5/5 Smart n Sharp Urban Blues BD
  by A Customer (L.A.)
A city highway bumper becomes a major modern tragedy. The clash and the conflict provide a rich and engaging drama that is rewatchable for enjoyment and a catharthis for your angst. The disc is state of the art; the source is modest. The result is a BD of a great movie that is a relative of Falling Down.

4/5 Blu-ray: A riveting and provocative thriller but if you own the DVD, is it worth the double dip?
  by Dennis A. Amith (kndy) (California)
In 2002, "CHANGING LANES" kicked off the Summer movie lineup. Directed by Roger Michell ("Notting Hill", "Persuasion", etc.) and a screenplay/story by Chap Taylor and Michael Tolkin ("The Player", "The Rapture", "Deep Impact", etc.), the film which stars Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson was a financial success and grossed over $94 million worldwide.

"CHANGING LANES" is a compelling story of two men who had normal lives and then because of this accident, their lives are changed forever. Now driven by anger and revenge, the film is a thriller that will surprise the viewer on how far these men will go to destroy the other.

VIDEO & AUDIO:

"CHANGING LANES" receives its High Definition treatment with a 1080p transfer (with an aspect ration of 2:35:1). The Blu-ray release is quite solid as we see the details in the men's skin (many close up shots). The picture quality does show some presence of grain and also dust speckles but nothing that deters you from watching. The film utilizes a bluish hue during outdoor scenes and amber during indoor scenes. In fact, it seems to have been shot during overcast, so it's not a film where you would see any color vibrancy. There is a slight softness to the picture quality but found no artifacting. Overall, compared to the original DVD, this transfer of "CHANGING LANES" looks very good.

As for audio, "CHANGING LANES" sports and English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD audio track (and also Spanish and French 5.1 Dolby Digital). The film is primarily a dialogue driven film but there are scenes that utilize natural ambiance during crowd scenes and sounds that get really cool use of audio during the sprinkler scene and even the car accident scene.

If anything, the film is primarily front channel driven with not much utilization of low frequency bass from the subwoofer or the rear surrounds. The good news is that the audio is clear and understandable, the disappointing news is that the soundtrack does not take advantage of all speaker channels for the action scene. So, you get an average soundtrack at best.

Subtitles are featured in English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

"CHANGING LANES" features the following special features in standard definition with the exception of the theatrical trailer which is in HD:

* Audio Commentary by director Roger Michell - An interesting insight of the film from Director Roger Michell. Commentary seemed slow at times but there were a good amount of behind-the-scene tidbits on working with the various talent, deviations from the original screenplay but most of all, how they wanted to handle the scenes that featured the World Trade Center as he felt despite shooting the footage in Jan. 2001, having removed it post 9/11 but then deciding to keep the Twin Towers in the final cut. Michell is very complimentary to his cast and crew but showing how people working on the film did a wonderful job when it came to cinematography and even production design.
* The Making of Changing Lanes - A 15 minute featurette that is a making-of, with interviews with the cast and crew about the making of "CHANGING LANES". And quite interesting that you have the movie man doing voice overs at the beginning and end.
* A Writer's Perspective - A six minute featurette on the overall screenplay with interviews with screenplay writers Chap Taylor and Michael Tolkin who both seem to enjoy the lunch between Gavin and his wife.
* Deleted Scenes - A total of two deleted scenes. One featuring Gavin with a student Gordon Pinella who needed to be interviewed for a job and another with Doyle meeting with his boss in regards to his performance at work. Two scenes that deserved to be cut from the film.
* Extended Scene - Featuring a single extended scene when Gavin was at the church and in the confession booth as he puts the blame on Doyle for what is happening with his life. In the film, we know how Gavin's state of mind, so I'm glad they shortened it in the film and not let it run this long.
* Original Theatrical Trailer - The original theatrical trailer in HD.

JUDGMENT CALL:

"CHANGING LANES" was a film that definitely had an interesting premise. What if these two men who feel their lives were wrecked because of their one incident, tried to one up each other and nearly destroy themselves in the process.

People who let their anger and their hatred get the best of them and while its nearly too late, just enough time to see how they let it go too far.

