"Smokin' Aces"... (1 Viewer)

[Jonny P]

Has anyone seen this DVD yet?

I saw the movie in theaters, but was wondering how the disc looks.

(After a couple of poor looking SD offerings from Warners recently, I wanted to make sure that Universal hadn't followed suit before I purchased)

 

[willh51]

From just glancing at my rented copy, I would say it looks and sounds very good. Universal has been turning out excellent transfers lately (Children of Men, Miami Vice, Good Shepherd) so I think you'd be okay with this one. A good number of features too.

 

[ChristianB]

Love the film, haven't watched my DVD yet. For some strange reason Best Buy (here in town - up here in Canada) is charging $2 MORE for the Widescreen version. :rolleyes

 

[Jonny P]

Odd.

I purchased the boxed version from Best Buy in the U.S. with the playing cards.

I have watched part of the movie and the transfer does indeed look very good (really captures the pumped up color and contrast in many of the scenes) -- looks great on my 37-inch HD set. There are also some nice extras.

Ever since my purchases of "Happy Feet" and "The Departed" (both WB films), I have been getting gun shy about SD releases.

However, this one really is an excellent example of what standard def DVDs can offer consumers.

BTW...I thought this movie was a lot of fun.

 

[NovaBlitz]

Circuit City has both fullscreen and widescreen for 14.99 right now.

 

[Felix Martinez]

I know what you mean. I now hesitate picking up or event renting new WB titles and await the reviews and feedback. Just tired of wasting time and money. Never thought I'd say that about WB titles. I'm still in disbelief.

Universal titles have not exhibited the same compression issues as the newer WB releases.

 

[Jonny P]

I agree.

Odd that WB (typically one of the best studios for transfers in the past) would have such shoddy looking releases as of late.

I had initially thought that maybe this was due to the fact that they were making the double-sided HD-DVD/SD-DVD releases -- and compressed the SD transfer more to get it to "fit" in that format.

However, Universal does the "combo format" and their SD only releases still look very nice.

Studios can (if they want to) make really nice SD-DVDs. "Flushed Away" (from Dreamworks Animation) really is one of the finest looking transfers I have seen lately -- a real contrast to "Happy Feet" from WB.

Anyhow...

I am happy that the "Smokin' Aces" transfer looks good in presenting its source material.

I just hate having to be "leery" of the transfer quality of a format that has had almost 10 years to perfect itself.