Michael Osadciw
Screenwriter
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2003
- Messages
- 1,457
- Real Name
- Michael Osadciw
Blu-ray Disc REVIEW
xXx
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Film Year: 2002
Film Length: 124 minutes
Genre: Action
Aspect Ratio:
2.40:1 Theatrical Ratio
Film Resolution: 1080/24p
Special features: 1080/24p
Video Codec: MPEG-2
Colour/B&W: Colour
Audio:
English Uncompressed Linear PCM 5.1 Surround
English
5.1 Surround
French
5.1 Surround
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese, Thai
Film Rating:
Release Date: AVAILABLE NOW
Film Rating: :star: :star: / :star: :star: :star: :star: :star:
Starring: Vin Diesel (Xander Cage), Asia Argento (Yelena), Marton Csokas (Yorgi), Samuel L. Jackson (Agent Augustus Gibbons)
Written by: Rich Wilkes
Directed by: Rob Cohen
If you want someone to save the world, make sure it’s someone who likes the world as it is.
Let’s see…what do I say about this asinine film? It starts off somewhat interesting and appears to be a film with some kind of cause or message based on Diesel’s character. But then the film becomes something unrealistic a quarter of the way as Vin Diesel (as Xavier Cage) is put through a series of trials by the U.S. government to see if he is the man to go on classified mission. Then, half way through the film, we find out his mission becomes one to save the world in a hokey James Bond kind of way. Instead of using all smarts, he uses his strength and attitude to gain trust in the criminal world without blowing his cover. The insane antagonist and the gizmos and gadgets are all there: it’s James Bond for Generation Y.
It’s not a film you can take seriously, but oddly enough the film’s opening makes you want to take it seriously. I guess that’s why I was so thrown off by the rest of the film. It offered a few good moments of action and many moments of laughable acting by Vin Diesel – at least I can give him points for trying. If you like a loud and action packed adventure with a simple Bond-style storyline then you’ll like this film. It wasn’t for me.
This is the 124-minute theatrical cut and not the 132-minute director’s cut.
VIDEO QUALITY 4/10 :star: :star: :star: :star:
I’ve decided to rank the video quality of these discs on a 1-10 scale. A Blu-Ray score of 5 will mean that it is similar to the best-looking DVD I can think of and the remaining 5-10 will be based on the extended resolution of Blu-Ray disc. I think this is the best way to rank these titles for now so I hope this will help you to determine what a reference HD disc is. As more BDs become available and authoring improves (as was in the early DVD days) the earliest titles I’ve ranked as “10” may not appear as “reference quality” anymore. Please note that I’m currently viewing this on a 1280x720 projector and I’m not even able to see half of the 1920x1080 information on this disc. In the simplest terms, instead of seeing 6x the resolution of DVD I’m only seeing 2.6x the improvement. Our display devices have a long way to go before we can see all of the picture information contained on these discs. This disc was reviewed on the Samsung BD-P1000 on a 35-foot Monster M1000HDMI to a calibrated PT-AE700 (6500K/5400K-B&W). The screen is a D110" (8-foot wide) Da-Lite Cinema Contour (w.Pro-Trim finish) and Da-Mat fabric.
XXX was one of the first discs released on the Blu-ray format and it looks like hell for HD. The quality of the print is extremely variable. Some shots look very out of focus and look no better than SD-DVD (in fact I’ve seen SD-DVD look better) and other shots within the same scene benefited from HD’s high resolution. I found the inconsistency in image quality very distracting and couldn’t help but think why Sony even bothered to release this title. As one of the first BD titles, I question why Sony pictures would start with a film that was so soft, blurry, and dull looking.
I would be nice and give the disc a passing grade if it were equal to the best looking DVD, but the rest of the image, even when it did look HD, suffered from other problems. In many shots, black level is poor to the point that many scenes looked washed out. Compare it to increasing the ‘brightness’ control on your television and you’ll know what I mean. The range of colours is equally unimpressive giving the image a dull, lifeless look when comparing it to other modern-day films. There is still some life in the picture though because some scenes can look good - but just not good enough for me.
Like the much-dreaded Blu-ray edition of The Fifth Element, XXX’s print is also full of dirt artefacts, grain, and even mosquito noise. This is 100% unacceptable for a product that is supposed to be high calibre.
The aspect ratio is 2.40:1.
PCM AUDIO EXPERIENCE: 6.5/10 :star: :star: :star: :star: :star: :star: :star:
DOLBY DIGITAL AUDIO EXPERIENCE: 6/10 :star: :star: :star: :star: :star: :star: :star:
For the sake of consistency with the video, I’m going to rate uncompressed PCM (and eventually the lossless audio compression formats when available), as well as lossy codecs from Dolby Digital and DTS on a scale from 1-10. This rating is based on “satisfaction” – the highest score delivering the greatest amount of satisfaction and the lowest delivering the least. When defining satisfaction, I mean both the resolution of the audio as well as the sound design for the film. I’m listening for the best experience possible. Audio is reviewed using the Samsung BD-P1000’s decoding & DACs, a Marantz SR5400 for preamp/pass-through, 2 Anthem MCA-30 amps each on Transparent PowerLink Super, Dunlavy SC-IV (front), Dunlavy SC-I (center), Focus Audio FC-50 (surrounds), Mirage BPS-400 subwoofer (LFE), 4 Paradigm PW-2200 subwoofers on 2 Mirage LFX-3 crossovers (one sub for each main channel for audio
xXx
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Film Year: 2002
Film Length: 124 minutes
Genre: Action
Aspect Ratio:
2.40:1 Theatrical Ratio
Film Resolution: 1080/24p
Special features: 1080/24p
Video Codec: MPEG-2
Colour/B&W: Colour
Audio:
English Uncompressed Linear PCM 5.1 Surround
English
5.1 SurroundFrench
5.1 SurroundSubtitles: English, English SDH, French, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese, Thai
Film Rating:
Release Date: AVAILABLE NOW
Film Rating: :star: :star: / :star: :star: :star: :star: :star:
Starring: Vin Diesel (Xander Cage), Asia Argento (Yelena), Marton Csokas (Yorgi), Samuel L. Jackson (Agent Augustus Gibbons)
Written by: Rich Wilkes
Directed by: Rob Cohen
If you want someone to save the world, make sure it’s someone who likes the world as it is.
