Ron,
a lot of people here think I'm over critical- so keep that in mind as far as my comments here go
1) I don't have the old Universal release anymore for comparision, but I noticed no significant additions as far as scenes went, from that version to this one- or for that matter, between what I saw theatrcially and this version here. To me, it looked like the exact same one.
2) Audio is quite dynamic. YOu should be happy. Video disappointed me.
On the one hand, this is one of the most three dimensional looking titles I've seen yet on either format, but that seems to come with the price of a lot of ringing (but is mostly obscured by all the textures and details in the film from shot to shot- in the rare shot where there is something against a clear sky though, it is plainly visible) , and an unnatural, un-filmlike look overall (some backgrounds reveal a kind of digital looking grain/mosquito noise, that doesn't seem to be present in the foreground images- very bizarre). I don't have any doubt though, that most people are going to be extremely happy with the look of the film- and you may be one of them. On the one hand it looks very impressive initially, but the closer I looked, and the more the film went on, the more unnatural it looked to me- like the difference between very pretty video as opposed to film.
Like with The Untouchables, I think 99% of the viewers will love it. I'm in the 1%
3) I had heard a rumour that Universal would be releasing this in October- but it wasn't a title that was on the 'leaked' list that was floating around a month or two back. It still might make it out though. If it were me, knowing what I know now, I would wait a little longer to see how the Universal disc would look.
Of course, I hate to deprive Tony over at xploited of the business. You probably already know he runs a first class operation.
The best, no issue imports I've seen so far have been the 1976 verision of King Kong, and The Terminator 2 (2 disc). A/V on both seem to be beyond reproach- and in the case of Kong, the films grain is thankfully rendered intact and not manipulated in any way. In other words, it still looks like film.
