Rawhead Rex Can't Be Stopped!!! Transmutations, I'm Not So Sure About...

Clive Barker has essentially disowned the first two film adaptations of his writings, Rawhead Rex and Transmutations, even though he also wrote the screenplays for both. You don't have to search long or hard to find interviews where he talks about their low budgets and general "not getting it" that inspired him to become a director for Hellraiser, so he could make sure his work was represented properly. In fact, let's not mince words.  He's gone so far as to say, "Oh, I hated them with a passion! I haven't seen them for many a long year and hope never to see them again." But, while they're certainly not up to the level of Hellraiser, they're still enjoyable little films for cult and horror fans - certainly better than many - and it's a shame they're so poorly represented in most of the world by low-quality, full-frame discs.

Meanwhile, in France, there's a horror magazine called Mad Movies. I've never read it (it being in French and all), but I gather it's their Fangoria equivalent. And they've written that they have quite a good relationship with Barker based on articles in the past, and so in 2009, they released his first two films on their own line of DVDs. Now, I don't believe it went as far as Barker actually being involved with these releases personally - I don't imagine they actually got him to watch those movies again, and he hasn't provided any interviews or anything for special features. And neither has anybody else, there are no special editions, but they are the first and only releases of the film in their OAR widescreen ratios.

Update 2/5/15 - 10/7/17: Well, Kino has done it.  Later this month will see a brand new, 4k special edition blu-ray of Rawhead Rex.  And it's pretty fantastic.  Read on.

Update 3/26/21: And they've done it again.  Kino has re-released Rawhead Rex as a 2020 steelbook, which ordinarily wouldn't be so noteworthy except to dedicated steelbook collectors.  But in this case, it has all new extras and even an updated transfer?  Read on...er.  Read further on!

Update 4/2/23: Kino just won't stop doin' it.  Now they've re-re-released good ol' Rawhead as a 4k Ultra HD/ BD combo-pack, taking this unstoppable beast into the latest generation of home video.  Read on-est!  Read all the way!

If you've read Barker's story, it's easy to be disappointed in Rawhead Rex. It's a wild, over-the-top story of a mad demigod running amuck in modern times, told from his perspective and full of crazy inner monologue. In the movie, he's a completely non-verbal monster. And the special effects, while a great design, were clearly not meant to be seen by the camera so directly or for so long; and so it looks like a big, phony mask (in some shots they just about get away with it; in others they clearly don't). A few other clever bits of writing in the plot points are lost, too, as well as some social commentary. If ever a movie called for a remake, it's this one.

But if you can get past the coulda woulda shouldas of it, the movie we're left with is still pretty cool. It's a fun, violent monster movie that still retains enough remnants of Barker's script to set it above and beyond the generic monster movie. Not the least of which is the villainous priest character who rejects Christ to worship and serve Rex. Scenic locales, a flush orchestral score, a cool monster even if it is on the cheap, and a collection of respectable performances are all enjoyable. This is the kind of monster movie that's not afraid to take out children, and while this Rex doesn't speak, they do use the opportunity to have his crazy priest speak for him ("he sees what I see!"). It may not be Barker's wild story fully realized, but it's still more cool stuff going on than your average monster movie of the period, a la the recently popular The Boogens.

So the French DVD was pretty neat - I wish I still had one of the old, cruddy fullscreen DVDs, just to show how much farther most people who never tracked down this obscure French DVD are coming - but finally, finally! In 2017, Kino rendered it obsolete by giving Rawhead Rex the proper special edition it deserves.  And I'm not just talking special features (although, we certainly are talking special features as well), but a brand new 4k restoration from the original camera negative in HD on blu-ray!  Forget anything in the past, the slate was wiped clean.  And then they came back with even their newer edition, the 2020 limited (to 4000 copies) steelbook edition.  But even that wasn't enough, as now they're back with their newst 2023 edition, a UHD/ BD combo-pack.

