The Hunt for Red October

Blu-ray Review

Paramount Home Entertainment

Released: August 5, 2008

The Hunt for Red October was the first film in what ended up being a series of Tom Clancy, Jack Ryan book-to-film adaptations, and proved to be amazing success. The film has now been released on the Blu-ray format from Paramount Home Entertainment.

The Hunt for Red October garnered quite a bit of praise as a suspense thriller, as it packed in one absolutely amazing story, characters, and action for a tremendous package.

The film, from John McTiernan, is set up absolutely beautifully as the story is laid out right from the start. Alec Baldwin plays the role as the CIA hero Jack Ryan, and also stars Sean Connery, who steals the show throughout most of the film.

Both do a great job throughout the whole film, with Baldwin as your hero, and Connery as your villain of sorts. The stars are able to work off a story that truly is something special, as the entire film is presented at a slow enough pace that everything is allowed to develop nicely.

Do not be mistaken though, just because it goes on at a slow pace does not mean there isn’t any action. The visual effects of the film look tremendous in spots, and the end of the film takes your suspense level up a notch. This is not one to be missed.

The video quality for The Hunt for Red October on Blu-ray is really a hit or miss depending on which scene you look at. In certain scenes, the level of detail will absolutely blow you away.

In other shots though, there are some issues with edge enhancement, as well as black levels, and a bit of dirt in scenes.

Overall though there is more positive than negative, as some of the shots are extremely sharp.

The audio is presented in a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track, and does a great job of presenting all of the suspense and thrilling action to fully immerse you in the film. I love how the surround channels were used here in the underwater sequences to truly set up a great atmosphere.

The only downside to the audio mix is that the bass is not where it should have been, as there is not much coming from the subwoofer.

The extra features for the release on Blu-ray are sub-par at best, as you get a solo commentary by Director John McTiernan, but beyond that not much else. The only other extras include the theatrical trailer in HD, as well as some interviews with the cast and crew.

Overall Paramount has done a decent job with The Hunt for Red October on Blu-ray. The film, to be quite honest, is a great buy on Blu-ray regardless of the amount of extras and such included. The video quality is not perfect, but is a clear upgrade over any DVD release in the past, and will not disappoint fans. More in the extras department could have helped push the release though.

Film: 9.0

A tremendous film with an amazing level of suspense, story-telling, and action.

Video: 7.5

A hit or miss on the Blu-ray format, with some scenes looking great, and others not so much.

Audio: 8.0

The audio mix on Blu-ray sets a great atmosphere, but needs more juice in the bass department.

Extras: 6.0

Not much here beyond a commentary and some interviews.

Final Score: 7.8