Kickboxer 4K UHD (1989)

[dallywhitty]

Originally Posted by OgamiittoMcJ

what you mean we ? other than buy it what did you do lol
where you Joel's Secretary ? lmao
anyways
that was quick then, wasn't yours only shipped few days ago
who are they using for shipping ?
and any damage ?
cheers & enjoy

I am Joel's secretary. Yeah, it arrived surprisingly quickly. It was in a bog standard padded envelope and I was dreading opening it cause I half-expected the Steel to be damaged, but nope, it was immaculate.

I'm having a look at the discs now. The international version looks better than expected tbh. Sure, it's a SD source and the colours look naff, but it's very clean and stable.

The UHD for the most part looks very good. I've seen people refer to certain shots which look upscaled. There is absolutely a drop in quality whenever there's an optical fade, but it doesn't look like your typical dupey loss, it looks like these bits may have been culled from the Blu-ray. I'm baffled.

Also, the compression is really inconsistent. Sometimes it's grainy as balls and it looks great. Other times, the grain turns into digital mashed potato. There's a training bit 49 mins in which looks especially bad when you look at the sky in the middle. And they use it for the main menu!

[Telemachus]

Joel what are your thoughts on

[Show spoiler]Tong Po killing Van Damme's character off screen in the sequel? Most people seem to hate this and chalk the film up to fan fiction that ruins the first film's ending.

[Mikezilla3k]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

Joel what are your thoughts on

[Show spoiler]Tong Po killing Van Damme's character off screen in the sequel? Most people seem to hate this and chalk the film up to fan fiction that ruins the first film's ending.

[Show spoiler]Not just his character but his wife and brother too!

..... though not sure why they killed the brother and then create a NEW brother to lead the sequel when they can just have a recovered Eric lead the film but I'll give it a pass since David is a badass.

[Telemachus]

Originally Posted by dallywhitty

I am Joel's secretary.

New lore unlocked

Originally Posted by dallywhitty

The UHD for the most part looks very good. I've seen people refer to certain shots which look upscaled. There is absolutely a drop in quality whenever there's an optical fade, but it doesn't look like your typical dupey loss, it looks like these bits may have been culled from the Blu-ray. I'm baffled.

Also, the compression is really inconsistent. Sometimes it's grainy as balls and it looks great. Other times, the grain turns into digital mashed potato. There's a training bit 49 mins in which looks especially bad when you look at the sky in the middle. And they use it for the main menu!

It's definitely something. It's similar to The Craft's UHD, but that one drops to single digits like a DVD. Also the Craft has way more moments like that that take me out of the movie I stopped noticing them in Kickboxer somewhere into the second half they were really small, I was jockeying the bitrate display for awhile to see the drops but got sick of doing it, it would go from 80-100 down to 16-22 in spots.

[kath2833]

Not sure about everyone else, but kickboxer 1-3 mean a lot to me because of Kurt & David. They're both inspirational main characters because they're good people who learn to carry themselves with confidence & purpose no matter what hurdle they're faced with. As a woman, I love seeing leading men with these kinds of personalities to aspire to be like. That's why I think David's progression is a natural successor to Kurt's. All that aside, I'm so happy kickboxer looks incredible on 4K & I hope kickboxer 2 comes to blu-ray at least. Thank you Joel for continuing to champion for these films to get upgraded & the treatment they deserve.

[JoelGoodsen]

Originally Posted by dallywhitty

The UHD for the most part looks very good. I've seen people refer to certain shots which look upscaled. There is absolutely a drop in quality whenever there's an optical fade, but it doesn't look like your typical dupey loss, it looks like these bits may have been culled from the Blu-ray. I'm baffled.

Also, the compression is really inconsistent. Sometimes it's grainy as balls and it looks great. Other times, the grain turns into digital mashed potato. There's a training bit 49 mins in which looks especially bad when you look at the sky in the middle. And they use it for the main menu!

Could that be to do with the soft focus shots Lionsgate told me about? The DP also states he used different filters on the training scenes?

Originally Posted by Telemachus

Joel what are your thoughts on

[Show spoiler]Tong Po killing Van Damme's character off screen in the sequel? Most people seem to hate this and chalk the film up to fan fiction that ruins the first film's ending.

I think it was a case of having to do it. Mark DiSalle didn’t want to do Kickboxer 2. Van Damme wanted to take a little step back from martial art type roles and also didn’t want to do Kickboxer 2, so that is what they came up with. It made sense for a story to bring back Tong Po and Xian. I didn’t like that happened at first, but looking at it, that kind of needed to happen. I really dig Kickboxer 2.

Let’s not forget, in the original cut of Kickboxer 2, we see more of Tong Po getting shamed for losing to Kurt, spat on, having to do brutal training in a cave. All this added to him doing what he did. We also saw a full fight with the replacement Kurt that was supposed to be gory, which also added to Tong Po snapping and killing Kurt, Mylee and Eric. All that made Kickboxer 2 more passable in how the story went.

It has never personally taken away from my love of the original or the ending of the original.

Originally Posted by kath2833

Not sure about everyone else, but kickboxer 1-3 mean a lot to me because of Kurt & David. They're both inspirational main characters because they're good people who learn to carry themselves with confidence & purpose no matter what hurdle they're faced with. As a woman, I love seeing leading men with these kinds of personalities to aspire to be like. That's why I think David's progression is a natural successor to Kurt's. All that aside, I'm so happy kickboxer looks incredible on 4K & I hope kickboxer 2 comes to blu-ray at least. Thank you Joel for continuing to champion for these films to get upgraded & the treatment they deserve.

Thank you for the kind words. It’s appreciated. Always nice to know that people enjoy the Kickboxer series as much as I do.

