Fulvue Drive-In.com
Current Reviews
In Stores Soon
 
In Stores Now
 
DVD Reviews, SACD Reviews Essays Interviews Contact Us Meet the Staff
An Explanation of Our Rating System Search  
Category:    Home > Reviews > Gangster > Drama > Thriller > Italian > Crime > Western > Fernando Di Leo: The Italian Crime Collection (1972 - 1976/Caliber 9/Italian Connection/The Boss/Rulers Of The City/Raro Video Blu-rays)/Fistful Of Bullets: Spaghetti Western Collection (Mill Creek DV

Fernando Di Leo: The Italian Crime Collection (1972 - 1976/Caliber 9/Italian Connection/The Boss/Rulers Of The City/Raro Video Blu-rays)/Fistful Of Bullets: Spaghetti Western Collection (Mill Creek DVDs)

 

Picture: B (Boss: B-)/C-     Sound: B-/C-     Extras: B/D     Films: B- (Caliber: C+)/C-

 

 

Here are two new collections of Italian genre films, but they could not be more different.

 

The Fernando Di Leo: The Italian Crime Collection finally arrived on Blu-ray from Raro Video after a noteworthy DVD box set release, which we covered at this link:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10851/Capone+(1975/Fox/Shout!+Factory

 

Extras are the same down to the booklet included as the DVD set, but the packaging is smaller and the picture and sound are superior to that DVD set, enough to recommend this version over the pervious DVD set.  All sound has been upgraded to DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless soundtracks in either Italian or English (the back of the case also says there are DTS-MA 5.1 option(s), but that is a misprint) which really helps out the older soundtracks and the 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image on all the discs best their DVD counterparts easily with more color range, more solid images and better depth. 

 

Caliber 9 is my least favorite of the films, but I even enjoyed that one more in this upgraded copy.  The Italian Connection and The Boss were better films and are much more fun to see here in High Definition than their DVD counterparts could deliver; though Boss has the most print issues like minor damage and fading.  Rulers Of The City was only letterboxed on its DVD and shows as much improvement as anything in this set.  All are much more involving overall and with the use of reds in particular; the DVDs cannot match the Red, Black or White on all the Blu-rays here.  Raro has shown so far that they do their best with DVD, but when they do Blu-rays, differences are more notable than many other companies.  A real pleasure overall, I wish more films from this period from any country were presented this well this often on Blu-ray.

 

 

Mill Creek’s new Fistful Of Bullets: Spaghetti Western Collection is a set of 16 features with poor prints squeezed onto four DVDs and featuring films we mostly have not seen before including Apache Blood (1975 w/Ray Danton), Between God, The Devil & A Winchester (1968), Beyond The Law (1968 w/Lee Van Cleef), Death Rides A Horse (1968 w/Lee Van Cleef), Fighting Fists Of Shanghai (1972), Find A Place To Die (1968 w/Jeffrey Hunter), Fistful Of Lead (1970), God’s Gun (1975 w/Lee Van Cleef), Grand Duel (1974 w/Lee Van Cleef), Gunpoint At Red Sands (1964), It Can Be Done Amigo (1973 w/Jack Palance), Johnny Yuma (1966), Sundance & The Kid (1969 and not the hit film), This Man Can’t Die (1967), Trinity & Sartana (1972) and Twice A Judas (1969 w/Klaus Kinski).  I see we did not miss much.

 

Most of these are from awful prints, none are anamorphically enhanced and hardly any are the proper aspect ratio.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on all the films range from noisy to awful.  There are no extras either.  Maybe Raro can get better prints and do these right, but this is poor at any price.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


Marketplace


 
 Copyright © MMIII through MMX fulvuedrive-in.com