Signs – Blu-ray Disc Review
May 28, 2008 – 12:37 AM - Posted by: Justin SlussTags: Disney, Joaquin Phoenix, M Knight Shyamalan, Mel Gibson
has an average rating of 6.9 on IMDb
1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a 50gb disc
PCM 5.1 @4.6Mbps & Dolby Digital 5.1
include the original DVD ports
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– 2002
– 106 minutes
– Hollywood Pictures (Walt Disney)
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Overall Verdict – Recommended
Buy it for $19.95 @ Amazon.com
— Review written by: Justin Sluss —
The Movie Itself is the the fourth film from Writer, Producer and Director M. Knight Shyamalan who’s responsible for such great films as “The Sixth Sense” and “Unbreakable” to just name a few. The film’s main character is a former preacher named “Graham Hess” (played by Mel Gibson) who awakes one day to the sound of his young daughter “Bo” (played by Abigail Breslin) screaming from their farm’s corn field. He and his brother “Merrill” (played by Joaquin Phoenix) immediately rush out to the corn field to see what the commotion is all about. They find both Bo and Graham‘s son “Morgan” (played by Rory Culkin) standing in the corn field in shock with their two dogs barking in sheer terror. Son Morgan directs his father’s attention to what caused the scare, a 500-foot crop circle that has appeared in their corn field.
This may sound a bit sketchy to some of you but this “god fearing” former priest doesn’t immediately think aliens when he makes this discovery. Instead he calls the local police and “Officer Paski” (played by Cherry Jones) shows up to inspect what’s happened. While all this is going on the children notice that the one family dog “Houdini” isn’t feeling too well. Graham and Officer Paski come out of the corn field to find that Morgan has stabbed the dog with a cooking utensil that he was using to cook on the grill with. Morgan claims the dog became agressive and tried to attack his little sister. Officer Paski claims that a lot of activity like this has being going on lately in the area with animals and we as viewers begin to really become as unsettled as the characters do by this point early on in the film. I’m a firm believer in not including “spoilers” of any nature in my reviews so I’ll cut this short on the synopsis for that sake.
In closing, it’s safe to say to me personally “Signs” is one of the most impressive “Alien” movies to have come out in the past few decades. While it’s no comparison to classics like “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” it does hold it’s unique and more modern elements to it that help really better the chances of scaring the audience. If you’re not close minded and haven’t seen the film I’d totally suggest it but if you’re a skeptic when it comes to the possibility of aliens and such I’d probably not recommend the film to you as you’ll probably spend most of your time complaining like that “quack” Peter M. Bracke did in his pathetic excuse for a review.
Video Quality on this release is 1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a BD-50 (50 gigabyte Dual-Layered Blu-ray Disc). First off, the comparison to the original DVD release of this film and the High Definition Blu-ray is like “night and day” with a much more crisp, clear picture that doesn’t have the gritty feel to it that the DVD had. This does seem to be from the same digital master but again is a incredible improvement visually now in High Def. There’s a slight amount of film grain at times but mostly what will end up distracting you will be a good deal of film noise. This is only a tad bit bothersome, as well are the slight signs of compression issues like pixilation and artifacts but overall it’s nothing worth complaining about too much. The black level here is very solid, the color palette is vibrant and flesh tones are perfect. Despite it’s minor flaws this earns a “4 Star Rating” for overall video quality and again is a major improvement visually over the DVD release.
Audio Quality on this release is in Uncompressed Linear PCM 5.1 @4.6Mbps and Dolby Digital 5.1 @640kbps. The original DVD release included a Dolby Digital 5.1 track (maybe the same one found here) that was “THX certified” but I’ll be the first to tell you that doesn’t stop the PCM track from blowing it away. From the start of the film you’ll notice the incredible rear channel surround presence of first and foremost the beautiful Score done by James Newton Howard. Dialogue is delivered fine (despite what other’s have and will say) and sound effects sound very realistic throughout the film. This manages to do an excellent job of delivering a surround mix that is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat and/or end up jumping out of your seat a few times. This earns itself a very impressive “4 1/2 Star Rating” for overall audio quality on this release. I will admit going in I was skeptic if the PCM could top a “THX certified” sound mix but this totally manages to do just that.
Bonus Materials are ALL presented in 16:9 (Widescreen) standard definition and Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound. All of these were originally on the DVD release of the film some 5 years or so ago. Nothing new here at all.
- Deleted Scenes (7 minutes) gives you a total of five scenes that didn’t make the final cut.
- “Making Signs” is a six-part documentary on the “making of” the film as you’d expect. It includes the following featurettes:
- Storyboards: Multi-Angle Features allows viewers to use the “Angle” button on their remote to switch between viewing the early animated storyboards and the finished product that you see in the film. This may sound like a new feature developed for the Blu-ray but it’s actually just taken from the original DVD release. This is probably worth skipping for most viewers unless you’re really into learning how filmmaking works and such.
- “Night’s First Alien Movie” (2 minutes) starts off with an introduction from M. Knight Shyamalan who tells us this was his first “creature” film that he made as a kid. He himself will admit how cheesy and pathetic the special effects are straight up in his introduction. After watching this again, my first viewing being when it came out on DVD — I have to say this reminds you of something you’d probably see on YouTube today. This is worth a very short laugh at best.
- “Looking for Signs” (6 minutes) in which Shyamalan discusses coming up with the initial idea for the film and then writing the script.
- “Building Signs” (8 minutes) focuses on creating the film’s initial storyboards and the actual building of the sets. The average viewer probably isn’t going to find this all that entertaining and a bit too technical but it’s worth watching for fans of Shyamalan‘s films. That is unless you ALREADY saw it when it was included (like the rest of these bonus materials) on the original DVD release.
- “Making Signs” (23 minutes) is really the heart of this set of featurettes and obviously focuses on the general “making of” the film with an excellent interview from M. Knight Shyamalan.
- “The Effects of Signs” (8 minutes) focuses on the physical and visual effects used in the film. This unlike the “Building of…” featurette may be more appealing to the average viewer and not overly technical but just informative enough.
- “Last Voices: The Music of Signs” (8 minutes) features an interview with Composer James Newton Howard who did the Score to the film as he discusses creating the musical elements of the film.
- “Full Circle” (5 minutes) is a retrospective of sorts as Writer, Producer and Director M. Knight Shyamalan discusses how he feels with the finished product, what experience the film gives viewers and the steps taken to ensure his film reaches it’s (target) audience.
Overall these bonus materials don’t impress me in the slightest bit. I’m so tired of studios just re-cycling (porting) the bonus materials over from the original DVD release and not adding any new content or Blu-ray exclusives. The only positive thing I can say is, “at least they included bonus materials on this catalog release, unlike some studios chose to do.”
Blu-ray Disc packaging:
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