Blu-ray Reviews That Make No Sense – A Collector’s Rant

I didn’t set out to write this post… but after one too many baffling DVD and Blu-ray reviews, I had to.

You know the ones. The exact same film gets a glowing 5-star review from one person, then absolutely torn apart with a 1-star rant by someone else. Same disc. Same content. Completely different reality.

After buying more than a few films myself, I’ve come to a simple conclusion, a lot of these reviews are either wildly off the mark, completely missing the point… or just nonsense.

A frustrated man tearing his hair out while reading mixed Blu-ray product reviews on a computer screen

Note: This was a post moved from my old Blog and I have revised and rewritten it extensively. I believe that it is still relevant and I hope it still has value to readers.

When I’m not grumbling about Blu-ray reviews, I’m usually writing about LEGO Star Wars sets or Amazon Prime quirky products — so feel free to have a look if you like that kind of thing.

Additional Note: While I was rewriting this post for this site, I started getting a wave of new ideas that could revive my old Blog Phoenix DVD Blog and that's exactly what I have done. If you are a collector or are into movies in a big way, I may have some posts over there that might interest you.

Things I wonder about when reading reviews

Are they just promoting their own blog, business, or agenda?
Are they writing maliciously for the fun of it, or simply to stir controversy?
Do they even own a proper Blu-ray player and an HD-capable TV with surround sound?
Do they have good taste, or would they struggle to tell the difference between “shit and shinola”?
Or are they simply nuts?

The Simple facts

Some people just like to complain. Some are never happy. The problem is, how do I separate these reviewers from the handful of honest, intelligent ones—without spending ages reading through all the junk?

It doesn’t help that some sites automatically pull in old DVD reviews when a Blu-ray upgrade comes out. These rarely get removed, so it’s not unusual to find yourself reading reviews for the wrong product altogether.

Like what you're reading? You can buy me a coffee — sure it’s cheaper than a pint!

The Search That Sparked This Rant

I was looking for a particular Blu Ray movie (Platoon) and I found the title on 2 of the biggest DVD sites, one site had 5 reviews which were all positive and the other had 46 which were mixed.

My only concerns when buying Blu Ray is that the picture and sound must be superior in almost every way to the original DVD releases and this is the rule of thumb that I use while shopping. More than likely I will have previously seen the movie on DVD so I don't need to know the synopsis and I don't want to read everyone's opinions of the plot.

My Suggestion

Why can’t the big sites introduce a separate 5-star rating specifically for upgrade quality—DVD vs Blu-ray? Keep the normal 5-star system for the movie itself, sure, but give buyers a quick way to judge whether the new disc is a real improvement. That way I wouldn’t have to trawl through conflicting, often irrelevant comments.

Rant over

I know this isn’t as simple as it sounds—what seems like a small tweak might be a coding nightmare on the backend. Still, it feels like a fixable problem, and I’d love to see it happen.

Until then, I’ll continue being quietly annoyed every time I shop for Blu-rays.

If you are as big a fan of movies as I am and this issue annoys you too, drop a comment below.

Thanks for Reading,

David

Postscript:

I originally planned to move this post over from my old site, Phoenix DVD Blog, but then I had an epiphany, why retire it when I could use it to talk about my love of movies and cinema? So I bought a new domain and got back to writing. The post now lives over there in a slightly different form, and the site is growing nicely. If you share a love for film, you might find something there that catches your interest.

About the Author

I’m David Condon, a small business owner and blog writer based in Tralee, Co. Kerry. Running my own woodcraft business means I’ve seen first-hand how much confusion there can be around shipping times, delivery dates, and what “business days” actually mean. That’s why I wrote this post — to share a bit of what I’ve learned and hopefully save you some frustration.

Every so often I step outside the workshop to write about wider business topics like this one. If you’d like to know more, you can follow the link in the Note from the Author section below or visit my About Me page to learn more.

💬 Note from the Author
This post was written specially for David Condon Finds. If you enjoyed it, you might also like my other projects:

Phoenix DVD Blog – where I write about DVDs, Blu-rays, and life as a collector
David Condon Woodcraft – my main site focused on woodturning and handmade Irish pieces

If you’d like to support my writing, you can do so through the Buy Me a Coffee button below. It helps keep these side projects going — thank you!

Like what you're reading? You can buy me a coffee — sure it’s cheaper than a pint!

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