'The Road Warrior' - High-Def Digest Review

[jed]

Just posted Peter's review of 'The Road Warrior' on HD DVD. As fans of the film already know, Peter says this second installment in the Mad Max series holds up exceptionally well 25 years after its initial release. Meanwhile, this first-ever high-def release of the film is nothing short of a godsend -- the transfer has finally been remastered, and we even get an HD exclusive audio commentary. Sure, the supplements are otherwise fairly thin and the audio package is still somewhat lacking, but 'The Road Warrior' in high-def remains a huge step up for this much-beloved cult classic.

Full review here:
http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/roadwarrior.html

[MasterOB1]

Got my order in!

[BerserkerTails]

Can't wait to get my copy of this. Amazon.ca is saying May 22nd as the release date, but for $22 bucks CDN, I can't complain. Haven't seen this movie for about a decade, and even then it was on an old, overplayed VHS copy. As a huge fan of the first movie (Watched my DVD copy about a million times), I can't wait to experience Mad Max 2 again!!

[Rouqe]

Hope to find this in my mailbox when I get home

[jporter]

Hmmm... hadn't planned on upgrading from my DVD on this one, but after reading that review I'm very tempted. It's always been a favorite of mine as well...

[MasterBlaster]

I don't think the rating matches the review. The reviewer absolutely raves about the newly included feature commentary with George Miller (director), but then gives only 1 star for supplementals.

[John32]

One of my favorite movies---sounds like a great release. I never picked this one up on DVD.

Audio commentaries are the best and most valuable supplement, I've always thought.,

[PIHB]

just went down to my local store after work and picked it up. waiting for the gf to get here to watch it

[Rouqe]

Watched it last night, this seems to be the unrated cut, am I right? From dvdcompare.net: "R-Rated Theatrical Cut (missing several brief scenes, including the close-up of Wez twisting an arrow from his arm and the shot of the feral kid with the boomerang embedded in someone's forehead)." These shots seems to be in the HD DVD version, or am I/we missing something? Really superb video transfer btw!

[jed]

Originally Posted by MasterBlaster

I don't think the rating matches the review. The reviewer absolutely raves about the newly included feature commentary with George Miller (director), but then gives only 1 star for supplementals.

For the scoop on how the star ratings relate to the features included, check out the "high-def exclusives section" of our review methodology:
http://www.highdefdigest.com/reviewmethodology.html

In short, a great audio commentary isn't enough to earn a high score for a whole category of supplements. If there were a bunch more of exclusive features included (and if they were really good), that overall grade would be higher...

[Spideybat]

I've seen every incarnation of this film, and don't have a clue about this "unrated cut". It's always been the same. The scenes mentions are common.

[Feyd]

Well, I got a chance to see this HD DVD and I was not disappointed. Great job, Warner! The transfer looks excellent, and certainly does justice to this wonderful movie. Most of the daylight stuff looks just as good as movies shot these days... not bad for a 25 year old low-budget Aussie film.

[John32]

Originally Posted by Spideybat

I've seen every incarnation of this film, and don't have a clue about this "unrated cut". It's always been the same. The scenes mentions are common.

Well, I have not seen the film in years, but has it always started with the title : "MAd Max 2" because it does here.

But, yea awesome transfer! I am so happy with this HD DVD. I would love for Warner to continue to treat its "cult classics" in HD like this. Warner sounds like they're on the right track, they're one of the best DVD companies around now let's keep that great track record going with HD.

[vital22]

Does anyone else notice that there is NO audio in the rear channels on this release? I am connecting through the Optical Digital connection and get DTS through mu receiver. I also have the old standard DVD release and that has rear audio info. I have the Toshiba HD-A2 and have not done the firmware upgrade yet. I am hoping that this will fix it as nobody else seems to have this issue.

[PIHB]

Originally Posted by vital22

Does anyone else notice that there is NO audio in the rear channels on this release? I am connecting through the Optical Digital connection and get DTS through mu receiver. I also have the old standard DVD release and that has rear audio info. I have the Toshiba HD-A2 and have not done the firmware upgrade yet. I am hoping that this will fix it as nobody else seems to have this issue.

i had it hooked up through optical and my surround sound and it worked fine