Update Megaweek, Day 13: Controversial Blus: The Informant!

I haven't really considered myself a fan of Steven Soderbergh in a long time. I remember liking Sex, Lies & Videotape (I need to go back to and revisit that one), Kafka was at least an interesting effort and Schizopolis was quite good. But after that, his films seem to range from the decent (Out of Sight, Erin Brokovich) to the poor (The Girlfriend Experience, anyone?) fairly adrift in a sea of unwanted remakes (Ocean's 11, Solaris, Traffic). So The Informant! really took me by surprise. It's brilliant, like all of the strengths he showed in his past work combined with none of the flaws to make this movie. Unfortunately, the DVD for it was a little disappointing.

Update 4/20/15 - 5/14/26: Update Megaweek is nearing its close, and today I've got two UHDs (and a BD) I've had burning up my to-do list.  Here we've got Warner's 2025 4k Informant! upgrade, which hopefully resolves the issues previous releases had.  And I've also gone and updated the Quick & the Dead page with the French BD and UHD, which are currently the only way to watch the full, uncut version in 4k.  Big updatin' day, but I'm not done yet!

Matt Damon stars as Mark Whitacre, the real life informant of an international price-fixing conspiracy of lysine that happened in the mid 90s. It's a true story, an involving human drama, and a comedy. It's a constant neck-and-neck race between the writing and the performances, including Scott Bakula as Damon's FBI contact whose connection is more crooked and crazy than the people he's investigating. There's actually lots of great comic actors in the supporting roles, including Rick Overton, Patton Oswalt and even The Smothers Brothers. But its way of staying right on the edge of being a straight-forward depiction of actual events vs. an out and out comedy that makes it so effective on multiple levels at once.

So now, what I've got here is the single disc version of the US blu-ray from Warner Bros. Initial pressings of The Informant were a blu-ray/ DVD combo pack; but this is one of the later copies, where it's just the blu-ray by itself.  Confusingly, they have the same UPC and outer-packaging, except the combo had a sticker on the front.  So anyway, then I've got the stand-alone DVD release - rather than the other half of the combo pack - to compare it to. And of course now I'm adding the 2025 UHD.

I remember this blu-ray getting a lot of flack when it came out, and I can see why. But I'm not sure I agree with all of it. Certainly the fact that this is a single layer disc is a red flag. This film was shot digitally, and Soderbergh has definitely made some choices to make the film look less than perfectly beautiful. So reviewing this disc can be a frustrating game of 'But Is It Supposed To Look Like That?'  This film tends to blow out the contrast, for example, which is surely a deliberate part of the film's look, as opposed to an instance like Sony's recent rash of discs with black crush. For this review, I've gone back and read all of the Informant reviews I could find online, and I have to say I can't locate all the flaws I've seen referenced. A couple of reviews mention aliasing or macroblocking that, stepping through this frame by frame, I just can't pinpoint.

But that said, it's not like I don't see anything to criticize. There's some light juttering when Damon makes his initial walk through the office, on both the DVD and blu. Something is definitely going on there. One review I read refers to it as aliasing, but I don't see any actual aliasing. The scene is full of little lines - horizontal blinds, cubicles, squares in the ceiling - and they never split. There's some standard motion blur since it's a tracking shot of a character walking swiftly through, but the issue can't really be captured in a screenshot because it's about the relation of one frame to the next. It's not constant - Damon makes a similar walk through the same location later in the film and no juttering. But the first one at 3:30 has it.

...Or at least it did.  The UHD fixes it, so bam!  Issue put to bed.  Let's see how else the discs stack up.

1) 2010 WB DVD; 2) 2010 WB BD; 3) 2025 WB UHD.

