Blu-ray Review HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: Sunshine (1 Viewer)

[Michael Osadciw]

Blu-ray Disc Review

 

[Kyle McKnight]

I'll wait for a deal before picking this up. Thanks for your time!

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I'm with you Joseph!

I never saw this film theatrically. I am intrigued enough to buy it
blindly, but at the exorbitant prices that are being charged for a BR
release like this, I'm just going to have to pass.

For those that saw it, was this film good?

 

[Sam Davatchi]

This is an excellent film and I will purchase it on BD as soon as possible. And for the record, I didn't enjoy "Solaris" and "Event Horizon" when I saw them. (things and people change. I don't know how I would feel if I see them today)

 

[Jim_K]

This statement really has me scatching my head since the pricing on this is pretty much in line with any other BR and HD DVD new release film. How is this exorbitant compared to any other new release by any other studio except Warner and Disney?

I'd assume you also consider Universal and Paramounts new release HD DVD pricing exorbitant correct?

For example:

(Fox BR) Sunshine MSRP $39.98 Amazon $27.95
(Universal HD DVD) Eastern Promises MSRP $39.98 Amazon $27.95
(Paramount HD DVD) Zodiac MSRP $39.98 Amazon $27.95
(Warner BR and HD DVD) The Assassination of Jesse James MSRP $35.99 Amazon $24.95
(Sony BR) Accross the Universe $38.96 Amazon $26.95
(Disney BR) Gone Baby Gone $34.99 Amazon $23.95

And FWIW I watched this last night and I enjoyed it. As with any film I'd recommend to anyone else rent it first. I don't want to get blamed for wasting $28 of someone else's money which could go to a pizza and 12-pack of beer instead.

 

[Shane Martin]

I agree with Jim. I paid $29 for my copy. Sam's had it for $27. Combo discs are atleast that much around here.

I liked the film and completely disagree with the scores given above. Those are WAY WAY to low.

The 3rd act was a letdown but it still doesn't diminish how good I thought the film was.

Crazy people is certainly understandable after all they were in space for a bunch of time. It hasn't been tracked yet on how long a man/woman can spend in space before the mental aspects of it take over.

 

[Frank L]

I am sorry but this is a somewhat disappointing review.

The film itself is excellent, one of the better sci-fi movies I've seen in the last two or three years. Danny Boyle did a really good job with this one.

I thought the video and the sound were pretty good as well. The blacks are fine, honestly, though there is some noticeable noise here and there. Also, you have to remember that this is a stylized film, so it's bound to look a bit different.

As for the special features, I agree that the PiP is a bit too short, but I thought the commentary tracks were good, specially the second one featuring Dr. Brian Cox, he was really engaging I thought.

As for the price... come on guys, what exactly do you want? You want to buy the movie for 10 bucks? I picked up mine from Amazon for $27.95 and I think that's a darn good price.

F

 

[PatWahlquist]

In his audio review, Mike O. writes:
"It’s best described as letting free a mad pit bull to jump up and tear you apart while the rest of the world seems perfectly comfortable in not getting involved with the loose cannon."

That is the single most exciting description of an audio track I've ever read!!

Mike, you were talking about the DTS-MA track, right?

Since we seemed to be starved for any sci-fi movies these days, I'm happy to pick this one up blindly. It seems any sci-fi pick must also have monsters or be horrific. What happened to the strict sci-fi story? I'm not saying I want a new The Black Hole, but there's gotta be another Blade Runner out there!

 

[WillG]

I may just have to suck it up and buy. I am also intrigued but I don't feel like waiting the 10 years for the BD to become available at Netflix

 

[Michael Osadciw]

Hi Shane

Since we all have A/V systems that reveal different aspects of the sound and image, there will be varying opinions about the quality of presentation especially when each person has their own set of criteria. While the gear used in my system has evolved in a steady upwards direction over the past five years here as a reviewer, my criteria has stayed consistent so I feel my scores reflect that consistency. A score of 3.5 will still deliver an excellent presentation.

Interesting point about spending time in space; I read an article earlier this year that they are preparing to put about 6-8 people (volunteers) in a closed scenerio for about 3 years to mimic that of a mission to Mars. It's a simulated mission of course, and they want to see what it will do to people (especially between men and women) over such a long travel with minimal contact with Earth. Would people go crazy? It probably won't be for everyone, just as the ending of this film isn't. I just found it a cop-out for an otherwise well produced film.

Pat - thanks for the comments Re: the audio. I thought the analogy worked well! ...and yes, that was describing the core of the DTS-HDMA encoding.

Enjoy guys!
Mike

 

[JonZ]

The image kind of varies.

There are some shots like when theyre in the control room that are muted.

A couple scenes later when theyre in the greenhouse room that the colors pop of the screen - especially the greens and blues.

The ship itself is kind of cold, but there are vibrant colors around it, the control panels, the sunprotecting suits, the sun itself.

The first hour is the most perfect scifi could could ask for - and everyone who sees it will have to decide if the last 30 minutes work for them.

Well worth owning IMHO.

 

[dave wright]

Im glad this was a rental for me.
Tho borrowing from Alien,2001 etc SUNSHINE does not come close to the suspense,storylines and thrills that those films offer.The eye and ear candy offered up by SUNSHINE are substantial,but at this blu rays price tag im glad i rented.

 

[Felix Martinez]

I was very pleased with the A/V quality. The film itself...at first it aspires to be "serious" sci-fi and shoots for Kubrick's 2001 but falls short and settles into orbit around Hyam's 2010. Then in the third act it completely goes off course and becomes a pretentious shadow of Event Horizon. I was really, really disappointed - considering it started with such promise.

 

[Felix Martinez]

I rec'd my Netflix copy a few nights ago.

 

[loganhunter2002]

Couldn't agree with you more. The movie had some promising moments at the beginning but then it sucked big time.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I have to agree, this one is a rental only. Not one I would watch again and does not even have the replay value of a 2010. The acting is so-so and the drama is forced. It does look pretty good some of the time and the director did study other popular sci-fi flicks and has plenty of cutaways to the exterior of the ship for no other reason than to show it off and because all the characters are poorly written it does become one of those films where the only interesting thing about them is how they are killed off. Pretty much it seemed like they had less of a sci-fi story and more of a 12 Little Indians story as that is what this is.

 

[Michael Osadciw]

I was trying to find a nice way of saying this in the review and the words couldn't come to mind...so I just dropped the comment altogether. Thanks for saying what I couldn't manage to do!

Mike

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I thought your review was great, Mike. This was a film I had been very interested in seeing and happened to be visiting my brother and he had rented it. So we watched it and I was pretty much not impressed and I was going to blind buy this one so I'm glad I did not. I mean the scene where two of them have to leave the ship to fix a panel was designed just to get them outside the ship so they could show you what a cool ship they had designed. The way this film was cut was just terrible, in my opinion, and it seemed the director had no feel for sci-fi. The characters are just cardboard cut-outs and there is nothing interesting about any of them. So he just kept showing the characters inside the ship and then boom...cut to an exterior shot to show off our cool ship again. There was no flow to the thing and it seemed to jump from one thing to the next with random bits stuck here or there. It was sort of like a really dull, poorly edited version of Event Horizon, which for the record I was not real crazy about either but at least I'd watch Event Horizon again.

I like a good sci-fi flick but it seems they just are not making them much anymore.