Disney Studios and director M. Night Shyamalan teamed up for several genre blockbusters including THE SIXTH SENSE (1999), SIGNS (2002), and M. Night Shyamalan's THE VILLAGE (2004). Several of the director's offerings have proven successful; but recently his film output has been terrible box office failures, which resulted in Disney canceling their ongoing contract with him. Shyamalan's 2000 effort, UNBREAKABLE falls into the thumbs-up category, thanks largely to the subject matter and rave performances of stars Samuel Jackson and Bruce Willis. Eschewing the entire superhero vs. supervillain formula that permeates todays' super hero blockbusters, writer/director Shyamalan upsets the applecart and completely re-invents the genre, giving a very personal and human perspective on an individual who discovers he may be something special among men. 

To the delight of his fans, UNBREAKABLE is told in a mystery-suspense thriller style that Shyamalan is famous for. There are no super battles here like most super hero flicks; its more concentrated on what the director does best, and that is to mystify the audience, and provide a come-from-nowhere climax. Disney Home Video presents UNBREAKABLE on Blu Ray as a Special Edition that mirrors the respective content from the standard edition Vista Series DVD from a few years back. I'm happy to report that they have included the entire supplements package from that edition.

Bruce Willis is security guard David Dunn, a man who catches the public's attention when he survives a devastating plane crash without injury. Despite the attention given to him by the media, David is determined to repair his rocky relationships with estranged son, Joseph (Spencer Clark) and wife, Audrey (Robin Penn). David suddenly notices people spying on him and  following him around. One night a stranger approaches David and introduces himself as Elijah Price (Samuel Jackson), an avid comic book collector who suffers from a rare malady that renders his bones highly fragile. Elijah explains to David that he believes that David survived the plane crash without injury because he may be super human. David scoffs at Elijah, but soon the mounting evidence forces David to reassess his position in life.

While not quite elevating itself to the level of THE SIXTH SENSE, M. Night Shyamalan's super hero re-imagining is probably his second best film, heads above his most recent offerings. Kudos should go to Bruce Willis as his common-man performance is one of the best of his career; and well above the larger-than-life characters he is best known for (like the DIE HARD series, FIFTH ELEMENT, etc.). His laid-back performance here is much more effective than his usual wisecracking action heroes. Countering Willis's subtle delivery is the manic rap of Samuel Jackson. Jackson will win you over with his comic book obsessive characterization that lets you know that there really are paranoid comic-book-compulsive type people out there. Willis and Jackson's performances play off each really well, and their scenes together are the high points of UNBREAKABLE. Though the film is by no means perfect (it does suffer from some occaisonal bad dialog sequences), Shyamalan's direction is strong and the subtle visuals and relaxed pacing establish UNBREAKABLE as a high point in the director's body of work.

Disney presents UNBREAKABLE in a 2.35.1 ratio with a 1080p/AVC encoded transfer that is a significant upgrade from the previous Vista Series special edition. M. Night Shyamalan shot UNBREAKABLE with a really dark color pallete to match the bleak tone he intended for the film. This transfer really delivers on the dark visual ambiance as well as the overall detail (you see things you never saw before, trust me). The blacks anchor the color schemes, ensuring the lush colors. There is superior authoring issues here with no banding, wavering, artifacting, or pixelization. Skintones are near perfect and you can notice every nic and scar on the actors faces. This transfer is not reference quality, but again its a major step up from the Vista Series edition.

The UNBREAKABLE Vista Series contained a very impressive DTS soundtrack, but the Blu Ray contains even another consecutive upgrade with a (48kHz/24-Bit) PCM 5.1 surround track. Despite the film not being a major action spectacle, it incorporates cutting edge thooming sound design with unbelievably strong lows. Even the score is lined with powerful bass. The sound effects are clear and resonate through the wall of bass. The rear effects are aggressive and match the front soundstage. The entire aural aspect of the film is really subtle and almost horror film like in its presentation. The only weakness to the entire affair is that some dialog gets lost in the sound mix occassionally. You can still discern the words, but it should be tweaked to make it stand out in the mix.

Special Features include a Behind the Scenes, which is your typical on-set production diary which features the cast members and crew gushing about the good time they had working on UNBREAKABLE. This 15 minute segment is a rather dry affair with director M. Night Shyamalan taking a minimum role. Deleted Scenes is a much more satisfying affair with 30 minutes of alternate takes and excised footage! This segment contains Shyamalan introducing and explaining this footage; explaining why it was removed, etc. One of the more odd featurettes on here is called Nights First Fight Sequence which is basically the first film he ever shot using super 8 film as a kid. The Train Station Sequence is a 4 minute look at the evolution (using storyboard to film comparisons) of the UNBREAKABLE's train sequence. Comic Books and Super Heroes is a twenty minutes long (and entertainingly done) look at super heroes and villains in from the golden age to contemporary times. Note that these special features are in standard definition only.

So to summarize, M. Night Shyamalan's UNBREAKABLE is an entertaining movie with good performances. As good as the Vista series DVD was, it just can't measure to this Blu Ray edition. Only the special features are the same.