Carlito's Way (1993)
Crime, Drama, Thriller • 2h 24m
Director: Brian De Palma
Cast: Al Pacino, Sean Penn, Penelope Ann Miller, John Leguizamo, Ingrid Rogers, Luis Guzmán, James Rebhorn, Joseph Siravo, Viggo Mortensen, Richard Foronjy, Jorge Porcel, Frank Minucci, Adrian Pasdar, John Ortiz, Ángel Salazar, Al Israel, Rick Aviles, Jaime Sánchez, Edmonte Salvato, Paul Mazursky, Tera Tabrizi, Víctor Sierra, Caesar Cordova, Jon Seda, Ruben Rivera, Sherie Mambru, Brenda Hernandez, Elliot Santiago, Frank Ferrara Sr., John Glenn Hoyt, Chuck Zito, Stephen Puente, Tony Cucci, Alfred Sauchelli, Jr., Anthony Catanese, Sam Weber, Sonny Zito, Walter T. Meade, Michael Hadge, Richard Council, Lindsay Lombardi, James Bulleit, Crystal Haney, Gregory Mitchell, Mel Gorham, Rocco Sisto, John Finn, Brian Tarantina, Jamie Tirelli, Owen Hollander, John Michael Bolger, Ralph Destino, Jr., Vincent Jerman-Jerosa, Luke Toma, Frank Pietrangolare, Mike Girard Sheehan, Dean Rader Duval, Gene Canfield, Sharmagne Leland-St. John, Rene Rivera, Orlando Urdaneta, Troy A. Hawes, Kim Rideout, Drita Barak, Christopher Bregman, Natalia Rey, Joe Conzo, Gaetano Lisi, Debra Niewald, Christina Murphy, Julieta Ortega, Mary C. Hammett, Debbie Benitez, Roberta Mathes, Freddy Rios, Mike Ramos, Yelba Osorio, Nelson Vasquez, Jason Daryn, Dan Brennan, Michael P. Moran, Vincent Pastore, Garry Pastore, Cynthia Lamontagne, Bo Dietl, Kato, James V. Miller, Marc Anthony, Pete Macnamara, Daniel Margotta, Coati Mundi, Ángel Ramírez, Cice Rivera, Saundra Santiago, Bill Weeden, Garlan Green, Denise Vasquez, Kyle Wyatt, Ryohei Kanokogi
Arrow 4K Blu-ray
Best English-friendly release · updated 3 months ago
UHD tiers
original audio included, more extras
original audio & more extras
Overview
A Puerto-Rican ex-con, just released from prison, pledges to stay away from drugs and violence despite the pressure around him, and lead a better life outside NYC.
Director: Jean Vigo
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
France Rimini 4K Blu-ray see caps vs Artificial Eye Blu-ray
Directors: Alberto Cavalcanti & Charles Crichton & Basil Dearden & Robert Hamer
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Director: Otakar Vávra
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Deaf Crocodile 4K Blu-ray see nic review
Restored: Deaf Crocodile 4K Blu-ray
Unrestored: Czech PAL DVD
Preferences will vary, the restored track sounds good, but not necessarily faithful to the original elements.
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
(Indicator 4K Blu-ray, based on review)
Director: Anthony Mann
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Director: Basil Dearden
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Indicator 4K Blu-ray. Excellent 4K master and encode, except for opticals grain is very fine, grading is beautifully silvery and luminous, nice HDR re-grade by Fidelity in Motion
Director: Brian De Palma
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Arrow 4K Blu-ray has a better encode than the Kino Lorber and Capelight 4K Blu-rays. Capelight 4K Blu-ray looks low-passed in comparison to the Arrow but is slightly closer to the Arrow in PQ than the Kino Lorber.
Director: Brian De Palma
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Radiance 4K Blu-ray see caps vs Arrow
Director: Brian De Palma
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
2024 Arrow 4K Blu-ray
Director: Brian De Palma
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Paramount 4K Blu-ray despite issues
Laserdisc Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 matrix Dolby Surround, VHS hifi 2.0 Dolby Surround, Cinema DTS
The film was remixed for the first DVD to remove a great deal of the bass and tame the LFE channel. Every version since uses this revised mix. Only the Laserdisc and release prints have the original theatrical 5.1 discrete mix. The 2.0 matrix version also has the low end intact on LD and VHS. Just demo the main title or the aquarium restaurant glass explosion and you’ll note the difference immediately.
