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Star Wars: Classic Edition 2.0 NEW from Ocpmovie (Released)

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 (Edited)

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From the editor that brought you Star Wars Deleted Magic and The Thief and the Cobbler Recobbled Cut …

Star Wars: Classic Edition 2.0.

The brand new revised edition, for 2006.

It’s the original version of Star Wars, not the way it was, but the way you remember it.

And now, better than ever.

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If you saw my original Star Wars Classic Edition last year (June 2005 to be exact - it’s now November 2006), you saw a lovingly-restored, DVD quality version of the original Star Wars. I wanted to create the best version of the original 1977 Star Wars that I could.

Now, I’ve redone my edit to have much, MUCH improved picture quality. It’s like night and day … people loved the original Classic Edition, but you can throw it out. As I used to say, “throw out your other Star Wars DVDs … this is the only version of Star Wars you need.”

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My sources were both from Lucasfilm – the 2004 Special Edition DVD with all its crisp DVD clarity, and the 2006 “original trilogy” non-anamorphic DVD.

I wanted to create an Original Trilogy Star Wars disc that would look as good as the 2004 DVD, but be the original version of Star Wars that you remember … with a new 1977-style sound mix taken from the 93 laserdisc mix, with elements of the mono mix mixed in.

In short, my own ideal version of the original Star Wars - the only version I need. I think some of you might agree with that.

The disc is presented in 16:9 anamorphic widescreen, with Dolby Digital sound.

The 2004 DVD image has been slightly color corrected to be brighter overall.

All Special Edition elements have been removed, even Biggs. If you want to see Biggs or Jabba, you’d best pop in our supplemental disc - I think it’s called Deleted Magic.

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The opening shot has been restored to its former pre-2004 glory by Shadowman.

Original Trilogy shots have been edited in from the 2006 Lucasfilm disc, which is itself from the 1993 Definitive Collection laserdisc.

In many cases, the shot has simply been dropped in in the appropriate place, and is not jarring.

In other cases, Special Edition material has been literally painted out of the frame, combining the laserdisc image and the 2004 DVD image in the same frame. This results in a sharper image overall. Rontos and CGI Dewbacks were removed in Mos Eisley, Luke’s Binary Sunset was restored to its original shape, and wipes/dissolves were carefully created so that 1977 elements could wipe to 2004 ones. Using a tiny dissolve to add some extra footage of Han talking, the Greedo scene was restored to its original timing.

The 1993 laserdisc mix is the source of the soundtrack, apart from several lines of dialogue which have been taken instead from the 1977 mono mix … a 1985 (?) PAL TV airing of the film in the UK was used for these.

From mono mix:

  • All Beru lines
  • Stormtrooper: “It’s secure, move on to the next one.”
  • C3PO: “The tractor beam is coupled to the main reactor in seven locations …”
  • Stormtrooper: “Close the blast doors!”
  • Luke: “Blast it, Wedge, where are you?”

The mono mix was considered definitive at the time, so I thought it was appropriate to include the most notable changes from it, the final mix ever done back in 1977.

Menus and opening animations were created originally for the first Star Wars Classic Edition release - they lead into slightly altered versions of some of the the menus from the official DVDs, which I thought was appropriate for this disc considering.

The edit is now done.

Enjoy, folks.

My email remains: *****.

Menus from the original version, reused here …

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I say it’s “not as it was, but as you remember it” because this version is not based on any one version of the film that has ever existed before. I find that a lot of people remember the movie as being in stereo, with the original crawl and with the lines from the mono mix, etc … so I’ve blended a few versions together to make the perfect version of Star Wars.

I DO recommend getting the Dual Layer version, and I’ve never said that before in my life. (My previous edits have shrunk down to a single layer without any trouble.) The single layer version is nice, but I can see the compression that was done to get it down to 1 layer.

I’ve used the old original menus from the first Classic Edition, and they look particularly compressed in the single layer.

Since I’m using the same menu system from the original Classic Edition, I’ve inherited the same little problems present in the menus there. I will report that the second chapters menu and the last chapters menu are the ones which don’t work right … If you’re using a computer they work fine, but on a DVD player you won’t be able to see what you’re doing.

As before, I’m not too concerned because they’re just chapter menus.

The special features are identical to the original release also.

– Play with Isolated Score by John Williams
– Fanmade “THX” Intro (Death Star Trench Run)
– A really wonderful commentary track created for the Classic Edition, featuring dozens of members of the cast and crew.
– Animated menus taken from the 2004 release by Van Ling.

