DVD Review: A Darren Aronofsky Collection

DVD Reviews

By Jeff Swindoll Apr 6, 2007, 9:18 GMT

I’m not going to do too much typing on this review. Why? I’m feeling lazy, but Lionsgate was also feeling lazy when they produced this “collection” of Darren Aronofsky’s films.

Let’s just get this over with. Lionsgate collected the films of Darren Aronofsky all right, perhaps too literally. All they did was take the two films and put them in new packaging. The thing is that these are the exact same discs that they put out when they were Artisan and the discs still have that studio’s name on them. In other words, the 16x9 transfer promised on the back of the case for Pi is not correct, it’s the same old non-anamorphic widescreen transfer that they put out the first time. I know that Aronofsky fans were hoping to replace their old discs with an anamorphic transfer and they’re still waiting.

They say that it’s a 16x9 on the back of the case but it’s a typo. The movies are excellent but I can’t say that I would recommend purchasing this collection unless you do not have them and consider the price of the collection a bargain. If you were hoping to upgrade your Pi to an anamorphic transfer then you’ll still be waiting (and more likely you’ll be really mad when you open the package and find the old discs inside). From the back of the box:
“Requiem for a Dream is a hypnotic tale of a lonely widowed mother (Ellen Burstyn), her son Harry (Jared Leto), his beautiful girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly), his best friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans) and their vision of happiness. Even as everything begins to fall apart, they refuse to let go, plummeting with their dreams into a nightmarish gut-wrenching freefall. Pi is the story of Maximilian Cohen (Sean Gullette) who is on the verge of the most important discovery of his life. For the past ten years, he has been attempting to decode the numerical pattern beneath the ultimate system of ordered chaos – the stock market. As Max verges on a solution, chaos is swallowing the world around him.” One good thing is that Requiem for a Dream is the unrated version and is loaded with the special features that were found on that disc. The R-rated version was rejected by Aronofsky and did not get any special features at all (I think the R-rated version may have only been at Blockbuster, but am not sure). Both of them are packed with special features since the old discs were.I’m going to have to explain my rating on this set. I’m not going to rate it very high because it’s just a repackage (heck guys, you should’ve at least changed the titles on the discs to what the company is called now and not use the old name) of the old disc.

However, the films are excellent and would be very highly rated. If you don’t already have both of them, this might actually be more of a bargain for you since it is relatively cheap online. For those that already have the films and were hoping for a new transfer, save your money (no matter what the back of the box says).A Darren Aronofsky Collection is now available at Amazon. As of yet, this collection is not available in the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.

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DVD Review: A Darren Aronofsky Collection

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