The Thing remastered dvd: any reviews? (1 Viewer)

[GerardC]

This is supposed to be available next week: anybody seen any reviews or had a close encounter with the new dvd release ?

 

[Matt Czyz]

The street date for this Oct. 26th, not next week.

 

[GerardC]

Oh, I came across the disc at Digital Eyes: they had 10/05/04 as a street date.

 

[Chris Tedesco]

Yeah it switched. I hope the video is better, I know it's now Anamorphic. We'll see. I don't think they touched the sound quality though

 

[Paul.S]

Just an additional place a review may be posted or referenced:

Universal re-releasing John Carpenter's THE THING in anamorphic widescreen

-p

 

[Andrew Bunk]

I want to say that it's almost a guarantee that it'll look better than the previous disc, but we are talking about Universal, so I don't want to jinx it.

 

[Dave Mack]

EXACTLY!!!!!

 

[Dave H]

Yes, almost anything is possible with this disc!

 

[Andrew Bunk]

Well I found this at a popular bookstore today. The release date seems all over the place with this release. DVDEmpire shows 10/19, Best Buy shows 10/26, etc. They had a couple copies so I decided to grab one.

I've only had a chance to preview the disc in my PC at work, but it looks pretty good considering the age of the film. The outdoor shots in the snow during the light scenes look very clean. Some of the outside nighttime shots have some graininess, but that may be due to the source. I don't have the old disc handy to compare but does look like a new transfer. I didn't see any print flaws or dirt while previewing it.

The the packaging is a little odd. The outer case is a slim plastic slip cover not unlike the ones used on MGM's first run Special Editions (e.g., Fargo SE, Usual Suspects SE, etc.). However, instead of having a keepcase inside, you have a two-fold cardboard with a clear disc holder glued to one side-not unlike those used in TV box sets. There is a sleeve on the other side for a booklet, but no booklet was included in my copy. Whether that means mine was missing one or they didn't make one for this release, I don't know. I don't think the inner packaging will hold up to excessive handling, and I hope this isn't a sign of what Universal's packaging will be like in the future.

If anyone has any specific scenes they want me to check out, let me know. I can take screen shots at home later of if need be.

 

[Matt Czyz]

That would be great if you could. A quick photo of the packaging would be neat too, if at all possible.

 

[JeremySt]

Yes please! Screen caps!

 

[Andrew Bunk]

I will try and post some later. Not sure if my scanner is functional-can't promise package shots.

For some reason the version of PowerDVD that came on my Dell does not have a screen capture function, or I could do some shots now.

 

[Kevin M]

I've never had a problem with the sound personally.

 

[Andrew Bunk]

I have some JPEG screen captures now but I can't get access to my webspace, so if someone wants to host them PM me. I'll try to upload them again later if not.

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

Sounds a lot like the crappy AB packaging on the Army Of Darkness Boomstick Edition, Andrew.

 

[Chris Tedesco]

Yeah, I still can't find any reviews. I thought there would be at least one by now.

Big Wish? DTS Please...

 

[Andrew Bunk]

Marco,

It's similar to AoD Boomstick, but it has the normal keepcase spine width.

Here are the JPEG screenshots. I'm going to link them instead of having the show up directly in the thread. I can't promise they'll be up long since they're just going on my measely space allotted to me by Earthlink. I don't know what my bandwidth limit is.

EDIT: I have moved the screenshots to a Photobucket account.

The Thing SE Screenshot 1

The Thing SE Screenshot 2

The Thing SE Screenshot 3

The Thing SE Screenshot 4

The Thing SE Screenshot 5

The Thing SE Screenshot 6

The Thing SE Screenshot 7 (to illustrate grain)

The Thing SE Screenshot 8 (to illustrate grain)


The last two are the only scenes that caught my eye regarding grain while searching through the disc, but there may be more. Overall I still think it looks pretty good.

 

[JeremySt]

The graining could be compression artifacts...they should have put the documentary on a seperate disc, to increase the bit rate on the movie. I compared the screencaps you posted to the original DVD. Looks like the new one has far better detail in the black scenes, and more color saturation. Overall... looks a bit better and smoother. Anyhoo.... Im pleased as punch Universal re-released this Anamorphic!

Can you tell us if the Soundtrack is still available as a 2nd audio track on the documentary? And if youre still taking requests for which scenes we would like to see screen grabs of.. the very beginning of chapter 11 (on the old disc) approx 30min 11 sec into the film. I always thought that scene had weak blacks... very washed out.

 

[Andrew Bunk]

Here's a screenshot of timecode 30:11:

The Thing SE Screenshot 9

Also, this fell right on a chapter break (Chapter 11 as you mentioned above), so it's possible the chpater breaks from the old disc are used again here.

Regarding the documentary, are you referring to the 80 minute Terror Takes Shape documentary? If so, I only show one audio track in PowerDVD when I play it.

 

[Michael Warner]

This and the Creature Legacy boxset are my two most anticipated titles this month. Thanks for posting the screenshots.