The Big White – Blu-ray Disc Review
August 24, 2008 – 4:48 PM - Posted by: Justin SlussTags: Alison Lohman, Echo Bridge, Giovanni Ribisi, Holly Hunter, Robin Williams, Tim Blake Nelson, Woody Harrelson
has an average rating of 6.5 on IMDb
1080p in MPEG-2 on a 25gb disc
DTS 5.1 @1.5Mbps & Dolby Digital 5.1
include the original DVD ports in 1080p Hi-Def
– 
– 2005
– 100 minutes
– Echo Bridge
– 
Overall Verdict – Easily Worth the Price
— Review written by: Justin Sluss —
The Movie Itself was Directed by Mark Mylod who’s past work includes producing and directing on the HBO series “Entourage” as well as directing the “Ali G Indahouse” film in 2002 for Sacha Baron Cohen. The script to “The Big White” was originally written by Collin Friesen.
The story revolves around an Alaskian travel agent named “Paul Barnell” (played by Robin Williams) who’s currently on the verge of bankruptcy. Paul also has a wife, “Margaret” (played by Holly Hunter) who’s stricken with a case of Tourette’s syndrome that is (obviously) complicating their marriage. The scheme that Paul cooks up is to try to pass a dead body that he finds in the dumpster off as his long-lost (missing) brother to claim himself a million-dollar life insurance policy. Problem for Paul is that the insurance investigator in charge, “Ted” (played by Giovanni Ribisi) is overly ambitious — only to get out of the Alaska area — and isn’t buying the scam. Tim, the insurance investigator continues to “poke his nose around” trying to get to the bottom of things while he himself also is having trouble with his love life. Tim’s girlfriend (played by Alison Lohman) is a psychic that works at home via telephone. Things have been “bumpy” lately in the relationship mainly due to the Alaskan setting they’re stuck in thanks to Tim’s job and his “workaholic” approach to his career.
Another problem arises for our leading man Paul when the hit men responsible for the body in the dumpster find out that he stole it. The two hit men, “Gary” (played by Tim Blake Nelson) and “Jimbo” (played by W. Earl Brown) want their body back. Since Paul isn’t around and neither is the missing body the hit men decide to kidnap Paul’s wife. The result is full of laughs from start to finish with a tad bit of emotion at times.
Overall, in closing I have to say that “The Big White” was one of those films I originally owned on DVD and actually discovered while browsing the electronics aisle at Wal-Mart (of all places). I saw that it was now out on Blu-ray Disc and hadn’t established PR (Public Relations) yet with Echo Bridge so… I decided to buy it for only $12.99 at an unnamed retailer. I was pleased with the purchase, so much that I figured I’d pump out a review for the title. I know my synopsis does this film very little justice as it really reminds me of a film done by The Coen Brothers (Joel & Ethan) such as their “Fargo” which it’s been compared to many times — especially on IMDb. I will admit also that the whole reason I first gave the film a chance (purchase) back on DVD was that it had Robin Williams and a great cast.
Video Quality on this release is 1080p in MPEG-2 on a BD-25 (25 gigabyte Blu-ray Disc). This was filmed using 35mm and makes for a really decent High Definition transfer here. The amount of detail from start (in the opening title sequence and such) all the way to the end of the film is very impressive for a $8.95 “budget” title such as this. The black level is solid, whites are very very bright with little film grain and noise present in the transfer. The fleshtones are accurate and the color palette is very vibrant (on especially the reds at times). This doesn’t jump off the screen at you, so-to-speak but at the same time I will admit this made my jaw absolutely drop to be such a low-priced title. I originally owned this on DVD and I have to say this serves as a really nice improvement. “The Big White” earns itself an impressive “3 1/2 Star Rating” for overall video quality. I’m fine with this only being on a BD-25 and in MPEG-2 as it seems to actually work in the end. Good job here on behalf of Echo Bridge which has me excited to see more titles on BD (Blu-ray Disc) from them.
Audio Quality on this release is in DTS 5.1 @1.5Mbps & Dolby Digital 5.1 @640kbps. While this may feature the original audio found on the DVD release it still stands to this date a really good DTS 5.1 mix for an independent film. The dialogue is delivered very crisp and clear throughout which is key with the very witty dialogue found here. There’s a somewhat decent rear channel presence but honestly very little bass aside from the times the songs from the Soundtrack are playing. Speaking of the film’s Soundtrack, it features at least 3 or 4 songs by Mark Oliver Everett’s band “Eels” that fit the feel of the film perfectly. Some of the sound effects at times prove to be realistic and well mixed at times as well, thought I’d mention that. This earns a decent “3 Star Rating” overall for audio quality, despite only having the original 5.1 mixes (DTS & DD) found on the DVD — as I started things off by saying.
Bonus Materials are presented in High Definition video using MPEG-2 codec and Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound @192kbps.
- “The Big White: An Adventure in Filmmaking” is sadly only in 4:3 (Fullscreen) video. This is a nice 10 minutes (or so roughly) documentary about the ‘making of’ the film. It includes some awesome interviews with cast members and crew, namely Robin Williams who offers some wonderful comedic relief (as always).
- “Photo Gallery” gives you some shots of production stills and photographs taken on the set.
- Trailer is included and presented in 16:9 (Enhanced for Widescreen).
Overall the bonus materials are decent for a “budget” title such this and include full DVD ports. That’s pretty much all I can say but it’s enough to keep fans of the film that are buying it for the first time now on Blu-ray entertained for a short bit. Personally I find just watching the film over and over to be entertaining enough for me in this case of “The Big White“.
Blu-ray Disc packaging:
Screenshots:
NOTE: The full-sized 1920×1080 files are in a .PNG file format and uncompressed. Bare with the slow loading times, keep in mind these files are at least 1MB (1 megabyte) in size each.
