BLU-RAY REVIEW

Lady In The Water

Featured In Issue 118, March 2007

Picture3.5
Sound3.5
WSR Score3
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):
81038
(MPAA Rating):
PG13
(Rating Reason):
(Retail Price):
$39.99
(Disc Type):
Dual Side/Dual Layer (HD DVD30/DVD9)
(Widescreen Edition):
Yes
(Full Screen Edition):
No
(Running Time In Minutes):
109
(Color Type):
Color
(Chaptered/Scene Access):
Yes
(Closed Captioned):
Yes
(Regional Coding):
Not Indicated
(Theatrical Year):
2006
(Theatrical Release):
Yes
(Direct-To-Video Release):
No
(Disc Release Date):
12/19/06
(THX® Digitally Mastered):
No
(Director):
M. Night Shyamalan
(Screenplay/Written By):
(Story):
(Music):
(Director Of Photography):
(Production Designer):
(Visual Effects):
(Costume Designer):
(Editor):
(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):
(Subtitles):

A genuine bedtime story that he told his kids, Lady In The Water is M. Night Shyamalan's first children's book. When apartment superintendent Cleveland Heep (Giamatti) finds a sea-nymph (Howard) in the pool, he and the other tenants wonder what to do with this creature from the Blue World. (Tricia Spears)

All of the special features can be found on the DVD reviewed in Issue 117: the five-minute illustrated Lady In The Water: A Bedtime Story featurette, the 35-minute Reflections Of Lady In The Water documentary broken into six chapters or available to watch in its entirety, a two-minute auditions reel, a three-minute gag reel, five minutes of deleted scenes, the teaser trailer, and the theatrical trailer. And up-front ads.

The 1.78:1 Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD's colors are slightly undersaturated, with all of the colors looking somewhat drab and uninteresting. Details are not as well resolved as the best high-definition releases, and black levels are not as deep as they could be. Still, though, shadow delineation is good, as details in the darkest scenes can be recognized. The picture quality from both formats is very much the same. (Danny Richelieu)

The Blu-ray Disc's Dolby® Digital Surround EX™ and the HD DVD's Dolby Digital Plus EX™ and lossless Dolby TrueHD encodings all feature the same basic mix that is generally limited to the front three screen channels. When the surrounds are used, they are effective, but are not used as often as possible. The TrueHD encoding provides improved fidelity compared to the two other encodings. (Danny Richelieu)