Maybe it says something that Doom’s biggest highlight is an extended first-person sequence. While a technical marvel, the homage to the video game is entirely superfluous to the story. Everything in it, with the exception of the Pinky Demon, has been seen before. The audience knows of the creatures and the infection spreading through this Mars research facility, so it feels like a sequence that exists to show off.

On second thought, maybe it is important. The audience is given brief flashes of the enemy throughout the film, and the first-person sequence offers the best viewpoint. Much of Doom is filled with the characters walking down barely lit hallways, flashing their guns at the camera, and walking forward while the audience waits.

You have to feel sorry for editor Derek Brechin who was probably given nothing but similar looking footage of Dwayne Johnson to sort out and make sense of. Doom is oppressively boring at times, especially for a film aimed at action-hungry gamers. The slow build to generate tension can work, but not when it is done the same way each time.

The game Doom tells the story of a marine sucked into hell to fight demons. That’s it. Translating it to the movie screen doesn’t change much.

Characters are given the well planned, thought out names such as Sarge, Goat, and The Kid. As you can guess, The Kid (Al Weaver) is the rookie, and destined to die from the opening frames.

Doom is filled with grisly violence, even an autopsy on one of the mutated scientists. At least that is one aspect of the game kept true, especially considering the outcry towards the video game when it was released. Everything else is a waste of celluloid.

Movie ★★☆☆☆ 

Universal uses the what seems to be the same VC-1 encode from the HD DVD release of Doom for this Blu-ray effort. That leads to outstanding black levels, critical considering the low lighting used throughout the film. Image depth is truly spectacular. What appears to be black crush is undoubtedly a result of the lighting (or lack thereof) and the deep, black suits worn by the rescue team.

Definition is generally consistent, bringing out excellent detail and textures. Clearly defined beads of sweat, pores, and hair are exceptional. Clothing carries a clean, crisp texture. The mutation autopsy is wonderful for its gross-out factor, heightened by the clarity of this transfer. Every ridge of the prop is visible, along with glistening blood.

Despite all of the positives, Doom struggles with noise, especially against brightly saturated blues (watch around the 26:00 minute marker, amongst some others). Also, the dim nature means textures are barely visible at times, no fault of the transfer but of the intentionally non-existent light. It also gives the image a soft quality.

Video ★★★★☆ 

Doom’s DTS-HD mix is constantly aggressive from the opening logos. The early zoom-in shot of Mars completely obliterates the subwoofer, as do many shots later. Gunfire is immensely powerful, with the clean highs of used shells falling to the floor to the explosions from the barrel.

Ambiance is spectacular, including the opening scenes with helicopters flying around in the surrounds. Later, echoes dominate a sewer investigation, with dripping, falling water and screams. An animal lab is eerie, aided by the loud cries of caged animals.

The first-person sequence is a complete audio experience, with loud, blaring music, minimal dialogue, and lots of gunfire. With all of that going on, the mix handles it all audibly, cleanly, and effectively.

Audio ★★★★★ 

Extras follow the same pattern of previous DVD and HD DVD releases, with the sole exception of typical BD-Live support. This means there are four featurettes on the movie itself, including one dedicated to the FPS scene. Another on the suit work involved is exceptional as well. Less interesting pieces include the military training actors always go through for these movies and another on the Rock’s brief make-up in the film.

Doom Nation is a fine piece on the video game, including its history and recollections from various industry insiders on what it meant to gaming. Game-on is now terribly dated, spouting off tips for Doom 3 the game.

Extras ★★★☆☆ 

Blu-ray Movie Review from : DoBlu.com

Doom Review

The Movie

One of the great underrated classics of the ’80s, Harry and the Hendersons tells the story of your average American family who runs over a friendly Bigfoot, only to bring it into their home to treat it as one of their own. It sounds like a bad episode of a sitcom, but Harry is so unbelievably charming (with help from Rick Baker’s animatronics and Kevin Peter Hall’s suit work) you can’t help but love him. Emotional, involving, and unforgettable, Harry and the Hendersons is perfect family fare.

DVD History

Amazingly, Harry and the Hendersons did not get a DVD release until 2007 from Universal (further showing how vastly under appreciated it is), and was denied the opportunity to be shown in hi-def on HD DVD. The transfer was exceptional for the format, and the print was in excellent shape considering it was the 20th anniversary. Grain was left intact so this master may have been viable for hi-def as well. Harry’s thunderous stomps as he learns to “sit” were satisfying, and the moving  score by Bruce Broughton bled nicely into the surrounds.

