Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.5
Overall		4.0

Bon Jovi: Live at Madison Square Garden Blu-ray Movie Review

Part of the historic Lost Highway World Tour (2008), Bon Jovi: Live at Madison Square Garden captures the famous rock band as they perform a number of their classic hits in front of a sold out, very enthusiastic crowd. The concert was created by award-winning director Anthony Bongiovi and Brian Lockwood.

Shot with 23 high-definition cameras, Bon Jovi: Live at Madison Square Garden features an outstanding set list - "Blaze of Glory", "Wanted Dead or Alive", "You Give Love A Bad Name", "Livin' on a Prayer", "Blood on Blood", etc. The set even includes a lovely cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah".

Despite returning home from a long and truly exhausting tour, Bon Jovi are in top form here. There is terrific energy throughout the entire concert and everyone is clearly having a lot of fun on the stage.

Jon's singing is relaxed and confident. Some of the older hits he sings, such as "Blaze of Glory", "Bad Medicine" and "You Give Love A Bad Name", have slightly different arrangements, but I thought that they still sounded great. As usual, Richie Sambora's solos are outstanding.

In addition to Bon Jovi: Live at Madison Square Garden , this Blu-ray disc also contains director and photographer Phil Griffin's wonderful documentary When We Were Beautiful. Shot in black and white, the documentary contains plenty of raw concert footage, behind the scenes footage as well as a number of intimate interviews with the members of Bon Jovi. In these interviews the guys literally bare their souls while recalling their triumphs and personal tragedies. The interviews with Richie Sambora, in particular, are incredibly moving.

In These Arms

Bon Jovi: Live at Madison Square Garden Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, encoded with VC-1 and granted a 1080p transfer, Bon Jovi: Live at Madison Square Garden arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Island/Universal Music.

This is a very good high-definition transfer. Detail is terrific, clarity pleasing and contrast levels consistent throughout the entire show. The color-scheme is also convincing; reds, yellows, blues, greens, browns and blacks are stable and well saturated. There are traces of extremely mild inherited "motion-judder", but I did not find it distracting at all. There are no serious shadow issues. Mild background noise occasionally pops up here and there, but overall the image quality is indeed very impressive. Finally, I did not see any transfer-specific anomalies to report in this review.

The documentary feature, shot in black and white, also looks very good. Detail is excellent, clarity outstanding and contrast levels consistent. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your PS3 or SA regardless of your geographical location).

Bon Jovi: Live at Madison Square Garden Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and English Dolby Digital 2.0. For the record, Island/Universal Music have not provided optional English subtitles for the documentary feature.

The English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track is solid. The bass is potent, the rear channels intelligently used and the high-frequencies not overdone. There are no serious balance issues - the music is very well mixed with the vocals (listen to "Wanted Dead or Alive"). The crowd noise is prominent but never overpowering. Lat but not least, I did not detect any disturbing pops, cracks, or dropouts to report in this review.

As expected, the English Dolby Digital 2.0 track can not reproduce the dynamic intensity of the English Dolby TrueHD 5.1. Simply put, the gap in quality between the two tracks is enormous.

Bon Jovi: Live at Madison Square Garden Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Football - July 12, 2008. Jon watches the Philadelphia Soul win at the National Conference Championship on the morning of the Central Park concert. (5 min).

Newark Press Conference - raw footage from the press conference (3 min).

Tico's Clothing Line - June 26, 2008. Harrod's Department Store, London. Tico unveils his new line of "Rock Star Baby" clothing. (2 min).

Bon Jovi: Live at Madison Square Garden Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Bon Jovi: Live at Madison Square Garden is an excellent release by Island/Universal Music. The concert is fantastic and the documentary that is included with it incredibly moving. To be honest with you, I actually enjoyed it a lot more than the actual concert. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.