Blu-ray Review: Unbreakable

THE MOVIE: 3 1/2 stars out of 5

Unbreakable is M. Night Shyamalan’s follow-up to his critically acclaimed and widely popular suspense triller The Sixth Sense. As was the case in The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable stars Bruce Willis, this time as David Dunn, the sole survivor of a terrible train crash. Not only is he the sole survivor, he walks away from the crash site without a single scratch. After the crash and resulting publicity, he meets a mysterious stranger played by Samuel L. Jackson who has the opposite condition exhibited by Mr. Dunn, namely, he is very brittle, suffering broken bones at the slightest provocation. This stranger takes a very keen and unnatural interest in Mr. Dunn, the reason for which is not revealed until the very end of the film.

While I enjoyed the film, it is not up to the level of The Sixth Sense which had you mesmerized from the beginning to the end. Unbreakable does not play as well, being a little slow and a tad more predictable and lacks the totally shocking ending of The Sixth Sense, which is by far, Mr. Shyamaian’s best film. Nevertheless, I found Unbreakable to be an enjoyable film and one that I would recommend to all movie lovers.

THE VIDEO: 4 1/3 stars out of 5

Encoded with AVC and presented in its original aspect ratio of 2:35:1, Unbreakable looks good on this Blu-Ray release and much better than its DVD counterpart. However, it falls a good deal short of the better looking transfers I have seen on the Blu-Ray format. On the plus side, color reproduction is very good with nice black levels, even though the color palette is on the drab side. On the down side, I felt the film to look a tad soft and lacking in detail in both light and dark scenes. I found the overall image to be a little on the flat side throughout the film as well, lacking the three dimensionality of the better looking transfers. I was also able to observe some noise in both dark and well lit screens throughout the film which I found to be a bit distracting. All of these deficiencies are present in the DVD so I would assume that it is characteristic of the actual film and not the result of the transfer. For fans of the film, the video presentation on his Blu-Ray release is light years ahead of the DVD release which was totally flat and dull. It is just not up to the levels of the better looking Blu-Ray releases and was a bit of a disappointment.

THE AUDIO: 4 7/8 stars out of 5

While I have issues with the video presentation on this release, I have none with the audio. While it is not quite as good as the audio on Hidalgo, it is pretty darn close. The high rez audio here is presented in uncompressed PCM at 48 kHz/24 bit. The sound design here is very impressive with a very open and dynamic sound with excellent bass response. Dialogue is clear and well recorded and well presented in the mix. Surrounds are well used presenting a totally immersive sound experience. Particularly impressive is the opening sequence in the train. You can clearly hear all of the subtle sounds of the train on the tracks and can sense the gradual increase in the speed of the train as it begins to race out of control. If you have ever been in an Amtrak train, the sound on this disc captures that experience perfectly. The sound of the rain storm is so real that it makes you want to reach for a raincoat. I just wish the video presentation here was a good as the audio.

IN CONCLUSION

While not as good as The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable is a worthy film in its own right. With average video quality and excellent audio, this film is well worth a look. Recommended.

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