Blu-ray Review HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Da Vinci Code Extended Cut (1 Viewer)

[Kevin EK]

Blu-ray Disc REVIEW





THE DA VINCI CODE
EXTENDED CUT 2-DISC SET


Studio: Sony Pictures (released through Columbia Pictures)
Film Year: 2006
Film Length: 2 hours 54 minutes
Genre: Thriller

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1

BD Resolution: 1080p
BD Video Codec: AVC @ over 25 MBPS
Color/B&W: Color

Audio:

• English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 @ over 1.3 MBPS

• French Dolby TrueHD 5.1
  
  Subtitles: English SDH, French
  
  Film Rating: Unrated (Violence, Nudity)
  

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Finally gave this a rent (on Blu), and it's not bad at all. Agree that it's much like the National Treasures flicks (but sans the humor and lighter touches). Not sure I'd ever want to own it -- though I did pick up the first National Treasures BD off the used market. I do wonder if this extended cut isn't better than the original theatrical cut since it probably fills in some useful details (and did not seem to drag on the movie too much, if at all).

As a thinking, practicing Christian (more or less of the reformed tradition, not Catholic), I still found this controversial movie entertaining when taken for what it is, ie. just another piece of pop culture. Then again, I also enjoy (and own) Monty Python's The Life of Brian too -- and that one would be the one to present an actual challenge to believers, if any of them would.

Enjoy!

_Man_

 

[Ethan Riley]

Mona Lisa,
Mona Lisa,
Men have framed you.

 

[Southpaw]

I think the special features deserves a 5/5. I thoroughly enjoyed Ron Howard's commentary on what amounted to about 40 min of screen time. The PiP was very well done and extremely informative. Then you have all the other stuff on disc 2 including a couple new featurettes. Not to mention the BD live stuff which I don't get into. All in all, a comprehensive look at the picture from many different angles.

 

[Ray H]

I took a look at the disc and I was a bit annoyed at the menu navigation for the extras. Instead of a list options, you can only view one or two options at a time. Just seemed kinda silly. Especially for disc two that contains nearly 20 featurettes.

Also, the interactive viewing was kinda weak. It may have been informative, but I'd prefer something more automated than this option where you have to click on an icon. And if there are two icons flashing on at the same time, you need to rewind back to see the other one.

Silly complaints, but just thought I'd mention them.

 

[Kevin EK]

Southpaw, I hear you, but I have to partly agree with Ray on this.

There's certainly a lot of material here to look at, but once I peeled back the layers, it came out a little thin. Ron Howard's commentary is fine as far as the selected scenes go, but I would have preferred a full commentary for the edition. The way it is now, you either have to start and stop about 10 times, or watch the movie in a bizarrely truncated format. I didn't have as much of an issue with the interactive guide, but I agree that it's a bit tricky trying to pick up on everything going on, and you wind up spending much of the time rewinding back and forth. As for the featurettes, there's some good stuff in there, but there's also a lot of repetition. There were several times when I saw the same comments by Ron Howard and Dan Brown on different featurettes.

None of this is to say that the special features were bad. On the contrary, I gave them a favorable review. But to get me to 5/5, you'd have to get to the level of the 5-Disc Blade Runner...

 

[Carlo_M]

I remember seeing this once in the theater and giving it a "meh" rating. Now I only watched it once, so I don't know what of the nearly 30 minutes of additional footage was put back in, but as a whole, I think this extended cut works better than the original I watched back in the theater. Re-watching made me appreciate the film a bit more (not the theme/plot but rather the characterization, which seemed to be greatly improved for all of the major roles).

Could be my mind playing tricks on me, but I don't think so.

 

[TonyD]

Ron Howard's second best?
I suppose this is as a technical standpoint because this is far from his second best film.
I found it to be a bore and pretentious, the movie thought too highly of itself.
I can't help compare it to National Treasure and
think NT was a better and more entertaining movie.

My BBV just got the blu in so next week I'll rent it and hope the longer cut
makes it an interesting movie.

 

[Bryan Beckman]

So, I take it we'll never see a 5/5 from you on that front in any of your forthcoming reviews? Blade Runner is quite the exceptional case, for many reasons.

I understand wanting to set a high bar, but this one is in the stratosphere.

 

[Neil Middlemiss]

Kevin, I watched this tonight on my 65" screen and your PQ review is spot on!

 

[Kevin EK]

Neil, THANK YOU. I agonize over the PQ because of the effect of DNR on the larger monitors. When this economy gets a little better, I'm going to upgrade, but I'm taking my time to get there.

Bryan, I hear you. But I believe in having high standards, possibly a bit too high, but still high enough that I'm not singing excess praise where it isn't merited. I try to be honest here. If I gave 5/5 repeatedly, it would lose its value. I believe I've done it from time to time - perhaps on my review of the Dreamgirls Blu-ray 2 years ago. I remember we also had a discussion going at one point here about too many people putting "Highly Recommended" on too many reviews, and the message stuck with me.

TonyD, I'm interested to see if this longer cut worked better for you than what you saw before. When I said it's his second best film, I meant in terms of the cleanliness of the storytelling and the clarity of the action. (For example, many hit films today are so frenetic in the action sequences with the "shaky cam" effect, or do so much in quick-cut closeups that I can't figure out what is going on or who has the gun. With this film, I always knew where everyone was and could follow the story.) That said, I agree with you that the NT movies are more fun. But I didn't take this seriously - I saw it as a romp and appreciated it on that level. Now, as for Ron Howard's best film, that was another story, but that one certainly didn't take itself seriously either.