- Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
- Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
- Audio Codec: English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit)
- Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
- Region: A (Region-Locked)
- Rating: PG
- Run Time: 90 Mins
- Discs: 1 (1 x Blu-ray)
- Studio: Anchor Bay Entertainment
- Blu-ray Release Date: December 20, 2011
- List Price: $24.99
[amazon-product]B005YCEIFM[/amazon-product]
BestBuy.com:
Purchase Ice Quake on Blu-ray at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:3/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0.5/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures
(All TheaterByte screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG at 100% quality setting and are only are meant as a general representation of the content. They do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)
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The Film
[Rating:3/5]
SyFy (formerly the SciFi Channel) churns out original television movies like a Henry Ford production line. One of their favorite themes is the good ol’ disaster flick. This latest adventure, Ice Quake, is a holiday-themed disaster movie with just enough action to keep the kids entertained, but not too scary for the little ones. I’ve seen much worse drivel spewed forth by the channel, Ice Quake falls somewhere in the middle – it’s watchable, but like most of their programming these days, ultimately forgettable.
The disaster this time around lies in rivers of liquid methane beneath the Alaskan permafrost that are escaping due to escalated melting. Pockets of exploding gas geysers, ultra-cold gas that freezes everything on contact, and earthquakes all spell doom for the planet unless a geologist (Brendan Fehr) trapped in the mountains with his family and an army Colonel (Victor Garber) can figure out how to reverse the effects and keep all the methane from escaping into the atmosphere.
(For a different take, read our Ice Quake Blu-ray Review by Brendan Surpless)
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
The production of Ice Quake won’t bowl you over, but this AVC/MPEG-4 encodement is reasonable, if inconsistent. It seems to fluctuate between a rather clean, real-life look and grittier appearance with a jump in grain and noise. Still, there are good flesh tones, nice color reproduction, and a reasonable amount of contrast, though there isn’t much to really show that off. The image is good enough to at least show up some of those wonky looking visual effects.
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
The audio is by far the best part of this release, very active right from the beginning, with the surround channels full of ambience, atmospheric effects and discrete sounds flying around the room during those quakes and avalanches. Lows are resounding and dialogue is clear and crisp. The problem, however, is that high frequencies are too tweaked and at higher volumes, it becomes fatiguing, to say the least. What could have been a perfect sound mix for a television movie gets knocked down a couple points as a result.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0.5/5]
A rather straightforward “making of” and trailer are all that are provided on the disc.
The supplements:
- The Making of Ice Quake (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 00:27:09)
- Trailer (1.78:1; 1080p/24)
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:3.5/5]
Typical SyFy disaster flick offers a bit of a popcorn-munching distraction for ninety minutes with a decent HD transfer and good, but somewhat fatiguing, audio mix. My recommendation: take or leave it.
Additional Screen Captures
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[amazon-product]B005YCEIFM[/amazon-product]
BestBuy.com:
Purchase Ice Quake on Blu-ray at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:3/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0.5/5]
–
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