Untraceable

As a Special Agent in the F.B.I.'s cyber crimes unit, Jennifer Marsh (Lane) thinks she has seen just about every despicable aspect of human nature, until a new criminal surfaces—a tech-savy predator who tortures and murders victims live on his Web site. The fate of the helpless captives is decided by the public, the more hits the site gets, the faster and more brutally the victims die. Now it is a race against the clock as Agent Marsh and her team try to find the nearly "Untraceable" mastermind behind the demonic murders. (Stacey Pendry)

Special features on both the DVD and Blu-ray Disc™ include commentary with Director Gregory Hoblit, Producer Hawk Koch, and Production Designer Paul Eads (available with or without subtitles); the following featurettes: Tracking Untraceable (16 minutes), Untraceable: The Personnel Files (15 minutes), The Blueprint Of Murder (13-1/2 minutes), and The Anatomy Of Murder, (six minutes); and previews. In addition, the Blu-ray Disc includes a Bonus View Picture-In-Picture featuring interviews, storyboards, production photos, and behind-the-scenes footage that runs concurrently with the movie. (This is labeled "BD-Live" in the menu, even though the feature is a Bonus View feature, not a BD-Live feature. It will work on Profile 1.1 players as well as Profile 2.0, but not Profile 1.0.)

The stylized, anamorphically enhanced 2.38:1 DVD is dominated by cool, drab hues, which matches the story—and dreary Portland weather—well. Bright colors, when presented, are nicely saturated. Fleshtones look natural. Shadow deliniation is rendered well, and while black levels are deep, they aren't inky. Edge enhancement is minor and generally only becomes a distraction in long shots with high-contrast transitions. Resolution is generally good, although there are times when compression artifacts can be recognized and the image gets relatively soft. The H.264 AVC-encoded Blu-ray Disc features the same stylized appearance, with deep black levels and good shadow delineation. Resolution is quite good, with fine details delivered nicely. (Danny Richelieu)

The Dolby® Digital 5.1-channel soundtrack features good dynamic range and fidelity, which helps create an engaging experience. The surround channels are incorporated well into the sound design, but the front stage isn't as wide and deep sounding as in the best soundtracks. Dialogue sounds full and natural and rarely sounds ADR-produced. The Blu-ray Disc's Dolby TrueHD encoding provides impressive fidelity and good dynamic range, helping create a more realistic soundtrack. The deficiencies in the mix are still there, however. (Danny Richelieu)