Not sure if linking to other review sites is allowed, but here's the review along with the link at the bottom.
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Editor's Notes
Portions of this review also appear in our previous coverage of the Blu-ray boxset of 'Mad Max Trilogy.'
The Movie Itself: Our Reviewer's Take
To borrow from one of the movie's villains, 'Mad Max' is a fuel-injected suicide machine, rocking and rolling out of control down the highways of a dystopian Australian landscape. It's a bleak, nihilistic future where law and order are quickly deteriorating while the world continues to survive on the fumes of the planet's virtually-depleted fossil fuels. Ironically, those still desperately clinging to some semblance of civil society have taken to a near masochistic obsession with high-performance, gas-guzzling automobiles, like the Holden Monaro driven by the aforementioned villain calling himself the "Nightrider" during his escape in the opening act. Along with the thrilling action and awesome stunts, part of the film's greatness is in these very subtle touches of subtext and underlying themes.
In that same opening, we are also introduced to our would-be hero, Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson in the title role that essentially launched his career), top pursuit driver for a federal police force named the Main Force Patrol (MFP). The suggestive fetishism with roaring muscle cars is made all the more implicit as we watch the cop almost methodically dress into his black leather uniform and easily dispatch the criminal while in a rather colorful pursuit vehicle. Later, a motorcycle gang with a bizarre hatred for anything on four wheels and led by Toecutter (Hugh Keays-Byrne looking like a scruffy, hairier version of Simon Le Bon) seek retribution for their fallen comrade. But when the gang comes after Max's wife (Joanne Samuel) and son, he takes his car fetish to the next level with a souped-up black Ford Falcon XB GT and does away with the whole lot of them.
Trilogy Boxset Top
Scream Factory Collector's Edition Bottom
On the surface of it, Max's sudden rage into vengeance is justified in standard revenge-vigilante formula, driven by a deranged, gonzo pursuit for justice outside of the system he was already in doubts of and feeling disillusioned by — thus, the film's title. And this, right at the cusp of modern civilization's collapse. Making the film all the more ruthlessly awesome is immersing this frankly conventional plot in an easily-identified western environment. This is most apparent when Toecutter's gang, the interestingly named "The Acolytes," first arrives and terrorizes a sleepy town like a barbarous, lawless posse of vulgar desperadoes. But even further is a storyline that loosely resembles Fred Zinnemann's 'High Noon' with our hero forced to confront those rogue hooligans on his own.
To some, 'Mad Max' can be dismissed as another car-obsessed action flick in the vein of similarly-minded American features like 'Bullitt,' 'Vanishing Point,' 'Death Race 2000,' the original 'Gone In 60 Seconds' and 'Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry' — only revving with a bit more violence. Still, the film from George Miller, making his directorial debut, is a super-charged, high-octane actioner with a genuine soft-spot about family and an uncertainty about the future of the social order. Brilliantly fusing current environmental concerns and a standard revenge/vigilante plot, the story is at its core a western theme set in a dystopian future where humanity seems to be slowly devolving into anarchy and the degradation of civil values, a harsh and unpleasant world where barbarity and savage brutality lies in wait, soon to become the norm.
The Blu-ray: Vital Disc Stats
Shout! Factory beckons 'Mad Max' to Blu-ray as a Collector's Edition under the distributor's Scream Factory line. The Region A locked, BD50 disc is housed inside the normal blue case with brand new reversible cover art and a cardboard slipcover. At startup, the disc goes to a menu screen with full-motion clips while music plays in the background.
The Video: Sizing Up the Picture
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The future indeed does look dark and bleak when a cult classic like 'Mad Max' roars onto the screen with an AVC-encoded transfer that's worse than its predecessors.
