The Town (Ultimate Collector's Edition) • Blu-ray Review

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The Town
(Ultimate Collector's Edition)

Conclusion
September 16, 2012

The Town: UCE: Introduction / The Movie • The Town: UCE: Screencaps
The Town: UCE: Features & Specifications • The Town: UCE: Conclusion

The Town: Ultimate Collector's Edition
Features: 3-Disc edition, Theatrical Cut & Extended Cut on one Blu-ray disc, Extended Cut with Alternate Ending on one Blu-ray disc, English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, film prop replicas, and more.
Codec / Resolution: MPEG-4 AVC / 1080p
Distributor: Warner Brothers
Region: A
This Release: February, 2012
MPAA Rating: R
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Running Time: 125mins / 153 mins
MSRP: $49.99
Current Price: Check Price / Purchase

Pros

Finally, an exclusive disc for the exclusive version! Yay!
Absolutely great film texture
Barely visible grain and gorgeous
Colors are appropriately positioned against the ambience of the film
As usual, ok extras, but wanted a little more...

Cons / Disadvantages

None observed

Noteworthy Observations

This is the only version to get of The Town . The other versions simply will not have the separate disc for the longer extended cut with alternate ending, and I think I made my case perfectly clear with the bitrate comparisons, so if you want to view this movie as Ben Affleck intended, at the best quality available, get this version. Yes, there are some kiddish toys included, but hey, you know you've always wanted to put an Irish tattoo on your muscles and brag about how bad you REALLY are.

AUDIO
VIDEO
CONTENT
EXTRAS

Overall Rating - 8.250 out of 10

RECOMMENDED PLUS

Audio

The Town (Ultimate Collector's Edition) is presented on a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack (2151Kbps (48kHz/16-bit)). Both Blu-ray discs have very little differences with the bitrates of the audio, and I was a little surprised, since the second disc could have easily added a more robust track. However, the audio was pretty good nonetheless. Most of the movie is dialogue, so a more robust track probably wouldn't have done much. Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 Kbps) in Spanish and French are available only for the Extended Cut with Alternate Ending version. Not exactly sure why this was not included for the other versions.

Video

The video is the best on the Extended Cut w/Alternate Ending disc (Disc Two). I took the liberty of taking two bitrate graphs and posting them for comparison (by the way, BDINFO is great and continues to make my job easier), and holy mama what a comparison. The bitrates are completely different. From just a quick look at the graphs, I saw an average of around 15Mbps for the two movie editions on one Blu-ray BD-50 disc, and then the quality just jumps up to around 25Mbps for Disc Two which only has the one version.

Content

The extended version with alternate ending of The Town is the film Ben Affleck meant for viewers to be seen. Much better than the theatrical cut, and more realistic than without the alternate ending, The Town does a pretty good job of telling a tale of a group of kids who have grown up, taking consequences for their actions. It's not easy to just want to get out of a cycle of behavior, and there are many things which prevent a person from doing a clean get away.

As mentioned earlier, this movie has been compared to Heat, but the two movies are completely different. However, I will say, these two movies fall into a category of Not Your Average Crime Thriller. The Town has depth to the characters, but I would have wished to see more of this, leading up to the end of the film. Also mentioned earlier, this probably would have required a 4-hour presentation. In any case, The Town does not pass up the chance to satisfy those who want a good Crime Thriller.

The Extras

The extras on The Town (Ultimate Collector's Edition) are ok, and there are two 30-minute documentaries which are informative and fun to watch. The rest of the documentaries are much shorter. Overall, the extras are typical, and I really wasn't expecting anything more.

Conclusion

The Town (Ultimate Collector's Edition) the version to get if you're interested in Ben Affleck's presentation. The exclusive Blu-ray disc for the presentation makes this version a collector's item, indeed. I could have done without the added replica film props, but they were sort of entertaining to play with as I watched the movie for the third time. The audio was ok, but the video is spectacular, and one of my reference titles for showing viewers what can be filmed with 35mm.

And so I give The Town (Ultimate Collector's Edition) a RECOMMENDED PLUS.

If you think this version is not for you, there is The Town: 2-Disc Extended Edition, without the extra packaging, but it's also without the alternate ending, and no separate disc exclusive for the longer cut.

A pretty good supplement movie, which is just about 40-years old (and I'm hoping Criterion releases this on Blu-ray soon), is The Friends of Eddie Coyle (The Criterion Collection). This was released in 1973, but with Robert Mitchum, Peter Boyle, and Richard Jordan as the main cast, and Peter Yates as the director, this is one of my favorites.