Comparing the original 2010 discs, since they were concurrent releases of a brand new release, you can expect them to look pretty much the same, and they do. The 1.78:1 framing, colors, brightness, etc are of course all the same. And the UHD, too, keeps it at 1.78:1.  The colors aren't exactly the same, but they're pretty close.  And while this film was shot in 4k, it seems to have been finished in 2k, leaving fans to wonder if this was a "fake 4k" side-grade.  I'm happy to report it's a genuine upgrade.  While some highlights and shadows appear to be intentionally blown out, and so not benefiting as much from HDR as you'd normally look for.  A quick test looking at the fine detail makes the boost in resolution across each generation pretty evident.  Look at that "FOR LEASE" sign in the window in the second set of shots.  Don't start with the DVD, because you can't even read the words to tell which sign I'm talking about.  It's quite fuzzy but legible on the blu, and clearer and easier to read on the UHD.  This was shot digitally, so you can't use film grain to judge like we usually can, but you can switch over to the license plates on the cars or throughout the movie.  It's definitely a clearer, better defined image, to a degree that's more than just a nice encode.  I'm not saying they went back and started from scratch with the original footage, but there is substantial resolution gain here regardless.

All three disc feature the original 5.1 audio track, in TrueHD on the Blu and DTS-HD on the UHD.  They all also include optional English subtitles.  But only the BD and DVD also include French and Spanish dubs (lossy even on the BD) and subs.

Also controversial about these releases, specifically the disparity between them, are the extras. The blu-ray opens with two stupid, forced ads: one for blu-rays, one for digital copies. The DVD opens with the same ad for blu-rays, but then has forced trailers for Invictus, The Book of Eli, Sherlock Holmes, The Invention of Lying and The Box. But that's not what's controversial - those are just annoying. The controversy lies in the real extras for the film. While both versions feature four deleted scenes (which are good and worth watching if you enjoyed the movie), only the blu-ray has the audio commentary with Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns. Now there's no disc space issue as to why the commentary isn't on the DVD; it was just part of Warner Bros' push to compel consumers to switch to blu-ray. It's not the first time they did that - Soderbergh's previous film, Ocean's 13, pulled the same trick. Even as a blu-ray supporter, I feel that move was pretty shady. People should make the change because they want the upgrade to HD, not because the studios are sabotaging their DVD releases. The newer move from physical media to streaming has probably killed this practice off, it's not exactly restoring discs that are already out there in the wild. So yeah, if you want the commentary, you've gotta go blu. And it's a rather good - fun and informative, getting into the book the film is based and the filmmaking - commentary, too. And since this film is based on a true story, there's a lot to take away from the discussion.

This has become another dead issue, though, since the UHD has the commentary, too.  So you're only missing out if you're picking up the DVD as a bargain.  The UHD has the deleted scenes and trailer, too; this time without any ads.  So there's nothing new, but I think we can still call that a slim improvement.

So I absolutely recommend this film, even for people who don't generally consider themselves very big fans of Soderbergh.  And if you're going to get it, the UHD is the clear winner, closing the book on the controversies.

Keep Your Eyes Wide Shut

It occurred to me that if DVDExotica were ever to be audited, I'd come up 0% Kubrick. And then, I don't know if they'd come take me away or what, but I'm getting out ahead of any such eventuality with an in-depth look at his final film, Eyes Wide Shut. One of the reasons I chose this one is because, for the longest time, it was only available censored in the US, and if you wanted to see it uncut, you had to import a foreign region release. Fortunately, Warner Bros has since corrected that, and reissued it on both DVD and blu. And now I've got both versions here, ready to be scrutinized.

Update 1/27/16 - 12/7/25: And now Criterion is here to give us this film in 4k with their new, highly sought after, 3-disc BD/ UHD combopack special edition!  But don't be too quick to throw out your older editions.

I didn't just pick it because of the censorship thing. Eyes Wide Shut has an interesting appeal for me. In some ways, it's his most delicate, human story, thanks probably to the source material (it's an adaptation of a 1920's Austrian novel called Dream Story). It's also fantastic and unnatural, elusive in how it's meaning isn't made explicitly clear. You don't even really know whether Tom Cruise's journey through the bulk of this film actually happened or was a dream. Although as a psychological exploration, that doesn't really matter much. Just like Nicole Kidman's infidelity, it emotionally affected her partner just as though it had happened, even though there's no question her story was anything but a dream. The characters and the audience feel the effects of experience regardless. And because it's Kubrick, it's a vivid, stirring experience... even if it's a bit tawdry and ridiculous on the surface. I'd say this is Stanley Kubrick's most exotic film.

