Army of Darkness HD-DVD question
 

Hello all. I was wondering if anyone had any info on the 10/10 release of Army of Darkness? My question concerns the quality. Is the transfer struck from the same print as my 6 R1 Universal/Anchor Bay releases or is it going to be from the VASTLY superior R3 print? Seing as how this is set to be a combo disc, if the R3 print is used, everyone with only a SD dvd player could get the best picture possible also along with the HD copy. Any info would be appreciated.

Presumably it's the same transfer that was used for the high-def presentation on Universal HD. It's the theatrical cut, and this disc doesn't include any extras.

It's not a transfer from Anchor Bay, for sure: the theatrical cut is 1.66:1 on Anchor Bay's DVD but the usual 1.85:1-ish on Universal HD. I'm not sure if it's the same transfer from Universal's ancient DVD or if it's more newly struck, but it looked awfully nice to my eyes.

Isn't the R3 print of the director's cut? The HD DVD is of the theatrical version.

What's the general fan concensus on the theatrical vs. director's cut? I've always thought the director's cut was the better ending.

Virtually everyone prefers the director's cut, but going against the grain, I lean more towards the leaner theatrical version. Gotta have my "good...bad...I'm the guy with the gun", and I'm a huge fan of the campier ending.

So you're the other guy! :) Yeah, I'm with you. I prefer the pacing of the theatrical better, the funnier 'gun' line, and the campy ending. We're definitely in the minority though.

I still own (and enjoy) the director's cut for what it is. But when I'm popping it on to watch randomly, I almost always go with the theatrical.

Campy ending lover here, too; it fit with the tone of the movie a lot more.

Seeing as how it's going to be a combo disc, which of the two are you saying looked good to your eyes, the SD or HD DVD side? I do not have either a HD-DVD or a Blu-Ray disc player yet, so I will be buying my 8th version of the movie for the SD DVD side (6 R1's and my R3 so far). Does anyone have any reviews or comparisons yet for the HD-DVD combo version? It's good to see it will not be struck from the Anchor Bay print.

http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/8...vdcovervd9.jpg

I know someone on AVS claimed they got their hands on a copy of this last week but I can't find the thread now. Anyway, I can't wait to see this as I have never viewed the Universal HD cut before.

AVS thread

BTW, I'm sure your username stands for Army of Darkness, but did you know it was also the original name for HD-dvd? C'mon and join the team. :)

"Short for Advanced Optical Disc, Blu-ray’s competing HD-DVD technology format. AOD and Blu-ray are similar in that they both use 405nm-wavelength blue-violet laser technology, in contrast to the 650nm-wavelength red laser technology used in traditional DVD formats. However, while Blu-ray has a storage capacity of 27GB on a single-layer disc, AOD has a storage capacity of 20GB on a single-layer disc.
AOD was developed jointly by Toshiba and NEC."

It was Cliff Stephenson in this thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...2&page=1&pp=30

Good Find! Thanks!

Sorry, I meant the version that aired on Universal's high-definition channel, Universal HD. Presumably it'll be that same transfer, although it'll look better on HD DVD than it did on cable.

I'll be tackling the HD DVD as soon as Universal starts shipping out copies to reviewers.

Agreed I also liked the theatrical release ending better. I didnt not like the director's cut ending but really do prefer the original. Cant wait to get my hands on this one.

PS..

I also like the theatrical version better because of the ending, and the "good, bad...I'm the guy with the gun" line.

I prefer the "guy with the gun line" about a million times more than the "I'm not that good" line, but I do prefer the downer ending. While the campy ending is more fun, Ash screwing himself the way he does in the downer ending fits much better with the overall tone of the series.

Yes you are right. I am sitting back, waiting, to see which format wins the war. I don't want another VHS vs. Beta conflict again. Both formats have their plusses and minuses, but someone has to win out in the end. Not many average Joe's can afford or want two seperate players. Adam, I wait VERY patiently for your review of this combo disc. Could you do us a favor though? Seeing as how it's a combo disc, could you do kind of a "combo review" and look at both the HD and SD cut of the film as compared to previous versions?

I don't have the original Universal release or the R3 MGM disc, but I do have the two Anchor Bay ones, and I'll definitely compare it with those.

