'Mr. Bean's Holiday' (UK Import) – High-Def Digest Review

[Attebery]

Just posted Peter's review of 'Mr. Bean's Holiday' (UK Import), which he says is a cute but ultimately marginal cinematic truffle. This UK HD DVD import doesn't offer anything above and beyond the domestic version in terms of video and supplements, and the audio has actually been downgraded, with the Dolby TrueHD track removed. Stick with the US release.

Full review here:
http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/449/m...oliday_uk.html

[joeymac]

All in all, 'Mr. Bean's Holiday' can look good, sometimes even pretty spiffy, but it's not up there with my favorite transfers from Universal.

...."spiffy"?

[Arkadin]

really pathetic that the UK release has worse audio considering that Bean is a British creation.

[Blinx123]

Anyone know about the German specs? Hopefully it's not the same like on the UK release.

[BLU HD DEFENDER]

i have to really disagree with the above review.

i have owned mr beans holiday from exploited cinema since last august. about 2 weeks before it opened up in us theatres.

thats a whole 4 months before the us counterpart came out, the way the review is written you would think this just came out over in the uk and universal dropped stuff, when what really should be said is the us version added stuff to this PRIOR uk release.



"alas the audio has been demoted. Universal has dropped the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround track, and instead gives us a plethora of Dolby Digital-Plus 5.1 Surround tracks."

how can the audio on this be downgraded from the us release when the friggin hd dvd came out in the uk months before it came out in the us.
if anything what the review should have said was that the us release offerd a upgrade in sound over this earlier released uk version of mr beans holiday.

universal didnt drop the true hd track on the uk release, THE UK release came first hence universal ADDED it the american release.


"Universal has retained all the extras from the domestic HD DVD for this UK import. However, the studio didn't deliver much in the way of quality the first time out, offering up only a few surface-level promo items (presented here in standard-def only)."

again universal released this in the uk 4 months before the us
version. so it should be universal retained all of the uk special features on its subsiquent us version.
reviewers should do there research and then might find out even though they are reviewed the us version first, it doesnt mean the us version came out first.. as the comment about the us version being "the first time around."



thats just one of many beefs i have with this review.
heck its not just this review but a lot of others that are put togeather without the propper homework being done.
and the pq by the way on the uk release is pretty freaking decent. i have watched this movie many a times on my hd projector since last august, and have never once been disapointed.

i know i might sound like iam nit picking but iam just sick of of reviews in which a reviewer clearly lashes out against a releases pq or aq or suppliments simply causethey dont care to much for the film itself.

and it really annoys me when a a reviewer ALLWAYS holds it against a titles PQ when a director makes a artistic choice to have something other than a absolutely pristine image. we saw it with blood diamond, we saw it with miami vice we saw it with countless other reviews made. Its called "DIRECTORS INTENT"

[joeymac]

Just watching this now, (EP30, Samsung M86 1080p TV)....

The PQ quality is much better than 3.5 stars. That's the same score Tremors got and this is in a completely different league from that. (I was a bit miffed about that Tremors review actually. The edge enhancement on that was in the extreme.. very dirty looking)

On Bean..

I can't see any grain.
No source problems.
Colours are pumped.... clearly intended.
There is a yellow tint to some parts, clearly intended.
There's a solid three dimensional look through-out.
There is no edge enhancement.
The contrast runs a bit hot on the exterior scenes.. again that looks intended. There is a summer look to the northern France and a Mediterranean look to the south of France.
It was nice and sharp as well.

I've seen movies with 5 stars for PQ that looked worse than this. Some of the car interiors did washout a bit for brief moments. So I'd knock half a star off giving it the full 5..
But it should have at least got another star.

One more error I've just noticed.

There's real heart to the budding relationship between Bean and the fetching Lily (Atkinson's real-life wife Lily Atkinson),

Lily Atkinson is Rowan's daughter. She only briefly in the movie at the beginning, she turns on the stereo. Sabine (Emma De Caunes), who I'm sure Peter was referring to, is actually some one else's daughter. His name being Antoine De Caunes, who is in this movie as a newsreporter. He is a well know celebrity in France and fronted a popular 90's TV series (Euro Trash) in the UK. Clearly Peter just copied down the first name from IMDB or the credits.

I'm sure since the reviewer didn't know what the main female character's name was.... LOADS of attention was paid to the PQ

[Blinx123]

Lol.

How can someone mistake her for the wife of Rowan Atkinson?

She doesn't look very English at all

[joeymac]

Originally Posted by Blinx123

Lol.

How can someone mistake her for the wife of Rowan Atkinson?

She doesn't look very English at all

Hmmmm, weird comments.

I'm pretty sure that English people can marry people from other countries. Also, what some one "looks like" doesn't dictate their nationality does it?