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    • BLU-RAY REVIEW

    Monty Python's Life Of Brian: The Immaculate Edition

    Featured In Issue 129, March 2008

    Picture4
    SoundNR
    WSR Score4.5
    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):
    Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
    (Catalog Number):
    22594
    (MPAA Rating):
    R
    (Rating Reason):
    NA
    (Retail Price):
    $28.95
    (Disc Type):
    Single Side, Dual Layer (BD-50)
    (Widescreen Edition):
    Yes
    (Full Screen Edition):
    No
    (Running Time In Minutes):
    93
    (Color Type):
    Color
    (Chaptered/Scene Access):
    Yes
    (Closed Captioned):
    Yes
    (Regional Coding):
    A, B & C
    (Theatrical Year):
    1979
    (Theatrical Release):
    Yes
    (Direct-To-Video Release):
    No
    (Disc Release Date):
    01/29/08
    (THX® Digitally Mastered):
    No
    (Director):
    Terry Jones
    (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 TrueHD 5.1, PCM 24/48 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):
    (Mandarin Language):
    (Japanese Language):
    (Italian Language):
    (German Language):
    (Portuguese Language):

    Originally called Brian Of Nazareth, this outrageous comedy has probably offended every religious denomination on Earth. It follows the Life Of Brian (Chapman), a Canaanite born near and at about the same time as Jesus Christ, and through a series of misunderstandings is mistaken for the promised Messiah.

    Special features include an option to view the film with one of two commentary tracks: one featuring Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, and Terry Jones; the second track features John Cleese and Michael Palin. Disc Two includes the featurette Le Story Of Brian (60 minutes); five deleted scenes available with or without commentary; Script Readthrough, which is an original recording of the cast reading the early script; four illustrated, vintage, theatrical radio ads; and a photo gallery.

    Compared to the Criterion Collection release that was reviewed in Issue 42, the anamorphically enhanced 1.78:1 DVD shows an improvement in overall resolution, with a slight increase in color fidelity. Black levels are also improved but are still not great. The haziness that is noticeable in the previous releases has been cleared up somewhat. Source element artifacts have been cleaned up well, but heavy film grain can still be a distraction at times. This is the best this movie has looked on DVD, but it still is not great. The H.264 AVC-encoded Blu-ray Disc shows very impressive black levels and a wonderful sense of depth, especially considering the age of the film. Shadow delineation is good, but there is some detail lost in the darkest portions of the image. Details are captured quite well. Colors can have a dated appearance still, and source element artifacts are recognizable throughout (although they aren't overly distracting). (Danny Richelieu)

    The Dolby® Digital 5.1-channel soundtrack is a typical repurposing in that it has little true surround envelopment, with a basic, uninvolving mix across the front stage. Fidelity is improved some, but the soundtrack still shows signs of its age. Dialogue intelligibility is fairly good. Effects can sound thin and tinny. The soundtrack is an improvement over the previous release, but it still has its problems. The Blu-ray Disc's Dolby TrueHD encoding sounds noticeably dated, sounding thin, tinny, and distorted. It is really difficult to hear the benefits the lossless encoding may provide over the DVD's lossy encoding. (Danny Richelieu)

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