Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958)
I soliti ignoti
Comedy, Crime • 1h 31m
Director: Mario Monicelli
Cast: Vittorio Gassman, Renato Salvatori, Memmo Carotenuto, Rossana Rory, Carla Gravina, Claudia Cardinale, Marcello Mastroianni, Totò, Carlo Pisacane, Tiberio Murgia, Gina Rovere, Gina Amendola, Elvira Tonelli, Elena Fabrizi, Pasquale Misiano, Renato Terra, Aldo Trifiletti, Nino Marchetti, Mario De Simone, Mario Feliciani, Mimmo Poli, Gustavo Serena, Ida Masetti, Edith Bruck, Gianni Di Segni, Filippo Spoletini
Best English-friendly release · updated 9 months ago
Overview
Best friends Peppe and Mario are thieves, but they're not very good at it. Still, Peppe thinks that he's finally devised a master heist that will make them rich. With the help of some fellow criminals, he plans to dig a tunnel from a rented apartment to the pawnshop next door, where they can rob the safe. But his plan is far from foolproof, and the fact that no one in the group has any experience digging tunnels proves to be the least of their problems.
Director: Mario Monicelli
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
Kino Lorber Blu-ray doesn’t have good encoding, but according to BR, the English Cult Films Blu-ray is worse, and the original master just isn’t that good
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
While it's included on both Criterion The Palm Beach Story extras and Arrow's Sullivan's Travels' extras, Criterion uses a different source and is vastly superior, see caps
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Criterion Box Set
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray worse than Blu-ray with poor encoding (review)
Director: Wong Kar-Wai
2012 Criterion Blu-ray is the most accurate
4K Blu-ray unrecommended because of controversial colours, no HDR, minimal resolution uptick, and DNR master
The 4K Blu-ray 5.1 adds additional foley and effects.
Director: Charlie Chaplin
1928 version: Image Entertainment DVD
Sources: DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab) · caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)
1969 version: Criterion Blu-ray > UK Artificial Eye Blu-ray, see DVDBeaver caps.
Japan Kadokawa Blu-ray is the same as AE BD and inferior to Criterion too
Director: David Lynch
Sources: Reddit (opens in a new tab) · dvdexotica.com (opens in a new tab)
Criterion 4k resto, but it was AI upscaled although supervised and approved by Lynch https://www.reddit.com/r/davidlynch/comments/12klbw9/inland_empire_and_ai_upscaling/
See another detailed review: https://www.dvdexotica.com/2015/05/lets-get-serious-about-inland-empire.html
Director: Sidney Lumet
Criterion 4K Blu-ray replacement disc for fixed audio (there were some dialogues missing)
While the video on the replacement disc is exactly the same as the original release, the Atmos with missing lines has been corrected as it was also corrected on the Criterion commentary. Criterion also included the 6-track which is almost identical to the PAL track; It’s 4.0 in a 5.1 container. This 6-track is slightly better than the PAL DVD track as the PAL has some flutter on some parts that Criterion doesn’t have.
The Atmos on the replacement is identical to the Imprint AUS Blu-ray track which also has all the lines. The compatibility track is also the same,
It is worth mentioning the Imprint only has the Atmos and no 6-track. The 5.1 surround is with LFE and split surrounds and it’s just a downmix of the Atmos. Ditto for the LPCM 2.0 on said Blu-ray.
Directors: Benny Safdie & Josh Safdie
4K encode is low-pass filtered and noticeably so, which was unfortunately par for the course with Criterion 4Ks until sometime in 2024. Still better than the Criterion and Lionsgate Blu-Ray discs for the Dolby Vision grading alone.
Director: David Lynch
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray in December
Subtle difference in encoding to the Criterion in encoding, trading blows in different shots, with Plaion taking a slight edge with less highlight blocking
Criterion's 2.0 sounds muffled due to noise reduction and EQ.
Plaion's 2.0 lacks bass and has a very bright EQ, more resembling the 5.1 remix. Plaion’s 2.0 doesn't have any filtering unlike the Criterion, see https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=23831289&postcount=110
Director: Jūzō Itami
More Comedy on Blu-ray
Director: Preston Sturges
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
No information on French Elephant Films Blu-ray
Director: Jamie Babbit
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray is a disaster. The compression on the base layer is horrid, and the oversized 18 Mbps FEL barely helps.
Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray includes original matrixed Dolby Stereo mix, albeit lossy, and a 5.1 surround upmix. The stereo track on previous BD and DVD releases is also lossy and sounds about the same.
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Gaumont Blu-ray but no English subtitles: https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Deux-sous-de-violettes-Blu-ray/288976/
Director: René Clair
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
Director: Frank Oz
Theatrical Cut: Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray
Director's Cut: Warner Bros Blu-ray
The 4K Blu-ray has both a poor Dolby Atmos remix and the original theatrical Dolby Stereo mix in its best fidelity but only for the Theatrical Cut.
The Blu-ray has a 5.1 remix for the Director's Cut that, while inferior to the original theatrical Dolby Stereo mix, is still far superior to the Dolby Atmos remix on the 4K Blu-ray, and is the best option for the Director's Cut.
Only the DVD has the isolated score.
Director: Rob Reiner
Arrow 4K Blu-ray releasing December 14 2026
Director: Chris Columbus
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Disney 4K Blu-ray has encoding issues with bitrates dipping into 40mbps, and Kaleidescape has better encoding than Disney see caps
Old Fox Blu-ray master is stretched and sharpened
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