What to Expect on Blu-ray

Probably quite a bit. Given the condition of the source and the apparent lack of digital tampering, Harry could shine in hi-def. The bigfoot fur could be a bit of an aliasing or compression nightmare, but with some careful mastering, can be handled. Likewise, the pounding stomps of Harry could sound superb when uncompressed.

Blu-ray Movie Review from : DoBlu.com

Movies We Want on Blu-ray: Harry and the Hendersons

The movie about a movie that’s never actually made starring a dude playing a dude who’s actually another dude is a non-stop laugh riot. The opening, chronicling the filming of an over-the-top action sequence on the set of a Vietnam War movie (named of course Tropic Thunder), is actually impressive. The sense of scale, visual effects, and absolutely stunning pyro work makes you wish there was more of it.

Of course, that wouldn’t be much a movie. Instead, the pretentious, egotistical, and flat-out moronic actors are dropped into a jungle to film the movie guerilla style. Since the actors are oblivious to the fact that they’re actually in the Golden Triangle, a zone riddled with violent heroin dealers, they continue firmly believing it’s all for the cameras.

There is little doubt that the show-stealer here is Robert Downey Jr. His interplay with Ben Stiller, especially as they discuss Stiller’s failed Simple Jack, is jaw-droppingly offensive and hilarious. In fact, Downey’s character in general is offensive, undergoing a “controversial surgery to play the platoon’s African-American character.” The gimmick never gets old.

Jack Black definitely goes too far at times as the drug-addicted Jeff Portnoy. His antics become annoying at times, ranting about nothing and screaming a lot. It recalls Chris Farley, although not in a good way. Tom Cruise’s heavily guarded surprise cameo makes up for it with his hilarious rants and priceless make-up. His movie producer attitude, especially when one of the actors becomes imprisoned, brings out a number of laughs.

For fans of Hollywood, there’s plenty of insider humor. Jay Baruchel’s meaningless yet hilarious monologue about the Blu-ray/HD DVD war is bound to draw laughs from anyone who was part of that battle. Numerous actors are called out by name (Sean Penn for I Am Sam), and the film has no problem making fun of itself numerous times.

Even if you’re not “into” Hollywood and some of its inner workings, there’s still plenty of comedy to be had from Tropic Thunder. Yes, some of the better parts would be over your head, but the snappy dialogue and absurdity of the situation still make for a fine over-the-top comedy worth your time.

Movie ★★★★☆ 

“Wow.” That’s the first impression of this incredible Blu-ray. This is a marvelous, incredibly detailed, bright, and vibrant presentation. Colors pop off the screen, black levels are flawless and rich, and the clarity is overall some of the best yet seen on the format. If there’s any complaint, it’s that the contrast can run a little hot, particularly on long shots involving greenery. It’s a minor overall problem, and part of the source.

Video ★★★★★ 

TrueHD is the choice of audio formats here, and the 5.1 mix is alive with positional audio. Dialogue is consistently well mixed, and always audible over the action. Bass is the type that rattles rooms, and even non-action scenes deliver bits of ambient audio. Heavy action pushes sound through on all fronts, and gunfire is distinct in every channel.

Audio ★★★★★ 

Tropic Thunder is loaded with featurettes, though things begin with two different commentaries. Ben Stiller leads the first along with his filmmaking team, and then again joins the main cast for their take on the movie. Four featurettes focus on pyro, the opening action scene, a basic script feature, and the sets. Each of the cast members is given their own piece, split into seven sections and running for 22 minutes total.

A Tom Cruise make-up test is included, along with 11 minutes of raw footage from the set, showcasing some of the adlib on the set. Deleted scenes include a far less funny alternate ending. The MTV VMA skit is one of the funniest parts of the disc, especially Downey willing to let himself be mocked about some personal issues.

Reign of Madness is the showcase piece here. Running about a half hour, this is a mockumentary about the events in the film. Everyone is in character, and it serves as an extension to the movie. It’s probably the best part of this entire home video release. BD-Live features include downloadable featurettes, which are on the DVD version. Why make the customer waste their time downloading them as if it’s something special?

Finally, the Blu-ray contains the director’s cut of the movie. It runs about 13 minutes longer, includes some nudity, extra dialogue exchanges, and a few extra laughs. Also, to maintain some of the fun from the mock trailers in the theater, the movie literally starts the second you hit play. It’s refreshing not to sit through FBI warnings, lawyer speak, and studio logos to watch a movie.

