it is here as it was easily found on the scene where Hauk is on the wall looking out across to Manhattan, for those that are. Audio was decent as well, though no Transformers mix here. I glanced over the extras and they seem to be the same as the SE DVD that came out a few years ago. No HD for the alternate opening scene in case anyone was expecting that.

I only had the original release DVD and never got around to picking up the SE DVD, so this was a no-brainer upgrade for me and I'm fairly happy with it. If you already have the SE DVD, then you may want to weigh if it's worth the $30 to import.

[kefrank]

In the past two days, I've watched the Blu-ray releases of two seminal late-sixties films: Bonnie and Clyde and Cool Hand Luke. I have to say, Warner did a fantastic job with both of these releases. The transfers are wonderful, with good detail and grain intact. The original mono tracks sounds as good as they ever have (and I'm thankful they weren't replaced by a 5.1 remix). The extras are very substantive, particularly on Bonnie and Clyde. And I know they're not popular, but I really love Bonnie and Clyde's digibook packaging and I kind of wish Cool Hand Luke had gotten a digibook as well.

Warner releases can be hit-or-miss, but they got these two classics right.

[RichC2]

Beetlejuice (Blu-ray) - Wound up getting this today. Detail is very good, colors are excellent and sharpness, while it varies by scene, is generally quite good. Fans of film grain will eat this one up, and it generally looks very good, especially when compared to the previous DVD. The effects look about the same and are not hurt particularly bad by the added resolution.

The disc looks very good overall. The menu is very simple and offers up the very slim special features -- 3 episodes of the cartoon, the theatrical trailer, and the Music Only option (the full feature with only the music).

The disc sports English Dolby TrueHD, English Dolby Digital, French (Quebec), French, Dutch, Italian, Castellian, and Spanish for languages in addition to the Music-only track. My receiver doesn't support Dolby TrueHD so I can't really comment on it.

Subtitles in about 20 languages.

Slim special features (but I love the cartoon) but the disc is pretty nice on the whole, .

On a side note, the cartoons are encoded in VC-1 and are not in High Def (and are 4:3, of course).

[JimRochester]

Originally Posted by Daytripper

Finally got "The Other Boleyn Girl" on BD and the PQ is absolutely stunning. Jaw dropping in fact. THE best Blu-Ray image I've seen to date. Even beating out "No Country For Old Men". It's the one I will demo to my friends. Now I know the movie got mixed reviews. But if you liked the "Elizabeth" movies, you will like this.

Agreed. As far as the movie goes, period dramas are not my cup of tea but the acting was excellent and the picyure and sound were so absorbing I loved the whole thing.

[Daytripper]

Originally Posted by JimRochester

Agreed. As far as the movie goes, period dramas are not my cup of tea but the acting was excellent and the picyure and sound were so absorbing I loved the whole thing.

Glad you liked "The Other Boleyn Girl". It's still one of the top 3 best PQ BD's I've seen so far.

Speaking of which, I just watched "The Forbidden Kingdom" BD from Netflix. Really enjoyed it. I'd give the film a 7.5/10. And the PQ was absolutely gorgeous. That gets a 9.5/10

[matome]

Originally Posted by RichC2

Beetlejuice (Blu-ray) - Wound up getting this today. Detail is very good, colors are excellent and sharpness, while it varies by scene, is generally quite good. Fans of film grain will eat this one up, and it generally looks very good, especially when compared to the previous DVD. The effects look about the same and are not hurt particularly bad by the added resolution.

The disc looks very good overall. The menu is very simple and offers up the very slim special features -- 3 episodes of the cartoon, the theatrical trailer, and the Music Only option (the full feature with only the music).

The disc sports English Dolby TrueHD, English Dolby Digital, French (Quebec), French, Dutch, Italian, Castellian, and Spanish for languages in addition to the Music-only track. My receiver doesn't support Dolby TrueHD so I can't really comment on it.

Subtitles in about 20 languages.

Slim special features (but I love the cartoon) but the disc is pretty nice on the whole, .

On a side note, the cartoons are encoded in VC-1 and are not in High Def (and are 4:3, of course).

Been waiting for a new disc for one of my faves for many moons. Glad to hear it's a good BD!

[applesandrice]

Anyone with a word on "Young Frankenstein", yet?

[Vipper II]

Originally Posted by applesandrice

Anyone with a word on "Young Frankenstein", yet?

At 27 bucks it isn't worth it; however, if you can manage to get it for 20, I'd definitely recommend picking it up. The quality isn't going to rock your socks off, but it's a hell of a movie and the extras are pretty damn good.

[Mr. Cinema]

Originally Posted by applesandrice

Anyone with a word on "Young Frankenstein", yet?

The BD is definitely brighter than the previous 16x9 dvd. But there are parts I had trouble telling major differences in. There appears to be some added detail as well.

The extras are the best part though. In addition to the old documentary on the dvd, which is solid, there's a new one that can also be viewed as a picture-in-picture feature. They show color photos from the set, which are very cool to see. And Mel Brooks starts off the documentary by talking about how great Blu-ray is. Kinda weird hearing Mel Brooks, of all people, talk about the format.

[applesandrice]

Originally Posted by Vipper II

At 27 bucks it isn't worth it; however, if you can manage to get it for 20, I'd definitely recommend picking it up. The quality isn't going to rock your socks off, but it's a hell of a movie and the extras are pretty damn good.

I'm still at the mercy of my old non-anamorphic DVD, and Fox's inclusion of real honest-to-goodness special features on a catalog title feels like something I should get behind and support.

Thanks for your thoughts, guys. Realistically, I wasn't expecting it to be a show-off disc; I just want it to be the best presentation possible.