Dead Heat - September 20, 2011

[DetroitSportsFan]

Originally Posted by CrockettandTubbs

Planes Trains gets 5/5 for movie rating, yet Dead Heat only gets 2.5?!

Different people reviewed them.

[slimdude]

Originally Posted by DetroitSportsFan

Different people reviewed them.

Which is why it's imperative, for us to observe the overall quality of these blu-rays for ourselves, rather than to relying on other people's opinions. Everybody's home theater equipment is different in quality, based upon their professional calibrations, set-ups, and so forth.

[MichaelR]

Originally Posted by slimdude

Which is why it's imperative, for us to observe the overall quality of these blu-rays for ourselves, rather than to relying on other people's opinions. Everybody's home theater equipment is different in quality, based upon their professional calibrations, set-ups, and so forth.

That's a valid, if somewhat overstated, point, but it doesn't follow from the fact that two different reviewers rated two different films differently. Marty and I would have scored those films the same regardless of whether we'd watched them on Blu-ray, on TV or in the theater.

The real imperative here is not to treat star rankings of films as some objective system of weights and measures in which every 4-star film is somehow "better" than every 3 1/2-star film. The star ranking is just a preview of that particular reviewer's write-up. If you really want to know how the reviewer rates the film, you have to read the whole discussion. (In the case of Dead Heat, it should be clear to anyone reading the review that I'm fond of it, but believe it has major problems.)

People who already know the film don't care what we think anyway. If they disagree with our rating, they say so, often without even reading our reasoning. (I often wonder why anyone bothers. If you already know what you think, why do you care whether a reviewer agrees?) Mostly, they're just interested in the technical comments, but then you seem to think those aren't worth anything either.

All I can say is that, before joining this site as a reviewer, I found its reviews to be very helpful. Not definitive -- no reviewer here would claim that -- but helpful. But you have to read the text. Star ratings, alone, are useless.

[Trekkie313]

Only 10 pictures and no shots of the awesome F/X work, what a load of bull!

[Goremeister100]

Has anyone picked up this German bd:

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Dead-Heat-Blu-ray/93238/

It looks like it includes an extended cut according to this site:

http://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=446596

Just wondering if anyone has any comments on the A/V quality and is this basically a branching version where you have blu-ray quality for the bulk and the extra footage is dvd or vhs quality?

[DetroitSportsFan]

Originally Posted by Goremeister100

Has anyone picked up this German bd:

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Dead-Heat-Blu-ray/93238/

It looks like it includes an extended cut according to this site:

http://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=446596

Just wondering if anyone has any comments on the A/V quality and is this basically a branching version where you have blu-ray quality for the bulk and the extra footage is dvd or vhs quality?

And is it region free?

[Mateo Sanboval]

Originally Posted by Goremeister100

Has anyone picked up this German bd:

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Dead-Heat-Blu-ray/93238/

It looks like it includes an extended cut according to this site:

http://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=446596

Just wondering if anyone has any comments on the A/V quality and is this basically a branching version where you have blu-ray quality for the bulk and the extra footage is dvd or vhs quality?

The extended version is an extra on the German blu-ray. It is a fan edit culled from an official Norweigian VHS release that used the Norwegian TV version which incorporated the deleted scenes included as extras on the Anchor Bay DVD (from a much better source) to pad for time when it was originally btoadcast there.

Originally Posted by DetroitSportsFan

And is it region free?

Though it is listed as Region B, two people have posted elsewhere that it ran when their players were switched over to Region A. I've not heard much about the picture quality nor have I been able to establish if the German subtitles are hardcoded.

[Goremeister100]

Thanks for the info. I actually know the fan editor which is why I was curious about this. He was stoked to find out that his edit was added to this blu-ray but do you know if this is a legit release or a bootleg?

[Mateo Sanboval]

Originally Posted by Goremeister100

Thanks for the info. I actually know the fan editor which is why I was curious about this. He was stoked to find out that his edit was added to this blu-ray but do you know if this is a legit release or a bootleg?

I wish I did. There seems to be a lot of debate about this since Germany is infamous for blu-ray bootlegs and amazon.de isn't exactly thorough in their vetting of the blu-rays that they market. That said, the publisher has several other films on amazon and the four reviews currently listed make no mention of it being inferior in any way. Like I said, I'd grab it in a heartbeat if I thought the German subtitles were not hardcoded.

[Goremeister100]

You'd like to know if german subs are hard coded in the blu-ray transfer? I'll ask my friend about that and get back to you. I know the fan edit has burnt in Norwegian subs for the extra footage.

What's funny is that Amazon.de lists Edel Germany GmbH as the studio that released it and that is a legit company in Germany but on the back cover it only lists Paragon Films which I can't find any info about online.

Oh, my friend told me the disc isn't region locked so it will play in US players. Another thing that makes us wonder if it's a bootleg.

[Hubunkey]

Originally Posted by Goremeister100

Thanks for the info. I actually know the fan editor which is why I was curious about this. He was stoked to find out that his edit was added to this blu-ray but do you know if this is a legit release or a bootleg?

Tranzor RULES!!!!

[Goremeister100]

Yes, Tranzor did a great job on this fan edit. Such a great job that the director Mark Goldblatt managed to get a copy and was really impressed with the work he put into it. Here's what a friend of the director had to say about it:



As for the German blu, here's what Tranzor had to say about it when I asked him if it had hard coded German subs:

no it does not have hard coded subs. None showed up while watching it on my analog set, though I think if you if you select them it has some.

Nope I never made subs for my edit and thererfore my edit is str8 english with no subs either

film has both dutch 5.1 dts-hdma and 2.0 audio as well as english pcm

again when i played the disc the menus were in english, the film was in english as default, NO hard coded subs. my edit was just my edit with nothing extra or added to it

disc has commentary and most (if not all) the extras from the Anchor bay disc

ohhhh most importantly-- disc is listed as region B, but with my machine set to region A it still played assuming then it might be region free

the thread here on CG a user mentioned it was an official release and that it was licensed by Lakeshore entertainment as he mentioned knowing the people who put this out

[ukulelemonster]

I have a quick question for you guys.

I'm deaf/hard-of-hearing. Does the Image release of Dead Heat contain English subtitles or closed-captioning?

[demoni]

Ok, so I'm a Linnea Quigley fan, and I blind bought this because she's in it. Loved the movie! But where's Linnea? I read somewhere that she's playing a zombie go-go-girl.

Didn't see a zombie go-go-girl anywhere in the film... Is the scene missing from the Blu-ray, or have I gone blind?

[Sage00]

Just watched this agin today and it’s still great. This is in desperate need of a proper special edition blu ray. Maybe shout, or one of the other boutiques?

[Rayjg]

It is surprising. I guess Arrow didn't pick it up because the rights were already taken in the UK.

[mattdevil]

Originally Posted by demoni

Ok, so I'm a Linnea Quigley fan, and I blind bought this because she's in it. Loved the movie! But where's Linnea? I read somewhere that she's playing a zombie go-go-girl.

Didn't see a zombie go-go-girl anywhere in the film... Is the scene missing from the Blu-ray, or have I gone blind?

It's a deleted scene. I know it's on the 88 films Blu-ray.