Extras ★★★★☆ 

Blu-ray Movie Review from : DoBlu.com

Tropic Thunder Review

The release of Crank 2 on Blu-ray brought about some unique situations in its move to home video. DoBlu.com e-mailed the disc’s producer, Cliff Stephenson, about the movie’s transfer to Blu-ray. His detailed responses offer insight into the conversion process, some of the disc’s loading issues, and how the extra features were brought to life.

1. Can you give readers some basic background info on who you are and what you do?

I actually started just like any of your readers. I was a reader of DVDFile back when they first began (late 1998) and eventually found myself as one of their main DVD reviewers. As someone who devoured the early laserdisc special editions start to finish, including old school titles like Terminator 2, Jaws, and most of the stuff that came out of Criterion, I was always really interested in the stories behind the making of these great films.

My shift to reviewing DVDs happened at the same time that DVD exploded and things like commentaries and behind-the-scenes became very commonplace. So I really spent a few years going through almost every bonus feature produced. I noticed that there was a real split between the kinds of features being produced.

On one side, you had features that were still being produced in the tradition of the best laserdiscs. Discs like the original Alien box set, Superman, Fight Club, Heavy Metal, and Tron were produced with that same love for filmmaking that had made the special edition laserdiscs produced a decade earlier so compelling to true lovers of movies.

On the other side, because DVD was now suddenly a very lucrative business, you saw a flood of companies producing lame promotional fluff that was populating most releases. I got to a point where I felt like it was time to put up or shut up. I sort of found myself thinking, “How can I say that this is bad until I’ve tried to do better?” So I pack my stuff and made the move from Littleton, Colorado to Los Angeles.

Skipping ahead, past several years of various entertainment and home video jobs (including QC and a few seasons as the associate producer of The Simpsons on DVD), I found myself facing the same dilemma I encountered before my move… namely that the company I was working for was more interested in the low cost/high fluff supplements that I came to LA to do better than.

So, in 2006, I left the company I was with and started my own production company, Off the Cliff Productions, in an effort to maintain more quality and budgetary control over the features I was producing. My first project as an independent producer was the Ellen Page/Patrick Wilson thriller Hard Candy and the Blu-ray favorite Crank immediately followed that. In the years since, I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to produce features for the latest Rambo and, most recently, Crank 2: High Voltage.

Still courtesy of www.CinemaSquid.com

2. Crank 2 was shot on consumer grade digital cameras. What additional challenges does this present when bringing the movie home on Blu-ray? Have you worked on a film of this nature before?

To answer your last question first, no one’s ever worked on a movie of this nature before because there’s never been a movie created this way before now. To have a $20 million feature shot with $3000 cameras is insane; it just doesn’t happen. But that was what was the most compelling aspect about the making of this movie.

Crank 2 was shot was shot in 32 days all over LA. Just for perspective, 17 Again, the Zac Efron movie that came out the same day as Crank 2 and also cost $20 million, took almost twice that amount of time to shoot. The only way this movie got made for this amount of money and that amount of time is because of the cameras they shot with. On a normal movie, you maybe shoot 1/4 of a scene a day. They were shooting 4 scenes a day.

When it came time to bring the movie home to Blu-ray, there really aren’t any challenges over a traditionally shot movie. All of the hard work, meaning clean up or color correction, is done for the theatrical exhibition. What you see on Blu-ray is exactly what they showed theatrically if you saw the film digitally projected. Both presentations begin with the same master.

3. Was the film shot in 1080p, or a lower resolution? I picked up some stair-stepping/aliasing as I watched the Blu-ray which I assumed were problems associated with the source resolution.

The majority of the movie (I have a hard time calling it a ‘film’ because there was never a frame of film exposed to make Crank 2) was shot using the HDV format. The native resolution of HDV is actually 1440×1080. The difference is that traditional 1920×1080 utilizes square pixels to make up that resolution while HDV’s 1440×1080 has rectangular pixels to fill the width. So, yes, it’s a slightly lower resolution than traditional 1920×1080 would be and, yes, any visual anomalies are representative of what was originally shot.

It’s actually a testament to the camera technology and to the greatness of the Blu-ray’s encoding that it’s so transparent to the originally photography and so similar to the quality of the first film, which was shot using cameras that cost $250,000.

Still courtesy of www.CinemaSquid.com

4. We had some reports of problems playing the disc in stand alone Blu-ray players. From what I understand, a SD card is required for storage on Profile 2.0 players. Is this the case?