1) 2009 Mad Movies DVD; 2) 2017 Kino BD;
3) 2020 Kino BD; 4) 2023 Kino UHD.

Mad Movies presented Rawhead Rex in an anamorphic widescreen edition that was certainly a nice improvement over the prior discs. It's slightly pillar-boxed to about 1.73:1, whereas Kino's new blu is slightly letterboxed to 1.85:1.  What this ultimately leaves us with is less image along the top, but more along the bottom and left-hand side.  I'd say Kino's framing is better, and probably more accurate, but they're not that different from each other. Mad Movies had gotten it pretty close.  But where Kino really excels is in straight up picture quality.  It's so much sharper and clearer.  It made what I thought was a pretty decent DVD at the time look like a murky mess.  Kino has a cooler, more robust color palette, and I don't see how anybody could be unhappy when comparing this to anything we've ever had before.

And the 2020 blu?  Well, naturally it isn't such a drastic bound ahead, but it is different.  And not just different; it's an improvement.  It's absolutely a better encode.  Where grain was patchy, it's now more consistent.  But that's the sort of thing you'll only notice in a comparison of close-ups like we do here.  Just watching it on your TV, the only difference you're likely to spot is that the newer version is darker.  And I'm not sure if that's any better or worse honestly; it's just a slightly different look.

If you're here for the real upgrade, you've got to take the extra step to the 2023 UHD (the BD in the combo-pack is just a copy of the 2020 disc).  This is a new 4k restoration from the OCN, not just the previous one slapped onto a 3840 disc.  The framing is still matted to 1.85:1, but pulls back to reveal more around all four sides, and grain is now really strongly captured, definitely a big boost even over the 2020 BD.  The color palette's a little warmer, splitting a bit of the difference between the DVD and previous blus.  Bold colors like Rawhead's eyes pop like never before without the rest of the image looking over-saturated.  Honestly, I felt a bit let down by the 2020 BD, at least in terms of PQ, but this absolutely makes up for it.  This is how Rawhead Rex should look.

Transmutations (aka Underworld) is more of a mess. Rawhead Rex disappointed audiences by over-simplifying, but this film could've done with a bit of that. It's full of Clive Barker themes, though, which should please fans at least. You've got a noir-ish detective as the lead, investigating the supernatural (a la Lord of Illusions). And he stumbles upon an underground collection of unique monsters who at first appear menacing but turn out to be the good guys (a la Nightbreed). These monsters are actually mutations, the result of an evil doctor, played by the always effective Denholm Elliot, giving them experimental and addictive drugs. There are also some British mobster types and a prostitute who's so beautiful everyone falls in love with her and who happens to have magical powers... or something. It makes enough sense to follow the story, but when you start to ask detailed questions, its internal logic kinda falls apart. Plus it looks cheap again. But it's energetic and entertaining enough for a casual viewing, and it's got a colorful 80s music video look.

Transmutations is once again slightly pillar-boxed to 1.73:1 and looks pretty nice. Sure there's room for plenty of improvement in an HD release, but it's pretty attractive for DVD. It helps that the film was shot with so many bright, neon colors that have a soft, smoothing effect. Unfortunately, I don't think this is as good as a movie even as Rawhead Rex, so I don't think there's as many fans interested in this film regardless of what's presented here. But if you are keen to watch this movie, this is certainly the version to see.

 

 

Since these are French discs, they both have French audio dubs and French subtitles. But the subs are removable, and the original English audio tracks are also present in stereo.  For Rawhead though, Kino of course conquers (on the 2017, 2020 and 2023s), offering both the original stereo track and a new 5.1 mix, both in DTS-HD.  And they also include optional English subs.

