Sorry if this has been posted before, or if it's not welcome, but I just wanted to say publicly that I think the "Breakin'" DVD SUCKS. The full screen crop ruins this film entirely, its effect is worse than any other crop job I've ever noticed.

I am pretty sure this film was shot open matte, so if it was widescreen, there will be cropping. It is not in its OAR, but there shouldnt be any cropping at afullscreen presentation.

For such a popular cult hit, it would have been nice to get some good extras also. MGM is usually pretty good in that dept., but they like to pull a Universal every once in awhile. I agree that it needed to be in widescreen, however. Even though salamander2 is right about open matte not creating any lose of picture, fullscreen is certainly not the intended aspect ratio and often reveals a lot of mistakes that detract from your appreciation of the film. Anamorphic widescreen and a few extras would have made this, and the sequel, must-buys for me.

Once in a while? Most of their budget titles - the midnight movies and so on - are all mostly bare bones. But you know, with most of the discs to be had for less than a 10 spot, I'm ok with that. And really, what kind of extras are you going to get with a flick like Breakin'?

Bah! Nonsense. The film - and Breakin' 2 for that matter - looked just fine as they are. The framing didnt distract and there was no bad crop job like HKFlix claims.

Would it have been nice to get them wide screen and loaded with extras? Of course it would. But when you can find both titles for about 5 bucks each (with a little leg work), who cares.

So-called "fullscreen" transfers are almost always cropped at the sides to reduce excess headroom.

DJ

I haven't watched the "Breakin' 2" DVD, but if the "Breakin'" DVD is truly open matte, then someone seriously doesn't know how to frame a film...I have a very hard time believing that the "Breakin'" DVD is open matte, there's too much information constantly cut off the sides annoyingly.

I really don't understand MGM's thought process regarding 80s flicks...

Running Scared, Once Bitten, Mannequin -- Anamorphic Widescreen.

Breakin'/Breakin' II, Bright Lights, Big City, Remo Williams -- Full Frame.

is it worse than the crop job on World Video's Bodyguard from Beijing? now that was a travesty!

For any references I might use to "worst" with regards to DVD quality, World Video products are exempt from comparison. Some of their products give the word "worst" a bad name.