For all intents and purposes, this new Blu-ray from Scream Factory appears identical to the two MGM releases: a 2010 standalone and a 2013 trilogy boxset. Some noticeable wear and tear is present, several soft spots in the photography creep up and minor discoloration in the source manifests throughout, but for the most part, the source is in rather excellent condition. Presented in a 2.40:1 aspect ratio, the video comes with a thin layer of grain while displaying comfortably bright contrast levels and clean, crisp whites. Blacks are true and accurate with strong shadow delineation. Colors seem deliberately limited, favoring secondary hues and earth tones, but the overall palette is fairly vivid with richly-saturated primaries throughout. The original, mostly soft-focus cinematography is apparent, but the image is appreciably sharp and detailed. Fine object and textural details are distinct with several exterior scenes looking remarkably well-defined.
Knocking this high-def presentation down a notch, however, are the many moments of noticeable compression artifacts, which are very disappointing. One such moment is the scene when a panic-stricken Jessie franticly searches for infant Sprog and encounters Toecutter's bike gang (1:09:50). Behind the concerned mother, a small silo is ruined with moiré patterns. Most egregious are the several instances of aliasing on the edge of buildings and railings. This is at its worst around the 15-minute mark when Jessie tells Max she's crazy for him and later, when Toecutter and Bubba ride in pursuit (1:17:55) just before the rest of the gang assembles outside a white building (1:20:40).
If not for these moments, the presentation would be a fine watch.
The Audio: Rating the Sound
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Max rumbles and revs his engine with a trio of generally pleasing if only slightly troubled DTS-HD MA soundtracks. The third option is the American dubbed version which isn't all that bad, save for the rather average ADR work, but it honestly is not the best way to watch the movie.
The first track appears to be the same from previous releases while the second comes in two-channel stereo. Of the two, to my amazement, I favored the 5.1 upmix, as the music of Brian May and the roar of the vehicles screeching in all directions fills the room and creates an amusing environment. The other track interestingly feels like a squeezed down remix of the former, exhibiting better directionality and a well-balanced mid-range. Bass is also palpable where appropriate, but explosions and crashes feel a tad wimpy. The one minor and unfortunate issue evident on both tracks is the dialogue being often overwhelmed by the surrounds and discrete effects. While it's not a huge problem to gripe over, it is an issue nonetheless that only makes hardened fans wish for a lossless option of the original mono design.
The Supplements: Digging Into the Good Stuff
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Audio Commentary — Cinematographer David Eggby is joined by art director Jon Dowding, special effects supervisor Chris Murray, and 'Mad Max' historian Tim Ridge. The group is enthusiastic and the conversation is enjoyable, sharing a great deal of wealth knowledge concern the film, its production, history and legacy.
Mad Max: Film Phenomenon (1080i/60, 26 min) — Same group of men, along with few other critical voices, participate in this worthwhile but sadly very short making-of doc, looking at the uniqueness of the story, its apocalyptic vision and the awesome stunts.
Mel Gibson: The High Octane Birth of a Superstar (1080i/60, 17 min) — An assortment of interviews with various people who personally knew and worked with the Australian actor, and much of the praise is on Gibson's humble acting beginnings and promising camera charisma.
Still Galleries (HD)
Trailers (HD)
HD Bonus Content: Any Exclusive Goodies in There?
Interviews (HD, 26 min) — A great trio of recently-recorded conversations with stars Mel Gibson and Joanne Samuel reminiscing how they landed their roles and shares their thoughts on the film while cinematographer David Eggby touches on the technical aspects.
Final Thoughts
Scream Factory Collector's Edition Bottom
Mad Max roared into theaters like a fuel-injected suicide machine, splattering the silver screen with bloody vengeance, modified-car mayhem, and a bleak vision of a post-apocalyptic future. George Miller directs the lone adventures of the road warrior super-charged and revving with wild stunt spectaculars that satisfy audiences' lust for wild action. The Blu-ray from Scream Factory unfortunately crashes and burns with a rather disappointing picture quality, though the lossless audio remains in good form. With a couple new supplements sweeting the deal, hardened piston-head fans will be quite tempted, but the overall package is really small cosmetic work concealing some troubling issues in the engine.
