kal
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Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 17860
Location: Ottawa, Canada
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 Link Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2012 10:11 pm Post subject: Drive [Blu-ray] |
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Another reference disc!
Drive (+ UltraViolet Digital Copy) [Blu-ray] (2011)
(Hover over link for price, click to purchase and support our forum at no extra cost to you)
| Quote: | It's not often enough that we get 5-star video and audio qualities, so it's only fitting that 'Drive,' a 5-star film, winds up with some of very the best demo-worthy technical ratings. In every single aspect of filmmaking – directing, writing, acting, cinematography, lighting, special effects – 'Drive' is pitch-perfect. It never strikes an off note. It functions like a high-performance vehicle, not once misfiring. It takes a familiar and played-out genre of mainstream cinema and gives it revitalizing and refreshingly creativity via the original flare of independent filmmaking. To our great benefit, 'Drive' has been given a demo-worthy Blu-ray release that matches the perfect quality of the film itself. Most of the special features aren't that great, falling a bit short, but one is extensive and highly informative - an interview with the director that's a worthy substitute for a commentary. 'Drive' just might be the very best Blu-ray in my collection, one you should be sure to add to your own.
The Video: Sizing Up the Picture
'Drive' has been given a 1080p transfer with an AVC MPEG-4 encode presented in a 2.40:1 aspect ratio. Whenever I review a Blu-ray of a film I love, I'm typically over critical, only wanting to see a beloved title in a perfect state – but it's usually a slight let-down. Fortunately, that's not the case with 'Drive.'
I watched the 'Drive' Blu-ray looking for flaws – but none were to be found. I invited a friend over to watch it with me since he missed it during its quick theatrical run and he kept spouting comments like, "I don't know that I've ever seen a Blu-ray look this good." The funny thing is that I can only name a few titles in my collection off the top of my head that also look this amazing.
No matter the shot – nighttime, daytime, long shot, close-up, aerial, whatever – this entire film looks perfectly crisp and clear. It's always sharp and detailed. 'Drive' may be '80s in theme, but it's not in video quality. It is grain-less and 100 percent noise-free.
Ever since hearing 'The Ice Harvest' described as a "retro film noir," that's the only way I've thought to describe films like this. It's dark in picture and theme, yet also vibrant and colorful in design, like something from the '80s. The blacks are deep rich. Of course, they're meant to hide objects and detail in certain shots, but they never resort to crushing. Colors – especially the ever-present reds (like Hendricks' hair) – explode onto the big screen.
Edge enhancement, digital noise reduction, banding and artifacts aren't an issue. I constantly watched for noise – amidst so many dark scenes, it had to pop up, right? Wrong. It never does. There are countless on-screen objects that would cause aliasing on any other indie film's Blu-ray release, yet it never occurs on the 'Drive' Blu-ray.
The Audio: Rating the Sound
Only one listening option is presented with 'Drive' – an English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track – so there's not an audio option on the main menu. Just like the film itself and the picture quality, the 'Drive' Blu-ray features 5-star demo-worthy audio.
Any scene from the film can be used for demo purposes, but the opening scene is arguably the best for showing off both picture and sound. The ominous synthesized single-tone scoring (when used in place of silence) is almost better at conveying a mood than tradition contemporary scoring. The bass in these scenes convey the feeling of an impeding doom. As the engine revs up and Driver has to outrun squad cars and a chopper, you'll feel like you're sitting in the front seat of a hot rod. The score disappears and this monstrous engine become the mood-conveying score. As a chopper does a low altitude fly-by trying to spot Driver's suspected vehicle below a bridge, the sounds of the off-screen chopper not only seamlessly travel across the room, but they seem to emanate from above – which is insanely effective considering I don't have speakers mounted in my ceiling.
Know that this high quality mix isn't only strong like this in the beginning of the film. It's non-stop. During car wrecks, you'll not only hear house-shaking LFE, but insanely dynamic effects that sound as if there are dozens of layers of sounds added to each effect. The film features a few gunshots, each of them ringing loud and blasting right through you. |
Kal
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