The different Hellraiser, Children of the Corn and The Prophecy releases, mainly.
Only ones of those I can comment on is Hellseaker and Prophecy 1. The Hellseaker has a much higher bitrate, but compared to the Masters of terror pack doesn't offer any significant upgrade.
Prophecy in the 2 pack vs the 4 pack, again, much higher bitrate but no significant upgrade.
So there's really no difference between buying the four-pack and buying the singular releases, then?
only minute differences I noticed were very slight color differences. and those were only noticeable to need in screenshots. In motion they looked the same.
I don't have the Hellraiser 4 pack, though. only Hellseaker on a horror 3 pack.
The different Hellraiser, Children of the Corn and The Prophecy releases, mainly.
I only have the Quad Feature releases of those three. I wrote a review on my blog for the Hellraiser Multi-Feature. For Hellseeker, I actually felt it was the best transfer of the four films on the disc. I gave it a 3/5 for the video score. I never got around to finishing the other two Multi-Features you listed. Maybe in a month or two when I'm not as busy.
Best Buy seemed to have a lot of the Echo Bridge/Miramax titles in today when I did the Upgrade and Save. As far as I could tell, I didn't see any of those double features that were released in September. But, I did manage to find the Fast Action Pack which was oddly stocked at the new releases. Which is odd because it's been out since April. I scored it for $5 + tax with the $5 U&S added to that. They had stacks of the Darkness, Phantoms, and Venom Triple Feature. I wish they would have just gotten the six film horror set that the disc comes from.
Target is also stocking some Echo Bridge/Miramax titles in store. In the $5 section, they had H20, From Dusk Till Dawn, and Supercop. In the $7.50, they had one of the newer double features; Becoming Jane and Jane Eyre. They still have those four film multi-features for $10 that came out around last Thanksgiving. And the High Powered Action Pack for $15.
I hope I'm not beating a dead horse, but has there ever been a proper comparison between the three releases (standalone, double-feature and quad-feature) of the original From Dusk Till Dawn?
I hope I'm not beating a dead horse, but has there ever been a proper comparison between the three releases (standalone, double-feature and quad-feature) of the original From Dusk Till Dawn?
I watched Bravo Two Zero out of the Men of War / Bravo Two Zero double feature and holy hell. This isn't Echo Bridge's fault for the transfer, yet Miramax/BBC's fault. They used VHS stock footage of the Gulf War and it shows in terms of quality. There's a few shots here and there that look rough. But, over all the footage that they actually shot was good.
The Prophecy (within the EB 4-pak)
I know this gets poor reviews for PQ, but is it at least a slight better then the DVD? I don't own the DVD and can get this disc for $5. Or is it so bad that the DVD release is actually better to own?
I can't speak for the EB dvd which probably is at least anamorphic, but I had the first release from Dimension which isn't anamorphic and the BD is far better despite being craptacular. It's annoying and frustrating, as one scene will look real nice, then the next looks like you're looking through a fence or something. Wish this film could get a nice release.
The one in the 2-pack with part 2 has a short featurette that no other US release has had, including the solo BD of part 1. It looked the same to me despite a lower bitrate. In fact, 2 of the sample scenes looked a bit better on the 2-pack, but my eyes don't agree with many here from the reviews and threads I read.
Got that one with some others at Wal-mart a month or so back. Holy cow is Jane Eyre bad for the eyes!
I started it last night but was too tired. It's bit rate was low in most places according to my PS3. It was staying in the low 10's. Becoming Jane had a fantastic transfer on the disc, though.
The Heat on the Street is the usual four films on one Blu-ray. Plus a DVD copy of all four films on one disc as well. The 3 Film Action collection has two Miramax titles; Bravo Two Zero and Supercop; and Driven to Kill which was originally released by Fox in 2009. Supercop while it is still the American cut and dubbed in English, is finally in 2.35:1.
"Supercop is Finally in it's Original Aspect Ratio!"
Movies: 3.5/5
Driven to Kill (2009):
I have not had the pleasure of seeing much of these straight to video Steven Seagal films that he's been cranking out these past ten years or so. I was genuinely interested in seeing Against the Dark and felt that it was an average Vampire (or Zombie) film. This film, Driven to Kill, was initially released by 20th Century Fox in 2009 and has somehow made it's way into Echo Bridge's hands. I haven't seen the original Fox release and I don't really plan on seeking it out, but Echo Bridge is credited in the opening titles. So, I don't know if they were behind this film from the beginning or what.
Steven Seagal is Ruslan, a Russian gangster who is flying from California to New York to attend his daughter's wedding. Once there, Ruslan, meets his soon to be son-in-law and discovers that he's a wanna-be Russian mobster. Ruslan confronts him and he spills the beans that his father wants him to stay in the family business. Ruslan leaves to get ready for the wedding and then all hell breaks loose. Ruslan's ex-wife is murdered and his daughter is now in a coma. Ruslan seeks out the people who are responsible and will make them pay.
This film is all over the place and the acting is bad. Steven Seagal and most of the other actors are dubbed and the dubbing job is horrendous. In some scenes, it does sound like Seagal, but he is just bumbling and you can barely understand anything that comes out of his mouth. In the opening scene where Ruslan is talking to some bimbo, you can barely understand what he is saying. If this was me, I would have gone back and reshot this. I know that Seagal works his butt off and cranks these movies out, but seriously, you got have some integrity on these. But, overall, if you got time to kill; I'd give it a shot. 2.5/5.
