Sunshine – Blu-Ray Picture in Picture is Here

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The folks at Fox Home Video are one of the first studios to come out with a Blu-Ray disk that supports the new 1.1 (or picture in picture) spec. One of the things that distinguished HD-DVD was it’s copious use of picture in picture for extra features. For instance on the 300 HD-DVD you could watch the entire movie in it’s original unedited green screen form and compare the original shots with the finished product. Very cool insight into how that film was made. Fox Home Video’s “Sunshine,” doesn’t do anything nearly as nifty as that. But it’s nice to know that they’ll have that capability in the future. For now the Sunshine Blu-Ray Disk has some basic pop-up featurettes that go in-depth into how certain scenes were made. The picture window is quite large and beautiful. The navigation menus on this disk are also really nice. They are transparent and float in and out of the picture with minimal fuss. It’s probably pointless to tell you that the movie looks amazing. It’s sharp, clear, and clean with no artifacts. The blacks are “blue black.”

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As far as the movie goes, this is what Director Danny Boyle (you can read an exclusive interview I conducted with him in the Hollywood Insider category). This is a strange film to discuss, I don’t want to give away spoilers, but being vague doesn’t particularly help either. This film can be best described as a “smart,” sci-fi film with a fabulous cast. A group of scientist have to save the earth by reviving a dying sun. The previous crew got lost in space so this crew is humanity’s last chance of survival. The crew have to maintain their sanity while trying to ensure the mission succeeds which is jeopardy due to bad decisions early on. The movie is really slow, talky, and a bit depressing. It took a good 1/2 hour before I warmed to it, but eventually I was sucked in. Chris Evans gives a breakout performance as the “Audience guy.” He says and does everything that a real person would do faced with the choices he’s faced with. Every time you start thinking, why don’t they do this, or it’s obvious you have to sacrifice the other person. It’s Evan’s character that says and does it. The first 2 1/3rds of this film are brilliant – if you can stick with it. Unfortunately the movie falls apart in the 3rd act and becomes some sort of strange slasher in space flick before it rights itself again. There are a lot of good ideas explored in this and is well worth the time.

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Sunshine is packed to the gills with features, none of which were filmed in HD:

A Brilliant Vision: Enhanced Viewing Mode with the Filmmakers of Sunshine

o Icarus Kitchen

o Designing Icarus / Kaneda´s Room

o Zero Gravity Rehearsal

o Oxygen Garden Fire

o Stunt Jump Through Space

o Cast Preparing for Film

o Pinbacker´s Makeup

o Mace Fixes Mainframe

o Space Suits

o Payload Showdown

§ Journey Into Sound: Surround Sound Enhancement

o Searle in Observation Room

o Capa Speaks with Icarus

o Capa Discovers Pinbacker

o Capa Battles Pinbacker

§ Deleted Scenes With Commentary By Danny Boyle:

o Playing Chess

o It Really Takes It Out Of You

o Washing Carrots In The Oxygen Garden

o Coolant Redirection

o Cooking

o Wake-up

o Demolished Oxygen Garden

o Searle Meets Capa

o In Deeper Space Than We Are

o Prepping For Docking

o Rough Docking Procedure

o Fight And Then We Die

o Alternate Ending

§ Web Production Diaries

o Danny Boyle Introduction

o Zero G Flight

o Cillian Murphy

o Pre Viz

o Science Of The Sun

o Hiroyuki

o Troy Garity Harvey Introduction

o Voice Of Icarus

o Michelle And O2 Garden

o Anita Screens

o Alwin Kuchler

o Cliff Curtis

o Bumps And Stunts

o Benny

o The Science Of Space Travel Physiology

o Space Suit

o Rose Byrne Intro

o Love Letters

o Chris Evans

o VFX

o Big Bangs

o The Science Of Sun Death

§ Short films

o Dad’s Dead Directed by Chris Shepherd

o Mole Hills Directed by Dan Arnold

§ Fox on Blu-ray Trailers

As a first stab at the new Blu-Ray picture in picture feature, Sunshine works really well and is a must own title for your Blu-Ray collection.

Movie Grade – B

Features Grade – A-

Picture Quality – A

Audio – A

Final Overall Grade – A

EM Review by
Michelle Alexandria
Originally posted 1/14/08