August new to Blu Ray

Escape From New York

This cult classic looks mighty good on Blu Ray. They definitely gave it the attention of a significant release, not just something they dump out into the market. It actually looks a little better than Escape From L.A., which looked just great for a mid-90s movie with bad CGI.

You’ll probably notice the differences between this Fox release and the other Paramount release. Also it’s more than a decade and a half older. It’s a totally clear. Some scenes are smoothed over for a film look. Scenes in the New York streets and back alleys have some grit. Either way it looks better than it ever did in theaters and totally holds up on big screen plasma TVs.

Kick-Ass

Kick-Ass is presented with a super saturated color scheme which makes the whole movie look like a live-action comic book. That’s awesome and the colors are bright and vibrant, from Kick-Ass’s wetsuit to Hit Girl’s hair. You see the detail of those gritty urban environments or cartoonish evil lairs while the film represents the world of graphics.

The only problem is some shots can’t hold up. I didn’t notice any whole scenes that grained or speckled up, but rather individual shots within sequences. The donut shop fight, the warehouse explosion and Red Mist/Kick-Ass’s night on the town had a few sketchy shots.

So I guess it’s your taste. It comes with the DVD if you just want to play it safe and have a consistent viewing experience. The DVD is actually strong enough to convey most of the grit, texture and color, but watch the Blu Ray for some HD goodness and do a scholarly study of which shots are problematic for filmmakers.

Stargate SGU Season 1.5

The second half of the first season continues the look offered by the first Blu Ray release. There are some crisp, clear gritty scenes on that dank, dark space ship. There are some hazy, speckled scenes since it’s a TV show.

When it’s “on,” you’ll see the texture in the crew’s faces, their uniforms, crusty hallways and weapons. When it hazes up, just wait it out. The times they occasionally do go to a planet bring some welcome color and brightness. There the lighting adds a glow to balance out the harsh grit on the ship.


Heroes

I’m throwing the show a bone by reviewing the last season. I wasn’t even watching these on the air anymore, but the Blu Rays always looked good. The clarity brings the intense close-ups into crisp detail, with grizzled texture or smooth glamour as the case may be.

As with many TV shows, dark scenes get speckly, but Heroes holds together better than most. The fairgrounds of season four provides a lavish outdoor setting full of natural detail in the earth and constructed sets. The visual effects hold up well.

Tim Kring does an intro to the final episode from the perspective of its cancellation. It feels like a heartfelt thank you to the fans, a little defensive, fumbling for an explanation for the show’s decline. Oh well, nice enough but won’t satisfy anyone really wondering what happened. He’s in HD too though so it’s Executive Producer in Blu Ray!

Repo Men

Repo Men has a perfect picture of future wreckage and sparkling shots of future city lights. You see all the detail in Jude Law’s abs and stubble, even the forearm hair on his rippling arms. The gory details in operating scenes show realistic skin texture on the prosthetics. If it were a bigger movie, it might be impressive.

“Gritty” shots (in quotes because it’s constructed that way) start getting fuzzy and speckling. A few of the close-ups are fuzzy too. Was there too much detail for a Blu Ray to hold? You see some grain in corners of shots not cluttered with sci-fi detail. So they have a modern new release to play with, but it wasn’t a big enough hit to really tone up the transfer.