Customer Reviews

Subway (Widescreen)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

THIS STORY RECOUNT ALMOST A TRIVIAL FOLLOW-UP BEHIND A man who love a pretty woman because he has just look she when he has robed his bag and he is forced to keep himself in this famous VAST SUBWAY witch is many more strange than it appear ! VERY GOODS ACTORS ! Good MOVIE good ambience WITH MANYS BEAUTIFULS ACTION THRILLER and many entertainment ! Sure ! ... A good MOVIE ! ONE OF THE FIRST TIME WITCH APPEAR JEAN RENO !

I love this film.
It is just full of strokes of genius, visually, musically, and rythmically.

Like Blues Brothers or Pulp Fiction, it has some magical sense of timing that defies description, but lifts the whole to a new level.

This is definatly a movie on my top 5 list. Beautiful storyline, beautiful characters and a real knock out! Seriously, if you are considering buying this, buy it. It's a real joy!!

You're seeing reviews for all releases of SUBWAY, which makes identifying which DVD to buy a bit difficult. The better DVD, with the original French Dolby 2.0 soundtrack, was released by Columbia/TriStar, has a cover showing the leads costumed as punks with Lambert bleached blond, and sports a heftier price tag. Beware the bargain-basement pricing -- the loss of quality with the cheaper disc is equivalent to the difference between Hi-Fi and LP prerecorded VHS tapes.

With the higher price you get options. The Columbia/TriStar DVD is presented in the original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, anamorphically enhanced widescreen, and also offers the dubbed English soundtrack as well as subtitles in English, French, and Spanish. Trailers and scene selections fill out the features offered.

The dubbed English soundtrack isn't so bad, for what it is. The translation doesn't jibe with the English subtitles ("You ruffle me"?), but Lambert, at least, dubbed himself. The dubbing for Jean Reno is a hoot and an unexpected bonus.

SUBWAY garnered 13 nominations in the 1986 Cesar Awards, France's answer to the Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and five acting noms. The film took home three awards, including a Best Actor nod for Christophe Lambert.

SUBWAY is an early and significant entry in Luc Besson's portfolio, and that of several of its actors, most notably Jean Reno and Isabelle Adjani (who has earned 11 Best Actress awards to date). The film has one of the best openings ever -- sharp, frenetic, and a foreshadowing of RONIN's wondrous car chases. From there the story gets...strange, but that's expected of any sudden entry into a vastly differing society. Helena (Adjani), hair spiked stiff, tells off her gangster-husband and their so-polite dinner companions in one priceless scene, then flees in favor of the more companionable denizens found in the subway. SUBWAY leaves you scratching your head, wondering what's the point, where's the point, and knowing it's just there if you could only see it, lurking at the peripheral vision. Not a bad thing and, sure, not for everyone, but the trip into the Paris Metro is interesting and fun, nonetheless. Composer Eric Serra gets some screen time (Bassist), and watch for director Besson driving the train.

Do be do be do.

Lots has been said about the bad quality of the transfer, and which version is which and so on. Here's the story: The one with Christopher Lambert on the cover holding the florescent light is the good one. (apparantly the other one sucks.)

This version has the full widescreen treatment, the original french language w/ english subtitles (plus the terrible dubbed version, if you are so inclined). In other words - the way it was meant to be!

The quality is fine. It's not perfect - but quite good. I hear the other one looks like a used VHS tape. Sound and video are both nice.

As for the film itself - I saw this movie originally in the theatres back in the eighties during high school. Young, yes - impressionable, yes - but it introduced me to Luc Besson, who at the time was doing original and engaging work. (La Femme Nikita is still his best.) I have been waiting, since then for a suitable version to come out for purchace. This is it.

I love this movie! A lot of people really overthink this movie. They say things like, "All those people don't really live down in the Metro!" Duh. They say things like, "The plot is stupid, and the characters are fake." or "It's all style and no substance." True, it's not Citizen Kane. But it is a simple, if slightly unbelievable, love story with quirky and engaging characters, a lot of style, originality, and panache.

The chemistry between Fred (Christopher Lambert) and Helena (Isabelle Adjani looking her best ever, and that's saying a lot) as the starcrossed lovers is believable and endearing. The style is always engaging: From the opening chase where Fred cannot really drive his car effectively until he finds the appropriate music, to the final kiss.

This is a romance surrounded by an interesting, if unlikely, subculture setting a criminal and the bored wife of a rich politically connected busisman in an arena where their occupations and pretence are reduced to be only the reason for their introduction. From there, they both fight against the constraints of the real world to let their love bloom.

