Wick

Now that Blu-ray has officially won, do you think there's any chance that Hard Boiled will be widely released on Blu-ray, since there's no chance of the HD-DVD version coming out? Or, would it be wise to just buy the PS3 Stranglehold CE off of Ebay? (I would've bought it when it came out, but it's not available in Canada.)

True_Story1011

here goes a review for this film on BD:

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread....15#post8523115

Parasol Stars

Stanglehold: Collector's edition is $29.99 on Amazon. Is that too much to pay?

darkside

I didn't think so. I paid that price at Gamestop. The game is fun though not very deep or as polished as you would hope. I also didn't think the transfer on Hard Boiled was as awful as the review above. It definitely looks better than my old non anamorphic Criterion version. This film has never looked great though. The review mentions it not looking better than an upconvered DVD, but I think it does look slightly better than that. It isn't a consistent transfer, but probably the best they could do with the elements available.

Mr. Cornell

Most of those 90's Hong Kong films were incredibly low budget, so that might actually be the best that Hard Boiled will ever look.

I have the Criterion DVD as well and it looks ok for a non-anamorphic release. I'm sure the one included with Stranglehold will be much better if for no reason than there's a lot more resolution there.

darkside

I did a comparison with the Criterion and it is a bit tough since the Criterion isn't anamorphic, but this transfer definitely looks like an improvement. Sure the transfer has no HD pop or anywhere near the detail we are used to on most HD releases, but I agree it is probably a limitation of the source materials. Those movies were low budget and most of the late 80s, early 90s HK films I own look like this. I don't think this is just a case of them sloppying out this transfer because they didn't care. I would bet this is the exact same HD transfer they used to make the standard def Dragon Dynasty release.

Outside of Hardboiled getting an expensive restoration it probably won't look better than in this release, but I don't have the Dragon Dynasty DVD to compare for sure. If you have a PS3 I think the Collector's edition is worth picking up. The game is worth $30 so why not get a decent version of the movie for free. It does suck that you have limited control options, but play and pause are all I usually need anyway.

Josh Z

I haven't seen the disc, but it sounds like it may just be an upscaled version of the Standard-Def anamorphic remaster, not true High Definition.

FantasticVSDoom

Well, I picked the game up used this weekend at GS for $30, so it will due until we get a proper treatement (if ever), plus I get a half-way entertaining game to play as well.

darkside

It is possible. My TV shows 1080p when it switches from the game to the movie, but they may just have upscaled the standard DVD transfer. Maybe I will rent the Dragon Dynasty DVD at some point and try and compare.

Wick

Thanks for all of the replies. I might just try to get it off of Ebay for $20 or so. I only really want to get it for the movie because I already picked the game up for the 360 when I heard that the PS3 CE wasn't coming to Canada and that an HD-DVD version had been announced.

True_Story1011

So the lack of use from the Bluetooth Remote, poorly placed scene selections arent sloopy? I'd hate to see what sloopy is to you

darkside

Is any of that really a big deal on something that is a bonus on a video game? To my knowledge no one has ever authored a disc this way so they probably had no way to make it work like a normal BD disc.

Again, this is something you get extra. No way I buy this at its original $70 price, but for the $30 price it is well worth it. The game is worth $30 and the movie is very watchable. I can live without my bluetooth remote on this one. You hit play and you watch the movie. You need to take a piss you hit X. Really isn't that big of a deal.

To me sloppy would be poor audio and video as you noted in your review. I just didn't find the video quality as poor as you did (I would go 2 stars instead of 1 star and I've watched my share of 2 star HD discs) and I also didn't seem to have my audio track a second or more off. Dialog and sound effects seemed in time with the action to me.