{"id":57978,"date":"2013-11-07T10:00:38","date_gmt":"2013-11-07T18:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/?p=57978"},"modified":"2017-05-02T18:15:42","modified_gmt":"2017-05-03T01:15:42","slug":"canada-steelbooks-apocalypse-hero-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/canada-steelbooks-apocalypse-hero-fiction\/","title":{"rendered":"Full Metal Jackets: O Canada!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Normally our quiet neighbor to the north, Canada hit international news headlines (not to mention both ‘The Daily Show’ and ‘The Colbert Report’) over the past week with breaking details of the balls-out insane crack-smoking Toronto mayor scandal<\/a>. I certainly don’t have anything that can top that. However, more to our interests here, Amazon Canada also released a wave of exclusive Blu-ray SteelBooks. Does one offset the other? Not hardly, but they’ve both grabbed my attention.
\n<\/p>\n

The good news for metal case collectors who reside in the United States is that, unlike Canadian retailer Future Shop, Amazon Canada will<\/em> ship across the border, so these should be very easy to import. Also, because Canada is in the same Blu-ray region as the U.S., all of these discs are guaranteed to be Region A compatible. (Whether they’re region-free for other territories or not, I can’t confirm.)<\/p>\n

Sadly, a couple of Amazon user reviews for at least one of these titles (‘Terminator 2’) claim that the case has a dull matte finish that doesn’t look nearly as nice as the promotional photos for it. I suspect that may be true of the rest of them as well. <\/p>\n

‘Apocalypse Now’<\/h5>\n

Available at: Amazon Canada<\/a>
\nRelease date: November 5, 2013
\nPrice: CND$22.55 <\/p>\n

The SteelBook copy of Francis Ford Coppola’s war masterpiece contains both the theatrical and ‘Redux’ versions of the movie, which should appear on the same disc via seamless branching. As far as I can tell, it doesn’t include either of the other supplement discs from the 2010 Full Disclosure Edition<\/a>, which were chock-full of goodies. As such, this is really only good for the case itself, the art on which is fortunately an improvement over the ugly Full Disclosure box. I doubt the SteelBook has extra hubs to hold the other two discs if I wanted it to, though.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

‘First Blood’<\/h5>\n

Available at: Amazon Canada<\/a>
\nRelease date: November 5, 2013
\nPrice: CND$22.99 <\/p>\n

This artwork for the first movie in the ‘Rambo’ cycle appears to be based on a vintage poster. Normally, I’d say that’s a good thing, but this one is kind of hideous. The image looks more appropriate for the sequels than the original. The disc inside is also almost certainly a repackage of the smeary, DNR-riddled Blu-ray from 2007.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

‘Hero’<\/h5>\n

Available at: Amazon Canada<\/a>
\nRelease date: November 5, 2013
\nPrice: CND$19.07 <\/p>\n

I’m a big fan of Zhang Yimou’s first wuxia<\/em> epic, but the American Blu-ray release suffered a lousy subtitle translation and lacked lossless audio for the original Mandarin language soundtrack. (Only the crummy English dub got a lossless track.) I’m pretty sure that the Canadian release from Alliance was a direct port of that. <\/p>\n

The SteelBook case features the movie’s standard home video art. It looks OK, but just isn’t special enough for me to rebuy another underwhelming copy of a movie that deserves much better. <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

‘Highlander’<\/h5>\n

Available at: Amazon Canada<\/a>
\nRelease date: November 5, 2013
\nPrice: CND$19.49 <\/p>\n

This ’80s fantasy adventure has a huge cult fan base, and spawned several sequels and a spin-off TV series. I watched it once years ago, and its appeal completely mystifies me. If you are a fan of the film, though, this simple but classy artwork is perhaps the best of this batch of cases. <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

‘Kill Bill Vol. 1’<\/h5>\n

Available at: Amazon Canada<\/a>
\nRelease date: November 5, 2013
\nPrice: CND$22.99 <\/p>\n

Both halves of Quentin Tarantino’s epic kung-fu revenge tale previously received the SteelBook treatment in Canada. <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

