Not only does Monsters, Inc. feature fantastic animation, it's one of Pixar's best stories, too. While the film was being made, California was subject to rolling blackouts due to Enron's manipulation of the energy market, so it's only fitting that the wizards at the studio came up with this wonderful story about powering Monstropolis with the screams of children. I love this movie, and its treatment on Blu-ray is exceptional in both the audio and video departments, with meticulous attention to detail and first-class sound design.
Winner of six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Forrest Gump was the second-best film of 1994 in my opinion, right behind The Shawshank Redemption. Regardless, Paramount's third entry in its Sapphire Series is a hit with outstanding audio and video and a kick-ass DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack.
When Carl Sagan wrote Contact, he framed it in the context of a feature film, and it shows. Where most sci-fi flicks rely on wiz-bang special effects and evil alien invaders, this one is story-driven and has a firm grasp on real science. The video encode is solid, but it's the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack that steals the show with an immersive surround experience, first-rate frequency response, and superlative dynamic range.
The head of Disney Animation, John Lasseter, once said, "From the beginning, I kept saying it's not the technology that's going to entertain audiences, it's the story. When you go and see a really great live-action film, you don't walk out and say 'that new Panavision camera was staggering; it made the film so good.' The computer is a tool, and it's in the service of the story."
After a hiatus from horror to make the three Spiderman movies, writer/director Sam Raimi returns to the genre. I'm not a fan of horror films, but given the dearth of review material on my desk right now, I thought I would give Drag Me to Hell a spin. The story is average, but the video and audio were so good, they kept me watching until the end—a rarity with horror films!
The American Film Institute's #10 film of all time makes its glorious debut on Blu-ray. Warner has done a marvelous restoration job, as UAV Editor Scott Wilkinson explains in 
One of the most eagerly awaited titles makes its debut on Blu-ray with Paramount's new brand—Sapphire Series—promising the pinnacle in both picture and sound. Unfortunately, Gladiator only fulfills half the promise—the audio is outstanding, but the video is a shameful example of using an older master not fit for HD release.
Simon Pegg's and Edgar Writt's ode to buddy-cop films was one of the best-looking HD DVDs ever released, and Universal has actually improved things on Blu-ray. Both VC-1 encodes are flawless, but the audio is improved with a kick-ass DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack on the Blu-ray version. The surround channels are extremely active, the bass rocks, and the dialog sounds as if the actors are sitting in the room.
This is a gritty story of a small town boy, Shawn MacArthur (Channing Tatum), who becomes a street-fighting star in New York City's underground circuit thanks to the help of scam artist Harvey Boarden (Terrence Howard). The first act showed some promise, but ultimately, continuity issues and poor plot choices knock out what could have been an interesting story. What kept me intrigued was the excellent VC-1 encode, with deep blacks, amazing dimensionality, and revealing shadow detail.
Washington, D.C., reporter Cal McCaffrey (Russell Crowe) stumbles into a cover-up that threatens to shake the nation's power structure when a congressman's aide dies in an apparent suicide and buried secrets come out in the investigation.
The Cylons were created by man to make life easier in the Twelve Colonies, but things didn't work out so well for the humans. The "toasters" turned on their masters by orchestrating a sneak attack to eradicate the human race. Although the show is mostly a dialog-driven drama, there are a lot of intense action scenes that offer many demo-worthy audio moments throughout its four seasons.
Los Angeles Times newspaper columnist Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.) discovers a brilliant but homeless street musician (Jamie Foxx) with a Julliard education. The man clearly has some psychological issues, but a unique bond of friendship develops between the two men that transforms both of their lives.
Las Vegas taxi driver Jack Bruno (Dwayne Johnson) sets off on the adventure of a lifetime when two mysterious teens ask him to drive them deep into the Nevada desert. But his young passengers are no ordinary teens—siblings Sara (AnnaSophia Robb) and Seth (Alexander Ludwig) are aliens from another universe with astonishing supernatural abilities. Jack becomes a reluctant hero as he expertly evades the authorities while trying to infiltrate Witch Mountain, a shadowy government outpost devoted to studying UFOs.
When tragedy brings fugitive ex-con Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) back to Los Angeles, his long-dormant feud with FBI agent Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) threatens to reignite—until they discover a common enemy. Unfortunately, this film is about six years too late—Vin Diesel should have been in the first sequel rather than skipping to the third—but it's quite the demo showpiece. The video encode has excellent shadow detail with bright colors, and the first-rate DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio track exhibits outstanding surround imaging and impressive frequency response.
From the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas comes another visually stunning, stop-motion animated feature—the first to be shot using stereoscopic 3D. Although the 3D experience doesn't translate well to Blu-ray, the 2D feature is amazingly clear with inky blacks and phenomenal contrast. The detail on the miniature sets looks surprisingly lifelike, from the fabric used for curtains to the textures of the characters' clothing and even their expressions. The audio track doesn't take a back seat to the video, either, featuring demo-worthy surround imaging.
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