Blu-ray Movie Reviews

After growing up in saintly Nick's shadow, Fred becomes a grouch who's lost his belief in Christmas. Then, one magical December, Fred flies north (first class via reindeer) to find brother Nick is in trouble: a scheming efficiency expert is out to shut down Christmas forever! Expect fun by the sleighful as Fred helps save Christmas and rediscovers the gift of family.

I was expecting much out of this one going in but it turned out to be a lot of fun. The film is definitely not the standard family Christmas tale but it manages to find some great heart by the time it’s all wrapped up. The film has a bit of a rocky start going in with some silly comedy here and there but manages to turn itself around quite well in the third act. It is almost like they wanted to make a family movie but it didn’t come off quite right. It works well for us older kids though.

Warner delivers a solid HD presentation with this one. Colors have a striking quality up north with solid reds and plenty of chroma detail. Depth of image is also quite strong. Dimension suffers on occasion but the film doesn’t look overly flat either. I didn’t notice any ringing or softening in the image and fine object detail is pretty solid. Contrast levels are strong, as are black levels, which helps the depth quite a bit. Overall a strong effort from Warner in the picture department.

Lately I’ve been getting more and more titles from Warner with support for lossless audio but I guess it had to come to a grinding hault at some point. What I don’t understand is why it continues to be the day-and-date new releases that continue to get the shaft. For a studio that pushed so hard for lossless audio in the next generation spec, they sure seem to be the only studio out there that just doesn’t get it. The soundtrack is presented in lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 and is a very front heavy mix. There are some occasional panning effects from the surrounds but the mix does not have a very open quality at all. Imaging across the main stage is good though. I noticed some very slight strain in the dialogue on a couple occasions but the balance within the mix was fine. Dynamic range is average with some occasional low bass but nothing to get worked up about. Another disappointing showing in the next generation library from Warner. Hopefully a lossless audio New Year’s resolution is in the works.

Warner has delivered this one in a three-disc set which includes a digital copy of the film as well as a DVD interactive game where you can play Fred and try and save Christmas. There are a ton of short deleted scenes along with some pretty funny back and forths with Vince and Paul sharing Christmas memories. Some cast interviews, claus features and a feature commentary and music video are also included.

This one ended up being a lot more fun than I would have imagined. While it isn’t for the whole family it’s a good one for the adults or even a date night flick. While I was disappointed to see Warner go the lossy audio route again, I would still say give this one a look.