New to Blu Ray is our monthly look at the latest Blu Ray releases. This month we look at some new action, comedy, horror and cable TV releases.

Crank: High Voltage

The Crank sequel looks phenomenal on Blu Ray. There is so much detail, every time the crazy cinematography pushes up close, you see the texture of skin. And it happens a lot, so rippling ass cheeks, sweaty brows, stubbly chins and sexy lady skin straining in passion are right in your face. 

The look holds up in all of Neveldine and Taylor’s crazy shots. There are so many different looks throughout the film, Blu Ray represents them all stunningly. Whether starkly realistic or outrageously surreal, Crank: High Voltage is certainly cranked up in HD.

Ultimate Force of Four set

The box set of Miramax release of Asian martial arts films is an interesting variety of films of different quality. You have two from the pre-DVD age where they just let film go to crap, and two that were filmed with American distribution in mind, if not contracted from the get go, including an Oscar hopeful.

Hero is perfectly clear. Well, it’s film clear. They’ve smoothed out the grain though some of the epic shots you can see where the pieces came together to make clear images. Or maybe it is super clear and it’s just the extreme colors that suggest it’s a fictional reality. Those primary colors shine brightly and you do see all the detail in the ancient Chinese palaces and fields, and the flowing fabric they wear. I did notice some fuzz when CGI arrows fly by but that’s probably the effect itself. I definitely did not see the ghosts of wires like I did with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. 

Now Iron Monkey is a wirework classic that Miramax bought after the fact, after Crouching Tiger became all the rage. They did a good job restoring the film from the days when Hong Kong filmmakers just dumped ‘em and they managed to bump it up to a nice Blu Ray. You’ll still see a lot of grain and fuzz, particularly in open backgrounds, with all the dirty and scratches they couldn’t fix, but you’ll see all the detail in close-ups. And real detail, like peach fuzz on the skin, divots in the wood and bumps in the statues. The lighting effects hold up with golden sun, or moonlight with fiery highlights. I mean, this is really the most you can ask for for Iron Monkey. 

From the same era, The Legend of Drunken Master (Drunken Master II to those in the know) holds up about the same, maybe a little softer. They probably just cranked out the dubbed adaptation for a quick entertainment buck, rather than trying to cash in on the acclaim factor. There’s less detail, even in the gritty factory setting, but the film is smooth, so it looks like a well preserved upgrade of the DVD edition, with its scratches and all. Hey, we used to watch these on bootleg VHS where you couldn’t read the subtitles. 

Zatoichi is back to the modern era where you think maybe they already kept high class exhibition in mind, or even awards hope. It’s actually the worst of the lot, with many shots totally grainy and fuzzy to the point it looks like an upconverted DVD at best. There are some shots where details become clear, and some colors that pop, of course not like Zhang Yimou colors but like normal Blu Ray colors. Generally though it looks like decrepit old film in the digital age, which it shouldn’t coming out in the last few years.