Let’s see…what do I say about this asinine film? It starts off somewhat interesting and appears to be a film with some kind of cause or message based on Diesel’s character. But then the film becomes something unrealistic a quarter of the way as Vin Diesel (as Xavier Cage) is put through a series of trials by the U.S. government to see if he is the man to go on classified mission. Then, half way through the film, we find out his mission becomes one to save the world in a hokey James Bond kind of way. Instead of using all smarts, he uses his strength and attitude to gain trust in the criminal world without blowing his cover. The insane antagonist and the gizmos and gadgets are all there: it’s James Bond for Generation Y.
It’s not a film you can take seriously, but oddly enough the film’s opening makes you want to take it seriously. I guess that’s why I was so thrown off by the rest of the film. It offered a few good moments of action and many moments of laughable acting by Vin Diesel – at least I can give him points for trying. If you like a loud and action packed adventure with a simple Bond-style storyline then you’ll like this film. It wasn’t for me.
This is the 124-minute theatrical cut and not the 132-minute director’s cut.
VIDEO QUALITY 4/10 :star: :star: :star: :star:I’ve decided to rank the video quality of these discs on a 1-10 scale. A Blu-Ray score of 5 will mean that it is similar to the best-looking DVD I can think of and the remaining 5-10 will be based on the extended resolution of Blu-Ray disc. I think this is the best way to rank these titles for now so I hope this will help you to determine what a reference HD disc is. As more BDs become available and authoring improves (as was in the early DVD days) the earliest titles I’ve ranked as “10” may not appear as “reference quality” anymore. Please note that I’m currently viewing this on a 1280x720 projector and I’m not even able to see half of the 1920x1080 information on this disc. In the simplest terms, instead of seeing 6x the resolution of DVD I’m only seeing 2.6x the improvement. Our display devices have a long way to go before we can see all of the picture information contained on these discs. This disc was reviewed on the Samsung BD-P1000 on a 35-foot Monster M1000HDMI to a calibrated PT-AE700 (6500K/5400K-B&W). The screen is a D110" (8-foot wide) Da-Lite Cinema Contour (w.Pro-Trim finish) and Da-Mat fabric.
XXX was one of the first discs released on the Blu-ray format and it looks like hell for HD. The quality of the print is extremely variable. Some shots look very out of focus and look no better than SD-DVD (in fact I’ve seen SD-DVD look better) and other shots within the same scene benefited from HD’s high resolution. I found the inconsistency in image quality very distracting and couldn’t help but think why Sony even bothered to release this title. As one of the first BD titles, I question why Sony pictures would start with a film that was so soft, blurry, and dull looking.
I would be nice and give the disc a passing grade if it were equal to the best looking DVD, but the rest of the image, even when it did look HD, suffered from other problems. In many shots, black level is poor to the point that many scenes looked washed out. Compare it to increasing the ‘brightness’ control on your television and you’ll know what I mean. The range of colours is equally unimpressive giving the image a dull, lifeless look when comparing it to other modern-day films. There is still some life in the picture though because some scenes can look good - but just not good enough for me.
Like the much-dreaded Blu-ray edition of The Fifth Element, XXX’s print is also full of dirt artefacts, grain, and even mosquito noise. This is 100% unacceptable for a product that is supposed to be high calibre.
The aspect ratio is 2.40:1.
PCM AUDIO EXPERIENCE: 6.5/10 :star: :star: :star: :star: :star: :star: :star:
DOLBY DIGITAL AUDIO EXPERIENCE: 6/10 :star: :star: :star: :star: :star: :star: :star:
For the sake of consistency with the video, I’m going to rate uncompressed PCM (and eventually the lossless audio compression formats when available), as well as lossy codecs from Dolby Digital and DTS on a scale from 1-10. This rating is based on “satisfaction” – the highest score delivering the greatest amount of satisfaction and the lowest delivering the least. When defining satisfaction, I mean both the resolution of the audio as well as the sound design for the film. I’m listening for the best experience possible. Audio is reviewed using the Samsung BD-P1000’s decoding & DACs, a Marantz SR5400 for preamp/pass-through, 2 Anthem MCA-30 amps each on Transparent PowerLink Super, Dunlavy SC-IV (front), Dunlavy SC-I (center), Focus Audio FC-50 (surrounds), Mirage BPS-400 subwoofer (LFE), 4 Paradigm PW-2200 subwoofers on 2 Mirage LFX-3 crossovers (one sub for each main channel for audio
