North By Northwest: 50th Anniversary Edition (Blu-ray)

A fantastic film at last on Blu-ray. Movie 5/5, picture 4/5, sound 4/5. Subtitles on this Blu-ray: English, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, none.

Quite simply one of the best action films and considered to be one of Hitchcocks all time best film. A really excellent Cary Grant film with the story going as quick as the train they get on. I dont buy blue rays but im going to get this one. If you look in many film books it always gets 5-5 and i saw i at the cinema this year and the cinema was packed and people were laughing as they normally do with this film.

This really is Cary Grant at his classic best! Great fiim, soundtrack and direction. Just one caution..the film is rated PG but the Blu-ray disc is a 12! Why? Well an interesting documentary "Cary Grant: A Class Act" is somewhat spoiled by Betsy Drake using strong language in her interview!! That said the film, and Grant stand on their own as true cinema gold. Fabulous supporting cast of James Mason, Martin Landau and Eva Marie Saint!

"Buy It" - That's all I have to say. It looks stunning considering it's age. Shot in Vista Vision back in the 50's and the advantage of Vista Vision is that it stands up well to the HD enhancing process.

If you love this movie trust me you will not be dissappointed.

Lavish and superb chase film from the master of all things suspenseful - Alfred Hitchcock!

A simple case of mistaken idenity sends Cary Grant's life spiralling into one long chase sequence, as James Mason's slimy espionage boss seeks a secret microfilm he believes Grant has posession of, while Eva Marie Saint's blonde stands between them.

Despite being made in the 1959 - and interestingly sandwiched inbetween the (at the time) flop of the dark and disturbing Vertigo (1958), and the low budget terrifying basics of Psycho (1960) - this is purely an adrenalin based thrill ride that even the 50 years that have passed since it was made cannot dull! There are many modern blockbusters that can't hold a candle to this film and I'd advise everyone to check it out! You'll be enthralled from start to finish!

This new Blu-ray edition that I recently upgraded to also looks fantastic. I'm not sure what level (if any) upgrading was done but the picture quality sure looks great to me and in places better than the DVD. The extras are also adequate. Some are on the existing DVD version but here there's also a couple of extra featurettes with some modern Hollywood stars discussing Hitchcock and a feature length documentary about Cary Grant and his career. The commentary with screenwriter Ernest Lehman is also interesting in places - even if sometimes he just depicts what you're already seeing on the screen.

A solid package.