Die Hard – Special Edition - Five Star Collection

Cast View all

	Bruce Willis	John McClane
	Bonnie Bedelia	Holly Gennaro McClane
	Reginald VelJohnson	Sgt. Al Powell
	Paul Gleason	Dwayne T. Robinson
	De'Voreaux White	Argyle
	William Atherton	Thornburg
	Hart Bochner	Ellis
	James Shigeta	Takagi
	Alan Rickman	Hans Gruber
	Alexander Godunov	Karl
	Bruno Doyon	Franco
	Andreas Wisniewski	Tony
	Clarence Gilyard Jr.	Theo
	Joey Plewa	Alexander
	Lorenzo Caccialanza	Marco
	Gérard Bonn	Kristoff
	Dennis Hayden	Eddie
	Al Leong	Uli
	Gary Roberts	Heinrich
	Hans Buhringer	Fritz
	Wilhelm von Homburg	James
	Robert Davi	Big Johnson
	Grand L. Bush	Little Johnson
	Bill Marcus	City Engineer
	Rick Ducommun	City Worker

Crew View all

Director	John McTiernan
Writer	Roderick Thorp, Jeb Stuart, Steven E. de Souza
Producer	Charles Gordon, Larry Gordon, Lloyd Levin, Beau Marks, Joel Silver
Musician	Michael Kamen
Photography	Jan de Bont

Personal

Notes

Those of you who bought the initial DVD releases of the Die Hard movies can now...throw them away! These newly-issued discs outperform the previous versions in every way imaginable. Fans of the popular Bruce Willis action series will be pleased with what DVD producer David Prior and the folks at Fox have come up with for you. Sold individually for $29.98 or as a set (a better deal at $79.98), each movie is offered as a two-disc Special Edition.

New two-disc Five Star Collection Special Edition includes all-new anamorphic widescreen transfer, along with Dolby Digital and DTS soundtrack options on Disc One. Plus, the new edition includes audio commentary by the director & production designer and a second commentary by the visual effects supervisor, and an extended Power Shutdown scene accesible via seamless branching, as well as a DVD-ROM script-to-screen comparison. Disc Two will include two extended scenes, a Cutting Room feature allowing the viewer to re-edit scenes, a deleted lines & sequence reel, a gag reel, newscasts, a benefits of widescreen presentation segment, interactive articles from American Cinematographer and Cinefex, the full-length screenplay, a stills gallery, trailers & TV spots and more DVD-ROM features.

Special Notes:
Disc does not include Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround option as specified on jacket. Also available in “The Die Hard Ultimate Collection,” featuring all three “Die Hard” movies in one set ($79.98).

Story Synopsis:
Back in 1988, Die Hard perhaps set the stage for suspenseful, humorous action thrillers to come. McClane launches his own one-man war against terrorist Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) who has taken hostages in a Los Angeles high rise building over the Christmas holiday. (Gary Reber)

DVD Picture:
The anamorphically enhanced, THX digitally mastered 2.30:1 DVD exhibits an improved picture when compared to the previously released THX-certified DVD. With improved resolution, the DVD appears sharper, with improved clarity, color refinement, and definition. Viewed alone, the new DVD exhibits a nicely rendered picture that is solid, with well-balanced colors. While images are generally sharp, minor smearing and softly focused images are evident. Edge enhancement can be a bit bothersome at times. The source is revealing of some minor dirt and film grain. Though this DVD is truly preferred to the previous disc, it does not quite cut if for reference quality, and earns the same score. (Suzanne Hodges)

Soundtrack:
The Dolby® Digital 5.1-channel soundtrack sounds nearly identical to that on the previous DVD, with the only differences coming from a slight edge in the low-end for the former, as well as sounding just a bit more open in terms of resolution in the midrange. The DTS® Digital Surround™ version is preferred, and delivers with a marginal yet noticeably greater deep bass presence, as well as a soundfield that sounds a bit more dimensionally coherent. Nonetheless, both soundtracks are dynamically holosonic. Surrounds are aggressive and effectively discrete-sounding for well-defined spatial dimension. Bass extension is deep, to below 25 Hz, even in the surrounds, and the .1 LFE channel jolts with explosions. Dynamic impact and clarity is nicely pronounced. Though both soundtracks are a bit bright in character (the Dolby Digital version ever so slightly more so) with dialogue that is largely ADR-produced and wanting in spatial integration, they certainly will not disappoint. (Perry Sun/Gary Reber)

This Disc Contains The Following WSR-Rated Superb Qualities:
Superb Sound Effects Recording Quality
Superb Music Score Recording Quality

DVD-ROM Enhancements Rating:
Mediocre

DVD-ROM Review:
Disc one of this two-disc collection contains the dismal main menu, with links titled Script to Screen, View Movie, View Menu, Go Online and Game Demos.

Unlike most script sections, Die Hard's is actually presented in Widescreen, with a huge window to view the actual film. I was originally quite excited to see this, up until I noticed the window containing the script was barely large enough to hold a full sentence.

Clicking the View Movie link will send you to the opening scene, while the View Menu will link you to the excellent DVD-Video main menu.

On Disc two, you can find three different demos for the same game: Aliens versus Predator. The difference between the three demos is who you play as, with the first being the Aliens, the second being Predator, and the third being the Marines. Also available on this disc are the trailers for Sanity and Alien Resurrection.

Die Hard really does not include many exciting features via DVD-ROM, so my suggestion to you is hop on over to the DVD-Video portions of the discs, and enjoy.

Tags

Links