'Without a Paddle' - High-Def Digest Review

[Attebery]

Please extend a belated welcome to M. Enois Duarte. I don't know if he's an 'Entourage' fan, but his internet handle is "E."

Today E has reviewed the comedy 'Without a Paddle.' Aside from a thunderstorm sequence, he is not a fan. This Blu-ray offers an upgrade from the DVD, but video and audio are lacking. This is for fans. Non-fans? You can skip it!

Full review here:
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/2135/withoutpaddle.html

[project-blu]

(technically this is the second serving of E, as he covered the Watchmen: Motion Comic as well)

[Attebery]

That's why it's belated. I totally blanked on the formalities in the rush to get his first review published.

[project-blu]

ahh...touche. i'll shut up now.

[fred48442]

Who ever reviewed the DVD has missed the fact that this movie IS a sleeper hit! It bombed at the theater"s and has had a great DVD response. Yes stupid at times, however it can sure bring several chuckles to anyone.

[D_Strasse]

I'll agree with Fred, this ain't high art (see what I did there) but I was pleasantly enough amused to not regret the rental.

Never a purchase for me, but I would watch it on cable if it was on.

[eNoize]

yes, Without a Paddle has gained a small following over its short life, but I would hardly call it a sleeper hit. And why bother mentioning it in the review, when it doesn't change anything. The movie is still poor.

By recommending it for fans, I'd like to think I'm acknowledging its following and suggesting any one with interest to give it a rent first due to the disappointing video and audio.

When it comes to comedies, opinions will vary tremendously. For example: my wife actually enjoyed Without a Paddle and thinks I scored it too low; but Friday makes me laugh and she thinks it's one of the dumbest movies around.

Oh, well. We still enjoyed each others company.

[Hi-Def Steve]

I remember seeing this on cable and actually liking it. I'll get it for cheap eventually.

[abintra]

Might be worth adding to the review the reports of lip synch issues, possibly more noticeable on some players versus others.

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/37490/without-a-paddle/

Yikes. This is Creed Bratton-grade quality control: there are a couple of stretches in this 24-bit Dolby TrueHD track where its dialogue falls really far out of sync, leaving it looking less like a five year old studio comedy and more like Gamera's about to stomp all over Tokyo. You'd think someone would...y'know, watch the movie before however many tens of thousands of Blu-ray discs were churned out, but...guess not. Even if you shrug that off -- which you really shouldn't -- this isn't that great a track anyway.

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/movies...32&show=review

Unfortunately, there is a lip synch issue that plagues a small part of the track. First noted around the 19-minute mark, dialogue is clearly a good half-second ahead of mouth movements. The disc was ejected from the player and re-inserted for verification, and the problem remained. A second copy of the film verified the problem. The issue appears much more prominent on a Panasonic BD-30 test machine but was also evident on a PlayStation 3 running the most recent firmware, though to such a lesser extent where it may not have even been noticed had the problem not occurred with the Panasonic. On both machines, the problem does not remain throughout the entirety of the film.

http://www.dvdtown.com/reviews/blu-r...-paddle/6971/2

I had a bit of a problem with the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 sound. During several scenes I found the synchronization of words and lips was off. I switched to the commentary track, which is in Dolby Digital stereo, and it worked fine. Then, thinking it might be my Panasonic BD50 player, I threw in a couple of other Blu-ray discs with TrueHD tracks, and they worked fine. But when I replayed the same offending moments in "Without a Paddle," voices were still out of sync. I dunno. Anyway, the problem quickly went away as the movie progressed, only to reappear later on. Odd, and something I've never experienced before.