The Classic Edition commentary, if you didn’t hear it on my original Classic Edition release, is a wonderful thing … edited together from interviews, and is definitely the best ANH commentary yet assembled.

Here is the list of participants:

George Lucas
Anthony Daniels - C3PO
David Prowse - Darth Vader
Peter Mayhew - Chewbacca
Kenny Baker - R2D2
Mark Hamill - Luke Skywalker
Carrie Fisher - Princess Leia
Harrison Ford - Han Solo
Garrick Hagon - Biggs Darklighter
Ken Ralston - ILM
Dennis Muren - ILM
Ralph McQuarrie - Production Paintings
Charles Lippincott - Former VP, Lucasfilm
James Earl Jones - Voice of Darth Vader
John Williams - Composer
Irvin Kerschner - Director, The Empire Strikes Back
Frank Oz - Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back
Jeremy Bulloch - Boba Fett, The Empire Strikes Back
Matthew Carter - Bib Fortuna, Return of the Jedi

Subtitles pop up to identify the speaker.

A comparison between my 2005 edit, and this edit:
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A comparison between my edit and the official Lucasfilm dvds:

Lucasfilm 2004 DVD
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Lucasfilm 2006 DVD
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Star Wars Classic Edition 2.0
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Pictures pictures pictures!

See all the pictures here! Seven pages worth!



If you want to hear about the problems I encountered and solved while editing this project, read along in the
OCPmovie News and Releases Megathread.

I decided to do my "have to figure out how to edit this thing" frustration blogging in that thread, so to leave this thread uncluttered.


FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

Q: Will you be doing a revised 2.0 version of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi?

A: No. I was never happy with my edit of Star Wars, but I am very happy with my previous versions of Empire and Jedi. There is no need to redo them, especially since the Moth3r PAL transfer was used as the basis, a very clear transfer.

Empire and Jedi were done in a very different way than Star Wars. The 2004 DVDs were "hacked" to become the original edit - you're literally watching the 2004 DVDs for 99% of the film, so the picture quality is impeccable.

Due to the botched color correction done on the films for the 2004 DVDs, I felt I needed to color correct the first Star Wars myself to make it look more 1977-like, and so I didn't just "Hack" the 2004 DVD. A much more complicated process, which I did fairly well back in 2005, but much better now.

Q: Is there anything you're unhappy with in this edit?

A: Very proud of all the places where Special Edition material was painted out. I did have a problem with occasional dropped/repeated frames throughout the film which I know how to solve now, and I wish I'd known about before doing this edit. Also I think my edits in the opening crawl are more obvious than I'd like. But overall, very very pleased.

Q: The menus were botched up on the original Star Wars Classic Edition - one or two of the chapter selection menus didn't work properly unless using a computer. Since you're using the same menus for this release, is this still a problem?

A: Yep. And I'm still not worried about it at all. Two of the chapter menus are just as botched as they always were, and sadly I still find this cute. I still don't know how to solve the problem so I still don't mind it.

Q: What was it like editing this version as opposed to the original Classic Edition?

A: It was a real joy to work with the 2006 Lucasfilm DVD. The laserdisc transfer on this DVD was very clear. The picture shakes constantly from side to side, so that was pretty annoying, but it wasn't actually a problem - especially since I'm only using brief snippets of laserdisc material in the whole edit. This cut is much more watchable and nice than either of Lucas' DVDs, or my own previous work.

Q: Why is the picture quality so improved on this edit as opposed to the previous 1.0 version?

A: The first edit was done using the MiniDV codec, which introduced all kinds of picture and color artifacts and lost a lot of clarity. It was also running at 30 frames per second, when it should be running at 24 frames per second, so the motion was pretty staggered. Also I didn't resize the picture properly and lost a LOT of clarity.

This time round I used the PhotoJPEG codec, resized everything properly and generally did things much smarter. I learned a lot in the past year plus while working on projects like the Thief and the Cobbler Recobbled Cut.

I'm proud of my original edit, and had fun redoing all my work from back then in higher quality.

Q: What is the difference between the single and dual layer versions of this edit?

A: A dual layer DVD is twice the size (8 GB) of a single layer DVD. When a DVD is compressed down to single layer, there is a slight quality loss which can be seen as more blocky/soft compression artifacts and in extreme cases a subtle "strobe" effect, as the image becomes clear for a moment, then blurrier, then clearer, then blurrier ....

In the past, with Empire and Jedi Classic Edition, since I was "hacking" official DVDs which were very intelligently compressed, I had no compression problems even in the single layer version. It looked completely fine.