What’s going on is that, because the disc is so advanced in some of the things it does, the authoring house made a decision to optimize the disc for speed. If you notice, on some of the newer Blu-rays being released, there’s this constant need to load, Load, LOAD! You go to this feature and you get the loading animation. When you return to the menus, you get the loading animation. When you move from menus to BD-Live features, you get the loading animation.

It’s actually kind of maddening that you can sometimes spend more time loading features than enjoying them. So what the authoring guys did for this disc was to distribute some of that loading work back onto the player to speed up the process and eliminate some of the loading lag.

The problem is that for this to work, the disc needs memory in the player to share the workload. This sort of authoring is completely within the Blu-ray spec and what Crank 2 really did was highlight the main shortcoming of Blu-ray, which is the lack of consistent specs. When every player out there is only required to go ‘this far,’ it means that you can either, a) author discs only ‘this far,’ or b) author discs to the format’s potential and try and bring the players and users up to THAT level. The reality is that if your player needs memory, your player should have memory in order to ensure you’re getting the most out of Blu-ray. This was a bit of a wake up to some people that their players were not the best they could or should be.

5. The original Ghostbusters DVD has a picture-in-picture commentary in which the speakers were silhouetted against the screen (one of many examples). Crank 2 also has a PiP commentary, although in a far more advanced manner. How different is is it to program a feature like that for Blu-ray compared to DVD?

Well, this sort of PIP is a rather recent thing. I was toying around with this sort of multi-layered feature back when I was doing Waiting… (the Ryan Reynolds/Anna Faris comedy) for standard DVD, but I just couldn’t wrap my head around how to make the video work. What we did there instead was to give the director and producer complete control over the flow of the film, letting them pause, slo-mo, and rewind the film while also being able to draw over the film. It was something that had never been done before and a feature I’ve never felt got enough credit for what it did and all the different ways its been ripped off.

Then when it came time to create the features for the first Crank, this new sort of PIP (with a small window displaying interviews and b-roll) had become all the rage with HD-DVD, but we had a problem… Blu-ray players couldn’t do it. So we made a decision to create it as a separate video stream with the PIP window burned into the feature.

In a lot of ways, this made producing it easier because we could do more advanced animations and transitions because we were doing things editorially rather than with player Java or HDi programming. But make no mistake, it was the hardest thing I’d ever created. It’s incredibly difficult to tell a story that has to fit within the timing of the scene you see in the background and have that match all the way through. Then when it came time to do Rambo, I wanted to be able to create a seamless experience where you could go from the more traditional picture-in-picture commentary to fully realized, full screen featurettes about the scenes as they happened without being constrained by the real time aspect of the movie.

So as Stallone is talking about casting the missionaries in PIP commentary form, the feature suddenly becomes a featurette that includes interviews with the other cast members and allows for a much more full and rounded breakdown of these elements. So when you look at something like the Watchmen Maximum Movie Mode, if you really look at it, it’s just what we did with Waiting… crossed with what we did with Rambo, only this time the director’s in front of a green screen. Those things are always just created editorially.

Other than the true picture-in-picture elements, there’s nothing being done with these features that couldn’t be done with standard DVD, it’s just a little easier sometimes with Blu-ray. But when it came time to do the PIP for Crank 2, we knew we wanted to keep very close to what we had done for the first film, but I’ve had a problem with that kind of PIP. For me, I’d rather see the interviews and behind the scenes footage full screen and have the movie in a small window for reference. So that was the little change we made to make it unique to everything that had come before.

And in a twist that I’m particularly proud of, we designed the disc so that users could toggle back and forth between the newer design and the more traditional mode. The authoring geniuses at Radius 60 did an amazing job of taking my idea and really making it work much more seamlessly and intuitively than I could have ever imagined. Every time I do a project with them, I also throw out a bunch of, “can we do this,” and they always find a way to say, “sure.”

Still courtesy of www.CinemaSquid.com

6. Any general thoughts on the transfer process? Specific items you want to mention, or a particularly difficult area you want to address? Did Crank 2 make things easier in some way?

Crank 2, as I said earlier, was a pretty bit of business when it came to the transfer because all of the hard work and clean up was done prior to theatrical, so when it came time for the Blu-ray, everyone knew exactly what we were getting. But I will say, when we sat down with the directors to do the PIP commentary for the film, they were watching the HD version of the film and even they were amazed by how great it looked.

7. The documentary on the disc has a ton of on the set footage. Was this shot using the same cameras used for the actual movie?

