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Unbreakable: Vista Series
List Price: Unknown [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
In August of a couple years prior, Disney released a small picture into theaters late into the Summer. A small supernatural story, buzz had been good, but expectations were still not enormous. That little film, M. Night Shyamalan's "The Sixth Sense", went on to be one of the highest grossing pictures of all time. Obviously, whatever the director went for next would be met with high expectations. Cut to last Winter, when "Unbreakable" hit theaters - again, starring Bruce Willis.
Willis plays David Dunn, a man who we're introduced to on a train ride home. He casually flirts with a woman who sits down next to him, but things don't work out and she moves. The train begins to rumble and...cut to David waking up in a hospital. He is the only survivor of the train wreck and, more remarkably, has not gained one scratch on him. He soon meets Elijah Price(Samuel L. Jackson), a man who has lived with a bone disease all of his life that causes his bones to break very easily. He was called "Mr. Glass" as a kid and his caring mother was only able to bring him out of his room by placing comic books on the bench outside.
Years later, he has gained a love for comics and works in a shop called "Limited Edition". For this whole piece of the plot, we are also given a list of statistics about the sales of comic books as the film opens. He's always believed that there is someone on the opposite end of the physical health spectrum than him, and he believes that he has found that in David. How far he is willing to take that belief and what it all means is the focua of "Unbreakable".
Unfortunately, the film takes ages to get there. I've heard of deliberate pacing, but Shyamalan has things moving at a glacial pace for several stretches of the movie. At least in "The Sixth Sense" there were "Ah ha!" plot twists occasionally along the way and a few jolts every so often. Here, plot twists seem to be greeted with a "Yeah, alright", as some scenes drag on past their borders. It doesn't help either that the director has chosen to have all of his actors underplay; this works for Jackson, who's rarely been more haunting. Willis (and Robin Wright Penn, as his wife), take this direction a little too seriously.
At least the director has packed atmosphere for this journey. One of several cinematographers whose work I highly enjoy, Eduardo Serra creates a cold, crisp look to the movie that draws the attention. The score by James Newton Howard also sets a mood without being intrusive.
In the end, though, "Unbreakable" simply doesn't have as interesting a plot or as engaging or fully realized characters as "The Sixth Sense" did. I went along with the story for most of it, but after a while, the movie lost my attention. An abrupt and somewhat awkwardly handled ending didn't really help matters, either. Although not a bad film, "Unbreakable" often spends too much time examining the relationships between its main characters than examining the potentional avenues that a story like this could take.
The DVD
VIDEO: Buena Vista presents "Unbreakable" in a 2.40:1 anamorphic transfer that is THX approved on a dual-layer disc. Although not without some tiny flaws, this certainly stands as one of the better presentations that the studio has come through with since their upswing in the past six months or so into producing more quality DVDs. Sharpness and detail are superb throughout the movie, with good detail in the shadows and except for some scenes that are given an intentionally soft look by Shyamalan and cinematographer Serra.
There really wasn't anything substancial in the way of flaws. I noticed one or two very tiny bits of shimmering, but these instances were so brief as to be hardly noticable. There were no print flaws to be found and no pixelation was to be seen. "Unbreakable" looked completely crisp and "film-like" throughout.
The film, of course, keeps to a muted color palette, but when brighter colors are allowed to enter into the proceedings, they are handled admirably, with good saturation. Black level is solid and flesh tones are accurate and natural.
SOUND: "Unbreakable" is presented in both DTS 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1 (English/Spanish/French Dolby 5.1). The director's first film, "The Sixth Sense" really didn't offer much in the way of sound design, but, as the director states in a portion of the "making of" documentary, he has come to realize the importance of sound design. "Unbreakable", although not a consistently agressive sound presentation, certainly still often proves the director's newfound appreciation for the importance of effective audio.
Surround use flares up in several sequences, most notably a pool sequence where all of the speakers work together to put you right in the middle of what's happening to the character at that moment. Several other scenes provide thrilling sound effects use as the surrounds are put to agressive and inventive, yet not distracting use. The scene at the train station, with its creative sound effects, is a good example of this.
Sound quality throughout the movie was remarkably good. Fidelity was exceptional and subtle details came through quite well. There's also some very nice use of ambient sounds. James Newton Howard's terrific score also came through crystal clear and dialogue sounded natural, as well. The audio use is excellent, fitting with the scene and providing additional emotion, drama and tension.