Technical Specs
BD-50 Dual-Layer Disc
Region A Locked
Video Resolution/Codec
1080p/AVC MPEG-4
Aspect Ratio(s)
2.40:1
Audio Formats
English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (Australian English)
English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo (Australian English)
English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo (U.S. English Dubbed)
Apparently the Escape from New York blu ray is also quite a disappointingly small increase in detail if any, and an increase in damage. I'll probably get it at some point purely because it actually has extras, but I was expecting a bit better.
Sounds like Scream is dropping the ball with some of the more recent Collector's Editions. Let's hope they get it together soon, I'm very excited for The Sentinel, and hopefully a Universal deal will see a revival this label in my opinion needs.
Sounds like Scream is dropping the ball with some of the more recent Collector's Editions. Let's hope they get it together soon, I'm very excited for The Sentinel, and hopefully a Universal deal will see a revival this label in my opinion needs.
Oh, boy. The new Universal deal will bring them nothing but a bad headache due to abundant amount of whining.
I mean I've always had low expectations of Universal transfers, I was just thinking more the titles now available to them.
But some of those shots look nearly the same as the DVD I first saw the movie on!
Unfortunately, that's the way it goes. Uni couldn't care to less to create a new scans for this type of movies (I'm sure, in their eyes, this is a third tier catalogue), and Scream won't do it either, due to budget constraints or maybe 'cause they think they can get away with it. Probably a mixture of both, lol. So, set your expectations very low and maybe you won't be disappointed.
Apparently the Escape from New York blu ray is also quite a disappointingly small increase in detail if any, and an increase in damage. I'll probably get it at some point purely because it actually has extras, but I was expecting a bit better.
Sounds like Scream is dropping the ball with some of the more recent Collector's Editions. Let's hope they get it together soon, I'm very excited for The Sentinel, and hopefully a Universal deal will see a revival this label in my opinion needs.
Out of curiosity, which review is that from? I've only read one so far, this one from The Digital Bits. Most of what they say about the PQ is
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It’s honestly hard to imagine the 1080p/2.35:1 video image looking better than it does here. Given its low budget, 1980s vintage, and the fact that the film was shot with anamorphic lenses, there’s going to be a certain softness to the image here and there, and a certain amount of grain. But this HD presentation is very good and represents a serious improvement over the previous 2010 MGM Blu-ray, which was dimmer, softer looking, and had muted coloring. Contrast here is very good, fine image detail and texturing are nice – production limitations notwithstanding – and the color timing and accuracy is excellent. This is a much more natural looking image than the MGM Blu-ray
Apparently the Escape from New York blu ray is also quite a disappointingly small increase in detail if any, and an increase in damage. I'll probably get it at some point purely because it actually has extras, but I was expecting a bit better.
Sounds like Scream is dropping the ball with some of the more recent Collector's Editions. Let's hope they get it together soon, I'm very excited for The Sentinel, and hopefully a Universal deal will see a revival this label in my opinion needs.
I'm not really sure how anyone could be disappointed with either Mad Max or EFNY. It's long been the trend that Scream Factory just uses whatever transfer is given to them. Considering both EFNY and MM have had blu rays already released, I don't know why anyone would think that the transfers would be any different from what has already been released. Scream's bread and butter is made on unique artwork, and the extra's they produce. The films themselves are not the focal point in the same way that they are for Synapse, Criterion, or some other studios.
As for the Universal deal... as long as the films are an appreciable step up from the DVD's and the color isn't totally screwed with, I'm fine with just about anything else. I'd love perfection for each release, but considering I'm still waiting on my "Tales" films (From the Crypt, From the Hood, From the Darkside etc) I'd take any and everything I can get. (The Tales from the Crypt transfers look quite good anyways, (based on the HD Digital files) so I doubt that one would/will disappoint anyone when it's announced.)
I'm not really sure how anyone could be disappointed with either Mad Max or EFNY. It's long been the trend that Scream Factory just uses whatever transfer is given to them. Considering both EFNY and MM have had blu rays already released, I don't know why anyone would think that the transfers would be any different from what has already been released. Scream's bread and butter is made on unique artwork, and the extra's they produce. The films themselves are not the focal point in the same way that they are for Synapse, Criterion, or some other studios.
