Running with Scissors Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Running with Scissors Blu-ray Movie Review

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Because Running with Scissors is, at least in part, a child's story about divorced and dysfunctional parents, someone thought it would make a good double bill with The Squid and the Whale. Thus, the two have been released on a single disc by Mill Creek Entertainment. Scissors was an early release by Sony in 2007, but it has been remastered for this two-film release. This review is limited to an audio and video evaluation. As far as the film is concerned, I defer to the comments of my colleague, Casey Broadwater, in his review of the Sony disc.

Running with Scissors Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sony's 2007 Blu-ray edition of Running with Scissors was among its early crop of releases on the then-fledgling format. It used MPEG-2 compression but was granted the expansive digital real estate of a BD-50. Mill Creek has reauthored the film using the AVC codec (while retaining the 1080p format), but Sony almost certainly provided them the same transfer. Despite the low average bitrate of 18.29 Mbps (attributable, no doubt, to the many "talking head" shots with relatively little movement in the frame), AVC encoding has offered small improvements in clarity and contrast, allowing the viewer to take in more of the chaotic decay in the Finch household and the grotesquerie that is Deidre Burroughs' life. The deep blacks noted in Casey's review remain, and I agree with his assessment that their overpowering of detail in certain scenes is intentional. It's not an accident that cinematographer Chrisopher Baffa had prior experience on films like The Prophecy and Phantoms. Much of the camerawork in Running with Scissors deliberately apes the style of a horror film.

Despite have less space to work with, the compressionist seems to have managed to fit Running with Scissors into the available space without generating artifacts.

Running with Scissors Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Previously provided as PCM 5.1, the film's soundtrack is now offered as DTS-HD MA 5.1, and it appears to be the same track as the Sony disc. The mix remains front-centered, with the sound editing achieving its effects by means of abrupt transitions, much like the film itself. For me, the single best thing about the film was the soundtrack's selection of pop tunes, mostly from the Sixties and Seventies, but that's a matter of personal taste.

Running with Scissors Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Though light on extras, the 2007 Sony disc did include three short featurettes starring the film's director, production designer and author of the original memoir.

The Mill Creek disc has no extras.

Running with Scissors Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There are few movies that I cannot watch to the end. Running with Scissors was one of them. I completed it on this Blu-ray solely for the sake of an audio/video evaluation. The 3.0 film rating has been copied from Casey Broadwater's review. My rating would use pitchforks instead of stars. Enter at your own risk.