Gone With The Wind was made in 1939 and is a classic love story set against the backdrop of the American civil war, when you adjust for inflation it is the biggest box office hit of all time.

Gary Cooper was originally wanted for the part of Rhett Butler but turned it down believing the film would be a massive flop.

Victor Fleming replaced George Cukor as the director of The Wizard Of Oz and Gone With The Wind, both films were of course made in 1939.

Despite being replaced as director of Gone With The Wind, Cukor continued to coach both Vivien Leigh and Olivia De Havilland at weekends, Leigh in particular was very upset when Cukor was replaced as director and she did not get along with Fleming.

The script was toned down from the novel.

The Ku Klux Klan appeared in the novel but was written out of the script. In the novel Scarlett's second husband Frank Kennedy turns to the Klan after she is attacked in the shantytown, indeed in the novel Ashley Wilkes is also a Klan member. Scarlett finds the Klan abominable although she also thinks thoughts in the novel which could be construed as racist, these thoughts were not in the film version. She also defends black people in the novel though and thus i believe this shows she is an open minded character and not racist. Certainly opinion has been divided on this film.

David O. Selznick did not want to include the Klan in the film version and made sure they were written out, indeed his exact words were "I do hope you will agree with me on this omission of what might come out as an unintentional advertisement for intolerant societies in these fascist-ridden times" he aso had to contend with pressure from the black press who hated the novel.

it is believed Margaret Mitchell's original novel was based on her own life experiences and of people she actually knew, indeed Mitchell's grandmother Annie Fitzgerald Stephens was born in 1845 and an Irish immigrant who owned a plantation on Tara road in Clayton County, South Of Atlanta, clearly the novel was no work of fiction and is based on people she knew.

Martha Bulloch Roosevelt who was the mother of President Theodore Roosevelt is believed to be the inspiration for the character of Scarlett O. Hara.

Many actresses were screen tested for the part of Scarlett O' Hara but it came down to a clear fight between Joan Bennett, Jean Arthur, Paulette Goddard and Vivien Leigh, Leigh was told she won the part on Christmas day and the rest is history.

Clark Gable was not keen on the part of Rhett Butler and it took a $50,000 dollar down payment to entice him, he used this money to divorce his wife Maria Franklin Gable and marry actress Carole Lombard, Lombard died in an airplane accident three years later.

In the novel Scarlett has one child by each of her husbands but in the movie she only has a child by Rhett and this was changed for the film due to moral standards of the time.

The film won 8 Oscars including Best Actress for Vivien Leigh and Best Actress in a supporting role for Hattie McDaniel, other Oscars were Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Director for Victor Fleming.

Film Plot

Scarlett O' Hara is a spoiled daughter of an Irish immigrant planatation owner, she is in love with Ashley Wilkes but Ashley is marrying his cousin Melanie Hamilton, this upsets Scarlett who marries Melanie's brother Charles but civil war breaks out in America and North and South are pitted against one another, in the war Charles dies of disease at Gettysburg and Scarlett feels nothing at all, having never loved him, she only married him in haste due to her jealousy.

Scarlett moves to Atlanta and lives with her sister in law Melanie and attends a party where she dances with Rhett Butler, a visitor from Charleston, Rhett is a womaniser but is also in love with Scarlett who cannot see past Ashley and what she feels is love for him.

An epic love story that spans 12 years in the life of Scarlett O' Hara, from the American Civil War to the forging of a new union and the rebuilding of Tara and the bonds in life that can never be broken, the end of the story is only the beginning, after all, tomorrow is another day.

Positives

Gone With The Wind has many things going for it, the actors were all carefully hand picked and are superb in portraying their characters, in particular i felt Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Olivia De Havilland and Hattie McDaniel were excellent, McDaniel was the first African-American actress to win an Oscar and she plays Mammy the house servant with great authority and holds her own among a great cast.

The acting by Olivia De Havilland who plays Melanie was for me the best in the film and it's a shame she didn't also win an Oscar but she was up against co-star Hattie McDaniel for the award and only one could win, i felt her acting was more subtle than Vivien Leigh who at times perhaps overplayed her role although Leigh was playing the part as asked of her so if she overplayed then it's because she was directed to do so. Olivia would go on to win two Oscars for To Each His Own in 1947 and The Heiress in 1950.

