HTF HD DVD REVIEW: The Perfect Storm (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED).

Herb Kane · 06-09-2006, 06:19 AM

The Perfect Storm

Studio: Warner Brothers
Year: 2000
Rated: PG-13
Film Length: 130 Minutes
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Audio: Dolby True HD/DD+/DD 5.1 EX
Color/B&W: Color
Languages: English & French
Subtitles: English, French & Spanish
Genre: Drama/Thriller/Adventure
MSRP: $28.99
Package: Single disc/Red HD DVD Keepcase

The Feature:
Directed by Wolfgang Petersen, responsible for the likes of, Das Boot, In the Line of Fire and Air Force One, The Perfect Storm is slow going initially but quickly shifts into high gear as a psychotic weather system approaches. The center of the film revolves around the six-man crew of the swordfishing vessel, Andrea Gail. Members include, Bobby Shatford (played by Mark Wahlberg), Dale Murphy (played by John C. Reilly), David Sullivan (played by William Fichtner), Bugsy Moran (played by John Hawkes), Alfred Pierre (played by Allen Payne), Billy Tyne (played by George Clooney) is the captain.

Captain Tyne decides to take the boat out one last time for the season, and heads east past his usual fishing grounds to the Flemish Cap. The five crew members initially scoff at the idea but eventually agree as they need the money. The trip to the Flemish Cap goes well, however, bad weather is behind them, blocking their return route. Soon after, Tyne is encountering the roughest seas of his career - with enormous waves as the entire crew fight to survive.

The Feature: 3.5/5

Video:
I have to tell you, I was scouting through a few discs the other night, and had no plans to watch The Perfect Storm, but I at least wanted to pop it in for a brief inspection. More than two hours later, the film ended and I was thinking, wow! Where did the time go? TPS was one of my favorite HD experiences thus far. Again, the HD is a testament on how good the previous version was but the sharpness, color (and saturation) and density levels, are once again standouts here.

For me, shots just outside the club on the pier looked the most impressive here. With the hanging lights, boats tied up to the docks etc., had an impressive – and beautiful amount of texture and depth. Colors were vibrant and saturated perfectly. Skin tones looked real and accurate. Sharpness was better than the previous SD definition although not quite as sharp as I’ve witnessed on other HD discs – still, very impressive.

This 2.40:1 transfer looks excellent with no marks or blemishes to speak of. Authoring also seems to have handled to perfection as haloing was non-existent and there were no signs of compression errors.

Video: 8/10

Audio:
Like the video presentation, the The Dolby Digital Plus soundtrack is certainly a step up and offers a fairly aggressive track keeping viewers engrossed from start to finish – a definite improvement over the regular DD 5.1 track. Dialogue was always clear and bold – always intelligible and the track was free of noise or other bothersome distractions.

There was a satisfactorily wide soundstage and overall fidelity was also natural. There is a fair amount of heft and punch to this track – particularly in the final 1/3 of the film. Surrounds were employed with tact doing an effective job at delivering various effects and always keeping the viewer enveloped. LFE appears in abundance (again particularly in the final portion of the film) – outstanding bass response.

Scoring should be used as a guide and taken very lightly considering how few releases we’ve had to compare and assess how much room there is for these discs (and the format) to grow.

Audio: 8/10

Special Features:
Considering WB have ported the special features over from the previous SD version, it doesn’t take long to realize that this was a relatively early release – based on the content alone. Nowadays, such a release would be spread over two discs and called, “The Ultimate Drenched Edition”, or something along those lines. It seems we’re lucky to get a commentary and a trailer on new releases these days, so even though these are simply ported over (in standard definition), they are most welcome. The disc looks like this:

Supringsly, the disc contains Three Commentaries. In the first, Director Wolfgang Petersen with J.M. Kenney, next up features author Sebastian Junger, and a third commentary with visual effects supervisor Steen Fangmeier and visual effects producer Helen Ostenberg Elswit. As we might expect, the director involved commentary is the highlight here and the mostly screen specific commentary deals with various making-of concepts throughout the production. In the second feature, Junger’s enthusiasm shines through as he clearly has a great affinity for the film – the end result of his craft. The third and final commentary includes an abundance of information pertaining to the various special effects that were used to create certain scenes, a film whose balance relied totally on the effects.

Next up is a HBO First Look - Behind the Scenes, which is mini documentary that gives us a brief history of the actual storm and the effect it had on the town. Various interviews with cast & crew members are included.

The following special feature entitled, Witness to the Storm contains some interesting interviews with those who actually survived the event.

Creating an Emotion is a music feature which shines the spotlight on composer James Horner and his score which played on important role in the film and helped tremendously at keeping tension levels peaked throughout the film.

The next feature is Yours Forever; this is a music video performed by John Cougar Mellencamp.

The Theatrical Trailer also appears here and is in excellent condition.