As for the Universal deal... as long as the films are an appreciable step up from the DVD's and the color isn't totally screwed with, I'm fine with just about anything else. I'd love perfection for each release, but considering I'm still waiting on my "Tales" films (From the Crypt, From the Hood, From the Darkside etc) I'd take any and everything I can get. (The Tales from the Crypt transfers look quite good anyways, (based on the HD Digital files) so I doubt that one would/will disappoint anyone when it's announced.)
Well, because in this case the Escape from New York blu ray is a brand new 2K restoration from the interpositive, so one would definitely expect a difference from the 5 year old MGM blu ray.
As for Universal, I agree with you there. The UK blu ray of People Under the Stairs (so I assume by extension the US one as well) looks pretty fuzzy, but it's better than the old dvd and Miles better than my VHS, so that's at least good. Some of Universal's dvds on the films are so old and haven't had a new transfer for ages.
I'm not really sure how anyone could be disappointed with either Mad Max or EFNY. It's long been the trend that Scream Factory just uses whatever transfer is given to them. Considering both EFNY and MM have had blu rays already released, I don't know why anyone would think that the transfers would be any different from what has already been released. Scream's bread and butter is made on unique artwork, and the extra's they produce. The films themselves are not the focal point in the same way that they are for Synapse, Criterion, or some other studios.
Regarding their release of Escape From New York: "NEW 2K High Definition Scan Of The Inter-Positive, Struck From The Original Negative"
Out of curiosity, which review is that from? I've only read one so far, this one from The Digital Bits. Most of what they say about the PQ is
Someone in the Escape from New York thread is posting screen caps from his blu ray and comparing them with matching shots from the old blu. Same detail, brighter colours, more damage. Also a problem with a small recurring blue line near the middle of the screen that was cleaned in the old blu but very obvious in the new
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...postcount=1414
The above one, many are saying that in motion the text on the screen is pretty much unreadable. This raises the possibility that the brightening is post processing, and not inherent of the original materials.
Last edited by fuzzymctiger; 04-07-2015 at 03:17 AM.
Someone in the Escape from New York thread is posting screen caps from his blu ray and comparing them with matching shots from the old blu. Same detail, brighter colours, more damage. Also a problem with a small recurring blue line near the middle of the screen that was cleaned in the old blu but very obvious in the new
Thanks! I'll go have a look. It seems odd considering The Digital Bits gave it a pretty good review. But who knows.
Well, because in this case the Escape from New York blu ray is a brand new 2K restoration from the interpositive, so one would definitely expect a difference from the 5 year old MGM blu ray.
That certainly makes sense, but I guess as someone who visits Blu-Ray.com and a thread devoted to Scream Factory releases, I would assume that said person would be familiar enough with the catalog of Scream's releases to know to keep expectations in check. I'm not saying to keep expectations low, but more in line with the many titles that have come before it... new transfer or not.
I may be a bit skewed in my opinion as well though, I have watched so many low budget horror films over the past 2 years that when i finally watch something new it's quite honestly startling at how clear the image can look. I watched Prometheus a few weeks back and was just blown away by the picture quality. It had been so long since I'd watched something "new" and not a catalog film that I'd forgotten just how good a fresh 1080p film/transfer could actually look.
For all the talking/*****ing about Steelbooks, Slip covers, and packaging that seems to annoy so many, I find the never ending nit-picking of Screams Encodes far more annoying. If the problems are so prevalent that a release is effectively ruined, as many on these forums would have you believe, than one would expect that it would be blatantly obvious to everyone with a unanimous decree that XXXX title is a travesty, yet time and time again it seems that while there is a very clear vocal minority panning a particular release, the vast majority find it enjoyable and fail to see the problems as the travesty's so many of them claim to be.
