eljay, just curious if one of those instances was when the van starts to fall off the bridge?
I don't recall if that was one of the scenes, but I do remember there being one or two instances earlier on in the film.

(I intend on buying the movie from Blockbuster at some point, so I'll have another opportunity to test out my sub - or my newer subs (dual Rythmik F15s, currently on back-order) - with the movie, at which time I'll make a note of the scenes in question.)

The Town - Ben Affleck leads a crew of high-end armed robbers in Boston pulling scores for a local boss out of a florist's shop. When a bank job goes slightly sideways, they take the bank's assistant manager hostage, then release her once they've made their getaway. One of Affleck's crew is nervous the assistant manager will be able to identify them to the cops, and wants to "dispose" of the problem; Affleck sets out to diffuse the situation, only managing to complicate matters even more. Meanwhile, a determined FBI agent, Jon Hamm, is hot on their tail, just looking for the break he needs to take down Affleck's crew.
This is a tense, fast-paced cops-and-robbers drama with no shortage of subtext that plays out a little like Heat: Boston style complete with an epic shootout and dramatic getaways. Tightly-directed by Affleck, although some of the writing is a little weak.
PQ is excellent, sharp, detailed, natural colors.
AQ is outstanding, lots of thumping bass when guns start blazing.

Its 8.30 in the morning and and i have my speakers bleeding either with the PCM stereo or DTS Master Audio 5.1 with the big concert from Antrax , Megadeth , Slayer and Metallica filmed at the Sonisphere Festival . This was supposed to be a xmas gift from the wife till i found out that she had already bought and since my vacations started today in construction i`m trying to burn my speakers and this BR is doing a good job . This is a 2 disc dual 50G layer blue ray with a 1080i/MPEG-4 AVC resolution with a aspect ratio of 1.78:1 . The DTS Master Audio is quite remarkable with a strong bass ( well noticed with David Ellefson from megadeth and Tom Araya from Slayer ) .
This is about 5 hours of concert :Antrax 1H , Megadeth 1H , Slayer 1H and Metallica 2H . This is by far the best concert that i bought this year after the " Iron Maiden - Flight 666 " and very close to the Eric Clapton`s Crossroads Guitar festival 2010 ( if you like blues/rock this is a must have ) .
Final thoughts if you like the genre ( Heavy metal/speedmetal/Trash ) this is one of the best buys from 2010 .

Eljay and Cooper83, here is a very interesting article in which Hans Zimmer (the composer) discusses using slowed-down pieces of an Edith Piaf song to indicate important dramatic moments in the movie. Those are probably the notes you are talking about.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/hans-zimmer-extracts-the-secrets-of-the-inception-score/

Eljay and Cooper83, here is a very interesting article in which Hans Zimmer (the composer) discusses using slowed-down pieces of an Edith Piaf song to indicate important dramatic moments in the movie. Those are probably the notes you are talking about.Thanks for the link. I gave the clip a listen...and I'm not entirely sure that that's what I heard.

I plan to watch the movie again (possibly some time next month) and, at that time, I'll make a note of the time and the scene in which I hear the "resonance" sounds.

Solitary Man is a 2009 American film co-directed by Brian Koppelman and David Levien. The film stars Michael Douglas, Susan Sarandon, Jenna Fischer, Jesse Eisenberg, Mary-Louise Parker and Danny DeVito.

Ben Kalman (Michael Douglas) is aging: he has heart problems, his marriage is over, he's lost a fortune after being caught cutting corners in his East Coast car business, and he's sleeping with as many women as possible - the younger the better. He's chosen his current girlfriend, Jordan, because her father can help him get a new auto dealership; she's asked him to escort her daughter, Allyson, 18, on a visit to a Boston college campus. He behaves badly, and there are consequences to his love life, his finances, and his relationship with his daughter and grandson. Is there anywhere he can turn?


