Extrageographic: "It's better than you remember - multilayered. Its models are better than CGI"

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10631 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-10-09
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
• Formats: Director's Cut, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English, German
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 112 minutes

Synopsis
It is 2019 and genetically made beings known as replicants exist as slaves and prostitutes in the off-planet colonies. Despite possessing such human traits as intelligence and virtual emotion, they are limited by a four-year life span which forces them to question their mortality. Four escaped replicants, led by Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer, THE HITCHER), arrive in Los Angeles to confront their designer, Eldon Tyrell (Joe Turkel). Hot on their trail is world-weary assassin--or 'blade runner'--Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford, INDIANA JONES), who has come out of retirement especially for this case. His objective is to hunt down and liquidate the four renegade androids before they have a chance to exact revenge on their cruel human oppressors. In the course of his search, Deckard becomes romantically entangled with Tyrell's lovely assistant Rachael (Sean Young)--who may not be all that she seems--and a dramatic face-off with Batty is inevitable. Director Ridley Scott's hauntingly prescient vision of the not-too-distant future is a stark revelation: a dark, polluted, overcrowded dystopia dominated by cloud-piercing buildings and looming neon billboards, the air dense with acid rain and flying traffic. Based on the novel DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? by Philip K Dick, BLADE RUNNER boasts astonishingly rich art direction, juxtaposing ingenious technological gadgetry with yellowing photographs and fetishist objets d'art as it touches on questions of time, memory, identity, and mortality. Scott's 1992 director's cut edition contains notable alterations, including the absence of Ford's narration, which significantly heightens the ambiguity of key moments in this stunning cinematic landmark.

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Customer Reviews

Great - but caution
I must reiterate the comments on the previous reviewer - this is truly fantastic film, and any fan of sci-fi, film-noir or indeed films in general will adore this movie - however, this is the very basic DVD which Warner Bros have hurried out hoping that people will buy it immediately, but there is a much better version coming out either at Christmas or very early next year, which will be a lot better. It will have this version of the film, plus the original version, and also a new European cut, plus a lot more special features.

That aside, the film is great, just watch out if you're going to want to buy the special edition when it is released.

An improvement, but could do better
Blade Runner, Ridley Scott's masterpiece of a dystopian future, is available again on DVD. Hoorah!

Well - not quite. The new release has a few improvements - after all, the original Warner Brothers release went straight into the film; you didn't even get a menu. But there are drawbacks too.

For a start, expect to do lots of button-pressing on your remote before you start: the UK is at the end of the third screen of language options, and there's no default selection - an elementary mistake. Once you've selected the language you want, expect to sit through the "you are supporting terrorism through piracy" trail that every WB and Fox release seems to carry, which is both offensive and patronising. At least on this disk you can speed it up, even if you can't skip it. Finally, you get to the menu (which gives you bare-bones options of language and scene selections) and you can start watching the film.

Once the film starts, the annoyances are forgotten. The opening titles have been redone: the originals wobbled quite noticably, and that jitter is now absent. When the action itself starts, it becomes apparent that this time the mastering has been done by someone who knew what they were doing - for instance they've actually cleaned the print before they started. Look closely at the 1999 release and you see frame after frame covered with dirt - hair, dust, speckles, you name it - and they're all missing from the new version. The colours are brighter and there's better contrast, too. However, all of this is let down slightly by the fact that the soundtrack is still only two-channel Dolby Surround.

So, seven years from the original release, we can watch the copy we should have got in the first place. If you're desperate to see BR on DVD, then you'll get what you need here. However, things have come a long way in the DVD world since 1999, and a film of this calibre really deserves something better. The good news is that a three-disc special edition is on the way that will, hopefuly, finally do this film justice. You might want to hang on for a few months until it's released.

Hold your horses!!
This is a great film that has stood the test of time. It has aged so well compared to other sci fi films (see Total Recall). BUT, it will look just as good in 4 months time when the 4 disc special edition comes out, so don't buy it just yet unless you can think of a really good reason. I can't think of one, just be patient!!!