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This topic comprises 7 pages: 1  2  3  4  5  6  7 
 
Author Topic: New DVD and BluRay
Ron Funderburg
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 814
From: Chickasha, Oklahoma, USA
Registered: Nov 2007


 - posted 06-16-2012 03:05 PM      Profile for Ron Funderburg   Author's Homepage   Email Ron Funderburg   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Are their no releases on BluRay or DVD that warrant discussion? OH MY.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99


 - posted 06-16-2012 03:17 PM      Profile for Joe Redifer   Author's Homepage   Email Joe Redifer   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
???

Like real theaters, there are dry spells. Nothing interesting is due out on Blu-ray for a long time. Who cares about DVD?

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Claude S. Ayakawa
Film God

Posts: 2738
From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA
Registered: Aug 2002


 - posted 06-16-2012 03:57 PM      Profile for Claude S. Ayakawa   Author's Homepage   Email Claude S. Ayakawa   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I beg to differ. EVITA is due next week and THE ARTIST the following week.

joe, you might not agree with me but these films are considered very important by not only me but the MPAS and many others all over the world.

-Claude

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99


 - posted 06-16-2012 04:46 PM      Profile for Joe Redifer   Author's Homepage   Email Joe Redifer   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I don't consider any movie "important".

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000


 - posted 06-16-2012 05:08 PM      Profile for Leo Enticknap   Author's Homepage   Email Leo Enticknap   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
In the last couple of months I've bought and seen BDs of Godzilla, Chinatown and Wake in Fright.

Godzilla - picture transfer was a labour of love, clearly done from a good element and with detail in the midtones that I just don't remember from the last time I saw it, which was many years ago and on 16mm. As with many Criterion BDs, the audio was the letdown. There was a thread on F-T in which someone pointed out overly aggressive noise reduction and a consequent dead/tinny sound on their version of the original Solaris. This BD suffers from the same problem - lovely picture, pity about the sound.

Same with Chinatown, only this time they'd electronically buggered the audio about into 5.1 and without even a 1.0 original track option buried in a menu. Given how great the picture looked - bitrate was consistently high and the film grain aesthetic was still there and had not been digitally obliterated - this was also a let down.

Wake in Fright - very impressed with the restoration and BD mastering, not to mention the film itself! Very creepy - sort of like an Australian Straw Dogs...

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Claude S. Ayakawa
Film God

Posts: 2738
From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA
Registered: Aug 2002


 - posted 06-16-2012 06:14 PM      Profile for Claude S. Ayakawa   Author's Homepage   Email Claude S. Ayakawa   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Recent Blue Ray's for me was Criterion' A NIGHT TO REMEMBER about the Titanic disaster in 1912 and the five piano concertos of Ludwig Van Beethoven played by Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin orchestra all on a single disc. I bought the DVD of NTR years ago and it is my favorite movie about the ill fated ship and when I read all the great reviews about the movie on blu ray, I had to have it. The picture quality of the movie is wonderful on DVD but it just cannot compare to the BD which is awesome.

The Beethoven disc is also grood but the camera work could have been better as well as the sound. This disc has been out for several year now and that may be the reason it is not up to current standard in my opinion.

-Claude

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Paul Mayer
Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under!

Posts: 3836
From: Albuquerque, NM
Registered: Feb 2000


 - posted 06-16-2012 08:16 PM      Profile for Paul Mayer   Author's Homepage   Email Paul Mayer   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
One of my last blu-ray purchases (sometime in late 2010) was one I really really enjoyed (if it had been a tape- or stylus-based playback format it would be worn flat by now, I played it so much): Joe Hisaishi in Budokan

It's a concert from 2008 celebrating the Japanese opening of Studio Ghibli's Ponyo and a celebration of the 25-year collaboration between composer Joe Hisaishi and director Hayao Miyazaki. Recorded by NHK at the 14,000 seat Tokyo Budokan, the sold-out concerts featured a greatly augmented (doubled to 200 musicians) New Japan Philharmonic World Dream Orchestra (Hisaishi is the pops music director for that band when he's not doing soundtrack work), a combined chorus of 700, a 100-voice children's choir, six featured singers, and a combined 160-piece marching band (two local high schools and two local junior high schools), all under the direction of Joe Hisaishi conducting from the piano - all together some 1160 performers on stage. Very Mahlerian to say the least! [Smile]

The two-hour program consisted of the music Hisaishi has composed over the years for Miyazaki's films created at Studio Ghibli (1984-2008). Many of the concert segments featured scenes from these films projected overhead on a huge screen (1.85 AR, approx 70' screen width, four overlaid NEC (I think) projectors).

Video quality ranged from good to acceptable - some of the images are fairly noisy. Audio on the blu-ray available in three choices - LPCM 2.0, LPCM 5.1, and DD 5.1. And no region code - it should play anywhere. Japanese (and some English) subtitles available. There is also a DVD version.

