6.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
A female rookie in the police force engages in a cat and mouse game with a pistol wielding psychopath who becomes obsessed with her.
Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Ron Silver, Clancy Brown, Elizabeth Peña, Louise FletcherThriller | Insignificant |
Crime | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: LPCM 2.0
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Kathryn Bigelow's "Blue Steel" (1990) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Via Vision Entertainment. The supplemental features on the release include new program with editor Lee Percy; new program with production designer Toby Corbett; vintage trailer for the film; and more. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Blue Steel arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Via Vision Entertainment.
In 2011, French label Metropolitan produced this release of Blue Steel, which was sourced from an old and quite inconsistent master. This release offers an almost identical presentation of the film.
Portions of the film could look rather decent. However, if you have a bigger screen you will easily conclude that they do not have an acceptable organic appearance. Why? Because the master has been sharpened. As a result, many visuals reveal clumpy grain and harshness that produce all kinds of other visual anomalies, like edge enhancement, odd highlights, etc. Colors are stable but balance can be better, especially in very bright and very dark areas where many nuances collapse. Image stability is good. I noticed a few blemishes and black marks, but there are no distracting debris, damage marks, cuts, stains, or warped frames. All in all, to look as it should Blue Steel will have to be fully remastered at least in 2K because at the moment it does not have a proper organic appearance. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location).
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.
Even if the in the future the original audio is fully remastered, I do not think that there will be any substantial improvements. Many of the shootouts throughout the film already sound outstanding and the dialog is clear and very easy to follow. Could I be wrong? Of course, but I do not see the areas where there is room for meaningful enhancements. I think that you will be very pleased with the quality of the current lossless track.
The more I revisit Kathryn Bigelow's Blue Steel, the less I like it, and I have never been a fan of it. This film tries to be so many different things and fails on so many different levels that from time to time it looks like an awful parody. Some of the lines that are uttered in it, for instance, are beyond atrocious, so given that its drama is supposed to be taken seriously, I have always wondered how they survived in the cutting room. Via Vision Entertainment's release is sourced from an old and quite inconsistent master, so at the moment Blue Steel does not have an acceptable organic appearance. The release is included in After Dark: Neo Noir Cinema Collection Two, a seven-disc box set.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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