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DVD Times sez:

Paramount Home Entertainment have announced the Region 1 DVD release of Chinatown (Special Collector's Edition) and its follow-up, The Two Jakes (Special Collector's Edition) on 6th November 2007.

A landmark movie in the film noir tradition, Roman Polanski's Chinatown stands as a true screen classic. Jack Nicholson is private eye Jake Gittes, living off the murky moral climate of sunbaked, pre-war Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite (Faye Dunaway) to investigate her husband's extra-marital affair, Gittes is swept into a maelstrom of double dealings and deadly deceits, uncovering a web of personal and political scandals that come crashing together for one, unforgettable night in...Chinatown. Co-starring film legend John Huston and featuring an Academy Award®-winning script by Robert Towne, Chinatown captures a lost era in a masterfully woven movie that remains a timeless gem.

Features include:

* Anamorphic Widescreen Presentation
* English DD5.1 Surround
* English Restored Mono
* French, Spanish and Portuguese Mono
* English, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles
* 4 Featurettes:
o Chinatown: The Beginning and The End!
o Chinatown – Style
o Acting Chinatown
o Chinatown: The Classic
* Theatrical Trailer

Jack Nicholson returns as private eye Jake Gittes in The Two Jakes, in which he also takes on directing duties. Much has changed since we last saw Jake. The war has come and gone; 1948 Los Angeles teems with optimism and fast bucks. But there's one thing Jake knows hasn't changed: "Nine times out of ten, if you follow the money you will get to the truth." And that's the trail he follows when a routine case of marital hanky panky explodes into a murder that's tied to a grab for oil--and to Jake's own past.

Features include:

* Anamorphic Widescreen Presentation
* English DD5.1 Surround
* English, French and Spanish DD2.0 Surround
* Portuguese Mono
* English, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles
* Featurette: Jack on Jakes
* Theatrical Trailer

Shitty cover art at original post. Honestly, no commentaries? I'd gladly pay an additional $10 to hear Faye and Roman still at each others' throats after all these years. Unless the transfer is significantly improved, I'll likely pass on Chinatown. No interest in the sequel.

I suspect I'll get the new "Chinatown" disc - and keep my old cover for the original artwork (do they consider that shite "improved"?) - but now that I've seen the film broadcast in HD, I'm less and less excited about a new standard def release this late in the game.

Well, look at that. In the space of writing a single post, I've talked myself out of purchasing this disc.

What's the consensus on the sequel? Is it actually worth watching? Or does it sit beside the likes of More American Graffiti?

Highway 61 wrote:What's the consensus on the sequel? Is it actually worth watching? Or does it sit beside the likes of More American Graffiti?

I really like it. It's not its predecessor, but it's quite a good film.

Just in time for the year's Deep Discount sale. I'm wringing my hands...menacingly.

I suppose this bodes well for a Rosemary's Baby special edition.

def doesn't seem worth an upgrade. they seriously couldn't get Polanski to sit down about this?

No commentary tracks or a Polanski interview? A tad disappointing but I'm picking it up anyway.

malcolm1980 wrote:No commentary tracks or a Polanski interview?

Eight-year-olds, Dude.

Highway 61 wrote:What's the consensus on the sequel? Is it actually worth watching? Or does it sit beside the likes of More American Graffiti?

It wasn't bad, but it's not Chinatown. I saw it once, enjoyed it okay, don't need to see it again.

Probably the lamest special edition set I've seen announced in quite a long time. I sat down and watched a great making-of documentary last night for The Monster Squad that ran a pretty touching & informative hour and a half, not to mention the two commentray tracks, deleted scenes, etc. and this is the best Paramount can do for freaking Chinatown? I know it is an easy & impractical thing to say but if Paramount doesn't want to waste time on their classic films they should just license them out to companies willing to treat them with something close to the respect the films and their fans expect.

Highway 61 wrote:What's the consensus on the sequel? Is it actually worth watching? Or does it sit beside the likes of More American Graffiti?

This is the entry in The Onion's 'My Year of Flops' series that describes the film quite well.

kaujot wrote:I really like it. It's not its predecessor, but it's quite a good film.

jbeall wrote:It wasn't bad, but it's not Chinatown. I saw it once, enjoyed it okay, don't need to see it again.

colinr0380 wrote:This is the entry in The Onion's 'My Year of Flops' series that describes the film quite well.

Appreciate the help. I was always curious about this one, and it seems worth a netflix at least.

Eh? The previous DVD had a featurette involving Polanski, so why not now? I'm a huge Polanski fan, but I'll probably pass on this, unless the transfer is a considerable improvement, as there are just too many releases in late October onwards and there's Christmas, etc.

Sony need to do an SE of Macbeth, but they'd probably do worse than this.

Over the years, I have grown very, very tired of these "Special Editions" from the Big Studios. You get four 10-minute "featurettes" that consist of sharply-edited talking heads stating the obvious and they all look the same no matter which studio it is. You'd be better off picking up the BFI monogram, Chinatown by Michael Eaton or Roman Polanski: Interviews, edited by Paul Cronin (Herzog on Herzog). Having said that, Paramount may come up with something interesting.

exte wrote:

malcolm1980 wrote:No commentary tracks or a Polanski interview?

Eight-year-olds, Dude.

=D>

A much better cover for the Region 2 Spanish edition.

Vudu.com are apparently offering a download of Chinatown in 1080p. There isn't yet a Blu-ray of this title anywhere in the world, right?

It's rumoured to be coming out on Blu-ray sometime this year according to the Digital Bits.

tubal wrote:It's rumoured to be coming out on Blu-ray sometime this year according to the Digital Bits.

Makes sense as it plays on HDMovies all the time.