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 Post subject: Patriot Games (1992) LBX/AC3/THX [LV32530-WSRM]
PostPosted: 11 Jan 2013, 02:53 
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Patriot Games (1992) [LV32530-WSRM]

The Movie:
After theater audiences were introduced to Jack Ryan with The Hunt for Red October, a tense thriller driven by the now practically ancient threat of the cold war with Russia, Paramount opted to film Patriot Games for the screen next, swapping out Alec Baldwin for Harrison Ford and a renegade nuclear sub and its crew for Sean Bean and a crew of Irish patriots. It may not sound nearly as tense, or exciting, but Patriot Games is a well paced, satisfying action film of the 90s, and will leave wanting little more from it than what it has presented before you.

Patriot Games tells the story of Jack Ryan's fear and anger driven hunt for Sean Bean's character Sean Miller in order to protect his family, after Jack kills his younger brother in order to save a British royal. Miller swears to hunt Ryan down, and uses everything in his arsenal to kill Jack and his family in order to find closure for what Jack did to his.

Without giving away much of the entertaining narrative, Patriot Games is very much a visual spectacle driven movie. There's a scene for every action junkie - a car chase scene, a boat chase scene, a dark, claustrophobic shoot out, and plenty of reckless violence from both sides of the battle. But it never feels excessive or overdone. The film has a very tight feel to it, and always seems plausible and grounded in the confines of reality. It isn't perfect, but it gets the job done without any issue.

I would like to note though, that it does sort of feel like Jack and Sean are two parts of the same character. Jack's character is charged with anger and paranoia after his family's safety is compromised, and Sean is driven by the desire for vengeance after his family is torn apart. They both go to extreme methods to hunt each other down, and it occasionally feels like a game of cat and cat. Not a bad thing, just an interesting premise that you don't see too often in film.

Video:
Presented in a 2.35:1 letterboxed framed, and THX certified, Patriot Games is adequate in its remastered form. I own both the THX and non THX mastered releases of the film, and they're generally on the same level in terms of detail and noise. Colors are well reproduced, and nothing seems to get lost in the whir of the movie's action, except for the the blackout sequence towards the end of the film. Everything seems to become really soft and hard to find under the dark tones and heavy signal noise. So, like the film, it isn't perfect, but it's generally watchable as long as you're not too picky.

Audio:
Released to theaters with both a Dolby Surround encoded track on 35mm and a 6 track analog 70mm track, Patriot Games sound immensely more satisfying than most films that I've had the pleasure of listening to in 5.1 AC-3. If anything, the track is almost too aggressive, especially during the film's subway sequences, and during the shootout towards the end. The low frequency effect is almost constantly present, and at times I had to reach for my remote to turn the film down. Other than that, directionality was good, if not a tad bit front heavy, as is common with the 70mm blow up tracks from the era. This film came out just shy of the Dolby Digital revolution, so it is limited by the constraints of an older sound format. Overall, this AC-3 track feels right for the film, and is just shy of reference quality sound design, if only for its over-aggressiveness.

Overall:
Come for the story, stay for the great sound design. This THX mastered Laserdisc features an incredibly forceful dolby digital track, and an adequate video transfer, with not a whole lot of detail gained over its original widescreen release. Pick this one up if you're hankering for a deep, seat rocking experience or if you are a fan of the film as I am. If not, the dolby surround encoded widescreen release from Paramount is much easier to acquire at a fraction of the cost, and is just as good visually. This disc comes with a high recommendation from Flcl4evr.
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 Post subject: Re: Patriot Games (1992) LBX/AC3/THX [LV32530-WSRM]
PostPosted: 11 Jan 2013, 03:05 
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flcl4evr
nice review :thumbup:

I only have the R2 DVD Dolby Digital 5.1 release and its a knock-out Dolby mix. The desert scene sounds nice and airy with machine-gun firing. The subway tube scene when undercover's chase after a suspect sounded life like as I've listened to the tube trains on past visits to London and you can almost feel the trains on the platform as they roll down the tracks in tube station.

I might buy the THX Laserdisc someday to complement the Clear and Present Danger I have on THX Laserdisc.
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 Post subject: Re: Patriot Games (1992) LBX/AC3/THX [LV32530-WSRM]
PostPosted: 11 Jan 2013, 03:18 
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I might pickup the Region A Blu Ray sometime to see how the LD holds up. Perhaps I was mistaking lifelike for over-aggressive. I've never been by a subway, so I guess my inexperience my have influenced what I thought of the AC-3 track
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 Post subject: Re: Patriot Games (1992) LBX/AC3/THX [LV32530-WSRM]
PostPosted: 11 Jan 2013, 03:39 
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flcl4evr wrote:
I might pickup the Region A Blu Ray sometime to see how the LD holds up. Perhaps I was mistaking lifelike for over-aggressive. I've never been by a subway, so I guess my inexperience my have influenced what I thought of the AC-3 track

And make sure you know what look for as they might have boasted gamma and colours sky-high on bluray? If they've got it right and with no DNR I might be interested as its in Dolby TrueHD.

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Patriot-G ... u-ray/916/

http://images3.static-bluray.com/review ... _large.jpg

looking at this capture it looks safe to ausme the colous on the light on the table look normal. Does this compare with the THX Laserdisc? Well maybe close I'm looking at hot spot on the right and it looks a faration overdone as its nearing the poibt of being pushed overdone I see another colour or artifact coming in. "The Hurt For Red October" shows some annoying over colour done moments, on the transfer and having projected it a few times and watching it in pure form I saw nothing in the way of distracting.

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Hunt- ... u-ray/920/

It seems like blu-ray forum removed one of its screen captures. :think: I guess they don't want to show the dodgy moments the transfer has to offer. I guess they don't like freedom of speech on their site.


Last edited by laserbite34 on 11 Jan 2013, 03:53, edited 1 time in total.
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 Post subject: Re: Patriot Games (1992) LBX/AC3/THX [LV32530-WSRM]
PostPosted: 11 Jan 2013, 03:46 
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Yeah, the colors match well. Might be something to pick up if I can get it for like 5 bucks. I do like lossless audio quite a bit.
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 Post subject: Re: Patriot Games (1992) LBX/AC3/THX [LV32530-WSRM]
PostPosted: 11 Jan 2013, 03:54 
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flcl4evr wrote:
Yeah, the colors match well. Might be something to pick up if I can get it for like 5 bucks. I do like lossless audio quite a bit.

$5.00 seems fair enough :thumbup: anything over $10.00 is daylight robbery on some bluray DNR discs. :thumbdown:
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 Post subject: Re: Patriot Games (1992) LBX/AC3/THX [LV32530-WSRM]
PostPosted: 24 Aug 2015, 20:38 
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Nice review. I've meant to do comparisons of the Ryan series for audio some as so far my favorite version of HFRO is the lbx LD in Dolby surround. The first DVD like other Parsmount discs were straight ports of the most modern LD release so they should match their THX counterparts. The SCE FVDs cleaned up the transfers a bit and added DTS tracks. The Blu-Rays seem to be based off of these or equivalent masters but go heavy on DNR with the Ford entries.
I'll have to check out October as it's the only one I have in all three formats.

Not sure but the early Mission Impossible DVD may be a port of the LD with its thunderous ac3.
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 Post subject: Re: Patriot Games (1992) LBX/AC3/THX [LV32530-WSRM]
PostPosted: 06 Jul 2016, 05:09 
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The original Mission Impossible DVD definitely did not sound the same to me at all, nor did Top Gun. The LaserDiscs in both cases always sounded way better to me. Of course, it's been nearly 20 years since I heard those DVDs.
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