- Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
- Resolution: 1080p/24
- Audio Codec: English Dolby TrueHD 5.1
- Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
- Region: A (Region-Locked)
- Rating: Not Rated
- Discs: 1
- Studio: Anchor Bay
- Blu-ray Release Date: May 24, 2011
- List Price: $34.98
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BestBuy.com:
Purchase The Big Bang on Blu-ray at CD Universe
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Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:3/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures
(Screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG thus are meant as a general representation of the content and do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)
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The Film
[Rating:3/5]
Director Tony Krantz’s highly stylized bit of modern crime/action/noir The Big Bang could very well stand in for a David Lynch film were it not for its fatal flaws of substituting too much style for substance, and pretty much lifting its story from the Raymond Chandler novel, Farewell, My Lovely (renamed Murder, My Sweet for the screen) with a bit of the film Until the End of the World thrown in for good measure.
Right from the beginning, the colors, highly saturated hues, and visual elements blend with The Smiths’ Johnny Marr’s score to create a dreamlike world in this neo-noir detective story starring Antonio Banderas as private detective Ned Cruz. Hired by a Russian ex-con just out of prison after doing a five-year stint in the big house to find the woman he’s been exchanging love letters with, Cruz’s trail will take him on a twisting path through the lives of a superstar action hero (James Van Der Beek) with a dirty secret, a porn mogul (Snoop Dogg), a waitress with a fetish for atomic particles, and lead him straight to a reclusive billionaire looking for the “god particle” under the dessert of New Mexico with a particle accelerator that could bring on the end of the word. With his ultimate target, the beautiful stripper his client hired him to find, proving more elusive than he thought, Cruz becomes obsessed with finding her. Complicating matters are the cops after him since everyone he talks to winds up dead and, oh yeah, the missing conflict diamonds.
The Big Bang gets an A+ for style, but the story is clumsy, full of plot holes, and way too convoluted to follow. Still, everyone outside of Banderas puts on a strong performance. If only someone like David Lynch had actually directed this, it might have been a much stronger piece of work.
Video Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
The beautiful use of ultra-saturated colors and hues in The Big Bang is presented in a sparkling AVC/MPEG-4 1080p transfer from Anchor Bay. The transfer is bright, vivid, and detailed, with a textured and three-dimensional quality. Blacks are inky and shadow detail is nicely extended as well.
Audio Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
The Big Bang has an active Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack that makes constant use of the surround channels right from the very beginning of the film. It is an awesome, fully-engaging soundscape with extended lows, lots of atmospheric sounds, a great balance of front-to-back panning and direct dialogue, and lots of discrete sound effects panned throughout the the room. High frequencies are smooth and the overall mix has a wide dynamic range.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2/5]
The most interesting supplement here is the audio commentary from the filmmakers. Other than that, there is a brief and obligatory “making of” and a few extended scenes, both in HD.
The supplements provided with this release are:
- Audio Commentary with Producer/Director Tony Krantz and Co-Producer Reece Pearson
- Lex Parsimoniae: The Making of The Big Bang (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 0:19.56)
- Extended Scenes (2.35:1; 0:04.11)
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:3.5/5]
A derivative bit of eye candy that only the most ardent fans of detective stories will need to watch, The Big Bang packs a nice home theatre punch, but isn’t worth purchasing. Rent it on a rainy day.
Additional Screen Captures
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[amazon-product]B004OUZLBA[/amazon-product]
BestBuy.com:
Purchase The Big Bang 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:4.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2/5]
