HD DVD Review: Evan Almighty

THE MOVIE 4 stars out of 5

Evan Almighty stars Steve Carell as newly elected Congressman Evan Baxter who is contacted by God (the great Morgan Freeman) to build an ark to save the world from a flood. Naturally, this causes a whole set of problems for Evan as a Congressman and as a father. This is a lighthearted and fast paced comedy with plenty of sight gags and is a lot of fun. I enjoyed the film more than I anticipated that I would and would recommend it for anyone looking for a nice comedy to enjoy on a Saturday night. It is a film the whole family will enjoy.

THE VIDEO 4 3/4 stars out of 5

In a word, this is a stunning transfer. Not quite up to the level of Hot Fuzz which I believe to be the best transfer on either format to date, but damn close. The film was encoded with VC-1 and presented in a 2:35:1 aspect ratio. The image on the screen is crystal clear with no visible noise or artifacts of any kind. The colors are spot on with perfect skin tone and deep blacks. The image is presented with that “looking through a window look” that the best HD provides. While the colors in this film are bright, especially in daylight outdoor scenes, they are very natural looking and not over saturated at all. This is one great looking transfer! I couldn’t find one thing wrong with the visual presentation of this film on HD-DVD. The disc is a combo disc with the standard DVD on the other side. Playback was flawless on my HD-A1.

THE AUDIO 4 stars out of 5

I was a little disappointed that, unlike more recent Universal releases, this disc did not come with a Dolby True HD soundtrack. The audio on the disc is Dolby DIgital Plus. Nevertheless, the audio reproduction is good with clear and clean sounding dialogue that is well pre sented in the mix. As you would expect with a comedy, the mix was rather front heavy. However, the flood scene near the end of the movie sounded great with active surrounds and deep bass filling the room with the sound of rushing water. It would have been interesting to hear how this movie would have sounded with True HD. However, for a comedy, it was a fine sounding disc nonetheless.

EXTRAS

This disc is another from Universal with interactive U Control features that enable you to pull up on a secondary video stream commentaries from crew members as the film continues to play. Also included are features such as the Ark Building for Dummies book featured in the film as well as a number of other features. Compared to other Universal releases, the interactive features on this disc are many and well worth a look once you have finished viewing the film.

COMMENT

I highly recommend this release and doubt you will be disappointed with it. Check it out and as always, I would love to receive your feedback. Happy viewing!

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