Dreamgirls is a nice enough release and all as I did enjoy the film, albeit I’ll stick with the theatrical version from now on, it’s just a shame the studio didn’t port over all the features from the previous releases making this incomplete.
Dreamgirls
– Director’s Extended Edition –
(2006)
Genre(s): Musical, Drama
Paramount | PG13/Unrated – 130 min. / 140 min. – $16.99 | October 10, 2017
Date Published: 10/10/2017 | Author: The Movieman
|
|
|||||||||||
THE MOVIE — 4.0/5 |
|
Plot Synopsis: Deena (BEYONCE KNOWLES), Effie (JENNIFER HUDSON) and Lorrell (ANIKA NONI ROSE) form a music trio called the Dreamettes. When ambitious manager Curtis Taylor Jr. (JAMIE FOXX) spots the act at a talent show, he offers the chance of a lifetime, to be backup singers for a national star (EDDIE MURPHY). Taylor takes creative control of the group and eventually pushes the singers into the spotlight. However, one becomes the star, forcing another out, which teaches them about the high cost of fame. Quick Hit Review: It’s probably been nearly a decade since I last watched Dreamgirls, so this “Director’s Extended Cut” was fairly fresh and while this is still a rousing and entertaining musical drama, featuring a few top-notch performances from Beyoncé Knowles, showcasing star power beyond that of singing, Jennifer Hudson who took home the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, though hasn’t done much since, and Eddie Murphy returning to form after numerous critical and financial flops. But outside of what’s good, I did feel it was a tad too long so perhaps the theatrical version is the one to watch. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 1.0/5 |
| This release comes in a digibook packaging with a glossy lyric book and a redemption code slip for the Digital HD copy. Sadly, none of the features from the original DVD release were ported over and this only comes with Jennifer Hudson’s Audition and Screen Test Footage.
Also included is the “Director’s Extended” cut which probably just added back in some musical performances not seen in the theatrical version. It’s about 10-minutes longer but frankly, I’ll probably stick with the 130-minute theatrical version. |
VIDEO – 4.0/5 |
| Dreamgirls dances their way onto Blu-ray shown in the original 2.35 widescreen aspect ratio and given a MPEG-4 AVC encoded 1080p high-definition transfer. For the most part this is a nice looking picture showing sharp detail and fairly vivid colors. Since the back cover and press release fails to mention any sort of restoration, I assume this is a similar transfer from the previous HD releases. |
AUDIO – 5.0/5 |
| What did get an upgrade is the audio and given this is a musical, the DTS:X track absolutely sounds fantastic providing nice crisp dialogue levels enveloping the center channel but where this comes to life is during the musical numbers, not only are the vocals amazing, you can also get fine depth with the audience cheers coming through the front and rear speakers. |
OVERALL – 3.0/5 |
|
Overall, Dreamgirls is a nice enough release and all as I did enjoy the film, albeit I’ll stick with the theatrical version from now on, it’s just a shame the studio didn’t port over all the features from the previous releases making this incomplete. That said, the video looks good and the audio sounds amazing, unfortunately what features are there aren’t anything all that great. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.