Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Movie: 5/5
Video: .5/5
Audio: 2/5
Extras: 3/5
Overall: 2.5/5

Restauriert & Neu Gemastert? Falsch!

Night of the Living Dead, the original 1968 classic by George Romero which sparked numerous zombie films through out the years. We all know the story, there's no need to go into it. It's a solid 5/5 film to me as it's the definitive classic zombie horror. The film is in the public domain, so, anyone can release it unless it's been new master created by another person that's been copyrighted. I'm slowly dipping my toes into the public domain and have been trying to secure a print for my own studio to use. We've seen numerous Blu-rays that are hit and miss. This release is a miss; one of the biggest misfires you have ever seen.

Video: .5/5

The video presented on this Blu-ray is upscaled 1080/50i. It's pretty bad. I watched it and the first time I saw it, I thought it was decent for an upscale, but upon really going in depth on the quality of the video, I was horrified over the image in general. This is not restored and remastered as stated in German. When I got the disc last October, I popped it in my external Blu-ray drive and the movie was just about 8GB. It's the size of a Dual Layer DVD. And the picture quality is worse than what Echo Bridge could deliver with the interlacing and jagged-ness of the upscaled image. Video scores a .5/5.

Audio: 2/5

The English audio is under average at best on this copy of the film. However, the German dubbing has new techno-ish score that kicks off right as the film starts. It is kinda out of place, especially for the time frame from which this film was made. Especially at one point in the German dubbing, they must of had some scenes missing from their master and it flips over to English with German subtitles. This happens for about two minutes in length. These German subtitles are automatically on even if the audio is set to English. I was scratching my head the first time I watched it as these subs popped up. Audio scores a 2/5.

Extras: 3/5

The extras would be phenomenal, if they weren't all upscaled to 1080/50i! The cover advertises at the top that his have the "Include 75 min Bonus Film 'Fright Night' (Francis Ford Coppola)"; this is not the vampire film Fright Night, but Francis Ford Coppola's 1963 film Dementia 13. I've seen Blu-ray covers in Germany giving the impression that it is the vampire flick instead of the serial killer on the family's estate film. Sadly, the quality of this transfer is a 4:3 non-anamorphic HD blow up, meaning that you got black bars on the top, bottom. left and right sides of the screen. And the film is dubbed in German with no English audio. This has to have been sourced from a VHS copy of the film. Nothing about it seems digital really. Run time on it; 1:14:34.

Then we have the One for the Fire documentary and once you press play on it and it has the somewhat remake B&W title opening to the original film, you see how horribly upscaled this is. It had to have been blown up from a non-16:9 source, so, 640x360 to 1920x1080. Seeing how blocky as hell everything is just horrifies me to no end. The documentary is fun to watch if you can stomach through the horrible image; run time on it is 1:23:53.

American theatrical trailer; 1:49. August 26, 2007 Interview with George A Romeo in Canada that is 15:48. December 13th, 1987 audio interview with Duane Jones which was done about seven months before the actor had passed away; 16:47. Oddly, none of these bonus materials have German subs.

Finally, a photo gallery of upscalled image. And two commentary tracks. First commentary is with George A. Romeo, Karl Hardman, Marilyn Eastman, and John A. Russo. Second audio commentary is with Russell Streiner, Vince Survinski, Judith O'Dea, Bill Hinzman, Kyra Schon, and Keith Wayne. I'm sure the die hard NOTLD fans will enjoy it. It was just average to me. The bonus would have scored much higher if it had been all HD instead of this blown up, interlaced bull. Extras score a 3/5.

Overall: 2.5/5
This Blu-ray is region free, but it will not work in North American unless you have a Blu-ray player and a HDTV that is compatible with 50hrz content. My main player, Insignia NS-WBRDVD2, plays it fine. My PS3 on the other hand just gives me a black screen. Some of the other Blu-rays I own from Germany and the UK are 1080/50i; Casshern, The Crow, Meet Bill, and Transmorphers off the top of my head. But, that doesn't matter; those that I listed above have much better transfers than this release of Night of the Living Dead. If you are a collector of Night of the Living Dead releases, this is the only way I can recommend this release of the film. 2.5/5, avoid.

John Wayne Collection: "McLintock!" (1963)

Movie: 3.5/5
Video: 0.5/5
Audio: 0.5/5
Extras: 0/5
Overall: 1/5

Note: I know I didn't finish the last three films of the High-Powered Action Pack. I'll be getting back to it soon. Plus, if you could see into my account, I have a few other reviews I have started but never finished.

Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew has been an inspiration for films throughout the years and it comes in many forms; a high school teen drama like Ten Things I Hate About You or a western drama McLintock! It is interesting to see how it can be adapted in the many shapes and forms it takes. In this film, G.W. McLintock (Wayne) is running his own town and then he gets the news; his wife (O'Hara) is back in town. At the same time she is returning to town; a group of settlers promised land by the government show up at the same time. McLintock's wife begs for a divorce and G.W. refuses; to which his wife begs to let his daughter be a socialite.

McLintock's wife, Kate, goes around brooding the whole entire time but slowly falling back into love with G.W. At the same time, the government is forcing the Native Americans to relocate. The settlers are causing trouble with the Native Americans which leads to a chief almost being hanged. A giant, comedic fight ensure and people are thrown into a giant mud pit. The film more or less deals with focuses with McLintock dealing with his wife until they get to a breaking point and they go at it head on.

The film is pretty entertaining but it goes off point several times. We seem to be focusing on the struggle of the Native Americans but then it completely just ignores it at the end. The characters seem to quickly and abruptly change at the end in the final minutes. It felt really rushed, but I still managed to enjoy the film. Another problem I have is the comedy; it does work, however the slapstick goes overboard at times. The giant fight with the mud pit goes on and on. The 4th of July festival with the horses felt like it went on forever. Plus, the end "chase" felt a little drawn out. But to focus on the positives; Wayne gives a good performance throughout and whenever he shows his comedic acting skills, he shines. Movie gets a 3.5/5.

The video is a nightmare! I wrote a review for the so-called The Howling Trilogy; even though it was the third, fifth, and sixth films! That disc was the three films upscaled from SD to HD; this disc by Gaiam commits the same atrocity! The aspect ratio on McLintock! is 2.35:1 and we have it presented in 1.33:1! WHAT IN THE HELL WAS GAIAM THINKING? Timeless Media Group gave us a cropped, 1.33:1 transfer on Howling III from 1.85:1; but there's a big difference from cropping something that 1.85:1 vs 2.35:1! What's even more jarring about this whole cropping situation is that there is obviously several sources that they used to create this monstrosity of a video presentation. I would say that they probably used three different video sources for this so-called "HD Presentation".

Upon seeing the opening titles, it's hard to read due to the halo effect that plagues the film. One source looks like an umpteenth generation VHS tape; one look like an over-cropped source that looks like a blown up VCD; and one that looks like a film print that's somewhat in good condition that is upscaled from 480i to 1080i. And these video sources will alternate constantly. We'll have a scene and then it'll look ok and then when it cuts back to a shot and we transition to another source; it'll look washed the hell out. Me ranting about this in the review does not justify how poor that this presentation is. Video scores a .5/5.

The audio is not any better. I have an old school set up and you can clearly tell when the film changes it's sources; depending on which source is used, the audio will sound good. If it transfers to something that's poor looking video-wise, the audio will be muffled beyond hell too. Like the video, it will alternate back and forth. Audio scores a .5/5. No extras at all are present; 0/5. Overall, one film down and six more to go. THIS IS INSULTING! I feel robbed of my eight dollars and change that I paid for this. People who have bashed the hell out of Echo Bridge, you haven't seen nothing, yet! 1/5!

High-Powered Action Pack: "No Code of Conduct" (1998)

Movie: 3/5
Video: 2.5/5
Audio: 3/5
Extras: 0/5
Overall: 2/5

No Code of Conduct, you know, if you told me that Bret Michaels directed a movie I would laugh. But apparently in the 90's he made two films and then we now see him as a wreck trying to find love or something. Not to say that Charlie "Charles" Sheen is doing any better with his "winning"! However, with this film, it is an interesting mix. I feel Bret did a good job with the film but at the end of the day this is still an average police drama.

After an undercover cop, played by Bret Michaels who looks like he stumbled across a drug deal gone wrong in a back alley, get killed. His superior, played by Charlie's father Martin Sheen, is asked to come along to track a drug trafficking ring as back up. His son Jake, played by Charlie Sheen, stumbles across the drug trafficking while hanging out with his ex-partner (Mark Dacascos) who is out busting men looking for prostitutes. His ex-partner's partner gets killed and the vehicle the drug runners are using gets shot out. Once they get it in their possession, they learn what's so important about the van.