Very enjoyable film, nicely done. unlike most film i have settled in with recently. Great ending. AQ, PQ .. on par with what I am accustomed on blu-ray, quite pleasing. (Dolby TrueHD)

Expendables.

Only rent/buy this movie if you have expendable fund and expendable time. :D

Despicable Me - Gru prides himself on being the world's most heinous villian. So when a young, cocky upstart named Vector steals one of the Great Pyramids, paints it blue and squirrels it away behind his spherical suburban fortress, Gru is compelled to hatch an even more dastardly crime to regain his title. He decides to steal the moon. To make that possible, he first has to get his hands on a shrink-ray gun. But Vector has similar designs, and when Gru and his coterie of mumbling yellow Minions can't overcome his rival's security systems, he enlists the aid of three little orphan girls selling cookies door to door.
For an animated feature to hit a critical and financial homerun, it has to be simple and fun enough for kids, but still retain enough sophistication to engage an adult audience, and Despicable succeeds on both counts. It's funny, clever, imaginative, with some touching moments. Capably voiced by Steve Carrell as Gru and Jason Segal as Vector.
PQ is top notch, as is the AQ.

Eat. Pray. Love. - Yawn. Snore. Doze.
PQ - Meh.
AQ - Some of the music tracks sound good.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show - When they get a flat tire on a dark and stormy night, sweethearts Brad and Janet make their way to a nearby mansion for help. They quickly find themselves swept up in an evening of strange celebration: The mansion's owner - Dr. Frank N. Furter, a "sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania"- is about to bring to life Rocky, the man he has created to satisfy his desire for absolute pleasure.

Although the experiment is a success, chaos erupts when Riff-Raff and Magenta, Frank's mutinous assistants, turn on Rocky and frighten him into escaping from his bonds. The situation is further complicated by the unexpected visit of Dr. Everett Scott, a scientist whose investigation of UFOs threatens the secrecy and stability of the Transylvanians' life on Earth. Can Brad and Janet escape this madhouse before events spin entirely out of control?

This is a bizarre and, quite frankly, a pretty ridiculous film...but if it hooks you, it's a lot of fun and it seems to get better with every viewing. There are some great musical numbers - my favourites are "Sweet Transvestite" and "I'm Going Home" - and Tim Curry's over-the-top performance is terrific!

PQ and AQ were very good and, overall, they were a noticeable improvement over those of the DVD release. Throughout most of the movie, colours were crisp, rich and vibrant; blacks were solid; and contrast was excellent. Grain was still occasionally noticeable, however, and scenes with the narrator were fairly soft.

One small "glitch"* notwithstanding, the audio for the musical numbers was impressively dynamic, immersive and clear. It was a real treat. Relative to it, the audio for the segments of dialogue was somewhat muted (unlike on the DVD, where the levels throughout are more closely matched), but at least it was clear and the level was consistent.

(*The audio for the first few lines of "I'm Going Home" starts off at "dialogue-level" before smoothly increasing to "'musical numbers'-level".)

Salt - Accused by a defector of being a sleeper Russian spy whose assignment is to assassinate the Russian president on American soil, thereby igniting an international incident, CIA agent Evelyn Salt is forced to go on the lam until she can expose the truth regarding the assassination plot and clear her name.

For the most part, this is a typical American spy/action flick: Big and loud, with lots of shooting, explosions and car chases. It does, however, have enough interesting twists to keep it interesting, and Jolie does a good job with the lead role.

PQ and AQ were excellent.

Easy A - This contemporary take on The Scarlet Letter in which a high school girl forges a notorious reputation as a way to gain popularity tries to channel John Hughes with some success. Alas, everyone is just a little too wry, a bit too witty and clever and all the best lines seem to belong to the adults.
PQ is excellent, bright, detailed and very colorful.
AQ is also good, lots of subtle use of the surrounds.

