The Salton Sea is a 2002 neo-noir thriller starring Val Kilmer and direct by D.J. Caruso, I decided to take a look at the iTunes HD version after receiving a e-mail request to do a review. The film is of course not blu-ray….

Where it all begins, screenshot from the iTunes HD version of ‘The Salton Sea’

Due to the nature of the film, I can’t really outline the plot without spoiling it. I hadn’t actually seen it before I decided to review it here but in summary: despite a promising trailer, I found the film itself is a bit of a muddle: mixing clashing tones and textures, as well as using both a voice-over and flashback as framing mechanisms. It’s all a bit much.

Critically, the film was about equally bashed and praised. And though it didn’t do much box office (less than a million on a budget of eighteen), though that didn’t seem to hurt D.J. Curuso’s career one little bit.

The Salton Sea iTunes HD Review

Tweakers in full flow.

The Salton Sea iTunes 1080p HD download clocks in at 4.3 GB. The aspect ratio is approximately 1.77:1 and has both English Stereo AAC and Dolby Digital 5.1 audio tracks.

Video bitrate is at an average 5.1 Mbps, which is fairly standard for iTunes, with peak bitrate of around 12Mbps. Video quality is fair to poor: There are noticable artifacts present on several occasions (notable the first fade-in), and I suspect the 1080p version has been upscaled from 720p due to jaggies on the titles and credits text. Grain appears to have been reduced, possibly because of the bit-rate starved encode.

I do not have a DVD copy of the film to hand, so it’s hard to say for certainty if the color-correction fairy has been at work, but nothing jumped out at me as looking out of place in a 2002 feature.

iTunes 1080p Screenshots

Yes. That’s really Val Kilmer playing the trumpet in ‘The Salton Sea’.

Tattoos abound.

Val Kilmer in The Salton Sea

Conclusion

Not a film I’m likely to revisit, The Salton Sea on iTunes HD earns two out of five due to up-scaled video, a general lack of grain and visible artifacting. If you are looking for early noughties neo-noir that you haven’t seen I’d recommend ‘Way of the Gun‘, ‘The Limey‘ or ‘The Man Who Wasn’t There‘ and perhaps ‘Requiem for a Dream‘.