Strange Days (1995)
Crime, Drama, Science Fiction, Thriller • 2h 25m
Overview
Former policeman Lenny Nero has moved into a more lucrative trade: the illegal sale of virtual reality-like recordings that allow users to experience the emotions and past experiences of others. While they typically contain tawdry incidents, Nero is shocked when he receives one showing a murder.
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis, Tom Sizemore, Michael Wincott, Vincent D'Onofrio, Glenn Plummer, Brigitte Bako, Richard Edson, William Fichtner, Josef Sommer, Joe Urla, Nicky Katt, Michael Jace, Louise LeCavalier, David Carrera, Jim Ishida, Todd Graff, Malcolm Norrington, Anais Munoz, Ted Haler, Rio Hackford, Brook Susan Parker, Brandon Hammond, Donald 'Donnie' Young, B.J. Crockett, Dex Elliott Sanders, Ronnie Willis, David Packer, Paulo Tocha, J. Michael Muro, Ron Young, Art Chudabala, Erica Kelly, Marlana Young, Ray Chang, Raul Reformina, Chris Douridas, Billie Worley, Amon Bourne, Lisa Picotte, Kylie Ireland, Dru Berrymore, Stefan Arngrim, Agustin Rodriguez, Kelly Hu, Nynno Anderson, Liat Goodson, Honey Labrador, Delane Vaughn, Mark Arneson, James Acheson, John Francis, Zoot, Royce L. Minor, Milan Reynolds, Russell W. Smith, Sarah Abukutsa Marshall, Russell Hines, Michael Jaasi, Maurice Marshall, Carolyn Adunni McPherson, Jennifer Reeves, Charmain Renata Hubbard, Reginald T. Thornton, Chester A. Whitmore, Lori Simone Wilkerson, Justin Armao, Ed Arneson, Yan Birch, Andrew Calder, Carlos Campos, Jaime H. Campos, Louis Campos, Robert 'Duckie' Carpenter, Dian Childs, John Daniels, Gregory Diamond, Sebastian Feldman, Masaaki Fujimori, Annette Goodman, T.J Jones, Johnny Kim, Gianluca Lazzaroni, Joe Martinez, Me Phi Me, Raja Gemini, Tom Tom Typhoon, Peter Wick, Colin O'Herlihy, Michael Satterfield, Skin, Paul Malinowski, Duane Trower, Steve Tulipana
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
UK ICON 4K Blu-ray (caps)
UK 4K Blu-ray has a slightly better encode than US Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray and Germany StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray
5.1 mix is flawed on Shout! Factory/ICON, a phasey upmix instead of the proper discrete surround. The UHD 2.0 tracks are downmixes of that track.
2008 Fox Blu-ray sounds great, very close to the original 70mm mix, only with split surround.
2001 DVD has the original mix as 4.1 and matrixed 2.0.
Imprint 4K has a 4.0 track. The StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray has a different 5.1, unclear if it's the same as Fox BD.
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
UK ICON 4K Blu-ray (caps)
UK 4K Blu-ray has a slightly better encode than US Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray and Germany StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray
5.1 mix is flawed on Shout! Factory/ICON, a phasey upmix instead of the proper discrete surround. The UHD 2.0 tracks are downmixes of that track.
2008 Fox Blu-ray sounds great, very close to the original 70mm mix, only with split surround.
2001 DVD has the original mix as 4.1 and matrixed 2.0.
Imprint 4K has a 4.0 track. The StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray has a different 5.1, unclear if it's the same as Fox BD.
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
DE Koch Media is presented in the correct 25fps and is likely better compressed than UK Dogwoof (29 vs 14 Mbps), but it doesn’t have English subtitles.
US Drafthouse is in 24fps for Region A compatibility, and is encoded at around 30 Mbps.
(Although bitrate does not solely determine the quality of the encode, the difference is large enough here and there are no publicly available caps.)
No info on the JP VAP Blu-ray.
DE Koch Media and US Drafthouse feature a lossless 5.1 track. Dogwoof offers only AC-3.
