Hard Boiled BD (Stranglehold:Collector's Edition PS3); 2 Thumbs... way down!
12-13-07 | 10:35 PM
#1
Thread Starter
DVD Talk Special Edition
Hard Boiled BD (Stranglehold:Collector's Edition PS3); 2 Thumbs... way down!
Hello everyone!
As alot of you know, this very forum was conducting a search for members looking to review HD/BD material on the boards.
The crew decided to go with another individual/canidate. So I thought that this would be a great time to release the review - I'm sure alot of you would like reading what was up with this title. LMK what you thought!
Enjoy...
..................................................
Hard Boiled (Blu-Ray)
Weinstein Co.//Rated R//$69.99//Oct.22, 2007//Region 1 - STRANGLEHOLD: COLLECTORS EDITION //PLAYABLE ONLY ON PS3!
1992.
Jeffrey Dahmer pleads guilty but insane to the murders of 15 young men and boys.
A Jury acquitted four police officers accussed in the videotaped beating of Rodney King, causing the Los Angeles Riots and leading to 53 deaths and 1 billion + in damages.
Johnny Carson leaves the Tonight Show only to be replaced by the enormously chin endowed Jay Leno.
Anthony Perkins, John Sturges, Benny Hill and Sam Kinison all leave this plain of existence to play cards at the big ole' Texas Hold 'em table in the sky.
Oh, Brother...
This looks to be a very bleak year.
April came and a lot of the same action filth came and went in Hollywood.
However, Hong Kong added one of its classic gun play pictures to the scene with the stylized hit, 'Lat Sau San Taam'. Loosely translated as 'Hot-Handed God of Cops',later released in the US as the well known, 'Hard Boiled'.
Hard Boiled tells the story of clarinet playing police officer, Tequila Yuen (Chow Yun-Fat) as he copes with the tragic loss of his partner while on a case; undercover duty in a teahouse. Yuen is overcome with rage and quickly kills the man who took the life of his partner, only to find out that the man he killed was also an undercover officer.
The teahouse transforms into a library where we meet Tony (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) a calm, collected hitman who is instructed to terminate the stooley in the teahouse massacre. After killing this man he is rewarded with a job by his victim's boss - he is to kill the man who employed him, Mob boss Uncle Hoi. Tony reluctantly accepts due to the history between both men.
Back at the ranch...
Inspector Yuen is informed by his great deductioning skills (paying off snitches) that there is going to be a little shindig going down across town, where large amounts of firearms are going to be exchanged for larger amounts of currency. This so happens to be the very same night that Tony is to kill Uncle Hoi.
All parties arrive to this setup and after a touching goodbye speech in the vein of Al Pacino's Scarface ('Say Goodbye ta da' bad guy!') delivered by Hoi (Hoi-Shan Kwan), he is taken out of the picture. Inspector Yuen drops in on the awkward moment and the carnage insues. Explosions, gunfire and smoke make it impossible to do anything but duck and cover.
As Tony urgently tries to escape capture, Tequila quickly turns the tables, the tables being his .357 magnum. Within centimeters of Tony's eye, Inspector Yuen marvels in his brilliantly manuevered plan, but fails to realize Tony has the draw on him as well, a Beretta .45 caliber. face-to-face - the stand off begins...
Whose more Hard Boiled?
Hmph... I guess 1992 wasn't that bad.
The star of this and many of John Woo's fairs is undoubtably Chow Yun-Fat, whom by himself is a joy to behold. Accompanied by strong supporting roles from Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Teresa Mo, make for interesting chemistry even with the poorly constructed dialog they are provided. But were not here for the dialog!
The choreographed shoot-outs are what is on center stage in most of John Woo's packages. As the story is taken off life-support, the ballet of brass and lead take the screen to dance-the-dance of death to all who arrive. The chaotic sonnets are only puncuated with squib blasts, spring board hijinks and sparks from blown up cardboard boxes. They all abruptly come to close as the adrenalin shots and defibrillators are wheeled in to be administered to the flatlining story.
But as most know, 1986-97 were the years that Dr. Woo was most prolific in resuscitating his works at the cinema. Only later to be plagued with more than enough medical malpractice suits.
This would stand as being John Woo's most daring accomplishment to date. Highly Recommended.
THE DVD:
--------
Again, please note: THIS TITLE ONLY WORKS ON THE PLAYSTATION 3 HOME ENTERTAINMENT CONSOLE!
Video:
The movie is presented in 1080i in its original 1.85:1 Widescreen aspect ratio with a picture image that looks at best like an upconverted Standard DVD, rather than a fully remastered transfer in HD. At times pixelation is beyond noticeable and entering on annoying. Dragon Dynasty’s transfer to Blu-ray is so bad that in a couple of scenes you can see the over-processed sections from the original film negative.
Sound:
Cantonese and English dubbed soundtracks are available in Dolby Digital 5.1. Wait now! Dont start high fiving yourself yet. The Cantonese spoken dialog is off by at least 1 to 1 1/4 second and becomes as annoying as the picture quality. As with the background noise if this was my first viewing of this feature I would have had a hard time distinguishing the order in which who, said what.