No, the movie was shot using the Canon A1. All the behind the scenes, and I was there every day shooting, was shot using a Sony Z1U, which is also an HDV camera, but not a 24p one.

I actually made the decision early on to shoot the behind the scenes with a much more video-looking 60i frame rate to better match, at least thematically, the camcorder style of the actual production. What I realized much later (about a year) was that that was a bad creative choice when it came time to do things for the disc. Because we were creating a PIP track to mirror the movie, the entire PIP track (interviews and behind the scenes) had to be converted from 60i to 24p to also match without there being jumping and odd jittering.

Once I had converted this footage to 24p, I realized I just liked the look of the 24p stuff much more and it also matched the look of the film more. If I had it to do over again, I would have shot everything at 1080p24 and it’s what I’ll shoot almost everything else at now.

Still courtesy of www.CinemaSquid.com

8. What type of post-processing was applied to the movie in terms of the color saturation, digital sharpening, etc?

The main thing that was done that was different than other films was that there was a bit more work to upconvert the footage to true 1920×1080 from the original 1440×1080. You also have to understand that HDV has an MPEG-2 bitrate of about 25Mb. That’s less than most Blu-rays get using AVC or VC-1. So some work was also done to help clean up some of the bitrate artifacting from the original photography. But in general, there wasn’t much more than the standard post processes done to finish Crank 2. That’s how well shot the movie was and how genius Neveldine/Taylor (the co-directors) are at getting these cameras to do amazing things.

9. Free parking. Anything you want to say about the Crank 2 Blu-ray after that question bombardment, let it out.

Crank 2 is an interesting movie. Certainly it was not a hit theatrically and I think everyone involved was disappointed with that. But at the same time, I think it’s amazing that Lionsgate Home Entertainment, despite the lack of box office success, really backed this film and let us go balls out with the DVD and especially the Blu-ray.

The movie ended up grossing around $13 million domestically, yet we were able to create more exclusive supplemental content than they did on The Dark Knight. We weren’t done creating everything by the time the film opened and closed and almost any other studio would have folded it in and cut all of the extra content we were creating to save some money.

But Lionsgate knew Crank 2 had an audience and they were insistent that the Blu-ray be created to serve the audience that was about to find it, rather than assume it would never have one. I think in a few years time, people will remember Crank 2 as a much more successful movie than it originally was. Hopefully, the Blu-ray release is a big reason for that.

DoBlu would like to thank Cliff for his time. His next project is Gamer, currently set for a January release.

Blu-ray Movie Review from : DoBlu.com

Interview: Producer Cliff Stephenson on the Crank 2 Blu-ray

The Last Starfighter could have been a hack job. Given its place in time, it served one purpose: to milk two popular aspects of popular culture for all it was worth. George Lucas had finished his Star Wars saga (or so we thought) and video games dominated TV screens.

Last Starfighter uses both, casting Lance Guest as Alex Rogan, a teenager who spends his little free time playing a “Last Starfighter” video game installed at his trailer park. Having beat it, Alex is swept into space to learn he was playing a training simulator for the real thing.

Much can be said for the visual effects of Last Starfighter. Hopelessly dated, certainly compared to some of the model work at time, they remain groundbreaking in terms of their use. All shots of space and the ships are rendered, minus the usual lighting and texturing effects that help modern day computer effects work as they do. It is funny to think that 10 years later, the PlayStation came along to match everything shown here in full.

Oddly though, they add a unique look and charm. In some way, it helps the film stand out from other Star Wars knock-offs of the period. There is gloss to the effects, a pseudo-realism that makes it look stolen from another universe. Despite the obvious lack of reality, they still pull you into the film.

Robert Preston gives his final theatrical performance as Centauri, an alien in human form sent to retrieve Alex because of his skill at the video game. He is lively, giving the film a comedic, fun, adventurous edge. His energy and charisma gives the film a sense of scale it lacks considering the enemy forces have all of 30 ships to rule the galaxy. Hopefully they plan to take over worlds and use the inhabitants as slave troops.

Last Starfighter takes place in one of those movie trailer parks where everyone knows your name, yet ends somewhat abruptly. Alex returns to Earth after completing his mission, talks briefly to his mom and girlfriend, only to return to the ship to continue fighting.

Apparently in the ‘80s, mothers were perfectly capable of sending their children off into an unknown intergalactic war in deep space without a tear. Maybe that’s why children of the ‘80s are so tough these days.

