...another must have for any HD-DVD collection.
Video:
This is a very recent film and a high profile release for Universal Home Video. There are some movies that simply need to look good on their home video release and this is one of the top titles yet released on the relatively young HD-DVD format. After over a year, not many triple-A titles have made their way to the format and "Knocked Up" is one of the first to do so day-and-date with its DVD counterpart. I still remember when it was a big deal for DVD to be released day-and-date with VHS. That was a huge step in the adoption of the digital 5" format and having these titles debut day and date with the decade old format is certainly going to be important if HD-DVD is to have a significant enough adoption rate to warrant its long-term success and keep it alive in the face of direct competition from the Blu-ray format.
Thankfully, Universal has nailed it with their high definition release of "Knocked Up." This 1.85:1 mastered film is a very new title and was released to theaters less than four months ago. There really would be no excuse for a less than stellar outing for this title and no excuse are needed as the VC-1 encoded film is one of the stronger titles yet released by the studio. Universal has released the film with two transfers. Side A of the disc contains the director´s cut of the film in glorious high definition video. Side B of the HD-DVD/DVD Combo Format contains the film´s theatrical release in standard definition. Comparing the two sides definitely yields different results as the HD-DVD side is clearly superior to the standard definition DVD side. Universal had previously released many catalog titles in this Combo Format, but has recently just sent out their biggest and most recent titles with a DVD layer glued to the opposite side of the disc.
The image is highly detailed and colors pop from the frame with their strong saturation and warm coloring. The film does have a relatively warm tint to it and eschews any cold feeling colors. Reds are especially bright and show no problematic color bleeding that is common for the color. Whites are clean and are not overblown in their brightness. On the other end of the spectrum, black are rock solid. The darker moments are very detailed and exhibit strong shadow detail. The level of detail is exceptionally strong and you can count the hairs on either Seth Rogan´s chin or Katherine Heigl´s head. I can´t think of a single instance where the image quality becomes overly soft. It is just a highly detailed print. The source materials used were exceptionally clean and show no film grain or other visual flaws. The digital transfer had one or two brief moments of banding, but aside from that, it was perfect.
Sound:
While it is an incredibly detailed and visually spectacular transfer, the audio side of the "Knocked Up" release doesn´t push the format nearly as much. The film contains two Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 soundtracks for English and French and ignores the higher bitrate and fuller sounding Dolby TrueHD soundtrack that the studio has been releasing as part of many of their recent releases. I was hoping for a TrueHD soundtrack to help cement "Knocked Up" as one of the absolute best choices on the format, but its exclusion simply leaves behind a good sounding soundtrack that can never be called great. Some of the film´s finer audible moments were the musical numbers. The score by Loudon Wainwright and Joe Henry is handled honorably by the Dolby Digital Plus mix and the songs selected by Jonathan Karp surpass any compact disc out there in power and clarity. Being a comedy, the film requires clean and intelligible dialogue and the HD-DVD transfer of the film does not let the dialogue down. Every spoken word sounds great. This is a great sounding film and a very good sounding HD-DVD title, but it isn´t quite reference material.
Extras:
"Knocked Out" is a big release for Universal and they have saw fit to make the "Unrated and Unprotected" version a solid HD-DVD title that may not rival "Hot Fuzz," but still shows off some of the capabilities of the advanced format and makes for a very fun release with solid supplements that are generally worth checking out. The U-Control representative of this title is the Picture in Picture capability of Universal´s trademark interactive supplements. This is a very nice little video commentary that features some very nice making of moments and the entertaining filmmakers entertain in the little PiP onscreen. The U-Control is not the only modern feature on the disc. The title is Web Enabled and allows for download of additional content; although most of it is currently promotional. Five additional segments related to "Knocked Up" joined the same promotional items found from the "Heroes: Season One" interactive content. I´m curious to see where Universal will eventually go with the Web-Based content.
After the HD-DVD only extras, the bits from the DVD release are also contained on the disc. The Feature Commentary with Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen and Bill Hader is absolutely hilarious. It is also very ´adult´ in nature and I thoroughly enjoyed this uncontained and uncensored conversation on the film. It was rude, lewd and funny. It is nice to see that studios still allow for a little freedom of speech in their supplements. The commentary is definitely not for the easily offended. Fourteen Deleted Scenes (18:54) are housed on the disc. Considering this comedy is already two hours and thirteen minutes long, I was surprised there was this much cutting room floor content. These scenes were funny and well worth checking out. They could be watched independently or collectively with the "Play All" feature. The deleted scenes were not the only cutting room material. Four Extended/Alternate Scenes (8:29) were also included. These were not as worthwhile as the deleted scenes, but were still funny.
