The Golden Compass - In a parallel universe in which souls exist as "daemon" animal companions, the malevolent and oppressive Catholic Church...errr, Magisterium seeks to suppress research and knowledge and, by "cutting away" daemons from their young human counterparts, to create a society of unquestioning and obedient followers. Caught up in all this is Lyra, whose uncle has incurred the wrath of the Magisterium by seeking to uncover the mysteries of universe-connecting Dust, and whose best friend has been taken away to the far North to have his daemon cut away. Before long, and with the help of her truth-revealing alethiometer, she's up to her neck in Gobblers, Gyptians, Samoyeds, Ice Bears and Witches. Can she save her uncle and her friend without losing her daemon to the machinations of the evil Mrs. Coulter?

This is a visually stunning, moderately entertaining and rather busy film. Ms. Richards' performance was absolutely wonderful and, in my opinion, is one of the highlights of the movie.

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This was my first Blu-ray movie on the updated HT. The PQ was beautiful: Vibrant colours, solid blacks, excellent contrast in even the darkest scenes, and no hint of video noise or artifacts. The 7.1-channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack was very well-balanced. (I wonder what the PQ and AQ of the DVD are like.)

Watched Slumdog on the weekend. (created my review thread), and National Treasure with the kids.

Watched "Transporter" and will be watching "Transporter 2" tonight as well. I watched Transporter 3 about a month ago, you can tell the difference between the 7.1 and 5.1 tracks but the 5.1 are still great. Just overall a good movie experience, not completely over-the-top like some. Obviously the third has the best PQ but the first one still looked great. Also will be watching "Miami Vice" tonight or tomorrow. Rented "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" but just couldn't get into it. 1:78:1 CG looks great(even better in "Resident Evil: Degeneration") but I just couldn't get into the movie.

Miami vice, PQ wise, Is a big disappointment but apparently the director intended it to look this way. 95% of the film is shot in the dark/night scenes using HD cameras, and the 2:40:1 ratio doesn't help with all the dark scenes. There are many artifacts and a ton of noise...if you can go from watching the Transporter movies to this is the same night without going insane, let me know. Audio wise it is great though, as are most action movies with a lossless track. Think I'm going to go rent RE: Degeneration again tonight(last time I watched didn't have 7.1). It is one of the best BD releases PQ wise I have seen do to the CG and true 16:9 ratio. As for new releases only movie coming that interests me is "Taken" which was awesome in theaters.

Pinocchio Platinum 75th anniversay edition.

This was always one of my favourites as a kid (with Peter Pan), and the Disney studio did this total justice. they didn't boost the color like crazy (as they did in Sleeping Beauty), and the remastered tracks are great. Felt myself misting up when Jiminy Cricket was singing "When you wish upon a star" - best Disney song ever.

Too bad the aspect ratio on this one was a bit funny, but watched it with the sidebars and it was great. Totally worth the buy, especially as it comes with a DVD for the kids too.

The Incredible Hulk was an explosion of audio bliss. That has to be the best track out right now (5.1 DTS-HD MA). Video was near flawless the entire movie but the audio was the big surprise to me, excellent.

I am running out of movies to rent at Blockbuster...

Am I the only one who would like to see Fantasia redone in blu-ray? I know it's more a musical piece than a visual piece, but it could be redone...

I'm also pissed that Apocalypse Now still isn't out on BR... :mad:

Hunt for Red October would be another good one, I can picture the scene where the whole crew of the "Krasniy Oktyabr" is singing the Russian song, while they pull a Crazy Ivan and almost collide with USS Dallas.

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Am I the only one who would like to see Fantasia redone in blu-ray? I know it's more a musical piece than a visual piece, but it could be redone...

I'm also pissed that Apocalypse Now still isn't out on BR... :mad:

Hunt for Red October would be another good one, I can picture the scene where the whole crew of the "Krasniy Oktyabr" is singing the Russian song, while they pull a Crazy Ivan and almost collide with USS Dallas.

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Poutanen,

1. Agree about Fantasia. Hopefully the various picture and sound elements are still in good enough shape.
2. I suspect Apocalypse Now will be released on BR at some point. Would be excellent be visually and sonically.
3. Hunt for Red October is already available on Blu-Ray. Watched it last week. Good film, good blu-ray transfer.

Based on the Sleeping Beauty and Pinocchio restores, I'm sure the Fantasia would turn out great.