So this 1999 film was a new released when it debuted on DVD in 2000 by Warner Bros. It was quickly repackaged in 2001 as part of The Stanly Kubrick Collection. As I say, it was cut, and you had to order a disc from... well, pretty much any other country, to get a copy of the film uncut. So what's missing from the cut film? Well, in terms of screen time, technically nothing. No shots were removed or trimmed. Instead, they opted for a more dubious, sneaky method of adding CGI characters to shots to basically block the camera's POV from the sex, Here, I'll show you.

Warner Bros 2001 censored DVD top; Warner Bros 2007 unrated BD bottom.

This is just one example, there are multiple shots where multiple couples are blocked by multiple CGI characters in robes. This one particular example I've chosen is funny because not only do they add another hooded figure, but another naked woman on the couch in front of him, making the unseen sex going on in front of him in the R-rated cut decidedly kinkier than what we see taking place in the unrated version. Anyway, movie-censorship.com actually does a great job breaking down every single shot that's been tinkered with. But in short, all the blocking takes place in this one brief section of the film. Nothing else was changed throughout the movie.

So, right. That's the 2000/ 2001 DVD. Eventually, Warner Bros re-released it on DVD and blu in 2007. The DVD is a 2-disc set, with new extras added to the second disc, whereas it's all fit onto the one double-layer blu. This also gets us into the open matte widescreen debate that's heatedly followed all of Kubrick's DVD releases around, although it isn't really any different than with most any other film. Kubrick shot for a widescreen theatrical framing in mind, but also kept the rest of the frame in mind for future television/ home video screenings. So both are valid in their way, but especially with the switch to widescreen TVs, I think fullscreen ultimately lost out. This is evidenced by how the 2000 and 2001 DVDs are fullscreen, and the 2007 discs went wide.  And Criterion's 2025 4k restoration?  Widescreen, too.

1) Warner Bros 2001 DVD; 2) Warner Bros 2007 DVD;
3) Warner Bros 2007 BD; 4) 2025 Criterion BD; 5) 2025 Criterion UHD.

So yes, I guess I follow the mainstream majority in preferring the widescreen theatrical framing. But it's nice to know that the 1.33:1 fullscreen version is available on the older discs for those who want it. It's a question of open/ closed mattes, so the fullscreen actually has additional vertical information, and both have the same amount on the sides. Transfer-wise, there isn't a huge deal of difference across any of these older discs. If you look at the earlier set of shots I showed of the censorship, you'll notice the lamps have a purple discoloration on the 2001 DVD which is nicely corrected on the 2007 blu; and the HD is naturally a bit cleaner and better compressed. But all three discs seem to be taken from the same old master.  It's time for a new one.

And we finally got one - a 4k restoration taken from the original 35mm camera negative.  It's still widescreen, now matted to 1.85:1, but the new scan pulls back a little bit further to show slivers more picture along all four sides compared to the old blu.  And it's brighter and more colorful than the past discs, which might be a little controversial in itself.  I've been reading the debate forums, Film Twitter, etc.  DoP Larry Smith, who supervised this new restoration, has been giving interviews like this one, essentially pointing out that Kubrick never got to finalize the timing, meaning there can never be a definitively "correct" look.  So we're all just out here with our own opinions.  But it's certainly a more attractive image than the older discs, and Smith at least has approved this particular transfer.  Admittedly, rhe highlights are a bit blown out on the BDs, but they're okay on the UHDs.  Plus, the new 4k scan is just so much finer than the old master.  The way these discs capture film grain put other recent Criterions to shame.  The UHD is a stunning 95GB encode.

