Sergei Mutovkin’s Rumbling Mumbling

A few days ago I’ve snatched a DVD release of Queen Rock Montreal (QRM) in a Woodbridge Costco store. What a bargain - only $12 for 2 DVDs, one with full concert from 1981 and another one is a Live Aid concert from 1985 and even more valuable unreleased pre-concert interview with the band. Even though I have original “We Will Rock You” DVD with the same concert, I decided it is worth to buy it again. Why? Finally a good DTS 96Khz/24bit soundtrack and digitally remastered original 35mm film. I did not expect too much after seeing how Queen Greatest Video Hits (both I and II) were ruined by poor video quality that nobody cared to cleanup, but this release was a little different. On Tuesday, December 4, 2007 they are planning to release HD-DVD and Blue-Ray versions of QRM, so my expectations were since any poorly re-edited and cleaned up film would look like crap on those HD disks. Amazed I was when I inserted the disk it it started playing, my “El Cheapo” Philips upconverting DVD player was giving me results that looked stunning. No grain, no noise, clean dark and bright areas - beautiful. Clean and crisp DTS sound was floating from all 5 speakers. Though might be not one of the best Queen concerts (mainly due to the cold and emotionless Montreal crowd), the music and performance gave me energy that lasts even now, two days after I saw it.

What can I say, definitely worth every penny I’ve spent and I will buy Blue Ray disk as soon as it is available, with the hopes of getting BR player (hint: PlayStation 3 60/80Gb is a good New Year present) some day in the future. Go grab this DVD in Costco near you while it is still available.