Although the film is almost four hours long the time just passed by quickly, this may be because i am a film buff and enjoy classic cinema but i also enjoy good cinematography and fab music scores and this has a lot of really good cinematography, the music score by Max Steiner is very recognizable and i'm sure most people have heard the main theme music at least once in their life.

I'm a sucker for love stories set against big events in history, i enjoyed Titanic and Pearl Harbor and i really enjoyed Gone With The Wind and it's backdrop of the American Civil War, this is classic cinema and i think that anyone who enjoys film should watch this at least once.

Negatives

At times you may find Vivien Leigh's portrayal of Scarlett to be slightly over the top, taken in context of the year the film was made i can say it was never a problem for me but some may disagree and find her annoying, some of you may also object to the fact there are black slaves in the film but to object to this would be to deny history, the film is portraying a time in history when slavery existed and you cannot just wipe that out, it's understandable though that these may be negatives for some people though so i must mention them.

I felt they could have shown more of Rhett Butler's actions during the Civil War as these events could have been used to add a touch of action into the story, perhaps even add some battle scenes from the war into the story and show Tara being overrun by Yankee soldiers.

Image Quality

Presented in it's original aspect ratio of 1.37:1 Gone With The Wind uses around 43GB of the disc and all the extra content is put on a second disc, this is something i would like to see happen more often as i would rather the main disc is used just for the film.

The image looked faithful to the source elements, it looks like film to me and i was happy with the presentation as seen on my projection screen, if i am to be critical then i must mention two instances of compression artifacts, one was on a fade out and the other came late in the film when Rhett and Scarlett leave a room, this is very minor nitpicking though and those moments are isolated and don't detract from what i feel is an excellent job by Warner in restoring a classic piece of cinema for the home video market.

There is a light grain structure to the film which is faithful to the original look the movie had in 1939.

Many people mistakenly believe that because it's an older film it should have more grain in the image, they are wrong as Technicolor prints from this era had very light grain and it was really only later on during the sixties and especially the seventies when considerably inferior film stock and cheaper film processing methods began to get used that much grainier footage was seen in films, this film looks excellent on the blu ray format and is faithful to the way it was shot.

The cinematography has intentional softness in it, it's not like some modern films where everything must be super sharp and have the "looking out of a window approach," i actually prefer this old style cinematography as it's moody and atmospheric and beautiful to look at.

Sound Quality

The sound quality on Gone With The Wind is good, speech was clear and easy to understand and the music score sounds fabulous, the pops and crackles and hiss that old age brings on these films is gone, i watched the film with the 5.1 remix after watching the restoration extra and they have been faithful to the original and merely opened the soundstage a little, thus you will not get lots of rear split surround effects or subwoofer action, instead you get a very good representation of the original mix spread across the three front channels with the surrounds occasionally being used for ambience during sequences such as the burning of Atlanta.

For purists there is the original mono 1.0 track included on the disc, this will play the sound through your centre channel only, it's worth giving the 5.1 track a go though as it is faithful to the original sound elements and does not add anything new to the mix.

Final Thoughts

Gone With The Wind is very much centred around the character of Scarlett O' Hara, all the other characters are incidental and only there because they form part of her life and that includes Rhett Butler, this is a story of one woman and her change from a selfish ignorant young woman to a slightly less selfish more worldly woman who by the end of the film knows who she truly loves.

In 1939 widescreen 70mm was not widely in use, early widescreen 70mm processes included Fox Grandeur and Magnafilm, the cost of these systems were expensive though and not many films used these formats, i mention this because it's a shame the development of widescreen 70mm didn't really happen until the 1950's as a movie like Gone With The Wind would have been perfect for such a film format. At one point they even toyed with the idea of shooting the burning of Atlanta sequence in widescreen but decided against due to cost issues.

