FanFiltration said:
"Kingdom of Heaven" Director's Cut
A perfect epic on par with LoA.
10/10
Yes. One of the best films of the past 20 years. Staggeringly good, so much so that you question just how a major studio financed it.
I need to re-watch Robin Hood, though it was flawed it had a bit of the KOH flavor and I loved it. Can't Ridley keep doing historical films from time to time? ;)
I arreust yeu in ze neume of ze leuw!
The Pink Panther
The one that started it all. A light romp of a travelogue comedy, meant as a David Niven starring vehicle. However, they cast Peter in the smaller comic role and that was it. It's a bit creaky in places but always always always charms.
4 balls out of 4.
A Shot in the Dark
The film that cemented the character. The film that gave us the mad Dreyfus and the loyal attacking manservant Kato. The one with the nudist colony. The one with endless quotable lines. The most focused of all the films and one of the great comedies.
4 balls out of 4. Masterpiece. If you have never seen this film you owe it to yourself to do so IMMEDIATELY.
Return of the Pink Panther
More of a collection of gags and scenes than a true story, but welcome just for more of the Inspector. Sometimes it plays well, other times it doesn't. Originally intended as a TV series pilot. Perhaps the budget wasn't very much then. Christopher Plummer works well, but Niv is sorely missed.
3 stars out of 4.
The Pink Panther Strikes Again
Manic, Zany, Screwball, Sheer. Total. Fun. The best of the 70's films has both the silliness and the straightforward plotting that the series usually chose one or the other of. I still don't see the reasoning for dropping the 20 minutes of material.
4 stars out of 4.
I recently acquired these four on LD, and was very curious as to how they would shape up. The first film is from a slightly worn print with cue changeovers but with good color. The mono soundtrack is very rich and the exact same one used on the DVD but uncompressed. (Has the exact same inherent hiss.) Shot fares better with a cleaner print source and similarly uncompressed mono track. (Great since the score has never been released.)
Return is the only one not controlled by MGM and had two separate LD and DVD issues. The fist LD is supposedly not very good, and the remastered version looks quite good with clear sound (with an unfortunate slight hum throughout). The initial DVD was this same LD version ported non-anamorphic and not very pretty. The Universal reissue makes a clean presentation of the original master with nice visible grain, solid color and the same mono track (with that same inherent hum!)
Strikes Again looks the best out of both formats..almost..with clear LD audio. However all the MGM DVDs feature a lack of grain that is especially obvious when seeing the Universal version of Return.