MENUS:: Buena Vista has provided tasteful animated main menus for both the main and supplemental discs. Bits of dialogue, Newton's score and animated images of script pages and other film elements are the background of the main menu, while most sub-menus still have at least Newton's score in the background.
EXTRAS:
Deleted Scenes: There are seven deleted scenes to be viewed. They are either available individually or can be played as a whole. The director provides introductions for each of these sequences and briefly explains his feelings about having to have to delete them. Personally, although I felt some of the sequences were more interesting than others, I thought that none of them could have worked in the movie - either they were redundant or didn't move the plot. The deleted scenes are in Dolby Digital 5.1 and one terrifying sequence with Elijah as a young child in an amusement park on a ride has some stunning sound use.
Making Of: There is a 15 minute "making of" documentary, which provides interviews with the director, cast and crew. Although much of the documentary is rather promotional in nature, it does skim the surface of explaining more about the story, but not as much as I'd like to see.
Train Station Multi-Angle: In a very neat feature, you can look through the train station sequence either final film or storyboards. Even more, you can listen to the scene with just the score, just the effects, or the final mix (all three Dolby Digital 5.1). The only problem, and it's a bummer, is that you can't switch mid-scene between the audio options.
Also: Clip from an early film of the director's, 20 minute documentary on comic books and superheroes.
Final Thoughts: Just looking at the basic disc itself, I'm certainly not dissapointed. The studio has provided extremely good audio/video quality for the film and I'm especially glad to see DTS included and the fact that the supplements were added to a second disc to leave the most room for the movie on disc one. But, I've just been looking at this as just a DVD and it's not supposed to be just a DVD - it's the introduction of the studio's new "Vista" series of Special Editions.
In that case, it does seem sort of a let-down (although not as much as the "Traffic" DVD, but that's another story). New Line has been providing not only outstanding a/v presentation, but boatloads of extras, even for films like "Dungeons and Dragons". The handful of features here is certainly of interest, but no audio commentary? There was supposedly a commentary planned for the composer (amazon.com still lists this as a feature, but it's not on the disc), but that didn't make it onto the final DVD.
So, overall, the first of the "Vista" series is not quite all that I'd expected, but the studio has certainly made some leaps in quality and presentation, so I'm excited to see where they'll go next with this new series.
In August of a couple years prior, Disney released a small picture into theaters late into the Summer. A small supernatural story, buzz had been good, but expectations were still not enormous. That little film, M. Night Shyamalan's "The Sixth Sense", went on to be one of the highest grossing pictures of all time. Obviously, whatever the director went for next would be met with high expectations. Cut to last Winter, when "Unbreakable" hit theaters - again, starring Bruce Willis.
Willis plays David Dunn, a man who we're introduced to on a train ride home. He casually flirts with a woman who sits down next to him, but things don't work out and she moves. The train begins to rumble and...cut to David waking up in a hospital. He is the only survivor of the train wreck and, more remarkably, has not gained one scratch on him. He soon meets Elijah Price(Samuel L. Jackson), a man who has lived with a bone disease all of his life that causes his bones to break very easily. He was called "Mr. Glass" as a kid and his caring mother was only able to bring him out of his room by placing comic books on the bench outside.
Years later, he has gained a love for comics and works in a shop called "Limited Edition". For this whole piece of the plot, we are also given a list of statistics about the sales of comic books as the film opens. He's always believed that there is someone on the opposite end of the physical health spectrum than him, and he believes that he has found that in David. How far he is willing to take that belief and what it all means is the focua of "Unbreakable".
Unfortunately, the film takes ages to get there. I've heard of deliberate pacing, but Shyamalan has things moving at a glacial pace for several stretches of the movie. At least in "The Sixth Sense" there were "Ah ha!" plot twists occasionally along the way and a few jolts every so often. Here, plot twists seem to be greeted with a "Yeah, alright", as some scenes drag on past their borders. It doesn't help either that the director has chosen to have all of his actors underplay; this works for Jackson, who's rarely been more haunting. Willis (and Robin Wright Penn, as his wife), take this direction a little too seriously.
At least the director has packed atmosphere for this journey. One of several cinematographers whose work I highly enjoy, Eduardo Serra creates a cold, crisp look to the movie that draws the attention. The score by James Newton Howard also sets a mood without being intrusive.
