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Rockers [Blu-ray]
(Ted Bafaloukos, 1978)
Review by Gary Tooze
Production: Theatrical: Rockers Film Corporation / Blue Sun Film Company Video: MVD Visual
Disc: Region: FREE! (as verified by the Momitsu region FREE Blu-ray player) Runtime: 1:39:15.658 Disc Size: 12,471,078,328 bytes Feature Size: 12,320,700,672 bytes Video Bitrate: 15.03 Mbps Chapters: 35 Case: Standard Blu-ray case Release date: June 16th, 2009
Video: Aspect ratio: 1.78:1 Resolution: 1080p Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
Audio:
Dolby Digital Audio English 384 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 384 kbps
Subtitles: English (Jamaican Patois), French, Japanese, Spanish, none
Extras: • none
Bitrate:
Description: A crime syndicate is making things very difficult for struggling reggae musicians. Artists and songs include: Inner Circle - "We a Rockers," Maytones - "Money Worries," Peter Tosh - "Stepping Razor," Burning Spear - "Jah No Dead," and many others.
The Film:
''ROCKERS'' is another Jamaican movie with the sparkle of ''The
Harder They Come,'' which it manages to resemble but not
imitate. In fact, ''Rockers'' is in many respects the better of
the two. ''The
Harder They Come'' had the invaluable advantage of coming first,
and the area both films cover is almost narrow enough to make a second
seem superfluous. But ''Rockers'' holds its ground, thanks to its funny,
offbeat players and sinuous reggae score. Excerpt from Janet Maslin at the NY Times located HERE
Rockers comes to Blu-ray in quite a meager offering. Despite the single-layering with the film taking up less than 13 Gig it certainly doesn't look bad at all considering the film's age and relatively limited production roots. Where the 2005 US DVD was 1.33 - this is 1.78, like the UK DVD, but I am unsure which is correct. Grain is present and there is noise in the darker sequences - but as the film uses natural light and mostly outdoor sequences it never became an issue with my viewing. This Blu-ray exports some decent, accurate colors - brighter than I would have anticipated. Detail is stronger than DVD standard but is not notably sharp. There is some minor depth but the best thing one can say about the image is that it handily surpasses the Anniversary DVD but would never be considered demo material.
CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION
Audio :No HD track for all the deeply evocative music of the film. The 5.1 sounds marginally deeper (and louder) than the 2.0 channel but it is not what adopters of the format have come to expect from Blu-ray. I suspect its the exact same remastered tracks from the DVD. It's a shame since the film's Jamaican reggae music is so much a big part of the film experience. It never comes to life as fans might have hoped. There are optional subtitles for the Jamaican Patois - in English, French, Japanese and Spanish. My Momitsu identifies that this is a region FREE releases playable on Blu-ray machines worldwide.
Extras :The supplements may be the most disappointing aspect of this Blu-ray as none of the 25th Anniversary DVD extras are moved over - so there is no Bafaloukos' commentary that had the video pop-ups. In fact, there are no extras at all on this hi-def disc but the only redeeming factor is that the price reflects that.
BOTTOM LINE: Gary Tooze June 18th, 2009
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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.
Samsung HPR4272 42" Plasma HDTV Gary W. Tooze
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