The first DVD while porting the LD and vhs master is where the audio remix happened. The remix still sounds good but it was an unnecessary compromise to place on one of the great mixes of all time. The UHD also uses the remix.
The Paramount UHD is ok though it has some frozen grain and some HDR issues as expected of a screwy Paramount master.
Director: Brian De Palma
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Indicator Blu-ray's 2.0: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=23006090&postcount=590
Director: Brian De Palma
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Director: Brian De Palma
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
R2/R4 DVD DD 4.0
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Director: Brian De Palma
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
2022 Criterion 4K Blu-ray
Director: Bob Clark
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Scream Factory 4K Blu-ray
UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray in December
Scream Factory 4K Blu-ray
Director: David Lynch
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray in December
Criterion 4K Blu-ray or Germany Plaion 4K Blu-ray - subtle difference in encoding to the Criterion in encoding, trading blows in different shots, with Plaion taking a slight edge with less highlight blocking
1993 MGM LaserDisc/2000 Region 1 MGM DVD
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: John Woo
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray > US Shout! Factory, better encoding by Engine House and redone opening credits, errors present in Shout! Factory fixed
Arrow 4K Blu-ray, mono is from an alternate higher fidelity source than Shout! Factory.
Director: Fred M. Wilcox
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: YouTube (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Arrow 4K Blu-ray used what was also originally screened theatrically: The Perspecta Stereo 3.0 and a mono option. The Perspecta track sounds best with better dynamic range and was set as default with the mono as optional. The previous releases stereo were downmixes of a now lost original 4-track, and it sounds very thin as a result. See comparison
Director: Tsui Hark
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray or Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray or Australia Imprint 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray or Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray or Australia Imprint 4K Blu-ray
There is a newer 4K restoration by L’Immagine Ritrovata, which should be of better scan quality. The 4K restoration used on all current 4K disc releases stems from a low-quality Cintel scanner. The newer restoration has yet to be released on home video.
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
UK Shameless 4K Blu-ray or US Arrow 4K Blu-ray
Both the US Arrow 4K Blu-ray and UK Shameless 4K Blu-ray are better than the horrible grade of the France Le Chat Qui Fume which has blacks looking greenish and milky with some yellow push. However, comparing these two, there's significant tradeoffs; Arrow has less black crush and some shots seems to be better graded but it's worse in some shots with a slight magenta grade; the UK Shameless 4K Blu-ray has a better color grading.
UK Shameless 4K Blu-ray and US Arrow 4K Blu-ray have exclusive extras
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: capelight.de (opens in a new tab)
Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray > Paramount US, same black crush as the US disc but encoded by FiM and very good new supplements
Paramount US 4K Blu-ray has FEL Dolby Vision
Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray has MEL Dolby Vision
Director: John Carpenter
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Universal 4K Blu-ray. Maybe Turbine Blu-ray instead for better audio?
Sources: blog.sporv.com (opens in a new tab)
1997? Signature Collection LD
Good: 2017 Arrow and 2016 Shout! Factory Blu-ray have the original audio options.
the only track on Universal 4K, which is in DTS:X, has a mixing error of around 6dB too low on side channels, otherwise very similar to other 5.1 mixes.
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Director: Rob Reiner
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab) · instagram.com (opens in a new tab)
UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray > US Kino Lorber/Germany Capelight - caps and audio comparison on this page. Discussion is still ongoing about the 2.0 but as none of the three 4Ks seem to have the true original mix, I think it's fair to leave them all in the blue tier for now and only note that Kino Lorber has the worst PQ.
The initial release of the Capelight 4K mediabook had some playback issues with Dolby Vision on Panasonic devices due to an encoding error, the HDR10 apparently works fine, see Capelight’s official response here.
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