Posted by simon on 07/29/06 09:33

When Besson's The Big Blue was first released on DVD in the UK (around
2000, if memory serves) I bought it as soon as it was available. At the
time, I noticed that the lipsync on it seemed a bit ropey in places,
but was just glad to finally have a copy of it in a decent format.

I watched it again the other day, and got thoroughly fed up with the
bloody disc - the lipsync is dreadful, and you can actually hear the
soundtrack music speeding up and slowing down in certain places - the
disc is incredibly badly mastered.

I assumed that there must be a better option by now, and searched the
web for special editions. A 2-disc SE version was released in France in
2004, which includes a DD 5.1 English soundtrack (and bizarrely, a DTS
version of the dubbed French track), and my copy arrived this morning.
For the first half of the film, the English soundtrack is perfectly in
sync - excellent. And then, for the second half, it's a good second or
so out of sync. (Tried on two players - it's definitely the disc...)

The only version of the film I haven't tried on DVD is the US region 1
release, which has a DD 5.1 English soundtrack, but which will be in
NTSC with the resulting drop in resolution, so I'm really not thrilled
at the idea of trying it.

Why has no-one produced a version of this film on DVD with a properly
sync'ed soundtrack? The VHS tape I have of it seems ok...

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