Movie ★★★★☆ 

Universal uses a VC-1 encode, and the results are… rather awful. The studio made the choice to scrub this one clean, resulting in a complete lack of fine detail, waxy faces, and inaccurate flesh tones. Grain is nearly non-existent.

Despite the digital manipulation, minor print damage does remain. The transfer is still surprisingly sharp, with no edge enhancement to further cause problems. Some mild, forgivable artifacting in deep reds is noted, but certainly not part of the larger issue at work. The flickering and aliasing evident on the computer-generated ships has to do with the source given the undoubtedly low resolution used to create them.

Black levels and contrast are fine, save for a scene or two early where the blacks appear slightly murky. The film appears clean, and given the higher resolution, does look like a step up compared to what the movie has been given before.

This is not the worst DNR mess, which on HD DVD remains Tremors, and a few such as Gangs of New York and 40 Year Old Virgin likely hold the Blu-ray title. Given the time Universal had to make this right after the HD DVD suffered from the same complaints however, the disc screams laziness on the part of the studio. This would likely be quite impressive had the film been given proper treatment.

Video ★★☆☆☆ 

Universal at least has the decency to treat the film right in terms of audio. A DTS-HD Master mix is satisfying. The trailer park nicely captures the chatter of the residents, and the front channels are quite expansive. From the sounds of the arcade game playing in the proper channel to the cars/spaceships moving, everything is nicely caught by this mix.

The enemy ship carries a fun heartbeat sound underneath the dialogue, which nicely reverberates in the subwoofer without becoming overbearing. Laser blasts occasionally find their way into the surrounds, although the use is sporadic. Craig Safan’s wonderful score nicely bleeds into the surrounds, and the echo of the friendly command center nicely does the same.

Audio ★★★★☆ 

An energetic commentary from director Nick Castle and Production Designer Ron Cobb details the usual production details. If the commentary isn’t what you’re looking for, two nice making-of pieces will suit your needs. Heroes of the Screen is a modern retrospective, while Crossing the Frontier is an older piece hosted by Lance Guest. Together, they run close to an hour. Galleries, typical BD-Live support, trailers, and D-Box support round this one off.

Extras ★★★★☆ 

Blu-ray Movie Review from : DoBlu.com

The Last Starfighter Review

With $40 million in tow, the film’s sharp eye for foreign planets serve as a gorgeous backdrop to space drama undoubtedly heavily influenced by Star Wars. Serenity looks well beyond its budget, with CG effects that rival films that cost twice as much. It is an engrossing visual masterpiece, and thankfully has a story to keep the sights interesting.

Even with no prior knowledge of the TV show, Serenity does a wonderful job of being self-contained. All the characters are fleshed out through nicely woven, natural dialogue and excellent pacing. Exposition is taken care of rapidly, bringing newcomers into the world without fault.

Serenity follows the story of River, a “Reader,” a government experiment on the run. On board a slowly crumbling space cruiser, she sticks with her brother and the crew as they make every attempt to save her from the Alliance conglomerate. Her uncontrolled nature creates some impressive action sequences in the final half hour, and another fantastic bar brawl earlier in the film.

Nathan Fillion leads and plays Mal, a direct descendant (or knock-off) of Han Solo from Star Wars. His banter and tirades are enormously entertaining. Serenity has a fantastic balance though, able to make his transformation from goofy, care-free ship captain to serious leader convincingly. His speech on board his ship as they make the decision to fight to let the galaxy know the wrongs of the Alliance is a superb moment, and shot beautifully.

While trailers portray nothing but action sequences, this is a story driven tale. Action is widely spread thin to focus on the storyline first. It’s beneficial to the overall production and to allow time for newcomers to the universe to understand what occurred before they arrived.

Serenity has all the makings of a summer blockbuster (despite being released in September originally), but handles the material with care. Action serves a purpose instead of existing to blow things up. Comedic dialogue has timing, and doesn’t clash with the serious tone shifts late into the film. That’s what determines quality, and Serenity is oozing with it.

Movie ★★★★☆ 

Serenity appeared on HD DVD as an exclusive until the format war, and Universal dropped it onto Blu-ray as one of their earliest releases following Blu-ray’s victory. The difference between the two is the VC-1 bitrate. The Blu-ray carries a substantially higher one, nearly double that of the HD DVD. What difference that makes in actual execution is debatable. For nearly every scene, finding differences is a waste of time.

