The Shadow (Collector's Edition) [Blu-ray]

This is one of Alec Baldwin's best performances. Other than a movie about a submarine that shall remain unnamed. This movie is a great popcorn flick with friends,

Like many fans of this film, it's been some time since the original DVD release of director Russell Mulcahy's THE SHADOW, and that release was incredibly awful. The visuals of this film are pretty sumptuous, but the original release of this was severely hamstrung by being formatted for your old box television with the 1:33:1 ratio. Now with the new Blu-Ray release of the film, you get better sound and picture, and it's finally formatted to its original 1:85:1 ratio. Along with some fun new interviews with certain members of the cast and crew, you finally get to see THE SHADOW in all its glory.With writer David Koepp (JURASSIC PARK, Sam Raimi's SPIDER-MAN, and a host of other hits from the 90's) taking his influences for the film's story from Walter Gibson's original pulp novels, the famous radio program, as well as from certain comic book incarnations, the character of Lamont Cranston/The Shadow (Alec Baldwin in his heyday of his film career) and his relationship with Margo Lane (Penelope Ann Miller) are pretty far away from what had come before, namely by giving Margo psychic abilities, the look and feel of the pulps and comics are front and center. As the tale of this film goes, it opens in the poppy fields of Tibet in 1931, and Ying Ko aka Cranston is the ruthless ruler of the opium trade. He is given a chance for redeeming his black soul by training his body and mind and after seven years, he returns to his home of New York as the avenging vigilante that has the ability to cloud men's minds. He soon meets Margo, who can read his mind, despite his own psychic abilities. Shiwan Khan (John Lone), the last descendant of Genghis Khan also arrives in New York to pit his abilities against The Shadow and conquer the world through the mind-controlled assistance of Margo's father Reinhardt (Ian McKellen) and greedy, sniveling Farley Claymore (Tim Curry) by creating the world's first atomic bomb. The fate of the city, and perhaps the world, is at stake. Can Khan be stopped? The Shadow knows.There are really nice easter eggs for fans of the different mediums, such as the characters of cabbie Moe Shrevnitz (the late, great Peter Boyle), Dr. Roy Tam (Sab Shimono), a brief appearance by Burbank (Andre Gregory), and even a mention of Inspector Cardona. The inspired casting of Lone as The Shadow's archenemy Shiwan Khan is spot on, and Mulcahy does a fine job of balancing a strong 1930's vibe, and giving the film a very solid comic book feel, using vivid and vibrant colors and patterns, even with the design of The Shadow, using bright blood-reds for his trademark scarf and cloak and shiny chrome for his trademark twin .45 pistols. Obviously the effects are pretty dated, but their usage is still pretty effective. The most telling thing about the film is that everyone involved in the film is taking their work seriously, but they also know that they can have some fun. Of course there are some groan-worthy one-liners that are incredibly out of character for The Shadow, but if you're looking for this film to adhere to the source material, you're going to be pretty disappointed.The Blu-Ray transfer is pristine. It looks and sounds better than ever before, thanks to the people over at Shout! Factory, who also did an unbelievably impressive job with the Blu-Ray for Sam Raimi's superhero masterpiece DARKMAN. But while that film has hours of bonuses, as well as a commentary track, this release is pretty sparse comparatively. It has the original theatrical trailer as well as a 20-odd minute retrospective of newer interviews with Baldwin, Miller, Mulcahy, Koepp and others. There are a few interesting anecdotes, but nothing incredibly memorable.Still, for fans of exciting and visually stunning pulp hero films, THE SHADOW is certainly an entertaining and exciting film, and if you like this film, I would also include THE PHANTOM with Billy Zane, which is also surprisingly good, and director Joe Johnston's brilliant and severely underrated THE ROCKETEER.

I really enjoyed this film when it came out in theaters. It didn’t deserve the flak it received ( I never went by what professional movie reviewers say because they don’t know ——).It finally came out in letterbox after it was initially released in pan and scan. What was Universal thinking? Well, at least it has been corrected!