Image how good the mixed-up score would sound in 5.1.

However, I'm curious to see how Disney would do with a newer BR title like Beauty and the Beast. I'd buy that first day out!

I haven't watched Apocalypto (5.1 PCM) since the install of my 7.1 system so I might watch all or part of that tonight. I didn't know Hunt for Red October was out either, will definetly be trying to find a copy. I haven't seen it at Rogers Plus or Blockbuster yet, apparently it's been out almost a year though. More here: http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/movies.php?id=920&show=review

1. Agree about Fantasia. Hopefully the various picture and sound elements are still in good enough shape.
2. I suspect Apocalypse Now will be released on BR at some point. Would be excellent be visually and sonically.
3. Hunt for Red October is already available on Blu-Ray. Watched it last week. Good film, good blu-ray transfer.

I would have thought Apocalypse Now would have been one of the first older movies to come out on bluray. Seeing as how it was filmed in 70mm (so I've heard) and was the film that really started "surround sound", it really is the grand daddy to everything we know and love about todays action films. Although I also love the story, and the fact that it's really a drama with a couple cool action scenes.

Def got to get Hunt for Red October, it's in my top 5 fave films of all time. Probably because I'm a clancy fan.

Off topic, here are my top 5 films, off the top of my head. Would love to know which are available in bluray. In no particular order.

1. Hunt for Red October
2. Shawshank Redemption
3. The Usual Suspects
4. Fight Club
5. Blow

Rented S.W.A.T and Mission Impossible III. Bit dissappointed MI3 only has a lossy 5.1 track, apparently it still is pretty good. I've seen both movies but not for 3-4 years, not really anything else at BB that I want to rent until Taken and The International come out.

X-Men 3:The_LastStand
NIght at the Museum
Planet of the Apes -- nice;)

Bride Wars What I have to sit through as an Anne Hathaway fan. The acting's excellent, but the story was thinner than what Kate Hudson's character needs to be to fit into her wedding dress. It wants to be a black comedy, but doesn't have the nerve to commit to the relationship. Video was dull and grainy. The trailers were immaculate by comparison.

Ice Age The Meltdown My brother gave me this because his 3-year-old found it too scary. I popped it in just to see the video quality and ended up watching to the end. Fun, and beautiful to look at despite the stark scenery. Who thought CG ice could look so cool? The squirrel and the acorn was a clever movie in itself.

Requiem for a Dream

Amazing movie. In my top 10 all time. The PQ is soft, colors are ok. AQ is nice though.

Great performances by Ellen Burstyn and Jennifer Connelly.

Im assuming they play that amazing song in that movie...how does it sound in lossless form??:cool:

rileyparrish, if you mean the song from Requiem that gets played throughout the film, it sounds great! Very emotional piece of music as well.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - Alex O'Connell's discovery of the tomb of an evil Chinese emperor soon draws his parents - everyone's favourite archaeological couple, Rick and Evelyn - out of retirement to destroy the re-animated, shape-shifting and immortal emperor and to stop his re-animated terra cotta army from acquiring immortality and enslaving the world.

This Mummy outing is the worst of the franchise: It was big, loud, boring and stupid.

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The BR PQ was flawless. The DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack offered plenty of thunder when required; however, in a number of scenes the dialogue was surprisingly muted. Overall, though, it was pretty good.

I rented The Mummy Returns(2:35:1/DTS-HD MA 5.1) just to experience it in 1080P and lossless audio, since that was my favorite of the three films. PQ was decent enough, not shocking(only parts that looked great were the opening shots and most of the CG IMO). The soundtrack was relentless though, all speakers active and a great score always in the background. The scenes with the thunder were impressive for an older title. Also picked up Role Models(1:85:1/DTS-HD MA 5.1) which was pretty funny, obviously nothing special in the audio department but the picture was great(screen filling HD looks the best). The last film I picked up, Live Free or Die Hard(2:40:1/DTS-HD MA 5.1), was awesome in PQ/AQ but glitches up and stops playback about forty minutes in. Likely a PowerDVD or Disc problem as every other movie to this point has been fine.

Next up will likely be Traitor and then Taken on May 12

Dexter Season 2 and Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Dexter Season 2 is absolutly amazing PQ & AQ are great and the show it self is one of the best on tv right now.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off was also a great movie PQ & AQ where pretty good.

Both are well worth the $.