MEN OF WAR (Perry Lang, 1994)

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Re: MEN OF WAR (Perry Lang, 1994)

Postby lhz on 22 Feb 2022, 00:34

Yesterday evening, I re-watched again MEN OF WAR in HD but this time I decided to take my time and alternate between the French and Austrian edition meaning between 2 different source materials, the first one from Metropolitan and the second one from DigiDreams.
I did that because when the Metropolitan's French edition released, I saw at first sight, that there was noticeable differences, pros and cons between the 2 materials. And the usual claim regarding that Metropolitan edition is better than DigiDreams always mades me skeptical about it. I always told to myself that I should take some time to compare those more carefully.
This is what I did and it confirmed many points from my first brief statement :
Both original materials were certainly not in perfect conditions of conservation and you can noticed it all along with various default and artifacts but the Metropolitan one has the worst presentation regarding that point and much more defaults visible on screen.

My second concern has always been the colors. Many people said the French edition is more faithful to the original photo tone meaning it is much more colder than DigiDreams, I mean not just a bit, it s very different. IMO all the scenes from landscapes on the island shine a lot more on the Austrian edition and are more natural with the global exotic tone and color that this kind of place have.
My question is : For people who saw the movie on big screen at the time, do you have any memories by any chance of how looked the overall photo ? Was it closer from the shiner Digidreams or more colder like the Metropolitan' one ?

Last but not least, the overall definition standing. Both edition suffers from image quality / definition dropping from beautiful to dvd-like sequence. I think this probably come from the source material but DigiDreams stand first in overall looks with less image drop. Plus the fact that Metropolitan's edition is presented in double features with The Peacekeeper in a sigle disc alternate the overall quality due to compression for getting enough space on one disc.

In conclusion, both editions are good, but I have a certain preference for the Austrian edition despite the common opinion that Metro transfer is better. For me he overthrown the French edition on every aspect, not by far, but each points are a bit better.

I never bought the US double features incorrect aspect ration edition of MOW. Despite that problem, Is anyone know if it is a third different source material ? How are the condition of it and from which edition it is the most similar regarding the photography colors ?
Last edited by lhz on 22 Feb 2022, 13:07, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: MEN OF WAR (Perry Lang, 1994)

Postby JuV on 22 Feb 2022, 01:16

Although I don't have either releases and can't compare, but DigiDreams releases are often frowned upon for various reasons. Poor up/down scales, lossy audio, DNR and other (unnecessary) filters/clean-ups. Despite this they have released various films for the first time in 'HD' or Blu-ray, the bonus features can be rather cool (although poorly advertised) and a decent amount of their standard releases tend to drop to cheap prices after a while (for instance, a few months ago a load of their 'older' releases were being sold around the €5 mark on online retailers, stores, conventions, etc). I've also heard some bad stories about Oliver Krekel (the owner of DigiDreams), but never read into it, so can't comment on that.
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Re: MEN OF WAR (Perry Lang, 1994)

Postby lhz on 22 Feb 2022, 01:29

Just to be precise and not create a misunderstanding, I wasn't talking about the Platinum Cult Film edition (I never bought a copy from them) but the Austrian limited 2000 copies edition from the folks of 84' Entertainment.

I clearly agree about what you said but regarding MOW and the comparison with Metropolitan material, as I tried to explain (with my poor English :mrgreen: ) is that DigiDreams material beats it in almost every aspect: the quality of the original material and the overall definition quality for an HD transfer.
I prefer the color tone from DigiDreams subjectively but that's why I was asking for the original photo of the film in theatre as I would always chose the edition who respect the vision intended by the director.
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Re: MEN OF WAR (Perry Lang, 1994)

Postby alex.sp89 on 22 Feb 2022, 13:10

I am still waiting for Official US single remastered release of Man of War (1994). Echo Bridge do not satisfy and German releases need to remove all the artifacts - scratches, dots, black marks, color problems.French edition is also a big problem as I heard here.