It's obvious many agree with your post, but I find most of it pretty opposed to my views, especially this part. Picture quality is the absolute most important aspect of a disc for me with sound quality right behind it. I would rather we examine the picture quality of a release in great detail before packaging ever even gets a brief mention.
I do agree different people have different levels of caring about such things. I am pretty sure from reading this forum so much lately that many here only buy blu rays for the packaging and collection aspects and otherwise would be perfectly happy with a low bitrate streaming copy. And you know, more power to them, do what you like. I got no problem with that. However I do have a problem with people acting like examining the picture quality of a new release and complaining about persistent issues is some weird thing. It should be the number one priority on this forum.
A lot of the Scream issues are instantly noticeable on a caps-a-holic comparison on my tiny laptop screen, so it certainly doesn't require a nit-picker with a projection setup to see them either.
They need to improve and customers complaining is the only way that will EVER happen.
For all the talking/*****ing about Steelbooks, Slip covers, and packaging that seems to annoy so many, I find the never ending nit-picking of Screams Encodes far more annoying.
Then they kinda need to get their shit together now that they're going on four years of being in business.
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Originally Posted by TripleHBK
If the problems are so prevalent that a release is effectively ruined, as many on these forums would have you believe, than one would expect that it would be blatantly obvious to everyone with a unanimous decree that XXXX title is a travesty, yet time and time again it seems that while there is a very clear vocal minority panning a particular release, the vast majority find it enjoyable and fail to see the problems as the travesty's so many of them claim to be.
Not recognizing the poor quality of certain releases doesn't mean the issues aren't there. Scream charges a somewhat hefty price for discs that are based on questionable preexisting masters and many times have bad encodes & obvious compression issues; the complaints are valid.
The fact is that there are many Scream apologists who don't care about these issues simply because they're happy to have these films on Blu, regardless of quality control seemingly falling by the wayside. Scream doesn't respond to the criticisms, which isn't really surprising when you consider that even their packaging boasts errors (and, in the case of Night of the Comet, advertises special features that the disc doesn't actually have), so many have to take the wait-and-see approach.
I won't buy Mad Max (and I certainly won't buy the Ghoulies twofer, which looks to be a hideous release), which is why I appreciate the comments/reviews about the encodes. If these were $7.88 releases that Walmart topped their dump bin with, sure, but not at their current pricing. I learned my lesson from blind-buying too many past releases.
But at least both sides can agree that the most important thing to fill a thread with is complaints about the posts they aren't interested in, and the urgent need to silence other members with differing interests.
I place Scream Factory releases purely in the "Hit or Miss" category. As others have stated, their strong point seems to be packaging / extras, rather then image / audio quality. I view Scream Factory as purely a mediocre, middle of the road distributor that often fails to impress. Just my two cents.
I don't know if Ghoulies has been culled from a late-'90s-era master or what, but it's far and away the worst looking film that Scream Factory has licensed from MGM. Definition and detail are anemic. Film grain is chunky and poorly resolved. Color saturation is passable but doesn't rate much more than an indifferent shrug. Contrast is flat and lifeless. Ghoulies isn't aggressively awful the way that Universal's worst hatchet jobs in Scream Factory's library have been, and very tight closeups of the pint-sized monsters still manage to look decent enough, but that's about as much praise as I can muster. Ghoulies looks more like DVD-and-a-half (if that) than a newly-minted Blu-ray disc...
He was a bit more positive about the transfer for II, although it has 'the usual Scream Factory headaches with properly encoding grain'.
for the most part, scream factory releases have always looked like shit except for a few which i thought had good transfers (slumber party massacre) - its more about the packaging and style of the release.
All countries
Argentina
Austria
Belgium
Brazil
Bulgaria
Chile
China
Colombia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Estonia
Denmark
Finland
Greece
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
Indonesia
Ireland
Israel
India
Latvia
Lithuania
Malaysia
New Zealand
Norway
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Singapore
South Africa
South Korea
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
Probably a mixture of both, lol. So, set your expectations very low and maybe you won't be disappointed.
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