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Blu-ray roundup: Should you buy Darko, Pinocchio, Solace, Batman?
A roundup of some the recent and upcoming sci-fi and genre Blu-ray releases.
Donnie Darko. Feb. 10 (Fox Home Entertainment, $29.99). This two-disc set offers two chances to be confused by its labyrinthine tale of a teenager struggling to understand a series of bizarre visions. In addition to featuring both versions of Kelly's directorial debut, multiple commentaries, featurettes and documentaries delve into Donnie's dark world. Beyond an upgraded transfer, this set seems designed only for die-hard fans or folks looking to condense their collections.
Pinocchio. Mar. 10 (Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, $35.99). Disney's second animated feature returns to home video in a gorgeous, encyclopedic set. The transfer alone is beautiful enough to cause sensory overload, but a commentary, a trivia track, a making-of documentary and multiple featurettes provide background and perspective on the benchmark film. An essential addition to your entertainment library whether you're a Disney-phile, an animation fan or just a moviegoer who loves great, beautiful storytelling.
Quantum of Solace. Mar. 24 (Fox Home Entertainment, $39.99). Marc Forster takes the reins for the latest James Bond adventure, turning in the shortest and fastest-paced film in the series' 40-plus-year history. The Blu-ray features a number of lightweight featurettes, but the main appeal is being able to slow down or pause the action on a smaller screen, if only so you can figure out what the hell is happening. An essential purchase for Bond fans, but given its predecessor's Blu-ray double dip (and the fact there's no commentary from the usually talky Forster), it's probably a good idea to hold out for the possibility of a future deluxe edition.
Batman: The Motion Picture Anthology. Mar. 10 (Warner Home Video, $129.95). Warner's pre-Nolan Batman films debut on Blu-ray in a deluxe box set featuring tons of extras. While the first two are really the only ones anybody will likely want, the featurettes and extras on Batman Forever and Batman & Robin provide sufficient context to justify their existence, unwelcome though they may be. The fact that the transfers (especially on the first two) are vastly superior even to the 2005 special editions makes this a worthy purchase, but unless you love all four films it might be worth waiting to see when Warner drops them in single-disc editions.
Let the Right One In. Mar. 10 (Magnolia Home Entertainment, $34.98). Tomas Alfredson resuscitates vampire movies with this remarkable, poignant tale of preteen blood lust. The extras are few, including deleted scenes and behind-the-scenes footage, but the transfer is great, and both the English- and Swedish-language tracks are coldly beautiful. Chances are this film bypassed a lot of genre fans because of its limited distribution, but it's a worthy choice as a rental or a flat purchase in any language.
By Polymer at 9:36 AM ON 03/09/09
Commentaries and featurettes - yawn! Blu-ray is an unnecessary format. It only benefits the movie studios, production companies, and actors. People who claim that the resolution is so much better than HD digital content have been duped by those Hollywood interest groups from their multi-million dollar marketing. Congratulations for being one of the sheep. Sheep goes Baaaa
By Feldspar at 12:54 PM ON 03/09/09
The HD resolution IS better. It's undeniably sharper, if you've got the tv to support it.
That said, Blu-ray double-dips seem largely a waste. I'm waiting until this summer's popcorn movies become available on home video before buying any Blu-ray discs.
By Elgion at 1:28 PM ON 03/09/09
Polymer, don't be bitter just because you bought the wrong format. Plenty of people bought betamax too.
By CaticusRex at 2:22 PM ON 03/09/09
Ha! Betamax!!! I just found two of my old betamax players in the attic!
As for Blu ray my opinion is that it is great for all the action oriented "spectacle" films. I buy those ala Dark Knight, Iron Man, Incredible Hulk but at the same time I bought Forgetting Sarah Marshall on DVD.
By Justo at 2:43 PM ON 03/09/09
If you honestly think Blu Ray isn't sharper than DVD then you're utterly clueless. I'm not even gonna explain this, because it'd be like explaining why a bus is bigger than a bicycle.
By gorehound696 at 5:43 PM ON 03/09/09
I just want to say why I am not buying into this technology presently and it makes a lot of sense too.
1.I do own a full 1080p Panasonic Plasma TV
2.I also own an OPPO DVD Player that upsamples the image to 1080p
3.i have a good buddy who owns a Playstation 3
My buddy and I got together and took a bluray and DVD of 10,000BC Movie and then we did a comparison of the image.
Our consensus is that on the OPPO with decent HDMI cabling the picture was so close to an actual blueray thru his PS3 that it was uncanny.The blueray in defense of it did look a little sharper but if you have to pay twice as much for one and have to pay a ton for the player well sorry I am sticking to buying DVD's.Let the rich folks who have nothing better to do with their money run to blueray and us normal folks who don't have an arm and a leg for cash enjoy DVD for what it is.
I use a decent rack-mount power conditioner and decnt cabling and I do get a great picture.I am really happy with the image.
I have the feeling that this format could become like betamax.i also think their will be a better way to watch movies than paying the price to buy into blueray now.
By JasonInMelbourne at 3:57 AM ON 03/10/09
When you have a 1080p native projector painting an 8-foot image, every bit of extra resolution is crucial.
When I've played both my blu-ray and DVD copies of Pan's Labyrinth back-to-back, there's no mistaking which has the better image.
But this article reminds me how greedy studios can be, i.e. early adopters of Casino Royale put money into the new format only to be frustrated by the newer release 12 months later just before the Quantum of Solace came out in cinemas.
By lennychuck at 8:27 AM ON 03/10/09
C'mon, double-dipping is par for the course. Studios have been double-dipping with the good ol' DVD format since it started.... releasing disks initially in stretched pan&scan and no features, then re-releasing in true widescreen, then releasing collectors editions, then director's preferred editions, special tin-case editions (ooh, this one comes with a sticker), unlimited extreme director's definitive cut edition, producer's cut (my personal fave), and now you're surprised/offended when they start with blu-ray?
By Tom at 12:49 PM ON 03/13/09
Optical media is a dinosaur.
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