Well my copy arrived this morning and I'm pleased to say it's an excellent pressing. If it's an old master it's superb. The level of detail was noticeable right away and the 5.1 soundtrack is excellent. German or English soundtrack with optional German or English subtitles. When you select English soundtrack in the menu, you do not have to remove the subtitles. They do not appear. My only complain with this steelbook? That crap internal b/w image. Would rather have had nothing. than John Woe's grinning mug all over it. Nothing personal against him but I'd rather have an image from the film like say Van Damme on the bike heading towards the car. ....... The J card is a flimsy piece of paper which thankfully has no glue attached to it..... Overall very pleased except for the internal artwork. I suspect it'll be the same when it's released in other countries.
Yeah, but the Uncut in Germany means it us just the "normal" cut from the U.S.It does look like the German blu ray is superior to the UK Amaray I own though.
German picture format is MPEG-4 compared to the UK's VC-1.
Also the German edition has both cuts of the film......
http://dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=24162
What people would like is the HARD TARGET extended cut that was out there on Bootleg copies.
That's just the cuts between the U.S. NC-17 and the R rated versions though.Here is a list of all the cuts in this articles and it explains why the cuts were done.
http://www.melonfarmers.co.uk/bbfc_cuts_hard_target.htm
Did you notice how SD (and workprint) elements never stopped Shout Factory?!And that is not going to happen. The original elements of the work print can't be located. I think the most complete version of the film is the PAL UK Laserdisc from 1997.
Certainly I will be comparing my laserdisc copy to the German blu-ray. A work print is usually only a SD copy for preview purposes but the sneak preview version of the film does have extra scenes not in the final R rated European/UK cut. They could be added in but at 99 minutes for the current version you're still way way short of the 128 minute version that was originally put together. Yes it would be nice to see it happen but unless the 35mm elements are located, you're more chance of seeing Power of the Daleks recovered!
Hence why they do TWO separate cuts on two different discs.The drop in quality would be jarring no mater how well it's done. I prefer that sort of stuff as extras on a disc
Oh, I don't expect it to happen AT ALL! Ever!But it's all academic. Don't see it happening unless Arrow or Criterion or some other vanity label take up the challenge. Certainly not going to happen with Universal....
Anything of any real interest cut from the 128 min version?I got both the workprint (128 min) the preview cut (116 min) The preview cut is preferred as the quality is slightly above watchable and is totally uncut
The workprint version (uncut and extra scenes) is totally unwatchable though.
Anything of any real interest cut from the 128 min version?