The Storm Riders (1998)
Director - Andrew Lau
DVD Released by : Universe
Player reviewed with : Sony S3000
Receiver reviewed with : Sony 925
Features:

Menu
Trailer
Cantonese and Mandarin Soundtracks
Making Of and Special Effects Features
English and Chinese Subtitles
Poster Collections
Trailers
Stars' Files
Character Descriptions
Not enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs
Running Time : 128 mins.
THE STORM RIDERS is beautiful to watch. The movie is over two hours and can be a little slow at times, but the special effects are really great. The story is about a power hungry leader who learns through the first half of a prophecy that if he can find two boys with the specified birth charts, he will be unstoppable. The leader, Conquer, sets out and His his army take all boys with these birth charts. Conquer later learns the second half of this prophecy which predicts that these two boys will also be his downfall.
The picture is great and it has no reason not to be. The movie is only a couple of years old. The transfer is also really good. This is really important because there is a lot to look at in this movie. The colors are very rich and compliment the exotic scenery. I wish THE MISSION looked this good. This one movie I wish I had a bigger television for.

The sound is pretty well done. The only thing I noticed was that some of the songs were mixed a little strange but other than that the sound was good. The sound is also a big improvement over many other recent releases. I am sure this is due to the source materials being so new.
I watched the movie in Cantonese with the English subtitles. The subtitles were well done and everything was in sync.

The movie contained 3 trailers as well as the usual and not so usual extras. It has the star files like almost every other DVD out there. The feature which I kind of enjoyed is the Character Descriptions section. All of the main characters are listed along with a picture and history. I wish more DVD's had this. I prefer this over the actor's bio's and stuff. It was great to be able to watch the movie and then be able to read about the characters.

The Making Of special is only in Chinese but was still interesting to watch. It should how some of the effects were done as well as interviewed the actors. The Special Effects section showed how the different elements were combined to produce what was seen on the film. It was very interesting. The special effects rival many Hollywood pictures.


THE STORM RIDERS DVD is definitely one of the better ones. If you are a fan of the movie you won't be disappointed. If you haven't seen the movie yet, you may want to rent it before buying. I liked the movie but sometimes it was a little slow moving and at other times I felt like I was watching a video game. I still enjoyed the movie and would recommend the DVD.