Lord of War: 2-Disc Special Edition 1/17 (1 Viewer)

[TonyD]

mark elijah already said he has seen it and it is not 2.35:1

i watched it last week, it isnt 2.35"1 it is a 16x9 full screen ratio.

dont know if it is open matte though, as a few scenes have important info at the very top and bottom of the screen.


there are many burned subtitles very close to the bottom, but a suppose they could have been modified that way for the dvd.

 

[Cory S.]

Even with the 1.78.1 aspect ration of the film on DVD, it still feels the same cinematically from how I saw it in the theatre. It still has scope to it. I thought I was going to be disappointed but I'm not. It still looks great.

I'm guessing it was shot on Super 35. The same thing happened to Once Upon A Time in Mexico and the Recruit. You felt the missing spaces with Rodriguez's film but not with this one.

The transfer is pretty excellent throughout with a little EE. Overall, great presentation.

 

[Carlo_M]

Maybe Andrew Niccol's trying to set the record for "what the heck is up w/ your aspect ratio" for a director (his Truman Show was at 1.66:1).

Didn't see it in the theater, but it's still a bummer to see it's non-OAR. Hopefully this change in aspect ratio was director approved (or insisted upon) and not a studio "let's get rid of the black bars on 16x9 screens" decision.

Was looking forward to buying this blind, but I'll wait until you all have the product in hand and see what is up.

 

[EnricoE]

the movie is cropped. you don't see any more information on top and/or the bottom. i saw the film in 2.35:1 aspect ratio and it looked very fine that way.

here is a comparison taken from the trailer and the r1 dvd

trailer
[url=http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/9994/lordofwartrl2ug.th.jpg] [/url]

r1 dvd
[url=http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/1317/lordofwardvd8zs.th.jpg] [/url]

as you can see, you loose around 20% of information on the sites. since he film is presented oar in europe, i guess the decision was made by lions gate home entertainment to crop the film for it's region 1 release.

too bad, i'm not going to buy this dvd

 

[Malcolm Cleugh]

Thanks Enrico.
I will definitely wait to see what we get from Momentum here in the UK. The specs on DVDActive say 2 disk but no mention of aspect ratio or audio (as the R1 has DTS). Its not out until 6th March though.

 

[Mark Lucas]

1.66:1 is a common aspect ratio in Europe. Also, Andrew Niccol didn't direct the Truman Show. Peter Weir did.

 

[Christian Preischl]

DVD Times has reviewed the R1 disc here. I found this part of particular interest:

So it seems like R2 will indeed be getting the theatrical aspect ratio.

Chris

 

[Shane_M]

I never saw the movie in theatres. I don't even think it came to my local theatre.

I've written up a review of the DVD, which can be found here.

 

[Jonathan_]

According to the back of the DVD case, the single disc edition doesn't have DTS. Can anyone confirm if this is correct or if it's a misprint. I really want the DTS-ES, but I don't want to pay $5 for an extra disc that I will never watch.

 

[Carlo_M]

Mark, I knew Weir directed but I believe Niccol wrote The Truman Show--I can see how the sentence I wrote may be misleading and seems to imply he directed it.

And while 1.66 may be common in the EU, it certainly is not here stateside, where there were quite a few threads in HTF regarding this aspect ratio (most of the HTF membership was at the time, and still is, based in the U.S.).

 

[Stephen Orr]

Just got this in the mail from Netflix. Plan to watch it in a couple of hour....

 

[Rhoq]

I picked up the 2-Disc set at Tower during lunch this afternoon. Now here's the thing: I had every intention of buying the 2-Disc set anyways, but Tower was forcing it - which irks me.

All of the single disc editions they had in stock were Full Screen only. Anyone wanting the film in Widescreen had to buy the 2-Disc set (or shop elsewhere). It was only a $3 difference, which didn't matter to me since that was the version I was buying anyways - but still...

 

[Harold Wazzu]

This is going to be a rental to see if I like it first, then I might buy the 2-disc SE. A lot of the reviews I've seen say it's got a pretty slow pace to it, so we'll see how I like it.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

I usually only buy the single disc editions of DVD's since I don't have the time to plow through the extra features, and am on a limited budget.

However yesterday the local Wal Mart only had in stock the 2 disc edition, but was selling it for the single disc price! I picked up the two-disc edition for $13.88. Sweet!

 

[Ruz-El]

How are the extras on the 2 disc? Are they worth paying extra?

 

[Brent M]

Harold,

It does have a VERY slow pace to it. I watched it last night and almost fell asleep. It starts out great, but really goes downhill about halfway through IMHO.

 

[CraigF]

Russell: The 2-disc was only $1-2 more around here...unlike many 2-discers lately, so an easy decision for me.

Edit: I notice on the Canadian edition they specifically state that 1.78:1 is the DVD screen format, NOT the theatrical AR like they usually say (if it is).

 

[Ruz-El]

Craig, where did you get it? Future Shop had it for almost $10 more.

 

[Joel C]

I'd sa if you are a fan of the film, skip this DVD. I bought it, but found it so obviously (and badly) cropped, I returned it. Hopefully it will be re-released in the correct way someday soon (maybe on Blu-Ray?).

 

[TonyD]

joel were do you buy a dvd that you can return an opened one?