Neither DVD has any extras, not even trailers. But Kino's blus deliver.  First, the 2017 edition has an audio commentary by director George Pavlou, and it's great to finally hear his side of the story, after years of only reading Clive trash the early films.  Then, there's a series of great interviews, including Heinrich von Bunau, the actor in the Rawhead suit, spoken in German with English subtitles.  Then there's an interview with Ronan Wilmot, who played the priest who serves under Rex.  Next, is a featurette editing together separate interviews with all of the effects artists who worked on this film: Gerry Johnston, Peter Mackenzie Litten, John Schoonraad and Rosie Blackmore.  And the final interview is with artist Stephen R. Bissette, who adapted Rawhead to comic book form in the 90s, and who also has a lot to say about how the movie compares to Barker's original story.  There's also a nice gallery of original concept art, the original theatrical trailer, and a stylish booklet with notes by Kat Ellinger of Diabolique Magazine.  Kino's blu has features reversible cover art and comes in a cool slip box, pictured below.

And the 2020 steelbook?  It has everything the 2017 disc has (including the booklet, though not the outer slipbox and obviously not the reversible artwork) and more.  Crucially, it has two new featurettes, one with the two child stars, now of course grown up, which is a lot of fun as they have some unique memories of the shoot.  The other one is good, too, a cheerful and engaging interview with the film's composer.  Are they worth upgrading for?  That may be a tough call, but they do make the special edition even more special.

There's nothing new for 2023, but it does include all the extras from the 2020 steelbook... after all, the 2020 disc is the second disc of this set.  They've dropped the booklet, but reversible artwork is back, and this latest release comes in a slipcover.

I've seen Mad Movies' Transmutations DVD referred to as being out of print and hard to find, but I think that's just some confusion about it being available chiefly through Mad Movies' online store. It's actually pretty cheap and in stock as of this writing; you can get it here.  There's no more reason to bother with their Rawhead DVD, of course; Kino has trumped it in every regard (three times, even); but their Transmutations disc is still the best one on the market.  I vaguely recall Kino announcing a Transmutations 4k disc around the same time they announced their Rawhead release, but I've yet to hear anything further since.

Mallrats: Night of Mallterror

Well hey, it's April Fool's Day!  This calls for something light and silly... how about Kevin Smith's Mallrats?  That's one I've had on my to-do list for a long time, with multiple editions ready to compare even before Arrow swooped in with their fancy, limited edition restoration.  Maybe it's not the most essential title, but it's perfect for today.

I discovered 1995's Mallrats when it hit home video like most of America.  I'd been aware of its theatrical run, but it was a huge surprise when it turned out I thought this by-the-numbers teen hormone comedy starring Beverly Hills 90210's Shannon Doherty was actually pretty brilliant!  I never would've touched it if I hadn't recognized it was from the same writer/ director as the indie darling Clerks.  That was just enough to push me into a "well, I've already seen everything else in the store, but boy is this going to suck" rental.  The names Jeremy London, Jason Lee, Joey Lauren Adams and Ben Affleck all meant nothing to me at the time, though I did recognize Michael Rooker from Henry: Portrait Of a Serial Killer, which was a touch of inspired casting.

"The dirt mall" a.k.a. the US1 Flea Market,
a place that was just as awesome as it's depicted in the film.

Watching it today, it doesn't entirely hold up, but a lot of it still works.  Much of Mallrats is an endearingly crude send-up of the kind of films it was marketed as, but there are some points where it's just the filmmakers being genuinely immature and letting us down.  Never mind the stuff that hasn't "aged well," like the jokes/ crucial plot point surrounding "Trish the Dish" and child molestation.  But Lee is the perfect actor for Smith's voice, like Fellini's Mastroianni, and this is some of his smartest writing, in a vehicle that works better than any of his subsequent work, which rapidly descended into Awful territory (sorry, View Askew fam).  This and Clerks are the only two Smith films I need in my collection as an adult; "I have no respect for people with no shopping agenda" is still one of my all-time favorite movie lines.