In the end, though, "Unbreakable" simply doesn't have as interesting a plot or as engaging or fully realized characters as "The Sixth Sense" did. I went along with the story for most of it, but after a while, the movie lost my attention. An abrupt and somewhat awkwardly handled ending didn't really help matters, either. Although not a bad film, "Unbreakable" often spends too much time examining the relationships between its main characters than examining the potentional avenues that a story like this could take.
The DVD
VIDEO: Buena Vista presents "Unbreakable" in a 2.40:1 anamorphic transfer that is THX approved on a dual-layer disc. Although not without some tiny flaws, this certainly stands as one of the better presentations that the studio has come through with since their upswing in the past six months or so into producing more quality DVDs. Sharpness and detail are superb throughout the movie, with good detail in the shadows and except for some scenes that are given an intentionally soft look by Shyamalan and cinematographer Serra.
There really wasn't anything substancial in the way of flaws. I noticed one or two very tiny bits of shimmering, but these instances were so brief as to be hardly noticable. There were no print flaws to be found and no pixelation was to be seen. "Unbreakable" looked completely crisp and "film-like" throughout.
The film, of course, keeps to a muted color palette, but when brighter colors are allowed to enter into the proceedings, they are handled admirably, with good saturation. Black level is solid and flesh tones are accurate and natural.
SOUND: "Unbreakable" is presented in both DTS 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1 (English/Spanish/French Dolby 5.1). The director's first film, "The Sixth Sense" really didn't offer much in the way of sound design, but, as the director states in a portion of the "making of" documentary, he has come to realize the importance of sound design. "Unbreakable", although not a consistently agressive sound presentation, certainly still often proves the director's newfound appreciation for the importance of effective audio.
Surround use flares up in several sequences, most notably a pool sequence where all of the speakers work together to put you right in the middle of what's happening to the character at that moment. Several other scenes provide thrilling sound effects use as the surrounds are put to agressive and inventive, yet not distracting use. The scene at the train station, with its creative sound effects, is a good example of this.
Sound quality throughout the movie was remarkably good. Fidelity was exceptional and subtle details came through quite well. There's also some very nice use of ambient sounds. James Newton Howard's terrific score also came through crystal clear and dialogue sounded natural, as well. The audio use is excellent, fitting with the scene and providing additional emotion, drama and tension.
MENUS:: Buena Vista has provided tasteful animated main menus for both the main and supplemental discs. Bits of dialogue, Newton's score and animated images of script pages and other film elements are the background of the main menu, while most sub-menus still have at least Newton's score in the background.
EXTRAS:
Deleted Scenes: There are seven deleted scenes to be viewed. They are either available individually or can be played as a whole. The director provides introductions for each of these sequences and briefly explains his feelings about having to have to delete them. Personally, although I felt some of the sequences were more interesting than others, I thought that none of them could have worked in the movie - either they were redundant or didn't move the plot. The deleted scenes are in Dolby Digital 5.1 and one terrifying sequence with Elijah as a young child in an amusement park on a ride has some stunning sound use.
Making Of: There is a 15 minute "making of" documentary, which provides interviews with the director, cast and crew. Although much of the documentary is rather promotional in nature, it does skim the surface of explaining more about the story, but not as much as I'd like to see.
Train Station Multi-Angle: In a very neat feature, you can look through the train station sequence either final film or storyboards. Even more, you can listen to the scene with just the score, just the effects, or the final mix (all three Dolby Digital 5.1). The only problem, and it's a bummer, is that you can't switch mid-scene between the audio options.
Also: Clip from an early film of the director's, 20 minute documentary on comic books and superheroes.
Final Thoughts: Just looking at the basic disc itself, I'm certainly not dissapointed. The studio has provided extremely good audio/video quality for the film and I'm especially glad to see DTS included and the fact that the supplements were added to a second disc to leave the most room for the movie on disc one. But, I've just been looking at this as just a DVD and it's not supposed to be just a DVD - it's the introduction of the studio's new "Vista" series of Special Editions.
In that case, it does seem sort of a let-down (although not as much as the "Traffic" DVD, but that's another story). New Line has been providing not only outstanding a/v presentation, but boatloads of extras, even for films like "Dungeons and Dragons". The handful of features here is certainly of interest, but no audio commentary? There was supposedly a commentary planned for the composer (amazon.com still lists this as a feature, but it's not on the disc), but that didn't make it onto the final DVD.
So, overall, the first of the "Vista" series is not quite all that I'd expected, but the studio has certainly made some leaps in quality and presentation, so I'm excited to see where they'll go next with this new series.
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