Any news on when/if these DVDs are going to get the proper treatment? Not so many of us can afford shelling out a ton of money to get our favorite film on DVD.

Is Criterion ever going to get the rights back? Will someone deliver a better release?

If you are region free, these films are presented quite well in the form of Hong Kong Legends version of The Killer (anamorphic, bey logan commentary, interviews), and a remastered version of Hard Boiled from Mei Ah.

I'm not yet region free. I'm still a R1 fogey.

Hard Boiled is R0. You can play it on your R1 player.

And it looks great.

Agreed. And although I'm region-free, I got my friend to buy it (an R1 G like yourself) and he loves it.

GET IT!

FYI:

Hard Boiled:
http://207.136.67.23/film/dvdcompare/hardboiled.htm
http://www.dvdcompare.org.uk/compari...ge.php?fid=530

The Killer:
http://207.136.67.23/film/dvdcompare/killer3.htm
http://www.dvdcompare.org.uk/compari...e.php?fid=1919

For image they picked Fox Lorber - but wow I really like Mei Ah (except for the last screen shot).

I'm so happy I grabbed the Criterion versions before leaving my video store job years ago.

Disney has the rights to these flicks now and there are well-known rumors circulating for at least a year now that they intend to release R-rated versions of both. BOO!

However, I'm hoping that the fact that Disney plans to release R-rated versions might mean that they'll license the rights to the unrated versions back to Criterion. After all, Disney seems to have a pretty good relationship with Criterion...However, this is pure speculation on my part.

the colors are def. more on for the mel ah version. even theres no edge enhancement which theres alot in both of the other versions. and the fox version is way too bright. and the dts sounds fine. almost sounds like the scarface dts track. mostly mono effects, some bass in the music and some surround action in the music.

I wouldn't be overtly surprised to see Criterion editions of The Killer, Hard Boiled and A Bullet in the Head either. John Woo is completely unwilling to have them out in R-rated versions (apparently the reason the planned re-releases were pulled this past October), and Disney company policy forbids them from releasing the uncut versions.

We've actually seen a few Criterion/Disney releases over the past 18 months - The Royal Tenenbaums, Spellbound, Straw Dogs (which was the uncut, unrated version) and Indiscretion of an American Wife were all licensed from Disney companies (ABC, Buena Vista and Touchstone).

The fact that John Woo contributed to the recent release of Le Cercle Rouge would also suggest he and Criterion are still in contact.

Remember, though - this is nothing but fanciful speculation.

Do you mean re-releases of the CC versions of The Killer and Hard Boiled?

I, for one, would love to see a CC treatment of A Bullet in the Head!

The Killer is one of my all-time favs... And I would totally pop a vilified ninja boner if I could get my hands on a CC treatment.

For the price of a Killer CC, you could get a multi region DVD player, the superior HK Legends version, and still have enough money left for a weekend in Vegas.

Amen brother, Amen! It's only some americans that cannot see that some other countries may have better versions of films. But to those who can, I welcome you to the rest of the world.

Why? The Criterion editions of these films are clearly inferior to the HKL and Mei-Ah editions. Unless you are talking about the supplements, I don't see any reason to own them.

The commentaries on the Criterions are probably the best extras out of all the different DVDs of these movies. I wouldn't say they're worth $200-300 per disc though.

Incidentally wasn't HKL supposed to do a re-release of The Killer at some point?