I am sure in the 90's when this was released, it was probably considered junk or something made for a quick buck. I honestly do not remember this film at all and seeing it came out in the late 90's, I should have knew about this but didn't. I had only learned about it last year while Charlie was going on his whole; "Tiger Blood-Winning-Mumbo-Jumbo"! And also learned that Bret Michaels had directed and co-wrote the film with Sheen and several others. Considering the twelve years that have passed since it's release, I will say that it is bit above average. Mark Dacascos always gives a great performance; especially going from the European great Le Pacte Des Loups to the Asylum's mockbuster cash-in I Am Omega. Seeing this film makes me miss Sheen's serious acting roles from Platoon and The Arrival to seeing him do a sitcom like Two and a Half Men and appearing in crappy comedies like Scary Movie 3. I'll give the film a 3/5.

The transfer is overall conflicting; the compression is horrifying on this transfer. If I still had my BD-Rom drive, I could see how much space this film took up, but I am going to guess it was probably around 12GB. The transfer is comparable to the Echo Bridge release of The Prophecy. The pro of this release is that it is in the original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. There is detail, but it has to settle a bit due to the compression. I do not feel that this is a straight up SD upscale, but I can see some arguments on it, especially in the opening of the film. The video transfer is on par with an earlier Echo Bridge/Miramax release, it scores a 2.5/5.

The audio present on this portion of the disc is DTS-HD MA 2.0; it sounds great but I felt that it could be better. The techno music cues sound pretty pleasant while listening. I give the audio a 3/5. There are no extras at all; 0/5. Overall, the disc's portion of No Code of Conduct scores a 2/5. It enjoyable, but the video transfer could have been better. I would say it is worth the watch though.

High-Powered Action Pack: "Equilibrium" (2002)

Movie: 4/5
Video: 4/5
Audio: 5/5
Extras: 0/5
Overall: 3.5/5

Equilibrium, a tasteful futuristic sci-fi action flick. This is a pretty solid feature in which in the future we take drugs to hold in our emotions; to show your emotions is punishable upon death. It's a pretty straight forward film and very entertaining. Preston (Christian Bale) is a top soldier in the future; discovers his assigned patrol partner, played by Sean Bean, is not taking the drug. Preston kills him and then with a stroke of chance, he drops his vile containing the drug and is quickly seeing the world in a whole new way.

After arresting a woman who is been founding hoarding "illegal" items is awaiting death row, she slowly gets to him to help him see the path. Upon going out of the borders of their utopia, they found a group of dogs which are set to be slaughtered when a puppy runs to Preston and soon he cannot see it die and takes it off to "tested for disease". Preston soon joins the resistance to bring down the utopia so that mankind can possibly learn how to feel again.

Kurt Wimmer wrote and directed a very good film and all of the actors involved gave great performances. One of the problems I have is that there should have been more focus on the psychological aspect of Preston's struggle once he decides to quit taking the drug. If they gave another five to ten minutes to focus on that, it would have been a better movie. The action is pretty sweet too with Bale's character kicking butt left and right. Emily Watson gave a great sensual performance in her role. And Sean Bean, well, he's in his usual Sean Bean role and we know what happens to him most of the time. The film gets a 4/5.

Equilibrium is, without a doubt, the main reason to buy the High-Powered Action Pack. Echo Bridge has finally gotten an HD master for the film that is finally in it's original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The initial individual release of the film was presented in an open matted, yet cropped VFX scenes, presentation. Normally, if it was open matted, I wouldn't mind because what the director intended is still there, but the cropped VFX scenes of the "gun-kata" and other scenes kills it for me. And the original release was very tempting for me, but I kept passing on it.

The video presentation for Equilibrium is not the best, but, for a ten year old film it does the job. The film shares the disc on a BD50 with two other films, being The Lookout and Supercop. The colors are pretty vibrant; there's clear and sharp definition. If you look closely at the film; there is a lot of dirt and specs and print damage on the film. Compression is noticeable in a few scenes and there's a bit of pulsing towards the end of the film. I know that might scare potential buyers away, but overall, it's still a solid transfer and the only alternate is a very expensive Japanese release. I think this master was probably made back in 2002 whenever the film was made. I doubt we'll get a remaster, but, Equilibrium scores a 4/5.

The DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio presentation is pretty good on this release. There's good range in hearing harp noises in the music and helps get the tone across and then you jump to the next scene where the action is booming. Echo Bridge did a great job on this portion of the disc. The audio gets 5/5.

Without any extras; the film on this portion of the disc scores a 3.5/5. We have a very nice master provided to us by Filmyard and Echo Bridge. This should have been how it was when it was originally released in May 2011. If you buy this six film set, this title's new master in OAR makes it worth it alone. Recommended.

