Blu-ray Review HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: Escape from New York (1 Viewer)

[Steve Christou]

By now I'm used to back catalogue Blu-ray releases not having the extras the DVDs had. When I bought Casino and Escape from New York on blu-ray today I didn't even bother to check if they had any extras, the price was good, a higher bitrate, good enough. But if they were £20 each instead of £10, I would have hesitated in buying them. I don't intend to replace all my DVDs with Blu-rays. Especially when, watching Escape from New York now, it's only a slight improvement over the DVD.

 

[gomezfan69]

Originally Posted by Steve Christou

I don't intend to replace all my DVDs with Blu-rays. Especially when, watching Escape from New York now, it's only a slight improvement over the DVD.

That's probably because the UK version is no more than an SD upconvert (or so I've heard). I really don't mind upgrading to a blu-ray that has no extras as long as you can just get a two-disc case and put both discs in it (the extras are just in SD anyway). What does bother me is when they don't port over the commentary. Then if you're upgrading from a 2-disc SE you'll need a three disc case which aren't as common to come by. And you have to watch the movie in SD when you watch the commentary. Fox did it perfect when they released Donnie Darko.
 

 

[ScottJH]

Originally Posted by Steve Christou
Especially when, watching Escape from New York now, it's only a slight improvement over the DVD.

The UK release is not from MGM/Fox it's a Optimum Home Entertainment release. It's been out for a while has has been panned for its bad PQ which has been label as an "upconverted DVD".

 

edit: Jason beat me to it.
 

 

[Steve Christou]

 

Originally Posted by gomezfan69



That's probably because the UK version is no more than an SD upconvert
 

 

That's exactly what it looks like, if I showed this to someone interested in getting into Blu-ray it'll put them off. I hope Casino's better.
 

 

[Michael Elliott]

Originally Posted by TravisR



 


That was then, this is now. The studios could pull that scam with DVD because DVDs sold well. Smaller Blu-ray catalog titles aren't exactly making the studios get dollar signs in their eyes.

 

If this is true, and I think it is, then it's a sad format when a title like this isn't going to sell well enough for the studio to spend some extra money to port over extras that are already out there.
 

However, there are companies like Blue Underground and Shout who are producing new extras for these types of catalog titles.

 

[Felix Martinez]

Next year is the 30th Anniversary. Hmm...

 

In the meantime, the MGM Blu-ray is a substantial improvement over DVD, and on a properly calibrated system, will look dark, but quite good.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I bought it for 12.82 from Amazon and hell, I don't have time to watch any bonus material anyway with so many other titles waiting to be viewed by me.

 

 

 

 

 

Crawdaddy

 

[Michael Reuben]

 

Originally Posted by Robert Crawford

I bought it for 12.82 from Amazon and hell, I don't have time to watch any bonus material anyway with so many other titles waiting to be viewed by me.

 

 

Same here. At the moment, I don't even have time to watch the film.
 

 

[Stephen_J_H]

I'm in the same boat. I made a promise to myself (and my wife) not to buy anymore movies until I've caught up on the ones I already have. I bought an awful lot when the local VHQ and Movie Gallery did their closeout clearance, so I've got about 7 to watch @ this point, not including The Godfather restoration I PVR'd on HDNet the other night.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Considering the age of the film, and the relatively inexpensive price of the SE (IIRC), I'd bet that most fans already own it. I wonder if the studio was thinking that fans wouldn't care about the extras because they already have them.

 

It also strikes me that maybe they left off the extras on purpose in order to discourage people from re-selling their old SEs. Who knows?