Mallrats debuted as a special edition DVD in 1999 from Universal, including over an hour of lost footage.  There was actually supposed to be a laserdisc, too.  There'd already been a barebones one out for a few years, but the new special edition laser and DVD were supposed to coincide.  I actually went to New York where Smith was signing copies on release date, and that's where I found out the laser had been cancelled and there were only DVDs.  This was before I had a DVD player, and I was so annoyed I never bought the original DVD until it was reissued as part of Universal's "High School Reunion Collection," along with other teen-lead titles like Fast Times At Ridgemont High, Weird Science and Dazed & Confused.  Actually, all of the main characters in Mallrats are post-high school age, but who's counting?  Obviously not Universal.  Anyway, as soon as I copped that, it was reissued as a restored 2-disc set in 2004 with an all new director's cut and everything.  D'oh!

It was reissued a few more times along the way, including as a 2009 "Triple Feature Film Set" with Fletch and Happy Gilmore before ultimately being released on blu in 2014.  Universal's reissued that a time or two, too - my copy is a 2018 release.  But in 2020, Arrow came to sweep the playing field, giving the film a new 4k restoration, 3 cuts and even more new extras in a fancy, 2-disc limited edition.  And in 2022, they released the unlimited single disc standard edition.  Don't worry, though, I've got the 2-discer, so we can examine everything.

1) 2003 Universal DVD; 2) 2004 Universal DVD; 3) 2009 Universal DVD;
4) 2018 Universal BD; 5) 2020 Arrow BD; 6) 2020 Arrow bonus BD.

[This first shot is missing from Arrow's TV edit.]

Starting with the 1999 DVD, it's not bad.  It's slightly windowboxed to 1.82:1, which, hey, is close (all the rest are letterboxed to a proper 1.85).  But it's anamorphic, progressive, the colors look accurate - that's pretty solid for a disc from the 90s.  But it does get better in 2004; they didn't just add extras.  The AR's fixed, the colors are brighter/ stronger, and the compression is stronger, sharpening up detail (look at Lee's teeth in the first set of shots, for instance).  It was a nice upgrade.  So it's interesting, then, that the 2009 DVD goes back to the old 1999 transfer.  I initially assumed the Triple Feature, which puts Fletch and Happy Gilmore together on disc 1, was just throwing in disc 1 of the 2004 set in as their second disc, but nope, they went backwards.  I guess they used the set as a way to offload their remaining stock of the out-dated discs.  Oh well, nobody's messing with that Triple Feature DVD in the HD era anymore anyway.

So let's talk blus.  It's another upgrade, but not by a whole lot.  The 2004 DVD was a bigger advancement from the 2003 DVD than the 2014 BD is to the 2004 DVD.  It's got cleaner edges and clears up the lumpy compression artifacts that are standing in for film grain, but that's about it.  Grain is barely hinted at, and granted, this is a movie with fine grain, but we should see somethin'.  And we do, finally, on Arrow's new disc.  Now it finally looks like film.  And while it's still matted to 1.85:1, we get a little more image around the edges of the frame.  Because this is a fresh, 4k scan of the 35mm OCN, except for the additional scenes added to the Director's Cut.

1) 2004 Universal DVD; 2) 2018 Universal BD; 3) 2020 Arrow BD.

So these are the three discs that offer the director's cut, which is really like an arbitrarily extended cut.  Basically, that hour+ of deleted scenes from the 1999 DVD were cut back into the film to create this overlong alternate version, which really does not play as well.  It's less funny and the pacing is a slog.  It's nice to have as a curiosity for serious Smith fans, but honestly, these should have stayed as deleted scenes.  It was wild to see how far afield the story once went (Jeremy London gets in a shoot-out with the mayor while dressed as a soldier from the Revolutionary War!), but all that's best consumed as deleted scenes.  Anyway, every disc also presents this film matted to 1.85:1.  For Arrow's new remaster, a "35mm interpositive element was also scanned in 4k for the content unique to the Director's Cut version," approved by Smith and DoP David Klein.  As you'd expect, then, the added footage doesn't look quite as good as the rest, but it's not bad, and you could easily miss the switch from the Theatrical to Director's Cut footage.  Universal's blu still benefits from HD, clearing up that compression and sharpening its edges.  And Arrow's grain structure isn't as thorough as the rest of the film, but it still improves on the older blus, once again zooming around to reveal extra picture along the edges.  In fact, it adds a bit more to this footage than the rest.