Chris Cookson who is chief technology officer at Warner Bros originally viewed a digital projection of Gone With The Wind, when he paused the film and went up to the screen, he saw there was a 5 pixel error on the red, he realised that if they could get the red, green and blue channels to align perfectly they could come up with a level of detail never before seen and thus a new process called edge detection was born. Edge detection is software written using computers which takes each individual frame of the film and starts at the centre of the frame working it's way to the outer edges of the frame and gets everything in perfect alignment for a clearer sharper image. Originally they scanned Gone With The Wind at 4K but rescanned at 8K using their ultra resolution process to perfectly capture all the available detail on the prints.

Warner took the 3 Technicolor original negatives of red, green and blue and scanned them on a 8K digital scanner and the software joined up each frame for perfect alignment and thats why this film now looks so breathtakingly good on blu ray.

Forget what some people say about Gone With The Wind being a racist movie, it is not, they took great care in writing the script to remove elements featured in the book which may have been perceived as racist in the film and Hattie McDaniel is a strong character and deserved her Oscar, there is no getting away from the fact that slavery existed in the USA and plantation owners had slaves but they handle this delicately in the film without making the African-American characters into caricatures, i will repeat once again that this film is not at all racist.

Warner deserve a lot of praise for this release and the edge detection software they use to align the images for sharper detail is being used to great effect on their classic catalog titles, i look forward to Ben Hur and Singin' In The Rain, both of which will use this technology.

Click to view Gone With The Wind Movie Screencaps.

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The script for Drag Me To Hell was written many years ago after Raimi had finished work on the third Evil Dead film, Army Of Darkness.

The film took so long to get made because other film projects came up and then the Spiderman franchise which meant this film was put on the back burner.

Drag Me To Hell starts with the old 1980's Universal logo which is deliberate and is there because that's when Sam Raimi started his film career with The Evil Dead.

If you watch the closing titles you will see at the end you get a take the Universal tour, this was used on a number of Universal cinema releases during the eighties.

Christine's boyfriend in the movie, Clay Dalton, mentions taking a trip to his parent's cabin in the woods, for movie buffs this is a reference to the cabin in the first two Evil Dead films.

Evil Dead IV is in development. ( Yay )

A Yellow Delta 88 Oldsmobile is also the same car used in the Evil Dead movies.

In Christine's house is the picture of a boat that resembles Anchor Bay's logo, of course they released many editions of the Evil Dead movies over the years on VHS and DVD.

The licence plate for Mrs Ganush's car is 99951, turn it upside down and you get IS666.

Film Plot

Christine Brown is a loans assistant at a bank and is after a promotion, she thinks that if she is tough and refuses Sylvia Ganush ( A Gypsy woman ) an extension on her mortage then her boss will be more likely to promote her, this results in the old lady losing her home, Mrs Ganush confronts Christine and takes a button off her coat and curses it before returning it to her.

Christine has nightmares and feels something is wrong, she visits a fortune teller who informs her she is cursed and a demon known as the Lamia will come for her in three days, she must find a way to lift the curse and escape the demon's clutches before she is literally dragged to hell.

Positives

Sam Raimi has always had a great eye for visuals and this film has some impressive moments, i particularly enjoyed the goat scene, it's clear that Raimi loves the horror genre. It's also clear his Evil Dead films influenced several scenes in Drag Me To Hell, there are a couple of scenes which i felt were inspired by Evil Dead 2, the séance scene where we see a demon possessing someone and doing a little jig while hanging in the air and a scene earlier in the film where Mrs Ganush has an anvil dropped on her head and her eyeballs fly out of their sockets, both those scenes are fun but you can't ignore the influence of Raimi's earlier horror films.

The acting was good in this film, Alison Lohman managed to bring a range of emotions to a character who is not totally innocent, after all she did refuse an extension on a mortgage which meant someone lost their home.

In a way there is a message about our banking system and the way it is ruthless and only interested in making as much profit as it can from us all, It's certainly not easy to find sympathy for a character like Christine Brown but Lohman managed to pull it off.

The supporting actors are well cast.

Justin Long plays the boyfriend, Clay Dalton, Lorna Raver as Mrs Ganush and Dileep Rao as the fortune teller Rham Jas were all convincing and played their respective parts well.