Extras:
The only extras provided on this feature film is almost not even worth mentioning - Subtitles and Scene Selection!
Subtitles: They move so fast and are poorly placed over lighted areas of the film making it very hard to decipher. I was at the point of just pulling a Mystery Science Theatre'esque performance about 40 minutes in because I was so appalled.
Scene Selection: They are horribly placed in the middle of action scenes or just plain dont compliment the arrangement of the feature.
To add insult-to-injury is the lack of inclussion of the BlueTooth PS3 Remote to access the film.
Final Thoughts:
-------------
If your wondering if this film justifies the price of the content - I would say, Yes and No.
$59.99 would get you a great third person shooter and for an extra $10 you receive the source material for the game. But if your just wanting 'Hard Boiled' in HDM and dont play video games, I wouldnt pay .10 cents for this version.
The years have been easy on this films youthful energy. However, with this transfer the only thing I would recommend would be to closed casket burial. SKIP IT!
Content: 4
Video: 1
Audio: 2
Extras: 1/2
Replay: 1 (game however - 4!)
Advise: SKIP IT!
As alot of you know, this very forum was conducting a search for members looking to review HD/BD material on the boards.
The crew decided to go with another individual/canidate. So I thought that this would be a great time to release the review - I'm sure alot of you would like reading what was up with this title. LMK what you thought!
Enjoy...
..................................................
Hard Boiled (Blu-Ray)
Weinstein Co.//Rated R//$69.99//Oct.22, 2007//Region 1 - STRANGLEHOLD: COLLECTORS EDITION //PLAYABLE ONLY ON PS3!
1992.
Jeffrey Dahmer pleads guilty but insane to the murders of 15 young men and boys.
A Jury acquitted four police officers accussed in the videotaped beating of Rodney King, causing the Los Angeles Riots and leading to 53 deaths and 1 billion + in damages.
Johnny Carson leaves the Tonight Show only to be replaced by the enormously chin endowed Jay Leno.
Anthony Perkins, John Sturges, Benny Hill and Sam Kinison all leave this plain of existence to play cards at the big ole' Texas Hold 'em table in the sky.
Oh, Brother...
This looks to be a very bleak year.
April came and a lot of the same action filth came and went in Hollywood.
However, Hong Kong added one of its classic gun play pictures to the scene with the stylized hit, 'Lat Sau San Taam'. Loosely translated as 'Hot-Handed God of Cops',later released in the US as the well known, 'Hard Boiled'.
Hard Boiled tells the story of clarinet playing police officer, Tequila Yuen (Chow Yun-Fat) as he copes with the tragic loss of his partner while on a case; undercover duty in a teahouse. Yuen is overcome with rage and quickly kills the man who took the life of his partner, only to find out that the man he killed was also an undercover officer.
The teahouse transforms into a library where we meet Tony (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) a calm, collected hitman who is instructed to terminate the stooley in the teahouse massacre. After killing this man he is rewarded with a job by his victim's boss - he is to kill the man who employed him, Mob boss Uncle Hoi. Tony reluctantly accepts due to the history between both men.
Back at the ranch...
Inspector Yuen is informed by his great deductioning skills (paying off snitches) that there is going to be a little shindig going down across town, where large amounts of firearms are going to be exchanged for larger amounts of currency. This so happens to be the very same night that Tony is to kill Uncle Hoi.
All parties arrive to this setup and after a touching goodbye speech in the vein of Al Pacino's Scarface ('Say Goodbye ta da' bad guy!') delivered by Hoi (Hoi-Shan Kwan), he is taken out of the picture. Inspector Yuen drops in on the awkward moment and the carnage insues. Explosions, gunfire and smoke make it impossible to do anything but duck and cover.
As Tony urgently tries to escape capture, Tequila quickly turns the tables, the tables being his .357 magnum. Within centimeters of Tony's eye, Inspector Yuen marvels in his brilliantly manuevered plan, but fails to realize Tony has the draw on him as well, a Beretta .45 caliber. face-to-face - the stand off begins...
Whose more Hard Boiled?
Hmph... I guess 1992 wasn't that bad.
The star of this and many of John Woo's fairs is undoubtably Chow Yun-Fat, whom by himself is a joy to behold. Accompanied by strong supporting roles from Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Teresa Mo, make for interesting chemistry even with the poorly constructed dialog they are provided. But were not here for the dialog!
The choreographed shoot-outs are what is on center stage in most of John Woo's packages. As the story is taken off life-support, the ballet of brass and lead take the screen to dance-the-dance of death to all who arrive. The chaotic sonnets are only puncuated with squib blasts, spring board hijinks and sparks from blown up cardboard boxes. They all abruptly come to close as the adrenalin shots and defibrillators are wheeled in to be administered to the flatlining story.
But as most know, 1986-97 were the years that Dr. Woo was most prolific in resuscitating his works at the cinema. Only later to be plagued with more than enough medical malpractice suits.
This would stand as being John Woo's most daring accomplishment to date. Highly Recommended.
THE DVD:
--------
Again, please note: THIS TITLE ONLY WORKS ON THE PLAYSTATION 3 HOME ENTERTAINMENT CONSOLE!
