kal
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| Posted: Sat May 10, 2014 2:21 am Post subject: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty [Blu-ray] |
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The Secret Life of Walter Mitty [Blu-ray] (2014)
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| Quote: | Although not really a comedy, and a movie that has its biggest problems when it's trying to be loyal to its source material, 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty' turned out to be my favorite film by Ben Stiller, both as a star and as a director. It's beautifully shot, nicely paced, and has some real heart to it. It's not the kind of movie you'd expect from Stiller, which adds to its charm. Despite the big budget, it's got a simple, heartfelt story to tell, and it's in the quieter moments that 'Walter Mitty' really shines. Recommended.
The Video: Sizing Up the Picture
'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty' was shot in 35mm on various Arricam cameras, and looks absolutely gorgeous on Blu-ray, with wonderful details, sharp images, and colors that really 'pop' without ever being too warm or oversaturated. Black levels are outstanding, and both contrast and overall skin tones are consistent throughout. Grain is evident throughout, but nicely pushed to the background. In other words, the movie retains its filmlike-look, without having to sacrifice the detail that high-def provides. The film is presented in the 2.40:1 format, and has an epic scope to it that looks great on widescreen HDTVs.
I detected no evident issues with banding, aliasing, or other compression problems. In short, this is a wonderful, reference-quality transfer of a beautifully shot movie. Those buying the disc will want to use it to show off their home theater, since (as you're about to read) the audio quality is equally great.
The Audio: Rating the Sound
Featuring an English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track, 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty' is immersive and active during the action sequences in the film, but also quite distinct and fun to listen to during the quieter segments, where little sounds that one normally wouldn't expect to stand out come across with a crisp clarity. The track features some great low-end use and some fun directionality as well (take, for example, the Iceland scene where Mitty spots a plane flying overhead into the heart of an erupting volcano). Everything is well-balanced here, including the movie's numerous musical cues, which are also quite crisp and mixed well with the rest of the track. The dynamic range throughout is excellent, making the audio (like the video) reference-quality stuff.
In addition to the English lossless 7.1 track, the Blu-ray also includes a wealth of other audio options: 5.1 Dolby Digital tracks in Spanish, French, Portuguese, Russian, Ukrainian, Czech, Polish, Hungarian, and Turkish, as well as a 5.1 English Descriptive Audio track. Not to be outdone by the number of audio tracks, the subtitle list is even more impressive, with offerings in English SDH, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Estonian, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Latvian, Lithuanian, Chinese, Polish, Romanian, Serbian, Slovenian, Turkish, and Ukranian. |
Kal
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