Gone With The Wind looks superb on blu ray, the ultra resolution process used by Warner has produced outstanding detail levels which breathes new life into the original cinematography, it now looks like film and the compression job done by Warner in getting a near four hour film onto one disc is also superb.

I was impressed by this disc.

The story itself is very well known and centres around the life of Scarlett O' Hara and the plantation of Tara which she calls home, we see through her eyes the American Civil War and her love for Ashley Wilkes who marries another woman, get introduced to the dashing Rhett Butler who loves Scarlett so much but she is blinded by her love for Ashley.

This classic piece of American cinema has been lovingly restored to it's full Technicolor glory by Warner Bros, changes were made to the film version when adapting the book to eradicate what was seen as a glamourisation of the Ku Klux Klan.

David O. Selznick did not want his film tarnished with racism and removed all mention of the Klan.

I feel that they succeeded in removing the less savoury aspects of the novel and have made a fine film which even after 70 years still manages to entertain, it's got a great music score, a wonderful script and excellent cinematography and the actors are all perfect for their roles.

You can read a blu ray film review of Gone With The Wind here.

View blu ray screencaps below. Double click for the full HD frame.

Read a blu ray review of Drag Me To Hell here.

There is a little known British film from 1957 called Night Of The Demon, in that particular film a parchment is used by a devil worshipping cult leader who summons a demon that kills whoever is in possession of the parchment at an allotted time, the owner of the parchment must hand it to someone else before that time comes.

For those that do not know what a parchment is it is a thin material made from calfskin, sheepskin or goatskin and is often split, it is a material for writing on and is said to be the finest material ever devised for writing.

This a fab film with wonderful suspense and atmosphere, watch it late at night in the dark on your own and prepare to be scared.

Drag Me To Hell is not as effective as the above film but shares similarities with a demon in both films and the button in Drag Me To Hell is a stand in for the parchment from the earlier film, the seance sequence is a scene used in the earlier film albeit in a very different form and with a different outcome to what happens in this film.

Image quality as noted in my review is generally very good, just some minor compression artifacts in a few of the darker lit scenes but otherwise very good indeed.

Sound quality is also impressive, active rear split surround sound, clear speech and deep bass, all impressive and i especially liked the music score for this film.

You can check out some Drag Me To Hell movie screencaps below. Double click for the full image.

Saw VI was considered to be a disappointment at the box office where it came up against the surprise hit of the year, Paranormal Activity, because of it's relative failure the makers have decided that the next film will be made in 3D as they try and get the audience interested in the franchise again.

The film picks up where the last film ended and i felt it was an improvement on Saw V, there are some twists and surprises in this film, i recommend watching the end titles as there is another scene when the film titles end, this may give a clue as to the returning character in the next installment.

The Saw films have been pushed into the same category as Hostel with words tossed around like torture porn but i disagree, the Saw films have well written scripts and well thought out characters, there is substance and not just style to these films.

Jigsaw is not the usual two dimensional caricature, Tobin Bell brings some depth to his portrayal and the gore is a necessary part of the film and not just there to make the audience throw up.

Image quality on this release must be assessed with the understanding that the Saw films use very deliberate choices for the cinematography, this is not the typical eye candy that will be used to show off a new television but it represents the cinematic look of the movie, colours are over saturated, contrast levels are boosted, grain changes depending on the scene and sometimes the black level is inky black and at other times its lighter, detail levels were still good but sometimes limited by the photography used for the film. if you look closely you will see some compression artifacts on objects and backgrounds, i personally didn't find this a major issue.

Sound quality was also very good with all the speakers getting a good workout and the subwoofer kicking in during appropriate moments, its a good mix and adds much to the movie visuals. It will be interesting to see what they can do with 3D cameras on Saw VII.

View blu ray screencaps below. Double click the image for the full HD frame.

When you finish viewing you may like our blu ray screencaps of Poltergeist here.