This time round, I was completely color-correcting and reencoding Star Wars, which is much harder than hacking .... and which makes it much more likely that the image will appear compressed in single layer form. So those who know what to look for will notice more compression, and strobing.

The single layer version looks fine, and I recommend it, but the dual layer version does look a bit better.


Q: How will this edit be released?

A: Like all my edits, via snail mail. Write me - *****. I am currently moving to Connecticut so there may be a delay in processing your discs. However, you would be helping me out at a crucial time in my life, so that's all good.


Q: What's your next project?

A: I am currently working on my own film projects, including two animated series .... I'm not doing many fan edits at the moment. I do intend to do a short bit of comedic editing - a "fanedit" mixing a tv personality together with a superhero. I have also been promising a much-expanded sequel to my very popular fan disc "The Bonzo Dog Band: Talking Pictures" for some time now, over a year I'm sure, so I'll have to actually make "Talking Pictures 2" at some point!

To see what I'm working on as I work on it, check out the OCPmovie News and Releases Megathread, where all new fanediting news will be posted, and for you Orange Cow diehard fans, my personal blog at FFrevolution.com, where I show what I'm working on with my own original movies and creative projects, and bitch about my life.
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Ah, very good. It's good to see you in these parts again, G. I'll be putting in my DL order in shortly.

Now what to do about all of my friends that I gave out the 1.0 version to...
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Please, can you restore the Cantina musical cue that can be heard while they're entering the Cantina? It is very subtle compared to the other changes for the mono mix but I loved it.
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Too late now, edit is done.


I just used the mono mix for dialogue ... my copy of it is pretty hissy anyway, and I didn't try to noise reduce it the first time, nor this time.
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Wow, that looks so clear and crisp! Question though: if you were removing the SE material, why leave the shot of the Rebel base in on Yavin IV?


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Looks pretty sweet! I'll be budgeting some download time and a DL disc...
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Originally posted by: kaine23
Wow, that looks so clear and crisp! Question though: if you were removing the SE material, why leave the shot of the Rebel base in on Yavin IV?

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Do you mean that one? That's 1977, not 2004. 2004 added weird decay and cement breakdown stuff to the front.

I used to be very active on this forum. I’m not really anymore. Sometimes, people still want to get in touch with me about something, and that is great! If that describes you, please email me at [my username]ATgmailDOTcom.

Hi everybody. You’re all awesome. Keep up the good work.

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Looks great!

Can you post a couple more pics? Especially the opening shot of the 'Look Sir Droids' scene you have shown here - just before the camera starts to pan, and this shot on Mos Eisley, one of the worst shots on the GOUT.
http://www.rosby.com.au/mangledmos.jpg

I'm keen to see what you did with these, they gave me a lot of headaches when working with them.

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Originally posted by: ReverendBeastly
Originally posted by: kaine23
Wow, that looks so clear and crisp! Question though: if you were removing the SE material, why leave the shot of the Rebel base in on Yavin IV?

http://orangecow.org/starwars/ce2grab17.jpg

Do you mean that one? That's 1977, not 2004. 2004 added weird decay and cement breakdown stuff to the front.

Oh my bad. Been awhile since I've seen all of ANH. lol

Now if the CE covers were still aviliable here:
http://www.angelfire.com/planet/starwarshyperdrive/
I'd be all over this more. Ilike these covers (not saying I don't like ocp and Coov's, they're great!) these ones are just uniform to the PT covers. Call me anal, but hey.
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Welcome back to the frontline, ocp. Someone had to do this edit - glad it could be you.
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This looks incredible! A great version indeed.
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Note on that Yavin temple shot that the people are the clear versions from the 2004 version.

>> Especially the opening shot of the 'Look Sir Droids' scene you have shown here - just before the camera starts to pan

Very proud of that scene actually, Look Sir Droids came out great. I don't think it came out that great in my first 1.0 attempt last year. Before it pans, the scene is all GOUT .... it changes to 2004 version with a simple wipe as the camera is panning. Very seamless.


>> and this shot on Mos Eisley, one of the worst shots on the GOUT.

Oh, a terrible shot. I've done nothing with it, I don't think there's anything you can do with it. I just left in the GOUT version.


One very tiny special edition thing I left unchanged was the shot where Luke sells his speeder. I tried to fix the subtle addition in the background, but it was difficult to do so and still have it be seamless.


I was definitely going for seamless this time round.
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Woah, I wasn't aware this announcement was made in your megathread OCP, so imagine my suprise when I noticed this thread.

