Our Lady of Blessed Acceleration doesn't fail us
Let's get this straight -- this blu-ray contains both the theatrical AND the extended cuts, for the misguided soul here (obviously NOT on a mission from God) who says stick with the 25th Anniversary edition.
And let's get this clear as well -- the quality of the picture is superb, much MUCH better than the DVD. Older films have issues when you transfer them to blu-ray, no question about it, but this image is as good as it can possibly get (don't believe me? Check out Blu-ray.com for a review of it).
On the extended version the extended scenes aren't as good a quality -- the source material there wasn't available and they probably transferred it from the DVD master. But it's not WORSE than the DVD, only not improved.
And on that note, IMHO the theatrical version is the one you want anyway. This is a film that does not get better when the timing gets slower -- and at nearly 2 1/2 hours the extended version just drags. Watch the theatrical version...
My Two Cents Worth
I've read the reviews on Amazon but wanted the blu-ray upgrade. Amazon's details may not be complete. The blu-ray I purchased has theatrical and extended versions on a single disc. There is a banner at the top front on my cover with says "Includes Theatrical and Extended Versions" and it is also mentioned again on the back cover. The DTS sound is outstanding on my Polk 360 home system and I don't think I am missing anything by not having lossless DTS sound. This movie looks and sounds great on blu-ray and the price is affordable. I found myself enjoying the movie and singing along with the sub-titled songs. I saw it in the theater when it first came out and here it is over 30 years later looking and sounding just as good if not better.
I want the original version!
I love The Blues Brothers. This is one of the all-time great comedies; a truly epic comedy. In it's original form, it is flawless from beginning to end. Five Stars easily.
Unfortunately, this "Special Edition" dvd includes 15+ minutes of scenes. Not under a "deleted scenes" section, which would have been appropriate and very welcome, but inserted into the movie itself. To be fair, the extra footage doesn't really hurt the music scenes. But did we really need to see Elwood at his place of employment? Did we really need to see where the Blues-mobile is stored when not being driven? None of the extra footage adds anything to the movie. In fact, it really ruins the perfect pacing of the regular cut.
I truly hope Universal sees the error of their ways and reissues this film on DVD with the original cut. They could even make the added footage viewable within the movie, through seamless branching, but for the love of Pete, give us the option!!!
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