High-Powered Action Pack: "The Yards" (2000)

Movie: 3.5/5
Video: 1/5
Audio: 2.5/5
Extras: 0/0
Overall: 1.5/5

The Yards, a great crime drama from director and co-writer James Gray (We Own the Night and Two Lovers) and co-writer Matt Reeves (Director of Cloverfield and Let Me In) about a family and it's downward spiral. Leo, played by Mark Wahlberg, returns home from his prison sentence and is met with celebration by his mother and aunt and her family. His buddy Willie and new uncle Frank give him a job offer and soon Leo is off with Willie to pay off a night guard and destroy the train parts. When the guard declines and police are called; Leo's world comes crashing down and is on the run.

I felt that this was a pretty good crime drama. It seemed that everyone put in a good performance and I feel it helps the overall emotional tone of the film. Wahlberg's quiet presence he has mostly throughout the film is different from most of the films he does now. James Caan is always great and as Leo's uncle, you see him in a tough spot and his acting is great as it shows his conflict in trying to handle the situation. Charlize's character confused me a bit in terms of how old she is supposed to be; maybe the early twenties. Also, the plot twist was easily predictable in the opening film and a bit later on before it's spilled out. The film scores a 3.5/5.

Before I go on about the video presentation, whenever a film is cropped from it's original aspect ratio, I cut the score in half and go on lower from 2.5/5. I am not sure if this is the same encode from the individual release but the video presentation is a complete nightmare as it is cropped from 2.35:1 to 1.78:1. The framing is ok, but it would help if this film was presented in it's intended scope. The grain is overblown to the max. It is frustrating as hell whenever the grain is as white as snow and it's a scene that takes place at night. And the film has a jitter and it does not stop; it goes on throughout the whole entire film. Also, I am not sure if this is really 1080p as there is some interlacing in some scenes; especially in the opening when Leo is on the train. Video scores a horrifying 1/5.

The audio presentation is DTS-HD MA 2.0 despite being listed as 5.1 DTS on the back cover. I feel that this audio is adequate. It's not a "high-powered action film" and the audio gives an overall calm when it needs to be, but it is average. The audio scores a 2.5/5. Overall, this movie is a miss on the disc; we still have Hidden Assassin and No Code of Conduct on this disc of the set to go through as well as the three films on the other disc. With no extras included for this film; this portion of the disc's content for The Yards, I give it 1.5/5.

Roadracers (1994)

Movie: 4/5
Video: 4/5
Audio: 3/5
Extras: 3/5
Overall: 3.5/5

Roadracers AKA What the Hell is Wrong With Disney?

Ok, I managed to find this at Best Buy today and it's not due out until the 17th of April. So, having it a month before street date is pretty sweet. This was the second feature length film by Robert Rodriguez and it was a television movie for Showtime back in 1994. One thing that went through my mind while watching this film was; "What the hell is wrong with Disney?"

They sat on this film for all those years when they owned Miramax and did nothing; absolutely nothing. This movie was pretty damn enjoyable. This is probably one of my more favorite Rodriguez films now since I just finished it. I'm pleased that Echo Bridge got this and gave it a good release.

The film is about a rebel named Dude who has a problem with authority. And one night while he's out with his girlfriend and best bud, a rival challenges him to a race and with a flick of a cigarette, all hell breaks loose. Dude is now wanted dead for what he did. That's pretty much the gist of it; I really enjoyed the humor that was put into it and John Hawkes' always gives a great performance whenever I see him in something. The film, with it's comedic tones, gets really dark in the third act; just, "Wow". Movie gets a 4/5.

The video presentation is pretty good, and in the commentary, Robert Rodriguez stated that he remastered it for this release. However, there are some minor problems. At about fifty-four minutes, in a scene in which Salma Hayek's character is talking with her parents, the video gets blurry in several shots. This also happens again a few minutes later when they are sitting in a movie theater. However, the presentation is pretty amazing for an eighteen year movie. There's a nice level of grain pretty much present throughout the film which is very beautiful. With those minor issues factored in, I give the video a 4/5.

The audio is on the weak side. I found myself having to turn up the remote when listening to the DTS-HD MA 5.1 track. There is a Dolby Digital 2.0 track. They are ok, but, I think this is all boiled down to the original source material since I'm sure Robert Rodriguez remastered the audio as well. Audio gets a 3/5.

Extras included are an audio commentary by Robert Rodriguez and a "10 Minute Film School". The commentary is enjoyable and gives insight about the shooting process and fixing up the film for this release. The "Film School" is enjoyable because it shows how they did some of the scenes with David Arquette roller skating and some of the other stuff. I give the extras a 3/5; I feel there could have been more because usually a Rodriguez film usually has a ton of bonus material to kill time on.

Overall, this is a pretty sweet release and Echo Bridge did a good job. I can recommend it for the $7.99 price alone that I paid for it. Other than price, as I stated in the beginning of the review, this film is enjoyable. I see myself probably popping this in from time to time whenever I nothing going on. I give this Blu-ray a 3.5/5.

Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Movie: 5/5
Video: 3.5/5
Audio: 3.5/5
Extras: 3/5
Overall: 3.5/5

Godzilla's Second Blu-ray Outing in the U.S.

I was full of dread once Media Blasters announced that they had gotten the rights to two Godzilla films; the other being Godzilla Vs Megalon, which still hasn't been released since it's original November release date. Media Blasters is a horrible studio who does nothing but delay titles on Blu-ray much to the frustration of fans of the films that they have. Luckily, the release of Destroy All Monsters was only delayed by two weeks, whereas we waited over a year for Ichi the Killer and about a year for Machine Girl, just to give some examples. I paid about $18 for this release, I wouldn't pay more for it if you can it for that. There is problems with this release in terms of quality control.

In Godzilla's ninth outing; the film starts off in the year 1999 when all of the monsters are contained on Ogasawara Island, aka Monster Island or in this film Monster Land. A group of astronauts are called back to Earth after Monster Land is ravaged and the monsters have been unleashed. They learn that a race of aliens are bent on dominating the Earth and are using the monsters a pawns in their plan. The astronauts, as well as the higher ups in Japan, are scrambling to find ways to bring down the aliens and stop the monsters from destroying the planet.

Godzilla was my inspiration for wanting to be a filmmaker. I had first seen Destroy All Monsters when it was released by ADV video; it was amazing to actually see a Godzilla film in it's original aspect ratio at the time in 1999. I really enjoy how Toho seemed to go all out with the usage of all the monsters; sure this film focuses a lot on the Human interaction, but it is great to see Godzilla on the screen when he appears. I give the film a 5/5.

The video is problematic and this is due to Toho's HD remaster of the film that occurred in 2008. Some shots appear nice and crisp while other shots will be dull or covered in dirt and scratches. I found this to be quite frustrating at times. If Toho would have done better job at their remastering, I think this could have been a phenomenal release. Colors do pop out with great definition, like with how green the grass and trees look while Anguirus is on Monster Land in the opening of the film for example. Video scores a 3.5/5.

Now, I do like that Media Blasters brought in the AIP dub of the film since I've never heard it before. However, I wonder where they sourced it from. At times is sounds like it's rolling around and the pitch seems to drop. It especially was bothersome when all of the monsters destroy Tokyo as you hear the pitch dropping and rising. Also on the disc is the Toho international dub which sounds just the same as it did on the ADV Video release of the film. And then we have the Japanese audio presented in DTS-HD 5.1 and a Dolby Digital 2.0 track. The Japanese track sounds great, but the problems with AIP dub of the film brings it down and I give the audio a 3.5/5.

While there is a good amount of bonus material, Media Blasters could have encoded it much better and needed to do some serious quality control. We have a series of Destroy All Monsters trailers listed as "Promo Reel". The first trailer is an English trailer that's 4:3 widescreen and most likely sourced from the PAL format given the black and white lines at the top of the video. The audio sounds weak and is very low and then as it ends, you get the Japanese trailer which is booming in comparison. After the Japanese trailer, we have a French trailer, which again is very weak sounding and low. Also, it's another PAL formatted video converted over to NTSC and it's obviously telecined from a print that was stretched to 1.33:1 from 2.35:1 as we see the lines just right above the image. Then after the French trailer, we have several English language radio spots for the film.

After that, we have an 8mm sourced reel that could be found in the 70's whenever people owned 8mm and Super 8mm projectors and cameras. It's 4:3 full screen, cropped from it's original aspect ratio. It's very worn and faded with brownish/redish tone to the image. Again, could Media Blasters not worry themselves about trying to fix the audio, it's very low. After that we have some photo galleries and storyboards. There's a commentary track by two Godzilla experts as well some trailers for coming attractions on the main menu screen. These two trailers are for Godzilla Vs Megalon and Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky. Again, Riki-Oh's trailer is 4:3 widescreen. Could they not be convinced to shave off the black bars on the top and bottom to have it fit properly? I mean, this is a Blu-ray and we all have 16:9 set ups here. Bonus materials score a 3/5.

Media Blasters could have done a better on this Blu-ray and it feels rushed and that they did the authoring at the last minute since this title was delayed by two weeks. If you announce a title in April and then waste all that time in between just screwing around, it's gonna show and it does here. How hard would it be to actually take the time to fix these issues with the audio to make it just right? Overall, I give this release a 3.5/5. If you're a hardcore Godzilla fan like myself, you'll enjoy it but wish for more.