The Fugitive (Warner 80957)
Video: 1080p
Audio: Dolby Digital Plus

One of the best action-adventure movies of the 1990s still holds one’s interest. The HD DVD transfer is more detailed than the DVD, though the improvement is not as startling as on some HDs. The colors are deeper and richer, and the detail in close-ups is very good. There is some grain, however. So far, it seems that when there is grain on an HD, it will be more noticeable than ever because it is better defined. The Dolby Digital Plus soundtrack is very clean and clear, with good delivery of dialogue, music, and Foley effects. The extras are the same as on the 2001 DVD. It seems that all Warner titles will include the zoom feature, with which you can zoom in on a scene, then pan it from left to right. Cool, but is it useful? You’ll have to decide for yourself.

Full Metal Jacket (Warner 80931)
Video: 1080p
Audio: Dolby Digital Plus

I wonder why Warner chose this title as one of its first HD DVDs. Stanley Kubrick’s antiwar statement is as strong as ever, and there are incredible performances and memorable scenes. But Kubrick left word before he passed away that he wanted this film (and others) to be shown only in something close to full screen. The regular DVD releases of it are true to Kubrick’s vision at 1.33:1. But this HD DVD is widescreen at 16:9 (or 1.78:1). It is mostly a beautiful transfer, but also curious. Some scenes are razor-sharp and scream "hi-def," while others are grainy and look like 480p upsampled to 1080p. And the colors seem to have been intensified from Kubrick’s original plan. The Dolby Digital Plus sound is clean as a whistle, with a wide frequency response, yet is mostly in the center channel, with an unusually narrow front spread and little use of the surrounds. There are no extras at all -- just the trailer, which is fullscreen. The film generally looks and sounds good and is very entertaining, but that it required compromising the great director’s original vision makes it an odd choice for the launch of the new format.

Happy Gilmore (Universal 30017)
Video: 1080p, 480i/p
Audio: Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital 2.0

Although Adam Sandler has proven, in such films as Punch-Drunk Love and Spanglish, that he can be a sensitive actor, in this earlier film he is mostly being cuddly and cute or obnoxiously angry. One thing everyone can agree on is that this is one of the better HD DVD transfers so far. The colors are rich and bright, with great depth. The picture looks very three-dimensional. The long crowd shots on the golf course are stunning, and with HD you can easily follow the golf ball when Happy (Sandler) smacks it 400 yards. There are many plaids among the costumes, and these don’t shake or waver one bit. The Dolby Digital Plus audio tracks don’t disappoint; the dialogue is clear, and the music has good dynamic and frequency ranges. The extras consist of deleted scenes and outtakes that are definitely in standard definition.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Warner 80791)
Video: 1080p, 480p
Audio: Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital 5.1

This quirky movie successfully combines elements of film noir, action-adventure, detective mystery, and black comedy with a letter-perfect performance by Robert Downey, Jr. This two-sided disc contains the HD and SD versions of the film, as in 16 Blocks (see below). The HD presentation has obviously richer and deeper colors, which gives it more of a three-dimensional feel. It also has sharper definition. The sound is about the same, but again, the Dolby Digital Plus tracks for the HD side seem just a tad more open and airy than the DD 5.1 tracks on the SD side. Unlike 16 Blocks, this disc has identical special features on both sides, but they aren’t much -- just a feature-length commentary, a trailer, and a funny gag reel.

Lethal Weapon (Warner 80080)
Video: 1080p, 480i/p
Audio: Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital 2.0

One of the ultimate cop "buddy" movies, Lethal Weapon has been released on DVD several times, but none of those earlier transfers can stand up to this one. That doesn’t mean that this one is perfect. The colors seem a bit less bright in this 1987 movie than in films made in the past five years, and they sometimes shift within a scene. The photography often has little depth of field, so the backgrounds are not focused. Taking away that HD strength makes many scenes look little better than on the SD DVD. But occasionally there is a long shot in which everything is focused, and then the hi-def quality pops out at you. The sound is clean and well balanced, but again, remember that it was recorded 20 years ago. It is mostly up front, with wide stereo separation, and the surrounds are either reserved for big shootouts or discreetly provide atmospheric ambience. There aren’t many extras. This disc uses the original theatrical cut of the movie, not the director’s cut, though the deleted scenes are provided as extras, along with the theatrical trailer. If you already have the latest SD DVD version of Lethal Weapon, you might not gain much with this HD DVD, especially if you have Toshiba’s upsampling player. But if you’re new to the movie, this HD version will provide solid entertainment.