The effects work was also good, the film used CGI but did not over rely on it and instead used puppeteers, makeup and camera tricks for many of it's scenes, i found it refreshing that CGI was kept to a minimum. I felt the film worked better by avoiding the overuse of CGI.

The music score was excellent and drove the film along, an appropriate and good music score helps a film immensely while a bad score can take you right out of a movie.

Negatives

The disc itself starts with far too many forced trailers and advertising for the blu ray format, they really need to put that stuff as an extra which we can choose to look at or not, why advertise blu ray on a blu ray movie disc when obviously we have the disc and are watching it which means we have a blu ray player thus advertising the format is pointless since we already have it.

For films like this which have a good musical score there should be an option for an isolated music only track, i feel blu ray disc producers do not use this option nearly enough.

Image Quality

I thought the image quality was impressive, film grain was intact and there is fine detail in abundance, shadow detail is important in a movie like this and its captured perfectly on this disc.

They have resisted the temptation to contrast boost and add any artificial enhancements, colours all look fabulous so that when the blood flows it looks suitably gory, skin tones looked natural too but there are some compression artifacts.

A handful of darker lit scenes have artifacts in the background of the image, on a smaller screen these artifacts may not be so noticeable.

The only issue which bothered me was the minor compression artifacts noted above, i feel if only they had been a little more careful in those scenes then this would have been reference quality.

Sound Quality

I enjoyed the sound mix on this disc, the film uses all the speakers to excellent effect with great rear split surround effects, clear speech and beautiful tight deep bass.

i also thought the music score was wonderful and sounded very dynamic and alive.

The end titles feature Lalo Schifrin's unused score for The Exorcist, its called The Exorcist Symphony and that was a real bonus to hear, thats a fabulous piece of music.

Final Thoughts

This is a welcome return from Sam Raimi to the horror genre, it's not as explicitly gory as the Evil Dead series and its also a lot more polished than those films but you have to remember those films were made on small budgets and this one had a $30m dollar budget.

I am a horror fan and have become fussier over the years about what i like and i must admit the PG-13 certificate that this film originally received in North America put me off for quite some time in watching this, the version i watched is called the unseen edition and is actually a little bit shorter than the theatrical edition, it contains a little bit more blood during the bank scene, we now see blood gushing from Christine's mouth which she covers only for it to gush out from her nose, a couple of other scenes have small additions and one scene is now in blood red.

There is a great horror movie called Night Of The Demon, it's a British horror movie and it was made in 1957 and i never tire of watching it, i believe Sam Raimi was influenced by that film when he wrote the script for Drag Me To Hell. I would be surprised if that was not the case.

I think this is the sort of film which studio's look upon as being worthy of sequels, it did reasonable worldwide box office business, i just hope if they do a sequel they maintain a high standard and don't go cheap on the production. This film entertained me a lot.

You might also like our blu ray review of My Bloody Valentine 3D here.

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Avatar has taken over $2.7 billion dollars at the worldwide box office, its officially the biggest film of all time and is said to have cost upwards of $280 million dollars to make not including advertising costs.

Avatar used motion capture for its CGI effects and the results are great.

Cameron originally wanted to make Avatar in the late nineties but the effects work required meant the budget would have been so high that no studio wished to touch the project.

James Cameron took the main actors to Hawaii to prepare for the film and he had them walking through the Hawaiian forests, building camp sites and living off the land in order to help them get into character and understand how it would be living on the world of Pandora.

Sigourney Weaver has said in interviews she played her character as if she was the director James Cameron and its certainly something you can see in her performance. The Na'vi language was created by linguist Paul R. Frommer who came up with almost a thousand words.

Unobtainium is used in the aerospace industry to mean material that is good for an application but does not yet exist, violates the laws of physics or is simply too expensive.

Avatar was filmed using Sony HD cameras and the Pace Fusion 3D camera system, the cinema edition had a 1.78:1 aspect ratio in 3D but was also composed for 2.35:1 when shown flat, the Blu Ray 2D edition of Avatar is shown in a full frame 1.78:1 aspect ratio. James Cameron has said his preferred format for this film is 1.78:1 aka 16/9 and that the movie works best at this ratio.

