We’re going to start seeing some major Blu-ray releases in the next few months. As it gets closer to Christmas shopping, studios are going to bring out their big guns for gift giving. Plus all the summer movies are going to start coming out. So to help you decide which Blu-rays deserve some shelf space in your collection, I present the Shelf Space Awards for August.
Pain and Gain was all about the dreams of superficial success, and shot in Michael Bay’s style, the Blu-ray lavishes the glamour in its picture. The settings in Miami are all bright pastels, even in the neon lit strip clubs where Bay highlights the leading lady, or the warehouse where they keep Tony Shalhoub hostage. Watching Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson work out is pretty magnetic, and the Blu-ray detail emphasizing every pec and ab ripple could be the best gym recruiting video ever.
Watching the Blu-ray of Scary MoVie, there wasn’t a whole lot to praise. It’s a perfectly clear picture, the highest of HD digital video, although the film itself is not much to look at. A recreation of other movies, the composition of Scary V is a bit flat. The one thing I did notice is in the found footage segments, they haven’t degraded the footage to simulate consumer cameras like the Paranormal Activity movies did. So one thing I can say about Scary MoVie is that it looks technically better than some of the movies it’s spoofing, because those were supposed to look like crap. I guess that actually means they didn’t spoof it very well. Anyway, remember when I defended Scary MoVie against A Haunted House?
This week I reviewed I Come In Peace in full, and I commented on a problem with digital noise towards the end of the film. Today I realized that my standalone Blu-ray player presents slightly higher picture quality than my Playstation 3, which is what I viewed the film on. So trying I Come In Peace on the standalone player corrected the digital noise problem I was having. Let me use this Shelf Space Award to give it credit where it’s do. It’s still a solid transfer, not spectacular, but clean and clear throughout. It was also pointed out to me that the box art is reversible. Dark Angel on one side but the proper I Come In Peace title on the other. I’m totally sticking this on my shelf in the I section.
Shout! Factory’s Blu-ray of Q the Winged Serpent is a glorious peak back at 1982 New York. It’s film look, so it’s a little smoothed over and washed out, but it’s a clean print and and probably looks better than it did in seedy ‘80s movie theaters.
That stop motion dragon is pretty cool too.
Scream Factory’s double issue of X-Ray and Schizo presents two subtle startling different transfers. Like I Come In Peace and Q, X-Ray is a solid transfer, keeping the film look but a high quality preservation.
X-Ray is a much clearer picture with brighter colors and grittier detail, but the picture keeps shaking and jittering like a film projector. Weird.
Early September Awards
Now You See Me, the summer hit about bank robbing magicians, has a pretty perfect new release transfer, with a totally sharp and clear picture even at night or in a dark theater for a magic show.
The locations are pretty lavish, with Las Vegas and New Orleans providing key settings for the film’s action. (Available September 3)
See what happens when The Artist wins the Best Picture Oscar? Now everyone is making black and white silent movies. The one that came out this year was Blancanieves, and it actually looks even more like an authentic silent film. The Artist was still all clear and new, especially on Blu-ray. Shot on 16mm, Blancanieves looks old timey with a bit of sepia tint, although no film damage whatsoever since it was filmed and well taken care of recently. You can still get a sense of the 16mm film grain as well. (Available September 3)
I stand by my original review where I said J.J. Abrams and his team have enormous balls to pull the story they did in Star Trek Into Darkness. To me that’s awesome, to others it’s horrible, to each their own. Now there’s a controversy about the Blu-ray release because different stores have Blu-rays with different extras. Well, I’m just going to review the one I got and look at the movie itself, since all of them come with the movie.
Wherever you stand on the Star Trek Into Darkness controversy, it looks magnificent. There are tons of visually stunning sequences that look exquisite on Blu-ray: the volcano prologue, the deep space jump, the flight into Klingon territory, the shot of the enterprise dipping below the clouds, and the climactic battle between Spock and the villain (I’ll even admit that was out of character but it looks good). No detail was spared. Every background, practical set, costume and digital element is a full of texture that Blu-ray highlights. I do wish we had the full IMAX frame in this version, but that would be my only complaint. (Available September 10)
Since I’m Franchise Fred, technically I should be excited about the Scanners sequels, but I can’t say I was dying to know where this franchise went after Scanners I. I remember the sequels being on pay per view, as they were straight to video movies, and this was before VOD so you had to order it when they told you it was playing. The Shout! Factory double feature Blu-ray of Scanners II and Scanners III actually look really flattering. They make the movies look like movies that played in theaters, at least for Scanners II. I’m sensing the pattern with Shout!/Scream Factory Blu-rays. They preserve the look of movies shot on film as they were in their day. Scanners II does get a little muddy at times, and Scanners III looks like a dirtier print with a lot of specks peppering many scenes. Still beats cable PPV. (Available September 10)
I give this Award ironically to Scream Factory’s Day of the Dead reissue, because with this new transfer, it actually doesn’t look as good as the Anchor Bay Blu-ray I already have on my shelf. It’s a solid transfer, again with film look and grain, but the Anchor Bay release was totally clear and you could see a lot more grimy detail in the science lab and zombies, and the caves were easier to see.
Maybe that was all digitally spruced up and the new version is more authentic, but I don’t like it as much. (Available September 17)
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Shelf Space Weekly. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
