New to Blu-Ray: August 2009

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. 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 25^th Anniversary

Poor old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1. That’s the 25 years part of the 25^th Anniversary. In restoring the film for Blu Ray, it seems they couldn’t help but particle-ize all the grain in the film. However, forgiving that, they found all the detail in the gritty city streets and hand crafted turtle suits, and all the colors of the headbands, city neon and ooze.

TMNT II: The Secret of the Ooze was only one year later but the footage holds up a little better. You may see grain that looks like film, but it’s not the ultra heightened particles of the first film. It softens a little bit of the detail so there’s a trade-off, but it’s a solid film transfer, if not a transcendent restoration.

I’m not watching Turtles III: Turtles in time. That’s not a real Turtles movie. I’m down with Vanilla Ice, but come on.

TMNT, the CGI version, looks like a CGI film. It’s smooth and solid. You see every detail that was created in the computer, especially the turtle skin and shells. No grain because there was never any film. Colors are pure, even in dark light. It’s not Pixar, but it holds up against Dreamworks.

Green Lantern: First Flight

Warner Premiere’s DC comic movies have been surprisingly good, and with Blu Ray to exemplify their animation, they really shine. The solid shapes bring focus to the specific colors, bright greens of course in this case, and some golden yellows in the villains’ lair.

The blue sky within our atmosphere and the deep darkness of space also look great. That green light really permeates the dark scenes, and you’ll notice the shading in the edges of the green as the light reaches its limit.

Speaking of shading, backgrounds are gorgeous and you see every nuance of the simple distinctions drawn into the 2D art. Some of the backgrounds and characters are shiny, with that hint of computer enhancement, but it all creates a full bodied world of the DC comic.  

Children of the Corn

Anchor Bay continues to make retro horror movies look way better than should be humanly possible. The ‘80s Stephen King camp doesn’t look quite as awesome as Evil Dead II or Dawn of the Dead, but honestly the movie isn’t that important either. It still looks way better than a cheesy ‘80s horror movie should.

The film is mostly totally clear. There are a few shots of the cornfields that look aged or grainy, but the fact that most of the movie looks like clear Blu Ray is amazing for this material. I mean, how protective do you think the New World Pictures vaults were?

It’s a very bright film with lots of daylight, so you see bright colors and some detail in clothing, the banged up car and the dirt paths in the fields. It’s not ridiculous detail but again, more than you’d ever expect to see in a movie that previously only existed on VHS.

Last House on the Left

The Wes Craven remake looks mostly great. The idyllic settings look gorgeous to set up the horror to come. Bright colors shine with a golden light, so even dirty lake water looks nice. You’ll see detail in chipping paint, scratched signage, the usual mundane things. Even the forest, where the worst part happens, is cool, blue and serene.

The gory details are of course the highlight. You can see the skin flaps on the knife wounds, blood cakes and shines at various stages of brutality and gunshots really show the flesh exploding. And of course the final money shot. Good stuff.

Nighttime scenes can get grainy, and not in the authentic filmy way, more like the strained digital way. Especially in the house it gets tough on the light. Oh well.