Predator [HD]

Fox blows it on Blu-Ray again
My 1-star review is not for the movie, Predator, which I love. I bought it twice on DVD: the first single-disc release with no extras, and then the excellent 2-disc special edition. I am not going to be buying on Blu-Ray, however, until the chowder-heads over at Fox start including all of the ALREADY PRODUCED extras on their Blu-Ray discs. Case in point: Predator.

Predator on Blu-Ray features a higher definition transfer (though on a single layer disc), but carries over none of the special features from the 2-disc DVD. How hard would this have been? Make it a dual layer Blu-Ray, and just throw them all on there in standard definition. That would have guaranteed and instant buy for me. But this habit of dumping the film bare-bones onto Blu-Ray is reminiscent of the early days of DVD, and I thought we were past that. Other studios are doing a fine job of including all the special features, so why is Fox being dumb? And why are they slapping a $40 MSRP on a bare-bones...

Shameful Quality Blu-Ray
This is the worst quality Blu-Ray I have come across so far. $26.95 is outrageous for a DVD to Blu-Ray dub. Your probably better off getting the widescreen DVD than the Blu-Ray and playing the movie on upscaling DVD player, you will get the same quality. The movie is classic, just don't buy the Blu-Ray version unless you find it in a bargin bin somewhere.

Ultimate Hunter Edition is FANTASTIC!
I recently tried to watch my Predator DVD, circa 1997 (or thereabouts) and it looked horrible. It was a fullscreen, widescreen disc with black bars on top, bottom, left, and right (which insluts my HD TV). The film was also not cleaned before transfer so it included wonderful hairs and scratches too. That's not to mention the films always horrible fuzzyness.

Don't believe all the whiners, Predator: The Ultimate Hunter Edition is the best this film has ever looked, and probably ever will look. Some people complained about too much Digital Noise Reduction. They said that it doesn't look like its supposed to anymore...don't listen to them. I almost didn't buy this disc because of all the complaining people were doing, but I'm glad I did.

Yes, there are maybe 3 shots where Carl Weathers' face looks a little too smooth in the beginning of the film, but that comprises about 10 seconds of the film. The rest of it looks great. The film still has film grain, it just isn't...

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