Witnail & I - Criterion Vs Anchor Bay

[grant]

Anyone got the Anchor Bay R2 yet ?
I looked at this in Tesco yesterday...
looks like my beloved Criterion Edition is going east...
The only thing I could'nt see, was if the Anchor Bay is anamorphic, and Play don't stipulate...

[charlie angel]

The AB is not anamorphic.

There's a comparison at Bulletsnbabes here (http://www.bulletsnbabesdvds.com/article.php?sid=330) :)

[Michael Brooke]

PAL/NTSC differences aside, it's pretty much exactly the same transfer (don't bother with the 5.1 track - the original mono is much better), but the Anchor Bay has better extras (such as a commentary), not to mention a quite superb biography of Bruce Robinson in the accompanying booklet. ;)

[charlie angel]

Originally posted by Michael Brooke
not to mention a quite superb biography of Bruce Robinson in the accompanying booklet. ;)

:D

[grant]

well, ive bought it anyway..,
which one to sell ...... looks like the Criterion.
Interestingly, the documentary Withnail & Us, is anamorphicly enhanced on the Anchor Bay version, but not on the Criterion.
The films look identical as previously mentioned, but why did'nt AB enhance the movie ??

[Just Call Me Wanda]

Originally posted by grant
well, ive bought it anyway..,
which one to sell ...... looks like the Criterion.
Interestingly, the documentary Withnail & Us, is anamorphicly enhanced on the Anchor Bay version, but not on the Criterion.
The films look identical as previously mentioned, but why did'nt AB enhance the movie ??

Not sure why they didn't do an anamorphic version but at a guess I would say, if the film (which I haven't seen) is low budget and the picture is a little grainy, an enhanced version would only 'enhance' the grain.

[John Hodson]

Apparently Criterion came up with a technical reason why they couldn't do an anamorphic version (forget what but as usual, I was blinded by science...), and presumably Anchor Bay came up against the same constraints.

Having said that, Criterion didn't mention why the doco wasn't anamorphic.

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'That Bradley Pitt - too much acting...'