Tag Archives: Blu-Ray

Fight Club Compared: Blu-rays vs iTunes HD vs D-VHS vs DVD vs Laserdisc

Caustic, nihilistic and controversial, Fight Club successfully adapted Chuck Palahniuk’s transgressive fiction novel, it’s a credit to screenwriter Jim Uhl’s excellent adaptation that the voice of the original novel is heard so clearly, and at the same time the film proved to be an enormous success. Though much credit is also due to the excellent sound and editing: so much in this film depends on hitting exactly the right tone.

Based on a reader suggestion, I decided to take a look at the various home video versions of Fight Club that are available.

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Spirited Away - Blu-ray

Spirited Away – Japanese Blu-ray Review

Spirited Away, in my opinion at least, is Hayao Miyazaki’s magnum opus, and having only been released on Japanese Blu-ray a few months back, I decided to give it a quick review. ‘Spirited Away’ (千と千尋の神隠し ‘Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi’) was released in 2001 to universal critical and commercial success. A heroes-journey tale of a timid girl whose family is sucked into a magical world, where she must struggle to save both herself and her parents. The original Japanese (and other Asian-region) DVD releases had several issues most noticeably a strong red/pink tint, as well as window-boxing the image substantially on all four sides. The US DVD release largely addressed these issues, although the image was a little red.

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Witness 1985 title

Witness – Japanese/Italian Blu-ray vs iTunes HD

Witness - watch your back - Bluray top itunes middile dvd bottom

Witness is a 1985 Amishsploitation-thriller staring Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis and directed by Peter Weir. Three writers share credit: William Kelley, Pamela Wallace and Earl W. Wallace. Winning Oscars for its screenplay and editing as well as opening the Cannes film-festival, and being the eighth highest grossing film in the US in 1985, the film was a commercial and critical success. It is not yet available on Blu-Ray in the US, though international editions (which are basically the same disc) are available. I thought I’d compare the Blu-Ray with the iTunes 1080p edition to see which is worth your time.

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