UHD Review Mad Max Anthology UHD Review (1 Viewer)

[Todd Erwin]

Warner’s Mad Max Anthology brings all four of the Mad Max films together in one box, but ultimately this is yet another missed opportunity this season by the studio.



Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)



Released: 10 Jul 1985
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 107 min




Director: George Miller, George Ogilvie
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi



Cast: Mel Gibson, Tina Turner, Bruce Spence
Writer(s): Terry Hayes, George Miller, Byron Kennedy



Plot: After being exiled from the most advanced town in post apocalyptic Australia, a drifter travels with a group of abandoned children to rebel against the town's queen.



IMDB rating: 6.3
MetaScore: 71





Disc Information



Studio: Warner Brothers
Distributed By: N/A
Video...

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[Lord Dalek]

The Road Warrior 4/5
Beyond Thunderdome 4.5/5

 

[titch]

Well, you obviously didn't notice anything detrimental with the Atmos mix on Mad Max 2 either. Ridiculous for Bill Hunt to post such an inane comment, without giving any detail at all, on something that he obviously has not had time to sit down and listen to. This is a non-issue.

 

[Robert Harris]

Nice review, Todd!

I’m wondering about intent vs viability with the two sets you note.

Both presumably prepared by WB during COVID with everyone except lab personnel working from home.

I’ve always believed that words have meanings, and the words used as overall titles for these two sets - Anthology and Ultimate - tell different tales.

Anthology is a gathering together of different books, films, poems…

Which permits the studio to drop special features, although wouldn’t it be nice to be able to gift that earlier version of Fury Road to a friend, and not have to remove the disc with the special features?

An “Anthology” could give us the four films at a lower price point mit out extras.

There’s also something telling in the marketing verbiage for this release, in that rather than making note of some sort of filmmaker involvement for the new to 4k discs, it tells us that Warner’s superb digital facility - MPI - was in charge. One might presume then, that the look and feel and sound has little to do with the desires of the filmmakers, and that decisions - presumably based upon reference - were made when people were unable to sit together in a room.

As to the five-pound boxed set of Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, that also may have been affected by Covid, and the inability of those behind it to achieve their goal of everything that one might desire to give to fans - all finally - once and for all - in a single extraordinary set.

Hopefully, that set will eventually arrive, but what verbiage will be used to easily explain what’s in the box?

What has been released is best referenced as The Penultimate set.

But without any rationale to re-release the same set with that other handful of discs that everyone may have been expecting, there is an honorable way forward - a nicely boxed set of additional extras that can stand beside the Penultimate set, creating what?

Possibly the Truly Ultimate set?

I don’t see this Hobbit / Lord set as a studio failure, but rather as something planned to perfection, and appropriately titled, but waylayed by Covid, and slightly re-imagined to what could be accomplished to meet a scheduled release date, without adding “Pen” to the overriding title.

And for disappointed fans, it’s an easy fix.

 

[Bryan Tuck]

Well, you obviously didn't notice anything detrimental with the Atmos mix on Mad Max 2 either. Ridiculous for Bill Hunt to post such an inane comment, without giving any detail at all, on something that he obviously has not had time to sit down and listen to. This is a non-issue.

There's nothing technically wrong with the Atmos mix, but it is indeed full of new sound effects that (to me, at least) sound totally out of place in a movie from 1981. Much like the Batman '89 UHD remix, it's very distracting and unnecessary.

The issue, though, is that the 2-channel "Original Theatrical English" track is not actually that. It is instead a fold-down of that new Atmos remix (as is the Dolby Digital 5.1 track), so it includes all those altered effects. Since it seems the intention was to provide the choice between the new Atmos and the original sound design, this is the "error." Hopefully WB will fix it and offer a replacement.

 

[Chewbabka]

Apparently, this has a different transfer than the Kino disc for the first film.

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[Todd Erwin]

Apparently, this has a different transfer than the Kino disc for the first film.

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I have not heard anything about a recall on this release, and do not take much stock in screenshots.

 

[Chewbabka]

I have not heard anything about a recall on this release, and do not take much stock in screenshots.

I agree, screenshots aren’t a good indicator of a release’s quality. But they certainly can tell you something about relative quality/if two things are the same.

As for the recall, he didn’t say one had been announced. But given that this was supposed to have original audio but doesn’t (the stereo mix is a fold-down of the Atmos), one seems very possible.

 

[Todd Erwin]

I agree, screenshots aren’t a good indicator of a release’s quality. But they certainly can tell you something about relative quality/if two things are the same.

As for the recall, he didn’t say one had been announced. But given that this was supposed to have original audio but doesn’t (the stereo mix is a fold-down of the Atmos), one seems very possible.

Mad Max does not have Atmos.

 

[Chewbabka]

Mad Max does not have Atmos.

I know…. I’m talking about the sequel

It seems this has been pulled from online retailers. No listing at Best Buy, and only third party sellers on Amazon

 

[Todd Erwin]

I know…. I’m talking about the sequel

It seems this has been pulled from online retailers. No listing at Best Buy, and only third party sellers on Amazon

Or they are out of stock completely with no sign of when new inventory will arrive. Studios are having major inventory issues due to constraints at the disc replication plant in Mexico.

 

[titch]

I know…. I’m talking about the sequel

It seems this has been pulled from online retailers. No listing at Best Buy, and only third party sellers on Amazon

Sold out.

 

[Chewbabka]

 

[Todd Erwin]

I have not heard anything from the studio.

 

[Bryan Tuck]

I don't think there's anything wrong with the audio on Beyond Thunderdome, but maybe they just want to make sure.

 

[John Norris]

Will the soundtrack to the original Mad Max offer the "Australian accented" version? At least as an option?

A concerned Aussie

 

[Jeffrey D]

Will the soundtrack to the original Mad Max offer the "Australian accented" version? At least as an option?

A concerned Aussie

I would think so- more recent video releases of the first film have the original Aussie as the default track, and have included the American dubbed track as an option.

 

[deepscan]

From what I’ve been reading in this forum I have reason to believe that the North American rights to the original film have reverted from MGM to WB, which means WB now fully owns all four films in the series, and which also explains why the supplements from the earlier releases are absent from this new collection.

If you have bought the previous Kino 4K release, you may already have a collector’s item in your hands. If not, seek this out before it is too late.

 

[Chewbabka]

From what I’ve been reading in this forum I have reason to believe that the North American rights to the original film have reverted from MGM to WB, which means WB now fully owns all four films in the series, and which also explains why the supplements from the earlier releases are absent from this new collection.

If you have bought the previous Kino 4K release, you may already have a collector’s item in your hands. If not, seek this out before it is too late.

Why? Warner probably just licensed it out. Yes, it starts with the Warner logo, but they have global distro rights (sans U.S. and AU), so they just did this instead of making two different discs.

 

[Tino]

@Todd Erwin said:
“ with iTunes/Apple TV providing Road Warrior and Fury Road in 4K (only the latter has a Dolby Atmos track) and Beyond Thunderdome in HD.”

This has since been corrected on iTunes and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome is now in 4K/Dolby Vision.