A New Review: Donnie Brasco Special Edition [Archive] - Audio & Video Forums

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Lexmark3200
04-23-2004, 08:06 PM
Rented this tonight with the help of my good friend Jeski and his printable Blockbuster coupons; seems Columbia Tristar has put out a Special Edition version of the original Donnie Brasco DVD, which came with a Pan and Scan format on it. This new one has no pan and scan, has been framed with anamorphic video enhancement, and drops the original DVD's Dolby Digital 5.1 mix for a --- believe it or not --- 5.0 soundtrack! Now before you throw a temper tantrum and call the Dolby police, understand: this film has no bass worthy to reproduce from a .1 LFE channel anyway, still, why did Columbia REMOVE the LFE channel altogether?

The video was unremarkable and average at best; some grain crept in and Pacino's character was wearing a horribly ugly checkered overcoat through most of the film which had some trouble being rendered in the DVD format. The sound was also unremarkable; this "5.0" mix had just about everything coming from the front, except for some rare gunshot effects or the song "Disco Inferno" by the Traamps playing in one scene which filled the surround channels, too. The overall problem with this DVD's soundtrack, though, was its HORRIBLE lack of volume....I mean, this thing had NO punch whatsoever....dialogue was terribly low, and I had my receiver on "50" to even get any sound out of the track whatsoever. No power at all.