And Arrow's TV cut is mostly identical to the theatrical.  Their booklet explains that it "contains a few instances where an alternate take were used in the assembly.  ...These takes have been inserted using the best possible elements available."  And that switch is a lot more obvious, looking like a zoomed in video-tape source, ever so slightly window-boxed to 1.85:1.  But I guess the flaws are all part of the charm of the TV cut, since the biggest selling point is the poorly over-dubbed curse words and the "fake Jay" they have replacing Mewes lines, since he never went to the ADR sessions.  That's vaguely amusing, but they show clips of it in the other extras on these discs, so there's no real reason to have included this as a whole other cut in the set.  But hey, you can't be mad at Arrow for erring on the side of giving you everything they possibly can (although, as we'll see in a bit, they didn't quite do that).

So let's talk audio.  Universal has pretty much always given us the one 5.1 mix with optional English subtitles for everything, including the DC.  They bumped it up to DTS-HD on the blu, and the DVDs also included a French dub (on the Theatrical Cut only), with an additional Spanish dub on the 2004 disc, but that's the underwhelming story.  So that's another nice thing about Arrow, they recovered the original stereo mix.  So both cuts have both the 2.0 and 5.1 in DTS-HD with optional English subtitles, though the TV cut just has a lossy 2.0 (with the optional English subs).  But again, the flaws are part of its charm, I guess.

Extras are plentiful, too, and a little more complicated than I thought when I first pre-ordered my Arrow set a couple years ago.  The 1999 DVD (and my 2003 version) start us off rather nicely.  There's an audio commentary by Smith along with his producer Scott Mosier, Jason Lee, Ben Affleck, Jason Mewes and moderator Vincent Pereira.  If you're familiar with Smith commentaries, you know they're robust and boisterous, but still manage to impart some good insight and behind-the-scenes info.  You won't want to miss it.  There's also the 60+ minutes of deleted scenes, which are introduced/ hosted by Smith and Pereira, an over 20-minute making of featurette, a music video, fullscreen trailer, and an easter egg of Smith and Pereira basically making fun of DVD easter eggs.

The 2004 DVD, and Universal's later blu-rays, have all of that and more.  Besides adding the extended cut, they add a new intro to the cut by Smith to explain what you're about to see, a 50+ reunion Q&A with the Smith and the stars, a new 20+ minute retrospective, outtakes, on-set cast interviews, a sarcastic and surprisingly caustic Q&A with Smith, some bonus trailers and a whole bunch more easter eggs (a total of eight, including the one from 1999), mostly consisting of additional outtakes and interview clips.

Arrow keeps most of that, but loses a few key pieces, including the original 1999 'making of' featurette.  They also ditch the 50 minute Q&A and about twelve minutes of easter egg outtakes and fun little bits.  But they've added new stuff, which I have to admit, is a worthwhile trade.  There are two new interviews with Smith (one exclusively dedicated to producer Jim Jacks, who passed away in 2014) and one with Mewes.  And yes, all these extras get redundant and anecdotes start to repeat, but there's some good new info and hindsight in this stuff.  Then there are two featurettes that interview a bunch of crew members for the first time - one of them's animated, since they clearly only got audio recordings, but these are still great.  And that's just what's new on disc 1.

