I finally got around to getting this. I couldn't find anything in Circuit City so I ended up getting the 2-pack for 20 bucks at Walmart. I really wish they would have included the Billy Ocean video for the sequel as all 3 lead actors participated in it:
There's a glitch that's driving me crazy, and I haven't seen anybody mention it. The subtitles are missing, and it ruins one of the best jokes in the movie when Joan and Jack are about to get killed in the Colombian town and Juan saves them when he realizes that Joan is Joan Wilder, the novelist---whose books he reads to all the drugrunners every Saturday.
But the subtitles explaining the Spanish are not there. They are also not there for another joke where the bad guy (Zolo?) asks Ralph (Danny DeVito) if he's French. What just kills me is that if you watch the "Rekindling the Romance" doc, the subtitles are there in the clip. Furthermore, the subtitles were missing on the original RTS dvd, and I was really looking forward to the SE correcting this egregious oversight.
But they're still missing! One of the best jokes is still ruined! And nobody but me seems to have noticed. C'mon, rise up, people! Or at least tell me I'm crazy and your editions have subtitles. Please let me know.
I noticed theres actually 2 Spanish subtitle tracks. One, obviously, translates the English to Spanish, while the other appears to do nothing. I just checked the bellmaker scene. Any contact for us to report this?
Well, I'm glad it's not just me. How on earth could Fox screw this up twice? My personal opinion is that this is the same exact transfer from the original release. A port over job would explain the same mistakes being made. I watched the original disc many times and always felt it was a handsome transfer. I was struck watching this one by how everything looked just as I remembered it.
I think it's an old transfer with the same old mistakes. And the removal of subtitles that should have been burned into the original negative (or whatever) is a pretty big mistake. I mean, who removed them in the first place? And why does the doc, but not the movie, have the right print?
I was going to ask if this has been fixed. My video tape had the subtitles, but the first DVD release did not. This is the ony reason I would've considered upgrading at this time (maybe they'll finally get it right on HD/BR).
Last time I saw this with subtitles, the first joke was always mistranslated anyway, with a line that means "Are you French?" being subtitled as "You must be French". That always bothered me, and anyone with first year French can understand the line anyway.
As for the other line, I now know what it means having seen it subtitled in the past, so this is hardly a dealbreaker.
As long as the PQ is improved on the previous version, this is cheap enough to tide me over until an eventual HD release in however many years' time.
Is Jewel of the Nile supposed to have subtitles at all? I haven't seen this movie since it's theatrical run. There were several areas where they would have seemed appropriate. That disc also has the suspicious second Spanish subtitle track that does nothing.
Edit: Chris, I just checked and it just says "Speaking Spanish" where the joke should be.