The film was a pleasure sight for the eyes and truly showcased the new HD-DVD format.
As I mentioned in the main body of my review, one of the strengths of "Sahara" is its great cinematography by Seamus McGarvey. The film takes place on either water or sand - two complete opposites. The water ranges from a gorgeous turquoise color to a muddy brown that is far more drab looking than the limitless sands. The sand is photographed in a way that it is always pleasing to look at and never gets dull. The sky is a perfect hue of light blue. Colors jump out of the screen with this incredible transfer and combined with the fine level of detail, "Sahara" feels almost like you could touch it. This is a beautifully shot film and it is brought to life wonderfully by a beautiful VC-1 encoded HD-DVD transfer.
Sound:
Paramount includes four soundtracks with "Sahara." The most notable and important is the English 5.1 Dolby Digital Plus audio track. The English 5.1 DTS mix is impressive as well, but the Dolby Digital Plus soundtrack is by far the preferential way to experience the film. French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital Plus audio tracks are included as well. "Sahara" is a film that perfectly balances scenes where environmental sounds bring out the beauty of the African landscape and scenes where a very aggressive soundtrack takes hold of the audience´s ear canals with a full-on assault of the senses. During the noisy action sequences, "Sahara" fully utilizes all six channels. The front three channels pound with great fervor to bring the gunfire and other sound effects to full life. The center does an admirable job of delivering dialogue, even in the noisiest moments. The rear channels are full of sound as well and rival even the front channels in some scenes. The .1 LFE subwoofer loves to pound home the explosions and powder explosions of the guns. The audio portion of this film perfectly matches the strong visuals to deliver a home theater tour-de-force.
Extras:
One of the reasons I have found an early favorite in HD-DVD in this format war is the cornucopia of value-added content that arrives with almost every release. "Sahara" is no exception to the rule and comes packed with a nice arsenal of bonus features, including two commentary tracks that brings the total number of soundtracks to a whopping six. The first Commentary by Director Breck Eisner is a very informative track that details the making of the picture. Eisner provides a great deal of information on the film and is never dull to listen to. There are a few moments where he gets a bit silent, but usually rebounds with something interesting. The second Commentary by Directory Breck Eisner and Actor/Executive Producer Matthew McConaughey is perhaps a more ´fun´ commentary track to listen to, and the two men appear to be genuinely good friends that had a great time recording the track together, but does not deliver much new information over what the first track did. It was nice sitting back and listening to the two ´catch up on old times´ and this commentary track is never dull.
Pressing the ´Menu´ key brings up a nice little overlay of a desert landscape. From here you can choose ´Pause,´ ´Settings,´ ´Scenes,´ ´Commentaries´ and ´Home.´ You have to go home to view the rest of the bonus materials. The Extras menu allows you to select the commentary tracks as well as the rest of the materials. Across the Sands of Sahara is the first making of documentary. It runs for fifteen minutes and focuses the difficulties, benefits and work required to shoot in Morocco. One hundred and forty degree weather, sandstorms, floods and locusts plagued the production. Visualizing the Sahara is the second part of the three part documentary and its twenty minutes of fame covers storyboarding and the shooting of the film. McConaughey and others return to this supplement and continue to deliver a nice wealth of information. Cast and Crew Wrap Film sounds like a boring title, but the ten minute documentary features candid moments with the cast and crew and their efforts in filming the picture.
I love extras that involve outtakes or deleted scenes. "Sahara" provides some Deleted Scenes (With Optional Commentary by Breck Eisner and Matthew McConaughey). The scenes in question are "Kitty Mannock´s Crash," "Finding Kitty Mannack´s Plane," "The Long Kiss´ and "Oceanographers Dying in the Desert." You can play them individually or with a ´Play All´ selection. The complete running time is less than five minutes. The scenes really do not add anything additional to the picture and were best left on the cutting room floor, but are nice little extras to be found on the disc.
A few additional tidbits complete the HD-DVD Extras section. Camel Chase is a five minute look at working with camels and filming the chase scene. Short, but sweet. Animatics includes the animatic sequences for the "Opening Scene" and the "Train Jump." Running nine minutes, the animated storyboards feature both sound effects and a musical score. Storyboard Comparisons are provided for "Gun Fight at the Well," "Finding the Iron Clad" and "Dirk Rescues Eva on the Beach." These three two minutes sequences show the storyboards above the actual film clip with a desert backdrop. Though not as visually appealing as the animatics, these give a nice comparison as to how the final product differed from how it was laid out through the storyboard artist. A Theatrical Trailer is provided in full high-definition. It looks stunning and I cannot wait until more supplements are provided in glorious HD. The Paramount HD preview is also selectable from the Extras menu.
Closing Thoughts:
"Sahara" was a fun action film. Executive Producer / Star Matthew McConaughey discovered the character through reading books in which the film is based. He secured the rights and brought Dirk Pitt to the big screen. I held out on watching the film because it didn´t appeal to me through the television spots and theatrical trailers I witnessed. Well, Paramount has delivered the character of Dirk Pitt to the High Definition Screen and enabled me to finally sit down and watch the movie. I was not particularly excited by the storytelling aspect of the film, but I thoroughly enjoyed William H. Macy, Steve Zahn and Matthew McConaughey and the characters they portrayed. The film was a pleasure sight for the eyes and truly showcased the new HD-DVD format. The action was exciting and allowed for great sound effects. Technically speaking, this is a great DVD. Paramount has also included a number of supplemental features, including some features that do not appear on the list for the standard definition release (They are either new or Easter Eggs.) A fun film and a great HD-DVD package makes for a good early release by Paramount as they make their way onto the HD platform.
