Step Brothers Blu-ray

Step Brothers

 (2008)

Comedy



Brennan Huff, a sporadically employed thirty-nine-year-old, lives with his mother, Nancy. Dale Doback, a terminally unemployed forty-year-old lives with his father, Robert. When Robert and Nancy marry and move in together, Brennan and Dale are forced to live with each other as step brothers. As their narcissism and downright aggressive laziness threaten to tear the family apart, these two middle-aged, immature, overgrown boys will orchestrate an insane, elaborate plan to bring their parents back together. To pull it off, they must form an unlikely bond that maybe, just maybe, will finally get them out of the house.

For more details about Step Brothers on Blu-ray, see the Step Brothers Blu-ray Review

Starring: Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Mary Steenburgen, Richard Jenkins, Adam Scott
Director: Adam McKay

Step Brothers Blu-ray, Video Quality

 

The Blu-ray edition of Step Brothers may not offer the sort of rose-colored, primary-popping presentation genre fans have come to expect, but it does feature a faithful 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer that handles the film's intentionally muddied palette and bronzed skintones with ease. Perfectly rendered fine details, sharp texturing, and revealing clarity imbue every foreground object and background element with dimension and depth. Whites are often over or underexposed and blacks fairly oppressive, but contrast remains strong and clean throughout (regardless of how intense or subdued any scene's particular lighting may be). More importantly, I didn't detect any artificial tampering -- the filmic picture hasn't been touched by DNR and the refined edges aren't overwrought with edge enhancement. Better still, I didn't notice any of the distracting artifact clouds, digital noise (outside of a handful of speckled establishing shots), banding, or grain irregularities that frequently appear on the standard DVD.

While it isn't the most attractive comedy I've watched in high definition (or really a good looking film in any regard), the Blu-ray edition of the film boasts an impressive technical presentation that reproduces the director's every intention. It's certainly not the first disc I'll whip out when someone wants to check out my home theater, but it also didn't leave me with any serious complaints.

Step Brothers Blu-ray, Audio Quality

 

While Sony has given Step Brothers a solid Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless surround track, the film itself is little more than a conversational comedy that timidly burdens the front soundstage with the majority of its sonic weight. Granted, dialogue is faultless, prioritization is spot on, and the rear speakers do chirp up when called upon, but LFE support is weak and spotty, inconsistent leveling produces occasional volume irregularities, and the track's lazy directionality places many effects where they simply don't belong. Considering all of the physical comedy Ferrell and Reilly undergo to earn a laugh, I'm surprised that a lot of it sounds flat and uninvolving. Brennan's assault on Dale's drums doesn't pack much punch, the sleepwalking battle is accompanied by an underwhelming soundscape, and the impact of falling bunk beds and swinging shovels just doesn't have the oomph I expected. As I sat through each scene, I continually found myself wishing the entire experience had more swagger and presence.

Still, I remember having the exact same complaints when I saw Step Brothers in the theater. As a result, any such shortcoming should be attributed to the film's uninspiring sound design rather than the TrueHD track Sony minted for this release. I know fans will ultimately shrug their shoulders at its flaws, but anyone objectively evaluating the audio will probably agree that it comes up short.

Step Brothers Blu-ray, News and Updates

• Today on Blu-ray - December 2nd - December 2, 2008


• Sony Announces Step Brothers for Blu-ray - September 22, 2008

Step Brothers Blu-ray, Forum Discussions

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