HULK
You only need watch the opening titles—a series of microscope mosaics interleaved with high-tech lab gear—to devastate an HD DVD virgin. The images simply dazzle, alone showing why this may be (so far) the best of the Universal/MCA titles. It’s weird, the picture is so clean that you find yourself more involved than you were in the theater where, truth to tell, the images were not this supernaturally clean. You may well wind up studying the budding crows’ feet around Jennifer Connelly’s eyes or the way Josh Lucas’s blond streaks get blonder scene to scene. Nuances of expression and feeling, which director Ang Lee surely intended (it’s his specialty), are now transparently there. Of course, nothing can save the film once the animated Hulk appears, not even the uproarious bass and surround effects that accompany his rampages. Nor can Lee’s artistry smooth the dichotomy between the hyper-realism of scenes with actors and scenes dominated by the hyper-phony animated Hulk.  [Universal/MCA]   
Price: $24.99
BATMAN BEGINS
Early on, many astute critics praised the HD DVD transfer of Christopher Nolan film as both the most visually and sonically impressive of the early releases (Nolan also directed Memento and The Prestige). It was extolled as an example of how good HD DVD could be. And, indeed, it is scrumptious to behold with a beautifully integrated soundtrack done in Dolby TrueHD—a textbook example of just how good this upgrade of Dolby Digital 5.1 can be. Often, it’s subtle details in the va-va-voom mix that make you look around to be sure none of Gotham’s undesirables are lurking in the room. One of the great strengths of the HD DVD format is its ability to reveal considerable detail in the darkest shots—the blacks, the shadows. It’s an advantage here since much of the story takes place in dark environments like the bat cave. Add to this, the sizzling sharpness that accompanies the best film-to-video transfers, and you have a formidable disc—that is, if you find Nolan’s stately rendering of the tale to your tastes; it’s not always to mine.[Warner]     
Price: $24.99

THE SEARCHERS
Here’s another film I like to use to dazzle the innocents. Released in VistaVision in l956, this latest restoration illuminates the glories of high-definition home video. And it looks just simply spectacular: The wide vistas of Monument Valley have never been shown to better advantage, and the famous opening scene alone is enough to take your breath away. A woman, from the dark, opens a door onto a brilliantly lit desert landscape. In the distance, she sees her old sweetheart, John Wayne, riding up to the family homestead. (There is a corresponding closing the door at the end of the film when the family shuts Wayne out of a different kind of homecoming.)

The film was not shot in Technicolor, but that cheaper Eastman stock (processed by Technicolor)—the one whose colors faded faster than a car dealer’s promise. If you become a “searcher,” you can find the story of the restoration and the difficult choices the folks at Warner Bros. had to make at thedigitalbits.com (click on the FAQ & Archives button). I could write at length just how impressive the final outcome looks. Standouts include the desert scenes in which you can see each of the individual rocks and shrubs that dot the expansive landscape, even the particles of dust kicked up by the galloping horses.

The story itself is as tough as nails. Wayne plays a racist ex-Confederate soldier determined to find his niece, kidnapped in a murderous Indian raid, and either return her or kill her if she’s “gone Indian.” (None other than Natalie Wood plays the grown-up version of the abducted child.) The original soundtrack tapes were somehow “lost” or destroyed in an economy move by Paramount, so the best we can get here is a descendant of the original. It’s mono and barely adequate, though there is still a semblance of dynamic range in the dramatic moments, and the dialogue, unlike that in so many of today’s movies, is beautifully articulated. I nearly forgot to mention the first-class Max Steiner score. The Searchers is John Ford’s masterwork—and it has been done justice at last. Even if further improvements in restoration techniques bring us another version, those improvements cannot be major. [Warner]  
Price: $24.99

KING KONG
Another of the most acclaimed HD DVDs is King Kong, a movie you’d best start as the ship arrives at Skull Island and leave when Kong and the cast depart the island. Forget the sappy third act, wherein Kong and Naomi Watts play on the ice in Central Park and make goo-goo eyes at each other. Turning the film into a full-fledged love story between girl and horny ape is, at best, some sort of perverse wishful thinking. Anyway, back on Skull Island, we have nearly an hour’s worth of smashing digital effects and a rip-roaring, scary soundtrack in which the rear channels are used imaginatively—like when T-Rex is breathing behind you. The integration of the real and unreal is so beautifully done that you buy into the big set pieces, a dinosaur stampede, for one, and a three-way T-Rex battle for another. And don’t forget all the creepie-crawlies, bugs and natives alike. There is also a consistency of look, scene to scene that suggests a fully realized alternative reality. You will see this instantly, but it’s difficult to describe verbally. Each shot is filled with near microscopic detail and the transfer is so clean that you think you are seeing more than you really are. Take, for example, the famous scene of the great wall between the primitives and the ape, set ablaze and stretched out for seemingly thousands of yards…thrilling in its detail, yet quite unreal—distinctions the high-def transfer makes apparent. A gorgeous disc. [Universal/MCA]       
Price: $29.99

THE DEPARTED
If you really want to have a bit of fun, this dual-sided disc will supply it. The DVD side is surprisingly good—so good that you might at first mistake it for the HD DVD side. But when you do switch over to HD you’ll see the remarkable—and I mean remarkable—improvement a high-def transfer can make. Or, if you’re too lazy to flip your disc, then take a look at the opening clips from days gone by and marvel as the switch to high-def takes place. The emphasis here is not on visual fireworks. If you’ve seen the movie in the theater, you’ll notice that the HD DVD looks cleaner, and not always to its dramatic advantage. The scene in which Leonardo DiCaprio is being grilled by Mark Wahlberg, for instance, seems less real because it is less gritty in this pristine transfer. Maybe some movies lose something if they look too good. (On the other hand, the HD transfer of Goodfellas, to my eyes, shows almost no detectable improvement over the DVD, and turned me off for that reason. Ah, consistency. Somehow I get the notion that director Martin Scorsese is less interested in the look of video than he is in the look of 35mm film.) If you’re in the mood for play, try comparing the Dolby TrueHD and Digital Digital Plus tracks. The TrueHD version reveals a heightened transient accuracy that makes the sound effects more involving during the set pieces. The better your system, the wider the gap between the two. [Warner]    
Price: $34.99