{"id":7400,"date":"2014-06-05T07:59:09","date_gmt":"2014-06-05T14:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/?p=7400"},"modified":"2022-01-01T12:48:14","modified_gmt":"2022-01-01T20:48:14","slug":"review-alexander-bd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/2014\/06\/review-alexander-bd\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexander: The Ultimate Cut Blu-ray Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Alexander: The Ultimate Cut<\/em><\/strong> is supposed to be the final cut… the final FINAL cut, and even though I\u2019m still not overly enamored with the film, I can appreciate the production and costume designs, some of the performances and the ambitiousness of the character and story.<\/p>\n

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Alexander: The Ultimate Cut<\/span>
\n(2004)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Genre(s): <\/strong>Drama, Action, Suspense
\nWarner Bros. | Unrated\/R \u2013 207 min. \/ 175 min. \u2013 $39.99 | June 3, 2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n <\/b>MOVIE INFO:<\/span>
\nDirected by: <\/strong>Oliver Stone
\nWriter(s): <\/strong>Oliver Stone and Christopher Kyle and Laeta Kalogridis (written by)
\nCast: <\/strong>Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie, Val Kilmer, Anthony Hopkins, Jared Leto, Rosario Dawson, Jonathan Rhys-MeyersDISC INFO:<\/span>
\nFeatures: <\/strong>Audio Commentaries, Featurettes, Digital Copy
\nNumber of Discs: <\/strong>2Audio: <\/strong>English (DTS-HD MA 5.1)
\nVideo: <\/strong>1080p\/Widescreen 2.40
\nSubtitles: <\/strong>English SDH, French, Spanish
\nDisc Size: <\/strong>NA
\nCodec: <\/strong>MPEG-4 AVC
\nRegion(s): <\/strong>A, B, C<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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THE MOVIE<\/strong> \u2013 2.5\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A flop at the box office back in 2004, $34.3m on a $155m budget (though it made $133m overseas), Oliver Stone\u2019s Alexander<\/em><\/strong> was panned by critics and audiences alike, though it would seem over the years it\u2019s gained some more respect… however not from this reviewer. In any case, despite the film\u2019s failures, it somehow keeps getting resurrected with new versions, the latest, and presumably final one, is \u201cThe Ultimate Cut\u201d clocking in at 3 hours and 26 minutes \u2013 31 minutes longer than the theatrical version, 39 minutes longer than the director\u2019s cut and amazingly 8 minutes shorter<\/em> than the final cut \u2013 this version isn\u2019t terrible and certainly is better than the theatrical version, but it plods through at a snail\u2019s pace at no point did I get emotionally involved instead admiring the technical aspects, and even some of the performances, rather than a enthralling story.<\/p>\n

Honestly, Alexander<\/em><\/strong> isn\u2019t an awful film and this \u201cUltimate Cut\u201d seems to balance the best of \u201cThe Final Cut\u201d, which many fans seem to love, and some elements of the \u201cDirector\u2019s Cut\u201d. I\u2019m not sure if I\u2019ll ever revisit this film, although I do hope to if only to see if my opinion changes, but I do have give some respect at least to Oliver Stone and his dedication and hopefully the \u201cUltimate Cut\u201d gets it just right for the variety of fans out there. For me, I just never really found it all that engrossing.<\/p>\n

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SPECIAL FEATURES \u2013 4.0\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The 2-disc set is housed in a foldout digipak which is encased in a sturdy box which also has an envelope with letters from Oliver Stone to various members of the cast as well as a photo book of sketches and on-set pictures. Also included is a Digital Copy<\/strong> of the Ultimate Cut.<\/p>\n

Disc One: Alexander: The Ultimate Cut
\n<\/em><\/strong>Audio Commentary<\/strong><\/span> with Oliver Stone as he explains this latest cut and the changes made, why it was necessary and his disappointment with the theatrical version being too rushed. I normally don\u2019t care for solo tracks but Stone is an engaging fellow filling up the 3+ hour running time.<\/p>\n

The Real Alexander and the World He Made (29:45; HD)<\/strong><\/span> is a scholarly documentary on the legend that is Alexander the Great and contains interviews with professors as well as Oliver Stone intercut with scenes from the movie.<\/p>\n

Fight Against Time: Oliver Stone\u2019s Alexander<\/em> (1:16:13; HD)<\/strong><\/span> \u2013 Directed by Sean Stone, this lengthy documentary takes a look at making the historical epic from early on through filming and some of the challenges of making it. It\u2019s more of a fly-on-the-wall feature from the perspective of Stone\u2019s son.<\/p>\n

Disc Two: Alexander: Theatrical Cut
\n<\/em><\/strong>Audio Commentary<\/strong><\/span> \u2013 Director Oliver Stone and Historical Advisor Robin Lane Fox, recorded separately it seems, sit down for an informative if not slightly dry commentary as Fox, who fills most of the time, talk to the accuracy of the film.<\/p>\n

Resurrecting Alexander<\/em> (26:41; SD)<\/strong><\/span>, Perfect is the Enemy Good (28:53; SD)<\/strong><\/span>, The Death of Alexander<\/em> (31:16; SD)<\/strong><\/span> and Vangelis Scores Alexander<\/em> (4:31; SD)<\/strong><\/span> \u2013 These are behind-the-scenes featurettes using some of the footage from the \u201cFight Against Time\u201d documentary, just vastly cut down. These show just how vast the production was, sometimes hours of setup for less than a minute of screen time.<\/p>\n

Also included is a Teaser Trailer (1:55; SD)<\/strong><\/span> and Theatrical Trailer (1:57; SD)<\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n

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VIDEO \u2013 4.5\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Alexander: The Ultimate Cut<\/em><\/strong> gallops into battle on the Blu-ray field presented with a 2.40 widescreen aspect ratio and a nice-looking 1080p high-definition transfer. This is a fantastic looking transfer that really shows off the excellent production values from the sets and costumes. Colors tend to go into the warm elements but in certain well-lit scenes, the colors do pop off the screen well enough.<\/p>\n

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AUDIO \u2013 4.5\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track included has nice depth showcasing the battle sequences while also having good levels for the lower range including the dialogue coming through the center channel and the soundtrack\/score making use of the front and rear speakers.<\/p>\n

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OVERALL \u2013 3.0\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Overall, Alexander: The Ultimate Cut<\/em><\/strong> is supposed to be the final cut… the final FINAL cut, and even though I\u2019m still not overly enamored with the film, I can appreciate the production and costume designs, some of the performances and the ambitiousness of the character and story. The Blu-ray released by Warner Brothers does have some OK features, and includes the theatrical cut in HD for the first time, and the video\/audio transfers are both well done.<\/p>\n

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Published: <\/strong>06\/05\/2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alexander: The Ultimate Cut is supposed to be the final cut… the final FINAL cut, and even though I\u2019m still not overly enamored with the film, I can appreciate the production and costume designs, some of the performances and the ambitiousness of the character and story.    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,970],"tags":[2943,323,835,268,2944,202,1746,680,27],"class_list":["post-7400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blurayreviews","category-quick-hit-reviews","tag-alexander","tag-angelina-jolie","tag-anthony-hopkins","tag-colin-farrell","tag-jared-leto","tag-jonathan-rhys-meyers","tag-oliver-stone","tag-rosario-dawson","tag-val-kilmer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7400"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27842,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7400\/revisions\/27842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}