Audio-wise, the original DVD has a 5.1 audio track, but that's it. No subs or anything. The 2007 DVD has the same 5.1 track, but adds optional English subs, plus other language options, specifically a 5.1 mix of the French dub, plus French and Spanish subs. The blu-ray goes a good bit farther, though, including the English and French 5.1 mixes, plus additional 5.1 dubs in Spanish, Japanese, German and Italian. And of more interest is its additional uncompressed PCM 5.1 mix of the audio track, giving us two English options for the first time. Plus, it has a whole host of subtitles options: English, English HoH, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, German, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish.

The original 5.1 surround track was remastered for Criterion's new edition, which they give to us in DTS-HD.  And they strip away all the foreign language options, but they do still include optional English subtitles.

It's here that I should point out, too, that the 2007 DVD packaging lies. It reads on the back, "Selectable in Both Rated and - and for the First Time Ever in North America - Unrated Versions." But this is simply not true. The 2007 DVD only features the unrated version.  If you had to leave off one version, at least they went the right way. But still, you should know, it ain't true. You are never given the option to watch the R-rated cut, and I ripped the whole disc just to check: the censored version isn't anywhere on the disc. And it's the same now with the Criterion: unrated only.  Not that I can imagine any fan wanting to go back to the censored cut, but it would've been neat if they included the shots with the extra CGI people as a deleted scene, just for the novelty value.

They didn't include any deleted scenes, but they do have some decent supplements. Even the old DVD featured some superficial but still worthwhile on-camera interviews with Cruise, Kidman and Steven Spielberg, plus some trailers and TV spots. Those are carried over to the 2007 discs, plus a bunch more. The main feature is a 3-part British television documentary called The Last Movie: Stanley Kubrick and Eyes Wide Shut. Really only one of the three parts focuses on Eyes Wide Shut, but it's all interesting for fans of Kubrick as it delves into the rest of his life and career. Then there's Lost Kubrick: The Unfinished Films of Stanley Kubrick, which is a 20+ minute featurette on some of his work that never got made, including a Napoleon biopic. And finally, there's a short clip of Kubrick's speech accepting a DGA award.

And here's why I mentioned holding onto your old discs: because most of that stuff has not been carried over to the new Criterion release.  The interviews with the stars, the feature length documentary?  Gone-zo.  All that's made the transition is the one 20-minute Lost Kubrick featurette, the DGA awards clip, the trailer and TV spots.  On the other hand, Criterion has provided a collection of new stuff in their stead.

First, they conducted three brand new on-camera interviews of their own, with Larry Smith, second-unit director Lisa Leone and archivist Georgina Orgill.  They also acquired an archival interview with Stanley Kubrick’s wife, a 2019 featurette interview people like Kubrick's daughter and a Warner Bros executive who worked with him since the 60s, a vintage press conference for the film (which gives us Kidman and Cruise interviews back), and a different feature-length documentary: 2014's Kubrick Remembered.  It's a career overview, interviewing people from Kubrick's personal life to actors like Vincent D'Onofrio.  Plus, there's a 28-page booklet with an essay by author Megan Abbott and a 1999 interview with Sydney Pollack.

So Criterion's new set is easily the single best release of Eyes Wide Shut.  But people in the 4:3 camp will still want to hang onto their OG DVDs.  And while there are enough special features on the Criterion to satisfy casual viewers, more dedicated fans will want to hang onto one of the older special editions for all those exclusive extras that didn't get preserved.

Creepshow 2... Corrected!

So, Arrow recently licensed and released a new, limited special edition of Creepshow 2 in the US.  It's pretty sweet; and we'll delve into every detail.  But there also seems to be something a little amiss.  Something that will be familiar to owners of Arrow's Scarlet Box.  Yes, like Hellraiser 3, it not only reveals new picture information, but what looks to be too much picture information.  Now, I'm not the first to notice this.  I saw it brought up by user JohnCarpenterFan in the blu-ray forums back in October, but it seemed to get shot down fairly quickly.  Well, I hate to re-stir a calmed pot, but I've finally had a chance to sit down with my copy, and the "amateur sleuths" there seemed to have a legitimate point.

Update 2/23/17 - 5/9/17: This post isn't just about the framing issue, however.  And to that end, I've enriched it a little by including another older edition - Anchor Bay's original, 2001 DVD - for additional PQ comparison.

