The Devil's Advocate (1997)
Horror, Drama, Mystery • 2h 24m
Director: Taylor Hackford
Cast: Keanu Reeves, Al Pacino, Charlize Theron, Jeffrey Jones, Judith Ivey, Connie Nielsen, Craig T. Nelson, Tamara Tunie, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Debra Monk, Vyto Ruginis, Laura Harrington, Pamela Gray, George Wyner, Chris Bauer, Connie Embesi, Jonathan Cavallary, Heather Matarazzo, Murphy Guyer, Leo Burmester, Bill Moor, Neal Jones, Eddie Aldridge, Mark Deakins, Rony Clanton, George O. Gore II, Alan Manson, Brian Poteat, Daniel Oreskes, Kim Chan, Caprice Benedetti, Don King, Ray Garvey, Rocco Musacchia, Susan Kellermann, James Saito, Harsh Nayyar, Mohammad Ghaffari, Nicki Cochrane, Fenja Klaus, Gino Lucci, Novella Nelson, Vincent Laresca, Benny Nieves, Franci Leary, Gloria Lynne Henry, Jorge Navarro, Tomatito, Antonio Vargas Cortés, Elena Camunez Andújar, Monica Keena, Linda Atkinson, William Hill, Juan Carlos Hernández, Wei Mei Wong, E. Katherine Kerr, Liza Harris, Bill Boggs, Bo Rucker, Michael Lombard, Marc Manfro, J. Nester, John Rothman, George Sperdakos, Hollis Granville, Edward Seamon, Patrick Joseph Byrnes, Gregory Lichtenson, Socorro Santiago, Marcia DeBonis, Marie Stuart Vassallo, Tom Riis Farrell, Harold Surratt, Alfonse D'amato, Charles A. Gargano, Lou Rudin, Ernie Grunfeld, Alan Grubman, Al Cerullo, Rich Campbell, Cliff Hackford, Dave Noyes, Mike Nugent, Al Santoriello, Paul Benedict, Delroy Lindo, Alison Miller
Best English-friendly release
· updated 6 months agoTheatrical Cut with unaltered sculpture: Initial DVD
Altered Cut: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
Best video release
Theatrical Cut with unaltered sculpture: Initial DVD with this red message: "The large white sculpture of human forms on the wall of John Milton's penthouse in "The Devil's Advocate" is not connected in any way and was not endorsed by the sculptor Frederick Hart or the Washington National Cathedral, joint copyright owners of the Cathedral sculpture "Ex Nihilo" in Washington D.C.".
Altered Cut: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray see caps
UHD tiers
Overview
Aspiring Florida defense lawyer Kevin Lomax accepts a job at a New York law firm. With the stakes getting higher every case, Kevin quickly learns that his boss has something far more evil planned.
Director: Taylor Hackford
Director: Arthur Penn
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Included in the Complete Kubrick box set with FiM encode of the same master from the WB release without the filtering, 1.85 ratio restored for US Cut; both US and International Cuts are 4K.
US Cut: 1999 WB DVD/Criterion 4K Blu-ray
No Blu-ray or DVD release until the Criterion 4K Blu-ray has presented the US in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The International Cut has never been presented in it's OAR of 1.66:1 in any home video releases.
The packaging on the back of the WB 4K Blu-ray incorrectly states it as 1.85:1 when the movie is actually 1.78:1 as is the original Blu-ray.
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Included in the Complete Kubrick box set with FiM encode of the same master from the WB release without the filtering, 1.85 ratio restored
Mono: Criterion 4K Blu-ray (restored for the box set)/1999 WB R1 DVD
5.1 remix: Criterion 4K Blu-ray
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Included in the Complete Kubrick box set with FiM encode of the same master from the WB release without the filtering Comparison between the Criterion and WB.
5.1: WB 4K Blu-ray, a remix but has higher fidelity
Mono: Criterion 4K Blu-ray (restored for the box set)
Director: Victor Fleming
3D: Warner Bros 3D Blu-ray or Apple Vision Pro
Director: Morton DaCosta
Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray Nov 24th
Director: David Lean
Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray Dec 1st
Director: Martin Rosen
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Roman Polanski
More Horror on Blu-ray
Director: Lewis Teague
> disappointing US Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray
Director: Alexandre Aja
Theatrical Cut: Austria NSM Blu-ray
Director's Cut: France Metropolitan Blu-ray
Metropolitan got better picture (higher bitrate + better grain + more detail) than Lionsgate
Director: Glen Morgan
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab)
> Germany Wicked Vision Blu-ray > US Flicker Alley Blu-ray see DVDBeaver caps
Director: George Pavlou
Arrow 4K Blu-ray teased
Germany Wicked Vision 4K Blu-ray better than US Kino Lorber?
Director: Roman Polanski
Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray see caps. Much better contrast and grain exposure but the grade is a bit questionable as it skews heavily towards magenta in some caps and the encode looks low-pass filtered.
Atmos Remix: Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray
Original 5.1: Imprint Australia Blu-ray or StudioCanal Germany/France Blu-ray
Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray encoded the "Original 5.1" as lossy Dolby Digital, which is very different from the AC3 on the original DVD. This new "Original 5.1" may in fact be a downmix of the Atmos track. FWIW, the original DVD AC3 still sounds very good.
Director: F. W. Murnau
2006 Restoration: Eureka Blu-ray
1995 photochemical restoration: BFI Blu-ray
Eureka with Murnau institute restoration featuring score based on original score, BFI uses Photoplay restoration with James Bernard score
Both Eureka and BFI Blu-rays are worthy of owning. Each restoration has unique positives and extras. The James Bernard score on the BFI is outstanding and the image tinting is different to how the Murnau institute official restoration was done. The Eureka MoC Blu-ray is stuffed with extras and remains one of the best-made Blu-rays of all time. Whatever you do: AVOID THE Kino Lorber Blu-ray!!! It uses the same Murnau institute restoration but drops frames for the whole feature - thus it loses a significant portion of the film! This was never acknowledged or addressed. The Kino Lorber Blu-ray remains one of the worst Blu-rays of all time for this reason.
Germany Filmjuwelen 4K Blu-ray is disappointing with AI upscaling
Director: Paul Leni
Theatrical/Original A negative: MoC Blu-ray
European C/D negative but better picture quality: Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
From DVDBeaver: The MoC Blu-ray is scanned from the American A negative, as opposed to the European C or D negatives used by Photoplay and others (Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray), so it is identical with the film US audiences saw in 1927
See caps for comparison
In addition, the Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has sepia tinting throughout while the MoC Blu-ray has yellow for normal scenes, blue for night scenes, and some even green tintings.
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