DVD Review HTF Review: The Chronicles of Riddick - Unrated Director's Cut (1 Viewer)

[ChuckSolo]

Ernest, yes, the Kaprazo character Vin Diesel played in "Saving Private Ryan" did show that the man can act. It's amazing to me how many of my friends and acquaintences had no idea that Vin Diesel was in SPR. I never saw "The Iron Giant".....Hmmm, I may check it out.

 

[Steve Schaffer]

I couldn't agree more. Diesel can act. Hopefully once he's made lotsa money doing the Arnold parts he'll prove it.

 

[Lewis Besze]

Iron Giant? It was only voice "acting",and he got the part for his voice not because of his acting.

Just watched the DVD and I must say that the sound was far less then what I would give

The battle of Helion Prime was especially weak and inconsistent.The dynamic range was compressed beyond belief at some points,but I have a feeling it was done intentionally to achieve a certain type of sound.While the surround effects were good the whole presentation lacked that "great cinematic" effect that I would expect from this kind of movie.
Oh, before someone blaims the DD encoding for this,don't! Like I said it is what it is for "artistic reasons" I believe,but others might dissagree,and rank this as an excellent soundtrack.Whish I could.

 

[ChuckSolo]

Lewis, I didn't find that to be the case at all. The only real faults I found in the DVD were in content, i.e., the film itself, story , etc. But, I thought the presentation was excellent. Its been a long time since I saw a DVD presented so well. I might have been focusing on the picture instead of both picture and sound together. In any case I really didn't notice anything wrong with the DD presentation.

 

[Don_Limey]

Hello again Jeff, to answer your question about my COR Best Buy bonus disc. The answer is YES like my Van Helsing & Dawn of the Dead Unrated Director's Cut which I both purchased at Best Buy with the bonus discs, my COR did come with a CHEAP PAPER SLEVE instead of the traditional double flip disc cases like you are talking about. I hope that answers your question & also it says on my COR on the top edges on the sides " Exclusive Best Buy bonus content" & not "Best Buy content included" what I mentioned in my first post but I was close though.

 

[Will_B]

Don, what is on the bonus disc?

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Voice acting still counts as acting. By your apparent thought-process, Charlie Chaplin wasn't an actor since he DIDN'T talk. I think Diesel has been weak in his films over the last few years, and not just because the movies themselves were bad - he was terrible in xXx. To quote myself:

"I used to like Diesel, as I thought he brought heart to roles in The Iron Giant and Saving Private Ryan. However, as he becomes a bigger star, he starts to lose that early warmth and charm. As Xander, he offers virtually no spark or flair, as he makes the character nothing more than a crass and irritating boor. Not only did I not care about Xander, but also as the film progressed, I actively started to root against him!"

I really do think Diesel was terrific in Iron Giant - he added true character to the role. Voice acting is a legit form of acting!

 

[Andrew s wells]

Will... on the bonus disc, there are four seperate choices. "Riddick rises" "You keep what you kill" "creating crematoria" and " a chronicle calender"
They are all actually one big "making of" (although, as i said arent played all at once) with cast interviews, director, production designers, and things of that nature.. its actually quite in depth, especially for a "bonus" disc. Well worth it in my opinion if you are a fan of the series. Hope this helps.

 

[Steve Schaffer]

My bonus disc was inside the case, one of those gatefold things like the original release of Gladiator. There is at least an hour of "making of" stuff, not on the level of, say Fight Club, but at least as good as most of the fluff piece extras you see these days. I'd say it was worth driving the extra distance to BB instead of the Walmart a coupla blocks away.

 

[Lewis Besze]

Like I said it's not neceserally "wrong" it could had been intentional sound design and how the director wanted,let's just say I didn't care for it.