DE Koch Media is presented in the correct 25fps and is likely better compressed than UK Dogwoof (29 vs 14 Mbps), but it doesn’t have English subtitles.
US Drafthouse is in 24fps for Region A compatibility, and is encoded at around 30 Mbps.
(Although bitrate does not solely determine the quality of the encode, the difference is large enough here and there are no publicly available caps.)
No info on the JP VAP Blu-ray.
DE Koch Media and US Drafthouse feature a lossless 5.1 track. Dogwoof offers only AC-3.
Director: Ivan Reitman
Plaion German 4K Blu-ray > US Kino Lorber see comparison and caps
Kino Lorber has an exceedingly poor encode, only slightly improved by the DV layer.
Original matrixed Dolby Stereo: Universal US Blu-ray
Dolby Atmos remix: Plaion DE 4K Blu-ray
Universal's BD uses the same transfer as the old LaserDisc and sounds a bit better than Plaion's, which has worse dynamics.
Plaion's Atmos remix is tastefully done and preserves the original mix's characteristics, the 5.1 track on Kino's release is overly aggressive and unbalanced.
Director: Ivan Reitman
Plaion German 4K Blu-ray > US Kino Lorber see comparison and caps
Kino Lorber has an exceedingly poor encode, only slightly improved by the DV layer.
Original matrixed Dolby Stereo: Universal US Blu-ray
Dolby Atmos remix: Plaion DE 4K Blu-ray
Universal's BD uses the same transfer as the old LaserDisc and sounds a bit better than Plaion's, which has worse dynamics.
Plaion's Atmos remix is tastefully done and preserves the original mix's characteristics, the 5.1 track on Kino's release is overly aggressive and unbalanced.
Director: William Wyler
Italy Plaion 4K Blu-ray > Paramount 4K Blu-ray (marginally)
Director: William Wyler
Italy Plaion 4K Blu-ray > Paramount 4K Blu-ray (marginally)
Director: Adrian Lyne
Italy Paramount/Plaion 4K Blu-ray, better compression than other 4K Blu-rays
Director: Adrian Lyne
Italy Paramount/Plaion 4K Blu-ray, better compression than other 4K Blu-rays
Director: Enzo G. Castellari
German Plaion 4K Blu-ray see caps but doesn't have EN subtitles
Director: Enzo G. Castellari
German Plaion 4K Blu-ray see caps but doesn't have EN subtitles
Maybe Umbrella Australia 4K Blu-ray (FiM encode), Plaion Germany 4K Blu-ray, or Pony Canyon Japan 4K Blu-ray. All other existing 4K Blu-rays have terrible compression: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=21423337&postcount=173
The master is heavily DNR'd.
Maybe Umbrella Australia 4K Blu-ray (FiM encode), Plaion Germany 4K Blu-ray, or Pony Canyon Japan 4K Blu-ray. All other existing 4K Blu-rays have terrible compression: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=21423337&postcount=173
The master is heavily DNR'd.
Director: Wong Kar-Wai
4K restoration: Koch Media DE 4K Blu-ray
Original digital master: Cannes 2006 Promo HD-DVD
4K remaster is cropped 2.35:1 from the original 2.55:1 presentation, and has significantly different color grading, as is the case with most WKW supervised restorations. Due to DNR the detail is sometimes lacklustre compared to the old master. CGI scenes appear to be rerendered. A sepia tinted scene was altered to be fully black and white.
Caps: Criterion US BD vs Cannes HD-DVD, HD-DVD vs KR BD vs DVDs vs US BD
Remixed 5.1: The Jokers FR 4K Blu-ray
Original 5.1: Cannes 2006 Promo HD-DVD
The remixed track has different front panning and little LFE use compared to the original.
HD-DVD is by far the best option for the original track, as DVDs and Korean BD suffer from noise gating, limiting and duplicated surrounds. Remixed tracks are all similar, but French disc has slightly better dynamics, particularly on the LFE channel.
The 2006 HD-DVD is a promotional release made in only 100 copies, handed out to VIPs at Cannes Film Festival. See this blog post for details. The same master can be found on KR BD, though it suffers from interlacing, blended frames and a gamma bug, as well as older DVD releases.
