Nov 29 2010, 01:38 PM
Currently the only Bee Gees documentary on blu-ray. if you have not owned or watched previous documentaries on Bee Gees, such as Keppel Road or This Is Where I Came In: The Official Story, then this would be a good buy. it summarises their career spanning some 40+ years, and leads you through the various eras in music history. Very nostalgic and heart warming, eg when they talk about Andy Gibb, Maurice's death, or how Barry was going through so much back pain while performing their One Night Only concert (which is my fav on dvd - can't wait for that to be released on blu-ray, along with Eagles' Farewell Tour - my top 2 in my wishlist). however, even a 2-hour documentary such as this would not be enough to cover over 40 years of Bee Gees music, so not every milestones were touched on or elaborated. you'll also discover that Bee Gees was originally made up of 5 guys.
I loved the Immortality section (with Celine Dion), and you'll see Barry cry at Celine's interpretation of the song. just beautiful. However, most of the clips and interviews were re-hashed from earlier dvds, and as such felt like cut and paste from various earlier sources. but like i said, if you havent watched the aforementioned dvds, then this is a good summary. only the latest interview done after Maurice's death (which arcs the entire documentary together) are new, and ends with an "unplugged" rendition of To Love Somebody and How Can You Mend a Broken Heart by Barry and Robin.
PQ - most of the sources were not originally recorded in HD, so you won't be getting to see these footages in HD glory. save for the more recent interviews and the unplugged session at the end, the rest are dvd-like SD quality. don't expect this to be reference material.
AQ - the blu-ray comes with DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio track. overall, it sounded decent and very clear. however, you need to remember that many of the older footages were not originally recorded in "surround", so don't expect too much from the side speakers. after all, this is more a documentary than a 2-hour concert.
i had problems getting this to playback on my Oppo. did the usual remedies eg clear persistent storage etc. to no avail. so watched this on my ps3 instead. have emailed Oppo on this, and apparently this had been previously reported by other owners as well.
No need to go into the movie, as i think this is well explored in its 45 yrs history. all i can say is that it was good to re-watch this again after so many years, and the 3 hours runtime flew past very quickly. great entertainment value for the family, even if your kids start off by saying "why are we watching such a boring oldie?", only to find them teary-eyed and going "awwwww so cute" at various parts of the movie.
PQ - absolutely gorgeous for a 45-year old. the colour and clarity of blades of grass atop the hills, the wall texture on old buildings, inky blacks of the dark scenes etc. just gorgeous. look, don't expect this to match your Iron Man 2 ok? there is no high contrast colour tones here, bright reds and shiny golds. this is not reference material PQ for demo if i had to choose one, but for a 45-year old, it looks great.
AQ - comes in DTS-HD MA 7.1. honestly? a little underwhelming. maybe i was expecting too much. i could play the whole movie on reference level (0 db). the music was great and all, but mostly channeled through the fronts and centre. i was hoping for a wider soundstage, but it was not to be. maybe they didn't want to tamper too much with the source but just cleaned it up. don't get me wrong, it still sounds great, just not demo material great. but then again, this is a group of talented actors singing to an accompanying guitar, not a Van Halen concert.
This post has been edited by terranova: Nov 29 2010, 01:41 PM
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