Video:
The movie is presented in 1080i in its original 1.85:1 Widescreen aspect ratio with a picture image that looks at best like an upconverted Standard DVD, rather than a fully remastered transfer in HD. At times pixelation is beyond noticeable and entering on annoying. Dragon Dynasty’s transfer to Blu-ray is so bad that in a couple of scenes you can see the over-processed sections from the original film negative.
Sound:
Cantonese and English dubbed soundtracks are available in Dolby Digital 5.1. Wait now! Dont start high fiving yourself yet. The Cantonese spoken dialog is off by at least 1 to 1 1/4 second and becomes as annoying as the picture quality. As with the background noise if this was my first viewing of this feature I would have had a hard time distinguishing the order in which who, said what.
Extras:
The only extras provided on this feature film is almost not even worth mentioning - Subtitles and Scene Selection!
Subtitles: They move so fast and are poorly placed over lighted areas of the film making it very hard to decipher. I was at the point of just pulling a Mystery Science Theatre'esque performance about 40 minutes in because I was so appalled.
Scene Selection: They are horribly placed in the middle of action scenes or just plain dont compliment the arrangement of the feature.
To add insult-to-injury is the lack of inclussion of the BlueTooth PS3 Remote to access the film.
Final Thoughts:
-------------
If your wondering if this film justifies the price of the content - I would say, Yes and No.
$59.99 would get you a great third person shooter and for an extra $10 you receive the source material for the game. But if your just wanting 'Hard Boiled' in HDM and dont play video games, I wouldnt pay .10 cents for this version.
The years have been easy on this films youthful energy. However, with this transfer the only thing I would recommend would be to closed casket burial. SKIP IT!
Content: 4
Video: 1
Audio: 2
Extras: 1/2
Replay: 1 (game however - 4!)
Advise: SKIP IT!
Last edited by True_Story1011; 12-15-07 at 01:43 PM.
12-14-07 | 10:01 AM
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It's a good thing I didn't pay $69.99 for this edition. I'm even considering returning it. We'll just have to wait for this title on HD.
Last edited by Abe.; 12-14-07 at 10:54 AM.
12-16-07 | 12:02 AM
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Yup.
You know... the quality of the Hard Boiled video really isn't all that bad. What really bothered me was the delay during the dialog, and the chapter selection. Also, you can't use the bluetooth remote with the Blu-Ray.
The game is really, really fun, by the way. Once you get used to the mechanics of the game, it's a blast. Honestly, paying 50 bucks for this set isn't bad at all. I'm sure I'll double dip if they ever release it on Blu-Ray stand-alone.
You know... the quality of the Hard Boiled video really isn't all that bad. What really bothered me was the delay during the dialog, and the chapter selection. Also, you can't use the bluetooth remote with the Blu-Ray.
The game is really, really fun, by the way. Once you get used to the mechanics of the game, it's a blast. Honestly, paying 50 bucks for this set isn't bad at all. I'm sure I'll double dip if they ever release it on Blu-Ray stand-alone.
12-16-07 | 12:46 AM
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I know... it's not "great", but it's not really all that horrible either. It's a very descent transfer. I haven't watched the Dragon Dynasty DVD yet, but this one looks better than the old Criterion DVD.
12-16-07 | 08:18 AM
#8
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From: Greenville, South Cackalack
Originally Posted by Boba Fett
I figured this would be a garbage transfer, since the Weinstein's are supposedly supporting HD-DVD.
I doubt they're that "vindictive" anyway. They were paid a fee to license the master, and there's nothing to be gained by intentionally doing sub-standard work (or deliberately striking a low-quality HD master?).
12-16-07 | 05:19 PM
#9
Thread Starter
DVD Talk Special Edition
Originally Posted by Abe.
I know... it's not "great", but it's not really all that horrible either. It's a very descent transfer. I haven't watched the Dragon Dynasty DVD yet, but this one looks better than the old Criterion DVD.
You know what...
I'd keep ahold of your rerelease of this film from Dragon Dynasty, because I would have to say the up conversion looks better than this " BD " version.
But I would have to agree hands down, this game rocks some serious sox!
12-22-07 | 02:47 AM
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Isn't Hard Boiled on the second side of the bluray disc?
I heard the movie itself was SD on a bluray disc. If that's true, I'm not really sure what you were expecting. The encoding isn't high def so of course the video won't look fantastic.
Moreover, if this were a true bluray release, don't you think they'd want to capitalize on that beyond the gamer community? I mean the object is to make as much money as possible, so you'd also want the greatest consumer base possible right? So would it make sense to limit that consumer base to people who own a PS3?
This isn't high def.
I heard the movie itself was SD on a bluray disc. If that's true, I'm not really sure what you were expecting. The encoding isn't high def so of course the video won't look fantastic.
Moreover, if this were a true bluray release, don't you think they'd want to capitalize on that beyond the gamer community? I mean the object is to make as much money as possible, so you'd also want the greatest consumer base possible right? So would it make sense to limit that consumer base to people who own a PS3?
This isn't high def.
