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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A tough DVD to watch, November 15, 2002
This review is from: The Giant of Metropolis (DVD)
As much as I am a fan of Gordon Mitchell and Italian B-movies, it took me four tries to make it all the way through this dull and poorly presented movie. The movie itself is extremely cheesy, complete with dubbing that is poorly synced and often is incongruous with what is happening on screen. At one point a male servant dies in a battle, and afterward there is a scene where the bad guys find his corpse and say, "we found the body of one of the queen's slave girls(!)". There's some good fight scenes, some mostly stupid looking miniature special effects, but not enough of either to relieve the intense boredom of the overall film. The DVD presentation doesn't help things any either. I find it impossible to believe that this was the best print left in all existence. It is extremely grainy, washed-out, and just plain bad-looking. The image is windowboxed since the sides of the screen look to be damages from the film being exposed to some sort of chemical build-up on one side. On the whole, it looks like it was left out in the sun for an extended period of time, with the only colors left being mostly ugly faded blues and browns. On top of this, the sound is out of sync which makes the dubbing look even worse than usual. Almost every sound comes about .5 seconds after the event takes place visually. If they weren't going to go through the trouble of restoring a film, why bother putting it on DVD in favor of some other better movie in better quality?
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Retromedia yes, Alpha no, March 4, 2006
If you're a fan of this cult masterpiece of the bizarre, buy the Retromedia DVD, not the Alpha DVD. While the Retromedia copy is far from the quality this movie deserves, it's widescreen and has marginally better color and a considerably crisper image. It also has a bonus interview with the star, Gordon Mitchell.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Finally! The Giant of Metropolis, March 29, 2002
This review is from: The Giant of Metropolis (DVD)
Retromedia's release of "The Giant of Metropolis" is everything and more! Not only do you get a widescreen(!!) version of the film, but a trailer collection of sword and sandal favorites (the AIP Goliath movies, and others), and a fun interview with Gordon Mitchell. The print quality of the movie is fair to good. The colors seem to go from rich to faded on and off throughout the film. The audio does suffer from some crackle as well. This film was poorly dubbed to begin with, so towards the end you will notice the audio track out of sync with the picture for a few minutes. But you just aren't going to find a better copy of this classic anywhere else. To sum up the plot, a lone strongman (Gordon Mitchell) goes to the mysterious city of Metropolis to warn them that their scientific experiments will lead to their doom if they don't get on the same page with everyone else in the world! Great sets, strange characters and a surrealistic feel that can only be found in early 60's European fantasy films is all here! If you liked SWV's "Goliath and the Dragon" or Trimark's "Adventures of Hercules" 4-pack release, you will certainly enjoy this sword and sandal rarity!
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