Angelina Jolie brings Lara Croft to life and is perfect casting for this role, there are rumours that they are planning to bring Lara Croft back to the big screen with a younger actress but i would rather they tempt Miss Jolie back, if they must re-cast then i hope they find someone who can act as well as look good in the role.

The first film was entertaining but this film is superior and better filmed, this film also has a better music score and Angelina seems more assured in the role.

I originally was less critical of the films image quality but on a repeat viewing and with more experience at seeing faults i feel this release has had minor film grain reduction and there is also some minor compression artifacts on view especially at the beginning of the film. Grain reduction does not affect every scene but scenes which retain the grain look more detailed.

I feel some people do not understand the effects grain reduction can have on a blu ray release, you often reduce image quality by reducing grain, they just do not have the tools available to reduce grain and keep all the detail intact, grain in film is not evil, its essential and should be retained.

The minor issues with this disc could have been avoided by simply using a BD-50 and having a higher bitrate for difficult to encode scenes. Deja Vu as i think i said the same thing last week about another release but its worth repeating.

The sound mix is very good and although the Germans get a lossless track its dubbed into German and i dislike dubbed soundtracks, the english language dts track is 1509kbp/s and its a good sound mix, i feel that people sometimes dwell too much on the codec used and forget about important things such as how the track was mixed, its all in the sound mix folks and although i would prefer a lossless track i was happy with this discs sound quality, speech was clear, surrounds were active and engaging and bass was deep, its a good sound mix.

I think there will be another release of this film in an english language country that improves upon this release and will likely give us a full blown lossless track but for now i think this is a good release with some minor issues which affect overall quality.

View blu ray screencaps of Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life below. Click again for the full HD frame.

I will start by saying i truly enjoyed this film and it's a great pity the sequel was abandoned. This film did reasonable box office business worldwide but could be considered a flop in North America where religious groups picketed some cinema's due to the fact they think the original novel from which the film is based is anti-christian. You can actually see some scenes in the trailer which would have been used in the sequel.

This is a big budget film chock full of CGI effects which also had a good script unlike something like G.I. Joe which i don't want to ever watch again.

The acting from everyone was excellent and especially the young Dakota Blue Richards who had the difficult task of a leading role and i predict she will be a future Oscar winner if she survives the child star stage of her career. The voice acting was also memorable and Daniel Craig shows he has a career outside of James Bond.

You can clearly see in the comparison shots that some of the backgrounds are different in the final film and brightness/contrast/colours are also different. The actual CGI effects look finished though and you can see there is more detail in some frames in the trailer. I will start by providing normal screencaps from the actual film.

Blu Ray Screencaps of The Golden Compass. Click again for the full HD image.

Below is the screenshot comparison between the film and trailer.

You will notice the composition of some shots in the movie is different to the trailer and this is because the film was shot Super 35 which allows for the different framing. I would not normally use trailers as a comparison but in this instance i do believe it suitable for showing the differences in many shots between the film and trailer. There is the argument that the softer look of this film is intentional to go with the fantasy world created for this film and i must admit i originally thought this and still think that's possible. The other argument is that the trailer is sharpened but it doesn't look sharpened to me. A third argument is that the lighting and colour changes make the movie version appear to be less sharp and this could be true of some scenes such as frame 1, 3,4,6,8 and 15.

The above optical illusion is possible as i have tinkered with Photoshop and did get similar results so i wouldn't rule this out. If you have Photoshop try a few tests yourself. In frame 5 the movie clearly shows a button which the trailer frame barely shows but the trailer shows more freckles and detail, it may be that the scene was lightened to hide the freckles. This comparison took a long time to prepare.

The first image of each frame is from the movie and the second image is from the trailer. Frame 2 does not match the same frame from the movie so bear that in mind when viewing it. I list it mainly to show the background changes. Frame 10 is likely a single frame out between the trailer and movie but it serves to show the armour on the bear in the movie but missing from the trailer. Check out frame 11 and note on the trailer Dakota Blue Richards face is nowhere to be seen but is visible on the movie frame. Frames 9 and 12 show a fantastic amount of detail in the trailer but the actual movie loses the detail probably due to selective DNR.

