Momentum - Heroes two and others - Bloody awful discs!!!

Laevolus · Post by **Laevolus** » 10 Feb 2005, 20:47

Got given the review discs of these off a friend to review for his site (my last ever reviews....sob) and thought I'd let people know the basics before i write it up properly....

They suck major ass!!!

Good points - the image quality is excellent, really clear and clean, very impressive. The menus are cool as well, not animated like HKL's but in the same style as the covers, nice.

Bad points - NOT ANAMORPHIC!!! the film is in 1.85:1 I think, not measured it yet properly, but it needs strecthing to fit a WS TV. not so bad you think, ut they have commited a major crime by putting the subtitles in the black bar below the film, so you can't strecth it or you can't watch the film, unless you speak fluent Chinese!

No English Dub for the fans of these, i don't mind them being missing, but I know some people like them so it's a shame they aren't there.

Sound is a Stereo/Mono track only.

No extras at all, just a bunch of trailers for upcoming discs.

And they want £15-£20 for these? not a great start to a new label, shame as the film is very enjoyable! If these can be got cheaper in another region, get them there!!

Jeez, what a way to end a reviewing career. i'll let you know when the reviews are up properly for those who want to read them.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 10 Feb 2005, 21:21

Surely other sites will find your talents useful?

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 10 Feb 2005, 21:30

Thats bad! not even anamprohic

I was going to upgrade some of the better film as I thought they would definalty have anazmorphic transfers, thats bad

not even 5.1 either! pants and they didnt deserve to release them! dont get me started on the subs! grrrrrrr

ICE-angel · Post by **ICE-angel** » 10 Feb 2005, 22:24

Laevolus · Post by **Laevolus** » 10 Feb 2005, 23:12

Right, had a quick check of heroes two, and yeah, it is 2.35:1, I got confused with it not being anamorphic, i'm just used to it strectching it to the right size automatically

But the subs are poor, no matter what ration i put it on via my TV, on all the possible settings my TV will do, I was still getting some of the text cut off, even if only partially, so it's a shoddy state of affairs no matter what you do.

Here's a quick screen shot to show where they end up on a straightforward grab.

[img]http://www.ducker.karoo.net/heroes.jpg[/img]

As you can see, the text is large and goes quite low down, making it hard to strecth to a decent size without losing some of it.

And for £20, this is a joke

Laevolus · Post by **Laevolus** » 10 Feb 2005, 23:13

[quote][i]Originally posted by bradavon[/i]
Surely other sites will find your talents useful? [/quote]

Apparently not, brad

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 11 Feb 2005, 13:24

Which ones have you contacted?

That screen capture looks awful. I have little interest in SB films but if I were I'd get the much cheaper Celestial DVDs. They're WS friendly right? The subtitle position on these DVDs would really, really annoy me.

The first review: http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=56117

[Edited on 11-2-2005 by bradavon]

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 11 Feb 2005, 16:10

[quote]
I have little interest in SB films
[/quote]

I dont see why at all!

You like sammo hung asian kung fu and stuff like that? then you will like Shaw films, hell you like rouching Tiger, loads of Shaws are like that

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 11 Feb 2005, 18:56

[quote][i]Originally posted by romerojpg[/i]
You like sammo hung asian kung fu and stuff like that? then you will like Shaw films, hell you like rouching Tiger, loads of Shaws are like that

[/quote]
When have I said I like SH MA films? Pedicab driver is okay at best. The ending is pretty good.

I always thought CTHD was more westernised, maybe I could be wrong. You're right though I'm probably being harsh. The likes of Drunken Master and to a lesser extent Prodigal Son have really put a bias against old school MA for me.

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 11 Feb 2005, 20:59

Shaws have massive range if you like fighting in films you will like one of them

you just have to find the right directors and actors.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 18 Feb 2005, 22:22

Just to add.... Death Duel, Human Lanterns and The Magnificent Trio have all been passed without cuts by the BBFC... At '15', '18' & '12' categories, respectively...

