Darkman Trilogy - 22nd June 2015

[mattyl149]

I've just noticed that MediumRare are releasing the Darkman Trilogy on Blu-ray on 22nd June 2015. It's listed at £29.99 at the moment, but hopefully that price should drop

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Darkman-Tril...ywords=blu+ray

[Blu MacReady]

Love the first one, hear the BD is poor so never upgraded my DVD. Have 2/3 on DVD and they're almost unwatchable

Would buy a decent no.1 on blu or pick up this trilogy if the PQ is above average and its £9.99 - £12.99

[Pork Chop Express]

You know,i love Darkman but after all these years i've never bothered with the sequels.Are they worth a watch?The straight-to-DVD thing put me off.

[NLScavenger]

I heard bad stuff about their live action Ninja Turtles film releases so I'm not expecting anything great.

[SymbioticFunction]

Originally Posted by Pork Chop Express

You know,i love Darkman but after all these years i've never bothered with the sequels.Are they worth a watch?The straight-to-DVD thing put me off.

Not really. Nowhere near as good.

[NLScavenger]

The trilogy will come with all the bonus features from the Darkman Shout Factory release.

Come to the dark side of adventure with the "Darkman Trilogy” 3-disc set. Liam Neeson stars as a scientist on the verge discovering synthetic skin when he is burned beyond recognition when his laboratory by a sadistic gang. He becomes the Darkman, seeking revenge against his assailants. "Darkman" (1990) tells the origin story of this unusual superhero. "Darkman II: The Return of Durant" (1995) sees the crime-fighting master of disguise return for more revenge. In "Darkman III: Die Darkman Die" (1996), the protagonist matches wits with an underworld drug dealer.

New Interviews with Liam Neeson and Frances McDormand
MY NAME IS DURANT – interview with Larry Drake
THE FACE OF REVENGE – interview with Makeup Designer Tony Gardner
HENCHMAN TALES – Interviews with actors Danny Hicks and Dan Bell
DARK DESIGN – interview with Production Designer Randy Ser and Art Director Philip Dagort
Audio Commentary with director of photography Bill Pope
Vintage “Making of” and interview Featurettes featuring interviews with Sam Raimi, Liam Neeson, Frances McDormand.
Vintage full-length interviews, not used in the featurettes, with Sam Raimi, Liam Neeson and Frances McDormand
Theatrical Trailer.

[dvdmike]

Medium who? Will buy for the extras

[Buzz201]

Originally Posted by dvdmike

Medium who? Will buy for the extras

Mediumrare, relatively new upstart, who has managed to get their hands on some good titles, like the US remake of The Killing. I think, but I'm not 100% sure, they're associated with Fremantle Media.

Some of their prior releases have been upscales or 1080i according to other threads though.

[samdvd1]

Originally Posted by Buzz201

relatively new upstart.

They've been about since at least 2005 when they released Madagascar Skin, maybe even longer.

[dallywhitty]

Mediumrare's release of the original three Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films was awful so I'm cautious about the rest of their output. Cat People is released in May and, as much as I want to be excited about it, I fear they'll **** it up. I'm not expecting miracles (they'll probably use the existing HD master which is reportedly mediocre anyway), but I reckon that they'll somehow find a way of making it look even worse than the Scream Factory release.

[Pizzamorg]

Was really excited about this and then read the thread and decided I wont risk a preorder.

[UniSol GR77]

It seems to me "Darkman II" has two different cuts !!!!

From my Darkman forum:

http://westlakedarkman.proboards.com...1&scrollTo=635

[Drz]

Originally Posted by NLScavenger

I heard bad stuff about their live action Ninja Turtles film releases so I'm not expecting anything great.

Care to tell more?

[NLScavenger]

Originally Posted by Drz

Care to tell more?

The trilogy set is 1080i50. It got fixed for the individual release of the first film which is now 1080p24, but that one isn't great either.

Originally Posted by oddbox83

I just watched this last night.

It's 24p this time. However, that's not a good thing! The disc is really horrific and I'm not keeping it.

It's one of the worst examples of DNR tampering I've seen. It's removing tons of genuine detail, one example of the detailed texturing on the turtles skin. It becomes almost invisible, I only realised it was there half way through. It's really smeary, posterised, blocky... As if it matters at this stage, both 2.0 and 5.1 tracks are lossy 192/448 encodes.

And the award for how to make a bad transfer worse goes to Medium Rare. I'm not touching their releases with a bargepole now. Genuinely, I'd have preferred the look of a good DVD upscale.

I'm also baffled by the extra. A making-of promo piece for the second film. What it does show though, that even a grainy old pan and scan analogue transfer is easier on the eye than the tripe on the disc. It's softer yet way more detailed.

To think I almost paid extra for the steelbook edition this. I'm so glad I only paid a fiver (Amazon's 2 for £10) for the standard edition because it's a waste of money.

[sukraj]

I will buy it when its a bit cheaper.

[Buzz201]

Originally Posted by samdvd1

They've been about since at least 2005 when they released Madagascar Skin, maybe even longer.

That was stupid of me.

They haven't been doing blu-rays that long though.

[Vintrus]

Is there going to be any difference between Darkman II-III UK release and the 2012 Soulmedia releases? Trying to decide if its worth a repurchasing or not.

[tylergfoster]

If somehow they have the Koch Media transfer from Germany, which is the best Darkman currently has, then I will import it.

[UniSol GR77]

Originally Posted by tylergfoster

If somehow they have the Koch Media transfer from Germany, which is the best Darkman currently has, then I will import it.

Any review?

[EvilJames]

Koch are still due to release a limited edition boxset of the trilogy with different bonus features (including the unsold TV pilot) at some point, so it might be worth holding on a little longer if the Mediumrare set is no good. Nice that they included the Scream Factory extras though.