6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.9 |
A teenager teams up with the daughter of young adult horror author R.L. Stine after the writer's imaginary demons are set free on the town of Madison, Delaware.
Starring: Jack Black, Dylan Minnette, Odeya Rush, Ryan Lee, Amy RyanFamily | 100% |
Fantasy | 83% |
Comedy | 75% |
Adventure | 74% |
Horror | 24% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1
French (Canada): DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
English, English SDH, French, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
UV digital copy
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words...oh my, the words." Imagine a writer's most vivid, horrifying creations literally coming to life, forming from the very ink on the very pages on which they're described in great, terrible detail. Imagine further, dear readers, that these literary beasts of all form and fear have chosen you as their very special prey. Picture great destruction, see pain and suffering, feel the goosebumps rising from head to toe. From the mind of R.L. Stine and the skillful craftsmen at Sony Pictures comes Goosebumps, a family-friendly Horror/Comedy film that tells the story of the time when they had their time, when the monsters, otherwise tucked away in the musty pages of spine-tingling texts, heretofore avoidable by the simple act of slamming the book shut and securing it with lock and key, are freed of their literary confines and let loose in the real world. Director Rob Letterman's (Monsters vs. Aliens) film blends the real and the fantastical in a movie that recalls Jumanji and Zathura, substituting board games with books but retaining that same imaginative free-flow of ideas and humorous charm that result when man meets amazing.
Goosebumps isn't the most robust Blu-ray in the wild, but its largely flat, digitally sourced 1080p transfer gets the job done. The movie sees a fairly even split between well lit sequences and dark nighttime exteriors. The former, unsurprisingly, offers richer visible detailing, showcasing strong overall clarity and, while not razor-sharp definition, clearly visible intricacies on skin, clothes, surfaces in the school, or items in a grocery store that plays central to one adventurous sequence later in the movie. Darker exteriors enjoy adequately deep and even black levels, and while raw detailing isn't drastically, or at all, less, the transfer's overbearing flatness leaves such segments feeling fairly inorganic. Colors dazzle in the daytime. The opening overhead flyovers reveal sparkling greens. That same grocery store interior springs to life with a veritable rainbow of colors, while lower light interiors find enough accentuating colors to please. Light banding and noise occasionally creep into view, but the image is otherwise free of unwanted distractions.
Goosebumps features a Dolby Atmos (core Dolby TrueHD 7.1, herein reviewed) soundtrack that performs very well when things go bump in the night, and elsewhere, too. Music enjoys a wide-open stage placement, favoring the fronts but wrapping back around to the rears as well. Instrumental clarity shines and LFE effects are tight and effortlessly supportive. The track features plenty of exciting multidirectional effects and speaker-specific sound placement that helps sonically shape the various bits of uncontrolled chaos that present through the movie's second and third acts. Not all of them truly test the limits of the subwoofer's depth or the 7.1 track's reach, but there's enough detail and definition to go along with the placement to immerse the listener in Madison's night of mayhem. In the school, PA announcements and microphone reverberation are full and filling through to the back, and general external atmospherics, beyond the monster-induced chaos, prove gently immersive. Dialogue delivery is hearty and center focused.
Goosebumps contains an alternate open, deleted scenes, several featurettes, early actor test footage, and more. A DVD copy of the film and
a
voucher for a UV digital copy are included with purchase.
Goosebumps lives and dies by its enthusiasm for the material, which means that, for the most part, it thrives. Hardly a groundbreaking picture in any way, lacking truly interesting characters, and featuring acceptably ho-hum visual effects, the movie has a lot working against it, but that enthusiasm and honest acceptance of its narrative simplicity helps it climb out of a potentially deep and dark hole. Add in the always entertaining Jack Black and a good surrounding roster and Goosebumps manages to entertain for the duration, which is all one can really ask of a movie of this sort. Sony's Blu-ray release delivers good video, excellent audio, and a bit of flimsy but audience-friendly supplemental content. Recommended.
2015
Includes Goosebumps Book: A Shocker On Shock Street
2015
Includes Ghostbusters Movie Cash + Patch
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