I prefer the international cut, which has most of the extended scenes of the director's cut, but with the better lines like "I'm the one with the gun," bit.

I picked this up last night along with Fast Times at Ridgemont High. The picture looks a lot better than I was expecting. It's very detailed and film-like. This is the shorter theatrical cut, the same version that was on the Universal DVD. The menus on these discs are relatively boring - just the Universal logo and the title of the film in the corner (they remind me of the generic menus some early DVD releases had). Still, the movies themselves look and sound terrific (Fast Times also looks surprisingly sharp).

Universal switched to this generic menu style some time back. All of their releases use it now.

Tokyo Drift doesn't.

I'm sure all of their day & date titles will have a unique menu, along with King Kong.

I prefer the director's ending, but otherwise I prefer the theatrical cut all the way, for the above-mentioned reason, as well as for the leaner cut. The end battle in the director's cut gets boring. Sam just didn't have the budget or the ability at the time to make a big battle work.

It's set to be released in two days and some individuals have the retail discs in their hands. Any thorough reviews/comparisons yet? (hint hint Adam?)

Today's the day. Any info on reviews?

I had gotten it early last week from BB and I thought it looked pretty damn good for being such a low budget 90s movie. The daytime scenes looked super bright with alot of nice contrast. It did have an orange/brownish feel to it, but I thought the picture was very clear. Really good coloring. There seemed to be a couple of marks on the print, but nothing distracting. AVS claims the region 3 dvd offers the best overall presentation, but I'd take this any day.

My copy's in the mail. I should have a review up this weekend.

Just got mine from Amazon, along with Willy Wonka. And I got A Nightmare On Elm. St on DVD and Different Class on CD, as well as Charlie & The Chocolate Factory yesterday. Busy day! :D

Personally, I thought Army of Darkness was about the best you could expect the movie to look without going back to the original negative and cleaning up every single element. And even if you did that, it might still not look much better.

Adam, thank you for the review. Being the super fan I am, I had already planned on getting this release. Your review just made the sell feel better due to the lofty price :). I will have to compare the video to the R3 and see how it looks. Thanks again.

Thanks! Happy to have been a bad influence. :D

I've seen the MGM R3 and this one has much better color reproduction. And, of course, it's in HD. :)

I am so tempted to buy this now thatnks to that review. But the lack of extras irks me (which shouldn't given I have the 2-disc not-quite-so-limited edition). I really wish Sam Raimi would recut the extended edition given that in the audio commentary of the so-called director's cut, he explains there are things he preferes from either cut and it'd be nice to finally see a definitive version.

Isn't the International Version essentially that cut Raimi mentioned?

Dunno. I've never seen the international version. I just know he prefers "Good... Bad... I'm the guy with the gun," he really liked the deleted cabin footage and the extra third act mayhem. It's basically a mix and match type thing.

I think Henry the Red still arrives too early in the fight at the end.

Ah.

I think the theatrical version is better overall and wasn't aware of an alternate version until the first Anchorbay 'limited' release came out.

So in my opinion,it seemed everyone who loved Army of Darkness loved the theatrical edit of the film. Since everyone I knew,only knew of the theatrical edit and it was a huge favorite growing up.

And upon seeing the alternate edit. I was underwhelmed by the bloated running time,the 'downer' ending(I imagined it being much 'cooler' and 'wow that's grim and epic!' than it turned out) and the less badass "I'm not that good" line.

The only thing I enjoyed in the alternate version was the extended windmill scene which is very funny. Of course I noticed a huge difference in tone compared to the version aired on Sci-Fi Channel. The Sci-Fi version of the extended sequence contains the 'funny' score which makes the scene very quirky amusing. The A.B. extended dvd has no score over the sequence,so it feels 'lifeless' somewhat and less amusing.

So it's the theatrical version all the way for me. If a hybrid cut could be created with the extended windmill sequence(with score),and a couple other smaller good additions the extended version contains. While retaining the theatrical ending(with maybe a branching option to watch with the downer ending). I'd be interested in that,but the extended version in it's current form is less than special in my opinion and not as much fun.

I don't understand why the fans prefer the original ending; the cinema cut was the only version of the film until DVD. I've seen it many times. The "director's" cut really changes the film and character of Ash. It's just a curiosity to me.