kal
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Joined: 06 Mar 2006
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Location: Ottawa, Canada
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| Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2014 2:21 pm Post subject: Need for Speed [Blu-ray] |
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Need for Speed [Blu-ray]
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| Quote: | As an homage to classic car chase movies, 'Need For Speed' is an exhilarating ride that traded CGI for real-world stunts, an effect that pays off in authenticity. However, an overloaded first act and distant character choices in the last two thirds of the movie might make it more challenging to enjoy for those not in the car nut demographic. As a Blu-ray, 'NFS' delivers gorgeous HD video, a highly articulate sound mix, and a nice collection of special features. Sadly, 3D fans will have to import this title. Recommended to car fanatics and audiophiles; give it a rent first, everyone else. Overall, worth a look.
The Video: Sizing Up the Picture
'Need For Speed' races onto Blu-ray with a flawless AVC MPEG-4 encoded framed in the film's original 2.39:1 aspect ratio.
While it doesn't have the gritty grain of its '70s cinematic inspirations, 'Need For Speed' is a reference quality Blu-ray. Shot on a myriad of digital cameras (including GoPros), the video presentation is ripe with detail, resolution, lush colors, and inky black levels. The movie opens with an extended night sequence -- first under the foggy, neon light backdrops of a drive-in theatre, and then during an racing sequence -- that has some of the best night photography I've seen in a while. Normally, these sequences suffer from washed out black levels or excessive crush. San Francisco at night will take your breath away. Daytime sequence are beautiful as well, crossing the green farmlands of the American south into the red desserts of the wild west. As for errors, I didn't see any. I kept waiting for macro-blocking or banding or aliasing, but nothing caught my eye. Great job.
The Audio: Rating the Sound
'Need For Speed' roars onto Blu-ray with a highly articulate English 7.1 DTS-HD MA.
I'm a little torn here, actually. I don't like to handout undeserved 5-star reviews, and if you consider tonal quality along with the 360 immersion this track creates, it's perfect. However, I was a little disappointed by a lack of LFE presence. I expected a little more punch and grunt in some sections. But if that's filmmaker intent, or an accident on my part, I don't want to kick this down to 4.5 stars without reason.
As such, I would call this a 4.8 or 4.9 star sound mix and will therefore round up because, aside from my personal love for subwoofer-heavy soundtracks, 'Need For Speed' sounds freaking terrific on Blu-ray. And not just aggressive either. This isn't simply loud and chaotic. There's a wonderful restraint to even the most action-packed races where you can hear the detail of fence posts whooshing buy along with the whine of a supercharger spine up in RPMs. Dialog is clear too, even in louder moments. Heck, the whole thing is almost like playing the more recent 'Need For Speed' titles on my PS3, which turns out a pretty great live mixed 7.1 experience. However, where the game is limited by (comparatively) low resolution audio files, this movie features sound recorded exclusively for this world, and it shows with extremely articulate immersion that straps you into the drivers seat and drops the hammer.
Other sound mix options include English 2.0 Descriptive Video Service, Francais 5.1 Dolby Digital, Espanol 5.1 Dolby Digital. Subtitles include English for the Hearing Impaired, Francais, and Espanol. |
Kal
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