Blade (1998)
New Line Home Entertainment
Cast: Wesley Snipes, Stephen Dorff, Udo Kier, Kris Kristofferson
Extras: Commentary, isolated score, featurettes, sketches, cast & crew bios, trailer. DVD-ROM, screenplay, w
Rating:

“Blade’s” anamorphic widescreen transfer restores the film’s original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The image is detailed and sharp, without compression artifacts, color bleeding or noise. Many of the film’s scenes are shot under difficult, often dark and foreboding, lighting conditions and the disc faithfully maintains all the film’s shadow detail. Color reproduction on this disc is faithful with strong color and neutrally rendered fleshtones.

The disc’s 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack is hard hitting and makes good use of the split surrounds, creating an aggressive soundstage with a lot of presence and solid bass. The Dolby Surround soundtrack, though not quite as effective, still nicely reproduces the film’s sonic experience.

“Blade” is a new-age vampire film with some very nice special effects that are mostly computer generated. Sadly, the poor acting in a number of parts and the overly obtrusive music hurts the film quite a bit and breaks the suspense of disbelief. Overall it has a very “modern” film with a strong urban feel, which is enhanced by the techno music used for the soundtrack. The disc contains a plethora of very good and exhaustive supplements, some of which are only accessible through PC-based DVD-ROM drives.