DVD Review HTF REVIEW: King Kong - Two Disc Collector's Edition (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED). (2 Viewers)

[Jeff_HR]

Just talked to DVD Empire & they won't be able to ship until tomorrow, which means I may not receive it until Friday or Saturday. :frowning: :frowning: Those of you who received yours already must have a retailer who is really in good with WB or they are breaking street date against WB's wishes. DVD Empire indicated that WB won't allow them to ship prior to Tuesday.

 

[Ed St. Clair]

Does anyone have screen caps of the windowboxing??? ;-)
TOMORROW!!!

 

[Tim Vickroy]

This is one of those films that I think most of us are looking forward to. Hat's off to Warner for such an excellent job. It should be great.

Regarding this review however, I question the video and audio ratings of 4.5/5. I realize that this DVD will look and sound better than any other version OF THIS MOVIE.

But that is just it, should quality ratings be subjective for each individual title? Or, should there be an objective gold standard against which all movies are judged?

I'm not saying either way is right or wrong, good or bad. I'm just raising the issue as it's a source of possible confusion.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

 

[John Hodson]

Reviewers have got to take into consideration a films age when awarding scores for video and audio; judging 72-year-old film and a modern movie using the same benchmark has to be a nonsense.

Moreover, I think most sensible reviewers (like Herb) also weigh other factors, should they be known; how good were the elements the studio had to work with, and what effort did they make to produce a satisfactory product.

Everybody here is surely aware what scores of 4.5/5 on a film of this vintage means?

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Awesome movie. Awesome review. Awesome film restoration. Awesome DVD presentation.



Count me in as having the one criticism of windowboxing...it's an archaic practice that made sense (barely) when CRT displays ruled the scene. But with digital displays these days which are generally set with minimal overscan (I can even set my system to have no overscan), it's not necessary, and wastes pixels that could have been used for image resolution.

Of course, if windowboxing is minimal (like less than 5 pixels) this becomes less of an issue. Also...curious about the fact that none of the screen caps show black borders/matting as this WOULD be part of the hard-coded 720 x 480 image pulled from the VOB file.

Hopefully it's nothing to worry about...and certainly doesn't hamper this great DVD release.

 

[Herb Kane]

Thanks Dave (and others).

Re: the windowboxing, to be honest, I wasn't even going to mention it. It is hardly noticeable - in fact after checking on another of my displays it's not even slightly noticeable. I suspect, depending on the amount of overscan on ones monitor, this is going to be barely - if at all - noticeable.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

The windowboxing is pretty minimal. I'm sure I never would have seen it if I hadn't reduced overscan on my RPTV to zero.

 

[Mark Lucas]

If the screenshots don't show windowboxing then where is it? Does it come and go throut the movie?

 

[Herb Kane]

Tim... The ratings have to be tempered with a bit of common sense - otherwise ALL films from the 20's, 30's and 40's would probably score no more than 2 or 3 out of 5 - at least if compared to films produced decades later. I try and rate films and compare them with others from a similar period - at least in an attempt to keep the playing field fair. Comparing this transfer from a film produced even in the late 50's or 60's - never mind a modern day film, wouldn't make much sense.

Pull out any number of discs of films from the late 20's through the mid 30's - and even with the common knowledge of Kong's original elements being non-existent - this is a fine looking transfer. It far surpassed my expectations - especially from my recollection of previous viewings.

I'm not clear if you've seen the disc yet or not, but how do you "question" the rating, if you haven't?

Herb.

 

[Steve...O]

USA Today will be giving this set a nice write-up (with quotes from Mr. Feltenstein) in tomorrow's (11/22) paper. A sneak peak via their website can be found here and here.

Steve

 

[Tim Glover]

BTW, today's Herb's Birthday. Happy Birthday Herb!

 

[Herb Kane]

:b

Thanks Tim...!!

 

[Steve...O]

Happy birthday Herb!!

All of us at HTF owe a great deal of gratitude to you for the great reviews you write. I always feel like I've learned something and gained a greater appreciation for the movie after reading one of your reviews.

 

[Tim Glover]

Not to get us too much off topic but AMEN. There is nowhere you kind find the kind of reviews we get here on the HTF. Great stuff and kudos to them all.

 

[Jing_B]

Happy Birthday and Good Luck to You Mr. Herb.

 

[Dane Marvin]

I'm confused about this. How is this going to be packaged if they are fitting the tin in there along with the other Kong films?



NEVER MIND; I found the big thread about this on pg 2 of HTF.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Happy B-day Herb!

 

[John Hodson]

Have a great birthday Herb (or have you already had it - I can never work out the time difference!)

 

[Darrell S.]

I just got my tin, for 19.99! This is the most beautiful packaging I have ever seen. You're going to pay 10 bucks more, but wow! The reproduction of the original Grauman's program is stunning. And the embossing and paint job on the tin alone is worth the price. It will certainly be a collector's item before long. And the back has the most beautiful painting of the poster. As for the film itself, I just saw the first 15 minutes and it looks much better than it ever has anywhere. Don't expect it to look like CITIZEN KANE, it is very grainy, but that is most likely how it looked originally. They have done the best they can with what they had to work with considering there is no original negative surviving. They pieced this together from the best existing film they could find after an exhaustive around-the-world search for the past several years. The commentary so far is very engaging and what a gem to have the overture! Of course the blind buy would be the box set where you are basically getting two additional films for free. And isn't Fay Wray beautiful! And boy can she scream!

 

[Bleddyn Williams]

I just got back from Best Buy with my BB set containing the tin, Son of Kong & Mighty Joe Young. Great value, and a nice way to keep them all together. BB really hit a home run with this one!

However, as regards the collector's tin - those of us who have previously bought Anchor Bay's tins know that if you put a rectangular booklet with square corners into a rounded tin, you can get bent corners on the contents.

Although nothing to cry about, my poster reproductions had some slightly smooshed corners, and the digipak itself has a worn corner in the bottom left. This corresponds with the seam of the tin. If you store the tin vertically you might want to watch out.

Again, I'm not losing sleep over this, but those of you who are fussy (you know who you are! ) consider yourself warned.