HD DVD Review: Top Gun

Top Gun, directed by Tony Scott and produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, debuted in theaters in 1986. The films stars Tom Cruise as a Navy fighter pilot sent to the Navy's prestigious "Top Gun" school to complete against other pilots to see who can become "The Best of the Best". Co-starriing Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards and the steamy Kelliy McGillis, Top Gun is an action packed film full of some great mid air battle screens with the obligatory love affair between Mr. Cruise and Ms. McGillis.

At this point, do I need to go into any further detail on the plot? I didn't think so as I believe we all know about this film. This is one of those films that became Home Theater demo material and is one that I still have on VHS(somewhere), laserdisc and DVD.

But how does it look and sound in HD DVD?

VIDEO 4 stars out of 5
Overall, this is an excellent looking transfer even though it does not appear that a major restoration was done in preparation for the HD-DVD release. The transfer boasts excellent color reproduction, accurate skin tones and rich deep blacks that makes for a very pleasing visual experience. In fact, this is the best that I have seen the film look in the home environment and even betters the presentation in HD shown on HDNet Movies awhile back. Fans of this film will be very happy with how the film looks on this HD-DVD release.

My only quibble with the picture is some soft looking interior shots. The exterior shots in full sunlight look very detailed and sharp and the air action images really shine. Close-up shots are finely detailed as well, showing off every skin pore. It is the softness in the interior shots and less than perfect condition of the print that keeps the film from getting an even higher grade in my book. Overall, Top Gun on HD-DVD looks great and would be a welcome addition to any home theater film collection.

AUDIO 4 1/2 stars out of 5
This version of this film is chock full of various audio options including Dolby TrueHD 5.1 at 48 khz/20 bit, DTS-ES matrixed 6.1 at 1.5 mps, Dolby Digital Plus at 1.5 mps and French and Spanish Dolby Digital Plus tracks each of which clock in at 640 kbps. While all three English tracks are excellent, to my ears the TrueHD track is the clear winner. This mix of the film boasts powerful bass, clear and natural sounding dialogue and and overall rich sound that sounds great even at high levels.

In fact, one of the chief benefits of these new high resolution audio encodes encodes like TrueHD and PCM tracks on Blu-Ray is the smoothness and openness of the sound. The tracks retain this smoothness even at high listening levels and they lack the shrillness of the standard Dolby Digital tracks heard on standard DVD's. Believe me, this is one of those discs that you will want to crank up. The sound effects with the jet fighters flying overhead and whizzing forward and backwards on either side of you are fantastic and is what got us into the HT experience in the first place.

The dialogue was also well placed in the mix and is clear and easily followed even in scenes filled with jet noise and music all around you. Even though Top Gun was released in 1986, it sounds
fantastic on its debut in High Definition.

This release is highly recommended for all HT enthusiasts out there.

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