I absolutely cherished this disc!

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Paul Mayer
Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under!

Posts: 3836
From: Albuquerque, NM
Registered: Feb 2000


 - posted 06-17-2012 12:09 PM      Profile for Paul Mayer   Author's Homepage   Email Paul Mayer   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Since I feel like it, here's two more Japanese blu-ray recommendations of late - Kinji Fukasaku's final film Battle Royale, and Beat Takeshi's updating and remake of the classic samurai "chambara" franchise, Zatoichi.

With Battle Royale, Fukasaku, a veteran of 50 some odd years experience creating violent yakuza and other exploitation films, was at the top of his game in 2000 with this bit of old fashioned ultra violence. In addition to Clockwork Orange, this controversial film has invited audience comparisons with other films like Lord of the Flies and most recently The Hunger Games.

At the turn of the new millennium Japan's economy has collapsed. With 10% unemployment, a nationwide wave of youthful violence and delinquency envelops the nation. Fearing loss of control, the national government imposes the Millennial Education Reform Act, a.k.a. The Battle Royale Act. Each year, one class of 9th graders is selected at random, gassed and sent to a deserted island, equipped with randomly selected weapons, and given their assignment: "Today's lesson is... you kill each other." They get three days; only one of their group can remain standing or they will all be killed. The survivor is then released back into society as a warning to mind their manners.

From Nikki Disney's Amazon review:
quote:
Some pupils embrace their mission with zeal, while others simply give up or try to become peacemakers and revolutionaries. However, the ultimate drive for survival comes from the desire to protect the one you love. Battle Royale works on many different levels, highlighting the authorities' desperation to enforce law and order and the alienation caused by the generation gap.
Fukasaku used child actors of about the right age to play the doomed class of 42 junior high school students (the 'making of' documentary includes footage of Aki Maeda, the lead female student in the story, celebrating her 14th birthday on the set). Americans will also recognize another actress playing one of the students, Chiaki Kuriyama, who appeared as the teenaged assassin in the Kill Bill films. Rounding out the superb casting is "Beat" Takeshi Kitano, as the group's original 7th grade teacher, brought back in to run this "game."

It's violent, it's bloody, it's twisted, and it's very very satisfying to watch. It's another title that I've worn the pits down watching. The disc I have is part of the British Arrow Video 3-disc limited edition box set (theatrical cut (the one to watch), director's cut, special features disc, plus various pamphlets, post cards, and a poster). Fortunately there's no region code. Video-wise it's a bit dodgy, but it is probably the best this title has ever looked on video. The sound is incredible, in Japanese with English subtitles. For years no North American distributor would touch this (I was lucky to see it at it's one-and-only Los Angeles screening at the Egyptian, with Kukasaku there for Q and A), but as of this year there is a domestic release available.

* * * * *

The other one I've played endlessly is Beat Takeshi's 2003 film Zatoichi. There were 26 films in the original Zatoichi series from the '70s through the '90s, all starring Shintarou Katsu as the famous blind swordsman.

In these films the Edo-period story is always the same: Zatoichi, appearing to be a harmless wandering old blind massuse with a yen for gambling and drinking, shuffles into a village. Said village is being controlled/bullied/extorted by yakuza thugs. Zatoichi turns out to be not so harmless - he is an incredible sword master with his red blind man's cane concealing a katana. He tries to be a pacifist, but eventually comes to the aid of the beleagered villagers, slicing and dicing his way through the thugs, usually with a 10-1 ratio against him. In the end, the villagers celebrate getting their freedom back, and Zatoichi shuffles off to the next installment.

This remake works quite well. Kitano plays Zatoichi pretty much the way we remember him from the '70s, except for his now peroxide hair. The sets, the costumes, and the fight choreography are sumptuous and meticulously researched to be accurate for the period. The characters all get their background stories told as well, more so than typical in most chambara stories. CGI is used for the blood, which flows and flows and flows. Geysers and fountains of blood. And the whole thing is captured in color and in 'scope, as God intended. Oh, and the final celebration scene... it's a tap dance number. The whole cast, in Edo-period costume and tap-equipped geta clog sandals. You just have to see it for yourself. In Japanese with English subtitles. The blu-ray I have is the Artificial Eye release from the UK, without region coding. The US Miramax release is marred by the over-boosted colors of the transfer, and the greatly cut down special extras.

Again, another violent and bloody and very satisfying (as these old revenge stories always are) couple of hours in front of as big a screen as you can muster.