Hey guys what is the quality of the only existing remaster of Peacekeeper (1997) from French BD Double Feature with Men of War from Metropolitan . I never saw a screen cap to compare
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Re: MEN OF WAR (Perry Lang, 1994)

Postby lhz on 22 Feb 2022, 13:36

Well unfortunately if you are not satisfied about scratches, artifacts and dots from the DigiDreams transfer, the Metropolitan is in even worst condition.
This is too bad that caps-a-holic website don't reference the Metropolitan transfer to proceed to a comparison. I can't support my theory without screenshots.

By the way, since I didn't own the Platinum Cult edition, is there any difference with the Austrian 84' Entertainment edition since it is the same source material ? (I have heard bad things about this editor like DNR-ing his transfer to death among other things).

I watched THE PEACEKEEPER from Metropolitan once. And as far as I can remember, the source material was in much better condition compare to MOW on the same disc. I will have to refresh my memory by watching it again soon. But if you want to discuss about THE PEACEKEEPER, we should do it on the appropriate thread. :mrgreen:
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Re: MEN OF WAR (Perry Lang, 1994)

Postby JuV on 22 Feb 2022, 15:20

lhz wrote:Just to be precise and not create a misunderstanding, I wasn't talking about the Platinum Cult Film edition (I never bought a copy from them) but the Austrian limited 2000 copies edition from the folks of 84' Entertainment.

I clearly agree about what you said but regarding MOW and the comparison with Metropolitan material, as I tried to explain (with my poor English :mrgreen: ) is that DigiDreams material beats it in almost every aspect: the quality of the original material and the overall definition quality for an HD transfer.
I prefer the color tone from DigiDreams subjectively but that's why I was asking for the original photo of the film in theatre as I would always chose the edition who respect the vision intended by the director.


Oh okay, my bad. Looking at the caps-a-holic comparison between the '84 and the DigiDreams release, there does actually seem to be a significant difference. I'm honestly amazed that both use a different transfer, since a lot of '84 Entertainment transfers are licensed from DigiDreams AFAIK (a good chunk of DigiDreams their catalog has also been released by '84 Entertainment). I wasn't even aware this film had so many transfers. Looking at the US Echo Bridge Blu-ray (that's sadly the rated R cut and in the incorrect aspect ratio) it's significantly warmer than the others. Now I'm really curious how it was intended to look :?
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Re: MEN OF WAR (Perry Lang, 1994)

Postby alex.sp89 on 22 Feb 2022, 16:32

All the answers are in the US AND THE COMPANY WHO HOLDS the negatives. I am still thankful for the German try to get the best editions but the most of the times they are so amateurish and their metal cases, supplements do not help. People are more interested in transfers than this extras. If they could erase somehow artifacts manually on special tool, DNR would be a bid improvement. Who needs 7-8 editions and none of them good in terms of transfer ? Especially in Europe is so hard to find objective reviews on German or any other release. Blu ray. com offer mostly articles about US OR SOME OVERSEAS big companies transfers, but when it comrs to Europe, German, DigiDreams or similar just empty page with poster and date of their release. Not serious. DVDTalk used to be very good back in DVD era and early era of Blu Ray.
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Re: MEN OF WAR (Perry Lang, 1994)

Postby lhz on 22 Feb 2022, 18:39

JuV wrote:Oh okay, my bad. Looking at the caps-a-holic comparison between the '84 and the DigiDreams release, there does actually seem to be a significant difference. I'm honestly amazed that both use a different transfer, since a lot of '84 Entertainment transfers are licensed from DigiDreams AFAIK (a good chunk of DigiDreams their catalog has also been released by '84 Entertainment).

Both Classic Cult Edition (German) and 84' Entertainment (Austrian) are using the source material licensed by DigiDreams but the final result on disc is completely different. (and I think more faithful on the 84's edition). As it is with Metropolitan (French) transfer aswell.

JuV wrote:I wasn't even aware this film had so many transfers. Looking at the US Echo Bridge Blu-ray (that's sadly the rated R cut and in the incorrect aspect ratio) it's significantly warmer than the others. Now I'm really curious how it was intended to look :?

