High Def Revue

King Kong HD DVD
© Universal

The 2006 HD Buying Guide

By: John Sinnott
Date: Sunday, November 26, 2006

With Thanksgiving past us and the holiday buying season in full swing, I thought this would be the perfect time to present the first Annual High Def Review HD Buying Guide. Instead of our usually news and review, this time I’m going to highlight the best genre HD DVD and Blu-ray discs. With the Blu-ray compatible PS3 out (but hard to find) and the Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on available, the number of households that are able to play HD discs has increased dramatically and will continue to grow over the holiday season. Anyone of these would make the perfect gift for that videophile on your gift list.

HD DVD

BATMAN BEGINS
© Warner Bros.

Batman Begins: Breathing new life into a franchise that was given up for dead years ago, Christopher Nolan’s film takes a looks at the early career of Gotham City’s protector. As a comic book geek from way back, this is the Batman film I’ve been waiting years for. Dark, gritty, and capturing the appeal of the source material, Nolan is able to make the Dark Knight and his enemies real and disturbing. And there are no nipples on the costume. The HD DVD presentation is simply outstanding too. The image is very crisp and clear and the lossless Dolby TrueHD audio track is equally impressive. This is a great disc that looks and sounds better than its SD DVD counterpart. (Read the full review here.)

King Kong: After making the Lord of the Rings trilogy, director Peter Jackson could have made any movie that he wanted to. For some reason he turned his sights on remaking the 1933 classic King Kong. This film had been redone one already, in 1976, with disastrous results and remakes are seldom as good as the original so it was with a little trepidation that I screened this film. I needn’t have worried though. Jackson does a great job of bringing the giant ape to life. The HD DVD is equally good too with a fantastic picture and wonderful sound.

Pitch Black HD DVD
© Sony

Pitch Black - Director's Cut: This film about a group of people stranded on a world with carnivorous predators that come out in the dark borrows a lot from several other genre movies, but what it lacks in originality it makes up with fun. Vin Diesel makes a great immoral killer, and the rest of the crew act suitably afraid as they get eaten one by one. The HD DVD release of this film looks absolutely wonderful. Popping this disc in will remind viewers why they spent all that money on a HD set up in the first place. The images pop off the screen with razor sharp clarity. The video is partnered with a clean Dolby Digital + 5.1 audio track that fits the movie well making this is a reference quality disc. (Read the full review here.)

The Thing
©

The Thing: For my money this is John Carpenter’s most effective film in which he crafts a claustrophobic world that is eerie, surprising, and very startling. When a group of scientists cut off from civilization in an Antarctic research station discover a murderous shape-shifting alien is living among them, the paranoia starts to run deep. As more and more people start to die it start to become clear that no one may get out alive. Like the other films on this list, the picture quality is excellent. The level of detail and crispness of the 2.35:1 picture easily surpasses the 2004 ‘Collector’s Edition’ DVD. This is a great film and it deserves this strong high definition transfer. (Read the full review here.)

Blu-ray

Devil's Rejects: This sequel to rocker Rob Zombie’s 2003 cult classic House of 1000 Corpses is just as shocking and entertaining as the original film. Taking place some months after the event in House, the murderous Firefly family finds themselves on the run when the Texas Rangers invade their ranch. Of course it’s not long before they go back to their murdering ways, running from the law or not. Boasting a fantastic soundtrack and a great looking transfer, this is not a move for the timid. If you enjoy very dark humor and a good amount of violence however, you can't go wrong with this flick.

Memento: I already mentioned Christopher Nolan’s biggest grossing film, Batman Begins, but the film that made him famous, Memento, is also available in HD. With a convoluted story and an equally convoluted style, Nolan's film has become a modern cult classic, a film that can be watched over and over and continually impresses. It tells the story of Leonard who suffers from a very rare brain disorder that is the result of an accident; his mind is unable to convert short term memory into long term memory. The upshot is that he forgets everything after about 15 minutes. Four times an hour he suddenly has no memory anything that has happened since his accident. To illustrate how Leonard has to live, the film is told backwards in short chunks. Only at the end of the film, which is the beginning of the story, does everything become clear. Actually less muddled would be more accurate. The Blu-ray disc is nice and solid and an improvement over the standard definition DVD release.

Monster House
© DreamWorks

Monster House: This CGI animated Halloween story was a disappointment at the box office, but is actually a good flick. This tale of a trio of children who discover that the local ‘haunted house’ is actually a living, breathing, eating creature has a strong story and engaging characters. With the final film being created digitally, this HD disc looks really great and is sure impress.

Upcoming High Definition Discs:

November 28, 2006

Blu-ray

Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut

Superman Returns

Superman: The Movie

Windtalkers

HD DVD

An American Werewolf in London

Dune

Meet the Parents

The Mummy

Smallville: The Complete Fifth Season

Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut

Superman Returns

Superman: The Movie

December 5, 2006

Blu-ray

Bulletproof Monk

Flight of the Phoenix

From Hell

Rising Sun

Rocky

HD DVD

Miami Vice (2006)

Poseidon

Scary Movie 4

Wolf Creek

December 12, 2006

Blu-ray

The Devil Wears Prada

Kung Fu Hustle

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

World Trade Center

HD DVD

Field of Dreams

Hulk

World Trade Center

December 19, 2006

Blu-ray

All the King's Men

Invincible

Lady in the Water

Pearl Harbor

The Sopranos: Season Six, Part One

HD DVD

Casino

Derailed

Jet Li's Fearless

Lady in the Water

The Matador

Scary Movie 4

The Scorpion King

The Sopranos: Season Six, Part One

Wolf Creek

December 26, 2006

Blu-ray

The Descent

Transporter 2

HD DVD

Casino

Jet Li's Fearless

Lady in the Water

The Matador

Scary Movie 4

The Scorpion King

The Sopranos: Season Six, Part One

Wolf Creek

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