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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Review of the Blu-ray viewed on a PS3 and a 40" 100z 1080p TV., 6 Oct 2008
I guess everyone's first question is How does it look? Well, it looks good. Really good. Perfect? No. I'll list the poorer aspects of the transfer first.
To me, a lot of shots with close-ups of actors don't look as vivid as those without. This might simply be because flesh tones have less variance when filling a large portion of the screen, and therefore maybe it's an unfair comparison. But it's definitely not as clear as I've seen on other movies (Blade Runner is an obvious example, and that has the highest definition HD master so far, scanned in at 4K resolution). One scene that looked particularly grainy was where Mouth is telling Rosalita she'll be locked in the cupboard. I think this can only be down to the original negative, because there are other scenes with lower light levels that have absolutely no grain at all. One thing that the HD mastering hasn't done much of is make the visual effects looks worse, as is the case with a lot of FX-heavy movies. One thing I did notice more was when the kids land in the pirate ship cavern and we get the big reveal, the flow of water on the right looks really bad - it's way too fast and looks composited.
On the positive side, it really does look good in wide shots, and there are many in this film. The shots of Astoria look great, I definitely noticed the backgrounds look sharper in some of these shots, like shot of Chunk doing his truffle shuffle - when you get the reverse shot of Chunk standing on the box, look at the houses on the hillside in the background. The attic scene looks surprisingly good, considering it's shot in low lighting. The plasma ball and lightning tube look really vivid here, I liked that. I was happy with how good the whole scene looked because it's got some great rain-diffused lighting and cinematography.
Another shot that jumped out at me is when Mr Perkins and his associate walk away, the tankers at sea behind them are really clear now despite not being in the field of focus. Later, when the kids get off their bikes at the top of the hill and look out to the beach, it's incredibly crisp, and shortly after that when they drag their bikes to the top of the hill, you can see every wave hitting the rocks in the distance. Quite stunning.
I must say, one scene I was really looking forward to seeing was the wishing well/coins scene. I always thought it was beautifully shot, whatever I was viewing it on. Well, it looks crystal clear, as it should with such vivid lighting.
The miserable Astoria weather is more vivid than ever, both visually and the crystal clear audio. And in some shots, the map is clear enough to read yourself.
Oh, and Chunk's Hawaian shirt looks better than ever! Or worse, depending on your taste.
The audio is crisp, although one problem with this movie has always been the noise of too many characters speaking at once. That can't really be fixed, but given those in-built limitations, it sounds great. Dave Grusin's score is always lovely to hear as well.
As for the rest of the Blu-ray, the special features are straight from the DVD. The famous commentary is one of the best ever made for a DVD, so if you didn't get the DVD, you will love it. But at the end of the day, the film is what matters most, and let's face it, this one is a gem.
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