Commando: R1 original vs. R1 Director's Cut

Film Reviews and Release Comparisons
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captainjoe
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Commando: R1 original vs. R1 Director's Cut

Post by captainjoe »

Commando



Menus:

Featuring video clips, the new menus on the DC DVD are what we usually get from 20th Century Fox. They are similar
in set-up and style to the menus on Return of the Living Dead and Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. For the record,
the originals weren't too bad for the day but by today's standards they do seem dated.

First Screen for Director's Cut

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Top: R1 Original
Bottom: R1 Director's Cut


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Video Quality - DVD Image Comparisons


Top: R1 Original (non-anamorphic)
Bottom: R1 Director's Cut (anamorphic)


Commando: Director's Cut is presented for the first time in anamorphic widescreen, at least for region one. The
outcome is quite disappointing though. I get the feeling that this could be the exact same transfer but with better
compression, anamorphic enhancement, slight colour changes and grain reduction resulting in a somewhat soft
appearance. There is also some cropping which can mess with the composition of a few shots. Basically,
this new transfer adds no real detail to the picture. But, I can never really see myself watching the original
release as the non-anamorphic enhancement was such a pain.


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captainjoe
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Post by captainjoe »

Audio:

Commando is presented for the first time in 5.1 Dolby digital. The results are what you'd expect from
a 1985 action film. Not as good as recent films but an upgrade from a 2.0 track. The audio was rather
clean but the new
DC footage does mark a drop in quality and can turn out slightly muffled.
Thankfully, the original Dolby
track is provided, early speculation said otherwise but it is here. Both tracks are available on the
Director's cut and theatrical version.



Special Features



Audio Commentary
Having only sampled this track I cannot completely review it yet at this moment. Once I do listen to it
I will post my thoughts. It is available on both cuts and features director Mark L. Lester.


Making of Featurettes
There are two new short featurettes but they could've easily been combined into one. First the good,
they feature many of the creators and actors minus Schwarzenegger who's seen by on-set interviews.
The creators do poke fun at the film and they all know they created something very campy and cheesy.
Rae Dawn Chong does briefly mention that Bennett is quite a gay character so that topic isn't missed.
However, I did feel that the featurettes had no real story they were following. The featurettes are just
random coments from the creators and we never really have a line to follow during the piece. It's really
all over the place. Nevertheless, it was fun to look back with the makers of the film. And yes, the great
Vernon Wells is interviewed.

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Deleted Scenes
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There are three deleted scenes provided. One features Kirby at the Mall after the famous scene. Kirby
tellsthe officer on duty that Matrix cannot be fooled with and he should be left alone.
The second shows Matrix walking away with Jenny at the end and guards tell him to freeze but he just
keeps walking to meet up with Kirby. It's an unnecessary extension.
The last is just some additional one-liners from Matrix after he kills Bennett. "What's the matter?
Too much pressure for you?"

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Photo Gallery
Finally, there is a standard photo gallery filled with on-set photos during filming.

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Director's Cut Footage
The first change I saw was an extension when Rae Dawn Chong and Shwarzenegger are following
Sully. Matrix mentions his wife and how she died. He talks about his service and that he is now
retired. This shouldhave been in the theatrical cut because it is some nice additional character development.
Another is just a line alteration, instead of Jenny saying "...smash your face in." she says "...kick your
ass."The other and best of the added material is the uncut Toolshed sequence full of lots more blood
and gore!

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Last edited by captainjoe on 22 Sep 2007, 22:29, edited 1 time in total.
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Markgway
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Post by Markgway »

Is Vernon Wells gay in real life?

I mean, he plays a gay baddie in Commando AND Mad Max 2.

There are very few gays villains in action movies and he plays TWO of them, lol!!
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Post by bradavon »

The colours look better now. It doesn't look half as bad as Salty's captures.
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My take:

Post by chenlung »

Thanks!

The original is way better - had it been anamorphic (Euro editions are). The DC shows a smidgen more info on a certain side, but it's still massively zoomboxed and soft. The original Dolby Surround is included on both editions. People are saying it wasn't on either.

Do both cuts of the film contain the same soundtracks/subtitles and are they all selectable in the menus etc? If that's the DC menu, then why list the commentary if it's only for the theatrical version? Can you explain all this please (I imagine you'll cover it in your reserved post) :)?

I must say that I'm curious in testing the seamless branching (never done it before) - could save discs and lots of bother when it comes to multiple versions!

I ordered the DC last night ;). My brother and I watched it a few years ago and I kinda liked it. Mark doesn't however :P !

