MSRP: £24.16
Picture
Correctly framed at 1.85:1 and given a 1080P AVC-MPEG4 makeover, the picture quality on this Sony Blu-ray disc is pretty much top drawer.
The first thing you will notice when you spin the platter is that the colours are solid and leap from the screen. There's no bleed to speak off and edges are razor sharp.
Blacks are solid and deep and there's plenty of detail in the shadows of the few night scenes.
As you would expect for such a recent release, the source print is free from any tears or marks and this adds to the overall top notch quality of the picture.
The first thing you will notice when you spin the platter is that the colours are solid and leap from the screen. There's no bleed to speak off and edges are razor sharp.
Blacks are solid and deep and there's plenty of detail in the shadows of the few night scenes.
As you would expect for such a recent release, the source print is free from any tears or marks and this adds to the overall top notch quality of the picture.
Sound
Sony has provided no less than four Dolby TrueHD tracks in various languages. For those that can't decode the lossless track (or don't want to...), there is also a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack on offer as well.
I'm glad to report that neither format will disappoint. The main feature of the track, the dialogue, is solid and anchored firmly to the centre channel. It's also audible and at no point during the movie did I find myself having to rewind to catch up with the story.
The .1 LFE channel bursts into life mainly during the few hip hop music tracks. When it does, it's accurate, deep and tight.
During the one or two action scenes, the surround channels will burst into life with the odd spot effect. Steerage is good but sporadic.
All in all, the soundtrack does its job well - even if it may leave you feeling a little under whelmed at the end.
I'm glad to report that neither format will disappoint. The main feature of the track, the dialogue, is solid and anchored firmly to the centre channel. It's also audible and at no point during the movie did I find myself having to rewind to catch up with the story.
The .1 LFE channel bursts into life mainly during the few hip hop music tracks. When it does, it's accurate, deep and tight.
During the one or two action scenes, the surround channels will burst into life with the odd spot effect. Steerage is good but sporadic.
All in all, the soundtrack does its job well - even if it may leave you feeling a little under whelmed at the end.
Extras
First Sunday comes bundled on Blu-ray with all the extras that came on the SD disc (are you looking Fox...?) plus a Blu-ray exclusive trivia track. The only downside is that all of the vignettes and documentaries come in standard definition.
Lets have a look at what's on offer then.
Audio Commentary by director David E. Talbert is first of the shelf. It's obvious when listening to this commentary that this is the directors first feature film and you get the impression that he actually doesn't want to be there at first.
Twenty minutes in, he settles down and we learn how this shot was set, and how great it was to work with this guy...you get the idea.
One for fans of the movie only.
Hood Robbin' with the cast and crew of First Sunday (16.00) is a basic run of the mill short making of vignette. Loads of back slapping but contains some genuine funny moments given the cast of stand up comics.
Deleted Scenes (34.00). It says something when the longest section of the extras package is the deleted scenes section - though in reality, a lot of them are actually just extensions of scenes left in the film.
The stuff that was taken out would have added nothing to the proceedings and was rightly left on the cutting room floor.
Gag Reel (4.00) - a short set of takes that left the cast (and not me) in stitches.
Out-takes/wrap speech (7.00) could quite easily have been combined with the gag reel to be honest - this is really just padding.
Theatrical Trailers for Hitch, Little Man, Stomp The Yard and This Christmas - presented in High Definition.
The Almighty Version subtitle fact track is a set of subtitles that you can switch on so that hey pop up during the movie and feed you interesting facts about what's on screen...at least, that what I thought they were supposed to do.
I found that more often than not, they were telling me something that had nothing to do with the film I was watching and found them to be a pointless exercise.
Altogether, a standard set of extra features that we are becoming used to from Sony these days. My biggest gripe is why are they not in High Definition? Other than that, not bad.
First Sunday comes off the back of its leading mans worst film to date - Are We Done Yet?
I committed the cardinal sin of thinking that this was going to be as bad as that movie - or, God forbid - worse.
But my fears were unfounded. Held back by an inexperienced director, First Sunday does drag a bit in the middle. This may be enough for some people to hit the stop button there and then. But stick with it, and you end up with a half decent feel good buddy movie that will fill a rainy Friday night.
As a Blu-ray package, Sony have continued their recent trend of turning out discs with above average picture and sound quality. Neither will disappoint on this disc.
The extras package has been padded slightly and Sony are guilty as charged of splitting what could have been one half decent gag reel/out-takes into two mediocre vignettes.
Stone cold Ice Cube fans should click buy now as the man has hit the bottom of the curve and is on his way back with this one. The remainder of you may want to exercise caution and rent first.
Lets have a look at what's on offer then.
Audio Commentary by director David E. Talbert is first of the shelf. It's obvious when listening to this commentary that this is the directors first feature film and you get the impression that he actually doesn't want to be there at first.
Twenty minutes in, he settles down and we learn how this shot was set, and how great it was to work with this guy...you get the idea.
One for fans of the movie only.
Hood Robbin' with the cast and crew of First Sunday (16.00) is a basic run of the mill short making of vignette. Loads of back slapping but contains some genuine funny moments given the cast of stand up comics.
Deleted Scenes (34.00). It says something when the longest section of the extras package is the deleted scenes section - though in reality, a lot of them are actually just extensions of scenes left in the film.
The stuff that was taken out would have added nothing to the proceedings and was rightly left on the cutting room floor.
Gag Reel (4.00) - a short set of takes that left the cast (and not me) in stitches.
Out-takes/wrap speech (7.00) could quite easily have been combined with the gag reel to be honest - this is really just padding.
Theatrical Trailers for Hitch, Little Man, Stomp The Yard and This Christmas - presented in High Definition.
The Almighty Version subtitle fact track is a set of subtitles that you can switch on so that hey pop up during the movie and feed you interesting facts about what's on screen...at least, that what I thought they were supposed to do.
I found that more often than not, they were telling me something that had nothing to do with the film I was watching and found them to be a pointless exercise.
Altogether, a standard set of extra features that we are becoming used to from Sony these days. My biggest gripe is why are they not in High Definition? Other than that, not bad.
I committed the cardinal sin of thinking that this was going to be as bad as that movie - or, God forbid - worse.
But my fears were unfounded. Held back by an inexperienced director, First Sunday does drag a bit in the middle. This may be enough for some people to hit the stop button there and then. But stick with it, and you end up with a half decent feel good buddy movie that will fill a rainy Friday night.
As a Blu-ray package, Sony have continued their recent trend of turning out discs with above average picture and sound quality. Neither will disappoint on this disc.
The extras package has been padded slightly and Sony are guilty as charged of splitting what could have been one half decent gag reel/out-takes into two mediocre vignettes.
Stone cold Ice Cube fans should click buy now as the man has hit the bottom of the curve and is on his way back with this one. The remainder of you may want to exercise caution and rent first.
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