The Reel Collection series

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 06 Sep 2006, 10:28

Someone stumbled upon these titles at Imports Forum

They appear to be 2 disc sets, with Film Tin packaging and stills. Not bad prices either (£9.99).

If El Mariachi/Desperado is 2 discs I will upgrade. Don't like Flippers

http://www.play.com/Search.aspx?searcht ... x=0&go.y=0

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 06 Sep 2006, 11:41

grim_tales wrote: If El Mariachi/Desperado is 2 discs I will upgrade. Don't like Flippers

It says two-discs in the description on Play.

Releases that should be passed over:-
Black Hawk Down & Hellboy - both only 2-discers, there are 3-discers available for both films.

Dr. Strangelove - it's missing the original mono.
Lawrence of Arabia - For the original SE release, Sony created the transfer without Robert Harris's supervision and thus stuffed up the colours and picture depth. The Superbit was supervised by Harris and has the proper colours & depth. (source)[/i]

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 06 Sep 2006, 12:55

I didn't know that, I've only seen the original release of Arbia which is quite old (possibly it was the SE).

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 12 Oct 2006, 17:55

Nice find thanks Grim.

Regarding LOA the SB looks loads better but it does lose out on the really good extras:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCompar ... rabia2.htm

This review also backs up the SB looking better: http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=7786

The UK R2 SB is only 76p more: http://www.dvdpopcorn.com/dvd/product.a ... 5405883eb8

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 12 Oct 2006, 17:59

Regarding Desperado/El Mariachi:

There is little between the DVD-9 Desperado found here and the original dual sided DVD-10:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=7169

For El Mariachi the Remasterd DVD-9 found here is a big leap forward:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=7168

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 12 Oct 2006, 18:06

Ow SB R3 only £5.99: http://www.cd-wow.com/detail_results_2. ... code=16314

Thanks Grim and Eva I've just ordered:

* LOA UK R2 for that price I can both (it's only £2.76 more and does look the best)
* Desperado (cheapest at Play), it's about time I upgraded. OUATIM can go to hell.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 12 Oct 2006, 18:53

I like OUATIM

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 12 Oct 2006, 18:56

I haven't checked the El Mariachi disc yet, the AR claims to be 1.77/1

I do think both discs are the 2003 reissues though, Desperado has a preview of OUATIM on it.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 12 Oct 2006, 19:22

They have to be as the only other version is a dual sided DVD-10 disc.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 12 Oct 2006, 19:30

Yeah but there's more than 1 version of Desperado

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 12 Oct 2006, 20:41

grim_tales wrote:I haven't checked the El Mariachi disc yet, the AR claims to be 1.77/1

...and your point is? Rodriguez reckons it's okay to open up film mattes a bit to fill the full 1.78:1 ratio of widescreen TVs (he believes this for Scope OAR films too, most disagree with this as you would imagine). So thus a film which had an OAR of 1.85:1 will have a little bit more horizontal information (unless it was hard-matted in the camera, then it'd be slightly vertically cropped.).

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 12 Oct 2006, 23:33

OUATIM was shown theatrically at 2.35:1 but the DVD is 1.85:1.

The OAR for EM is 1.66:1 I believe.

grim_tales wrote:Yeah but there's more than 1 version of Desperado

There's two more besides the original DVD I mentioned earlier: Superbit and Barebones. you know it's not either of those as it has extras and no DTS + the Barebones is long OOP.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 13 Oct 2006, 09:01

EvaUnit02 wrote:
grim_tales wrote:I haven't checked the El Mariachi disc yet, the AR claims to be 1.77/1
...and your point is? Rodriguez reckons it's okay to open up film mattes a bit to fill the full 1.78:1 ratio of widescreen TVs (he believes this for Scope OAR films too, most disagree with this as you would imagine). So thus a film which had an OAR of 1.85:1 will have a little bit more horizontal information (unless it was hard-matted in the camera, then it'd be slightly vertically cropped.).

My point is the R1 AR of El Mariachi is supposedly 1.66/1.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 13 Oct 2006, 11:36

I checked my El Mariachi disc in the set and there is no "Once Upon A Time In Mexico" preview, like the 2003 R1 release apparently has. Same extras as the old DVD-10 but the transfer may be better as the film now has its own DVD-9.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 13 Oct 2006, 17:47

Yes Grim, no offence but this was established posts up. It's the re-release, why on earth wouldn't it be?

