Red Planet / 2010 / Contact (Triple-Feature) (2012)

Warner has done a number of these "Triple-Feature" releases on Blu-ray and it's a good bargain for a trio of films that range from exceptional to good.

"The Red Planet" features Val Kilmer and Carrie Moss as part of a team sent to Mars to find out what happened to a previous expedition that vanished without any final message. Complicating things their robot assistant has gone rogue when it's damaged reverting to its original combat mode. While "Red Planet" certainly has its flaws, it's an entertaining, diverting science fiction adventure. Tom Sizemore, Terence Stamp and Benjamin Bratt fill out the other spacesuits in this adventure.

"2010" based on Arthur C. Clarke's first sequel novel of the same name to "2001" has a somewhat similair plot to "The Red Planet". Heywood Floyd (Roy Scheider in the sequel) who sent the Discovery on its voyage to Jupiter hooks a ride to Jupiter on a Russian ship commanded by Tanya Kirbuk (an anagram for Kubrick and played by Helen Mirren)when the Discovery is spotted. HAL's creator Dr. R. Chandra (Bob Balaban)comes along for the ride in hopes that they can boot up HAL and when they suspect that he caused the demise of the crew. Featuring John Lithgow and a host of terrific character actors, it can't quite measure up to the original film but it's still a worthwhile adventure from director Peter Hyams ("Outland", "Capricorn One", "The Presido", "Narrow Margin").

"Contact" based on Carl Sagan's novel of the same name takes the most risks tackling questions of faith and has a truly stunning opening sequence. Directed by Robert Zemeckis ("Who's Afraid of Roger Rabbit?", "Back to the Future", "Forest Gump")and starring Jodie Foster the film tackles the first contact story form a very different perspective--what if the aliens return a message to us with instructions on how to build a device so we can meet? How will that change the balance of power, impact our sense of our place in the universe and our faith? It's a well made science fiction film although the casting is a bit wonky at times (I felt that Matthew McConaughey was miscast). Featuring some stunning visual effects and great casting (James Woods, Tom Skerritt, William Fichnter, David Morse, Angela Bassett), the film is only dated by the use of footage of President Clinton and Larry King (which gave the film a sense of reality at the time)but holds up remarkably well. The film is a bit talky at times but still manages to be engrossing.

All three films look quite good--there were some complaints that "Contact" had a bit too much digital noise reduction when it was released but it looks quite good regardless. "2010" also looks quite nice although a restoration wasn't done on the film (which was produced in 1984). "Red Planet" looks pretty good with nice strong detail throughout the presentation. There are some occasional compression artifacts but, on the whole, the film looks quite nice with bold colors and, while not reference quality blacks, they are still fairly strong.

Audio is quite strong for all three films.

The special features vary a bit ranging from weak (deleted scenes for "Red Planet" along with the theatrical trailer)to decent (the original production promotional featurette which is presented in standard definition, the theatrical trailer)to very good (commentary tracks by one from actor Jodie Foster, one from director Robert Zemekis and producer Steve Starkey, and one from senior visual effects supervisor Ken Ralston and visual effects supervisor Stephen Rosenbaum; we get three animated shot/set design that were done in CGI; "The Making of the Opening Shot" a very good featurette about the shot of the Eagle Nebula; the destruction of the NASA machine, as well as, "The Making of the Harriett Landing" and a composite reel. As I recall all three were carried over from the original DVD release) for the three films.

This is a nice, good set of three enjoyable science fiction films all on their own discs and just repackaged.

Three sci-fi movies that were nicely packed at a great price. The video and audio quality are superb, the best transfer I've seen since I saw them at the movies. The colors are vibrant and the sound is rich. If you enjoyed these films, this triple feature blu-ray is for you.

Buy Red Planet / 2010 / Contact (Triple-Feature) (2012) Now

Three great movies that go well together. Only thing I don't like about the 3-fer DVD's is missing special features, but the price is truly right for 3 movies as good as these.

Read Best Reviews of Red Planet / 2010 / Contact (Triple-Feature) (2012) Here

If you love sci-fi like my Wife and I do then this is a worthwhile purchase! We've already seen Contact which is a great story and dvd, but to have these in bluray makes it even more whorthwhile for less than 7 bucks a bluray!? Wow! Again, we've seen Contact on DVD, but can't wait to see it on bluray. After purchasing and arriving, we both watched Red Planet already and all i can say is, whoa! The sound in 5.1 is A+, picture another A+, and all around great story! The space scenes are awesome on a hifi hd bigscreen 60"! Can't wait to see 2010 and Contact! If you don't have these in your collection what are you waiting for? Very Affordable!

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