7. Sunshine
Sunshine is a relatively unknown movie revolving around an implausible premise that the Sun is decaying and a group of scientists/astronauts need to reignite it with a bomb the size of Manhattan. While this could have been another Day after Tomorrow the movie is very dialogue and character driven, which completely overshadows and overtakes the premise. Sunshine is a movie that needed to be on Blu-ray — the transfer quality of this film is nothing short of striking. Both interior and exterior (space) shots are dead on with white and black levels that are perfectly balanced.
The audio on this disc is perhaps even stronger than the visuals, presented in both core DTS 5.1 and DTS HD MA formats (for the handful of people with receivers that can process the format). The sound submerges you as you watch and experience what is happening. The audio is both subtle and heavy but always discernible, surround effects/audio are present almost throughout the movie and are incredibly effective. Sunshine is one of the first 1.1 format Blu-rays to market and utilizes the PiP feature for the extra features as well as some advanced sound mixing. This is a great movie in presentation and content with tons of extras to keep fans busy.
Troy was a movie that should have been a monstrous hit theatrically and critically but it failed to deliver due to the studio mandated cuts that changed this amazing R-rated film to a PG-13 release that, instead of drawing a larger audience, lost the audience it needed. Wolfgang Peterson delivers to us the proper version in this amazing Blu-ray release that has the cut he wanted featuring more blood, battles, and back-story to actually make you understand and love this film. Troy, of course, is the story of Helen, the beauty who launched a thousand ships and the battle for the walls of Troy by the conqueror Agamemnon. Achilles is the action star of the film and is the central focus in this version of the tale.
![Underworld (Unrated) [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51vaUtgGLnL._SL120_.jpg)
![The Fifth Element (Remastered) [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/517PoG17%2BuL._SL120_.jpg)
![Sunshine [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51r0GZfxl5L._SL120_.jpg)
![Troy - The Director's Cut [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5129dbIr8IL._SL120_.jpg)
Article comments
1 - bananar
Hay, great little write up, very knowledgable. Good eye too... I also noticed how nice the film grain looks in Fifth Element (only movie I have in this list). In some transfers film-grain is ruined by bit-starving, but it's nice and defined here with the AVC encode averaging in the high twenties.
Looking forward to the next part, and Ratatouille better be in there. ;) The "Lifted" short film on that disc has the cleanest, sharpest image I've seen on my tv.
2 - Rack 'em
This is the worst list of movies i've ever seen! The only movies good on this list are Spider-man and Pirates of the Caribbean and you said Spider-man 3 was the worst of the trilogy!? It may not be the best but not the worst! I don't care how good all those other movies look or sound, if they suck who wants to watch them? You need to go buy some new movies, seriously! If you think those sorry movies are good you need to get Iron Man. It looks better than any of those movies and its not agonizing the movies on your list. You'll probably piss your self! Lol!
3 - Michael Prince
I agree about Iron Man, I now own it, but this list was created before Iron Man even came out in the theatres. As to the movies picked for this list I mentioned in the first part of the article that I was picking movies that show off the wow factor the Blu-ray format can deliver.
Immersive audio, drop dead visuals, tons of extras are what I was looking at as well as a great movie. Oh and if you are saying Blade Runner, 2001 and Close Encounters are not good movies, then you have probably never watched them.
4 - Chris Gibbs
The Polar Express is a must own for any Blue Ray owner. I bought it this past weekend and it has one of the best pitures I've ever seen. Ever detail is given and the movie is not itself is not bad either.
5 - Clark
The Dark Knight (Batman II) must surely top all Blu-ray discs. It's actually cheating a bit. Not only are you getting Blu-ray, but the image owes a huge part of it's purity to the movie's acquisition on IMAX film, rather than 35mm. The IMAX-filmed sequences are unbelievably beautiful. While that is this BD's strength, it is also the weakness of this movie. It is extremely annoying to watch a movie as it switches aspect ratios from scene to scene. Letterboxed 2.35:1 in one shot and 16:9 widescreen in the next. Rather than shooting anamorphic or super-35, the non-IMAX scenes should have been shot in regular 35mm to at least keep a constant aspect ratio throughout the film.
Anyway, check out the IMAX scenes!! You'll rarely see anything so beautiful (unless they make more IMAX cameras and filmmakers start shooting every film with it).
6 - bingo prime
Hey man. Props for including Sunshine, a fantastic and underrated film.
I would include Apocalypto on this list. Shot on HD video, the picture quality is absolutely amazing.