I'll have to dig up the quote from you that it will be a cold day in hell before you revisit the star wars edits.

Definately the best news I've heard today. I love what you've done. I'm sure this will be great.

I've noticed how good the lightsabers look in the picture samples ie training on the Falcon and the Deathstar duel. How was this acheived? You didn't de-specialise the lightsabers in the duel did you, from memory I don't think you did for version 1.0? Apologies if you answered these questions but I didn't see them in your FAQ.

And is it ok to send you an email now, or would you prefer to receive orders after the move?

"Well here's a big bag of rock salt" - Patton Oswalt

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I'm actually doing orders now to try to get some in before the move. So any orders now would be nice, otherwise ... DELAY as I move.


I've always done some contrast tweaking to the sabers in my edits. There have been so many complaints about the sabers in the 2004 DVDs and honestly they don't bother me at all. But I know people complained about them and wanted to see changes made, so for Empire and Jedi I raised the contrast, and made the red sabers more red when I felt I could/should.

I did absolutely nothing special to the sabers for this version of Star Wars, which matches what I did in my 1.0 edit. In my 1.0 edit the picture was brightened already, so the sabers looked fine, I think I might have raised the contrast a bit in the Obi-Wan/Vader fight.

In this edit, maybe I should have done some special processing to certain shots in the Obi/Vader fight, but I just gave them the same basic color correction I'd done to every frame of the movie.

There were two shots where I wanted to restore the sabers to being white -- Luke training aboard the Falcon (first shot only) and the last shot of Vader after the Obi-Wan duel. So I used chromakey in the first case and GOUT footage in the second to restore them to white.

I do think the sabers look good in the Obi-Wan/Vader duel, that's why I posted that screen grab. There are one or two shots where the contrast is low enough that Vader's saber acquires that pink hue people hate, and I should have done Chromakey contrast fixes on those actually. I didn't think about that enough, since I thought the whole duel looked quite good with the color correction (which certainly helped the sabers get their bright white back).

Yeah, I think it looks good. Better than version 1 certainly!



The crawl is from the GOUT. The Lucasfilm and "Galaxy Far, Far Away" titles are new, based on screen grabs from various versions to look as good as possible.

I've been reminded why, as proud as I am of my "de-specializing" work, I shouldn't really post video samples online. On the web, people analyze screen grabs and video samples to death and make up a million problems that aren't actually there and don't exist and wouldn't bother anyone even if they did.

Whereas, when people see the actual DVD, there could be a million problems with it, and they wouldn't notice, just say it's great. (I've made huge mistakes that weren't caught for months - the first Star Wars Classic Edition and Deleted Magic are full of them - and been fooled by advance word on many fan discs that turned out to be poorly-authored.)

I find both those responses silly.

There are also people who are better at creating little web samples than they are at creating or releasing an actual DVD, and that's silly too.

I don't think there are any real problems with my DVD, and I'd rather not have people brainstorm with all their might to come up with some based on little web samples.

However, I'll continue to respond to any of your worries with my usual honesty.
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Looking good, OCP! One question, were you able to improve your compositing technique for v2? Specifically I'm thinking of the various shots in the v1 discs where you either painted out, or composited OUT footage over SE elements, but ghosts of the SE stuff could still be seen.
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Wow. Looks great! Much better than the old version, which was fairly disappointing.

BTW, image 8 on the first page of screenshots looks a little messed up. I trust it's just the image, and not like the actual film?
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Jeez, dissing version one. I didn't think it was disappointing or that "ghosts" of the SE stuff could be seen.

But I've done a lot better this time round, in all respects.


I guess by image 8 you mean the shot of the Star Destroyer over Tattooine?

Looking at that pic on this computer monitor, the black levels are too bright, they've gone to grey, which looks a bit odd.


I should have actually done another lumakey pass on that shot to make all the blacks pure black.

I did lumakey passes on every shot to make the blacks pure black, but when doing heavy compositing like that shot, it couldn't always be done without encoding it twice. Which I did on the shot of Han saying "Yes, I'll bet you have ..."

Shoulda done it tho', black's pretty important in that opening shot.

Looked fine on the TV I watched it on tho'.


I don't mean to be defensive, by the way. It's always a bit nerve-wracking knowing that your work is being scrutinized in such detail but I'm glad people care about Star Wars enough to want a damn good version of it, I certainly do and that's the motivation behind this project of course.

I think you'll all like it. Like, a lot.