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Bill Gabel
Film God

Posts: 3873
From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA
Registered: Jan 2002


 - posted 06-18-2012 07:42 AM      Profile for Bill Gabel   Email Bill Gabel   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Both "Evita" and "The Artist" look and sound great on Blu-ray. [thumbsup]

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000


 - posted 06-18-2012 08:23 AM      Profile for Leo Enticknap   Author's Homepage   Email Leo Enticknap   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Claude S. Ayakawa
The Beethoven disc is also grood but the camera work could have been better as well as the sound. This disc has been out for several year now and that may be the reason it is not up to current standard in my opinion.
I've got a set of LPs of Baremboim playing the Beethoven concertos from the late '60s, and can't say that any of them particularly grab me. On the later ones especially he drags the tempo, emphasises phrases and ornaments (and the rondo in the B-flat concerto is almost as slow as a funeral march!), lets the overall pace go and it's generally a bit frustrating. It could be that he was very early in his career when those recordings were made, though my gut feeling is that like many pianists whose real passion is Mozart, he just doesn't 'get' late Beethoven instinctively, and vice-versa.

There's a video on YT somewhere of Wilhelm Kempff playing the final movement of the Hammerklavier when he was well into his 80s (can't find it from a YT search just now - sorry). Like the records and videos Horowitz made in the final years of his life, you'd expect it to be elegant but unspectacular: in fact, it's one of the most captivating performances I've ever seen on TV. You can see the reason why as soon as the camera zooms in on his hands - they're absolutely enormous! He could span almost two octaves while barely needing to move his wrist. He'd lost absolultely none of the power you can hear in his performances from the '50s and '60s.

A few years ago when I was learning the sonata no. 7 in D I listened to a Kempff record of it a lot, but never could get the phrasing quite right, especially the "almost, but not quite" syncopation in the third movement. Of course the main reason is that I'm a very poor amateur pianist whereas he was one of the world's greatest professionals, but I can't help wondering if the sheer size of his hands enabled him to use fingering approaches that for anyone else would be suicidal.

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Aaron Garman
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1470
From: Toledo, OH USA
Registered: Mar 2003


 - posted 06-18-2012 09:45 AM      Profile for Aaron Garman   Email Aaron Garman   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Jaws and E.T. will both be out this year, with gross 7.1 re-mixes. I think Jaws is at least getting an original mono track too.

Also, the 50th Anniversary James Bond box set is due later this year. Looks pretty awesome!

AJG

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Claude S. Ayakawa
Film God

Posts: 2738
From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA
Registered: Aug 2002


 - posted 06-18-2012 11:52 AM      Profile for Claude S. Ayakawa   Author's Homepage   Email Claude S. Ayakawa   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Bill, do you already have a copy of EVITA and THE ARTIST? As I had mentioned earlier EVITA is not due out until Tuesday and THE ARTIST the following week. I have EVITA on two different laserdisc. One of them is the original Disney release and the other one is the special edition from Criterion. Because I disconnected my laserdisc player from my home video system I can no longer play the discs. AlI remember is what you said about the sound, awesome! The Criterion disc had a lot of special features but I doubt most of them have been ported over to the BD. I hope I am wrong about this.
I have never seen THE ARTIST in a theatre but plan to get the movie on Blu Ray because I know it will be worth having. I have seen screen caps from movie at DVD Beaver and they look fantastic.

-Claude

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000


 - posted 06-18-2012 01:43 PM      Profile for Leo Enticknap   Author's Homepage   Email Leo Enticknap   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I've seen Dr. No and Goldfinger from the series of Bond BDs that has been published over the last few years. The digital noise reduction on the picture is a little over-aggressive for me - the grain is all gone and the picture has a digital aesthetic to it. The track remastering is a lot better, with the original mono mixes being there as an option (complete with very faint tape hiss suggesting that they haven't gone too far with the NR). I'm also wondering if the 5.1 on Goldfinger might derive from a mix for 70mm blowups dating from the original release: it doesn't have the artificial, disjointed feel to it as the digitally reconstituted surround tracks that are now being produced for DVD and BD of films that were only ever released in a 1.0 mix to begin with.

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Robert E. Allen
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1078
From: Checotah, Oklahoma
Registered: Jul 2002


 - posted 06-18-2012 01:52 PM      Profile for Robert E. Allen   Email Robert E. Allen   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Joe Redifer
Like real theaters, there are dry spells. Nothing interesting is due out on Blu-ray for a long time. Who cares about DVD?
C'mon Joe. I wasn't really sure you were a techno-geek but now? You might find it interesting (and probably won't agree with me) that my daughter bought me a Panasonic VHS player at a garage sale for $5 for my large selection of VHS tapes. That player gives me picture quality that equals my 5 disc Panasonic DVD player. No one has convinced me that the difference between DVD and BluRay is sufficient to spend the extra money.

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Claude S. Ayakawa
Film God

Posts: 2738
From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA
Registered: Aug 2002


 - posted 06-18-2012 02:14 PM      Profile for Claude S. Ayakawa   Author's Homepage   Email Claude S. Ayakawa   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Leo, I have most of the Bond pictures that were released on Blu Ray and they look very good in my opinion. I also have all of the J.B. movies in the special collection box set on DVD including the first one with Daniel Craig and I think I will stick with that instead of buying them again because the up converted images on my HDTV look great.

-Claude

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