No Country For Old Men – Collector Edition (Miramax Blu-ray)
Picture:
B Sound: B Extras: B Film: B
There has
been complaining about “double dipping” by films fans, which is a film already
released being reissued with more extras or something different in a new
version. It often makes fans mad and
like they have been robbed of money they would have saved for the more expanded
edition. However, there has been a twist
on Blu-ray in this and The Coen Brothers’ No
Country For Old Men is the latest reissue being criticized. We reviewed the previous Blu-ray and DVD,
which you can read about at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6696/No+Country+For+Old+Men+(Blu-ray
Unlike Troy being reissued, No Country, The Fifth Element and Casino
Royale (reviewed elsewhere on this site) have been reissued with technical
differences from their first editions. Element was such a bad Blu-ray that
Sony had to remaster it and it now has both PCM 5.1 and Dolby TrueHD 5.1
mixes. In the case of Royale, it was PCM 5.1 in the first
edition and Dolby TrueHD 5.1 in the expanded version. For No
Country, the first edition was PCM 5.1 and the new one has a DTS-HD Master Audio
(MA) lossless 5.1 mix. Though this has
not been addressed, the format war included some companies not settling on
TrueHD or DTS MA as higher-definition audio codec so they used PCM sound, which
has often been great. However, most
consumers still cannot play (or do not know how to hook up) a home theater
system for PCM multi-channel, while the highest Dolby and DTS codecs are
backwards compatible with older decoding chips and easier to multi-channel out
of through a single hookup.
PCM can
only be multi-channel via HDMI 1.3 cords (player must be compatible with the
receiver) or you have to hook up 6 analog cords to get he 5.1. This is actually a consumer-friendly thing
for the studios to do and they have surprisingly not made much of this in these
few cases. However, that is what has
happened and it was worth explaining.
As for
the playback of the new Blu-ray, both the picture and sound seem just slightly
less impressive enough to drop by one letter grade. The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition
image was shot by the amazing Director of Photography Roger Deakins, A.S.C.,
B.S.C., who once again delivers some amazing shots and uses them to tell the
story in ways only images can. Unfortunately,
they seem a little grainier and a little less defined in this transfer. Maybe recycling the master did not work out
in some way, but it looks like the same transfer otherwise.
The first
Blu-ray has PCM 24/48 5.1 mix and it was far better than the Dolby Digital 5.1
on both that Blu-ray and the DVD. This
time, we get the same lame Dolby Digital 5.1 again, but the DTS-HD 24/48 5.1
mix seems to also sound a little less impressive than that PCM mix. That is why I would keep the first disc for
fans who want high performance. Despite
being a 50GB Blu-ray disc, it seems all the new extras plus the few old ones
have slightly compromised overall playback.
So that
leaves the extras, once again including three featurette pieces: Working
With The Coens, Diary Of A Country
Sheriff (neither more than ten minutes) and a making of featurette that is
about a half-hour. New extras include
the Digital Copy bonus DVD for a digital copy for PC and PC portable devices,
Josh Brolin’s Unauthorized Behind-The-Scenes, a Q&A session with the Coens,
Deakins, the sound department & production design crew, Charlie Rose Show promoting the film,
EW.com promotion, Variety Magazine Q&A, in store Brolin/Javier Bardem promo
appearance, David Poland Brolin/Bardem piece, ABC “Popcorn” video, The Coens
from a Channel 4 News clip, WNBC Brolin appearance, LA WGAW Q&A and six
audio-only interviews.
We
understand that it takes a long tome to do extras and even after an initial
home video release, promo piles up after the first discs are sold, but it is
still frustrating for many and maybe Disney should have waited a few more years
before doing this. Add the many great
title not out on Blu-ray and fans have legitimate gripes. However, it is a fine expansion and the only shame
of it is that the Digital Copy was not dumped so the extras could have had
their own Blu-ray.
- Nicholas Sheffo
