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Rambo: Ultimate Edition - any reviews? (1 Viewer)

MarcoBiscotti

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I still don't know what any of those features mean... :confused:

Chad, the 2-disc S.E. had WS on disc 1 and FS on disc 2... what disc was the documentary and did both feature the commentary and dts tracks?

I still want to know if we lost the 3 documentaries from the S.E. releases or if they're mixed in with all that stupid meta bullshit somewhere?

I'd also like to know how the dolby tracks compare with the dts from the previous editions. I'm still on the fence about this one...
 

Haden

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So Stallone only does a commentary for the first film? Well then I won't be getting the others then... Some DVD sites indicated that he did a commentary on all three, and at least one site claimed he did one on the first 2 films.

I'll just be getting First Blood for the alternate ending and Stallone's commentary then, and I'm still keeping the previous release of First Blood for author David Morrell's excellent and informative commentary (which should have been included on this new special edition too).
 

BrandonJF

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I think I'm just going to do the same as Haden. It probably isn't worth the money to buy Rambo III just for the deleted scenes. Stallone's commentary on the first one is worth it to me, though.

Marco, I am almost positive from what I've seen and read that the documentaries aren't on the "ultimate" releases in any shape or form. The "meta" features aren't really "making of" or "Behind the scenes" features. They seem to pretty much just provide info on what is going on on-screen solely within the context of the story and situations. You'll get info on the characters, weapons, maps, etc..

Check out http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/lionsgate/rambo/

The trailer shows a snippet of a "meta" feature and if you click on "Trailers and Clips" and look at "Clip 1", it will show you a better example of one of them along with a snippet of the Stallone commentary.
 

MarcoBiscotti

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Hmm... just about every site save for Amazon is listing Stallone commentary tracks for all 3 discs.

Was the alternate suicide ending not offered or mentioned in the initial First Blood S.E.?
 

BrandonJF

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I've actually only seen one site that listed the features in a way to make it appear that Stallone does a commentary for all three films. I can't remember which one it was, though. But, every other site I've seen lists him only on First Blood.

The alternate ending was definitely mentioned in the previous release, but it was never included.
 

MarcoBiscotti

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If you click on the titles individually ratrher than the trilogy set, you will notice that most sites list a Stallone commentary Brandon.

Regardless, it looks like I'll be going for the Special Edition set. Missed oppurtunity with this one I'd say, as it would've been nice to have the additional commentaries (whether 1 or 3) and I would've loved to have seen the alternate ending, plus the cover art is vastly improved.

Oh well, no sale for you Artisan...
 

SteveCallas

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Speaking as a HUGE Rambo fan, I own all three movies in their seperate, 2 disc special editions and have absolutely no desire to purchase this new set. My special editions include a dts track, pretty entertaining documetaries, and pretty cool inserts that are a few pages long with lots of color pictures from memorable scenes. These new ones don't even have new transfers and end up losing the documentaries from what I can tell. I also recall reading that they remixed the DD track for these new ones, but I am very satisfied with the work they did on the dts tracks, especially in Rambo 3, that one has awesome sound. Unless the Stallone commentary is out of this world, I would recommend picking up the 2 disc special editions if you can still find them.
 

Michael Elliott

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The press release states "three new commentary tracks by Stallone". I haven't received the screeners yet though.
 

MarcoBiscotti

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Steve Callas, since you own all three 2-disc S.E.'s, can you please tell me how the 2-disc sets are divided (ws/fs transfer or feature/extras, etc.)?

Thx.
 

BrandonJF

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If that press release is correct, they forgot to list it on the packaging. On the 3 disc set, they single out "First Blood" when listing the Stallone commentary and on the single disc releases they only mention the Stallone commentary as a feature on the back of the "First Blood" packaging. They have some nice screenshots of the back of the packaging at DVD Empire.

Although, it has been reported in another forum that there is an unadvertised director's commentary on "Rambo: First Blood Part II".
 

