Disc

Film Value Rating:
Video Quality Rating:
Audio Quality Rating:
Bonus Features Rating:

Vital Disc Stats:

Video: 1080p AVC MPEG-4 on a 50gb disc

Audio: DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio

Disc Usage: This uses 46.4GB total.

Ray has an average rating of 7.8 on IMDb

Rated: R

Film Release: 2004

Running Time: 152 Minutes

Studio: Universal

Street Date: February 1st, 2011

Film

Reviewer: Brendan Surpless

Taylor Hackford’s drama “Ray” tells the remarkable story of singer Ray Charles life dealing with issues like Charles’ drug addictions, his blindness, his family, his various recordings, how he became huge in just a short matter of time, how his music was thought to me satanic, and, simply, how amazing of a man Charles was to a whole industry. Most notably known for this film is the man who portrays Charles in Academy Award Winner Jaime Foxx. Foxx does a fabulous job here certainly deserving of his Oscar. There are scenes where, according to Director Hackford, Jamie acted so similar to Charles that he couldn’t distinguish between the two.

The film mostly chronicles the period where Charles signed with Atlantic Records and began to record numerous songs. While this was the main topic of the film, Hackford also went into some detail on a few of Charles other problems. One of the largest problems that haunted Charles for quite sometime was the drowning of his brother when he was a child. We clearly see that Charles is altered by this as many sequences are shown where Charles falls on the ground splashing around as if he himself is about to drown only to realize that it’s all in his imagination. Charles heroin addiction is also touched upon, probably caused by his guilt over his brother’s death and the pressures he had to record hits. Topics like these are brought to our eyes and ears thanks in part to Foxx’s performance.

Obviously one of the strongest points in the film is the portrayal of Charles by Foxx. After watching some of the extras on this release, one finds out that Foxx did an unimaginable amount of work into acting just like Charles. From researching his life, to jamming and meeting with Charles himself, to wearing prosthetics over his eyes making him partially blind, Foxx truly did deserve his Oscar. In fact, Foxx is so truly good that you sometimes forget that he’s actually acting and wonder sometimes if Charles himself was acting in the film.

Director Hackford informs us, in one of the making of features, that the film took almost 15 years to get a greenlight. While it did take 15 years, we learn that Hackford was almost glad it took this long because otherwise Foxx may not have portrayed Charles leading to a film that would not have been as powerful as “Ray” ended up being. Granted I would have liked to see more depth when it comes to Charles latter life instead of so much focus on his the middle of his life, but one can’t even begin to disagree that Foxx’s performance is truly spellbinding. As Charles himself told Ray after seeing him act and play the piano, “You Got It Right Baby!”. Yes, Foxx truly did get it right.

Video

Video Quality on this release is in full 1080p using the AVC MPEG-4 codec on a BD-50 (50 gigabyte dual-layered Blu-ray Disc) in the 1:85:1 aspect ratio. Let me take a minute to spell a word for you here. R-E-F-E-R-E-N-C-E. Yes, Reference. “Ray” is presented in an absolutely gorgeous 1080p High-Definition 1:85:1 Widescreen Aspect Ratio. I could not find one problem wrong with this transfer. Grain was nowhere to be found, colors were vibrant and fluid giving every little scene, from the early years on the farm, to the final scene where Charles is performing the always great ‘Georgia on My Mind’, a new life and feel. Due to the film being rather new, the image quality was amazing, so amazing that if one pauses a scene where Charles is right on screen, walks up to the screen and looks carefully, one will be surprised that you will see little details like hairs, scratches, pores, etc. Talk about amazing detail. I truly loved this transfer as it breathes new life into a film. All in all this earns a perfect “5 Star Rating” for overall video quality.

Audio

Audio Quality on this release is presented in DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio. Due to this film being mostly about the music of Charles, I would more than satisfied with the ending result. As Charles performs hit after hit, I found myself closing my eyes loving what I was listening to. I didn’t expect the audio track to be this rocking, shacking track, but rather a track that accompanied the film filling when it had to (the performance scenes). One of my favorite scenes, a demo scene IMO, would be were Charles is performing ‘Hit The Road Jack’, a song that was written right after one of his numerous problematic relationships with a woman. The only real possibly negative I could think of is that the track doesn’t really rely on the rears as much as the fronts, but that would only be myself nitpicking to find a problem. Granted the audio isn’t as powerful as the video, but the audio more than does its job of showcasing the life and career of Ray Robinson Charles. All in all this earns a good “4 Star Rating” for overall audio quality.

Bonus

Bonus materials are presented in Standard Definition with English Stereo.

BD-Live:

“My Scenes” users can bookmark their favorite scenes

Audio Commentary with Director Taylor Hackford: This is, simply put, one of the best audio commentaries ever recorded. Since Hackford worked closely with Charles for nearly 15 years, Hackford gives us information on Charles that the film didn’t even bother to tell us. Every little note and detail is told by Hackford resulting in a track that is never once boring or dull. Also included is a DVS Descriptive Video Service narration for the blind, which was a nice afterthought on Universal’s part.

Deleted Scenes: Here we’re given over 27 minutes of various deleted scenes with optional commentary by Hackford. It was a shame that some of these scenes were taken out in the end as they added a lot of detail into the film, but Hackford informs us that a majority of the scenes were overly long and would have made the film even longer.

Extended Musical Scenes: Here we’re given 9 different musical scenes. If one is even slightly a fan of Charles music, this will be one of the best features available.

Stepping Into The Part: Another great feature here as this one shows us various footage of Foxx and Charles working together on the piano.

Ray Remembered: What a necessary remembrance feature here. While the feature was short, it was nice to see what some of Charles closest friends had to say about the man.

A Look Inside Ray: Here is a super short basic feature that seems like it was more of wrap up feature for those who don’t want to sit through the longer features.

Trailer: Here we’re given the films’ Theatrical Trailer.

The Filmmaker’s Journey: Here Hackford tells us exactly what he had such a high level of interest into brining the life of Charles to the big screen.

The Women of Ray: This short feature goes over the various actresses that portrayed the various women in Charles life.

Ray: An American Story: What a great wrap-up feature here. This feature deals with the cast and crew telling us about the life of Charles, what it was like working so close with the man, and how they felt while working on the film.

Packaging