The Video: How Does The Disc Look?
The film’s original 1.85:1 aspect ratio is presented in a solid high-definition transfer compressed with the AVC video CODEC. While the scenes that take place inside the mall lack some detail and depth — probably due to the natural lighting within — overall the image quality here is quite good. Although the picture sometimes skews a little on the soft side, particularly the interior mall sequences, there’s still the expected amount of film grain and the images remain sharp, clean and well-defined. Color reproduction and hues are strong and vibrant throughout, with colors that are well saturated and never bloom, bleed or smear. Details such as the intricate patterns in the mall’s tiled floors and the individual strands of hair within the various weaves Amy sells in her kiosk all pop off the screen and look remarkably crisp. Black levels remained deep, dark and inky and there were no signs of compression artifacts, specks, or blemishes. Flesh tones also looked natural and nicely-rendered. Overall, a very good video presentation.
The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?
Matching its video counterpart, the lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track on this BD is active, aggressive and ambient. There’s plenty of discrete and directional content delivered to all six channels throughout the film, with deep and resonant bass coming from the subwoofer and clean midrange and high end cutting through the front and rear mixes. Surrounds are well-used to provide both a dimensional quality within the mall setting and also to add some depth to the original score by rock legend Waddy Wachtel — known for his work with James Taylor, Tom Waits and Warren Zevon, among others. The movie also uses a great selection of classic rock songs — presumably picked by Kevin James since he and I are of the same era — that are given a full and ambient soundstage. Amusing scenes are built around Edgar Winter’s “Frankenstein,” Survivor’s “I Can’t Hold Back” and, most notably, Kiss’ “Detroit Rock City,” which Paul Blart attempts to mimic on the game “Rock Band” in the mall arcade. Dialogue always remains clear and concise through the center-channel mix and the songs fill out both the front stereo and rear discrete channels. Overall, a very good and resonant audio presentation.
The optional subtitles are in English SDH, English, Spanish, French and Portuguese.
