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December 15, 2006

POLICE STORY DVD REVIEW

Jackie Chan Title number two from the Weinstein Company's Dragon Dynasty line was the one I really was excited about: POLICE STORY. Jackie Chan's classic action flick is a great movie and one that I've never thought got the DVD treatment it deserved. What it deserves is a two-disc set with tons and tons of extras, but that largely depends on the co-operation of Jackie Chan and Co. and from what I understand he doesn't give much assistance to people trying to preserve his legacy.

That said, the new POLICE STORY disc isn't the triumph I had hoped it would be, and I don't think it's the definitive disc of this movie. It is, however, the best treatment of the film that may be possible right now. Running Man, who posts on this blog quite a bit, has a full, complete, insanely comprehensive look at the disc posted and it's the best comparison of this disc to the other versions of the movie out there. He compares the video quality, the subtitle translation, the extras, everything. So if that's what you want then go read his review. There's side-by-side shot comparisons...everything that I'm too lazy to do.

The most controversial aspect of the disc is the participation of Brett Ratner, the highly successful and widely disliked director of RUSH HOUR and X-MEN 3. Ratner was obviously included as an attempt to help the movie find some mainstream traction, and what I find odd about it is that his name isn't plastered all over the box in the "Quentin Tarantino Presents" manner. It doesn't bother me, but it would seem to make a lot of sense to trumpet his participation if the goal is to use his name as a mark of quality.

There's two places where Ratner participates: he and Bey Logan do an audio commentary and he and Bey Logan present a "Tribute to Jackie Chan". The "Tribute" is pretty worthless. A quick snippet of Bey introducing Ratner and then Ratner talks for a few minutes about how awesome Jackie Chan is. Next. The audio commentary isn't the disaster I expected, either. Bey is his typical self, dropping the factoids, speculating on how things were done, doing his best to put the movie in context. Ratner says a lot, but he's mostly wrong (Brigitte Lin is not Maggie Cheung no matter how hard you wish it was so) but he comes across as a harmless enthusiast rather than as some kind of monster. He obviously loves the movie but he doesn't have a whole lot to add beyond his love.

There are outtakes and deleted scenes that are very nice to have. Two big thumbs up for those.

There's also "Stunts Unlimited: A Retrospective with Members of the Jackie Chan Stunt Team" that is basically interviews with Benny Lai, Mars and Fung Hak-on broken up with clips from the film. It's a great extra and while the editing is a little repetitive (guy speaks, cut to clips, guy speaks, cut to clips, guy speaks, cut to clips) the information is great.

The best extra is a brief conversation with Jackie, himself. 20 years later he has a vivid memory of the production and he's a great storyteller. He's willing to look bad in his stories and to not always be the hero, and even though his English gets downright impenetrable at times he's riveting to watch and listen to.

The overall design of the disc is okay, a little anonymous, but not bad. The video transfer didn't look perfect to me, but I'm not good at this kind of thing. There seemed to be a black mist over a lot of the brighter shots, and while it was very, very faint and is probably just something natural like grain, I did notice it.

Overall, this disc is good, but not great. The Dragon Dynasty line have done a terrific job with the SPL DVD, a good (but not definitive) job with POLICE STORY, so let's see what's next. This disc is far better than it could have been, but we're still not at the Criterion level yet where great design, penetrating extras, and pristine transfers are combined into one awe-inspiring package. So far you get the impression that they're doing the best they have with what they got.

December 15, 2006 at 12:09 PM in DVD Reviews | Permalink

Comments

"but we're still not at the Criterion level yet where great design, penetrating extras, and pristine transfers are combined into one awe-inspiring package."

That's the standard? Criterion? Do you think a disc of Police Story would sell any copies at all if it carried the standard Criterion 2-disc price tag of $40.00 (the one attribute of Criterion discs your *somehow* managed not to mention) , no matter how nice the extras were?

Let's try to keep a little perspective, shall we?

Posted by: Scott Hamilton | Dec 15, 2006 9:39:50 PM

"Do you think a disc of Police Story would sell any copies at all if it carried the standard Criterion 2-disc price tag of $40.00 (the one attribute of Criterion discs your *somehow* managed not to mention) , no matter how nice the extras were?"

If the answer is "no," then Criterion would've gone out of business years ago. I don't necessarily agree that Criterion is the end-all be-all of special edition DVDs (particularly when it comes to transfer quality), but they've managed to sell a lot of stuff at the $40 price point (including films readily available in equivalent or superior editions elsewhere, like IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE). I don't see why POLICE STORY would be different. (Hell, their SUPERCOP laserdisc was a big seller at the time.)

Posted by: Bob Violence | Dec 16, 2006 1:10:47 AM

"If the answer is "no," then Criterion would've gone out of business years ago."

It's two different audiences. Some people will spend $40.00 for special edition of an art movie, and some people buy martial arts movies on DVD. There may be small overlap, but it isn't enough to make viable releases. Criterion knows this, and releases expensive special editions of art movies. Notice how they experimented with Criterion editions of blockbusters a few years ago (The Rock and Armageddon) and haven't done any since.

"I don't see why POLICE STORY would be different. (Hell, their SUPERCOP laserdisc was a big seller at the time.)"

The Supercop laser was at the same price point as a single movie disc of the time. Take my word for it, I owned it. Now if they had released a $150, 5-platter set of Supercop and it was still a big seller, you might have an point. But they didn't.

Posted by: Scott Hamilton | Dec 16, 2006 6:35:47 AM

"That's the standard? Criterion? Do you think a disc of Police Story would sell any copies at all if it carried the standard Criterion 2-disc price tag of $40.00 (the one attribute of Criterion discs your *somehow* managed not to mention) , no matter how nice the extras were? "

Criterion charges higher than the normal DVD because they're pretty much an independent company. But that's obviously not what Grady was talking about so you missed the point.

Grady was talking about the overall quality of the disc (video, audio, substantial extras)...which this label is not on that level. Neither is HKL, which was the company that was created and run by the same people who are doing Dragon Dynasty.

Posted by: the running man | Dec 16, 2006 7:10:40 AM

"Notice how they experimented with Criterion editions of blockbusters a few years ago (The Rock and Armageddon) and haven't done any since."

Criterion's best-selling release to date is FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS, which isn't a "blockbuster" but has more mainstream appeal than much of their output. The runner-up is SEVEN SAMURAI, which is hardly some tiny art film and probably has a sizable audience overlap with POLICE STORY. And if Criterion isn't releasing "blockbusters" left and right, it's because studios have less reason to license them out than they did in the LD days, when the majors were reluctant to commit significant resources to what was essentially a niche format. They released a lot more "blockbusters" on laserdisc and in the early days of DVD, before the studios fully embraced the format (ROBOCOP and SILENCE OF THE LAMBS are two examples that leap to mind). Their current approach is certainly arthouse-centric, but you'll have a hard time convincing me that a Criterion release of POLICE STORY would somehow be less profitable than SYMBIOPSYCHOTAXIPLASM.

Posted by: Bob Violence | Dec 16, 2006 11:50:18 AM

Criterion wouldn't release POLICE STORY if they could. It's Chinese, and they filled that quota with YI YI and IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE. Whoever was responsible for the SUPERCOP laserdisc and the John Woo films being released by Criterion was almost certainly fired for his or her scandalous lack of taste. The Criterion Collection is for real, serious movies like EQUINOX, ARMAGEDDON, and DAZED AND CONFUSED - not chop-socky trash of no importance or influence. Whoever heard of Jackie Chan? Certainly he's not even comparable to an innovator like Michael Bay.

Posted by: Rhythm-X | Dec 17, 2006 11:52:08 AM

I'm not going to defend every choice Criterion has made, but I do think they would release POLICE STORY were it offered to them. Do you seriously think the Weinsteins would give it to them? Their decision to release ARMAGEDDON was a one-off - their roster hasn't exactly been filled with Michael Bay films - or blockbusters by anyone else - since then. And DAZED AND CONFUSED is a "real, serious movie" by one of the best American directors of his generation. What, are you going to sneer at them releasing SAFE or SHORT CUTS next?

Posted by: Steve | Dec 17, 2006 8:02:12 PM

A one off - unless you count THE ROCK, of course. I don't sneer at them for what they release, I sneer at them for what they won't release.

Who's releasing the Fruit Chan films? Who's releasing Edmond Pang's films? Or the MCDULL films? Where the holy hell is THE BLADE? They're no less commercially viable than much of what Criterion releases now, and if anything Pang's films are more commercial than much of the Criterion Collection. If I lost a hand, I'd still have more than enough fingers to count all the Chinese-language films Criterion has released on DVD, including the out-of-print ones. If they're not totally disinterested in Chinese film, they do a remarkable impression of it.

Posted by: Rhythm-X | Dec 17, 2006 10:03:28 PM

"Where the holy hell is THE BLADE?"

Supposedly THE BLADE is one of the 100 or so Golden Harvest titles Warner Brothers has been sitting on for ages. But they're launching a "Martial Arts Classics" line on January 2nd, so we MAY finally see a legit U.S. release.

Posted by: Bob Violence | Dec 17, 2006 10:41:27 PM

A few quick points: Criterion is the gold standard for a DVD imprint, and I think almost anyone would agree with that. As such, they provide a good yardstick for other companies trying to start an imprint. We could argue for days on what the bottom of the barrel is, but I think there's not much argument as to what's on top. The only label that leaps to mind as being comparable right now is Panik House: well-designed discs, good technical quality, good extras. Their discs may not all be to my taste content-wise, but they feel like the product of one person rather than the product of a bunch of departments are all working at cross-purposes.

Criterion is still guided by the tastes of its founders, and they just aren't that interested in contemporary Asian cinema or much outside the "Masters". Plenty of people at Criterion have passionately argued for Asian movies to be picked up and released (I believe their current JIGOKU disc is a result of this) but ultimately the people guiding the label just aren't that interested.

And...THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT. I wish they'd pick up more Asian films, but if I'd built a label up from scratch and reached the point Criterion has reached, then I'd release exactly what I wanted to release - to hell with World Cinema or fans or marketing figures - and everyone else could kiss my grits.

Posted by: Grady Hendrix | Dec 18, 2006 3:47:23 AM

I dont have anything to add to the criterion discussion, i just wanted to say how excited i am for this dvd!! ive been a huge fan of Jackie Chan for a long time and own pretty much all of his movies on dvd. There has been no domestic release of one of his best movies, Police Story, until now. I cant wait to get it!!!

Posted by: Three toes of fury | Dec 18, 2006 12:27:27 PM

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