BLU-RAY REVIEW

Shakira: Oral Fixation Tour

Featured In Issue 128, February 2008

Picture3.5
SoundNR
WSR Score4
Basic Information on new release titles is posted as soon as titles are announced. Once reviewed, additional data is added to the database.
(Studio/Distributor):
Sony Music
(Catalog Number):
88697-187669
(MPAA Rating):
Not Rated
(Rating Reason):
(Retail Price):
$29.98
(Disc Type):
Single Side, Single Layer (BD-25)
(Widescreen Edition):
Yes
(Full Screen Edition):
No
(Running Time In Minutes):
121
(Color Type):
Color
(Chaptered/Scene Access):
Yes
(Closed Captioned):
Yes
(Regional Coding):
Not Indicated
(Theatrical Year):
2006
(Theatrical Release):
No
(Direct-To-Video Release):
Yes
(Disc Release Date):
12/18/07
(THX® Digitally Mastered):
No
(Director):
Nick Wickham
(Screenplay/Written By):
(Story):
(Music):
(Director Of Photography):
(Production Designer):
(Visual Effects):
(Costume Designer):
(Editor):
(Supervising Sound Editors):
(Re-Recording Mixers):
(Executive Producers):
(Co-Producers):
(Producers):
(Academy Awards):
(Principal Photography):
(Theatrical Aspect Ratio):
(Measured Disc Aspect Ratio):
(Disc Soundtrack):
Dolby Digital 5.1, PCM 24/48 5.1
(Theatrical Sound):
(Theatrical Re-Issue Soundtrack):
(DTS Bit Rate):
(Dolby Digital Bit Rate):
(Additional Languages):
(French Language):
(Spanish Language):
(Chinese Language):
(Subtitles):
(Cantonese Language):
(Mandarin Language):
(Japanese Language):
(Italian Language):
(German Language):
(Portuguese Language):

Shakira sold out concert venues the world over with her Oral Fixation Tour in 2006. The Latin lovely delivers a hip-shaking, toe-tapping, sing-along-at-the-top-of-your-voice, good time in this stage performance filmed mostly in Florida. Shakira covers all her international chart-topping hits, with the help of a few special guest musicians, Wycliff Jean, and Alejandro Sanz. (Stacey Pendry)

Included with the Blu-ray Disc is a bonus CD. Special features include two documentaries, Around The World In 397 Days (11 minutes), and Barefoot (21 minutes); a video clip, Las De La Intuicion (four minutes); two live performances Obtener Un Si (three minutes), and La Pared (four minutes); and a photo gallery.

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78:1 DVD has underwhelmingly deep blacks and poor shadow delineation, which can make the dark shots look like a field of gray. The picture shows good resolution, although longer shots can look like a jumbled mess. Compression artifacts are especially noticeable in these scenes. Edge enhancement isn't noticeable. Pixel breakup can be noticed at times, and spurious noise can also be somewhat distracting at times. The H.264 AVC-encoded Blu-ray Disc shows similar limitations in black levels and shadow delineation, but contrast is improved, making for a somewhat more impressive-looking image. Noise can still be noticed, and while resolution is improved over the DVD, it isn't as pristine as the best high-definition releases, with finer textures looking somewhat soft. Posterization and moiré patterns can be noticed at times as well. (Danny Richelieu)

The Dolby® Digital 5.1-channel soundtrack is incredibly loud, so proper care should be taken to ensure that the encoding does not damage equipment. The majority of the mix is directed toward the screen channels, with the surround channels used as a lower level extension of the front channels and for backup vocals. Crowd cheers are placed in each of the channels, but are atypically balanced more toward the screen. Fidelity is good, with clean, tight bass and good intelligibility. A 24-bit, 48 kHz stereo PCM encoding is also included on the disc, which has noticeably improved dynamics and purer fidelity, and is actually preferred over the Dolby encoding, even though it isn't multichannel. The Blu-ray Disc includes both the Dolby and 2.0-channel linear PCM encodings that are found on the DVD, but it also includes a 5.1-channel linear PCM encoding. While the multichannel PCM encoding does sound better than the Dolby encoding, with tighter bass and a more natural presence, the stereo encoding still has better dynamics and creates a more realistic sound. But the stereo encoding occasionally can sound distorted, with a crackling that is reminiscent of clipping distortion. (Danny Richelieu)