Incredible Shrinking Man on VCD

I just received my copy of "The Incredible Shrinking Man" on original VCD*. Since I live in the U.S. and I didn't want to pony up the $20 plus for a region 2 DVD, I bought the video cd for under $9.00. If your tired of waiting for the DVD to be released in the states(probably when the lame remake comes out)or if you don't have a region free DVD player, this VCD set is a worthwhile pick up.

The film quality of this two disc set is excellent for VCD. Since I was watching this on my front projector which casts an 84" image, bad quality would have been very apparent. The feature is 4:3, which was a little surprising as the opening credits and intro were widescreen. The sound was very good as well(not sure if it's 5.1 but it came through all speakers of my surround sound).

Watching this movie all the way through I was truly impressed with the entire narrative. With my image being so big, I also was surprised at how authentic the giant props appeared. From the giant pins and nails to the lines in the woodwork, just outstanding. My only neagative thoughts after watching this is that the remake will no doubt be a comedy and not have the soul or intensity of this classic.

* I realize not everyone knows what a VCD is, I'll try to explain. A VCD/VideoCD is a kind of CD. It looks the same as a music CD or a CD-ROM, except that instead of music or software, it holds movies, using compressed MPEG-1 video. Its resolution is 352x240 (NTSC) or 352x288 (PAL), which is roughly comparable to VHS. Their price(almost always considerably cheaper than DVD)and their lack of region coding make them a viable second option to DVD.