I wonder if DNR was applied to some shots but that the lighting changes are responsible for the majority of the difference people perceive with this film. I am not totally convinced that the look of most of this film is not intentional given it's fantasy world setting but i also don't rule out DNR by New Line.

Remember that once you open an image you may need to click again for the full HD frame.

This is one of Warner Bros best Blu Ray transfers. Disc size is around 19.5GB and it's on a single layer disc.

I don't dwell on bitrate as i think the images should speak for themselves and too often bitrate is blamed for poor transfers when it's actually the encoders fault or the fault of an old master being used as was the case with Gladiator or Gangs Of New York both of which had abysmal transfers yet good bitrate and file sizes. 

I would always advise you watch a film too and not just view some frames such as the ones i provide here. I always watch the film first before forming an opinion.

There is visible print damage in some scenes. Check out frame 8 as an example of this. 

There is softness around some of the optical shots but i believe this is how the film looked back in 1982 although one cannot rule out minor degraining of those shots.

This film was shot using anamorphic lenses and you will notice in some scenes the focus is not always pin sharp, you can see an example of this in frame 10.

The photographic choice of camera and lens and the film stock used is responsible for how this film looks. Film stock and camera lenses have improved a lot over the years and this film should not be compared to a film shot anamorphic in 2010. I think this film looks superb and i felt like i was watching a real film.

Check out frame 5 which has lots of rain falling and lots of mud and water in and around the unfinished pool, this scene has lots of sharp detail.

The film is on my reference list which can be viewed here.

View some blu ray screencaps of Poltergeist below. Click twice for the full HD image.

You can read my review for The Wizard Of Oz on Blu Ray here.

I consider the image quality to be mostly excellent except for one particular isolated moment. This moment can be seen in Blu Ray screencap 6. Screencap 7 is the moment that follows those 20 bad seconds and as you can see the grain structure is back and the image is detailed.

It's a shame Warner didn't catch that one moment which looks like an encoding issue since grain is missing and blocking is visible in the background but other than that moment i didn't see any issues which bothered me. It looks film like and thats all you can ask for.

*As an update to the above i have checked my old 2005 DVD edition and the issue noted above is on that disc therefore i think it's probably the best elements they have for that scene and may even have looked that way when originally filmed.

I consider this an excellent release which retains it's film look on Blu Ray and comes packed with fabulous extra content. The extra content alone makes the Blu Ray worth a purchase.

Once you open the Blu Ray screencap you may need to click the frame again for the full HD image to appear.  These Blu Ray frames are captured directly off the disc.

More posts that may interest you are at the bottom of the page.

Directed by Robert Zemeckis the film stars Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito and it's a hugely entertaining old fashioned adventure with a touch of romance thrown into the mix.

Turner plays Joan Wilder, a romantic novelist, when her sister is kidnapped she goes to Colombia to pay the ransom and ends up in a wild adventure involving a treasure map and the search for a precious jewel, Michael Douglas plays Jack T. Colton, an adventurer who is looking to make his fortune and see's Joan as just another payday.

Fine acting support by Danny DeVito who plays Ralph and is also interested in the treasure map.

The film was directed by Robert Zemeckis, he also directed the Back To The Future trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump and more recently The Polar Express and Beowulf, Zemeckis is a fabulous director who knows how to stage an action scene and get the best possible performances from his cast.

The image quality on Blu Ray is superb with high detail levels and there is a light grain structure to the image which has not been tampered with in a negative way. 

I saw no issues with edge enhancement nor did i see any compression problems with the transfer and i feel what is on this disc represents the look of the original film.

This is a fabulous and entertaining film and it also has a sequel called Jewel Of The Nile, Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas have great chemistry together and the film has a great music score.

View blu ray screencaps of Romancing The Stone below. Double click for the full HD image.