Blu Or Not: Death Race, Burn After Reading, Polar Express 3D

By Peter Sciretta/Dec. 15, 2008 12:30 am EST

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But then a couple weeks ago I found myself standing in the Virgin Megastore in downtown San Francisco debating on if I should buy WALL-E on DVD, or for a few dollars more on Blu-ray. It’s not that my home is entirely Blu-ray-less, we have a Playstation 3.I decided to pull the trigger and buy my first Blu-ray movie. And there probably aren’t many better choices than Pixar’s WALL-E. The visuals and sound are quite amazing. It would be hard to watch this film in standard DVD resolution.

After watching the film, I started watching the Cine-Explore feature with director Andrew Stanton. It’s an audio commentary track supplemented by concept art, animatics, video footage from production and various other stuff. It’s basically a visual audio commentary. I can’t begin to explain to you how cool it was to watch the movie in this new visual commentary mode. I remember watching my first audio commentary on DVD (for the movie Scream) and having the same feeling.

To me, the selling point for DVD was not the improvement in picture quality. It was the extra features. I’m not sure if that is the case with mainstream America, but most of my friends also made the jump due to the additional features. And it seems to me that the concept of extra value features is one of the reasons that America isn’t adopting the Blu-ray format as quickly as Hollywood would like.

WALL-E resulted in me buying a stand alone Blu-ray player. For me it was a reason to switch. But I have since discovered that not many of the discs are taking advantage of the extra feature capabilities of the Blu-ray format. Mainstream America doesn’t see the jump in video quality enough of a reason to buy a whole new player. And it’s tough for me not to agree, especially if you have a television below 36 inches. Hollywood needs to give mainstream America a reason to switch. And I’m sorry, the reason won’t be BD-Live features that allow you to record your own audio commentary and send it to your friends. If Hollywood expects consumers to pay double to price for Blu-Ray, they have to start putting some extra effort into creating value added content.

Blu-or-Not is a new weekly feature on /Film where I will take a look at the newest Blu-ray releases and tell you if they are worth the extra money. It is not my job to tell you if a movie is worth buying or not, for that you can read Adam’s weekly This Week in DVD feature. I’m here to tell you what your options are, and if a Blu-Ray purchase is worth the extra money. So lets get to it.

Death RaceExclusive to Blu-ray:Create Your Own Race allows you edit your own race scene using seven different video feeds. You switch between little video monitors on the left of the screen using your remote. The completed video can be saved or sent to your friends through BD-Live. This feature was actually a lot of fun. I’ve seen similar features on DVD releases, but they never gave you the control that you now have on the Blu-ray format.Picture in Picture: You can watch the movie with picture in picture inclusion of scene specific behind the scenes video and interviews. While this isn’t as good as say the WALL-E Cine-Explore, I can see how this feature will improve over time. It’s quite cool to watch the action of a scene being choreographed right before the sequence plays out on the big screen. There are a lot of cool behind the scenes footage during the action sequences, and the footage during the talking sequences are extended or re-purposed from the behind the scenes featurette.Digital Copy of the film for your computer, iPod, iPhone, etc.DVD Features in HD:Unrated and Rated Versions: Both versions of the film are included on one disc, but the director’s commentary track only applies on the Unrated version of the film. The Unrated version is 6 minutes longer.Start Your Engines – The Making of Death Race and Behind the Wheel: Dissecting The Stunts: Your standard 20 minute / 8-minute Behind the Scenes FeaturettesVideo: 4 out of 5

Sound: 5 out of 5

Blu-Ray Exclusives: 3 out of 5

Extra Features: 2.5 out of 5

Nothing

DVD Features in HD:

Finding the Burn (5min), DC Insiders Run Amuck (12min), Welcom Back George (3min): Standard EPK featurettes, shorter than usual and somewhat lacking.

Video: 4 out of 5

Sound: 4 out of 5

Blu-Ray Exclusives: 0 out of 5

Extra Features: 1 out of 5

Blu-Ray Exclusives: 5 out of 5

Extra Features: 3 out of 5