The commentary, U-control and deleted scenes would have made for a very nice set of features, but there is even more. Line-o-Rama (3:35) is a montage of some of the film´s funny lines. This was an odd feature, but makes for a funny alternate trailer. The Gag Reel (3:27) was funny and showed how funny the filmmakers and actors are. I would have loved to have been on that set. The Roller Coaster Doc (5:19) is a vignette that looks at the creation of the film´s opening roller coaster scene. Directing the Director (7:40) is the longest of the featurettes and a mockumentary of director Judd Apatow getting direction on how to be a director. This was odd and funny. The supplements on this disc were intended to be fun and this is a testament to the brand of humor created by the cast and crew. Loudon Wainwright III – Live at McCabe´s "You Can´t Fail Me Now" (3:48) is a music video of a live performance by one of the men responsible for the film´s original score. Finally, the Topless Scene – Web Design Company (:33) is a look at a topless actor and that is all I will say about this funny segment.
Closing Comments:
"Knocked Up" is one of the better comedies I have seen in the past couple of years. It contains much of the same lewd and crude humor that was popularized by "American Pie" and other recent pictures, but contains a solid and meaningful plot that looks at situations that are both very real and quite serious. It just has a lot of fun with these situations. Judd Apatow is a director that will hopefully entertain us for years to come, but if he would stop today, he has created at least one masterpiece. The actors are perfectly cast and the group of friends that portrays a group of friends in the film are downright funny. I have seen this film three times and continue to enjoy it. The HD-DVD features very good visuals and above average sound (for a comedy). The supplements show off the capabilities of HD-DVD and are extremely funny. I can´t say this is the best recent release from Universal, as "Hot Fuzz" is simply amazing, but this is another very solid outing for a recent title and another must have for any HD-DVD collection.
This is a very recent film and a high profile release for Universal Home Video. There are some movies that simply need to look good on their home video release and this is one of the top titles yet released on the relatively young HD-DVD format. After over a year, not many triple-A titles have made their way to the format and "Knocked Up" is one of the first to do so day-and-date with its DVD counterpart. I still remember when it was a big deal for DVD to be released day-and-date with VHS. That was a huge step in the adoption of the digital 5" format and having these titles debut day and date with the decade old format is certainly going to be important if HD-DVD is to have a significant enough adoption rate to warrant its long-term success and keep it alive in the face of direct competition from the Blu-ray format.
Thankfully, Universal has nailed it with their high definition release of "Knocked Up." This 1.85:1 mastered film is a very new title and was released to theaters less than four months ago. There really would be no excuse for a less than stellar outing for this title and no excuse are needed as the VC-1 encoded film is one of the stronger titles yet released by the studio. Universal has released the film with two transfers. Side A of the disc contains the director´s cut of the film in glorious high definition video. Side B of the HD-DVD/DVD Combo Format contains the film´s theatrical release in standard definition. Comparing the two sides definitely yields different results as the HD-DVD side is clearly superior to the standard definition DVD side. Universal had previously released many catalog titles in this Combo Format, but has recently just sent out their biggest and most recent titles with a DVD layer glued to the opposite side of the disc.
The image is highly detailed and colors pop from the frame with their strong saturation and warm coloring. The film does have a relatively warm tint to it and eschews any cold feeling colors. Reds are especially bright and show no problematic color bleeding that is common for the color. Whites are clean and are not overblown in their brightness. On the other end of the spectrum, black are rock solid. The darker moments are very detailed and exhibit strong shadow detail. The level of detail is exceptionally strong and you can count the hairs on either Seth Rogan´s chin or Katherine Heigl´s head. I can´t think of a single instance where the image quality becomes overly soft. It is just a highly detailed print. The source materials used were exceptionally clean and show no film grain or other visual flaws. The digital transfer had one or two brief moments of banding, but aside from that, it was perfect.
