'Serpico (French Import)' – High-Def Digest Review

[Attebery]

Peter's review of 'Serpico (French Import)' has been posted. He says the movie is a bit dated, but worth seeing. This French HD DVD is a bare bones release, with a good video transfer, a dated soundtrack, and a subtitle quirk that makes this a difficult purchase for all but diehard Pacino fans. Wait for a domestic release, or check out the standard DVD.

Full review here:
http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/1390/serpico_fr.html

[Sporadic]

I didn't see any mention of how you can shrink the forced subtitles to be pretty small/stay on the bottom of the screen.

- edit I also don't understand why they always complain about the lack of extras when it comes to imports. No extras is really par for the course when it comes to imports. Also, if you are willing to import a movie, chances are it's to watch the movie in HD, not to watch 480i extras that were on the DVD release (although I'm almost positive that Serpico was also a barebones release on DVD)

[kannisto]

It should be noted that Studio Canal put the forced subtitles on some discs that were intended for limited European countries (not including UK) by design, there was an insider post about it early on in AVS Forum much before these were released:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...68#post9881168

It seems there were some contractual reasons. Anyway, as Sporadic noted, subs on this title can be made quite small and moved around e.g. to a very low position so they can be made less noticeable. With films that fill the whole 16:9 screen because of their aspect ratio like this one they can't be moved below the video image though since there are no "black bars".

[ed081873]

I own this, and can say it is fabulous. Very nice for a movie this old, but a great movie at that. Wish they would come with The Panic in Needle Park.

[Arkadin]

I have had this title for quite some time.
It is nice to see a proper review,
That said I just cannot agree with 4 stars for PQ.
Not that it isn't just fine, but this rating does not seem consistent with other ratings of other older movies I have seen on here that have received much lower PQ ratings for what I feel is the same quality.
Gotta say I'm a bit baffled on this one.

[nvc1019]

Does Serpico the Studio Canal version,have subtitles when in English at all times? Or is there a newer version without subtitles? Should I just wait for the domestic release? Thank you everyone!...nvc1019

[Josh Z]

Originally Posted by kannisto

Anyway, as Sporadic noted, subs on this title can be made quite small and moved around e.g. to a very low position so they can be made less noticeable.

Are you sure about that? I thought Serpico was released before Studio Canal started adding that function.

Even if true, this is a 1.85:1 movie, so (unlike Terminator 2) there's no way to move them entirely out of the movie picture.

[kannisto]

Originally Posted by Josh Z

Are you sure about that? I thought Serpico was released before Studio Canal started adding that function.

Even if true, this is a 1.85:1 movie, so (unlike Terminator 2) there's no way to move them entirely out of the movie picture.

Yes, I'm sure. Serpico was released at the same time as T2. I have it in my collection and I played with the subs myself. In my understanding none of the first wave SC releases had forced subs. Some in the 2nd wave have them but they also always have the subtitle management functions too. It's true that with Serpico you can't move them out of the image though because of the aspect ratio.

[Sporadic]

Originally Posted by Josh Z

Are you sure about that? I thought Serpico was released before Studio Canal started adding that function.

Even if true, this is a 1.85:1 movie, so (unlike Terminator 2) there's no way to move them entirely out of the movie picture.

I own it and yes, you can shrink/move the subtitles.

There's no way to move them entirely out of the movie picture but you can make them small enough so it isn't a big annoyance.

Sorry about the flash in these photos but it's good enough to do a comparsion between the normal subs and the subs when shrunk and pushed to the bottom.

Before:


After:


That's a massive improvement IMO and should be noted in the review.

[ed081873]

It is all true about the subtitles being able to be shrunk as shown in the above post.

Any fan of this film should import it. Who knows when this movie will be released domestic. Could be years, especially since it will be a Blu Ray release.

[Sporadic]

Are you guys ever going to fix the review?

[Sporadic]

Originally Posted by Sporadic

Are you guys ever going to fix the review?

Guess not.