Update 11/21/25: Controversy concluded!  Arrow has - thank goodness - used the opportunity of their new 4k upgrade to fix their botched framing of Creepshow 2.  Plus, as a bonus, we get a new 4k upgrade.

Creepshow 2 isn't quite up to Creepshow, but hey, it's no Creepshow 3.  Gone are George Romero's stylish comic book scrims and lighting effects, leaving us with a more generic looking horror anthology.  There are only three stories this time around, and the first one's a bit of an old fashioned clunker (though charming enough), but the second two still pack a nice little punch.  It's not a great film, but still a fine, enjoyable time for more dedicated horror lovers.  We get plenty of cool effects, an animated wrap-around, a less impressive but still respectable cast including George Kennedy, Dorothy Lamour and cameos by Tom Savini and Stephen King himself.  For the longest time, this film had been relegated to barebones DVDs until Anchor Bay finally gave it a nice special edition in the UK only [Whoops!  They released it in the US, too.  See the comments].  That opened the doors for a blu-ray from 88 Films in the UK, and then the supposedly ultimate edition from Arrow in late 2016.  You tell me, which one looks incorrect to you?

1) 2001 Anchor Bay DVD; 2) 2005 Anchor Bay DVD; 3) 2016 Arrow BD.

Okay, to be fair, I just cherry-picked the very worst shot I could find.  But yeah, that's a big floating sea of random black space on the left-hand side of the Arrow blu.  It's a quick shot (just a couple seconds), so maybe whoever was doing Quality Control blinked.  Hey, it happens.  But you can't tell me (or the poor guys trying to bring this up in the blu-ray forums) that it's supposed to look like that.

1) 2001 Anchor Bay DVD; 2) 2005 Anchor Bay DVD; 3) 2016 Arrow BD.

Forget what the bullies are going to do to him, his face is disappearing!  See, for their new edition, Arrow made a new 2k scan from the original negatives.  And their version pulls in a lot of picture (most notably on the left, but really on all four sides), which sounds great.  Except, as with Hellraiser 3, they seem to have included a part of the frame that was intended by the filmmakers to be cropped out.  Sometimes it looks fine.  People and reviews have been saying it looks more centered and appealing.  But clearly they've gone at least a little too far.

1) 2001 Anchor Bay DVD; 2) 2005 Anchor Bay DVD; 3) 2016 Arrow BD.

Now there's some lighting equipment in shot.  And maybe you'd argue that the characters ran a shop full of all kinds of stuff, so maybe they'd have a big light standing in front of their door, but then it's not in other shots.

...Maybe the characters just moved it because they realized it didn't make sense to have a big light blocking their entrance.  There are plenty of shots where, if you stretch, you could argue a justification for the random stuff that was never visible before the Arrow release.

1) 2001 Anchor Bay DVD; 2) 2005 Anchor Bay DVD; 3) 2016 Arrow BD.

Maybe that orange safety stuff is supposed to be there.  Maybe the characters are driving past some road work, but it was only visible in the very left of frame in that one shot.  I really don't think so; but I'll concede it's open to interpretation.  The unfinished animation stuff is a lot harder to argue.

And sometimes it's on the right side, too.

Can anyone honestly say they think we're supposed to see where the animators stopped drawing the characters?  And there are so many examples throughout the whole film.  Sometimes it's much subtler cell lines in the animations where the colors don't match (you can see it in a bit on the left-hand side of that shot above with the boot and the unfinished tire), or just floating bits of negative space, like this:

1) 2001 Anchor Bay DVD; 2) 2005 Anchor Bay DVD; 3) 2016 Arrow BD.

To be fair, you could catch a fleeting glimpse of the crewman's hand even in the older editions, so go ahead and blame the original filmmakers on that one.  But only now can you really get a look at it and tell what it is, as opposed to a quick flash of what you'd just assume is the actress's knee or something.

