The Breakfast Club (HD-DVD/DVD Combo Format)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: D     Film: C

 

 

Obviously a popular title from Universal, John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club (1985) arrives on HD-DVD and n the Combo Format with a standard DVD flipside.  It happens to be of the same exact quality the stand-alone DVD release is, as covered on this site before as part of The Brat Pack Movie & Music Collection set.  You can read about that film and its technical aspects at:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/2988/The+Brat+Pack+Movie+&+Music+Collection+(DVDs/CD)

 

 

Well, here we have a 1080p digital High Definition version of the same 1.85 X 1 anamorphically enhanced standard DVD versions and to be blunt, it is barely better than the DVD.  Being the same old master, it seems like an old master and has only the slightest improvements in fidelity and detail.  It even shows more flaws in that master, which means the improvement is no negligible that only the most attentive will notice.

 

I was not a fan of the Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 upgrades on the regular DVD repeated here on the DVD side, while the HD side offers the same problematic mix in Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 that almost sounds the same.  This and other such Hughes remasters are now a few years old when the studios and record labels were trying to find their way with multi-channel music and it shows.  Adequate at best, it is not a call for upgrading from the regular DVD unless you are obsessed about the film.

 

There again are no extras either.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo