All Hail Warner Brothers/Dreamworks

Now that Warner/Dreamworks has pulled the rug out of HD DVD we now see the effect it will have on owners. I for one have been looking forward to Sweeney Todd on HD (in either format). Of course the geneuses at WB/Dreamworks can't chew gun and walk at the same time. The HD DVD release of the film had been cancelled with NO PLAN to produce it on Blu Ray.

What absolute jerks. If American companies can't plan past the tip of their noses, why not allow the HD format to be released in Europe? We can get it through them.

If you're talking about the most-recent "Sweeney Todd" with Johnny Depp, DreamWorks released it on DVD. Since DreamWorks is a part of Paramount and they both discontinued HD DVDs just after Toshiba announced their quitting the format, and since neither Paramount nor DreamWorks have yet announced their upcoming plans for Blu-ray, we don't know yet what their first releases will be. My guess, however, is that with a big movie like "Sweeney Todd," they will probably do it up in Blu-ray fairly soon, maybe by summer. We'll need to wait and see.

If you're still mad about Toshiba giving up on HD DVD, that's another story. But you shouldn't blame the former HD DVD studios for switching over to Blu-ray. With Toshiba gone from the picture, they have to continue to try and sell their movies. They are, after all, in the business of making money, not trying to revive a lost format.

John

You still have good old SD DVD I guess. What would have been a good thing to do is rather than cancel HD DVD's already in the making, just finish up and send out what they were working on.

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[Post edited by spoonard on Mar 25, 2008 - CDT 12:20 AM]

(also posted this tonight on another relevant thread)

Well, I can't find that other recent thread where I made a post about SWEENEY TODD on Blu-ray, so I'll just make a note here... the film (for now) is going to be released in HD only on a UK Blu-ray from Warner Brothers. Thankfully, Warner very rarely releases 'region-locked' discs (such as "Region B" for the UK), so you can probably think now that STodd will indeed be playable on Region A players [Region-free means all regions are playable - A/B/C]. You'll pay a higher price for the UK edition (probably $35 to $40), but for some it may be worth it to get it in HD.

One way to know for sure is by checking with the staff at xploitedcinema.com (USA), as they only carry 'region-free' Blu-ray discs on their site. So, you can email them an inquiry note, or wait and see if the title will show up for sale around the release date (or shortly after). Or search other newsgroups, blogs, etc for discussions of the title. Blurayregioncodes.com at this moment doesn't list the title on their Region B list.

-JIMI (the Voodoo Child)

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[Post edited by Love Hendrix! on Mar 25, 2008 - CDT 1:20 AM]

the companies havent release anyhting cause they're planning the next big thing to take your money.

stay tuned.

Sweeney Todd was Indeed released on Blu-ray in the UK by Warner Brothers, and it is a Region Free disc.

It still is a cooperative effort of DreamWorks and Warner Brothers.

A very nice SteelBook cased edition I must add as well.

I ordered it directly from Amazon UK, although it might have been a little pricey.

Still no word of DreamWorks releasing it on Blu-ray in the US.

Incredible difference compared to the SD DVD, you can see the texture of the Mold growing on Mrs. Lovett's Meat Pies, and the pores on the faces of the cast even if it's not a real close up shot.

The details of the bricks of the street and texture of the walls of buildings is absolutely incredible in 1080p, and even though it is a very dark movie, you don't see very much grain in the darker areas of the screen like you might expect.

Even the color of the blood looks true to life, where the SD DVD had it almost a strange shade of orange in certain scenes, depending on the lighting.

In the lighter scenes, the colors are very bright and vibrant, almost like you could touch your TV screen and find yourself simply looking through a window.

There are some different Camera angles than the SD DVD that would have supposedly pushed the US version to an NC-17 rating, but I don't notice anything specifically different in the amount of Bloody Gore, and Throat Slitting action.

The UK release has the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Audio in English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian.

This is definitely not a film suitable for anyone under 17, unless they were to edit it down a bit for TV such as HBO, although once you watch a few throats slit, and get past the dark humor of Meat Pie Cannibalism, you realize the deeper plot of a desperate, but demented, Sweeney Todd trying to take out his revenge on the entire world that had wronged him in the past, that cost him his Wife and Daughter.


I am still waiting to have DVDTown process my request for release of the UK Blu-ray, so I can add the UK version to my movies list.

For anyone complaining about not being able to see this film in it's HD Glory in the US, it is available now, from Amazon.co.uk, and also xploitedCinema.com as well.

It is well worth the added cost to Import if you are a fan of the movie.

Has anyone seen how bad this movie really was?

Oh my god! After the first ten minutes of sing song babble I was ready to turn it off! Johnny Depp or not, He stil bears the Pirates make-up job! His hair do is the left over wig from Edward Scissor Hands! God Aweful! I lasted up to the point where he kills the fruit flavored tonic guy, and shut this one down.

Now that my dissappointments in the film is clear. I will mutter through the rest of it this weekend.

I will give it a fair shake, but I was so pissed to find out the the sing song bs lines could have been written by a eight year old. It honestly brought back nightmares of Dreamgirls! Now that movie was bad!

Anyone else sit through this dribble?

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[Post edited by ReaggieP on Jun 5, 2008 - CDT 9:47 PM]

Sweeney todd wasn't so bad. Remember the movie is originally based on a musical. If you go into it with that perspective you know what to expect and what not to. The only thing I didn't like was the ending. Overall though I felt it was a good movie.

ReaggieP said -

Quote:
"Has anyone seen how bad this movie really was?"

Well, yeah, how about the bad movie on THIS THREAD...

Seriously, I take it you are not a fan of musicals, or maybe just this one(?). It's like The Phantom of the Opera - many people love it, others (non-musical fans) either hated it, or wouldn't ever be caught watching it. About a year ago, I viewed an HD cable presentation of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (had never seen it growing up in the late 1970s), and even though many critics blasted it, I felt the film was pleasant to watch in HD (and hear too), as it featured lots of great Beatles tunes (sung by the cast though). So, musicals are either appealing or not, and with you admitting to stop watching Sweeney at a certain point, obviously this particular musical (and/or storyline) well, you did not find 'appetizing' (hehe).

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-JIMI McLovin (the Voodoo Child)

Jimi... Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band... equals quite very awesome.