Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Known as "The Undertaker," expatriate Russian Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen) performs dirty tasks for a local mobster, Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl). Anna (Naomi Watts) and Nikolai cross paths when she obtains a diary with a card for Semyon's restaurant. Unfortunately for Anna, her inquisitive visit to Semyon throws her into a world in which she has no business.

There is a lot to like about Eastern Promises. The performances are top-notch, the cinematography is outstanding—especially the exterior shots of London—and director David Cronenberg shows a seedy underworld with vivid reality. Unfortunately, it's too bloody violent for my liking. From the opening scene of a brutal killing to a knife fight in a bathhouse—with Mortensen in the buff—I don't need to see every detail to get the message it's an ugly world out there.

The high-bitrate VC-1 encode is fantastic, with inky blacks and remarkable detail. Color reproduction is dazzling, especially red from all the blood, and the use of color is integral to the storytelling. Flesh tones are perfect, and every tattoo emblazoned on Mortensen's body is clearly distinguished. The print is nearly flawless without a blemish or scratch, and the prevalent banding from the HD DVD is effectively nonexistent in this new encode.

The DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack is a mostly passive affair with crisp and lucid dialog, but the musical score by Howard Shore is spectacular in capturing the mood with heavy use of strings that have amazing transparency. The surround channels provide engrossing ambience and deliver precise discrete effects when needed during the action sequences. Dynamics are never really tested by any measure, but that doesn't detract from a nearly perfect track.

The sparse supplements include four short featurettes highlighting the story, the tattoos, the bath-house fight scene, and the challenge Naomi Watts had in riding a motorcycle—all presented in HD.

From a production standpoint, I can't fault Eastern Promises, although I do take exception to the gratuitous violence. By taming the depicted brutality, a wider audience could enjoy the great performances by the cast and the first-rate cinematography, but if you're as turned off by it as I am, I would stay away.

Release Date: October 14, 2008

Movie: 6 out of 10
Picture: 10 out of 10
Sound: 9 out of 10

Review System

Source
Pioneer Elite BDP=05FD

Display
JVC DLA-RS1 projector
Stewart FireHawk screen (76.5" wide, 16:9)

Electronics
Onkyo PR-SC885 pre/pro
Anthem PVA-7 Amplifier
Belkin PF60 power conditioner

Speakers
M&K S-150s (L, C, R)
M&K SS-150s (LS, RS, SBL, SBR)
SVS PC-Ultra subwoofer

Cables
Monoprice HDMI cables (source to pre/pro)
Best Deal analog-audio cables
PureLink HDC Fiber Optic HDMI Cable System (15 meters) from pre/pro to projector