If you sprung for the Limited Edition, there's a whole second disc.  Besides the two alternate cuts, the bonus blu also offers another intro by Smith, this time for the TV, a vintage EPK featurette for the film's soundtrack, with Smith and Mosier talking about the bands they got to work with, two stills galleries, a new easter egg with Smith telling a funny anecdote about the Easter Bunny scene, and most impressively, two full hours worth of dailies from the original shoot.  The picture quality is a mess, and casual fans will be bored, but die-hards should be riveted.  The limited edition also includes a full-color 24-page booklet, a double-sided poster of both in-movie schematics, one of Arrow's standard film cards (mine was for Shock), reversible artwork and a slipcover.

Honestly, I think Arrow would've been better served forgetting the TV cut and hanging onto those extras they dropped, but it is what it is.  Any serious Mallrats fan needs at least the single disc of Arrow's not insubstantial upgrade, if not the limited edition for the second disc and swag.  But they'll probably want to hang onto an older Universal release for the additional extras as well.

...And if you missed the LE, don't sweat it.  Just as I'm finishing up typing this, I see Arrow has announced a proper UHD version, with Dolby Vision/ HDR and everything from the 2-disc set!  Between this, Time Bandits and Fear and Loathing all getting updates announced this month as I'm writing about them, I'm becoming convinced I have supernatural powers.  I'll have to remember to use them for good.  😁

The Remains Of the Day In Full Bloom

You may've guessed what my second Twilight Time post would be, since I named this film in my Twilight Time #1 post.  Sony double-featured the two films on DVD in 2010, though they don't have much to do with each other apart from starring Emma Thompson and having come out only a couple years apart (The Remains Of the Day in 1993, then Sense and Sensibility in 1995).  But they were also two must have blus from Twilight Time, so here we are.

Update 6/23/19 - 3/26/23: Sorry, this update's been a little delayed... I've had to go through two defective copies to arrive at a fully functioning disc.  But looking around online, no one else has been reporting problems, so I assume it's just been my bad luck.  Anyway, I have it in hand now: Sony's 4k Ultra HD of Remains, released last month and looking stunning.

The Remains Of the Day is the second of two back-to-back films where Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson are at possible romantic odds with each other, directed by James Ivory, produced by Ismael Merchant, and written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.  The other, of course, being Howards End.  Certainly, there's a lot to distinguish the two, but since neither title particularly sets its film apart (one is abstractly vague and the other's just the name of the house), my short-hand for differentiating them is that this is the one with Christopher Reeves.  That's somebody you don't come across in a lot of English films.  So just commit that little "Remains Of the Day = Christopher Reeves" formula to memory, and you'll never confuse the two again.

But let's get serious about Remains Of the Day, because it deserves it.  Based on a novel by Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro, this film takes place in two timelines, before and after the second world war.  In the latter, head butler Hopkins has to come to grips with the fact that he devoted his life and everything he believed in to the lord of his house, who turned out to be an infamous Nazi sympathizer.  Mike Nichols was originally set to direct, and he stayed on to produce after he had to drop out, giving the film to the Merchant/ Ivory team as the material was obviously in their wheelhouse.  The whole cast is superb (yes, even Reeves), including pitch perfect supporting performances by Peter Vaughan, James Fox and Hugh Grant.

The Remains Of the Day has had a pretty simple life on home video.  It was released on DVD by Sony in 2001 as a pretty attractive special edition.  There was that double-feature disc with Sense in 2010, but otherwise that one DVD has been the whole story until 2013, when Sony released it on blu in the UK and other foreign regions.  Two years later, and Twilight Time brought it home to the US with their edition in 2015.  And now in 2023, Sony has upgraded it to a proper 4k Ultra HD disc in the US and several other regions.

1) 2001 Sony DVD; 2) 2015 Twilight Time BD; 3) 2023 Sony UHD.