Sound:
While it is an incredibly detailed and visually spectacular transfer, the audio side of the "Knocked Up" release doesn´t push the format nearly as much. The film contains two Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 soundtracks for English and French and ignores the higher bitrate and fuller sounding Dolby TrueHD soundtrack that the studio has been releasing as part of many of their recent releases. I was hoping for a TrueHD soundtrack to help cement "Knocked Up" as one of the absolute best choices on the format, but its exclusion simply leaves behind a good sounding soundtrack that can never be called great. Some of the film´s finer audible moments were the musical numbers. The score by Loudon Wainwright and Joe Henry is handled honorably by the Dolby Digital Plus mix and the songs selected by Jonathan Karp surpass any compact disc out there in power and clarity. Being a comedy, the film requires clean and intelligible dialogue and the HD-DVD transfer of the film does not let the dialogue down. Every spoken word sounds great. This is a great sounding film and a very good sounding HD-DVD title, but it isn´t quite reference material.
Extras:
"Knocked Out" is a big release for Universal and they have saw fit to make the "Unrated and Unprotected" version a solid HD-DVD title that may not rival "Hot Fuzz," but still shows off some of the capabilities of the advanced format and makes for a very fun release with solid supplements that are generally worth checking out. The U-Control representative of this title is the Picture in Picture capability of Universal´s trademark interactive supplements. This is a very nice little video commentary that features some very nice making of moments and the entertaining filmmakers entertain in the little PiP onscreen. The U-Control is not the only modern feature on the disc. The title is Web Enabled and allows for download of additional content; although most of it is currently promotional. Five additional segments related to "Knocked Up" joined the same promotional items found from the "Heroes: Season One" interactive content. I´m curious to see where Universal will eventually go with the Web-Based content.
After the HD-DVD only extras, the bits from the DVD release are also contained on the disc. The Feature Commentary with Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen and Bill Hader is absolutely hilarious. It is also very ´adult´ in nature and I thoroughly enjoyed this uncontained and uncensored conversation on the film. It was rude, lewd and funny. It is nice to see that studios still allow for a little freedom of speech in their supplements. The commentary is definitely not for the easily offended. Fourteen Deleted Scenes (18:54) are housed on the disc. Considering this comedy is already two hours and thirteen minutes long, I was surprised there was this much cutting room floor content. These scenes were funny and well worth checking out. They could be watched independently or collectively with the "Play All" feature. The deleted scenes were not the only cutting room material. Four Extended/Alternate Scenes (8:29) were also included. These were not as worthwhile as the deleted scenes, but were still funny.
The commentary, U-control and deleted scenes would have made for a very nice set of features, but there is even more. Line-o-Rama (3:35) is a montage of some of the film´s funny lines. This was an odd feature, but makes for a funny alternate trailer. The Gag Reel (3:27) was funny and showed how funny the filmmakers and actors are. I would have loved to have been on that set. The Roller Coaster Doc (5:19) is a vignette that looks at the creation of the film´s opening roller coaster scene. Directing the Director (7:40) is the longest of the featurettes and a mockumentary of director Judd Apatow getting direction on how to be a director. This was odd and funny. The supplements on this disc were intended to be fun and this is a testament to the brand of humor created by the cast and crew. Loudon Wainwright III – Live at McCabe´s "You Can´t Fail Me Now" (3:48) is a music video of a live performance by one of the men responsible for the film´s original score. Finally, the Topless Scene – Web Design Company (:33) is a look at a topless actor and that is all I will say about this funny segment.
Closing Comments:
"Knocked Up" is one of the better comedies I have seen in the past couple of years. It contains much of the same lewd and crude humor that was popularized by "American Pie" and other recent pictures, but contains a solid and meaningful plot that looks at situations that are both very real and quite serious. It just has a lot of fun with these situations. Judd Apatow is a director that will hopefully entertain us for years to come, but if he would stop today, he has created at least one masterpiece. The actors are perfectly cast and the group of friends that portrays a group of friends in the film are downright funny. I have seen this film three times and continue to enjoy it. The HD-DVD features very good visuals and above average sound (for a comedy). The supplements show off the capabilities of HD-DVD and are extremely funny. I can´t say this is the best recent release from Universal, as "Hot Fuzz" is simply amazing, but this is another very solid outing for a recent title and another must have for any HD-DVD collection.
Average user rating (1-5):
[release]21902[/release]