And finally, rounding out the supplements is a DVD-ROM feature, if you’re so inclined.

Other than these appearing in HD, what more could we ask for…? Even then, I’m not all that concerned with the features appearing in HD – while that would the icing on the cake, my concerns lie with the best version of the film being made available. I appreciate though, there are those who wish to see these features in HD and I’m sure that day will come.

Special Features: 4.5/5

**Special Features rated for the quality of supplements, not the quantity. Video and Audio portions will be rated from 0-10. The remainder of the review will continue being rated from 0-5 (similar to SD DVD reviews). Since the ratings are not averaged, the final Overall Rating will be from 0-5.**

Final Thoughts:
The film, based on Sebastian Junger’s book, The Perfect Storm, is a running account of the devastation caused by the October 1991 weather system. The Perfect Storm won’t necessarily leave a lasting mark, however, excellent performances by all of those who appear and some well done CGI effects (which still hold their own to this day), make this film worthwhile viewing.

Trimmed with a healthy assortment of special features and one of the best looking HD DVD discs to surface thus far, all add up to a very easy recommendation.

Overall Rating: 4.5/5 (not an average)

Highly Recommended…!!

Release Date: June 6th, 2006

Andreas Wagner · 06-09-2006, 07:07 AM

Thank you, Mr. Kane, for your nice review. My copy is on the way and I'm looking forward to watching it soon!

Johannes S · 06-09-2006, 01:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Herb Kane

Colors were vibrant and saturated perfectly. Skin tones looked real and accurate. Sharpness was better than the previous SD definition although not quite as sharp as I’ve witnessed on other HD discs – still, very impressive.

This 2.40:1 transfer looks excellent with no marks or blemishes to speak of. Authoring also seems to have handled to perfection as haloing was non-existent and there were no signs of compression errors.

Sorry, Herb, but as concerns the transfer quality, I seriously have to contradict your review.

No doubt, the transfer doesn't look bad at all at first sight. But at closer look, the transfer is the same lemon as "The Fugitive" and "Full Metal Jacket".

Authored / mastered from an obvious 1080i source, it suffers again from unprofessional conversion to 1080p. The result really is everything else but impressive: Vertical filtering is obvious with reduced resolution and annoyingly blurred vertical lines. (Just look at the distorted vertical lines of sharp edges, like buildings or facial outlines at closeups.)

I DO NOT like this transfer. Warner should have put the native 1080i master on the disc without their unprofessional "bobbing" to create a fake 1080p master for authoring.

Just watch the stellar transfer of "Blazing Saddles" and you see how great even older films can look on HD when done right!

JohnS · 06-09-2006, 03:03 PM

Quote:

Authored / mastered from an obvious 1080i master, it suffers again from unprofessional conversion to 1080p. The result really is everything else but impressive: Vertical filtering is obvious with reduced resolution and annoyingly blurred vertical lines. (Just look at the distorted vertical lines of shap edges, like buildings or facial contures at closeups.)

I DO NOT like this transfer.

Well, looks like this is another HD DVD I won't be getting.
While I like to read reviews, I really hate to SOLEY rely on them EVERY time.
Makes my buying pattern so different

norrisMc · 06-09-2006, 06:22 PM

Thanks for the review Herb.

I really, really like this film.

Is the text supplements (cast and crew bios etc) on this "Drenched Edition HD-DVD"?

Shame about the 1080i mode. Hopefully this will be remedied (even on BluRay).

DIANE LANE is fab in this film. Her performance as Marky Mark's sorrowfilled girlfriend anchors the film and Diane's performance was heartbreaking I thought.

You think Herb? How bout those text supplements?

**HTF Ads**

Mark Zimmer · 06-09-2006, 08:32 PM

The text supplements and the conceptual art gallery and storyboards have gone missing for some reason.

Herb Kane · 06-09-2006, 11:46 PM

Quote:

The result really is everything else but impressive

Johannes S · 06-10-2006, 04:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Herb Kane

Like SD, I suspect our systems our going to play a major role in how these look in our own HT environments.

Sure, I agree with you on this, but this particular problem has nothing to do with the HT equipment used. It is only related to Warner's mastering problem.

Let us be more precise and not talk about "picture quality" in general. "The Fugitive" or "Perfect Storm" may look quite improved compared to the SD presentation - they simply have to, resolution-wise. Let us talk about this new kind of DIGITAL ARTIFACTING which troubles Warner's three releases: TPS, TF and FMJ:

The lack of an adequate 1080p master and Warner's unwise decision to interpolate the source to 1080p in order to create a "fake" 1080p transfer - and not using state-of-the-art technology to do so- shows annoying new transfer flaws, not known in this form until now.

I made some 4-8x magnified screen captures to show you the problem.

Look at the "saw-tooth"-like distorted vertical lines and the blurred vertical outlines. This is awful and it only affects the three titles mentioned above.