By Philip Dunkley
What we have decided to do is the following. Since Blu-Ray has now won the format war, we approached Ster Kinekor to give us a bit of an insight on what to expect, and is the experience worth the extra money to spend. Well, they happily obliged and I received a pack of Ten Blu-Ray movies from them to review, and get a rough idea of what to expect from the latest titles. So what I am going to do is review them a few at a time, and give a quick overview of what the quality is like and should people add these to their collections, so here comes the first three titles.
Resident Evil: Extinction
Starring: Milla Jovavich, Oded Fehr, Ali Larter, Iain Glen
Being a huge fan of the game, and just as much a fan of the movies, I was really looking forward to watching this title in Hi-Def, and I was not disappointed at all. The basic story goes around the Umbrella Corporation’s plans to control the T-Virus outbreak, and genetically alter the zombies that this virus has created to be more domesticated, as most of the world is now infected, and the survivors are just trying to move from place to place to keep themselves alive. The Umbrella guys are using cloned versions of Alice to try and develop an Anti-Serum, but they need the original host to create a stronger strain. And so the story picks up with the usual Zombie fighting and the likes, but watching this on Blu-Ray was a pleasure. The Picture quality was magnificent, and the sound even better. If you enjoy the Resident Evil movies, go and get this now. Loads of Extra’s too.
Overall – 80%
Reign Over Me
Starring: Adam Sandler, Don Cheadle, Jada Pinkett Smith, Liv Tyler, Saffron Burrows, Donald Sutherland
If there is one movie that I would make every human on earth watch, it would probably be this one. It is truly a lesson in humility, and every single moment of the movie captures a part of the viewer in such a way that it’s difficult to stop the tears flowing. It’s a story of two old college buddies who meet up after many years, the one is a successful dentist, whose family life leaves much to be desired, and the other is a guy whose family was wiped out on the plane that crashed into the World Trade Centre, and has lost his way in life from pure heartbreak. It’s truly an unbelievable movie, and should be part of everyone’s collection. From a Blu-Ray point of view, this movie’s great picture and really fantastic soundtrack is captured better than any other format. Definitely a buy.
Overall – 100%
Superbad
Starring: Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Bill Hader, Seth Rogen, Martha Maclsaac, Emma Stone
Another teenage comedy, which has some really funny moments, but will only appeal to fans of this kind of movie. Three geeky guys are desperately trying to get laid before they graduate from High School, and they are rather pleased to be invited to a cool party that should ensure they get their wish, but first they need to buy booze with a fake ID and this little adventure will change them forever. I enjoyed this movie due to the crazy things these guys get up to, and an especially good appearance from two cops in the movie, you’ll see what I mean when you watch it. From a Blu-Ray point of view, yeah the picture is crisper and the sound is good, but nothing to write home about.
Overall : 70%
Right, so that’s the first batch of movies, so please let us know what you guys think of this, and do you want us to keep releasing these on a weekly basis. I quite like the idea of Hi-Def Movies, and they are streaks ahead of DVD’s.
All Blu-Ray Movies are reviewed on the following:
Sony Bravia 40†LCD 1080P Capable Panel, Playstation 3, Yamaha RSV-1700 Receiver, Mission M34i Speakers.
Last Updated: March 31, 2008
NoMaD
March 31, 2008 at 14:24
These are cool, but they are still lacking what most reviews lack, and that’s the reviews on the bonus content.
As a blu-ray buyer, I pretty much know what the movies are about, but I’m more interested in the extra content, and blu-rays are meant to contain a lot more “extra” stuff.
but with saying that, your work is great, as always, thanks
Philip Dunkley
March 31, 2008 at 14:29
Cool, I’ll do that in the next set of reviews, thanks for the feedback.
Philip Dunkley’s last blog post..The Dawn of Blu-Ray is Upon Us – Reviewed – Blu-Ray
kay
March 31, 2008 at 14:52
Did you do any back to back comparisons with the DVD versions of the same movies? Anything less would be slightly pointless, IMHO.
kay’s last blog post..Cocaine: Now with even more added guilt
Burns ZA
March 31, 2008 at 15:29
I think a good referance for HD reviews can be found by browsing http://www.highdefdigest.com/. Obviously discard the very technical jargon but it’ll give you a good idea.
DarkOcean
March 31, 2008 at 16:39
Agreed Id like to hear more about the advantages of watching the particular title on blue ray over std DVD ?
Philip Dunkley
March 31, 2008 at 20:46
Just to give everyone a rough idea of the logistics that have been put into this, I have done hordes of testing around DVD vs Blu-Ray, and it’s pretty safe to say on all titles that the quality of the Blu Ray titles are almost two to three time that of DVD, especially when watching at 1080p. It’s kind of like comparing VHS to DVD, and trust me, on some titles it’s that noticeable. I just don’t have the time to sit and compare title for title against each other. Sorry. If we start a movie site, mabye. It’s just a general feature to get the interest in Blu Ray going, and what titles we think rock, and which ones suck.
j4nr1k
April 1, 2008 at 00:48
My top HD movies:
Back to the future
Gladiator
Matrix Trilogy
Hulk (crap movie, looks amazing in HD)
These are really great for one more reason: they are full screen! No black bars on a widescreen HD TV.
Lupus
April 1, 2008 at 08:50
Hi J4nr1k
I’ve got no black bars on my DVDs on my widescreen TV. Perhaps your DVD player couldn’t do 16:9 properly? That is an odd reason though to like HD over DVD.
J4NR1K
April 1, 2008 at 09:45
Sorry, what I meant was: Certian HD movies, like certian DVD’s have black bars. I use the 360 for DVD’s, or Nero Showtime, so I doubt that the player would affect it.
kay
April 1, 2008 at 12:41
@Philip, fair enough – I am still itching to try some back to back comparisons. As you point out, the quality difference is very TV-dependent, so there’s no one universal truth to the story. Thanks for your post though, I’m sure more people will be eager to check out Blu-Ray after this 🙂
kay’s last blog post..Cocaine: Now with even more added guilt
Milesh Bhana
April 1, 2008 at 22:10
@j4nrik, the reason why you get black bars on some movies and not others is because you get 16:9 (HD widescreen), which is the correct aspect ratio, the you get an even wider one (same as the cinema screen called 2.35:1, which will have black bars. I have no idea why they sell that version. I guess some people want the exact same version the cinema has or something.