New to Blu: Movies & Music > August 19-25

Film festival favourite While We’re Young bypasses cinemas to hit the streets the same week as the latest in the Fast & Furious series 

Fast & Furious 7 (which also can be bought in a box set) roars on to shelves here a month ahead of the US and UK.

It comes with 7.1 audio, theatrical and extended cuts of the movie, and more than 100 minutes of extras.

“Shot digitally with the Arri Alexa Plus, While We’re Young is perfectly presentable if just a bit underwhelming in high definition.

“The palette is bathed in shades of beiges and yellows, with a distinct lack of really bright hues ever popping with much immediacy.”

“The widescreen image is exquisite with great colour reproduction, clarity, and detail. The image is sharp, lushly realized, and stunning to behold.

“Sam Levy’s exceptional cinematography is a wondrous thing to behold and it’s well reproduced on this quality release.”

“Sporting a compressed colour palette, The Gunman never achieves reference or demonstration levels of perfection, most notably due to a slightly less than perfect black levels, but for the most part this movie looks terrific in high definition.”

“Delivers a near-reference quality video presentation compressed using the AVC codec, retaining the film’s intended theatrical aspect ratio of 2.40:1.

“Colours are vibrant and natural without appearing oversaturated.”

Also out are McFarland USA (“a nearly immaculate transfer”), Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 (“solid with bright colours”), Lucky Them (“realistic in look but never vibrant or visually exciting”) and Samba.

The 25th anniversary edition of Goodfellas is the third and best transfer of Martin Scorsese’s 1990 classic (complete with a lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 track and new retrospective documentary).

“This Blu-ray boasts a 4K remaster in which the final transfer was apparently approved by the director himself …

“There is a vibrancy and freshness to the picture which outshine the original version. Production details stand out more vividly … Colours appear less murky.”

“Having never watched the 2007 Blu-ray release (although I’ve seen the film many times), I came to this version fresh, and the presentation is spectacular.

“Clarity, sharpness and densities are superb. The blacks are deep, and the contrast is excellent.”

National Lampoon’s Vacation hasn’t been remastered for its 30th Anniversary re-issue.

“Framed in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, the high-def picture definitely shows its age, although it looks to be in pretty good shape overall.”

Also being retrieved from the vault are three Hammer Horrors — The Brides of Dracula, The Curse of the Werewolf, The Vampire Lovers — Rolling Stones From the Vault: The Marquee Club Live in 1971, Slash: Live at the Roxy and The Who: Live at Shea Stadium.