Bullets 'n' Babes

Are the unique commentaries on the R1 Fox Lorber or Criterion DVDs of The Killer and Hardboiled any good?

How do the Fox Lorber and Criterion commentaries fair in a head to head comparison?

I already own the IVL Killer/BITH set, HKL Killer (the Bey Logan commentary is truly excellent IMO), and Tartan Hardboiled Remaster. - Would the commentaries warrant owning the R1s as well?

[Edited on 8/2/2005 by EvaUnit02]

I guess the Criterion Woo commentaries are nice, he isnt as good at the english language as I would have liked, but it was fun to listen to him talking about his films before he bacame a star in Hollywood

I guess if you are a Big Killer/Hard Boiled fan give one a try and see if you like it and then go for the rest as if you dont like 1 of them I would bet his tone and manner in other commentaruies wont be good either

I own the Fox Lober discs for both The Killer and Hard Boiled, and the Woo commentaries are pretty good and fun to listen to, but i don't know if i'd say they are worth getting just for that reason. I have not heard the Criterion ones and i'm not sure if they are the same as the Fox ones.

I am a huge fan of John Woo's films so i usually end up getting every version of them that are released. The HKL discs of The Killer/BITH are nice for extras and commentaries, the IVL have decent 5.1 remixes that make the HKL tracks sound VERY weak, and the Fox ones have the exclusive commentaries.
As for Hard Boiled, i have the Meh Ah remaster for the DTS track, and the Fox for the commentary and unaltered mono track.

The choice is yours. The commentaries are nothing spectacular but they are fun to hear if you a Woo fan.

FOX Lorber made new commentaries when they released the discs, as Criterion owns everything they do themselves and won't share with anybody. I'd guess some (most?) of the stuff were repeated from Criterion - but I've never compared them. I do believe the Fox discs has a third person in the commentaries?

The Fox Lorber commentaries are as Gojensen says newer and because of this Woo's English is better.

[quote][i]Originally posted by romerojpg[/i]
I guess the Criterion Woo commentaries are nice, he isnt as good at the english language as I would have liked [/quote]

Hey, his English still sucks nowadays!

The interview on the HKL Once a Thief disc lasted half an hour because af all his pauses, stutters... Otherwise, it would have lasted ten minutes only! I love Mr. Woo (at least before the last two movies he's made in the US), but listening to him in English is torture...

But I must admit that also Sammo is quite disastrous... he constantly switches back and forth to Cantonese when he gives interviews in English and he doesn't know what to say.

I was enormously impressed by Tsui Hark, on the other hand. He masters English quite well.

[quote][i]Originally posted by Beer[/i]
I was enormously impressed by Tsui Hark, on the other hand. He masters English quite well. [/quote]
You think so? The "Time and Tide" R1 commentary is a nightmare to listen to.

Really? I saw a recent interview, and he was quite good!

I will check the commentary on the T&T disc... great movie, I just saw it once more recently.

I'm not a fan.

Thanks for the input. I think I'll stick with my current DVDs for now, already spent enough money on John Woo movies for a while.

Within the last 2 months I've bought:
IVL A Better Tomorrow Trilogy boxset
IVL Killer/BITH boxset
HKL Killer
HKL BITH
HKL Once a Thief
Tartan Hardboiled remaster

Are you planning to kep both the HKL and IVL Killer/BITH DVDs or would you trade one company for the other? Which do you prefer?

IVL are bringing out Once a Thief soon (dreadful cover art though) are you going to get that too?

[Edited on 11-2-2005 by bradavon]

[quote][i]Originally posted by bradavon[/i]
Are you planning to kep both the HKL and IVL Killer/BITH DVDs or would you trade one company for the other? Which do you prefer?

IVL are bringing out Once a Thief soon (dreadful cover art though) are you going to get that too?

[Edited on 11-2-2005 by bradavon] [/quote]I'll keep both Killer/BITH DVDs. The HKLs were double-dips for the extras and excellent subs, after blind-buying the IVL sets. IMO the HKL extras are superb (esp. the Bey Logan commentaries). The DTS remixes on the IVL sets are quite decent, despite the replaced/added SFX. The IVL subs are passable, but quite inferior to the those on the HKL discs. Picture quality differences weren't that apparent to me (but thats maybe because I only have a 32" widescreen TV and a 480i-only player.) I did notice that the IVL transfers is slightly less cropped and (at least concerning The Killer) a differentl colour pallete. Grain levels seemed about even.

I prefer HKL over IVL, mainly because of the superb extras and subs. I don't mind the "glorified mono" DD5.1 tracks, but the SFX can sound very hollow and lacking at times.

I won't get the IVL Once a Thief, am quite satisfied with the HKL release.

Am planning to ditch my Criterion edition of Hard-Boiled as soon as I get the Tartan remaster. Will be expecting some nice cash offer for it!!