Film Plot

On the far off world of Pandora lies a precious metal called Unobtainium, humankind has come to Pandora to mine the planets precious metal and the company is being helped by the military but the local alien inhabitants, the Na'vi, find their culture and homes under threat of extinction.

Enter Jake Scully, a marine who has lost his legs, he is offered surgery that will give him the ability to walk again but only if he goes undercover and becomes a Na'vi and gets them to move out of the area where the precious metal exists, Jake falls in love with one of the Na'vi whose name is Neytiri which leads to a conflict of interest, will Jake follow marine orders and allow an entire race and their culture to die or will he fight for what he believes in.

Positives

James Cameron has always been the type of director who puts every single dollar on the screen, he utilizes technology to tell a story and in Avatar he has pulled out all the stops, this is the very first film where i actually watched CGI and live action seamlessly blend for the entire running time and it did not take me out of the movie, i liked the central rainforest theme.

The Na'vi were brilliantly designed, you felt for these people and their way of life and i was engrossed in the movie from start to finish.

The fluid movement of the Na'vi and the creatures that inhabit their forest is in my opinion a step up for what CGI is capable of, the CGi creations drew me into the film rather than out of it.

Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana did a fabulous job on this movie, their Na'vi characters have real chemistry and thats thanks to the motion capture work they did as well as their voice work with the characters. It was also good to see Sigourney Weaver back and on top form.

The action sequences are skillfully composed and exciting, i also enjoyed the blossoming romance between Jake and Neytiri. The flying dragon type creatures were great too.

Negatives

They could have prepared extras for this release, many extras on films are usually worked on at the same time as the film production and would have been available for this release, they have instead chosen to delay the release of extra content so they can milk the movie and release more editions later this year.

I feel they should be promoting the new 3D format and should have released a 3D edition now rather than later, this 3D format requires a new television or projector and unless you have a Playstation 3 it also requires a new blu ray player, i would argue releasing a film like Avatar in 3D would help promote the 3D format and sell the equipment, waiting till later does not help sell the new format. The studio would argue not enough people have the new 3D equipment ( blah )

Image Quality

The picture was superb, very detailed image quality, close ups, medium and long distance shots all had tremendous detail and the colours in this movie just look amazing, its almost like watching a painting that has come alive.

If your brightness control is set far too high you may spot some minor issues with a few scene transitions when it fades to black and the opening starfield may show what looks like compression artifacts, note these issues are only if your display has the brightness levels very wrong, i consider this a superb transfer. No edge enhancement is visible and it just looks great.

They have used almost the entire disc for this transfer, i wish more releases would use the full disc and put the extra content on the second disc.

Sound Quality

The sound mix is reference quality, fantastic sound design and the best i have heard for a long time, speech is crystal clear, rear speakers have lots of discrete split surround effects and the subwoofer goes very deep during many scenes in the film,

I expected a very dynamic sound mix and thats exactly what i got, i also enjoyed the music score for this movie, music and sound effects were mixed together very well and i liked the end title song sung by Leona Lewis which felt appropriate for the film.

Final Thoughts

I have often watched these so called blockbuster films and come away disappointed as my expectations were not met, this film delivered entertainment and had a message which was never forced down your throat, i do feel saving the rainforests is vital to the planets survival, i feel many possible cures for diseases exist in our rainforests and i believe local tribes and animals must be saved from extinction, James Cameron obviously believes all this too as his films message is that we are destroying our habitats just to make some money.

The script for Avatar is not a masterpiece but it serves its purpose and the film entertains, too often huge sums of money get spent on films with no soul or heart but i feel this movie has a soul and its heart is in the right place, i am not convinced by global warming and climate change arguments but i believe we need to save our rainforests.

The success of this film is not just because it was filmed in 3D, it works well in 2D and i feel the sincerity of the message within the film and the quality of the direction plays a part in its success.

Although some have labelled this a Sci-Fi-Fantasy version of Dances With Wolves i personally feel it has a lot more going for it than that, you could also look at the other influences within the film, Aliens and Ferngully: The Last Rainforest are obvious influences, indeed the robot walking machines which operate with a human at the controls are straight out of Aliens and reminded me of Sigourney Weavers battle with the alien Queen at the end of that film.

