'Rescue Dawn' - High-Def Digest review

[jed]

Kenneth's review of 'Rescue Dawn' is up. He says this one's quite strong as a Blu-ray release, boasting an excellent video transfer, a convincing DTS HD MA audio track and a nice collection of supplemental features.

Full review here:
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/1167/rescuedawn.html

[The Bandit]

Kenneth --

Is purple fringing around high contrast shots visible in the Blu-ray edition?

Specifically, the helicopter against the sky towards the end of the film. The sky is washed-out white in that shot and the chopper is almost silouhette, but there was a severe amount of purple fringing in the theatrical presentation.

[aske]

looks awesome, is it region free?

[DrMaustus]

I'm going to get this movie. Since I'm new to the Blu scene, how will my PS3 handle the DTS HD MA audio track? It's my understanding that the PS3 can't decode this natively yet. Am I right to assume it'll just send it out as PCM?

Thanks.

[Ken Brown]

Originally Posted by The Bandit

Kenneth --

Is purple fringing around high contrast shots visible in the Blu-ray edition?

Specifically, the helicopter against the sky towards the end of the film. The sky is washed-out white in that shot and the chopper is almost silouhette, but there was a severe amount of purple fringing in the theatrical presentation.

I just went back and revisited a few high-contrast scenes in 'Rescue Dawn.' I definitely didn't catch any severe purple fringing, even when I scoured the last ten minutes of the film. I caught a very minimal amount here and there, but it's tough to tell what's fringing and what's a trick of the eye when you're staring at high contrast edges for several minutes. Either way, there isn't a significant amount that would detract from the image quality.

For anyone worrying, take a breath. The slight purple fringing we're discussing would be attributed to the original print -- not the Blu-ray transfer. For those of you asking yourself, "what's purple fringing?" Check out this page on Wikipedia for a decent explanation and some photos that illustrate the effect:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_fringing

Thanks as always for posting!

[The Bandit]

Ken,

Thanks for the reply. It probably stuck out in my mind because I arrived late to the showing and ended up sitting way up front for the film when I saw it this summer. I'm pretty sensitive to the effect from encountering it in digital photography (I have an old, cheap 135mm f/2.5 lens that is a purlple fringing machine).

I was pretty shocked to see it, and at first thought it might be a case of the film being shot digitally (it wasn't; it was a 35mm shoot), but more likely it was a combination of the angle of the shot, the light that day, and perhaps poor multicoating on the lens that was on the camera.

It was only in two or three shots that I can remember; certainly no reason not to pick up the film. I was just curious to see if they had cleaned up it at all (it's relatively easy to do on a digital photo, would take some frame-by-frame detail work to do on a motion picture).

DeepDiscount hasn't shipped out my order with the disc yet, but I'll definitely give it a look when it arrives.

Thanks,

Jim

[Josh Z]

Originally Posted by DrMaustus

I'm going to get this movie. Since I'm new to the Blu scene, how will my PS3 handle the DTS HD MA audio track? It's my understanding that the PS3 can't decode this natively yet. Am I right to assume it'll just send it out as PCM?

The PS3 will extract the standard DTS "core" from a Master Audio track.

[taygan315]

I watched this movie this past weekend and I have to say I thought it was an excellent movie. I was very impressed with the pq. This movie is a great example of just because it may not do that well in the box office, does not mean it is a bad movie. Oscar nod for Bale,imho.

[Texan1976]

I agree with everything written in this review. It was a blind buy for me, and I was very happy with the choice!

[rmoody]

Damn, this makes me want a PS3! Any hope of a HD import?

[Emoney7]

This was a blind buy for me as well, it paid off....... Bale and Zahn were incredible, always a fan of Bale and I like Zahn in comedy, zahn deffinetly surprised me, I sincerely hope he gets a Supporting actor nod for his role.

[Texan1976]

Originally Posted by rmoody

Damn, this makes me want a PS3! Any hope of a HD import?

I'm not sure, to be honest.

Just go format neutral! I'm going to do it. It seems as if they're the only ones enjoying themselves and who aren't huge jerks to everyone else!

[mosman22]

Why isn't this disc avaible on blu ray from Netflix. I had it in my queue for months as a blu ray. THen a couple weeks before its release it inexplicably changed to dvd. There is now no option to switch the format from DVD. Whats the deal? Does anyone know how to complain to Netflix. It seems very hard to get in touch with them.

I saw this film in the theatres and absoluty loved it, i want my girl to watch it now. I just can't rent the sd dvd when i know the blu version is avaible. Despite loving the film, it just doesn't have the replay value IMO to warrant a purchase. I pay for Netflix so i don't have to buy every new release, that is the whole point. If they don't get it soon, I will probably just cave and buy the stupid thing. DAMM YOU NETFLIX!

[BostonMA]

yes!!! i cannot wait until tomorrow (when it comes in the mail from amazon). christian bale IS my favorite actor and i was dying to see this movie but it never came to the two theatres near me, so i was hoping for the best, for it to come out on blu-ray, not just dvd in a short amount of time.

I GOT MY WISH BITCHES, NOW I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE DARK KNIGHT!!!!!

YYYYYYEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!

[cooltobeyou]

Just got this in the mail today, and I can't wait to watch this again. This is a 5 out of 5 star film for me, and the performances alone make this one worth owning.

I highly agree with the PQ portion of this review as well. I remember that the first few minutes of this film looked very grainy in the theater as well, and that was definitely the directors intentions. Overall though, I didn't really expect this movie to be demo level material, so I'm very pleased with a 4 star transfer