GODDAMN ELECTRIC!

It is nice to see The Weinstein Company aggressively releasing the good stuff on HD DVD this early in the game. Lucky # Slevin was marketed as a Tarantino-esque bullet-fest with brains. Though it does stumble at times, this movie was pretty good, thanks mostly to performances from heavy-hitters Ben Kingsley and Morgan Freeman.

While the movie was entertaining, I found that the overall quality was dragged down to some extent by certain conveniences and coincidences in the plot. With the kind of twisty plot and witty dialogue Slevin brings to the table, I demand nothing less than an airtight story. Despite this drawback, the benefits clearly outweigh these minor quibbles. Slevin is a movie worth checking out.

There is nothing striking about the picture quality of this HD DVD, other than the fact that it is an accurate reproduction of the film's look. There was a specific palette of colors used throughout the film, and these colors were faithfully reproduced on this disc, to a greater extent than the standard definition transfer. Detail is good, particularly on close-ups and certain wide-angle shots of the antagonists' exquisite apartments. Many shots exhibited a very slight haze, most probably post processing by the director to provide a certain look. There are no compression artifacts or edge enhancement to be seen.

Kudos to Weinstein for another very solid HD DVD release.