Sunshine — Blu-ray Review
Sunshine courtesy Fox Home Entertainment
The year is 2057, the sun is dying, and mankind faces extinction. Earth's last hope rests with the crew of Icarus II, on a mission to deliver a nuclear payload into the center of the sun. Icarus I failed the same mission 7 years earlier, but no one knows why; can the crew of Icarus II save mankind?
This Blu-ray disc is loaded with interesting bonus material, and is the first "Bonus View" (aka Profile 1.1) title from Fox. There are two commentary tracks for the feature, one featuring director Danny Boyle, and the other with Dr. Brian Cox from the University of Manchester.
Both commentary tracks were fascinating! Boyle had lots to say about the movie, the production, and the actors. He spoke through the entire movie, without the long pauses that plague so many single-person commentary tracks. Dr. Cox, the scientific advisor on the movie, did an incredible job of sharing his wealth of scientific knowledge on his commentary. He clearly had a lot of fun working on the movie, and I loved listening to his track.
The disc also includes 12 deleted scenes, with optional commentary by Danny Boyle, 23 Web Production Diaries, 2 short films ("Dad's Dead" and "Mole Hills"), the theatrical trailer, and "Fox on Blu-ray" promos for other titles. The disc also includes "A Brilliant Vision," which is a "Bonus View" feature. Turning this on will enable a picture-in-picture feature for a few scenes in the movie, or you can access the video clips individually. The video clips show you some behind-the-scenes material on the production. The final feature, "Journey Into Sound: Surround Sound Enhancement" requires a "Bonus View" player, and a 5.1 setup. This feature allows you to access 4 scenes from the movie and move a voice between all 5 speakers. It's interesting, but if you don't have a "Bonus View" capable player you shouldn't feel like you're missing something amazing.
This Blu-ray release features a 1080p transfer, a DTS HD 5.1 Master Lossless audio track, and English, Spanish and French Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks. There's a lot of bass in this movie, almost a bit too much for a small area like a living room. The picture is decent, though some scenes contain a lot of grain. I enjoyed this movie, and was surprised I hadn't heard anything about it, until I realized it was a fairly limited release and probably didn't play around Edmonton, where I live.
As seen on TV: Not many TV sightings for this movie, though it's not a surprise with such a small cast. Look for Benedict Wong (
The Bill), Rose Byrne (
Damages) and Chris Evans (
Opposite Sex). -
Gord Lacey
Buy Sunshine on Amazon.com