I think it is going to be a tough task for James Cameron to direct a great sequel to this movie, i look forward to seeing it but its going to be interesting to see where they can take the story, he has already hinted we will see the underwater world of Pandora.

In the meantime expect an elaborate four disc extended edition of this movie with more footage not seen in this version around November 2010 and possibly a 3D edition at the same time.

You can view some Blu Ray screencaps of Avatar here.

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Real 3D uses polarized glasses so that the colors remain true and the image appears crisp and all the 3D effects appear amazing and over the next few years as cinemas invest in this technology you will see many more movies released in this format.

The version we have here on Blu Ray does not use polarized glasses but instead uses green/red lenses which come in the form of cheap cardboard glasses and four pairs of these are supplied with this limited edition Blu Ray.

This is an inferior 3D than what you would find at the cinema but do not let that put you off as it's still highly impressive although be warned that some people have had issues watching this in 3D but i would urge you to give it a chance and make sure you view in total darkness and turn your brightness up otherwise the effects will be lost.

The larger your television the more impressive you will find the effects and it's recommended you view this on the largest set you can afford.  Anything less than 60 inches is a compromise.

The bigger your television or projection screen the more impressive the effects become and the more realistic the 3D becomes. A new 3D standard for future Blu Ray players is now out and should become more widespread during late 2010 and early 2011 and this will give excellent 3D quality in the home. The bad news is you need to buy a new television/projector and Blu Ray player. Although if you have a Playstation 3 you are covered for the Blu Ray player.

Film Plot

The basic plotline is that a scientist goes on a quest to find out what happened to his missing brother, he takes along his nephew and a mountain guide lady and they discover a dangerous lost world in the center of the earth and this is the cue for some very impressive 3D effects.

Positives

From the start of the movie you are treated to fantastic 3D effects as bug tentactles come out of the screen at you. Other impressive 3D effects include a phone and a penknife floating in your room as if you could almost touch them and the sails of a raft seem to be blowing right at you.

Deadly prehistoric piranha fish fly out of the water right into your lap and a mine cart scene sees the heroine throw a metal object attached to a rope which literally flies out at you and you duck as it is so realistic.

You could say i was very impressed by all of this as it represents the finest 3D seen to date in the home. The end titles are the most impressive of all so don't switch the end titles off.

Picture quality is hard to judge because of the brightness/contrast issues but i found it reasonably detailed for a high definition release. Sound quality was enjoyable and dialogue was heard clearly through the center channel while there was some nice discrete rear channel surround effects and plenty of bass when it was called for.

Negatives

For me the positives outweigh the negatives but when it comes to primitive 3D as we have here then everyone's eyes and brains will perceive the image differently and so you may find the color/brightness issues distracting or be affected by some strobing issues or react strongly to the pressure of wearing the glasses which may give some people headaches.

There are some issues with ghosting in many scenes. You have the option of watching a 2D version of the movie if the negatives are too much for you to bear.

Warner should have supplied a lossless audio track and not just a 640kb/s Dolby track.

Final Thoughts

Some people will have major issues with the 3D glasses and it may hurt their eyes or give them a headache and thus i can only recommend that you give it a spin and if your eyes start to hurt then choose the 2D option on the disc.

If you want to have an adventure for a few hours and think you would enjoy the type of effects mentioned in this review then seek this disc out and purchase it before it becomes as extinct as the dinosaurs which features in this movie.

I highly recommend this Blu Ray edition but would add that this is not worth seeing unless you choose the 3D edition as this was specifically made for 3D and the viewing experience is considerably weaker when viewing in only 2D.

There is a Journey To The Center Of The Earth sequel being made to this film although details are not yet available. I would expect more of the same though albeit with a few different twists.

This is a region free release

VC-1 -  50GB disc
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround ( 640kbp/s )

Film Entertainment Rating ( 3D Edition ) – 8/10
Transfer Quality Rating – 6.5/10 ( 3D edition )
Sound Mix Rating – 8.5/10 ( 3D edition )
3D Effects Rating – 9/10

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Sam Worthington was wanted to play Duke but was making James Cameron's Avatar.