As far as how my compositing skills have developed, well, there WAS a Ronto in this shot at one point.

http://orangecow.org/starwars/ce2grab27.jpg

No Ronto now. Looks fine to me.
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On my monitor, the middle portion of the starfield in image 8 looks all gray but then it gets all blocky with purer black coming through on the sides.

By saying version 1 was disappointing, there seemed to be some issues with the encoding/compression. Movement didn't flow well and seemed slightly jerky and there was quite a bit of compression artifacts.
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Yeah, the 1.0 version was crap for picture/encoding quality, because of the way it was done. I learned a lot since then.


As for the opening shot, that screen grab does look a little weird but doesn't capture how it looks in motion. It looks fine on the actual DVD.

I might actually redo that shot though, because I'd rather the crawl not have any black issues period, even subtle ones.

I've already burned a lot of copies but this is a tiny change that I'm just doing for my own personal peace of mind really. Either version will suffice for copying.



UPDATE UPDATE!

The Classic Edition has been very slightly updated .... the opening shot has been cleaned up further.

Well, I guess this wouldn't be a Classic Edition if there weren't two versions floating around with just a tiny tiny difference between them. There was one for Empire and probably one for Jedi.

So yes, the opening crawl and shot of the Star Destroyer chasing the Tantive IV has been cleaned up further, now using 2004 DVD material for the entire shot with better black levels. This was a difficult editing and cleanup task, the most difficult of the film - the laser bolts were painted back into the shot frame by frame to avoid using TOO much of Shadowman's wonderful but not quite 2004-DVD quality restoration.

I still have to watch this on a TV to see how well it actually came out.


Because the difference is so tiny, I have no problem with sending out both versions. Some people will receive the first version, some people receive the 2nd, and you won't be able to tell the difference between them without a scorecard.

So I'm providing a scorecard .... In the form of a couple of DVD-ROM extras.

I've noticed that people really care about quality and have all wanted the dual-layer version this time round, believing me that when I said for once it's worth it.

So I guess I have to actually make the dual layer version a little more full of value.

I've included two special extras on the second version.

The first is an AVI file of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report from October 11th -- George Lucas was the guest star on The Colbert Report, as Stephen presented the finale to his epic "Green Screen Challenge" competition. My friend Bonnie Rose won the contest. Star Wars references abound including an appearance by Jar Jar Binks.

The second is a batch of DVD-quality M2V/AC3/AIFF files which present a better quality copy of the Star Wars skit from the Donny and Marie show, back in 1977. If you have my Return of the Ewok DVD you've seen this -- at only 12 minutes it's much shorter than the Star Wars Holiday Special, but somehow manages to be much worse ... It's the worst Star Wars related thing I've ever seen, and you have to love it for that, particularly if you enjoy horribleness like the Holiday Special. Donny and Marie Osmond play Luke and Leia - definitely the first time Luke and Leia were ever shown as brother and sister in an incestuous relationship. 6 years ahead of your time, guys. Redd Foxx is Obi-Wan, Kris Kristofferson is Han, Paul Lynde is Tarkin, Thurl Ravenscroft (Tony the Tiger) is Darth Vader, the Ice Angels are the stormtroopers on skates, Anthony Daniels is C-3PO, and we've got R2-D2 and Chewbacca. The whole thing is horrifying.

And this copy is better quality than was on Return of the Ewok. I have the entire show but due to disc space issues I'm only including the Star Wars related material - although more than was on Return of the Ewok.

Some people may not be able to play these files - the video is in M2V format and the sound is in both AIFF and AC3 formats. Newer versions of Quicktime will understand it though, and so will VLC. I present it in this format so that it will be incredibly easy to burn to your fan DVDs - M2V/AC3 is of course the traditional DVD video format.


So, that's how to tell whether you've got the SLIGHTLY altered Dual Layer version. A couple of weird extras.

Enjoy.
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Sounds great. FYI, I wasn't dissing v1, it's probably been my favorite way to pop the movies in to watch since I picked up your set; there's just a couple of things which I noticed along the way which kind of made me go "wah?" for a second.
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This looks awesome. Did you retain the audio commentaries from version 1.0 as well? Or maybe you mentioned it and I missed it.
There's good in the Original Trilogy, and it's worth fighting for.
"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."
http://www.myspace.com/harlock415
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1.0 had always bothered me qualitywise, but hey, still proud of the work I did on it I guess.


The commentary and special features are retained from the previous version.
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Originally posted by: ocpmovie
I'm actually doing orders now to try to get some in before the move. So any orders now would be nice, otherwise ... DELAY as I move.


How and where does one order? For this, I'll make an exception to my anti-PM statement...