My take: Crimson Tide

HD Goofnut

Title: Crimson Tide
BD-50 Dual-Layer Disc
Video: 1080p/AVC MPEG-4
Audio: 5.1 Linear PCM
Aspect Ratio: 2:40:1
Subtitles: English, Spanish, and French
Run time: 116 minutes
Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Rating: R
Region Coding: Region Free
Player used for review: LG BH200

Cast/Crew Info:
Denzel Washington as Lt. Commander Ron Hunter
Gene Hackman as Capt. Frank Ramsey
Matt Craven as Lt. Roy Zimmer
George Dzundza as Chief of the Boat
Viggo Mortensen as Lt. Peter 'WEAPS' Ince
James Gandolfini as Lt. Bobby Dougherty
Directed by Tony Scott

My take: (the breakdown)

When you try to sink of submarine movies there's really not that many that have been made over the years, but there are a few that stand out. The Hunt for Red October, The Enemy Below, and of course Crimson Tide all come to mind. Unlike most other submarine movies though Crimson Tide is more of a suspense based movie, similar to K-19: The Widowmaker. Set in 1995 the U.S.S. Alabama is called to action when about an army of 60,000 Russian rebels seizes a submarine base and a nuclear missile base in eastern Russia. However, when the Alabama is attacked by one of the rogue submarines they are damaged enough to where they only received a partial message to launch their nuclear missiles. Lt. Cmdr. Hunter wants to restore communications and confirm the message while Capt. Ramsey wants to go ahead and launch. Filled with raw suspense and some great action sequences this is worth a purchase in my book. This is not for children though due to a good bit of profanity.

Released nearly 13 years after it's theatrical debut in February of 2008 Crimson Tide really took me by surprise. Just about everything shines with this release. Colors are saturated very nicely and even flesh tones are accurate in the artificial lighting of the submarine's interior. Grain is moderate, but it does stay consistent and refrains from becoming noisy. My only complaint was that were some unresolved blacks during several scenes, but other than that it looked great.

This is probably one of the best 5.1 Linear PCM tracks that I have heard to date. Dialogue is clear and pronounced and is never hard to hear. The sub and surrounds get a full load of sounds to work with for just about the entire run time. Pay attention to when it is running near the beginning of the film and you will notice the rain wrapping around you into the surrounds creating a rather engaging environment. The wonderful musical score also ebbs and swells at the appropriate times and never becomes overbearing. I couldn't really find anything to notable to complain about, but I still felt that it was just short of a perfect 10/10.

We are given a rather weak set of supplemental material with this Blu-ray release. We get a 20 minute making of feature, a 11 making of feature, and seven minutes of deleted scenes. All of these features are presented in 480.

Movie: 7.5/10
VQ: 9/10
AQ: 9.5/10
Supplements: 1.5/10
Final word: A Purchase For Fans

As always thanks for reading folks.

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PFC5

This is a great movie IMO, and I would give it a solid 9 for my tastes. The interaction between Denzel & Hackman is fantastic. Two great actors working together like this is a real treat especially when the story is excellent also.

Thanks for the review!

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HD Goofnut

You're welcome and I am glad it got the right treatment for high def.

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