The language for Human Lanerns is Cantonese, which should prove interesting if correct (it could easily be a mistake...)

The running time is 94:33. No idea how that tallies with the IVL, but let's assume it's the same pre-cut print.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 19 Feb 2005, 12:03

Mark when was Human Lanterns made? Isnt it 1982?
In which case the language is Cantonese.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 19 Feb 2005, 16:46

grim_tales wrote:Mark when was Human Lanterns made? Isnt it 1982?
In which case the language is Cantonese.

Doesn't go purely by date, although the majority of 1982 productions were Cantonese. The IVL DVD had Mandarin only, so I'm wondering if the Cantonese listing is accurate? The HKFA list the original release langauge as Mandarin, but I don't know as of yet if that was the spoken language.

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 21 Feb 2005, 15:46

So does anyone care about the UK releases at all? so far no way will I bother with any, but you never know in the future they may improve :shock:

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 21 Feb 2005, 18:20

Saw the first batch in the shops today. Buy two get one free. Megastore have them for 15.99 each. So that's 32 quid for 3. So not THAT great an offer then...

Surprisingly the covers claim all three title to contain dual Cantonese and Mandarin tracks. I don't think Cantonese tracks exist for any of those films!?!

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 21 Feb 2005, 21:59

they are £11.97 each in music zone.

Ricochan38 · Post by **Ricochan38** » 24 Feb 2005, 08:42

The celestials are much better, especially ones like the heroic ones, those even have a commentary from bey logan on it

And they are half the price !

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 16 Mar 2005, 15:54

I saw a couple of these Shaws discs in the shops today, Heroic Ones (Cert 15) and Spiritual Boxer (Cert 12). The runtime of HO was 121m PAL so they must have used a NTSC-PAL transfer.
I'm not paying £15-20 for them, I'll get the Celestials instead, there are still older ones I want.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 16 Mar 2005, 16:31

Most shops are doing a buy two get one free on the Momentum Shaws. Just in case you didn't know. The IVL Heroes Two is generally fine (only added bird chirps) but The Heroic Ones has new synth music and The Spiritual Boxer's foley has been entirely replaced. It sounds awful. Only thing is the IVL is 16:9, the Momentum isn't. So you could have problems with the subtitles. No version is perfect. So you have to choose the lesser of evils...

Killer Meteor · Post by **Killer Meteor** » 16 Mar 2005, 23:17

I bought Heroic Ones from Music Zone for £11.97 - £20 is too much for a DVD these days.

Although not anamorphic, the picture is very good. The subs are a tad awkward but I mannaged to view them with my 16:9 TV - I stick with my 4:3 set for non-anamorphic films.

On Asian DVD Guide forum - where I am on as Killer Meteor - we discussed that Celestial might have supplied Momentum with the non-anamorphic PAL masters used for HK TV - why HK DVDs are not PAL is a mystery to me.

Overall, i am satisfied but Momentum should look into the subs issue and for God's sake lower the prices!

I must say I can't wait for the next releases - Jimmy Wang Yu rocks!

Killer Meteor · Post by **Killer Meteor** » 21 Sep 2024, 19:47

Momentum Asia's Human Lanterns was mostly uncut compared to the HK DVD. It was me who reported this to the world! Non-anamorphic only, like their other titles.

These are the titles Momentum said they were going to release in the booklet they included with their releases, but never got around to releasing. The ones in bold have yet to recieve a blu-ray release

Shadow boxing

Shaolin handlock

The master

The trail of the broken blade

The deadly duo

The assassin

The shadow whip

Shaolin prince

Challenge of the masters

Killers five

Martial club

Web of death

The sword of swords

Legendary weapons of China

The water margin

All men are brothers

Two champions of shaolin

Invincible shaolin

Bullets 'n' Babes

Momentum - Heroes two and others - Bloody awful discs!!!

Momentum - Heroes two and others - Bloody awful discs!!!

Re: Momentum - Heroes two and others - Bloody awful discs!!!