Army Of Darkness review.  

Another bad review .

"Regarding the source material -- though there is no major damage (such as rips, tears or excessive dropouts), dirt is noticeable (particularly in shots involving optical effects, which are numerous) and grain is rampant. Darker scenes fare the worst, with the image often looking flat and fuzzy. Colors also suffer from a dated appearance, but the transfer appears to have been pumped up to compensate, with hues oversaturated and smeary at times. At least fleshtones are more or less accurate, though some of the more stylized segments have a reddish tint (especially the film's present-day bookend segments, which are pretty dreadful)."

The original DVD release was the same. The master was damage

From his video comments:

WHAT? :confused:

The Anchor Bay release(s) look like crap in comparsion. The simple 480p DVD side of the HD DVD combo even blows away AB's transfers. Yes, even in the night time sequences:

Anchor Bay Directors Cut:

http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/3...nap5336qs0.jpg

Anchor Bay THX Theatrical Cut:

http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/5710/abep2.jpg

Universal HD DVD/DVD Combo (DVD Side):

http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/6853/unidz8.jpg

I'm I blind?

Also I love this quote:

Again, WHAT? All of Anchor Bay's Director's Cut DVD editions flat out look and sound like a 9th geneneration bootleg VHS. They're 96 minutes of pure eye pain. :confused:

Obviously this guy hasn't even watched the DVDs.

How many AOD review threads can we possibly have?

Never saw the others. My opinion is that it is very good with well saturated colors in most areas. Day shots are particularly great but the night shots still very well preserve shadow delineation. There are problems however - some soft scenes and scenes obviously (so it appears ) effected by the nature of the original,i.e., dirt, to much grain. I'll give the video a 6.5.

From the above shots I think I prefer the middle one. The first one is blurry crap and the third's colors seem way off to me.

I hope this film gets a good transfer someday. It's worth owning. My best friend absolutely loves it in fact.

I think that happens more times than we think. Often I read online reviews and I wonder if the reviewer knows what he's talking about, and it would make sense if he were pulling it from his rear.

If he thinks the AB Director's Cut of AOD looks superior, that's all you need to know about his reviewing prowess.

It's probably time to find another review site.

IIRC, in that scene his face is being lit by torchlight, so the colors aren't going to be neutral.

I watched this last night on HD and SD for comparing apples to apples. With the exception of the dirt on the film and a few minor glitches, I found the video to be really good. the visible detiails were more than enough to justify th HD transfer. Granted this is an old B movie but it still rocks! I would give this a 7 or 8 out of 10 in video quality for sharpness. Color was also good. Its no Batman or Serenity but it was worth it.

Also the yellow/orangish tint to the beginning "pit bitch" sequence is because it's happening later in the day, so the sun is rapidly sinking as the sequence is playing out. The following "yo, she bitch" and robo hand sequences occur at dusk/night.

The Anchor Bay DVD ruins that intent:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...zeleid1/AB.jpg

The Universal preserves it:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...eleid1/Uni.jpg

Also Universal owns the original elements and since Universal struck a new HD master, I'd assume it features the intended coloration. I can't imagine they'd go through that much effort to alter the coloration for this barebones release.

Doormat has it exactly right - there is SUPPOSED to be an orange/reddish cast to the scene. Sheesh.

colors aside, its very clear that the third picture is sharper and contains more information than the second

look at the sweat on his forehead and the pattern on his cloak

I saw this movie in the theater but never owned it on DVD, I relish the chance to own it on HD DVD. Hail to the king, Baby... :cool:

Count me in on a purchase next year. I love this movie.

Will be watching this this weekend. =)

Good screenshots.

I didn't check the DVD side, however the HD-DVD blew me away. It's very much like Dirty Dozen, you can REALLY TELL where the bad-quality inserts are... some of the closeups are like POW, but some of the quick action inserts look like they came from a bad VHS copy.

I had this in Tier 1 because of the fantastic detail and depth, but there is admittedly some damage. There were a few that complained so I lowered it to Tier 2, but my initial impression is that it's a Tier 1 transfer.

I watched this last night. I was blown away at how good it looked. I realize all things are subjective, but I couldn't believe the amount of detail I was seeing (especially in outdoor scenes). I guess that might be partly due to the fact I wasn't expecting a whole lot - but the last time I was that surprised was when I saw Blazing Saddles.

In contrast, I had just watched Fast & the furious Tokyo Drift and Bourne Supremacy and neither of those looked anywhere near as "HD" as Army of Darkness did.

Just my $0.02

Yep, I agree. Gary was right. Damn good looking HD-DVD. "Gimme some sugar baby!"

There are just many people on this forum who don't seem to have a clue about HD! AOD looks spectacular for its age and budget - why so many hostile reviews?? I've seen many attacks on Universal's "The Break-Up" as well, which my family just watched tonight. It looks excellent, and was a pretty funny movie. While not as razor sharp as certain top discs, this has plenty of detail, and cityscape scenes look fantastic! What is everybody looking for in this format? Every movie I've watched easily bests anything on broadcast HD, and I've yet to be disappointed. Geesh...

My copy is in the mail now. I can't wait. This is my best friend's favorite movie, so I'm sure he'll be pleased. I hope I will be as well. ;)

Got this today. I don't see how this got a bad review. Looks absolutely fantastic.

Me too. Gary should be commended for standing up to the bad reviews and telling it like it is. I would have never seen this movie if he hadn't called people out. :)

I thought AOD looked excellent, and it's a fun movie. Great pics by the way. They really illustrate how good the transfer actually is.

:D
I think you nailed it. The screenshots posted makes it look like it has good video quality. I love the movie, so I will be picking this up probably tonight. Although I was hoping for some extras, or possibly having both versions of the film on the disc.

Which ending does this one have?

it's the theatrical cut w/o the oof love scene from what I've heard

maybe I'll buy the extended cut on BD someday :)