The Four Lions With the Most Extras

You have to be pretty daring to make a silly, yet almost warm - at the least, humanizing - comedy about Islamic terrorists in this day and age, and that's half of the fun of Four Lions. Writer/ director Chris Morris is no stranger to that kind of daring material, starting out on The Day Today, a kind of edgy news parody show in the UK, and moving on to similarly controversial UK shows like Brass Eye and Jam. But Four Lions is his first foray into proper feature filmmaking, and he certainly didn't play it safe. It's been getting critical acclaim all around the world, and made its way to DVD and blu by way of Drafthouse/ Magnolia Pictures in 2011. But I've found the German blu-ray from Capelight (also 2011) might actually be preferable.

Update 2/3/20: Added the US blu-ray to the comparisons, instead of just the US DVD and DE BD.

Four Lions is on the one hand a very typical comedy: a small group of bumbling friends with with big ambitions and naive plans bicker and struggle as they work together. They just happen to be Muslim terrorists living in Sheffield, England, bringing all the darkness and discomfort to the story that terrorism entails. They want to meet Osama bin Laden; their leader thinks it they should blow up a mosque to radicalize the moderates; they have to hide the fact that they're making bombs from their neighbors; they wind up running around in silly costumes as their plans routinely fall apart. It's a weird and hypnotic blend of "four guys start a small business" bro comedies and the most disheartening pieces on terror in today's news.

It's pretty effective and funny stuff, although admittedly, once you get past the outrageous audacity of the premise, a lot of it plays like a British sitcom. A smart, good sitcom; but still maybe a little light for the big screen. The whole film is shot in hand-held shakey-cam style, and a lot of the banter feels very improvised. Years in the future, when the world is focused on other threats, I'm not sure this will enjoy the critical darling status it has now, instead probably fading more towards obscurity. But even then, it will still be a good, smart comedy with engaging characters that's at least worth a watch.

1) US Magnolia DVD; 2) US Magnolia BD; 3) DE Capelight BD.

Now, as a contemporary, shot on digital film (and an often unsteady, handheld one at that), I'd say the transfers are pretty identical across the countries' editions, with little emphasis placed on the quality of the image in the first place; and the only important distinction here to note is between standard and high definition (which is certainly visible enough).  But it's not the absolute only distinction.  First of all, the film is matted to 1.85:1, except the DVD is actually displaying in 1.83:1.  There's actually no difference in how the film is matted or cropped; the DVD is just slightly vertically stretched. Thankfully both blus correct that.  And one more noteworthy distinction: the US blu is slightly brighter than the US DVD and German BD.  It's not a huge difference, but it looks slightly paler, making me prefer the DVD and German's blus colors.  But again, it's the sort of thing you'd never ever notice outside of a side-by-side comparison like this.

It's the extras and other things that make the distinction more important. For one thing, the US releases occasionally have burnt-in subtitles, for when the characters aren't speaking English. The German disc has those subtitles as optional.  All three discs have optional English subtitles for the rest of the film, but only the German disc gives you the full set of options: no subs, full English subs, or English for just the Urdu.  It also has optional German subs, of course, and the US discs have optional Spanish subs.

Audio-wise, they all have the original English 5.1 tracks, in DTS-HD on the blus, and the Capelight disc also has an optional German dub.

And then there's the extras. Now, most countries have more or less the same extras on their releases of Four Lions all around. Sometimes it's a little misleading with how they're titled. For example, you might see the Baraton Interview on the US disc and the Premiere featurette on the German disc and think the interview sounds more compelling and you'd rather have that... But now that I've got both discs in hand, I can tell you they're actually the same thing with different names. It's a short (4 minute) interview clip of producer Chris Baraton at Four Lions' premiere.

So, here's what pretty much every release has. That Baraton interview, 7 deleted scenes, two interview segments with real British Muslims that were used as research for the film, and a collection of some rather entertaining behind-the-scenes clips. Now, the behind the scenes footage seems to run about a minute and a half longer on the German disc than the US one, but after watching both, I didn't notice anything really missing from either one. They were shown in a different order, so I can't be sure I didn't miss a little clip that didn't carry over somewhere; but I think the difference in time is just how long the interstitial title cards stay on screen for.

But Capelight also took it a little further. Their first exclusive is an interview featurette called Filmstarts, which interviews Christopher Morris and star Kayvan Novak. This is the only extra that isn't entirely English friendly, but all the important content is. All the interview footage is spoken in English, but when they briefly cut away to clips of the movie, they play it with the German dub. This is a film that really calls for a lot from Morris in the extras, but you get very little; so this extra interview segment is a nice addition, even if it feels more promotional than in-depth.

Next up is a short film uniquely titled My Wrongs 8245-8249 and 117. This is Morris's first film, from 2002, a quirky little comedy that actually won him the BAFTA for Best Short Film. It was previously released by itself on DVD in the UK, but it's pretty sweet to just get it for free here, and upgraded to HD to boot, where it's only been available in SD before.