Sound:
Paramount includes four soundtracks with "Sahara." The most notable and important is the English 5.1 Dolby Digital Plus audio track. The English 5.1 DTS mix is impressive as well, but the Dolby Digital Plus soundtrack is by far the preferential way to experience the film. French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital Plus audio tracks are included as well. "Sahara" is a film that perfectly balances scenes where environmental sounds bring out the beauty of the African landscape and scenes where a very aggressive soundtrack takes hold of the audience´s ear canals with a full-on assault of the senses. During the noisy action sequences, "Sahara" fully utilizes all six channels. The front three channels pound with great fervor to bring the gunfire and other sound effects to full life. The center does an admirable job of delivering dialogue, even in the noisiest moments. The rear channels are full of sound as well and rival even the front channels in some scenes. The .1 LFE subwoofer loves to pound home the explosions and powder explosions of the guns. The audio portion of this film perfectly matches the strong visuals to deliver a home theater tour-de-force.
Extras:
One of the reasons I have found an early favorite in HD-DVD in this format war is the cornucopia of value-added content that arrives with almost every release. "Sahara" is no exception to the rule and comes packed with a nice arsenal of bonus features, including two commentary tracks that brings the total number of soundtracks to a whopping six. The first Commentary by Director Breck Eisner is a very informative track that details the making of the picture. Eisner provides a great deal of information on the film and is never dull to listen to. There are a few moments where he gets a bit silent, but usually rebounds with something interesting. The second Commentary by Directory Breck Eisner and Actor/Executive Producer Matthew McConaughey is perhaps a more ´fun´ commentary track to listen to, and the two men appear to be genuinely good friends that had a great time recording the track together, but does not deliver much new information over what the first track did. It was nice sitting back and listening to the two ´catch up on old times´ and this commentary track is never dull.
Pressing the ´Menu´ key brings up a nice little overlay of a desert landscape. From here you can choose ´Pause,´ ´Settings,´ ´Scenes,´ ´Commentaries´ and ´Home.´ You have to go home to view the rest of the bonus materials. The Extras menu allows you to select the commentary tracks as well as the rest of the materials. Across the Sands of Sahara is the first making of documentary. It runs for fifteen minutes and focuses the difficulties, benefits and work required to shoot in Morocco. One hundred and forty degree weather, sandstorms, floods and locusts plagued the production. Visualizing the Sahara is the second part of the three part documentary and its twenty minutes of fame covers storyboarding and the shooting of the film. McConaughey and others return to this supplement and continue to deliver a nice wealth of information. Cast and Crew Wrap Film sounds like a boring title, but the ten minute documentary features candid moments with the cast and crew and their efforts in filming the picture.
I love extras that involve outtakes or deleted scenes. "Sahara" provides some Deleted Scenes (With Optional Commentary by Breck Eisner and Matthew McConaughey). The scenes in question are "Kitty Mannock´s Crash," "Finding Kitty Mannack´s Plane," "The Long Kiss´ and "Oceanographers Dying in the Desert." You can play them individually or with a ´Play All´ selection. The complete running time is less than five minutes. The scenes really do not add anything additional to the picture and were best left on the cutting room floor, but are nice little extras to be found on the disc.
A few additional tidbits complete the HD-DVD Extras section. Camel Chase is a five minute look at working with camels and filming the chase scene. Short, but sweet. Animatics includes the animatic sequences for the "Opening Scene" and the "Train Jump." Running nine minutes, the animated storyboards feature both sound effects and a musical score. Storyboard Comparisons are provided for "Gun Fight at the Well," "Finding the Iron Clad" and "Dirk Rescues Eva on the Beach." These three two minutes sequences show the storyboards above the actual film clip with a desert backdrop. Though not as visually appealing as the animatics, these give a nice comparison as to how the final product differed from how it was laid out through the storyboard artist. A Theatrical Trailer is provided in full high-definition. It looks stunning and I cannot wait until more supplements are provided in glorious HD. The Paramount HD preview is also selectable from the Extras menu.
Closing Thoughts:
"Sahara" was a fun action film. Executive Producer / Star Matthew McConaughey discovered the character through reading books in which the film is based. He secured the rights and brought Dirk Pitt to the big screen. I held out on watching the film because it didn´t appeal to me through the television spots and theatrical trailers I witnessed. Well, Paramount has delivered the character of Dirk Pitt to the High Definition Screen and enabled me to finally sit down and watch the movie. I was not particularly excited by the storytelling aspect of the film, but I thoroughly enjoyed William H. Macy, Steve Zahn and Matthew McConaughey and the characters they portrayed. The film was a pleasure sight for the eyes and truly showcased the new HD-DVD format. The action was exciting and allowed for great sound effects. Technically speaking, this is a great DVD. Paramount has also included a number of supplemental features, including some features that do not appear on the list for the standard definition release (They are either new or Easter Eggs.) A fun film and a great HD-DVD package makes for a good early release by Paramount as they make their way onto the HD platform.
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[release]19437[/release]