MarcoBiscotti

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Thanks for pointing that out brandon, according to the covers posted at DVDEmpire, only First Blood has a commentary track. This "Ultimate Edition" re-issue is basically an ultimate waste of time.


Here are the back covers, First Blood plainly lists a commentary track, the other discs just have the metacrap...








 

Robert Crawford

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Yesterday, I watched the new dvds of First Blood and Rambo. There is an audio commentary by Stallone on the First Blood dvd while Rambo has only a commentary by the director George Cosmatos.





Crawdaddy
 

Steve Christou

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Why? Okay if you've already bought the previous set you may not want to buy them again. But this is the first time I'm buying Rambo on dvd with 5.1 sound. I have little interest in DTS, there's a commentary by Rambo himself, burnt in subs and deleted scenes on disc 3, that 'metacrap' may not be as bad as some of you have made out, and it's all at a good price, not a waste of time for me.
 

BrandonJF

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Hopefully, someone will be able to compare the two soundtracks since there is a chance that this is a new 5.1 mix. Heck, maybe the new DD 5.1 outdoes the old DTS 5.1 (I don't think the soundtracks on the previous release were exactly reference material), if it is actually a new mix.

Honestly, if I didn't already own the last set, I'd have a tough time choosing if I had to choose one. The lack of burnt in subtitles on the old Rambo III is a black spot on that release and I'd probably rather have the 8 deleted scenes over the featurettes that are on the previous release. But, that David Morell commentary on First Blood was a good one. It's too bad it isn't included on the "ultimate" release.

I just think it's a shame that we couldn't have it all. :)

I'll still be surprised if that "metacrap" isn't the waste it appears to be.
 

MarcoBiscotti

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Because it's dubbed an "Ultimate Edition" yet the only thing it boasts are a couple of deleted scenes, alternate ending and one single commentary track.

Even the less than ultimate edition had running commentaries for each film along with interesting documentaries and dts audio tracks.

These features might interest me if they were on some action video game or if I were 10 years old and maybe thought that the purpose of dvd was not to preserve and present the film in the best available medium and of highest standard audio/video quality with insightful supplemental features... but rather to play around with a bunch of silly pointless options like sniper scope hairlines that shoot around the screen to show you where bad gusy are hiding and other ridiculous sounding extras of the same vein and no substance.

That's why I consider this a waste of time. Maybe when some reviews surface my opinion will swagger, though it's highly unlikely. The transfers are all ported directly over from the Special Editions, so unless there's a significant improvement in audio quality which I just don't see happening... these discs have very little to offer. A single commentary track and some delted scenes/alternate ending. That's nothing to boast about.
 

Steve Christou

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Correction. For you they have very little to offer, like I said I don't have the previous editions, don't care for dts, so Stallone's commentary and the deleted scenes is more than ample reason to opt for this set, plus I still don't really know what the 'metacrap' is all about. I'll check em out for myself in a few days, see if they are that worthless.
 

SteveCallas

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Marco,

Yes, I can tell you exactly how the discs are split up as soon as I get back to my apartment Sunday - I am home for Thanksgiving right now. I know for sure that disc 1 is anamorphic widescreen with DTS and disc 2 is full screen without dts. As far as which has the documentaries, I am not 100% sure, but I believe that is also on disc 1, the anamorphic widescreen dts one. It would make more sense for the documentaries to be on disc 2 since it should have more free space, but I'm pretty sure its on disc 1. Like I said, I will give you the complete breakdown when I get back on Sunday.

As far as the remixed DD tracks sounding better than the dts tracks, that I will probably test in the next month or two. The only one that I think will benefit from a remix is First Blood because there isn't that much going on on my version, but part II and III have really good dts tracks as far as I am concerned.
 

MarcoBiscotti

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Thanks Steve, if all the goodies (dts, commentaries and extras) are on disc 1, I might pick up this new set afterall and make my own "Ultimate Editions" replacing the fullframe discs with the new DVD's for the alternate ending and deleted scenes.
 

RogerH

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Anybody have any luck find any reviews yet? As long as the audio and video are top notch I'd have no problems getting this.
 

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