Rundown (Universal 30023)
Video: 1080p
Audio: Dolby Digital Plus

Watch the beginning of this movie carefully. Arnold Schwarzenegger literally hands his action-adventure crown to the Rock, who does a darned good job of wearing it in a movie in which style triumphs over substance. The HD transfer is good, but not one I would use to demonstrate the new format. The colors, which seemed funky in the regular release, still seem out of sorts. The Amazon forest is just too artificially green, the facial complexions a little too ruddy. And while some scenes seem very sharp, others do not. Nothing catastrophic, but the new format does cause one to want to nitpick. The Dolby Digital Plus sound is awesome. Though there is focused bass that might levitate some of your smaller ceramics from their shelves, the whole sound design is clean and clear. Once or twice I felt that the level of the dialogue in the center channel was a bit low, but this was not true all the time; it must have been that way in the original film. The copious extras from the SD release are here, though still with SD specs. Because the Toshiba player does such a great job of upsampling, in this case that’s not bad at all. Overall, this proved a thoroughly enjoyable movie experience, but if you already have the SD version, I wouldn’t burn rubber to get the HD.

16 Blocks (Warner 81028)
Video: 1080p, 480p
Audio: Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital 5.1

Another title that Warner has done day-and-date with the regular SD DVD release, this is a two-sider, with the HD presentation on one side and the SD on the other. They’ve still refrained from making it the only version, backing it up with a regular DVD, but I can see that as a future possibility. The movie is worth watching to see Bruce Willis as an aging, alcoholic cop, world-weary and wise to the nth degree. The interiors on the HD side are not noticeably razor-sharp, but the New York City street exteriors are crisp and solid, with superior definition. The Dolby Digital Plus tracks are, as usual, a bit more open and clean than their DD 5.1 counterparts on the SD side. The extras are all on the SD side. I suppose that makes it easier and quicker to get the disc out on the street, but it would have been a good idea to at least put the alternate ending on the HD side in 1080p. This ending can be integrated into a viewing of the whole movie in SD.

Syriana (Warner 80772)
Video: 1080p, 480i/p
Audio: Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital 2.0

Syriana presents the idea that big business, in particular big oil, corrupts everyone, including governments. Its plot might be deliberately muddled, but in this excellent transfer its images are as clear as can be. The movie was purposely shot in many different styles. Sometimes, in outdoors scenes, the picture looks like travelogue material; at other times, grain is added, and color emphasized or desaturated, until it looks like news footage. The great thing about this transfer is that none of those choices looks like a mistake. The audio is mostly up front in this dialogue-driven story, but there are occasional atmospheric sounds in the rear channels. Oddly, the few big sounds, such as explosions, sound restricted and added in. Perhaps this was deliberate, to achieve the atmosphere of newsreel footage. The overall sound mix is as clean as can be. This is one of the few HD DVDs so far to include specific HD content other than the film itself. Two featurettes are found only on this release: "A Conversation with Matt Damon" and "Weaving Reality into Drama." For reasons known only to the producers, they are presented in SD rather than HD. The extras from the SD release are all included as well.

Unforgiven (Warner 80948)
Video: 1080p, 480i
Audio: Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital 2.0

This revisionist western took home several Oscars, including Best Picture. It is a somber, violent, and realistic view of the frontier in the 19th century, and no doubt paved the way for HBO’s Deadwood, which has gone several steps further in trying to get the spoken language exactly right for the period. Jack N. Green’s photography is sumptuous in its way. Except for some panoramic outdoor scenes, it is very dark, making heavy use of contrasting shadow and light that, in this film’s SD releases, came across as murky and indistinct. The HD DVD takes care of that. All the detail is visible, from bearded faces to wood grain on the side of a house. The colors seem richer, the contrast dead-on perfect. The sound is about as it was on the SD disc, though I think the front soundstage has wider separation. The surrounds are used largely for atmospheric effects. The rain in the first scene immerses the viewer in its splattering sound, and thunder rolls realistically around the room. Warner has included all of the extras of the SD Special Edition, presented here again in SD. Unforgiven is one of the best discs for demonstrating the video possibilities of HD.

A View from Space With Heavenly Music (Concert Hot Spot 00101)
Video: 1080i
Audio: Dolby Digital Plus

A View from Space presents high-definition footage shot from the Space Shuttle. Steve Devick, CEO of Concert Hot Spot, tells me it is the only NASA footage in HD. It begins with exciting footage of a Shuttle launch, then continues with spectacular shots of Earth. The picture is quite sharp, and the colors, especially the blues, seem true and right on. There is some shimmer here and there, as well as a little edge enhancement. I couldn’t tell if this was from the disc or from limitations of the player or monitor, but it was slight; I had to go looking for most of it. A View from Space is only an hour long, but includes eight different soundtracks of classical music, each of five of them devoted to the works of a single composer (Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky), the remaining three to a mix. These sound quite good, and though they obviously can’t exactly match the action onscreen, they’re a lot better than the new-age nonsense that usually accompanies releases of this nature, and demonstrate the great data-storage capability of HD DVD. However, the music on the various soundtracks is identified only as being performed by "American or European" orchestras. Since some of the performances are quite good, that is a shame. Nor are the locations that the Shuttle flies over identified. All of this information might have been provided on an electronic subtitle track that could have been switched on and off. The use of more of HD DVD’s features could have made this an outstanding release instead of just a very interesting one.