This one might look okay as a still frame, but in motion, that out of focus white business on the left of the frame is clearly attached to the camera (my guess: a lens hood) and tracks with the actors through the whole moving shot.  Absolutely no way it's meant to be there.

But it has to be said that this isn't just like Arrow's Hellraiser 3 in that the framing is a bit off (or that Arrow coincidentally got both from Lakeshore Entertainment).  It's also like it in the sense that, even despite that issue, it had been the best, most definitive release of the film we've ever had.  Despite the adjusted framing, both the newer DVD and blu are framed to exactly 1.85:1 (the 2001 DVD is more like 1.81:1, with a little less on the left and a little more on the bottom).  The updated 2k scan though is so much clearer, with stronger detail and light but authentic grain.  The colors look much more natural, and actually a bit closer to the old DVD.

2025 Arrow UHD.

But now we have the UHD; no more compromises!  The aspect ratio is still exactly 1.85:1, but as you can see above, it frames the image tighter, matting the image more vertically, so it no longer has all the dead space, incomplete animation or crew equipment.  Except the crewman's hand in that one shot - that's just a flaw with the original film that's never going away.  But it still shows more around the edges than the older DVDs.  Arrow clearly paid close attention this time and got it exactly right.  And this is a new 4k scan of the original 35mm OCN in HDR10 and Dolby Vision, so we're upgrading the upgrade.  You know I'm always pointing out how HDR shots look darker when not viewed in HDR, i.e. on your computer screen.  But you would be right to look at the screenshots above and think this transfer is truly darker.  Both are true; this new 4k presentation is a bit darker.  But the colors are vivid, and it looks great in HDR.  The boost to 4k is even more obvious, with small edges and perfectly captured film grain, even in the animated segments.

The 2001 DVD just had the original mono track with no subtitles, while the special edition gave us mono, stereo and 5.1, though still no subtitles.  In 2016, Arrow made it all lossless, with the mono and a stereo mixes both in LPCM, and the 5.1 in DTS-HD.  They added optional English subtitles, too.  And they kept it all exactly the same on their new 2025 release.

And special features?  Yes sir!  The 2001 DVD just had the trailer and a stills gallery, but the 2010 Anchor Bay DVD had a engaging audio commentary by director Michael Gornick, who really lays the story of this film down in an excellent, direct manner.  In addition, there's a great featurette with Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger on the crazy, behind the scenes stories of this film's effects (they're not afraid to dish on who got fired, etc), plus a brief bonus featurette about Berger's friendship with Rick Baker, two trailers, and a nice, 4-page insert with notes by Adam Rockoff.

Thankfully, Arrow carried all of that over (except the insert).  When 88 Films released their blu-ray in the UK, they recorded two new interviews: one with George Romero and one with Tom Savini, including some extra behind-the-scenes footage of his as The Creep.  Arrow carried that over, too.  So it's got "all legacy extras," as Sony would say.  And they've got two new, on-camera interviews, with actors Daniel Beer and Tom Wright.  These new interviews are by Red Shirt and up to their top of the line quality.  The limited edition comes in a nice, hardbox sleeve in either red or purple (for the US and Canadian editions, respectively), has reversible cover art, a 20-page booklet with notes by Michael Blythe, and a really exciting additional comic book.  The comic is really substantial, has a square spine, and it gives you the complete lost "Pinfall" story that was supposed to be filmed for Creepshow 2 but got cut out for budgetary purposes.  I have to admit, I just quickly flipped through the comics Arrow included with Society and Bride of Re-Animator, but as this is the lost story from the film, it was a must-read for me, and a strong reason to spring for the limited edition instead of waiting for a standard release.

And all of that is the same in the new 2025 edition.  Nothing new except for the usual Arrow card (I got Excalibur), but everything is preserved, including the comic, reversible artwork and everything.  So, hey.  I kinda felt like Arrow should've issued replacement discs in 2016.  But the double-dip (or whatever number you're on personally) is a lot less painful when the correction is being paired with a strong 4k upgrade.  Both factors help justify the cost; it's all water under the bridge.  And we're left with an amazing edition of a fun little horror movie that still holds up.