![Romancing the Stone [Blu-ray]](http://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/thumbs/8/86/B001CC7PK8-51rSTE61vcL.jpg/60x60px-LS-B001CC7PK8-51rSTE61vcL.jpg)
Blu-ray Disc Review |
Release Date: October 14, 2008. Rating:   / Starring: Michael Douglas (Jack T. Colton), Kathleen Turner (Joan Wilder), Danny DeVito (Ralph), Zack Norman (Ira), Alfonso Arau (Juan), Manuel Ojeda (Zolo) Written by: Diane Thomas Directed by: Robert Zemeckis She's a girl from the big city. He's a reckless soldier of fortune. For a fabulous treasure, they share an adventure no one could imagine... or survive. Romancing the Stone stars Kathleen Turner as Joan Wilder, a romance novelist who can’t seem to find a spark for another man. She lives alone and buried in her writings, dreaming up adventure/romance stories women shed tears over. It’s not until she receives a desperate phone call from her sister from Columbia when her own adventure begins. Joan’s sister has been kidnapped and in order to save her, she needs to bring a mysterious treasure map to Columbia and hand-deliver it to her captors. Joan finds herself in a story worth writing about while getting entangled in jungles, mudslides, bullets, and crocodiles. With the help of Jack T. Colton, a wanderer deep in the Columbian jungles, they will escape the bad guys, search for the treasure, and save her sister. I wasn’t expecting this: Romancing the Stone looks fantastic in HD! It was a relief to see that the DVD was improved over the previous release, but this BD puts the rest to shame. Image contrast, colour, and resolution all sparkle on this release. The opening scene shows just what we’re in for – beads of sweat are clearly seen rolling off the female’s flawless body, black levels reaching deep while still maintaining some shadow detail, and the warm colours never looking like they are bleeding orange or red. It almost looks like a new film! The opening sequence does look different from the rest of the film in terms of contrast and I imagine it is intentional because it’s the book we’re watching (the top of the picture is a bit darker). As the film moves on, the image does stay consistent. The depth seen and the detail shown of the trees and the mountains in Columbia are excellent. The green is alive without looking over saturated. Flesh tones are dead on. The image is bright and whites never appear clipped. The squished shots that I complained about on the DVD (when it looks like the image needs to be unsqueezed) don’t seem to be here – but then, I wasn’t looking for it either and if it happened I blinked and missed it. Also, while no edge enhancement is present, there does appear to be a bit of grain reduction involved. Take a look at the opening credits while Joan is walking around in her apartment for tissue. There seems to be a mild veil of grain that appears frozen over the image and to watch the movie you have to look “through it”. The resolution is also reduced during this sequence. It’s a bit distracting but thankfully not noticeable anywhere else except possibly near the end of the film. I noticed a puff of smoke around Douglas look like it was masked by a similar issue, but these scenes are also at night so it’s harder to see if that was the problem. Regardless of those few moments, the rest of the film does look good. By the way, those out of focus shots seen on every broadcast and home version at the end of the film are still out of focus here. I will assume it's the original photography and nothing can be done about it. It's fine though and I'm happy no one tried to sharpen it up artificially. Something different has happened since 2006; this must be a newly created 5.1 presentation. The previous DVD was a Dolby 2.0 Surround soundtrack that had some issues with keeping dialogue firmly planted in the center channel. This DTS-HDMA 5.1 encode of the soundtrack has dialogue centered and the soundstage opened up a bit more. I also felt that dialogue wasn’t as distorted and strident as the DVD’s soundtrack. It sounded warmer and had better tonality on this go-around. Sound effects sound equally dated and many are stereotypical catalogued sounds. Gunshots sound weak and rarely shake up an ambience with the environment they are shot in. Some sound effects are emphasised too much such as the mud during the mud slide – too loud!! Bass is limited but has a bit more depth than the DVD did. The music track is the better performer, despite having the obvious ‘80s synthesizer sound and the DTS-HDMA encode reveals the limitations of the recording. The brass instruments sound like they want to reach out but have restrictions on dynamics. Surround presence is limited – there are no discrete sounds and you’d hear similar information back there as you would from decoding 2.0 surround, albeit less presence. The 2.0 soundtrack is also included on this disc and I imagine it is the same one that appears on the DVD although I did not evaluate it to confirm. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround presentation is adequate but not all that exciting. Dialogue sounds thin and weak throughout the frequency range and occasionally comes out of the left and right channels rather than being focused in the center channel. It can also be distorted and a bit strident depending on how loud the person talks/yells. TACTILE FUN!!: 1.5/5 TRANSDUCER ON/OFF?: ON Some bass has been sent to the LFE channel from the music as well as some sound effects. As light as it is, I found those moments to be effective enough to use a transducer. A welcomed enhancement! The features included on the special edition DVD two years ago are included here except for the Hidden Treasure featurette, which was of Douglas remembering screenwriter Diane Thomas who died tragically in a car crash. The eight deleted/alternate are in high definition (AVC encoded). Some scenes are clearly deleted and others feature similar conversation that already appears in the movie, just with a different setting. Most of these deleted scenes are in the first half of the film when Joan is walking through the jungle with Jack. The mood of the alternate ending is also less romantic. They slow the film down and it was wise not to include them in the film. I did enjoy viewing them as a special feature. The 2.35:1 aspect ratio is intact and the quality is good but not as polished as the final film. Three featurettes follow and are of both recent interview clips and pieces from 1984. They are 4:3, SD, and encoded in MPEG-2.
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Perhaps they will never be fixed.
