'A Clockwork Orange' - High-Def Digest review

[jed]

Kenneth's review of 'A Clockwork Orange' is up. Sadly, he says this new HD DVD edition is something of a mixed bag. Although it boasts a strong audio package and a batch of top notch supplements, he says the video transfer is problematic, failing to offer a significant upgrade over the concurrently-released standard-def DVD.

Full review here:
http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/364/clockworkorange.html

[Dead Pixel]

Totally agree with the reviewer. After watching what they did with 2001, it was like they just decided to throw this one together. It's still one of my most favorite movies of all time and definetly deserves a better PQ transfer.

[hellgrammite00]

I agree with the review, except with regards to the picture quality. The movie is naturally quit soft. I dont think its the transfer that makes the quality suffer, but rather the source material. Granted I would still give the PQ 3/5---but having seen this movie a few years ago in NY, I can only add that home theater will not be able to make this movie look much better for a long time.

I mean this might have had the same transfer quality as 2001, its just that the movie itself is awfully soft.

In generall though it looks like alittle better than an upscaled DVD alot of times.

[sonny gaunt]

Awesome review. I had held off on this purchase for fear of a "soft" PQ. But now I'm actually excited to buy it due to it's features(something that almost never justifys a DD for me). Thanks for taking the time to explore the extras so well.

[ben1080p]

cant wait to watch it..I heard its crazy and pretty wack. Just got it in today from Blockbuster.com.

[sonny gaunt]

Originally Posted by ben1080p

cant wait to watch it..I heard its crazy and pretty wack. Just got it in today from Blockbuster.com.

If you are under the age of 30, I suggest you get a copy of Anthony Burgess's novel A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, preferably the pre-21st chapter reinstated version, and keep the glossary handy. If not keep in mind that Burgess, to avoid complecations from US censors, used terminolgy derived from Russian-example droogs-friends, tolchock-hit, punch, or kick, kroovy-blood, and the most mis-used/most quoted, horrorshow-good(adjective).

Kubrick retained a good majority of Burgess's "slang" for the film's dialogue, but it may have you wondering what the heck they're talking about. Just trying to give you a little insight to help you enjoy the masterpieces. Being as the book's moral statement is far deeper than the one presented in the film.

[cash]

hmmm... I had never seen the sd version before watching my hd copy. With that said, I thought the picture was very good (given the sources age, environment it was shot, etc).

On speical features disk it gives us some shots of the movie in sd and its years away from what was presented in the hd disc. I don't really see how you could compare the nature of 2001 to ACO due to the fact that Kubricks intentions was to film a "cheaply made" movie. He had overdone the studios budget on 2001 and needed to prove to himself that he could make a cheap movie... in that we get "A Clockwork Orange."

I'm not saying Mr. Brown is completely off or wrong in his review, but I do IMO believe it deserves a better rating in the extra features department considering over half (yes, 55%) of the extra features on the extra disk are in fact in HD.

Anyhow, great movie and glad to see Mr. Brown adopting Josh's writing styles on this review, made for a much easier read on the eyes.

P.S. I haven't made it through all the feature, nor do I know if they talk about it, but the originial flick name was "Clockwork Orange." When did the add the "A to 'A Clockwork Orange'?"

[Dr_Gonzo]

The movie was always named 'A Clockword Orange' If you take a closer look at the cover, which looks very much like the original poster, you will se that the picture is shaped like an 'A'

[cash]

Originally Posted by Dr_Gonzo

The movie was always named 'A Clockword Orange' If you take a closer look at the cover, which looks very much like the original poster, you will se that the picture is shaped like an 'A'

Thanks for the info... was confused when I saw this movie poster

[sonny gaunt]

Originally Posted by cash

Thanks for the info... was confused when I saw this movie poster

There are quite a few variants to the poster. But, if memory serves, the title displayed on screen is-as was the novel-A CLOCKWORK ORANGE.

[HiDefBear]

I'd like to agree/disagree with the review, but my copy of the movie will not play the movie! Instead, it jumps straight to the Special Features (which play fine) and doesn't allow me to get out of that menu for the film itself. Grrrr.

And since this happens with both my Toshiba HD-A2 and my XBox 360 HD add-on, I'm guessing it's the disc itself.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

yeah i thought this was happening to me too - then i realized i had the special features disc in - there are two discs in the box you know...

[Liqwid]

I'm having a problem with mine. Mine plays until 55 minutes and some odd seconds and then it just stops. I can skip the chapter and then it runs just fine.

Should I contact Warner for a replacement or Amazon?

[hellgrammite00]

return to Amazon,

Its dual layer and that seems to be the issue with it moving to another layer.
Right around the halfway point.

I hae gone through 2 discs, but the third one works now (though it pauses for a couple of seconds)

[Cerdo24]

Originally Posted by cash

Thanks for the info... was confused when I saw this movie poster

the official title of the movie is the same as the book, "A Clockwork Orange" which is translated to mean a mechanical man, orange from the thai(?) word for man (as in oranatang) however the movie is sometimes simply written as "Stanley Kubrick's Clockwork Orange" in which the A is missing. The poster that you had on your post was actually from a rerelease of the film in the early 80s, the original poster featured a white background with the "A" symbol and "Alex" popping through with his Cane-Knife. Thus negateing the need for another "A" in the actual title. I hope this clears it up.