Blind buys

I try not to blind buy anything anymore because I use to do it for DVD and I ended up selling a fair number at a fraction of my purchase price. Blu Ray is even more expensive today so it's even riskier. But even today there are temptations. Those darn sales!

First the good news. I normally don't buy anything that can be seen on TV but my co-worker is a big fan of BoB and we have similar tastes in films. All reviews seem to be consistent in that "if you liked Saving Private Ryan, you'll LOVE Band of Brothers.." so it seemed like a safe bet. Amazon and BB have a great price on it now so it was an impulse purchase for me. I was skeptical that because this was a HBO television series, the production values would be low. Not true. There is a high level of authenticity and it does not feel low budget at all. The battle sequences are pretty intense and there is always a feeling of tension. With 10 episodes, you really do get to know the characters. I was also skeptical that because this was a HBO television series, the picture and sound would be lacking. Again, not true. The 1.78:1 widescreen VC-1 encode looks great. Nice & gritty with flatter looking colors that is appropriate for this type of genre. This guy posted some great screenshots (possible spiloers). It's getting harder and harder to resist a nice 1080p front projector! What surprised me more is the DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix. Dude, it rocks. The battle sequences have deep LFE and make good use of your surrounds. At the same time, you can hear dialogue very clearly and the quieter scenes with outdoor sounds/distant gunshots/etc. sound great.

The not-as-good-but-not-super-horrible-but-still-kind-of-embarrassed -> I did in fact blind buy Hitman because it was on sale and I wanted Amazon free shipping. I knew the movie was not highly rated but there was enough good feedback on the action sequences that I decided to take a chance on it. For me the film has uneven pacing and the action sequences are good but not as stellar as I was led to believe. PQ is good but the saving grace is that the DTS-HD MA track is impressive as you would expect from this type of action film.