Finally, the Capelight disc has the theatrical trailer, conspicuously absent from the the US discs. And there's a bunch of bonus trailers that play on start-up. But basically, it's about those two features and the subtitles.

So if you haven't yet, I do recommend seeing Four Lions. And if you're thinking of picking it up on DVD or blu, I definitely recommend importing the Capelight release. I don't think there's any question it's the preferable, definitive disc, since it has everything every other release has, plus more. However, if you've already got the film, I'm not sure I'd say the additional content is worth upgrading for. I guess only if you're a sure fan of My Wrongs 8245-8249 and 117. But if you're starting fresh in the market for this film, yeah, the German disc is the way to go.

The Visitor: Code Red vs. Drafthouse (DVD/ Blu-ray Comparison)

The Visitor is a crazy, weird late 70s sci-fi thriller that that I guess is essentially blending Star Wars and The Omen. And it's Italian. Ovidio Assonitis co-wrote and produced this, passing directorial duties to Giulio Paradisi. This is a real attempt to crash the United States' burgeoning summer blockbuster market, combining some big name actors - including John Huston, Glenn Ford and Shelly Winters - with special effects-filled spectacle. It's also pretty ridiculous and just barely makes sense, which is why it's relatively unknown outside of cult fan circles today. But if you can get past the flaws, which at this point might help the film as much as hamper it anyway, you've got a pretty fun watch on your hands. And it's very nicely represented on home video these days for anyone so interested, even in there's some unpleasant controversy brewing under that surface.

Where does one begin to explain this story? The film opens with some very strange but compelling looking science fiction/ fantasy scenes, which we won't understand until later in the film, if at all. Franco Nero (of the Django films) finally appears as a sort of space Jesus to drop a load of exposition to a room full of bald children about an evil space mutant who escapes from a passing prison/ spaceship and hides on Earth in the form of an eagle, which he had to become in order to escape the army of birds that came from outer-space... All of this is back story we don't actually see. But it boils down to the space mutant's descendants and followers running an Illuminati-like cult that wants to help a very Omen-like little girl dominate the planet. Her mother is basically good and innocent, but her father is totally in on it, and John Huston has come to Earth to save us all. There's also a cop looking for an explanation of a mysterious murder at the little girl's birthday party. That's basically the conflict. Plenty more notable actors appear in this crazy story, including Lance Henriksen, Glenn Ford, Mel Ferrer and even Sam Peckinpah, to varying degrees of effectiveness. Shelly Winters is great, and Henriksen is dark and imposing, but Peckinpah just feels like stunt casting for an extended cameo role.

The whole film is a mixed bag like that. Some scenes are a blast, and the soundtrack includes a big, dynamic science fiction theme. But it doesn't add up. So what it boils down to is if you're up for a crazy mixed-up film with some compelling elements, or if you're only interested in a consistently good film. Now, what's been released on DVD, and later blu-ray. is the original, uncut European version, which does make things a little more coherent. But it's still nothing that has any hope of breaking into the mainstream. So either this film is right up your alley, or it's really not.

And okay, yeah. Let's talk about this film's... storied DVD release. It was first released only in Italy under the title Stridulum. It was the longer uncut version, and available from a very nice master, slightly letterboxed to its proper 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Code Red licensed it and released that edition in the USA in 2010, with a nice package of extras, which we'll come to later. Then, even though Code Red still apparently owned exclusive rights to the film, Drafthouse also bought the rights and wound up releasing the film in the US on DVD and blu-ray with some new extras. I don't want to talk out of turn, so I'll just post the heavy circulated quotes from some of the parties involved and let you draw your own conclusions:

Code Red on Twitter: According to my contract w/Ovidio Assonitis, STILL GOT 3 MORE YEARS ON THE VISITOR! @drafthouse @AlamoDFW MGM had tv rights! I paid 25 grand ... I paid 10 grand more then @drafthousefilms for VISITOR and got 10 years rights.  No cable/theatrical right due to MGM

Code Red on Facebook (linked from the Love Lock and Load forums since the FB post seems to have been removed): ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE send me a CEASE AND DESIST for THE VISITOR! I GOT THREE MORE YEARS AND RICH PRICKS IS COMING AFTER CODE RED. I have to stop business for awhile. MGM do own tv & theatrical. Love to see them send one to them. I paid 10 grand more than they did for this movie. sorry, but code red release are frozen for awhile.

Marc Edward Heuck on blogger: It should be mentioned that Code Red DVD were first on the scene with an excellent release of the film that included two commentaries, one of which featured myself with Joanne Nail, the other featured star Paige Connor; both lovely ladies also did on-camera interviews on that disc. It should also be noted that Code Red still had years left on their contract when the Italian licensors double-crossed them and sold it to Drafthouse, and rather than compensate them for the mixup, Drafthouse has pretended this release never existed, to the point of making Code Red remove it from their own website. I like everyone at Drafthouse and what they do, but I cannot get on board with how they have handled this matter, so I will NOT be buying this Blu-Ray.

