Here is a list of Blu-Rays coming your way in November.

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James Bond Blu Rays

Every time they remaster Bond it looks better and better. The original DVD amazingly made the old Sean Connery movies look like well preserved Technicolor, and the latest wave brought the Roger Moore up to the same level as the recently shot Pierce Brosnan ones. Still, there was a higher standard to achieve and the Blu Rays have done it.

Dr. No just looks unreal. I mean, they must have time traveled back to 1962 and reshot the entire film with modern HD cameras. Not only does it look like a brand new movie with its clarity, but the colors of the tropical setting shine with supernatural brilliance. I’ve been to Tahiti and the Caribbean. It’s beautiful, but this is unreal.

The rest of the titles still look the best they ever have, though none quite as dramatic as Dr. No. The rest of the Conneries look crisp and colorful. Some of the quaint special effects hold up well. Either they remastered matte shots or just got rid of any defects that made them more noticeable.

With Roger Moore, from Live and Let Die to For Your Eyes Only seems to be the big leap from restoring old film to maximizing modern film. Live and Let Die holds up with the remastered Conneries and by 1981, For Your Eyes Only can look current. That means that instead of settling for a clear picture of Roger Moore hanging from a mountain or skiing down the slopes, it looks like you’re in front of Roger Moore hanging from a mountain or skiing down the slopes.

This is a fantastic job. They didn’t just pump out the catalog hits. Hopefully each collection will have a surprise like Dr. No (please do it for Spy Who Loved Me and Living Daylights!) but even the basic Bond remaster is an ideal presentation.

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The Incredible Hulk

After they did such a great job with the Ang Lee Hulk, which they’re trying to forget about, I imagined the new Incredible Hulk would look at least just as good. It does, but in a slightly different aesthetic, opting for more grit than the polish of Lee’s version.

The bottling factory Hulk-out is a great exercise in dark lighting and colors. You can see all the details of the environment despite shady lighting, and every brightly colored shirt or filled bottle pops out of the darkness. The glimpses we see of Hulk in this scene hint at a deeply detailed monster.

In the brightly lit college campus scene, you see all the shades and ripples they put in this Hulk, not to mention the black smudges and battle scars. Out in the open, you can also see the usual Blu Ray quality in the open fields. In the science lab Hulk out, it’s up so close you can see pores and stubble.

The New York finale is a showcase of Hulk and Abomination’s detail and all the debris they can create. Bursts of flame color the frame orange and shine red highlights on the monsters’ abs. A few shots might make the monsters a little too shiny, so it no longer looks like they pointed a camera at actual monsters fighting, but for the most part it looks like you’re watching these creatures from an open window.

Even the alternate opening looks awesome. The alternate opening in the arctic has crisp white lining the roads and coating the green foliage. You can see every pattern of tracks under the truck that takes Bruce Banner up the mountains. The other deleted scenes are not HD.

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Hancock

Even though Hancock was shot in a handheld style to mimic the reality-based action movies of present day, the Blu Ray heightens all the visuals so that it is distinctly fantasyland. Of course being a Sony movie shot for Sony’s hi-def format, it is absolutely stunning.

There is a little bit of grit to some of the images but that is intentional. He’s a gritty superhero. The wide shots of the city are packed with detail, so when they get into close-up, you really see every haggard nuance of Will Smith’s performance. The colors vary from scene to scene so the Blu Ray displays a wide range of epic vistas.

Visual effects shots shine off the gritty backdrop. They still appear seamless within the screen, it’s just such a pop when he throws a car or bashes a wall that the detailed visual effect immediately grabs your attention.

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Hellboy II

We already knew from Pan’s Labyrinth that Guillermo Del Toro’s visions look fantastic on Blu Ray. Hellboy II: The Golden Army just has exponentially more visuals with which to pack the HD screen. The clarity surpasses even film with otherworldly colors.

The prosthetic suits the lead characters wear reflect loving detail, with Abe Sapien’s shiny blue streaks and every divot of Big Red’s puffy skinsuit. Don’t worry, it passes for battle scars, and seems to have every pore that human skin would. New creatures like Nuada and Nuala combine natural flowing hair follicles with beautifully carved makeup. Johann Krauss looks like chipped old metal. The elemental looks still growing foliage

Of course backgrounds have a lot to offer too. The BPRD is a sleek metallic room. The gods’ underworld is golden like the grand palace of Pan’s, with golden flakes floating through. The market is just full of Henson-esque craftsmanship all around, like packed in the frame so you could freeze frame each shot and marvel at each corner of the background.

Rest assured, everything you thought looked great in theaters looks even better on Blu Ray. Scenic cliffs are lovely and ancient chambers are glowingly ornate. Perhaps technology is catching up to Del Toro’s imagination.