Salt -...

hi eljay

i assume you have the blu-ray containing the director's cut & extended version (plus the theatrical release) i thought this was interesting, useful .. i have watched all three versions available on the disk.

i assume you have the blu-ray containing the director's cut & extended version (plus the theatrical release) i thought this was interesting, useful ...
Yup, the BD I rented from Blockbuster had all three versions. My wife and I watched the Director's Cut. The movie has been returned to the store.

I can see that having the different versions would be interesting, but what do you mean by "useful"? (I found the Director's Cut explained everything well enough, so I'm not sure what the usefulness of the other versions would be.)

but what do you mean by "useful"?

good morning,

ha ! gee ..looking at that wording again eljay, i'm not really sure what i meant by that. perhaps reflecting back on the moment i read "bonus" features on the BR cover, and the markdown price ..@ WM. may have been more useful for the seller (those pesky marketing ploys .. luring me in). a worthwhile purchase none the less, enjoyed the film(s).

perhaps more a matter of curiosity/comparison, having watched the 3 features.

Thanks for the clarification. :)

Synopsis (cribbed from allmovie.com):
A Passage to India, director David Lean's final film (for which he also received editing credit), breaks no new ground cinematically, but remains an exquisitely assembled harkback to such earlier Lean epics as Doctor Zhivago and Ryan's Daughter. Based on the novel by E. M. Forster, the film is set in colonial India in 1924. Adela Quested (Judy Davis), a sheltered, well-educated British woman, arrives in the town of Chandrapore, where she hopes to experience "the real India". Here she meets and befriends Dr. Aziz (Victor Banerjee), who, despite longstanding racial and social taboos, moves with relative ease and freedom amongst highborn British circles.

I hadn't seen this film in a dog's age and after seeing it on BluRAy it remains one of my least favourite David Lean films. Someone said that it's like he made a 60`s movie in the 80`s- there seems to be a lot of stereotyping of the Indians in the film. . Victor Banerjee goes from "desperate to please" Anglophile to Nehru-jacketed and flinty eyed Nationalist, AND back again. It's not believable and that character is really the core of the film.

I still enjoyed the film as no-one does big epics with gorgeous long shots like Lean. IT's a visual feast for the eyes. I just wish there had been a more interesting script and less time spent on a courtroom scene that sets you up ..and then lets you down hard.

The PQ was wonderful...I really had my eyes popping out at some of the colours and detail revealed with bluray. 8 out of 10. The soundtrack was very good as well, although a little low in some dialogue scenes, especially the arrival one at the beginning. Another 8 out of 10. It's great that my Oppo decodes lossless audio and I was able to hear it even though my AVR doesn't have HDMI. Wonderful!

I still enjoyed the film as no-one does big epics with gorgeous long shots like Lean. IT's a visual feast for the eyes. I just wish there had been a more interesting script and less time spent on a courtroom scene that sets you up ..and then lets you down hard.

The PQ was wonderful...I really had my eyes popping out at some of the colours and detail revealed with bluray. 8 out of 10. The soundtrack was very good as well, although a little low in some dialogue scenes, especially the arrival one at the beginning. Another 8 out of 10. It's great that my Oppo decodes lossless audio and I was able to hear it even though my AVR doesn't have HDMI. Wonderful!

I agree with most of what you say. For some strange reason though I felt the story moved along at a good pace but seemed compressed or shortened near the end.

As far as PQ goes I would rate it at about a 7/10. Sound was pretty decent through my 2 channel audio system.

All in all a very enjoyable experience.

Fame (new version)

Lots of people claim this movie to be craptastic. I find it to be the opposite. Yes there is no story line per-se but it truly reminded me of my music-school journey.

Picture is very good and the sound imaging is top notch with the ocassional well placed LFE that tests how faithful your subwoofer can reproduce musical bass-lines AND boom simultaneously. a

Khorn wrote:
I agree with most of what you say. For some strange reason though I felt the story moved along at a good pace but seemed compressed or shortened near the end.


Khorn, that's a good way of putting it. I really think another hour would have helped this movie a lot.