HTF Review: Mission: Impossible Special Collector's Edition - Page 2

Good review.

No deleted scenes? That's odd. Some of the cut footage is in the trailer.

DePalma has never recorded a commentary, and it would have been shocking to find this the first film to do so for two reasons. First, this is not exactly DePalma's finest moment and I doubt it's a film he hold dear to his heart; and secondly, he and Cruise didn't get on during the making of the film (Cruise was apparently unhappy that DePalma had final cut and allowed certain other actors to, basically, act him off the screen) and, as the special features attest, this DVD is all about the Cruise. We're just lucky there's no special apprearance from the fembot.

If you're looking through DePalma's filmography, this one will probably rank higher up there than you might think.



Where did that report come from? Trust me, if Cruise didn't want DePalma to have final cut, he wouldn't have had final cut. Cruise is pretty much hiring the directors for these M:I movies. If they aren't on the same page as him before shooting starts...well...what was the original start date for M:I-3? Of course, he is producing these things, too.



He IS the star of the movie. Plus, I see very little devoted to Cruise in this listing of features on the back of the DVD. I see 6 featurettes on the making of the movie and one section that has a couple of tribute montages of Cruise. Hardly "all about the Cruise".

I think what you're seeing here, Brandon, is some "anti-Cruise" backlash considering the bad publicity the actor has been getting lately in the press (can you say "Scientology????"). You should take a gander at the M:I review up at dvdtown.com; the reviewer spends less time actually discussing the DVD and more time going on an anti-Cruise tirade.

If the extras on a DVD were devoted to any other actor than Tom Cruise, you probably wouldn't be seeing these snide comments about it.

He's the media "whipping boy" of the moment. This time next year...it'll be somebody else.

Regards,

- S.D.

Just finished a three-way comparison of the new SE DVD compared to the original non-anamorphic DVD and the AC-3 Laserdisc.

I used Chapter 12, "Red Light, Green Light" for the testing. All audio testing was done at THX Reference level, without engaging any Re-Eq. (calibrated to 75db)

I was surprised at how lacking the 5.1 on the original DVD was, a decline in quality similar to the original "Star Trek: Generations" DVD. i.e. rolled-off frequencies in the lower and higher portions of the track. The LFE was downright limp.

The new SE DVD, when A/B tested with the LD, seemed oh-so slightly lower in volume, with a +1 increase in volume, I was hard-pressed to notice any variance between the two tracks.

The A/B switching was audio only, switching between the two synced tracks through my receiver.

On a video note, with the LD out of the equation, the original DVD was similar in color saturation, but detail was highly lacking, due not only to the non-anamorphic transfer, but a sheen of video noise and block artifacting. This was exaggerated further when I engaged the zoom mode for the proper ratio.

(Boy, is this a dry sounding post or what?)

I noticed some EE on the SE transfer, nothing overly objectionable. Your mileage may vary on larger displays (I have a 46" 16:9 Toshiba 46H84 CRT).

Could it be a bit sharper? Yeah, but this is a marked improvement over any previous incarnation available, and the first time it's been far more than watchable on my system for some time.

Hope this helps,

J.W.

Nice post, John! Thanks!

A very useful addition to Pat's review.

If anyone gets MI-2, could you provide info on whether that picture quality is an improvement over the previous version? That makes a difference on buying the set versus just the first film.

The picture quality is exactly the same. There is no difference.

george, the M:I 2 featured in the new set is the original version; this is just a repackaging of that original DVD with the addition of a newly created bonus disc. Additionally, everything on that bonus disc is included on the new version of M:I 1 (the Super Bowl TV spot isn't advertised, but it's on the disc as an Easter egg), so if you already own M:I 2, you don't need to buy the set, just M:I 1.

Thanks for the info guys. That makes it easy to just pick up MI-1.

Great job John! Just what I needed to hear. Thanks for your hard work!

Are the subtitles during the opening sequence burnt-in or player-generated?

Many thanks.

Just watched this yesterday, and they are burned in.

Thanks for that. The R2 has mammoth great player-generated ones that look, to put it mildy, ugly.