Isn' the "Once Upon A Time In Mexico" preview on Desperado?

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 13 Oct 2006, 18:48

Yes it is.

martin · Post by **martin** » 14 Oct 2006, 15:28

I saw the Hellboy 2-disc version in the shops yesterday. Thats the third release of the film and the sequel isnt even coming out yet (when we can probably expect another version, complete with Hellboy 2 Preview)
It's annoying when they keep re-releasing - that new tin looked cool, but I've already bought the film twice....

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 14 Oct 2006, 15:57

Welcome to BnB, Martin.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 14 Oct 2006, 16:10

Welcome Martin.

It's not really 3 releases as the Tin is just re-packaging for the existing 2 disc version.

It's £5.89 from Sendit for the 3 Disc version, everyone should get that.

grim_tales wrote:Yes it is.

Why on earth would they put the same preview on both discs? It nevr was on the EM disc.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 15 Oct 2006, 02:31

bradavon wrote:It's not really 3 releases as the Tin is just re-packaging for the existing 2 disc version.

It's more likely the first two discs of the 3-disc Director's cut release. The theatrical 2-discer had two commentaries, the DC 3-discer only had one.

Why on earth would they put the same preview on both discs? It nevr was on the EM disc.

They're future-proofing themselves. The $ony marketing men might want to have the remastered El Mariachi and Desperado discs ready in case they want to sell them individually at some point, or in some random bundle like in an "Antonio Banderas Collection" or an "Action Pack" with a few other random Sony action flicks. This way they can just repress the disc without to make any content alternations.

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 15 Oct 2006, 02:39

In Germany we have a 3-disc version of the DC of "Hellboy", which I own.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 15 Oct 2006, 18:53

It's a world-wide release AFAIK.

EvaUnit02 wrote:It's more likely the first two discs of the 3-disc Director's cut release. The theatrical 2-discer had two commentaries, the DC 3-discer only had one.

Nah I seriously doubt that, it like all the others look very much like re-packaging. The Black Hawk Down one is the original 2 disc version.

If only 1 commentary is listed it's bound to be wrong.

EvaUnit02 wrote:They're future-proofing themselves. The $ony marketing men might want to have the remastered El Mariachi and Desperado discs ready in case they want to sell them individually at some point, or in some random bundle like in an "Antonio Banderas Collection" or an "Action Pack" with a few other random Sony action flicks. This way they can just repress the disc without to make any content alternations.

I know that's just what I said. Grim's confused not me

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 16 Oct 2006, 17:35

My Desperado/El Mariachi set arrived today. LOL you are funny Grim wondering what DVDs they are when a big ass "Collector's Edition" tag is sprawled across the Desperado disc.

The packaging is lovely but this is the ONLY difference.

It's interesting to note El Mariachi has never been released on it's own in the UK and this set is the only way to get the Remastered version (in the UK). I've had to use the R1 UPC code for DVD Profiler.

This set isn't on DVD Profiler yet, I'll probably change it when it is.

p.s - I've just compared Desperado: CE to the DVD-10 version and boy it looks better. The remaster job is great, the old dvd is really muddy and murky with clearly a low bitrate.

On the other hand contrary to the DVD Talk review the El Mariachi: SE looks very much the same as before. It's still far to grainy but this I'm sure is down the very low budget.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 19 Oct 2006, 17:35

My LOA: SB arrived yesterday.

Yes it's definitely better quality but not the massive leap forward the DVD Beaver comparison implies. Colours are more vivid, vibrant and it's sharper but the 2002 SE is already good (for a film of it's) in it's own right. The 2002 SE looks like a Remastered version of an old film put out by Warner, the SB looks like a modern film (nearly).

The downside being the 2002 SE on R1 anyway (I don't know if it was limited) comes in lovely packaging which looks like a hard back book, the R1 cover picture (same on R3) is much better, the UK R2 sucks, the 2002 SE has wonderful animated menus (why SB can't have a static picture from the film is beyond me) and of course a healthy set of documentaries.

The SB also has awful cover art with that yucky silver SB finish. Why couldn't they have included the 64 page reproduction book from the 2002 SE? Oh and the 2002 SE has Dolby Surround too, of the 5.1 remixes I couldn't tell any difference (although I didn't compare DTS enough to say if it's any better).

So in short if you're happy with your 2002 SE I wouldn't recommend you upgrade out right but yes it definitely looks better.

For me I'm keeping both which I guess says it all.

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