LATEST ADDITIONS

The latest entry in this bullets-‘n’-brains franchise sees you once again join a team of Ghosts (hard-as-nails special operatives) in a globe-trotting tale of dodgy Russians, nuclear weapons and hi-tech weaponry.

This Blu-ray release of Roman Polanski’s latest film left me shocked. Not by its rather stage-bound story or mannered performances (it’s actually an often funny film), but by the fact that it features an MPEG-2 hi-def encode. I thought those went out of fashion around the same time as Profile 1.1 Blu-ray players. The good news is that this doesn’t seem to impact on the imagery quality to any great degree, with the 2.40:1 visuals well-defined throughout. Less impressive is the flat DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix, which is firmly anchored to the front speakers.

Disowned by director Jim Sheridan and stars Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz after being re-edited by producers, it’s hardly a surprise that Dream House is a nightmarish movie. But who knew it would be such a prime piece of car crash cinema? Thanks to its muddled tone, off-kilter performances and breathtakingly inane mid-film twist you just can’t help but keep watching, no matter how grotesque it all seems. A fascinatingly awful film.

You would be forgiven for being seduced by the 47LM670’s delightful floating ribbon stand and gorgeous slip of a bezel that virtually disappears when the screen is switched on. But at the same time you may be wondering if the 47LM670 is all fur coat and no knickers. After all, its picture processing is perfunctory and the screen uses Passive 3D technology. Sometimes, though, it pays to keep things simple, and whilst the 47LM670 is not an unqualified triumph it does succeed in delivering better than expected results.