BLU-RAY REVIEW

Chuck: The Complete First Season

Featured In Issue 137, December 2008

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SoundNR
WSR Score4
Basic Information on new release titles is posted as soon as titles are announced. Once reviewed, additional data is added to the database.
(Studio/Distributor):
Warner Home Video
(Catalog Number):
1000043201
(MPAA Rating):
Not Rated
(Rating Reason):
NA
(Retail Price):
$49.99
(Disc Type):
Three-Disc Set: BD-25
(Widescreen Edition):
Yes
(Full Screen Edition):
No
(Running Time In Minutes):
556
(Color Type):
Color
(Chaptered/Scene Access):
Yes
(Closed Captioned):
Yes
(Regional Coding):
Not Indicated
(Theatrical Year):
2007
(Theatrical Release):
No
(Direct-To-Video Release):
No
(Disc Release Date):
11/11/08
(THX® Digitally Mastered):
No
(Director):
McG, Robert Duncan McNeill, Jason Ensler, Allan Kroeker & Patrick R. Norris
(Screenplay/Written By):
(Story):
(Music):
(Director Of Photography):
(Production Designer):
(Visual Effects):
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(Supervising Sound Editors):
(Re-Recording Mixers):
(Executive Producers):
(Co-Producers):
(Producers):
(Academy Awards):
(Principal Photography):
(Theatrical Aspect Ratio):
(Measured Disc Aspect Ratio):
(Disc Soundtrack):
Dolby Digital 5.1
(Theatrical Sound):
(Theatrical Re-Issue Soundtrack):
(DTS Bit Rate):
(Dolby Digital Bit Rate):
(Additional Languages):
(French Language):
(Spanish Language):
(Chinese Language):
(Subtitles):
(Cantonese Language):
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(Italian Language):
(German Language):
(Portuguese Language):

Chuck Bartowski (Levi) is employed as a computer technician for the "Nerd Herd" division of the local Buy More electronics superstore. But Chuck's whole geeky world is turned on its head when he unwittingly downloads stolen government secrets into his brain, throwing poor Chuck into the dangerous world of espionage. Now the mild-mannered nerd has a cool new secret agent girlfriend, Sarah (Strahvoski), and has more excitement than he could have ever imagined. (Stacey Pendry)

Special features on Disc One of this Three-Disc set include six minutes of additional footage and five minutes of deleted scenes. Disc Two contains a 15-minute behind-the-story featurette Chuck's World and two minutes of additional footage. Disc Three contains a 27-minute featurette Chuck On Chuck, two minutes of additional footage, the 27-minute Chuck Versus The Chuckles: AKA The Gag Reel, a series of Web-originated mini-featurettes, the six-minute Chuck's Online World, and additional Blu-ray™ previews that are available via an Internet connection.

The 1.78:1 VC-1-encoded Blu-ray Disc has a very soft image that hardly looks high-definition. Black levels are amply deep, though, and shadow delineation is captured well. Fleshtones generally look natural, but there are times when they have unnatural blue highlights. The picture is colorful, but colors are not defined as well as the better high-definition releases are. Contrast is balanced well. Spurious noise is recognizable in the darker scenes and occasional moiré artifacts can be a distraction. (Danny Richelieu)

The Dolby® Digital 5.1-channel soundtrack favors the screen channels, with the surround channels used at very low relative levels. The LFE channel is rarely used, and the surround channels are used at such low levels they rarely make an impact. Phantom imaging is adequate across the front stage, but is rarely audible in the surrounds. The front stage sounds amply deep and wide, but still sounds dimensionless for much of the presentation. Fidelity is good for the most part, but clipping distortion can be distracting at times. (Danny Richelieu)