What Chap Taylor and Michael Tolkin are able to come up with for the screenplay is to manipulate the audience into rooting for a certain side and then you just realize that these two men are just too flawed and are way over their heads.

If anything, it's the "what if" that becomes an entertaining experiment of exposing the human element of revenge. We hear and read about vindictive people getting back to each other, "CHANGING LANES" shows people of that unthinkable moral potential if one is able to go too far.

Samuel Jackson does a wonderful job of playing the character of Doyle Gipson but most of all, a man that has his own demons to contend with and in one scene, is told that he enjoys living in chaos. If anything, the interaction with Jackson's Gipson and Affleck's Gavin Banek made Affleck's performance much more believable. Sydney Pollack, Kim Staunton and Toni Collette also do well onscreen despite their short duration onscreen.

Overall, "CHANGING LANES" is one of those clever films that is enjoyable but as for owning it on Blu-ray, its left to the viewer's choice if its a film worthy of repeated viewings.

4/5 Changing Lanes - Blu-ray Info
  by LGANS316 (Tokyo Japan)
Version: U.S.A / Paramount / Region Free
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
MPEG-4 AVC BD-50 / AACS
Running time: 1:38:44
Movie size: 30,29 GB
Disc size: 34,15 GB
Total bit rate: 40.91 Mbps
Average video bit rate: 31.95 Mbps

Dolby TrueHD Audio English 3585 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 3585 kbps / 24-bit (AC3 Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps)
Dolby Digital Audio French 640 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps
Dolby Digital Audio Spanish 640 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps
Dolby Digital Audio English 224 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 224 kbps / Dolby Surround

Subtitles: English SDH, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish
Number of chapters: 15

#Audio Commentary by Director
#The Making of Changing Lanes (SD - 15m)
#A Writer's Perspective (SD - 6m:30s)
#1 Extended Scene (SD - 4m:37s)
#2 Deleted Scenes (SD - 4m:55s)
#Theatrical Trailer (HD)

5/5 When you choose to ignore people
  by R. Dangelo
Very simply, an excellent movie from all points of view. This is what happens when we ignore our neighbor and just think of our own benefit. Basically, it's the reason why the world is in such a bad shape. This movie reminds us of the value of the word "respect". Not to be missed.

4/5 Hooked on Disaster
  by kaduzy (Ithaca, NY)
I was surprised by how good this movie turned out to be. I wrote it off when it came out years ago as something I might watch one day, but nothing that would be special.

The truth is, it's an excellent movie. The script is taut and well written, and the performances are solid. Like so many similar films, the entire plot takes place in one day. But unlike many of those films, we actually get a complete picture of every single character's life just from this brief, less than 12-hour glimpse.

Sam Jackson plays Doyle Gipson, a recovering alcoholic desperate to keep his children from being moved to Chicago by their angry mother. Ben Affleck is Gavin Banek, a lawyer who has no idea how slimy a person he's allowed himself to become. Just because of a single car accident, these two men cross paths and continue to cross each other throughout the film, due to bad timing, a series of missed chances and moral wrong turns and a hell of a lot of bad choices on both their parts.

Toni Collette, the late great Sydney Pollack, Dylan Baker and Amanda Peet are just a few of the supporting players who shine in this film, despite their relative lack of screen time. Best of all is Kim Staunton as Sam Jackson's soon-to-be ex-wife, who brings a completely believable amount of pain and passion to the screen each time she's on it. All of them are well served by Chap Taylor's fantastic screenplay. It's amazing that a writer this great hasn't done any movies since. It just goes to show that in Hollywood, it's not talent that counts, it's the almighy dollar. If this movie had been a bigger hit, he'd be a household name by now.

Depsite their success and fame, I believe that Sam Jackson and Ben Affleck are both underrated as actors. It's their own fault, really. Both of them have starred in a number of terrible movies, presumably just for the payday. And those bad choices mean that people (myself included) are more likely to skip their movies, and therefore miss gems like this in the process. I don't believe this one was for the payday. I think they both must have seen something special here, and it's a shame that more people haven't seen the same thing. I hope others realize their mistake as I have, and give this deserving movie another chance.

(I watched this film online and therefore cannot comment on the DVD extras. My apologies.)