We are going to start out this one with an HD-DVD.
Back in the mid-2000s, there was a format war for the rightful successor to DVD. The war was between Sony's Blu-ray and Toshiba's HD-DVD, with both formats being high definition. The War began in 2006 when both formats saw their first releases. THE LAST SAMURAI, MILLION DOLLAR BABY, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (2004), and SERENITY (2005) were the first HD-DVD releases while Blu-ray saw 50 FIRST DATES, THE FIFTH ELEMENT, HITCH, HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS, UNDERWORLD: EVOLUTION, xXx, and THE TERMINATOR as their first releases. Despite having less releases, I found HD-DVD's launch titles to be good. I could have done without THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, but the other films are definitely worth watching. Blu-ray's launch is not all that great. Sure, there's THE FIFTH ELEMENT, HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS, and THE TERMINATOR, but there's also xXx and HITCH. Enough said.
HD-DVD was the cheaper format (not in terms of quality, just cost) and was actually finished. Blu-ray was released without features Sony would later implement like PiP, Secondary Audio Tracks, and BD-Live. All of this stuff HD-DVD could do out of the box. Blu-ray players had to be updated at a later date to get these features. I mean, commentary tracks weren't possible on Blu-ray on day 1. Sony REALLY wanted to win a format war.
Each format had their exclusive releases and studios. Universal and The Weinstein Company were HD-DVD exclusive while Sony, Fox, Disney, MGM, and Lionsgate were Blu-ray exclsuive. Both Warner Brothers and Paramount played both sides with Paramount going HD-DVD exclusive in 2007 but jumping ship on 2008. Films like DEATH SENTENCE, THE DUKE OF HAZZARD (2005), and BLACK X-MAS (2006) were (in the US) HD-DVD exclusives while films like big films like NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, JUNO, and THE SIMPSONS MOVIE were exclusive to Blu-ray.
On January 4th, 2008 Warner Brothers announced they were going to stop supporting HD-DVD due to low sales. Best Buy and Walmart announced they were ending support for the format with titles and players later that year. The following month, Toshiba announced they were ceasing production on players, effectively killing the format. Fence-sitters Warner Brothers and Paramount went Blu-ray exclusive in 2008. The last titles to release on HD-DVD were INTO THE WILD, P.S. I LOVE YOU, TWISTER, and PAN'S LABYRINTH.
Which format did I like? I loved HD-DVD. The players were far less expensive, specs were complete and available day one, and the cost of the films was less, most of the time. I got an Xbox 360 for Christmas in 2006 and bought the HD-DVD attachment the next day. I loved walking into Best Buy, Circuit City, and Walmart just to look through both formats. This is how I was able to settle on HD-DVD. Blu-ray seemed smug, if that makes sense. The format felt like a bully to the smaller HD-DVD. I can't really explain what I mean. Can't find the words so this is going to have to do. I spent all of 2007 buying up all the HD-DVDs I could afford. I would buy them new from the aforementioned retailers while buying them used at Blockbuster Video and Hollywood Video. By the time Warner Brothers announced they were discontinung their HD-DVD support, I had over 40 titles. I loved the exclusives for HD-DVD and felt that some of the shared titles were better on HD-DVD.
MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY is based on a true story:
In 1787, British ship Bounty leaves Portsmouth to bring a cargo of breadfruit from Tahiti, but the savage on-board conditions imposed by Captain Bligh trigger a mutiny led by first officer Fletcher Christian.
This is a story that, once you have seen one version, you have seen them all. One film may more accurate than another, but they all tell the same story and no film brings much new to it. I have seen three different versions of this story throughout the years (1935, 1962, and 1983) and they are all the same. There is nothing wrong with it but it does happen. Think about films like SENSE AND SENSIBILITY and LITTLE WOMEN all feel the same, no matter the year. They're all the same film but they keep making them because the previous ones made money because lots of people don't like change.
NOTE: I reviewed the Imprint Films Blu-ray of the 1983 MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY, starring Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson.