Director: Wong Kar-Wai
4K restoration: Koch Media DE 4K Blu-ray
Original digital master: Cannes 2006 Promo HD-DVD
4K remaster is cropped 2.35:1 from the original 2.55:1 presentation, and has significantly different color grading, as is the case with most WKW supervised restorations. Due to DNR the detail is sometimes lacklustre compared to the old master. CGI scenes appear to be rerendered. A sepia tinted scene was altered to be fully black and white.
Caps: Criterion US BD vs Cannes HD-DVD, HD-DVD vs KR BD vs DVDs vs US BD
Remixed 5.1: The Jokers FR 4K Blu-ray
Original 5.1: Cannes 2006 Promo HD-DVD
The remixed track has different front panning and little LFE use compared to the original.
HD-DVD is by far the best option for the original track, as DVDs and Korean BD suffer from noise gating, limiting and duplicated surrounds. Remixed tracks are all similar, but French disc has slightly better dynamics, particularly on the LFE channel.
The 2006 HD-DVD is a promotional release made in only 100 copies, handed out to VIPs at Cannes Film Festival. See this blog post for details. The same master can be found on KR BD, though it suffers from interlacing, blended frames and a gamma bug, as well as older DVD releases.
German release from Plaion has better grading and encode than the US Vinegar Syndrome releases.
Both UHDs come with Italian and English audio, as well as English subtitles.
German release from Plaion has better grading and encode than the US Vinegar Syndrome releases.
Both UHDs come with Italian and English audio, as well as English subtitles.
Director: Moritz Mohr
Italy Plaion has Dolby Vision, but the metadata is static: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=22742198&postcount=92
Director: Moritz Mohr
Italy Plaion has Dolby Vision, but the metadata is static: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=22742198&postcount=92
More Crime on Blu-ray
Director: George Roy Hill
Director: George Roy Hill
Director: Ivan Passer
Radiance 4K Blu-ray, though note its different color grading from the IP-sourced but poorly compressed Fun City Editions US Blu-ray (caps)
Judging from spectrograms at https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=23933756&postcount=57, Fun City Editions US Blu-ray appears to have marginally less filtering than Radiance 4K Blu-ray (whose padded 16-bit depth is a non-issue). There are also loudness differences, though it's unclear whether dynamic range also differs. Caveat: need to A/B both tracks to confirm, but no one has posted actual A/B impressions.
Director: Ivan Passer
Radiance 4K Blu-ray, though note its different color grading from the IP-sourced but poorly compressed Fun City Editions US Blu-ray (caps)
Judging from spectrograms at https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=23933756&postcount=57, Fun City Editions US Blu-ray appears to have marginally less filtering than Radiance 4K Blu-ray (whose padded 16-bit depth is a non-issue). There are also loudness differences, though it's unclear whether dynamic range also differs. Caveat: need to A/B both tracks to confirm, but no one has posted actual A/B impressions.
Director: Frank Borzage
While Indicator Blu-ray used a newer 4K restoration from 2022 instead of the older 2K restoration, Kino Lorber has the original aspect ratio, and the Indicator Blu-ray looks very soft in comparison see comparison
Director: Frank Borzage
While Indicator Blu-ray used a newer 4K restoration from 2022 instead of the older 2K restoration, Kino Lorber has the original aspect ratio, and the Indicator Blu-ray looks very soft in comparison see comparison
Director: Todd Phillips
Director: Todd Phillips
Director: Michael Mann
Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray upcoming, Director's Final Cut premiering October 3rd; will receive home video release in the future
Director: Michael Mann
Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray upcoming, Director's Final Cut premiering October 3rd; will receive home video release in the future
Director: Billy Wilder
Criterion 4K Blu-ray > Capelight/Kino Lorber which has heavy noise reduction and opening snare hit is missing, Capelight is slightly better encoded than Kino Lorber
Director: Billy Wilder
Criterion 4K Blu-ray > Capelight/Kino Lorber which has heavy noise reduction and opening snare hit is missing, Capelight is slightly better encoded than Kino Lorber
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