[JoelGoodsen]

Merry Christmas to everyone in here and all that purchased the 4K of Kickboxer.

Let’s hope 2025 brings us Kickboxer 2 on 4K.

Have a good one.

[dallywhitty]

Originally Posted by JoelGoodsen

Could that be to do with the soft focus shots Lionsgate told me about? The DP also states he used different filters on the training scenes?

I did notice some shots were slightly out-of-focus (there's a shot of the brother in the ring which springs to mind), but these transitional scenes look different. They look so flat and low-resolution, which is why I wonder if they were pulled from the Blu-ray which I remember as always looking like shit. Might have to look at my old disc and compare!

[gates70]

I guess I didn't read the part where there's a lenticular slip. As my wife says, nice package

[KubrickKurasawa]

Originally Posted by gates70

I guess I didn't read the part where there's a lenticular slip. As my wife says, nice package

[Telemachus]

To critique the cosmetics on this release, as my first Amazon exclusive Steelbook: My Steel itself was flawless and the design is decent, I appreciate the outer slip and think it's a good idea to help protect the product a bit (Paramount does some like this, Mill Creek has before that). The outer slip itself has some cracking down the side where the paper is splitting, seems obvious perhaps from being printed a little tight, but not anything I'd split hairs over. The lenticular on mine was also flawless, I think some people were having issues with some Amazon covers lately and getting flaws/lines on them, I can't remember if it was this or Stir of Echos. Unfortunately I got visited by the scratch gremlins, and 2 of my three discs need to be replaced including the UHD I am just so sick of seeing the disc blemishes on brand new US product it's depressing. Overall though, it's a pretty good value package for just over $30, much more than a Sony/Disney Steelbook currently, which is basically just a huge Steelbook tax on their own fans for standard content.

[Blfan]

Good reminder for me to check the discs surfaces as well. Had to return my copy as the steelbook had plastic damage on the corners. Awaiting my replacement copy.

[GloveSlap]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

To critique the cosmetics on this release, as my first Amazon exclusive Steelbook: My Steel itself was flawless and the design is decent, I appreciate the outer slip and think it's a good idea to help protect the product a bit (Paramount does some like this, Mill Creek has before that). The outer slip itself has some cracking down the side where the paper is splitting, seems obvious perhaps from being printed a little tight, but not anything I'd split hairs over. The lenticular on mine was also flawless, I think some people were having issues with some Amazon covers lately and getting flaws/lines on them, I can't remember if it was this or Stir of Echos. Unfortunately I got visited by the scratch gremlins, and 2 of my three discs need to be replaced including the UHD I am just so sick of seeing the disc blemishes on brand new US product it's depressing. Overall though, it's a pretty good value package for just over $30, much more than a Sony/Disney Steelbook currently, which is basically just a huge Steelbook tax on their own fans for standard content.

My Kickboxer lenticular has a big scuff-like scratch going down part of the front that seems like it came from the factory. Not bad enough to send back, but it still sucks.

[tomblu]

Anyone know how "limited" this release is likely to be, and if it will be available anywhere other than amazon at some point in the future? And I assume we will be seeing a standard one down the line, right...

I enjoyed Bloodsport a lot so fancy watching this one.

[Telemachus]

Originally Posted by tomblu

Anyone know how "limited" this release is likely to be, and if it will be available anywhere other than amazon at some point in the future? And I assume we will be seeing a standard one down the line, right...

I enjoyed Bloodsport a lot so fancy watching this one.

My guess is that a standard case version will come at some point. I think the International cut disc is possibly a limited edition portion of the Steelbook package, as it's called a "bonus disc." But many people will not care about this as it's SD upscaled video. I had thought about waiting for a plain case because I don't collect Steelbooks but I want the bonus disc cause it's cool. They will probably sell these for a limited time, rather than a certain amount, whether they move 10k or 30k Steelbooks.

[Marv Inc.]

Watched this yesterday and its a great 4K solid picture and Audio makes me want to watch BloodSport again.

Watched all the interviews except the one with the DP and sampled the two commentaries the first one sounds the best so far. The moderator is carrying the second one while trying to get the others to interject.

[Kenneth M]

Perhaps Lionsgate will allow us a Joel and Dally commentary for Kickboxer 2

[DR Herbert West]

Originally Posted by Kenneth M

Perhaps Lionsgate will allow us a Joel and Dally commentary for Kickboxer 2

Only if HDTV1080P gets to be the moderator.

[Kenneth M]

Originally Posted by DR Herbert West

Only if HDTV1080P gets to be the moderator.

[JoelGoodsen]

Originally Posted by Marv Inc.

Watched this yesterday and its a great 4K solid picture and Audio makes me want to watch BloodSport again.

Watched all the interviews except the one with the DP and sampled the two commentaries the first one sounds the best so far. The moderator is carrying the second one while trying to get the others to interject.

The DP interview is really fun. Be sure to check it out mate. I wasn’t expecting much from it, but it was great. Lots of fun info.

David Worth is not in the best of health unfortunately, and it shows on the audio commentary. It would have been very different 5+ years ago, as I know from talking to him personally, he has some strong opinions about the whole co-directing thing…..

Lionsgate are listening to you all, so I hope if any of you do want Kickboxer 2, you all speak up! Which to be fair, you already have with your purchases of Kickboxer. If I could hand you all a bottle of MGD, I would! Really appreciate everyone in here that purchased a copy.

Kickboxer 4K has sold very well. Apparently one of their best sellers according to LG, which doesn’t surprise me one bit. It has always had a big fan base. I can only speak for myself and where I am from, but here in the UK, even casual film fans know and love it. Always on TV.