The HD-DVD itself is pretty good. The film looks and sounds great. The special features focus more on the story than the film at hand but they are still good nonetheless. I wouldn't buy this release though as it is prone to "disc rot." This is when the glue that holds the diffent layers together stops working. This makes the disc partially to fully unplayable. I did not run into any problems with my copy, but most copies suffer from this.
Here's a quick one for you.
PEACE HOTEL is a 1995 action western from Hong Kong starring Chow Yun-Fat. This was the last film Chow Yun-Fat made in Hong Kong before going to the US to star in films like
THE REPLACEMENT KILLERS and
ANNA AND THE KING.
PEACE HOTEL is a pretty decent flick, from what I can remember. The tonal shifts between comedy and drama are weird at times, but the action that is on display is good and you won't regret watching it.
That's really all I have to say about the film. The Laserdisc is from Hong Kong and presented in the film's original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. It is worth picking up even if it's just to include your collection.
I have spoken about
FEARLESS HYENA PART II before. 8
8 Films brought the film to Blu-ray a few years ago, a blu-ray I reviewed. The film was being made when Chan signed a bullshit deal with producer Lo Wei. Chan left the project after shooting some scenes for the film, and after Chan's films with Golden Harvest (the company he left Lo Wei for) became massive hits, Lo Wei decided to finish the film
GAME OF DEATH style complete with Chan lookalikes. The result is a film that is equally frustrating to watch as it is entertaining. This is a bad film that can be a blast to watch.
The film is presented in 1.33:1 and definitely cropped. Taking the film in this way reminded me of watching kung fu flicks in the 80s and 90s where we would get some truly terrible cropping jobs. Any kung fu fan can tell you about the horrors of trying to watch a film with burnt in subtitles that was cropped AFTER the subtitling was already done. This meant the subtitles wouldn't be readable because they had been cut off the screen. The film is still watchable but the fight scenes, which are already pretty crappy, are even worse cropped to 1.33:1 from 2.39:1.
Closing out this week, we have a mainstay from THE VIDEO STORE DAYS.
The 80s and 90s were a great time to be a kung fu movie fan. There was a boom of films featuring martial artists who were champions in their respective styles. Of course, the big ones were Jean Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal, but we also got stars like Cynthia Rothrock, Don "The Dragon" Wilson, Billy Blanks, Jeff Speakman, and Olivier Grunner. We had a ton of these guys and there were even more to spare.
One of the stars that no one talks about is Dale "The Apollo" Cook. He only did a handful of films and they are the most forgettable line of films you will ever see and then forget about soon after viewing. Films like ETERNAL FIST, DOUBLE BLAST, TRIPLE IMPACT (which is NOT about triplets despite taking its spiration from the Van Damme film DOUBLE IMPACT which is about twins), and FIST OFF GLORY. I watched tons of martial arts films in the 90s and I have heard of most of these films. That's not to say they are bad. I am just saying he didn't have the best to pick from.
The most well known film Cook made was AMERICAN KICKBOXER 2, which is not a sequel to AMERICAN KICKBOXER 1 (which is how it is titled on the DVD) despite being named as such. There is a sequel to AMERICAN KICKBOXER 1 which was named TO THE DEATH, but that's not what we are talking about. \
AMERICAN KICKBOXER 2 is a cheapie martial arts film shop in the Philippines, but that shouldnt deter you from watching the film. Sure, it's cheap as shit but it is also pretty fun. The fight scenes are decent and I think Cook is actually not bad as the lead. The film moves at a good pace and is well worth a watch.
Vidmark released AMERICAN KICKBOXER 2 in 1993 on VHS and Laserdisc. Both are presented in 1.33:1 full frame and look good for what they are. Whenever I watch a Laserdisc in this day and age, I do so on a CRT TV. This is the way we watched things back in the day and is the way they should be watched today. I have tried watching Laserdiscs on my 4K TV but it wasn't worth all the extra equipment you have buy nor the time to get it up and running. I have a CRT and it does well.
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