Home
Movie News Archive
Movie Directory
Now Reading: The Pirate Movie (1982)
Today is May 16, 2008
Error on line 235 of /home/outlaw21/public_html/movielords/onyx-rss.php: Could not open the specified file. Check the path, and make sure that you have write permissions to this file.
1. Iron Man
2. Indiana Jones
3. Sex And The City
4. Speed Racer
5. Transformers
6. The Dark Knight
7. Sofia Coppola
8. Spider-Man
9. Cannes
10. Superman Returns
11. Titanic
12. The Incredible Hulk
13. Star Wars
14. Twilight
15. Bollywood
Error on line 235 of /home/outlaw21/public_html/movielords/onyx-rss.php: Could not open the specified file. Check the path, and make sure that you have write permissions to this file.
1. House Of Wax
2. Semi Pro
3. Sofia Coppola
4. 40 Year Old Virgin
5. Independence Day
6. Die Hard
7. Zoolander
8. Boogie Nights
9. Goodfellas
10. Barbarella
11. American Pie
12. The Music Man
13. Austin Powers
14. The Big Lebowski
15. Black Snake Moan
|
Please visit our news sources: |
Associated Press
Reuters
E! Online
|
The Pirate Movie (1982)
Give us the proper aspect ratio and a decent sound mix!
Like many in Australia, I grew up watching a crummy VHS tape of The Pirate Movie, and it was a film that in spite of going over my head a lot at first, really captured my imagination. As a satire of adventure films, it really hits the nail on the head, and often.
As an adult, however, the problems with the VHS tape version are readily apparent to me now. A pan and scan transfer that only allows us to see part of the picture (thus the picture ofen doesn't make sense, particularly during fight scenes), and a sound mix that is as flat as a tack. Sometimes, the vocals are utterly inaudible during the songs (the Pirate King's big number being a prime example).
So imagine my despair when the film was released on DVD in Australia last year, only to contain the same VHS-quality pan and scan video transfer, and the same flat-as-a-tack audio. A real kick in the teeth to the poor souls living in this country who supported the film on initial release, and a wake-up call to anyone who thinks they can just slap anything on DVD-Video and it will instantly look or sound better. People have asked me questions along the lines of "isn't this better than nothing?". It is worse than nothing. At least when you have nothing, there is a decent chance the distributor will eventually release a decent version. Not surprisingly, the enthusiastic response Fox were expecting for their pan-and-scan, flat Dolby stereo DVD pretty much evaporated as soon as the reviews were in.
So Fox, I have the following to say about this upcoming release. You've already made a hash of it in the country where the film was made. Get it right this time. Give us the proper aspect ratio (judging from some shots, it looks like a 1.85:1 hard-matted film), and if you can't get the original source elements to create a 5.1-channel mix, at least remix the Dolby Stereo so that cannon shots sound a little more aggressive than mechanical coughs, for one thing. Don't assume that you can just slap the material onto a disc and expect it to sell. Learn from the Australian market mistake.
|
|
|
|
