Rating summary
| Movie |  | 3.0 |
| Video |  | 3.5 |
| Audio | | 3.5 |
| Extras |  | 0.0 |
| Overall | | 3.0 |
Running with Scissors Blu-ray Movie Review
Clipped
Reviewed by Michael Reuben April 3, 2013
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.
Please refer to the earlier review of
Running with
Scissors.
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.