When 12 year old me saw The Shadow in theaters he was blown away by the cool effects, the Shadow's spooky screen presence, and the eerie, driving soundtrack. 33 year old me got the movie a while back, but would he feel the same way? The answer is no, but that's not totally bad.The Shadow is by no means a perfect movie. It is laden with set pieces that exist purely to set up fights and conversations. Characters meet and talk purely for plot advancement - The Shadow and his nemesis Shiwan Khan have no less than two chats of this kind. Yet all of that can be excused because the effects ARE awesome, and the movie is swathed in loving depression-era cheesiness that 12 year old me was too young to appreciate. The cast know they are in a FUN movie and chew scenery with aplomb; Alec Baldwin is smooth and perpetually amused, John Lone chews scenery with Walkensian ferocity, and Penelope Ann Miller yo-yos frenetically between lovable goof and Garboesque sexpot. And all of it happens in a beautiful revisionist New York where the whole city burned down in 1929 and was replaced overnight with glistening art-deco splendor.A common comment with 90s films is that "high def does it no favors," but thankfully that is not true here. Thanks to extensive use of practical effects and oldschool opticals, The Shadow looks great- the only really bad effect is a silly teleport that a character does near the start. Sets and locations (but mostly sets) are impressively convincing (much of the film's budget went to the restoration of old cars for the street scenes) and 30s New York is fleshed out with gorgeous matte paintings that, while obviously fake on Blu Ray, nonetheless are wonderful to look at. The audio is also well mastered, and the music is as moody and great as I remembered. The Shadow's first appearance also makes great use of surround sound, although sadly the filmmakers didn't see fit to utilize the same techniques later on.The Shadow is also an interesting slice of history, as it shepherded in a brief surge of classic pulp superhero films that would conclude with the excellent Mask of Zorro, then hand the reins over to X-Men to start the modern age of superhero cinema. Like today's best comic book films, The Shadow keeps its sense of fun, throws us a likeable cast, then turns the awesome dial to 11. It's not even completely brainless- witness the hero's first fight with the Mongol warriors, who know EXACTLY how to stop him (since their boss has the same powers), or the attention to detail like the incorrectly assembled Iguanodon in the history museum.Overall The Shadow is a fine film, and this is a fine print that deserves a place in your collection.

I have owned three copies of this movie. The first was the DTS Laser Disk release. And it was amazing at the time. Then the DTS DVD was released and the sound was excellent but the picture was washed out and a bit dim. BUT this BluRay release has the killer DTS soundtrack and the awesome picture I remembered from the LD. This is the best.

This is such a good movie. If you're not familiar with the character, try to imagine a heroic Ras AL Ghul who was trained by the sorcerer Supreme. Alec Baldwin nails the role, especially with his voice. If you're getting into pulp, this is a good place to start as it basically serves as a primer for The Shadow as a character (and he is the undisputed king of pulp heroism).

This is a movie that you will either love or hate...a comic book movie in a similar vein to Dick Tracy.It's a fun adventure that doesn't take itself to seriously..a pulpy mix of darkness and comedy.The movie was made at a time when CGI was being introduced into film. While the majority of the movie relied on tradition film techniques, the CGI effects it did use now look a little dated. I don't think this impacts the movie too much as most of the CGI was used in a minimal way.I was a bit disappointed with the amount of extra content included in this "Collector's Edition". In some ways it feels like a discount bin DVD copy. Extra features are a documentary, a photo gallery and movie trailer. The documentary was a pretty decent one (over 20 minutes long) that included retrospective views from both cast and crew.This was the first movie that I purchased from Shout Factory, who release prints of movies in limited quantities. The Shadow is a film that has not had a lot of reprints and to the best of my knowledge there is only one other bluray version out there (supposedly inferior in video quality) which makes this a bit of a rarity. I purchased this movie for less than $20 which I felt was worth it to obtain a copy of a movie I enjoyed that is in limited supply. Shortly thereafter the cost of the movie shot up to $40 which I don't feel is justified for what you get.I guess it's best to get Shout Factory movies when the price is low as it will eventually jump up in price!

If you have a smart TV or disc player that upgrades your media to Bluray or higher, I don't think you'll find much difference between this Bluray version and the original DVD. As a lover of the movie, I was disappointed.

Always enjoyed this movie, very good picture and sound quality.

Great movie, great edition, great price.