There’s no question the film looks wonderful though. Detail is startling, and sharpness is excellent. Colors burst off the screen, and long shots of the various landscapes are stunning in their beauty. Black levels are deep, faltering in a few shots however, including the bar before the fight. Intentional black crush is noted, although shadow delineation is excellent otherwise.

Noise is an inconsistent problem, noted against the blue backdrop of the opening scene, and popping up at random in various points during the film. As with the HD DVD, contrast can run amazingly hot. It is for effect and intentional, but the sharp increase in brightness can be blinding, if not uncomfortable to see in a dark room.

Video ★★★★☆ 

The true jump in quality from the format shift is audio, upgraded from Dolby Digital Plus to a powerful DTS-HD encode. Bass is simply awe-inspiring, from the first time the ships take off to the insides when they’re falling apart. A chase sequence on the ground after a robbery is spectacular in its clarity.

Surrounds are consistently used, both for atmosphere and hard action. Gunfire is captured in all channels, and a space battle late in the film is worthy demo material. There is a notable increase in volume from dialogue sequences to action, so those in sensitive audio situations may need to play with the volume.

Audio ★★★★★ 

Thankfully, unlike some studios (*Fox*), Universal has ported over all extra features and added some as well. The commentary by Joss Whedon is the first stop for fans as he covers all aspects of the production, including his never-ending fight to keep this franchise alive. Outtakes provide some great laughs in a separate feature.

Nine deleted scenes total over 14 minutes and are wise cuts to keep the running time below the two-hour mark. These also feature an optional Whedon commentary. Future History explores the story and its inspirations. What’s in a Firefly? is a standard behind-the-scenes feature along with a focus on the special effects.

Whedon returns for a four-minute speech to the fans. It’s a clip from the early showings of the film Universal hosted to guests. He explains his love for the concept and thanks the fans endlessly for their support. Relighting the Firefly is a ten-minute look at that support and how Firefly wouldn’t go away quietly.

New to this disc are four featurettes, the longest being the 19 minute A Filmmakers Journey, detailing the comeback of the franchise and the cast surprised at returning to these roles. Four extended scenes fall in line with the deleted ones.

Universal’s pop-up U-Control feature has a positive in a picture commentary with Whedon and cast discussing the film. Three other U-Control features include a making-of (filled with new and old footage), ship details, and further schematics for the ships. The disc is BD-Live enabled with nothing to date of interest to Serenity fans.

Extras ★★★★★ 

Blu-ray Movie Review from : DoBlu.com

Serenity Review

John Davis, who previously handled the underrated Jimmy Neutron movie, directs this story of a boy shrunk down to ant size. He is forced to accept this punishment for his attempts to destroy the colony when he was full human height. The messages are clear, including teamwork and thinking of other people. On a side note, it is going to be hard for parents who might have an insect problem in their home to ever call an exterminator with Ant Bully and Over the Hedge, but the underlying lesson remains positive.

Bully gains a few early respect points with a subtle reference to sci-fi classic Them!, then becomes an energetic adventure. Action is lively and on a large scale, at least in terms of ants. Some mild adult humor hardly push this into PG territory, and kids will have plenty of laughs on their level to keep them glued to the screen while smiling.

Some of the ant peril aspects have been ripped directly from a growing line of insect-based animated features. A water attack is highly similar to the rain sequence from Pixar’s A Bug’s Life. The character design is likewise highly reminiscent (and close to Antz as well), though few of the characters in Ant Bully are anywhere near as memorable.

Bruce Campbell voices the goofy, rather dumb ant Fugax and becomes the most likely connection with kids aside from the human lead. Nicolas Cage seems to be sleeping through the roll, his voice sounding more like a bored teenager than any high-end magic crafting ant.

Sure, Ant Bully actually uses the aunt/ant joke, but it recovers quickly heading into a lively finale, that a battle against an exterminator (Paul Giamatti) determined to clean the front yard of insects. It’s hard to not have fun watching a sequence like that.

Movie ★★★★☆ 

Ant Bully shares the same encode as the HD DVD release. That’s fine, as this is an excellent encode with only minor problems.

Black levels initially appear flat, an intentional effect for the full-grown human environment. Muted colors likewise disappear once inside the ants home, the exact point where this transfer brings in the “wow” factor. Detail is only limited to the animation. Sharpness is perfect, and the black levels are wonderfully rich and bold. It is an encode that achieves that rare three-dimensional effect so many fail to do.

Sadly, this VC-1 transfer falters a bit when it comes to the backgrounds. Banding is an issue from the 51:20 mark on. The sky doesn’t hold together. A relatively low bit rate encode (dropping as low as 3.8 MBPS) probably doesn’t help. While it may not achieve hi-def perfection, it barely misses the mark.

