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Talk about shit and fall back in it. As you may or may not know, the ever-ailing Miramax recently
struck a distro deal with Echo Bridge Entertainment for the upstart to distribute 251 titles in Miramax's catalog on DVD and Blu-ray. Upon hearing this, flags immediately went up in my head. If you're ever browsed the DVD section at Wal Mart; or more over the $5 bargain bin, you're probably already aware of Echo Bridge. They're essentially the new mainstream cheapskate distributor pushing mostly mediocre SOV numbers at cheap prices. There's nothing wrong with this, but I couldn't shake the feeling they'd screw up and penny-pinch. I was unfortunately right. If these releases are indicative of what to expect from Echo Bridge, thank you Miramax for selling out to the lowest common denominator.
Domestically, Robert Rodriguez's
From Dusk Till Dawn has never been given its proper due on home video. Released by Miramax in the stone age of DVD, the studio never saw fit to make their releases anamorphic for 16x9 displays. At least their 2-disc Collector's Edition had a
wealth of supplements. Commentary from Rodriguez and Tarantino, making-of featurettes (
some w/ commentary), deleted scenes (
w/ commentary), music videos, TV spots/trailers, and the second disc devoted to the feature-length documentary
Full Tilt Boogie. True to the phrase,
special edition treatment...
Besides the inclusion of
Full Tilt, there's absolutely
ZERO supplements on Echo Bridge's DVD. They even crammed both features onto one disc. That's 209 minutes of video on
one dual-layer DVD. If it couldn't get any worse, we get compression artifacts--tons of 'em. Granted, both widescreen features are 16x9-enhanced this time and from colorful new masters (
without the reddish hue of the Miramax discs), but the MPEG-2 blocking is ridiculous. We're talking garbage expected over a decade ago from bargain basement fly-by-nighters.
To compound this mess, they opened the presentation up from its theatrical 2.35:1 framing to 1.78:1. Now, Rodriguez has stated he prefers the "full frame" HD ratio, he even opened the scope Once Upon a Time In Mexico to 1.78:1 for home video. Although I seriously doubt the filmmaker had any input on this re-release. Basically Echo Bridge took the master of the recent Canadian Alliance Blu-ray, also framed at 1.78:1, and ported it to a shitty DVD...oh yeah, not to mention the only audio track--glorious Dolby Stereo. What is this, 1997? No wait, the LaserDisc had
uncompressed DTS 5.1 audio. You can't even
attempt to compete with a
LaserDisc, Echo Bridge?!?
The pain continues with the
Hellraiser 3 & 4 double feature. Same deal with the transfer/sound/no supplement options, but here's where things get strange.
Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth has always been released by Paramount Pictures on VHS, LD, and DVD. There was a dubious full screen bootleg DVD from "Top Ten Media" released before Paramount's solid disc...
but guess what? Echo Bridge utilized that bootleg's garbage transfer (
taken from a poor-looking LaserDisc) and horizontally stretched the image to fit into a 1.78:1 frame. The film is the R-Rated version just like the out-of-print Paramount DVD--just
vastly worse looking with no extras. On the brighter side,
Hellraiser: Bloodline's transfer is quite serviceable and anamorphic for the first time ever. Still the butchered
Alan Smithee/Dimension fuckjob version though. Despite being cheap, avoid these Echo Bridge discs at all costs. Like Jacob Fuller said, "
Don't be a fool." Keep the old Miramax
From Dusk CE (
or buy the Canadian Blu-ray or import one of the 16x9 DTS 5.1 discs), Paramount HR:III, and Miramax HR:IV DVDs.
Well, only recommended if you're a fan of Bloodline, that is...
(direct disc captures, two for each flick, saved as uncompressed .pngs, click for full size, fuckin' hell...)
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