And there's more out there if you want to google around, but you get the idea. Some people are specifically refusing to support the Drafthouse release, which is of course a decision you'll have to make for yourself. But stick around to the end of this post, because a third party may've made that decision a lot easier for everybody.

But let's put all of that aside and look at the actual merits and differences between the two discs.

Code Red DVD on top; Drafthouse on bottom.

The films seem to be taken from the same master, although the Drafthouse blu-ray obviously benefits from being an HD presentation. It's nothing massive, though, because Code Red's DVD looked surprisingly good, it's definitely not one of their "grindhouse prints." So we're kind of comparing a top notch DVD with a medium-ish blu (disappointingly, it's a single layer disc); but in that kind of contest, the blu still wins. Actually, the most noticeable difference may be that Drafthouse seems to have taken another pass at the colors. Look at the top picture' the foreground guy's collar is either green or blue depending which disc you're watching. The open doorway behind him is either orange or blue. But the second pic really showcases how Drafthouse's new blu really does "pop" more than CR's DVD. There's not really any new detail or huge revelations, but I don't think you could make a credible case against it being the preferable watch. The Drafthouse blu also has nice HD sound.

Extras, though, are a different story. Early pre-order listings for Drafthouse's release included all of Code Red's extras, but that didn't wind up happening. The Drafthouse blu includes three brief interviews and the trailer. The interview with Lance Henriksen is pretty good, and the interview with the cinematographer Ennio Guarnieri is pretty brief and light on substance. But their talk with co-writer Luciano Comici is really illuminating with some of the crazy politics that went on behind the scenes of the film. There's also an easter egg that gives you one additional anecdote from Henriksen, which is pretty interesting and worth locating.

Code Red, meanwhile, has two audio commentaries: one with Joanne Nail and moderator Marc Edward Heuck, and one by Paige Conner, the lead little girl. moderated by filmmakers Scott Spiegel and Jeff Burr. But even stronger than the commentaries is the feature called Revisiting the Visitor. It includes both Nail and Conner, who do repeat some anecdotes from their commentaries. But there's also production associate Stratton Leopold, who has a fun little story, and most notably, Ovidio Assonitis, the man we most want to hear from about this film.

So, both sets of extras have their pros and cons, and a hardcore fan of this movie will want both, since they do compliment each other more than they duplicate. But the bottom line is that Code Red has better extras, and Drafthouse has the better picture and sound. Packaging wise, I used to assume Code Red had it over Drafthouse, but then when I finally got my copy and checked out the awesome reversible artwork (pictured at the top), I gotta give it to Drafthouse. Their disc also comes with a booklet featuring quotes from an interview with Ovidio which is worth the read.

And that's the way things stood for a while. But at the end of 2014, Arrow released this film on blu in the UK.They used the same transfer, and carried over the Drafthouse extras. It has its own booklet with cast interviews, but the noteworthy thing is that Arrow's release is a dual-layer disc! So okay, still lacking the Code Red extras (how sweet could that have been?), but it's the full Drafthouse package, minus the single layer flaw. Oh, and if it's important to you, Arrow's artwork is reversible, too, and the other side is the eyeball poster like the Code Red's DVD.

Now, I don't actually have the Arrow disc, but I've matched the screenshot above, taken from the Drafthouse blu-ray, with a screenshot at this link, an excellent review of the Arrow blu from 10k Bullets. So you can just go to that review and open up their second screenshot (I've grabbed a copy in case they ever take that review down), and compare it with the one above. Go ahead and read the whole thing while you're there, 10k does good reviews. The pictures look pretty identical except for the Drafthouse being a bit brighter, but zooming in really, really close, the compression does seem a little smoother and neater. You probably wouldn't even be able to see the difference watching the blus on your home player unless you've got a really big screen, but if you're deciding between the two, the Arrow appears to be the technically, objectively better disc.

So that's where things stand now. Code Red's still got the best extras, and if you haven't gone blu, it's probably the best option (Drafthouse has also issued a DVD version, but the only reason to get that seems to be if you've already got the Code Red DVD, don't play blus, and just want the other extras). And if you're after all the extras, you'll want it even if you have one of the blus. Code Red has had to stop selling it, of course, so it'll be trickier to track down than it was last year... But if you search Amazon for "Stridulum," its page still comes up near the top. And if you had any misgivings about supporting Drafthouse's release after the drama but really wanted the blu and new extras, Arrow has solved that, improving upon their blu in the process. Still, the differences are minimal enough that if you don't care about that, you might just pick which blu you pick based on which country you live in to save on the import shipping costs. There is no release that's drastically superior or inferior to the others. So that's pretty much all you need to know... apart from whether the movie is worth owning in the first place. That you'll just have to figure out on your own.