Dennis Quaid signed up as his son was a G.I. Joe fan.

Scottish actor and martial arts expert Ray Parks is dressed head to toe in black and unseen and unheard playing the role of Snake Eyes. Parks was Toad in X-Men and was Darth Maul in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.

There are cameo's in the movie from Brendan Fraser, Arnold Vosloo and Kevin J. O'Connor. All three actors appeared in The Mummy.

Film Plot

A  military unit known as G.I. Joe do battle with a Scottish arms dealer who is developing nano technology weapons and in the background is an evil organization known as Cobra.

Positives

The film blends CGI and live action seamlessly to create some very impressive visual effects which put you right in the middle of the action scenes. Dennis Quaid is impressive whenever he is onscreen and always commands respect and in my opinion is the best actor in this film.

The film starts promisingly enough and is fast paced enough to please most people. I felt Marlon Wayans and Rachel Nichols did a fine job in their roles and both have fantastic personalities.

Stephen Sommers is a better director than many give him credit for and he knows how to make this type of film and it shows in his handling of the onscreen action. I was probably one of the few people who actually enjoyed his last film Van Helsing.

I did like the cinematography in this film.

Negatives

It's unfortunate that i feel there are more negatives than positives for this particular film.

I felt the second half of this film just fell apart and the director admits his love of Thunderball inspired the underwater ending. The problem with Thunderball was that the underwater scenes just dragged on and on and they ended up almost sending me to sleep and this was exactly my feelings about those scenes in this film.

I felt the script and especially the dialogue during the second half of this movie was poor and could have been a lot better. Dennis Quaid was given some very poor dialogue and really didn't have enough to do other than just read bog standard lines.

The lead actor Channing Tatum was poor and wooden and had no personality in this movie. I am sure he is a fine actor when he gets the chance but in this movie i felt he brought nothing to the table. Sienna Miller really didn't do much for me either and seemed to think being able to pose was all that was required for this movie. English actor Christopher Eccleston playing a Scots villian was just average and was lightweight when the movie was crying out for a heavyweight.

The music score by Alan Silvestri was a generic uninspired offering and the composer has done far better work than this film.

Image Quality

I felt the image quality on this disc replicated the cinema experience and i feel that's all you can ask for and the movie is on my reference list which you can view by clicking here.

I saw no compression issues which stood out and nor did i see any issues with edge enhancement or other anomalies which would lower my score.

Intentional softness in some scenes which combine CGI and live action was apparent but not an issue and i feel many will consider this Blu Ray disc to be eye candy.

Black levels were very good with lots of visible detail in the night scenes. I felt close ups, medium camera and long distance camera shots all displayed very good detail levels.

In fact i don't think there is anything to complain about with this transfer.

Sound Quality

I felt sound quality was very good with good front speaker activity and the speech came across clear through the centre channel while there was also some nice split surround activity.

I did feel the bass channel was not as deep as i would have liked for this type of movie, It just didn't move the air and shake my couch the way some films do and i personally feel this type of movie should go deeper with it's bass content.

It's a good sound mix but in my opinion it's not a great sound mix. A little more split surround activity and deeper bass is what i would have liked and if it had that then i feel it would have been a reference quality mix.

Final Thoughts

I sometimes wonder if they have a computer churning out these scripts on a daily basis and then some scriptwriter comes along and touches the screenplay up, so many films seem to have high concept idea's but someone forgets that dialogue and likeable characters who you care for are needed to make a film stand out and last the test of time. This film is just so generic and forgettable and it feels like more thought went into the CGI effects than into the dialogue. 

The film may have worked better with a charismatic leading man although i doubt it since the dialogue would still have been poor.

One character during the underwater battle in the film says "I lost my wingman" and i thought to myself that the scriptwriter has seen Top Gun too many times.

The director believes all the weapons and technology that appear in the film are feasible within the next twenty years. I'm still waiting for the Star Trek transporters.

At the end of the day this film just leaves me feeling cold and i hope there is not a sequel.

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