This re-release has mostly the same artwork as the prior metal case, which is actually still available<\/a> for a slightly cheaper CND$21.28. The differences are minor. The old SteelBook had an ugly blue banner at the top and printed the movie’s title in both English and French on the spine. The new copy does away with both those issues, but I kind of like the “Here Comes the Bride” text on the old one. <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

In either case, this is a very good image to use for the front cover. If given the choice, I’d pick the new one. But since I already have the old case, I’m not going to spend any more money to rebuy the movie in a slightly different SteelBook.<\/p>\n

‘Kill Bill Vol. 2’<\/h5>\n

Available at: Amazon Canada<\/a>
\nRelease date: November 5, 2013
\nPrice: CND$22.99 <\/p>\n

On the other hand, ‘Vol. 2’ has a completely different image than the previous SteelBook.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Again, the old case is still available<\/a>, this time for only CND$19.98. <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

In this instance, I prefer the older case that I already have. While I understand what the the new one is going for, the image doesn’t work for me as cover art. <\/p>\n

‘Pulp Fiction’<\/h5>\n

Available at: Amazon Canada<\/a>
\nRelease date: November 5, 2013
\nPrice: CND$21.91 <\/p>\n

Here we have more classic Tarantino. In my estimation, ‘Pulp Fiction’ is still the director’s masterpiece. The SteelBook is a little uninspired, though.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

‘Sin City’<\/h5>\n

Available at: Amazon Canada<\/a>
\nRelease date: November 5, 2013
\nPrice: CND$22.99 <\/p>\n

‘Sin City’ is another instance of a movie that previously had a SteelBook in Canada.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

This time, the reissue is decidedly better. I never cared for the Rosario Dawson art on the old case. <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

That said, the new Jessica Alba art, while an improvement, doesn’t strike me as the best possible cover for this movie either. <\/p>\n

‘Stargate’<\/h5>\n

Available at: Amazon Canada<\/a>
\nRelease date: November 5, 2013
\nPrice: CND$22.99 <\/p>\n

Dumb movie, but a nice case. <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’<\/h5>\n

Available at: Amazon Canada<\/a>
\nRelease date: November 5, 2013
\nPrice: CND$21.57 <\/p>\n

As mentioned above, a couple of Amazon user reviews have complained that this case doesn’t look as nice in person as the images suggest. <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

That’s too bad, because I prefer the image selection to the bland HD DVD SteelBook currently in my collection.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the user reviews also suggests that the disc in the case is the older Blu-ray edition from 2006, not the later Skynet Edition. Frankly, both those discs are pretty crappy in their own ways. I’m still waiting for the definitive edition of this movie to be released. <\/p>\n

‘Total Recall’<\/h5>\n

Available at: Amazon Canada<\/a>
\nRelease date: November 5, 2013
\nPrice: CND$21.26 <\/p>\n

Finally, we have another Schwarzenegger blockbuster. I have mixed feelings about this artwork. It’s another instance where I get what the designers were going for (that’s the alien hand print from the Martian reactor controls), but it just doesn’t work for me. <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

That said, I don’t really love the Photoshop montage on the UK SteelBook either. Still, since I already have that one, I will probably not upgrade. <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Also, the Amazon listing doesn’t indicate whether the new SteelBook contains the old 2006 Blu-ray or the director-approved 2012 remaster. If I had to guess, this is probably an attempt to unload old stock of the earlier disc. <\/p>\n

So, out of eleven new SteelBooks, I’ve decided to pass on all of them. That’s pretty disappointing. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Normally our quiet neighbor to the north, Canada hit international news headlines (not to mention both ‘The Daily Show’ and ‘The Colbert Report’) over the past week with breaking details of the balls-out insane crack-smoking Toronto mayor scandal. I certainly don’t have anything that can top that. However, more to our interests here, Amazon Canada…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":57982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[140],"tags":[66,1491,67,6951,1443,2553,268,543,889,6952,5870,1428,1833,1772],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57978"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57978"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58032,"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57978\/revisions\/58032"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}