Search - Thug City Chronicles on DVD

One of the better sets from Videoasia especially inregard to

Stephen M. Kopian | GLEN HEAD, NY USA | 07/29/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The films in the set are different than a previous reviewer listed (He had more Asian films). The films are:

Tony Arzeta-A film about a hitman getting revenger for the death of his family.
Bandidos- a western about the hunt for a killer and his band who never leave anyone alive
Blind Rage-about a bunch of blind men robbing a bank
Godfather's Daughter... -a film concerning some people fighting the triads
The Italian Mob Trilogy-Manhunt, The Boss and Milan Calibre 9
City Rats about kids in Mexico
Redneck- with Telly Savalas and Franco Nero as Jewel robbers who have a heist go wrong
New Mafia Boss- which is about guy from the country rising up through the Mafia ranks in Italy.

The reason I'm writing the review is to say that the picture and sound of the film is much better than the usual material that Videoasia puts out. Normally the prints they use come from well worn pan and scan video copies with lots of break ups. One need only look at there set of military movies called Merc to see what I mean (several of the movies have several minutes of picture break ups from their source tape). Here the prints seem to be from excellent or very good video sources, with most of the films presented in widescreen. I'm guessing they are sourced from DVDs since in the case of at least one of the Italian Mob Trilogy one can see some frames of a DVD menu before the film starts. Homestly with two exceptions this is the best looking collection they've turned out.

The two exceptions are New Mafia Boss which seems sourced from a complete pan and scan videotape copy. I mention this since I had just watched the film a couple of nights before I looked at this copy DVD in worn letterboxed copy titled Crime Boss in a set called Men of Action that was put out from BCI and which was missing about a minute at the start and end of the movie. Given my choice I'd take that copy over the one in this set since the letterboxed image is better composed (though to be perfectly honest this is a watchable copy its just not as good as the other 8 films in the set). The other film which has BIG problems is City Rats which comes from a very poor video master with a poor picture and garbled sound. I would say that there is something wrong with the disc except that I know Videoasia's product and this is probably the copy they used. This is possibly the worst print I've ever seen from the company and I find it odd that its mixed in with the best editions they've turned out.

I've seen most of the films in the set and for the most part they are all good, though I do have to say Blind Rage is good in a bad film sort of way and The Godfather's Daughter has good action but a lousy plot (They are the two weakest of the ten films). The best of the bunch is probably Bandidos which is a mean and nasty western. I won't go into how the films are individually beyond that since you can probably find more detail on the films elsewhere (Say Internet Movie Database). I will say that the collection is one of the better sets put out from Videoasia with more hits than misses, particularly for the price. Granted There are a few I won't watch again, but at the same time there are a few I will happily watch again.

Over all this is a recommended set especially if you like Euro-crime dramas"