Simon Yam in 'Full Contact' is gay, Mark ;).
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captainjoe
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Re: My take:

Post by captainjoe »

chenlung wrote: Do both cuts of the film contain the same soundtracks/subtitles and are they all selectable in the menus etc? If that's the DC menu, then why list the commentary if it's only for the theatrical version? Can you explain all this please (I imagine you'll cover it in your reserved post) :)?

Same soundtracks/subtitles and they are selectable in the menus. The commentary is available on both versions. When you get added violence and scenes the director says additional things not said on the theatrical commentary. For instance, for the Toolshed scene on the unrated he says that "here we see all the extra violence in the director's cut that we had to cut for theaters." then he continues on with what is said on the theatrical cut. The seamless branching is perfect and there are no jumps or anything in the switching.
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Post by gasteropod »

The original appears to be better framed.
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Post by dvdvision »

There's a BR version of the theatrical cut out there, it was issued then retired, only making it in some stores. It would be good if someone could check what framing it holds, the new remaster, or the old anamorphic one that was region 2. If that is the case, I want to get one !
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Post by saltysam »

the old transfer wins easy,it even looks better on my tv zoomed in than the new release.
working class blu-ray fan
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Post by romerojpg »

Very strange release thats for sure, the only thing better on the new dvd is its less compressed, but hell the old dvd looks better overall. Brighter thats for sure, but I guess that can be changed on your own TV to some extent.

Still its the only way to get the new cut at the moment.
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Post by EvaUnit02 »

[bradavon mode]There's not enough cropping on the DC transfer![/bradavon mode]
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Post by dvdvision »

Now that it's etablished that it's zoomboxed a bit, compared to all previous widescreen transferts, I wonder how this happened ? I guess I'll have to ask Lester (and he probably will not know)...
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Post by dvdvision »

PS what with the green tint in the finale image on the remaster ? It looks like they just rushed the color timing by the end...
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Post by gfanikf »

Sixty high-res screencaps from the new DVD. Some sneak peaks at the extra toolshed scenes

http://hkfilmnews.blogspot.com/2007/09/ ... ncaps.html

I thought the image wasn't as bad as the caps I saw on here would make you think it would be.
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Post by Toge »

blu ray?
I might only drop in and out but I'm still your admin... spiritually :P
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Post by EvaUnit02 »

Toge wrote:blu ray?
Learn to read.
dvdvision wrote:There's a BR version of the theatrical cut out there, it was issued then retired, only making it in some stores. It would be good if someone could check what framing it holds, the new remaster, or the old anamorphic one that was region 2. If that is the case, I want to get one !
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Post by dvdvision »

Potential DVD transfert error alert !

Could someone check and confirm or infirm : When I view the TC on my plasma TV, the vertical framing his off, showing a tiny black bar on all the lower section of the TV. This never happens to any other 1.77 framed movie that I own. It's disturbing, and it's not my player playing tricks. The upper of the image is framed right, but this tiny black border bothers me.

I didn't check the DC, but it might be the same. If you have this baby at home and a 16/9 plasma or lcd TV, please put it on, and watch carefully the framing. It might be off center... Or else my overscan is too tight, but I don't think so, this never happened to me before...
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Post by EvaUnit02 »

Play it on a PC, where there is no overscan.
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Post by chenlung »

Finally got my copy after months of fucking around by CD WOW, Ebay and Movietyme!

Cool movie ;).
Scott
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Post by dvdvision »

The point is not about playing it on a computer, but how it plays on a TV. It appears on my TV, and I supposed probably others, that this new disc is badly framed off center (showing a tiny border on the lower side of the TV) when it should not.

On another point, I viewed the old, anamorphic region 2, and it's not the same as the non anamorphic region 1, it's framed closer to the new version, with totally different colors. Crazy, that makes three different transferts !
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Post by bradavon »

Blu-ray Region B Uncut Theatrical Cut Review:

http://avplay.avforums.com/index.php?reviewid=13079

It doesn't look too great, typical Fox back catalogue treatment.
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Post by grim_tales »

Is the "Theatrical version" of Commando on the R1 DC DVD (if you see what I mean?) anamorphic? If it is I'll get rid of my French R2 :)
chenlung
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Post by chenlung »

Both versions on R1 DC anamorphic :).
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Post by grim_tales »

Thank you :)
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Post by dvdvision »

I did a little experiment taken two grabs from here, from the original R1 and the new DC, and matched them up. Here's the result. Parts of missing images in the corner not standing, the format I get is 1.85:1. So it appears both releases misses parts of the frame, and huge chunks of it. I wonder why Fox cannot get it right, I mean you don't have to be a sorcerer to accurately transfert a movie using all the image data available... right ?


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