Rating: 
Summary: The Mummy 1959
Review: This Mummy movie is one of the best made. Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee are brilliant and the story line flows along the lines of the earlier mummy movies.A must for lovers of mummy movies.
Rating: 
Summary: The picture is sharp, colors better, but matted? Why?
Review: Well, I compared the 2001 Warner DVD to the 1991 Warner Laserdisc. First the good news, the picture has been remastered and especially in dark shots, as in entering Princess Anankas tomb, contrasts are better and details come through with color and are not lost to darkness. Very nicely done. Now the bad news. This was not a widescreen production to begin with. The original aspect ratio was somewhere between 1:37:1 and 1:66:1, probably closer to the Academy standard. All we are getting with the "Matted" presentation here is the full picture with the top and bottom masked off to give the impression of a presentation somewhere between 1:78:1 and 1:85:1. It is very obvious because the actors hats, etc are constantly cut off. Comparing to the fullscreen also shows that nothing is being added to the sides and quite a bit of picture is lost in this presentation. The movie gets an A but this DVD gets B- for Video, B for Audio, C for extras, overall B-, could have been better. Frankly, I don't understand why Warner didn't just issue the fullscreen on the second layer or give us a single layered dual-sided disc, they cost about the same, with the standard presentation on one side and this "matted" presentation on the other, they have done this for many other releases. Thanks for reading, CAL
Rating:
Summary: The picture is sharp, colors better, but matted? Why?
Review: Well, I compared the 2001 Warner DVD to the 1991 Warner Laserdisc. First the good news, the picture has been remastered and especially in dark shots, as in entering Princess Anankas tomb, contrasts are better and details come through with color and are not lost to darkness. Very nicely done. Now the bad news. This was not a widescreen production to begin with. The original aspect ratio was somewhere between 1:37:1 and 1:66:1, probably closer to the Academy standard. All we are getting with the "Matted" presentation here is the full picture with the top and bottom masked off to give the impression of a presentation somewhere between 1:78:1 and 1:85:1. It is very obvious because the actors hats, etc are constantly cut off. Comparing to the fullscreen also shows that nothing is being added to the sides and quite a bit of picture is lost in this presentation. The movie gets an A but this DVD gets B- for Video, B for Audio, C for extras, overall B-, could have been better. Frankly, I don't understand why Warner didn't just issue the fullscreen on the second layer or give us a single layered dual-sided disc, they cost about the same, with the standard presentation on one side and this "matted" presentation on the other, they have done this for many other releases. Thanks for reading, CAL
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