1408 (Blu-ray/Weinstein)

 

Picture: B+     Sound: B+     Extras: C+     Film: C

 

 

As expected this Blu-ray release of 1408 is superior in both picture and sound, but even with those improvements does not help the film work and we already covered the film in depth when it was released as a two-disc collector’s edition DVD set here:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6177/1408+%E2%80%93+2+Disc+Collector

 

 

Rather than repeat those facts, I’ll address some of the improvements noticed here that pertain to the performance of this disc.  Extras are the same as the collector’s edition, but it on one Blu-ray disc, which is the advantage of having 50GB worth of storage.

 

The film is presented in a 2.40 X 1 High Definition 1080p picture and while the film is a wide mixture of dark and light scenes, the DVD was sufficient, but here we get a much deeper and more detailed scene-to-scene presentation.  Dark scenes still retail definition that DVD could not quite handle without looking muddy and here we get the full range of color depth that wiped the floor with the highly compressed standard definition video release.  Overall the picture quality looks great and is perhaps only one or two shades down from a reference quality appearance.

 

The audio is terrific too and ‘helps’ bring the tension and suspense here in a Dolby Digital TrueHD 5.1 mix that is full of life and energy.  The entire soundstage gets a workout throughout most of the film and has some serious ‘kick’ to it, but inevitably suffers from being too predictable and unoriginal, as we’ve heard similar sound designs for all too many thrillers of this nature.  1408 remains one of the more forgettable.

 

Fans will want to get this disc as it quickly voids out the previous DVD edition, but I doubt that new fans will be picked up no matter how good the performance is on this disc.

 

 

-   Nate Goss