Supercop (1992):
This is my fourth copy of Supercop and third review of it. I need to finish my review on the High-Powered Action Pack. To get my views on Supercop, please visit my review for it's individual release. 5/5.
Bravo Two Zero (1999):
Sean Bean is Andy, a British soldier behind enemy lines and is a P.O.W. in Bravo Two Zero. Based on the brutal true story where a group of British soldiers are sent in to stop SCUD missiles. After they're spotted by child herding sheep, Andy his other seven comrades are running for their lives from the Iraqi forces. After Andy is captured, he is put to the test of not spilling the beans of the mission and pays greatly for his country.
The film moves slowly in the first forty-five minutes. But it picks up once they are on the run from the Iraqi troops. I was pretty much hooked after that. I think it's two hour run time is a bit too long, like I said, it was slow for almost an hour. I give the film a 3.5/5.
Video: 4/5
The video presentation on Driven to Kill is a decent one. I have not seen the Fox Blu-ray, but saw screen captures of it. I am not sure this is the same transfer or not. It is pretty good. Presented in 1.85:1 in 1080p with an AVC encode. Bitrate is pretty high and there's a nice layer of grain present. I have no real complaints with the video on this. It's not that bad, but it's a little far from perfection. 4/5.
The video presentation for Supercop is magnificent! Third time was the charm for Equilibrium; fourth time is the charm for Supercop! Presented in AVC and 1080p with it's original aspect ratio of 2.35:1. Let's give Filmyard Holdings and Echo Bridge a hand here for this presentation. Oddly, it seems to come from Italy as an Italian language title card pops up at the end of the film after the blooper-credits. The film has print damage and the right side gets a tad blurry here and there, but it's nothing major. While looking over it on my PS3, the Mbps is right around the low to mid-20's in terms of video bitrate. It is a nice and beautiful presentation. While it isn't perfect, I award Supercop a nice 4/5.
Bravo Two Zero will never look good in HD. A lot of the stock footage of the Gulf War is sourced from very poor quality VHS tapes. The interlacing on those transferred tapes is pretty God-awful. The footage that was actually shot by the director and crew is decent but probably filmed with low end film stock. I haven't had a chance to compare this copy of Bravo Two Zero with the double feature that has Men of War. It does get pretty rough in a few minutes during the last twenty minutes of the film when the men are in the Military Prison in Baghdad. I give the video for this film a 3/5.
Audio: 3/5
The audio on all three films is Dolby Digital 2.0. Yes, that is correct; no DTS-HD MA like most of their other releases, this time we get the old school DD2.0 audio. The audio on Driven to Kill is pretty good for a 2.0 track. We can clearly hear the sounds of gun cartridges being swapped out and explosions sounds good. It's not perfect, but I am guessing this is what the director had done in post as there's some scenes where you can barely hear Seagal's mumbling. I award a 3.5/5 for the audio on Driven to Kill.
With the audio on Supercop, it is a bummer. We have been downgraded from the DTS-HD MA 2.0 that we had on the initial Supercop and double feature release with Twin Dragons; then with the DTS-HD MA 5.1 on the High-Powered Action Pack, then harshly downgraded to Dolby Digital 2.0! That's rough, we finally get it in the original aspect ratio. The audio is bit low in first few minutes of the film. However, it does seem to pick up when they break Panther out of prison. I give the audio a 3/5, it's a little more than average for a twenty year old film.
Finally in our final film on this disc, the audio presentation of Bravo Two Zero is tame. I found myself having to turn up the audio on my television a few time to hear what was being said. Like the two previous films, Echo Bridge has given us just Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. Considering this a war film, we could hear things like tanks running around the desert pretty good, but just some of the dialogue was real low. I give the audio a 2.5/5.
Extas: 1/5
While most might not consider this an extra, we get a DVD triple feature packaged with this Blu-ray. It's a Jackie Chan triple feature containing Dragon Lord, Project A, and Project A 2. While I award this only a 1 out of 5 stars; it would be nice if this was a Blu-ray instead of a DVD. We all ready have Project A and Project A 2 on Blu-ray from Echo Bridge. DVD does not mean anything to me anymore, but I don't want to give this a straight zero stars, I'll give it a 1/5.
Overall: 3/5
Considering I got this for $7.99 + tax at Best Buy, I can recommend it at least for Supercop since it's finally available in it's original aspect ratio. Not too big on the fact that they threw in a bonus DVD of Jackie Chan films since, you know, this is Blu-ray that we're talking about here. Bravo Two Zero, I can recommend because of Sean Bean. We all love Sean Bean. What's not to love about Sean Bean? And well, Driven to Kill is ok if you want to see a crappy straight to video Steven Seagal film. I give this Blu-ray release a 3/5.
Working on finishing up the "Heat on the Street" aka "In Too Deep with 3 Bonus Films" Blu-ray. I watched In Too Deep, Malevolent, and A Rage in Harlem. The initial release of In Too Deep had English 5.1 DTS-HD MA and English and Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks; this release only has the English 2.0. Malevolent, which was released on the "Fast Action" six film set had just Dolby Digital 5.1, this has been downgraded to just Dolby Digital 2.0. I'll probably get started on The Glass Shield here in a bit after I get cleaned up and ready for the day, probably will be my last review unless I can squeeze in the Becoming Jane / Jane Eyre double feature before I move to my new place.
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
It looked the same to me despite a lower bitrate. In fact, 2 of the sample scenes looked a bit better on the 2-pack, but my eyes don't agree with many here from the reviews and threads I read.
Linear Mode
