Leon - The Professional - November
 

Woo hoo! A definite Day 1 purchase....provided we get both cuts with good PQ and AQ. From blu-ray.com:

Léon (The Professional) Blu-ray for November

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has officially announced the Blu-ray release of Luc Besson's 'Léon' (also known as 'The Professional'), starring Jean Reno as a hitman who becomes the guardian of a 12-year-old girl (Natalie Portman, in her first starring role). The Blu-ray will hit store shelves on November 17, and will include both the theatrical and the extended cuts of the movie.

Special features include:
10 Year Retrospective: Cast and Crew Look Back
Jean Reno: The Road to Leon
Natalie Portman: Starting Young
Fact Track


MODS: I put November on the title thread, but it didn't come through. Can someone add that?

re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

FINALLY!!! please let this get a good transfer!

re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

A no-brainer purchase. Such a fantastic movie.

re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

November is going to be really expensive!

re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

Awesome...

re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

One of my all-time favorite movies. It looks like the same extras as the recent special edition DVD, so at least I can unload that copy.

re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

Would make a great DigiBook release.

re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

I was just thinking that. I hope Sony decides to do so, but I guess if they were going to, we'd know already.

re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

November is shaping up to be an expensive month. :(

re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

QFT

It seems like every Blu-ray I get excited for has some botched transfer or is missing bonus material.

re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

Mine is in a steelbook!!

If this is the same transfer as the German release then it should look really good. Spectacular news for us, Playstation 3 owners.

re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

Land of Whimsy's review of the Kinowelt release in case it does.

And some mouseover comparisons with the most recent DVD from Caps-a-Holic.

re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

I'm not going to instantly get excited like everyone else here. I'll wait for a review of the transfer before I start going nuts. WAY too many Blus have been releases so far w/ anticipated & sub-par PQ.

re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

^ Agreed, but if this gets done right I'll be VERY happy to pick it up.

re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

Sony has a decent track record.

re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

The foreign releases have been good so far, so we should be safe

re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

At this point they could tell me Star Wars Trilogy was coming out with both original and SE in BLU and I would not get excited.

How can you release in Hi-Def and just use a sub par source???

Re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

Excited, although, I have a couple of mild reservations about the mouse-over caps. It looks a little blown out (disappearing power lines in the explosion cap and less detail on the buildings in the exercise cap) and I still see faint traces of EE on some things (like the curtains in the exercise cap and around Natalie in the shot of her with the groceries).

That said, I have pretty good faith in Sony. They're invested in the format, it's more recent than Ghostbusters and they aren't going to treat it like a no-name catalog release like the recent two Bessons. Right?

Re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

I'll wait for a few reviews, but If they're positive this a definite buy.

Re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

FINALLY! OH MY GOD FINALLY.

And OH SNAP, both versions on one disc?! FINALLY.

YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES!

Re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

Yes! I've almost had to tie myself up to keep from ordering an import version of this, contrast-blown-out regardless. I hope we get a good transfer here!

Re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

Hell yeah. I have a feeling this is going to look and sound better than my French BD. The French disc is nice but I know Sony can do a great job if motivated.

Re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

Is this the first (US) release that has both versions of the movie on it?

Re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

Wow. I hope they do this right. What a great movie

Re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

Yes

Re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

I'm in. No women, no children in my house like it.

Re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

My favourite film.

Re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

Sooooooo good.

Re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

Not to nitpick, but shouldn't that be no women, no kids? :)

Re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

This will be very clear in the press release.

Re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

Finally, one of my top 5 movies! I knew that Portman girl was going to be a star the first time I saw it :)

Re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

Indeed, and yet it's a shame she really hasn't been quite as good since. She hasn't been bad, but nothing memorable IMO. Her smaller role in Beautiful Girls was well done, and I don't blame her for the poor direction on the SW prequels. Still, she hasn't wowed me at all as an adult (well at least not with her acting :)).

Re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

This reminds me. The first time the International Version was released the liner notes stated something along the lines of "Featuring xx minutes of footage cut from the US version deemed too explicit for US audiences." Of course, this wasn't true. The theatrical version was the theatrical version everywhere (and also the version Besson considers his director's cut) and the footage, which has maybe ONE scene that could be slightly "suggestive," was nothing really "explicit." After I (and other) pointed this out here, the silent rerelease which fixed a bad audio track on the DVD a few months later came out, this statement was updated.

I always think it's kind of cute that I might have had a hand in that update somehow. :lol:

Re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

I loved her in V for Vendetta.

She has her head shaved...for real... on screen. I mean, cmon. heh.

Re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

Loved her in this and Beautiful Girls, but I don't know what she was doing in Heat. She was terrible there. Not crazy about her adult stuff either.

Re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

I'm definitely in for Leon on BD. I always felt shafted when I picked up the bare-bones Superbit DVD release when I found out a Superbit Deluxe edition came out shortly after.

Re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

Hey I love VfV, but I think the movie could have been good with another great young actress. It didn't have to be her.

Re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

Re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

She is great in Closer, and I can always watch her in Anywhere But Here.

Re: Leon - The Professional - November
 

That film made me hate Natalie Portman, and I'll never forgive Zach Braff for that.