As I’ve previously mentioned, Madman Entertainment has taken over distribution of The Fifth Element in Australia. I’ve just received a copy and I’m happy to report that it is all good news.
First, the video is identical to that on the Australian Sony version and the remastered US version (shown here, for example). The run time is the same to the last frame. The average video bitrate is the same (27,880 kbps) with the same codec and the bitrate graphs are a perfect match for each other. So picture quality is identical. Consequently my disc comparison stands.
The English audio is in Dolby TrueHD, 24 bits, with the same average bitrate as the US version, so it appears to be identical as well (the Australian version had LPCM).
But unlike the US or previous Australian versions, this one has plenty of extras as well. In particular, it has 108 minutes of featurettes in 720p24 format.
Update (a few minutes later): This movie seems be improving in its appreciation. According to my DVD/Blu-ray database, in April 2005 its IMDB score was 7.1. By November 2006 it was up to 7.2, then 7.3 in November 2007, and now 7.4.
Do we see a classic in the making?
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