Warner Brothers has recently released a number of Bluray "triple features", which are available at pretty decent prices. The Martin Scorsese Triple Feature contains The Departed (2006), GoodFellas (1990), and The Aviator (2004), with each film on an individual Bluray disc. Be assured, the three films are not jammed on a single disc.The quality of these films is widely recognized. Martin Scorsese (Cape Fear, Casino, Raging Bull) won an Academy Award for Best Director for The Departed, and the film won the Oscar for Best Film in 2006. Goodfellas might be an even more highly regarded crime drama, and based on the life of Howard Hughes, The Aviator is also a critically acclaimed work.
I got this collection at Amazon for only ten bucks, at the initial offering. The price has since increased, but if you don't own any of the films, this three Bluray set is still a pretty good deal, as there is some savings over buying the titles separately. The Blurays are not "movie only" editions, as they each contain commentaries and other bonus material. The Aviator in particular, is fully loaded with extras. While each of the films looks great, The Aviator is particularly vibrant and colorful. As the oldest among the films, Goodfellas might be less sharp visually, presented in 1.85:1, while the other two films are 2.4:1 letterboxed.
I also ordered the Austin Powers Bluray Triple Feature for $10, which was another cool deal. The prices of most of the other WB triple features has also increased, but if you check around, there could still be some pretty good deals to be found.
'The Departed' is a film that I did not have on Standard Def but have seen before. The transfer to Blu Ray exhibited no artificial grain or aliasing that I could see. The color resolution tends to be a touch muted matching the ambiance of the streets that Scorsese relates to. While I am sure there is a slight improvement over the Standard Def version's video, I doubt that it is very much. The average bit rate is pretty low showing the increased compression akin to a Standard Def version. While the Audio is PCM lossless, there is almost no use whatsoever of the surround system with no steering for discreet channels of foley fx. In fact, once there was clear panning between the front and rear audio stages, it occurred after the first 2 hours of the film, almost at the end and actually surprised me.
'The Aviator' had some very warm color grading in the transfer to blu ray and some slight grain. However, there was no artifacting or ghosting of any kind. Once again, the bit rate was in the mid teens to low 20's and I strongly doubt that this film was remastered for blu ray. Instead, the film was probably just reformatted for Blu Ray without any work made to improve the imaging. The Audio was a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 and, if you are used to lossless audio, it really makes a difference. The audio will sound muted/muffled. Yes, you do forget about that as you move more deeply into the film but this is supposed to be BluRay, the top of the heap, and for them to include only a compressed audio option is inexcusable. There is some use, not a whole lot, of the rear channels as well as some appropriate panning between audio stages but your LFE channel will have a nice long rest with no signal to wake it up.
For the classic, 'Goodfellas', I cry with disappointment. The mbps ranges from the low teens to the low twenties and the video transfer shows no real improvement over my Standard Def version. The audio is also also lossy with everything coming through the center channel and nothing in the surrounds or LFE; and again we have paid for a superior product of a superior movie and not received what we paid for. The video transfer appears to be the same as my Standard Def DVD with some grain throughout tho there is no artifacting that I could see. The disc stopped playing at the end of the scene early in the movie between when he comes out of court and then is shown as a grownup Ray Liota. I backed the disc up and played it again, this time not stalling out.
While it is great to get 3 movies on 3 separate discs for such a low price, if you already have them on Standard Def DVDs, do not expect to see a remarkable difference between the two formats if you see any difference at all. This lack of effort and improved quality for the transfer of these films to Blu Ray is the reason I gave this set only 2 stars. As films on their own, Goodfellas would and should get 5 stars and The Departed and Aviator 4 stars each.
All my movie reviews are of this nature and focus only on the quality of the transfer to BluRay so check them and see if they are of help as well.
Hopefully, this review has been of some help to you in determining your purchase, hope I am on the correct path with a review of the transfer quality as opposed to providing plot summaries.
Thanks
Buy Martin Scorsese Collection (The Departed / Goodfellas / The Aviator) (2010) Now
Goodfellas and The Departed are great, wish the third film was something else (Raging Bull, or Taxi Driver). But you probably know the films. The versions are solid. It's funny, they all must have been stripped from advanced sets because very disc says disc 1 on it. Basically that means their isn't much for extras. Some decent commentary on Goodfellas, nothing on The Departed. This is just a stripped down compilation. Solid price (at least when I bought it).I was skeptical to get this one because I was not clear if this was a 3-IN-ONE disk or three separate disks. Luckily, its three separate discs for each movie. Crystal clear and must watch movies.Want Martin Scorsese Collection (The Departed / Goodfellas / The Aviator) (2010) Discount?
When buying a set like this you have to have little expectations for packaging. I will say I was very pleased to see each movie had it's own disc. Furthermore the artwork on the discs appear to be the same as if you bought the original. Note I have three of these sets and they are all like this. I'm very pleased.Save 51% Off
No comments:
Post a Comment