We have started a Patreon page with the hopes that some of our followers would be willing to donate a small amount to keep DVDBeaver alive. We are a tiny niche, so your generosity is vital to our existence.

We are talking about a minimum of $0.10 - $0.15 a day, perhaps a quarter (or more) to those who won't miss it from their budget. It equates to buying DVDBeaver a coffee once, twice or a few times a month. You can then participate in our monthly Silent auctions, and have exclusive access to many 'bonus' High Resolution screen captures - both 4K UHD and Blu-ray (see HERE).

To those that are unfamiliar, Patreon is a secure/verified third-party service where users can agree to a monthly donation via credit card or PayPal by clicking the button below.


 

Search DVDBeaver

S E A R C H    D V D B e a v e r

 

H D - S E N S E I

A view on Blu-ray by Gary W. Tooze

 

Incendiary [Blu-ray]

 

(Sharon Maguire, 2008)

 

 

Review by Gary Tooze

 

Studio:

Theatrical: Film4

Video: THINKFILM / Image Entertainment

 

Disc:

Region: 'A' - locked (as verified by the Momitsu region FREE Blu-ray player)

Runtime: 1:40:04.999

Disc Size: 21,433,517,308 bytes

Feature Size: 20,988,696,576 bytes

Average Bitrate: 27.96 Mbps

Chapters: 16

Case: Standard Blu-ray case

Release date: May 5th, 2009

 

Video:

Aspect ratio: 2.4:1

Resolution: 1080p

Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

 

Audio:

DTS-HD Master Audio English 1760 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1760 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 16-bit)
Dolby Digital Audio English 640 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps

 

Subtitles:

English, English (SDH), Spanish, none

 

Extras:

• None

 

Bitrate:

 

 

Description: London is rocked by a shocking terrorist bombing in this dramatic thriller starring Michelle Williams (Wendy and Lucy, Brokeback Mountain) and Ewan McGregor, (Trainspotting, the Star Wars trilogy). Williams delivers a riveting and heart-felt performance as a young wife and mother who suffers a devastating loss in the attack...which occurs while she's meeting her secret lover (McGregor). Wracked with guilt and trying to piece her shattered life back together, she becomes embroiled in the police investigation of the attack - and discovers that the authorities will do anything to cover up the terrifying truth behind it.

 

 

The Film:

Directed by Sharon Maguire (Bridget Jones), Incendiary is based on a novel by Chris Cleave and stars Michelle Williams as an unnamed young woman who lives with her young son (Sidney Johnston) and her bomb disposal expert husband (Nicholas Greaves) in an ugly tower block that overlooks a beautiful Georgian square. Bored and lonely, she starts an illicit affair with her affluent neighbour, tabloid journalist Jasper (Ewan McGregor), but the affair is brought to an abrupt conclusion when a terrorist attack on a nearby football stadium kills her husband and son (not least because she was having sex with Jasper with the game on TV in the background at the exact moment of the attack).

Traumatised by guilt and pursued by her husband's mildly creepy colleague (Matthew Macfadyen), the woman slowly begins to crack up. Soon, she's befriending the young son of one of the terror suspects, but her motives remain unclear.

Excerpt from Matthew at ViewLondon located HERE

 

 


Image :    NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were ripped directly from the Blu-ray disc.
 

The image of Incendiary on Blu-ray, while easily identifiable as hi-def,  is nothing special. It has some fine grain and soft palette color representation and detail disguises that Ewan McGregor is finally starting to get older but nothing is predominantly distinctive. This Blu-ray has a fairly realistic and consistent look - it is in 1080P but single-layered with the feature taking up just over 20 Gig of space on the disc. In short the image, while unremarkable is a darn sight better than the film itself.

 

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audio :

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 at a moderate 1760 kbps doesn't demonstrate a lot of separation. The soundtrack mix has some odd moments of suspense where as the 'Young Mother', played by Michelle Williams, is looking for clothes - opening drawers and closets, and the punchy bass kicks in with jolting results. One thing I did like about the film as the original score by Barrington Pheloung and Shigeru Umebayashi with some very defining piano music. Aside from the bombing the film is mostly dialogue-driven without pronounced aggression. There are optional English and Spanish subtitles and my Momitsu tells me the disc is region locked to 'A'.

 

 

 

Extras :

Nothing of importance that I can discern - just a rather misleading trailer in SD and a Stills Gallery that is duplicated from the lackluster SD-DVD.

 

 

BOTTOM LINE:
What a head-scratchingly bizarre film. It seems intentionally scattered - flirting with directions I wanted it to turn and eventually trying to cover too many genres - suspense, thriller, politico, love/sex, heartfelt drama - but ends up just being very... weird. The final narration speech is almost surreal. The Blu-ray has no special attributes and we say take a big pass on this despite Michelle Williams fine performance and pixie-like nudity. 

Gary Tooze

April 24th, 2009

 

 

 


 

About the Reviewer: Hello, fellow Beavers! I have been interested in film since I viewed a Chaplin festival on PBS when I was around 9 years old. I credit DVD with expanding my horizons to fill an almost ravenous desire to seek out new film experiences. I currently own approximately 7500 DVDs and have reviewed over 3000 myself. I appreciate my discussion Listserv for furthering my film education and inspiring me to continue running DVDBeaver. Plus a healthy thanks to those who donate and use our Amazon links.

Although I never wanted to become one of those guys who focused 'too much' on image and sound quality - I find HD is swiftly pushing me in that direction. So be it, but film will always be my first love and I list my favorites on the old YMdb site now accessible HERE.  

Gary's Home Theatre:

Samsung HPR4272 42" Plasma HDTV
Toshiba HD-A2 HD-DVD player (firmware upgraded)

Sony BDP-S300 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player (firmware upgraded)
Sony DVP NS5ODH SD-DVD player (region-free and HDMI)

Marantz SA8001 Super Audio CD Player
Marantz SR7002 THX Select2 Surround Receiver
Tannoy DC6-T (fronts) + Energy (centre, rear, subwoofer) speakers (5.1)

Gary W. Tooze

 

HD-DVD STORE         HIGH DEFINITION DVD STORE

 

ALL OUR NEW FORMAT DVD REVIEWS

 

 





 

Hit Counter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DONATIONS Keep DVDBeaver alive:

Mail cheques, money orders, cash to:    or CLICK PayPal logo to donate!

Gary Tooze

Thank You!