The 6th Day appears in an aspect ratio of 2.40:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. While not bad, the transfer lacked much to make it special.
For the most part, sharpness seemed fine. Some softness impacted interiors and wide shots, but most of the film showed good accuracy.
No issues with jagged edges or moiré effects occurred, but mild edge haloes cropped up through the movie. Print flaws remained minor, as I saw nothing more than a couple of small specks.
In terms of colors, Day opted for a fairly blue overtone. Within palette choices, the tones seemed generally positive, though they never came across as especially impressive.
Blacks became reasonably dark and dense, while shadows displayed acceptable clarity. A mix of good and mediocre, this became a “B-“ presentation.
I found a more positive experience from the film’s Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix, as it seemed active and involving. All five channels provided a strong amount of information.
The forward speakers dominated but the rears gave them a run for their money. The surrounds kicked in with strong reinforcement throughout the movie and provided unique audio much of the time.
Easily the best segments were those that involved the helicopters, and especially notable was the first time we saw them fly, as this sequence showed off excellent dimensional audio and active split-surround usage. The track offered a wonderfully engaging experience throughout the film.
Audio quality also seemed excellent. Dialogue appeared crisp and natural with no signs of edginess or problems related to intelligibility. Speech was always distinct and looped lines blended well with the rest of the track.
Music seemed bright and rich and provided positive bass, as did the effects. In this kind of film, effects are especially important, and the sound didn’t disappoint.
The effects blasted realistically and cleanly from all the speakers and provided a dynamic punch. Ultimately, I thought the movie featured a strong soundtrack that helped make the story a bit more involving.
How did the Blu-ray compare to the prior DVD? Audio showed more life and range, while visuals became tighter and more distinctive. Though the transfer didn’t excel, it improved upon the DVD.
Some of the DVD extras repeat here, and we find a Showtime featurette called The Future Is Coming. This 15-minute, 33-second program brings comments from actors Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tony Goldwyn, Wendy Crewson, Robert Duvall, Michael Rapaport, Sarah Wynter, Terry Crews, and Rod Rowland as well as director Roger Spottiswoode, producers Mike Medavoy and Jon Davison, executive producer Daniel Petrie, visual effects supervisor Peter Kuran, special effects animator Kurt Wiley, production designers Jim Bissell and John Willett, special effects supervisor Michael Lantieri, and Mark Westhusin of the “Missyplicity Project”, an attempt to clone a pet.
Despite the length of that roster, “Future” offers little depth. While it seems to be a watchable program, it always remains true to its promotional origins, so don’t expect anything particularly involving or compelling.
Instead, we learn a little superficial material about the movie along with some occasionally interesting behind the scenes footage. Frankly, I would have enjoyed more information about real-life cloning, but since “Future” exists to promote the film, I guess I should be happy with what I got.
Next we find a collection of nine featurettes in an area titled On the Sixth Day. All told, these add up to 48 minutes, 23 seconds of material.
This department starts with Another Way to Fly. The four-minute, 42-second piece focuses on the effects behind the film’s Whisper-Crafts.
For “Fly”, we hear from Bissell, Lantieri, visual effects producer Karen Murphy, and computer artist Rpin Suwannath. The program offers some moderately interesting information about this side of the film, but overall it seems a little flat and generic.
More interesting is the next featurette, the seven-minute, 48-second Finding Sim Pal Cindy. It examines the creation of that “living doll” and we get remarks from hairstylist Melina Calogiros as well as Tom Woodruff Jr., Alec Gillis, Dave Penikas and Mark Hull of Amalgamated Dynamics, the crew that invented the animatronic. Overall, this is a fun little piece that gives us a fairly solid examination of this part of the process.
Another decent but unspectacular program appears next with the six-minute, three-second The Art of the Chase. It gives us notes from second unit director Jim Arnett and Lantieri as it relates the details of a car chase.
I liked Arnett’s discussion of the second unit’s responsibilities, but otherwise the piece lacked much depth. Some of the behind the scenes shots were reasonably good, however.
In Over the Cliff, we discover a three-minute, 29-second look at a stunt car jump. It includes comments from production manager Brent O’Connor and Spottiswoode.
This one seemed a little stronger than some of the others as it discussed the logistics involved. I especially liked the emphasis on the environmental regulations that required them to change the car.
For Virtual Girlfriend, we find a four-minute, 30-second program about the effects that allowed Hank to interact with his literal fantasy girl. It includes statements from Murphy and Wiley as we get a fairly detailed look at the work that went into those scenes. It’s one of the more compelling featurettes.
In the Tank gives us six minutes, 36 seconds of material about the film’s big set and its water tank. We hear from Willett, Schwarzenegger, and dive supervisor Jeff Bough. Another somewhat mediocre piece, this one offers some decent shots from the set but seems a little dull as a whole.
Next we get Free Falling, a three-minute, 19-second examination of a stuntman’s rapid descent. It includes remarks from Arnett and effects rigging coordinator Corbin H. Fox. This is another solid segment as it details the preparations and work that must go into ensuring safety during this sort of stunt.
Given its title, one might expect Detonation to cover explosives, and that’s exactly what the three-minute, 44-second program does. It gives us notes from Gene Warren Jr. of Fantasy Film Effects and Joe Viskocil of Viskocil Effects as they offer a reasonably solid look at various pyrotechnics.
Finally, Enhancing the Look offers a more general eight-minute, nine-second examination of various visual improvements made to the movie. It includes remarks from Murphy, visual effects supervisors David Drzwiecki and Tom Smith, and Spottiswoode.
The program’s main emphasis is on the double-Arnie shots, and it nicely covers how those were created as well as some minor touch-ups. “Enhancing” ends the featurettes on a positive note, but overall, they seem generally interesting but nothing terribly special.
During “Another Way to Fly” we saw some examples of animatics, and a separate area on the disc offers lengthier versions of those snippets. We get clips for two scenes: “Snowy Mountain” and “Rooftop”.
The former consists virtually entirely of crude computer animation and runs two minutes, 43 seconds, while the latter more liberally mixes CGI with storyboards and lasts three minutes, 30 seconds. Both are interesting diversions but nothing spectacular.
Additional planning materials appear in the Storyboard Comparisons domain. We get art and film for three scenes: “Car Chase” (4:10), “Whisper-Craft” (1:22) and
”Cloning Tanks” (2:21).
These present the boards in the top half of the screen and the movie runs in the bottom. They should be interesting for those who like that sort of thing, but I’m not a big fan of boards, so they did little for me.
In the “fun” category are the two RePet ads we discover on the disc. One of these is the “infomercial” seen briefly at the RePet store, while the other shows the TV ad we see.
Both offered in their uncut glory, the former runs two minutes, 36 seconds, while the latter clocks in at 45 seconds. It was great to get to watch them uninterrupted.
The disc opens with ads for Damages and Rescue Me. No trailer for Day appears here.
As a whole, The 6th Day offers a watchable but overly long and bland action film. It never becomes a bad flick, but it fails to engage or excite much. The Blu-ray brings decent visuals along with excellent audio and a decent mix of bonus materials. Day gets some points for prescience but it doesn’t turn into a memorable experience.
To rate this film, visit the DVD review of THE 6TH DAY