Magnificent Butcher features Sammo at his best and Yuen Woo Ping also directs some top notch action sequences. This movie is recommended to those new to the genre as well as the seasoned veterans.

When Fox announced that it was releasing a line of Hong Kong films on DVD it seemed to have come out of nowhere. Listed as "Hong Kong Legends", it was assumed that these DVD's might just be ports of the UK Kong Kong Legends DVD's. This isn't the case at all. I am very happy to say that Fox has done with a handful of releases what companies such as Miramax, Buena Vista, Dimension, and Artisan couldn't do in 6 years. While these Fox DVD's can't be helped but compared to the Region 2 HKL titles, each will have their place. While there is some very slight room for improvement, Fox has done a wonderful job on the Magnificent Butcher DVD. For those who Region 1 DVD's are your only option, this is the version you have been waiting for.

The image quality is very good. The film has been restored and looks great. The colors are vibrant and there is good detail. If there were any concerns that the image would be distorted like the UK HKL version, you can put those fears to rest. The transfer is very well done and there isn't any distortion. For comparison screens shots, just go here. Night scenes are handled fairly well and overall the black levels are good. The image is 16x9 enhanced so if you have a widescreen TV you are in luck! The menus are flagged properly and also look good. This is probably the best this movie has looked on home video.

The sound is a 5.1 remix and suffers from what most remixes do. While taking advantage of a 5.1 sound setup, occasionally sounds sometimes seem out of place. Also, the surround speakers aren't used all that often. I can't tell if sound effects were changed or not but some seemed louder than necessary. The music was mixed well and all original. The remix is serviceable and is better than the remixes of many of the early Mega Star DVD's.

The subtitles are easy to read and are free of misspellings and grammatical errors. It appears that these are similar to what is said on the English dub. They are timed well with the dialogue and are easy to read. You will notice some British terms used, such as "pissed" instead of "drunk". The only minor complaint that some writing and signs are not translated. One example would be the sign for Wong Fei Hung's school. Overall, very well done.

There are a fair amount of extras on this DVD. Probably not what most people were expecting but for the price of the DVD and the quality of the movie itself, I can't complain. The trailers are always fun to have and they are included here. I think my favorite extra is the Sammo Hung music video. It is a compilation of his greatest scenes. I know many people were expecting the Bey Logan commentary found on the HKL DVD. FOX isn't HKL so the extras won't be the same.