Yes that's why I was so curious about the US Echo Bridge Blu Ray. Although the incorrect aspect ratio, the colors looks, like on other editions, slightly different (more in the tone of the German/Austrian ones rather than the French disc) from what I was able to see thanks to caps-a-holic website.
Unfortunately, to have an answer about which one is the most closer from the initial vision intended by the director, only the director (or the one from the photo) himself could answer that. Or someone who has a great memory from the screening era or who has seen it screened on some festival or events around the world recently.

alex.sp89 wrote:I am still thankful for the German try to get the best editions but the most of the times they are so amateurish and their metal cases, supplements do not help. People are more interested in transfers than this extras.

What I don't like from German editions (and it's getting worst over the years) is the format of their case. Rather than propose to customer standard case with perfect transfer and pertinent bonus, they prefer use costs for fantasy digibook, metal case or weird 3D printed torso (see the SILENT TRIGGER's German "collector" edition).
Luckily, among all those, there are some gems like SUBKULTUR's Silent Trigger Austrian Blu Ray (one of my favorite HD release from A Dolph's movie, Synapse's RED SCORPION apart) and NSM Record's HIDDEN AGENDA re-release with standard case after they released it first with their Digibook with the booklet stick on the case...
These two got what we expect from an excellent transfer. Plus the Subkultur edition got nice visual cover, extras and a separate booklet (and not a copy paste stuff from Wikipedia written in it).
Last edited by lhz on 24 Feb 2022, 03:01, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: MEN OF WAR (Perry Lang, 1994)

Postby JuV on 22 Feb 2022, 20:37

lhz wrote:Yes that's why I was so curious about the US Echo Bridge Blu Ray. Although the incorrect aspect ratio, the colors looks, like on other editions, slightly different (more in the tone of the German/Austrian ones rather than the French disc) from what I was able to see thanks to caps-a-holic website.
Unfortunately, to have an answer about which one is the most closer from the initial vision intended by the director, only the director (or the one from the photo) himself could answer that. Or someone who has a great memory from the screening era or who has seen it screened on some festival or events around the world recently.


Somehow, getting in touch with the director or cinematographer would probably clear some of this stuff up.

alex.sp89 wrote:I am still thankful for the German try to get the best editions but the most of the times they are so amateurish and their metal cases, supplements do not help. People are more interested in transfers than this extras.


People over choosing transfers over packaging isn't always true (although it probably depends on what area of collecting you're in), there are loads of people who collect very limited/numbered mediabooks, digibooks, hartboxes, steelbooks, slipcovers, etc. That aren't bothered by the transfer of the film (depending on the company, often the contained discs/transfers can be older or poor ones). One of the big reasons companies do this is, is because these things are highly collectible.

alex.sp89 wrote:Especially in Europe is so hard to find objective reviews on German or any other release. Blu ray. com offer mostly articles about US OR SOME OVERSEAS big companies transfers, but when it comrs to Europe, German, DigiDreams or similar just empty page with poster and date of their release. Not serious. DVDTalk used to be very good back in DVD era and early era of Blu Ray.


There are some German review sites, but nothing as comprehensive as something like blu-ray.com. A site I always recommend to anyone looking into German physical media is OFDb.
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Re: MEN OF WAR (Perry Lang, 1994)

Postby Jox on 23 Feb 2022, 21:50

I've been too busy to comment the recent threads and plan to come back to this later...
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Re: MEN OF WAR (Perry Lang, 1994)

Postby lhz on 01 Mar 2022, 22:36

Jox wrote:I've been too busy to comment the recent threads and plan to come back to this later...

A kindly reminder, if you have something to say regarding this debate between editions and transfers, I am all hears as the difference between versions is each time noticeable. :wink:
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Re: MEN OF WAR (Perry Lang, 1994)

Postby Jox on 21 Apr 2022, 17:28

Spanish lobby cards

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(deleted scene or between takes?)
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Re: MEN OF WAR (Perry Lang, 1994)

Postby Jox on 13 Jun 2022, 23:41

Catherine Bell seems to have fond memories

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Re: MEN OF WAR (Perry Lang, 1994)

Postby Jox on 22 Nov 2022, 21:29

Super rare lobby card from Portugal

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Re: MEN OF WAR (Perry Lang, 1994)

Postby Jox on 31 Dec 2022, 10:24

Japanese promotional pop-up brochure for the home video release

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