Brotherhood of the Wolf import questions (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

I am sort of late to the game in getting involved with
import HD-DVD product, but once I found out that Brotherhood
of the Wolf was available, I just couldn't help myself.

I see it available exploited cinema and am ready to buy it.

Some questions...

1. Says Director's Cut. Is this the extended version?

2. How is the video and audio quality on this title?

3. Is this set to be released here in the U.S. any time soon as
I'd rather wait if it is pending.

Thanks in advance for your replies.

 

[Walter Kittel]

1. Says Director's Cut. Is this the extended version?

Yes. I didn't realize this until a scene at a dockside occurred in the film prior to the protagonist's hunt for the beast.

2. How is the video and audio quality on this title?

Video performance is terrific. The scenes in the forest exhibit great dimensionality and the colors are nicely saturated. Due to my living arrangements I don't play audio at reference levels, but it sounded just fine to me. I may have to watch it again this weekend, just thinking about how nice it looked. (And Monica Bellucci in HD wasn't too hard on the eyes either.)

3. Is this set to be released here in the U.S. any time soon as
I'd rather wait if it is pending.

Why wait when you can enjoy it now? Your choice of course, but watching this on HD DVD is a great HT experience. No problems playing the disc on my HD-XA2. Viewed the title with French dialog / English subtitles.

- Walter.

 

[Steve Blair]

Yeah, go ahead and order it Ron. You won't be disappointed. I liked the director's cut better and have heard nothing about a US release. Monica Belluci sure looks great in this

 

[GregoryP]

I love Brotherhood of the Wolf!

I know that back in the DVD days, we had to worry about PAL speedup making the audio a higher pitch. Does this still happen in the High Definition world?

 

[Steve Blair]

It has been a problem on some earlier foreign releases but NOT BOTW. Some of the studio canal titles that had the audio speedup were Basic Instinct, Mulholland Drive, Total Recall and The Rambo Trilogy.

 

[GregoryP]

Interesting... So it's basically a case-by-case thing..


Good to hear it doesn't affect Brotherhood of the Wolf!

 

[Steve Schaffer]

Highly recommend this import, and while you're at it I'd recommend Stalingrad (titled Enemy at the Gates in the US), Elephant Man, and The Pianist.

Xploited Cinema is excellent for customer service.

 

[Paul_Scott]

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%
:frowning:

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.

 

[Jim_K]

FWIW I had the same reservations. I wouldn't count on a Universal release in the near future since it wasn't included on that leaked Q4 list and even if by some miracle they do release it in the next 6 months chances are it might be the shorter US cut.

I'd rather not import but in this case I'm glad I did, especially since this Summer has been really dry for BD/HD releases. The UK import I got from exploited is the longer cut and the PQ while not reference quality was still very good IMO.

Like the majority here I'd say pick it up.

 

[Michel_Hafner]

Image quality is a let down. Lacks detail, has omnipresent ringing and a coarse, mushy, digital video look compared to a state of the art film like transfer.

 

[Yumbo]

Anyone willing to sell this to me (at a lower price)?

Thanks