Okay, I left the negative space around the first set of shots so you can see how the old DVD is slightly window-boxed.  Back in 2001, I guess that all would've fallen into overscan area anyway, but it does change the aspect ratio from 2.33:1 on the DVD to an even wider 2.39:1 now on the blu.  Curiously, even with those vertical bars and narrower ratio, the DVD manages to have slightly more info along the sides.  That's because the DVD is slightly squished, which the BD corrects.  Colors remain almost the same, although there is a bit of a red overcast that the blu-ray clears up (look at the sky behind Hugh in the first shots).  And while the DVD was anamorphic, non-interlaced and generally quite good for such an older disc, the blu is still a big win with crisp detail and finely rendered grain.  The DVD also shows some serious artifacting along its edges, which the blu happily removes.  All in all, Twilight Time gave us an even greater improvement than I was expecting to find in this comparison.

Now, Sony's announcement for their UHD described it as being "previously restored in 4k," and indeed it seems to utilize the same scan going back to 2013, certainly still 2.39:1 and almost identically framed to the 2015 BD seen here.  But this master has a new Dolby Vision/ HDR grade, approved by Mr. Ivory, and of course we're finally getting it in full 4k resolution (this is a 3-layer disc with over 76 GB dedicated to just the main feature itself).  And yes, the grain looks much more smooth and natural.  By comparison, it appears chaotic and digital on the BD.  That was a world above the DVD, but it doesn't look like TT gave it the kind of top quality encode Sony would have.  And that combined with the full res disc really enhances the naturalism of the image when you examine it up close, and even when you don't, small detail that gets blown out to pixelation or contrast is retained on the new UHD.  And the colors really pop now.  If there's any potential criticism of the new release it's that maybe they've gone a bit overboard, the grass from the windows behind characters indoors, for instance, is positively radiating green.  But it sure looks beautiful.  The blacks are deep, the whites are bright and all the colors look truer than ever before, and quite strong at that.

There was one minor disappointment with Twilight Time in the audio department as well.  The original DVD gave us the choice beween the original stereo mix and a new 5.1, plus French, Portuguese and Spanish dubs with English, Chinese, French, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish and Thai subtitle options.  Twilight Time unsurprisingly drops the foreign language options, but they also dropped the original stereo track.  So we just got the 5.1 (though now in lossless DTS-HD) and English subs.

Sony went all out on their new UHD, though, bringing back the stereo mix, now in lossless DTS-HD, retaining the 5.1 DTS-HD and introducing a new Dolby Atmos track.  All that truly matters is that stereo mix, but you can't be mad at more options, and techies will like the new, cutting edge track.  They've also added seven foreign language dubs, and nineteen subtitle options, including both standard English and HoH.  So whatever you wanted, you've got it here now.

Sony's original DVD was pretty nice with the special features, too.  It features a lively audio commentary with Ivory, Merchant and Thompson, which strikes a nice balance between the seriously informative and anecdotal.  There are several deleted scenes, also with optional commentary, and three substantial featurettes that add up to roughly 75 minutes of 'making of' content, including interviews with all the stars, writers and major players, and some B-roll glimpses behind-the-scenes.  We're definitely talking more than your standard promotional quickie.  You also got the trailer and an insert with chapter stops.

Thankfully, Twilight Time retains all of that.  They don't add much more, but that's alright considering how much we already got.  The 2013 foreign blus seem to have dropped the commentary, but it's back here.  And they do add their signature isolated score track, of course.  Plus they throw in a second, international trailer and an 8-page booklet with notes by Julie Kirgo.  But basically, all the good stuff comes from the DVD.

And the UHD stays virtually the same, too.  All the DVD stuff is here, including the commentary, but we lose TT's isolated score track and the booklet.  Their international trailer got to stay, however, and it now comes in a sleek, stylish slipcover.

So this is an easy recommendation.  A great presentation of a great film.  The Twilight Time release was nice for its time, but this is down-right definitive, with its new HDR 4k presentation and the original stereo track, lossless for the first time.  This is a real "put this in your system to impress your friends" disc, and a film that truly deserves it.