Video ★★★★☆ 

Warner unfortunately uses a compressed 5.1 mix that delivers on most counts, if not as clear as it should be. Bass is mild, and not as clean as the best discs on the market. The surrounds are nicely used in all action scenes, and a fine echo reverberates through the ant nest. Directionality is solid is slightly unspectacular. The finale is the showcase, with wasps buzzing through all channels as they fly to their target.

Audio ★★★★☆ 

It Takes a Colony is a making-of that aims young, although it is nice to see director John Davis address other bug-based animated films. A stack of deleted scenes run over 11 minutes, including a birth sequence that could have worked if it were shorter. Some animation gags, including one about The Matrix, might draw a smile. A selection of promotional shorts and a terribly boring screen saver finish this one off.

Extras ★★☆☆☆ 

Blu-ray Movie Review from : DoBlu.com

The Ant Bully Review

Steve McQueen dashes down the crowded halls of an Amtrak train, chasing after a briefcase containing $500,000 he stole in a bank heist. It’s been stolen by a locker thief at the station, the man completely unaware of what is actually inside the bag.

McQueen runs into an old lady, complaining the overhead compartments are too high for her luggage. In the midst of the chase, he stops, grabs her bag, flings it across the car perfectly placing it in the compartment, and moves on.

That small moment of humor makes what would have been a pedestrian chase into something memorable. The same goes for a car chase after the bank has been robbed, with McQueen and his wife barreling through the front of a house with their car in spectacular fashion.

The Getaway is a lot of fun, wonderfully paced and enjoyably written. A few catchphrases, such as McQueen’s, “Step on it baby!” are memorable. Sam Peckinpah pushes extreme violence during the exciting closing shoot-out, although the MPAA saw fit to give this a PG. While the unnaturally red blood isn’t realistic, there is a lot of it.

McQueen plays a criminal, just out of jail for bank robbery. He’s made a deal with the sheriff for his parole, but only if he robs another bank and splits the money. Of course, if it were that easy, there wouldn’t be much of a film.

What’s unique is that McQueen is flawed. He is teamed with Ali MacGraw, who at one point nearly changes sides against her on-screen husband. McQueen doesn’t take it lightly, slapping her repeatedly on the side of the road. He’s not a pure hero in any sense, and at times, rooting for his escape almost seems wrong.

Thankfully, the film has a secondary character even less likeable than McQueen, played with immense dislike by Al Letteri. He was part of the original heist, sent after McQueen to kill him. When he fails, all sensibilities go out the window, kidnapping a pair of veterinarians. He abuses the young girl (Sally Field), who also inexplicably falls for him at the same time. He’s disgusting in a good way.

If The Getaway is anything, it is certainly gripping. Walter Hill’s script adaptation from a Jim Thompson novel is loaded with twists and scenarios that are wonderfully unique. Besides, you have to appreciate any film in which the leads are stuffed into a dump truck and carried into the middle of nowhere, only to be picked up by Slim Pickens, who makes the final move to save the pair and their money.

Movie ★★★★☆ 

Warner delivers a clean VC-1 encode (the same used on the HD DVD), one with the grain left intact and the detail that goes along with it. Colors are gorgeous and saturated, although some red push can be an issue. Contrast is bright and full, while the blacks settle in nicely. Flesh tones can veer off into orange, although it’s minor. The source is in excellent condition with only minor damage. There are no signs of artificial enhancement.

Audio ★★★★☆ 

Sadly, Warner skimps on the audio, giving the disc a paltry Dolby 1.0 mono compressed mix. It sounds the part. The high end is strained, and the obnoxious ‘70s era soundtrack is a major problem throughout. Dialogue has some minor issues and can be hard to hear. The source likely didn’t offer much to work with anyway.

Audio ★★☆☆☆ 

A commentary starts with Peckinpah biographers Nick Redman, Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons, and David Weddle. A “virtual” commentary of the opening 10 minutes is pulled from archival interviews, including McQueen, MacGraw, and Peckinpah.

Main Title M1 is a featurette on composer Jerry Fielding, who was hired for the project but his score tossed out at the request of McQueen. You can choose to watch the bank robbery with his (better) music, or listen to a soundtrack mix during the film. A stack of various trailers rounds off this set.

Extras ★★★☆☆ 

Blu-ray Movie Review from : DoBlu.com

The Getaway (1972) Review