Battlefront Europe box set
 

Well, just got the WWII Collection Battlefront Europe box set. All 5 movies come in keepcases. All are Warner titles so their previous editions came in snappers. So that's a plus.

Anyway...so the first movie I'm watching is the new Battle of the Bulge. Presented in a 2.73 anamorphic transfer, the print looks better than it ever has. It was apparently remastered from original film elements. Could be a Lowry Digital restoration for all I know. I've only got a 4:3 TV, but the 2.73 transfer doesn't look a whole hellava lot thinner than your standard 2.40 transfer. In other words, it's still watchable on a 4:3 TV. The quality of the transfer helps with that aspect I guess...(you're not distracted by compression artifacts or grain.) This is a very clean print. So clean in fact that there seems to be some anti-aliasing problems in a few shots. Like for example the gun barrels of the "King Tiger" M-47 tanks have "jaggies" on the edges.

The sound is decent enough for a film that old. The rumble of the tanks gives your sub a nice work-out. Nice use of LFE of the Tiger tanks. What ages this movie to its era is the old canned gun fire effects. This is what made SPR and When Trumpets fade such a nice change for WWII films when they started using real sound effects for WWII vintage guns.

This new version runs just over 169 minutes. However, that includes the into overture and intermission. The intro and opening credits alone last over 5 minutes, so go figure on that. Fortunately, there's chapter breaks after each part.

I'll post additional mini-reviews once I watch the rest of the films in the set.

I am awaiting this set from Amazon, and it appears to be a great set. I was hoping that it would be promoted to some extent (which it hasn't). No B&M's are selling it at a good price point (Best Buy has it for $69.99!). Has anybody seen it at Costco?

I couldn't find it today anywhere, and not yesterday. I didn't see it at Costco yesterday and not at BJs today or yesterday. Damn, I want this so bad :(

Nice! Thanks for the review. I am going to order this from CH.

$39 bones at Sam's Club. I looked at all 5 briefly (all blind buys) and so far I am impressed. Dirty Dozen is not anamorphic though but the rest are (Battleground is OAR full). I am pleased with set especially since Big Red One has just been released at $20 alone.

Yeah, Battle of the Bulge is also going for around the $18 mark separately. The others have all been in the $5 bins lately.

OK, next review...

Big Red One. Awesome! The video quality is not quite as top notch as Bulge was, but it's not bad. Still a bit of grain present in the darker scenes.

However, where this disc shines is the soundtrack. This mix could have been recorded today for all practical purposes. Very good use of the surrounds. LOTS of .LFE during the explosions. So much so that my sub was rockin'. The only thing it's missing is the bullet sounds whisping by as is common in today's modern soundtracks. In this you juts get directional gun sound effects. No 3D effects like we're used to today. But it's still a very good mix for a 25 year-old film. Unlike Bulge, the gun sound effects sound very authenic.

What's been added back in? A lot of off-color jokes. And a bunch of other stuff that I couldn't tell ya. I haven't seen the original truncated version in quite some time, so I couldn't give ya a definate list of what's new.

This movie could have been a true masterpiece had they been able to use authenic tanks. That's what plagues these pre-late '90s WWII movies. They don't use authenic German tanks or replicas. Kinda hard to pass off a Sherman Firefly as a Pz IV or Panther.

THE BIG RED ONE is not in any $5 bins, I promise you. Not "The Reconstruction"'s 2-disc set that's part of the WWII box, at least.

Thanks for the teasers. I picked it up for 10. more than I could have got it at Amazon, then I go and doze off early last night. Go figure...

Well, no of course not. That's not what I meant. I'm just refering to the films "Where Eagles Dare" and "Dirty Dozen".

UPDATE: On Big Red One...

Watching the documentary on the Reconstruction on Disc 2, the upgrade on the sound effects is made clear. Basically, they remixed the whole movie using all new foley sounds where the "restored" footage didn't have any sound at all, and mixed in all new modern explosion and gun fire effects over the top of the original soundtrack. So that's why the battle sounds sound so modern in this Reconstruction. The production team even said that the soundtrack sounded thin even by 1980 standards.

One of the new scenes is an assault of an amphitheatre type structure in North Africa by the Big Red One guys and a bunch of French Legionares on horses.

re: pseudo Tiger tanks in BotB
 

Yeah, it bothered us as kids when we saw it at the theater, and its highly irritating seeing it as an adult. It takes an effort to ignore.

So I'm now watching Where Eagles Dare, and without ever seeing the original DVD to compare this one to, I can at least say that the transfer is supperb. Very clear, with only the occasional couple of frames with dirt and scratches. Only problem is the sound. Although remixed in 5.1, it still sounds pretty front heavy and mostly mono with the exception of some surround usage for the music track. This movie could use a sound upgrade like Big Red One got. Plenty of good explosions and lots of gunfire. If remastered like Big Red One, this too would be a great new old movie.

Pretty sure Where Eagles Dare is identical to the old DVD.
I finally found the set, and watched Battle of the Bulge. Great film, very underrated IMHO. People attack the historical inaccuracy, but that doesn't bother me too much. It was tremendously enjoyable.
I just wish Warner had added Objective Burma in this set. I would love to have it in an Amaray, and IMHO it's a lot better than Dirty Dozen and Where Eagles Dare.

So far I have watched Battleground and Dirty Dozen for the first time. I enjoyed both a lot more than I thought I would as I picked those two out thinking they would be the worst. I thought they both also aged better than I was anticipating.

Thanks for the quick reviews Mike. This set totally slipped in under my radar. I'm a big fan of WWII movies and really need to build that part of my collection up. I'm looking forward to hearing about the rest of the set.