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Universal Soldier

Universal Soldier on Blu Ray looks like I remember it looking when I saw it in movie theaters in 1992. It’s perfectly clear with the sort of glossy sheen of leftover from ‘80s action movies. There’s no added detail but it’s a good preservation of the film.

The rippling musclemen look smooth. Seeing Van Damme’s old babyface is surreal at this point. When they sweat it does have a sharp shine. Rain beads up on them nicely in the opening and climactic battles.

Day scenes are bright in the desert sun and night scenes are dark with minimal moonlight glow. There’s not much color in the desert. Everyone’s military fatigues just blend in like they’re supposed to.

Action sequences create enough debris to pinpoint some of the destructive detail like glass spraying or drywall shattering. The second rain fight actually looks better than the first. Maybe there’s just more detail to catch on the farm than in the jungles of ‘Nam.

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Zombie Strippers

Despite its low budget, Zombie Strippers has studio quality clarity on Blu Ray. Perhaps it was shot with its ultimate home exhibition in mind. The underground strip club has plenty of bright colors, with neon green and pink lines of light, golden stage lighting, the smooth satin outfits and deep red slut costumes. They’re all set against black so the colors pop more than usual.

A few scenes get digital noise. That seems to be when they don’t quite have enough lighting or color, like Robert Englund’s office/study or the plain, drab military corridors, or when it’s flatly lit like the dressing room. So the dark, colorful scenes represent the best.

There’s plenty of gory detail too. You can see the pattern in Englund’s snakeskin jacket, and the shades of all the crusty blood spattered all over Jenna Jameson. The more the strippers decompose, you can kind of see the latex makeup wrinkle. That’s a cool detail and it just goes with the whole effect of dead skin flaking off and shriveling up.

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The 40-Year-Old Virgin

I know, what great visuals are in this light, breezy comedy? Well, it was the first DVD I ever saw in HD via an upconverting player, and I was impressed. I wouldn’t say the Blu Ray is better, but it’s authentic to the best way this movie will look.

Because the focus is on dialogue and the settings are just real world, you might not notice all the detail your witnessing. It’s the difference where in standard definition, you’ll just see a solid wall, but on Blu Ray you could actually notice chips, scratches and paint bubbles in the background, if you’re looking there. You find highlights within the mundane, like the rubbed patterns in home theater couches or the plaid shirts.

There are a lot of pastels and they are mighty bright. The pool in his apartment complex glows in the moonlight. The electronics store is very grey and seeing their plasma screens within your own HDTV is a weird copy of a copy effect.

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Knocked Up

Like The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up is not a visual movie, though it seems a slight step up in Judd Apatow’s visual ouvre. Katherine Heigl and Leslie Mann just glow. Judd loves his ladies. By contrast, the guys are visible in ugly clarity. Even the settings, the lush suburbs versus their dirty hovel provide an HD contrast.

The only truly visual setting is Las Vegas, but Blu Ray connoisseurs will see the furniture and costumes and try to convince their wives it was worth buying a new TV and Blu Ray player to see it. Actually, Cirque de Soleil looks pretty awesome with their colors and movements.

And of course you should freeze frame the crowning shot if you really want to see all the authentic detail they put into that prosthetic. What, too much?

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Futurama: Bender’s Game

Ah, Futurama on Blu Ray. The third DVD film is the first Futurama to go hi-def and it looks pretty great. As 2D animation, it’s mostly solid colors so those colors are extra bright and vibrant. It’s not like the pallet of a Sleeping Beauty that has lots of shading and details. So the lines are crisp and the colors burst out. I’ll let Jeremy review the film itself since he loves the Futurama. I just had to check out the Blu Ray.

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Planet of the Apes

The original Planet of the Apes on Blu Ray looks like the latest DVD restoration did on a normal TV. That is to say it’s a fine restoration of the decades old film with perfect clarity that holds up even on big screen TVs. There isn’t much color to speak of, an there’s a tiny bit of film grain, but come on, it is film. At 40 years old, it manages to look like the deserts of last year’s 3:10 to Yuma, so that’s not bad.

The open desert, the Apes camp and the cages are all fairly brown settings. There is plenty of detail in the rocks and the ocean, though you don’t see much in the interiors. Perhaps back then they just didn’t fill sets with subtleties since the idea that they’d ever be noticed would have blown their minds. Or maybe it’s just that the film was shot with a shallow depth of field, so the backgrounds are usually in soft focus.

To be clear, I’m talking about the supernatural detail you often notice on Blu Ray. All the regular detail in the backlot sets and the ape costumes is preserved. It’s just the Apes you remember, not any new revelations. I only had a chance to see the first film, so perhaps the varied settings of the sequels exhibit different aesthetics.