New to Blu: July 23-29

Need for Speed races on to Blu-ray ahead of the US in 2D and 3D models brimming with extras.

They explore what it took to capture the intense car stunts on camera, profile four generations of professional stuntmen, and reveal how the movie’s stunning soundscape helps put the audience in the driver’s seat by recording “car bys” –accelerations, donuts, skids — and the “gnarly” signature sound of the hero Mustang. 

Exclusive to the Blu-ray are an audio commentary with director Scott Waugh and Aaron Paul; Monarch & Maverick outtakes with stars Michael Keaton and Scott Mescudi; and four deleted scenes with introductions by Waugh.

“I, Frankenstein comes to Blu-ray with a solid but not terribly impressive 3D conversion.

“The added depth works best in action scenes, adding a decent sense of immersion, but the conversion can look a little unnatural and distracting in other instances.

“The 2D transfer is also respectable, but detail isn’t razor sharp and the image is intentionally drab.”

“I, Frankenstein was not filmed natively in 3D but was converted after the fact, prior to its theatrical release.

“Post-conversions can be anywhere from excellent to poor, and this one is not on the high end of that spectrum.

“The best 3D films have multiple layers of depth, and this one usually has two layers, foreground and background.”

“I, Frankenstein‘s lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is suitably noisy and full of nicely immersive surround effects, ut its very relentless quality may mean that some listeners numb to its activity after a while.”

Also new are Hypnotic Eye, Chop, Berlin Job (“very impressively sharp and sleek looking”) and season one of Orphan Black.

“Orphan Black: Season One features a strong, sexy 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 encode that, barring a few fairly negligible issues, doesn’t falter.”

“It’s pretty obvious that Orphan Black is shot on digital cameras, making for a stunning transition to home video.

“Colours here are nicely saturated and the picture shows plenty of sharpness and detail, particularly during daytime sequences.”

“Dialogue in the 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track is consistently crisp, clear and intelligible, though the variety of accents in play sometimes requires engaging subtitles.

“Support for the score in the surround channels is balanced and seamless, as are the occasional environmental and directional effects.”

Note these comments relate to the Region A release, which includes a handful of undistinguished extras; the Region B release has none.