The Fifth Element (Remastered) [Blu-ray]

I have started the painful process of replacing some of my standard DVDs with their Blu-Ray equivalents. I have purchased six titles I did not already own in standard format and have experienced a mixed bag of quality. I really wanted to see a really good Blu-Ray example. The Fifth Element was actually the first disk that I thought warranted replacement since I knew that it had outstanding visuals in its standard DVD form and therefore might have the potential to transfer to Blu-Ray very well. I got lucky - with earlier reviewers reporting that there was an earlier blu-ray release that was unremarkable, which reviews I had not read until after I ordered this remastered version, I was thrilled with this version. I have a 4 month old 61" 1080p DLP HDTV with a PS3 as the blu-ray player, so any graininess or poor encoding shows up pretty easily - but this disk is nearly flawless in all of its visuals - only the "extras" come up short on quality - as seems to be typical even in standard DVDs. But this disk's picture is clear as a bell throughout and so is the soundtrack. This contrasts with other blu-ray disks like "Total Recall," "Gattaca," and even "Stargate: Continuum" (although probably the second best disk I have) which seem to be spotty in overall quality. But this one definitely "rocks" visually throughout - I highly recommend it as a demonstration of what the difference between standard and HD can and should be.

A must own movie.

Looks good but not great on Blu-ray, just not the best transfer I've seen.
But still, you have to add it to you Blu-ray list as it still looks much better than the normal DVD version.

So go buy it..........

I've long been a fan of this film. Luc Besson's really got a masterpiece here. Lots of familiar faces here. Chris Tucker's performance is among his best. But, this review isn't so much about the film's content, as it is about the BD presentation.

I saw the first release of this film on BD at a friend's house. It was no better than my copy on DVD. However, in this second spin, Sony stepped up and set the ship in the right direction, going back to the original source material.

With the choice of uncompressed PCM or Dolby TrueHD audio, the sound is every bit as good as it was in the theater originally. The picture, all I can say, is absolutely stunning. This is what I'd call a reference title for showing off BD.

For those who may care, we're playing it on a new Sony BDP-S350 (picked both up yesterday), which is cabled via a monoprice hdmi 1.3 cable to our Onkyo TX-SR606 AV Receiver, and in turn via another monoprice hdmi 1.3 cable to our Samsung LN46A650 tv.

If you like stunning color and cool audio and have the home set up to go with it then get this movie. It is so much better in 1080p.

I have seen this movie at least 20 times over the years. I liked it when it was new and it is one of those few movies I can enjoy again and again once in a while. Could not resist the urge to buy it last night.

Glad the new bluray version looks like it is susposed to- apparently the old version was not as nice from what others say.

I watched it last night on my plasma and thought the movie looked great in 1080p and sounded quite nice as well.

This movie has a great story as far as being creative goes. I get a laugh every time I see Chris Tucker scream like a girl when they are getting shot at in the hotel. This is just a good movie. The special effects were pretty good for the year it came out as well.

We could use a new movie with a great story and a little humor like this one has. One of my favorite movies of all time.

The story is outlandish but that is what makes it so cool. This was money well spent although I wish I had bought it from amazon and saved ten bucks.