Press Notes: Michael Mann’s Thief

“Press Notes” is an ongoing collection of quotes and links to reviews of Criterion Collection releases from around the Internet.

It’s been about two years since Criterion last published their collection of “press notes” (for World On A Wire), so I thought it was time someone else took up the charge of collecting these links. I’ll update this post as needed, as I come across new reviews for the releases. If you think I should add something here, feel free to let me know.

Let’s kick off this series by starting with the upcoming Dual-Format release of Michael Mann’s Thief. This has been a rumored title for over three years now, and it appears that the wait was worthwhile. The screen shots in these two reviews are gorgeous, and I’d highly recommend you click through to see them.

Thief will hit shelves on Tuesday, January 14th, 2014. Pre-order on Amazon.

Blu-ray.com

“Restored in 4K and approved by Michael Mann, the director’s cut of Thief looks incredibly beautiful on Blu-ray. In fact, the improvements in image quality are so dramatic that I feel very comfortable stating that those who have previously seen Thief only on the non-anamorphic R1 DVD MGM produced years ago will experience an entirely new film. The nighttime footage, in particular, looks spectacular. The flat and murky visuals from the DVD release are replaced by dark but lush visuals with some hugely atmospheric neon lights that give the film a very stylish neo-noir look. ”

DVDBeaver

“The image has some teal-leaning but most colors seem true with the welding and fire sequences looking impressively bright. This is dual-layered with a high bitrate and we can guess that it is a solid representation of the film with a hint of grain. Contrast is strong and supports some excellent detail. It is in the original 1.85:1 aspect ratio They are infrequent examples of depth. This Blu-ray has no discernable flaws and supplies a very pleasing 1080P presentation.”