 

[Lewis Besze]

:rolleyes
He was anctor of the "silent era" dude,and he's hardly comparable to Diesel don't you think,nor has anything to do with what I've said.[talk about thought processing.]
For the record what I said is: he was hired because of his voice just like James Earl Jones was to hired to voice Darth Vader,and that's it! It has nothing to with Chaplin,nor I didn't say he can't put it on his resume.

 

[Will_B]

Got mine at Best Buy today. So many versions of this film! Rated Wide, Rated Full, Unrated Wide, Unrated Wide w/ Bonus Best Buy disc.

They had many of the non-Best-Buy-extras versions, and a few dozen of the Best-Buy-extras version which was distinguished by a different cardboard slipcase which featured the banner "INCLUDES OVER 1-HOUR OF ADDITIONAL BONUS CONTENT" at the front top of the slipcase, and "EXCLUSIVE BEST BUY BONUS CONTENT" on the top of the spine of the slipcase. None of these were in the usual DVD aisles, they were only to be found in a large cardboard kiosk display set up in the front aisle.

Got it home and was surprised that this extra disc only added up to 2. I figured the regular edition was 2 discs, and the Best Buy version was 3. I guess I've stopped reading reviews and now just *assume* that a big movie will get two discs.

Inside, the Best Buy disc was in a paper sleeve. So I repackaged it into a proper 2-DVD case.

 

[Jonathan L]

I'm kicking myself for not seeing this in the theater (NOT a Vin fan). I did love Pitch Black, so while stopping in BB to get ATHF Season 3, I grabbed the (ahem, want to make sure I get this right LOL) Widescreen Unrated Director's Cut w/Bonus Disc.

WAY exceeded my expectations...It's obvious from the first minute that Twohy and the crew spent an enormous amount of time developing the universe and mythologies for this.

The necro half-deads were especially creepy and an excellent touch

All-in-all, damn good popcorn flick, and I hope Twohy and Vin make more

 

[Andrew s wells]

I loved it. I was wondering if anyone knows how this is doing on DVD? Seems alot of people are buying it. They had to re-fill the display in the media dept. Perhaps this has found another audience?

 

[Tom Martin]

i just watched the unrated director's cut. suffice to say i don't wanna watch it again. can someone please tell me what the difference is between watching the Convert(which i saw) vs the Fight edition of the movie? thanks.

 

[JohnAP]

I love Pitch Black and while this is a much lesser movie, I still enjoyed it. It's probably more ambitous than it should have been, but I find myself admiring Twohy's dedication to creating this huge, detailed universe. I'd love for him to be given another chance to pair that ambition with a better story, but the film's box office gross probably put a nix on the sequel. I'm still interested in seeing what happens next.

 

[mike caronia]

didn't see this in the theater, but really enjoyed it on the home theater.

 

[Rob T]

I don't think there is a difference.
They just set it up so you have to choose between one menu or the other. Kind of in spirit of the movie.
It took me a while to figure that out though.

 

[Keith I]

David Twohy said that Universal is looking at sales of this very closely and this DVD will determine if another sequel is made to continue the story.

The Convert and Fight menus are just two different styled menus as Rob mentioned. If you choose Convert, you "become" a Necromonger and have to see the kneeling chamber. If you choose Fight, you see the surface (of Crematoria?). That's the only difference.

 

[Geoff L]

Mr.VD (sorry not meant funny) can only be as good as the story and dialoge given to him to a large extent. Some will still think he sucks period, but oh well...

I did expect/hope for more as most all did out of this release. The editing left much to be desired, especially/primarly the hand to hand fighting stuff. Cut in and out so fast you don't know whos kicking who ass till it's over. Most likely done on purpose for what ever reason they might have thought it benifited, tho it made no sense to me..

~{It's no P-Black}~ for sure in, reveret to first paragraph.

Aside from that,, the PQ, DD/ST, sweet set detail & CGI work made/make it worth a spin IMO.

I'll buy it just to fill the PB follow up, but used.

Excuse me now as I need to killer a few people and get a fresh eye shine...

Cheers
Geoff ¥