Just don't think alot. Just let it happen and enjoy it.

Stylish, funny, and a marvel to look at, Luc Besson's SUBWAY finally gets an excellent DVD Transfer with Columbia Tristar's DVD, though featureless, it's worth the buy just to see this movie.
The story is about a man named Fred (played by Christopher Lambert in his first role after Greystoke, starting his very not-mainstream carreer) who robs a woman because he doesn't like her safe. Her rich husband's thugs are out to kill him, she's out to get her merchandise back, and the police are after Fred's saviours: small time thieves and nuts who live in the Paris metro system, coming out at Subway stations to say hello to the rest of the world every now and then.
More fun than your average movie.

First off, I am a big fan of Luc Besson's work. With that said, I bought this movie based on all the hype I've read (back when the name was still "Metro"). But sorry, this movie is garbage!! Total waste!!! I rarely fall asleep during a movie (which is why I was forced to re-watch this movie 3 times, I though I missed something), this movie is pointless.

It's all over the place. The story (or lack of) is totally unengaging since you never really understand what's going on. I like movies that keep you guessing, but the only thing this movie had me guessing was "when are the credits gonna roll."

If you're a fan, this is probably the best you'll ever see it. I checked out the English Dub of the movie and was surprised that Chris Lambert actually did his own lines English as well as French...a nice touch. Still there's really not much here (in the way of extra's or otherwise) to warrant a purchase.

If you want to see Luc Besson at his best, save your money and get Le Femme Nikita, Leon: The Professional, or The Fifth Element!!! All are great movies, although Leon: The Professional gets the most love as far as DVD treatment goes (nice extras, great deleted footage that's actually part of the movie!!!), the other two are bare bones DVD's (but still great movies).

SKIP SUBWAY...

Go for the new DVD from Columbia Tristar and you'll finally get "Subway" the way it was meant to be seen--in anamorphic widescreen and in French with English subs (there's also a dubbed English track if you have to listen to it that way).
The video and audio quality is fantastic.

This film is very enigmatic. Unlike Besson's later films, it relies less on atmoshpere and cinematic appeal, and focuses solely on the characters. Despite the fact that this film obviously had a low budget and was fairly primitive in its production values, the power of the acting and the story is more than enough to carry you through.
Of course Luc Besson would not make a movie that was not purely based on the theme of love--philanthropic love--and this is no exception. The entire film is a sermon on the values of acceptance and tolerance; however, it avoids taking that subject to the extremes of sexual liberation, et cetera. It puts an emphasis on socio-economic diversity and on personality conflicts.
Although intrinsically '80s and difficult to take seriously with all the cultural change of the past twenty years, the film's message is more necessary today than when it was made.

To any Luc Besson fan out there, I thought Subway would never be released on DVD in it's proper widescreen image. But anyone who follows his work knows that lately many of his films have seen the special treatment : Director's Cut of The Big Blue, Internation Version of Leon aka The Professional, and The Fifth Element is being released in a Superbit version (with no extras, sadly).

Subway is one of my favorite Besson films. It's a film either greatly loved or greatly despised. From the opening scene of Christopher Lambert cursing and swearing because he can't get the tape deck in his car to work, you're swept away into an underworld filled with many bizarre characters. The opening car chase is quite fun as the music propells the chase while seeing Lambert with a huge smile on his face...that is until the tape deck breaks again and he decides to seek refuge in the Subway, running into those bizarre characters I mentioned on the way. And any Luc Besson film that includes Jean Reno in it is extra special. Here he plays "Sticks", a drummer. Not as noticeable a part as his later roles like in La Femme Nikita, but still noteworthy. And Christoper Lambert looks completely zany (in a good way) with that blonde hair. Only regret about Isabelle Adjani's performance is that the woman who dubbed her doesn't do her enough justice. Thank goodness Christopher dubbed himself in English.

I'm not certain if this DVD will include anything other than a token trailer, but I don't care at this point. Just to have a cleaned up, crisp widescreen picture in Dolby Surround is enough to make me happy. Oh, and if you're lucky enough to happen upon a copy of the Subway soundtrack on CD like I was, grab it and never look back. It's gottan extremely rare since it went out of print many years ago. Composer Eric Serra has done pretty much all the scores for every Luc Besson picture and this one, in my opinion, is one of his best because it not only heightens those exciting moments as well as the sad ones in the film, it actually helps create the atmosphere of the films surroundings that gives it an extra added dimension.

So, if you're into Luc Besson or Christopher Lambert, I highly suggest you pick this up. The price is not too bad, which is always important. Enjoy!