RELEASE DATE: December 3, 2024
On December 3, 2024, Lionsgate is releasing a 3-Disc SteelBook for Kickboxer on 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray, which will also include the rarely-seen International version of film. Directed by Mark DiSalle (The Perfect Weapon) and David Worth (American Tigers), this 1989 cult martial arts hit further elevated the career of Jean-Claude Van Damme (Black Water), and was responsible of the sparking the kickboxing boom of the 80s and 90s.
In the film, kickboxing champ Eric Sloane (Dennis Alexio) is crippled in the ring by the evil Tong Po (Michel Qissi). Eric’s younger brother, Kurt (Van Damme), seeks vengeance. Kurt learns Muay-Thai from fight guru Xian Chow (Dennis Chan). Thanks to Chow’s unconventional training methods, Kurt becomes an expert kickboxer.
Features:
- DISC 1: 4K Ultra HD (Movie/Features)
- DISC 2: Blu-ray (Movie/Features)
- DISC 3: Blu-ray (Bonus Disc) (Film – International Version)
- Lenticular Slipcover
- Audio Commentary With Producer-director Mark Disalle And Action Film Historian Mike Leeder
- Audio Commentary With Director David Worth, Actor Haskell Anderson, And Film Historian James Bennett
- “Vengeance & Redemption” – an Interview With Actor Jean-claude Van Damme
- “Bring Me Tong Pop” – an Interview With Actor Michel Qissi
- “Kick The Tree”- an Interview With Actor Dennis Chan”Focus, Film, Fight!”-an Interview With Director Of Photography Jon Kranhouse
- Theatrical Trailer
- TV Spot
- Still Gallery
Watch the film’s classic Trailer below:
“You cant make 4K without a film print” – What???!!! You can make 4K version from anything even from dvd or hell even from sd (well in case with sd it will be quite challenging, but possible) All you need is right tools and pretty expensive pc. You can upscale almost any low quality source to hd or fhd or 4k without loosing the og quality. Yes, in some cases it is very hard but possible. If you ihave uncut dvd version of kickboxer, people in lionsgate can remaster/upscale it to 4k without any difficulties. If they cant, then i can hardly call them even semi professionals. Of cource having original print for remaster is always good but i just cant beliave that they cant take your dvd version and do proper upscaling…
“upscaling” is a dirty word for some lol I have a feeling Lionsgate isn’t going to put their heart and soul into this one. Hope I’m wrong. =)
I’m sorry, but upscaling a dvd to 4k and having the actual film print competently remastered to 4k are not at all the same thing. Just like a Fierro and a Ferrari back in the 1980s were not the same thing. Yes, they might have a nice red paint job on them where if they are driving by you at 50mph when you don’t have your glasses on, you might mistake one for the other. Outside of that, there is no mistaking the difference.
When we transitioned from SD to HD in the early 2000s, there was a problem to solve. What was on the dvd and ouputed my the dvd player didn’t have enough pixels to properly display on an HD tv. So they had to develop software to make up many more pixels so that you get an actual image on the TV. Looking at the pixels they can kind of guess what the pixels might be between and around them. But there is no mistaking a well mastered dvd for a well mastered blu ray of the same movie at a reasonably sized tv and viewing distance. Partly because hd TVs have more colors than Sd TVs. But also because it is nearly impossible to guess what pixels should be between and around them to create the proper number of pixels for the display. When the dvd was mastered for dvd a whole lot of information just got thrown away in thr process, because the sd TVs couldn’t do anything with the extra information anyways. Newer TVs are far more capable.
Moving to the early to mid 2010s we moved to 4k resolution on TVs with hdr. We similarly increased the number of pixels significantly and expanded the number of colors and this time allowed for a much expanded difference on screen between the darkest blacks and the brightest whites, where that is a flexible and moving target going forward in the UHD Blu Ray player as TVs become more and more capable.
I have an Oppo Blu Ray player that has one of the best upscalers there was back when it was made and there is no mistaking a dvd for a Blu Ray or a Blu Ray for a UHD Blu Ray of the same movie assuming it was properly mastered. I am viewing things on a 77 inch OLED from about 7 feet away. Even when I had a 50 inch plasma at the same viewing distance, the dvd and Blu Ray were very noticeably different.
Things have come a long way even since the Oppo players were being made. AI upscaling is very exciting as far as what can be accomplished with it. It is still nowhere near where what a good master of the actual film print can look like. Again about as similar as a Fierro is to a Ferrari.
What the OP is claiming is the visual equivalent of someone ripping a spotify track and then reencoding it as lossless 24bit/192 Khz. Technically its in an audiophile format but from a sheety source.
The AI upscaling you mention is really interesting cos the results are ok-ish. The German blurays of Bullet in the Head and Wing Chun use DVD sources but with the help of AI and some fake film grain added back in, the results are not videophile quality but still pleasing to the eye on 4k tv as long as you don’t pixel peep
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I don’t want to want this, but I do. I so do. That thing looks rad. And I’ve never seen the uncut version.
I think it’s worth it. One for the international uncut version Two for the new special features and three because it’s 4 k