JadedSkywalker

American Graffiti THX laserdisc from 1996. Really crummy transfer with good audio. I wouldn’t be surprised if they just ported over a VHS because its so soft and blurry its junk.

The bootleg 35mm telecine of the 1973 version blows this official release away. Though the original DVD looks the best of all the releases, even with DNR. The worst is either Laserdisc that isn’t the Signature Collection or the 4K.

litemakr said:
There are several different mixes for Raiders:

1981 Early/Alternate mix (see below for details)*
1981 Theatrical Dolby Stereo 4 track mix on 35mm prints (also used for monophonic showings)
1981 Theatrical Dolby 6 track mix (used on 70mm film prints)
1983 Stereo mix (used for VHS, Beta, laserdisc and TV releases). Created specifically for the video release and does not have the encoded Dolby surround or center tracks from the theatrical mix.
1992 Laserdisc mix - new stereo mix with encoded Dolby surround and center channels.
2003 DVD 5.1 mix - derived from the 1981 6 track mix.
2012 Blu-ray mix - new mix with a loud LFE channel, different dialogue/effects/music balance and some sound effects pushed into the LFE channel.
2021 UHD mix - derived from the blu-ray mix with added Dolby Atmos effects and reduced LFE channel level.

The original 1981 Dolby Stereo mix has never been released on any home video format.

*To add complexity, an early mix with different dubbed voices, sound effects and music editing was used on some 8mm and 16mm prints and at least one HDTV showing. This mix was also used in 1981 as the basis for almost all international dubs. A new final mix was done very close to release but only used on English language releases because there wasn’t time to redo the foreign language mixes.

Strange that the 1989 evergreen Japanese Laserdisc claims to be Surround right on the Jacket then if as you say no home release of theatrical. Its also digital LPCM. Per my ears and i’m no expert it sounds derived from an analog optical mix its not as clean as the Letterbox from the 1990s.

Mocata said:
I feel like ROTJ and the Last Crusade have a similar special effects problem where they had to create a lot more sequences but without more time to perfect them, so there are bad blue screens, matte paintings etc.

Well ILM was very busy in 1989 so busy they couldn’t do Star Trek V even though they wanted to. Busy with Indiana Jones 3, Ghostbusters 2, The Abyss, Back to the Future II.

The only problem i see on JEDI is Howard Kazanjian wanting to remain on budget per George Lucas and a time crunch. And them wanting to strike sets because they didn’t have enough space to build them all and keep them all up. There is also a more documentary approach to it, not trying multiple takes to get a shot perfect, a quick and dirty if you will mentality. I believe Marquand even said Empire was too sexy and stately and Shakepearean. And he was more in line with how George made Star Wars the original, get a shot down move on, fix it in post/editing or reshoots.

I think even the camera they bought and cinematography is second rate to the first two which were shot on Panavision. They had to rent them George wanted to buy a camera to keep costs down, they bought an Arriflex.

Some fans think the Had Addadon scenes and the Wookiee planet staying in would save it, and I too used to like that idea but Return of the Jedi’s problems are all in the screenplay story Lucas wrote, and all the ways he wanted to quickly tie everything up and close the book on Star Wars. Because he really had no intention at the time to make anymore Star Wars films, his marriage had broken up, he quit directing. He really consigned himself to being chairman of the board of Lucasfilm, sort of like Walt Disney corporate type rather than an artist.

I don’t generally agree with Larry Kasdan or Gary Kurtz on killing Han, or even on the idea of Gary’s about Leia becoming Queen of her people. Or his dislike for Raiders of the Lost Ark. But some of what he said had merit why revisit another Death Star, but i do agree on principle that ROTJ has no stakes and is listless. I feel like what was set up in Empire Vader tempting Luke to join him to overthrow the Emperor was a plot line poorly used in JEDI, or was it dropped completely? Honestly that and Leia being the sister, the love triangle being dropped kind of piss me off.

Willow THX Laserdisc taking a shot on this one it may arrive broken in the mail or unplayable due to laser rot. the common price on this now of 25 dollars is also too high but i paid it anyway.

I’m also trying to get American Graffiti THX laserdisc but only if the seller comes down on the price, 30 is too much. Its a very common title, i’d pay that for the signature collection but this isn’t that one with the cgi sunset its the 78 theatrical.

Edit: i just said the hell with it and i was determined to watch the movie so i paid 30 dollars for American Graffiti, very high even for a sealed copy.

So other than the signature collection, the Japanese THX releases of Graffiti, i have every Lucasfilm THX title. Except for the THX Wow disc.

Got release day delivery on OBI-WAN on Blu-Ray. Andor was out of stock so i got it from Deep Discount. Waiting on that. I already have Mando season 1 and 2 and haven’t even watched more than the first episode off the Blu-Ray or second episode? Once i have a 4k tv set and player in a week or two i don’t know if its worth rebuying these. I have select things in 4K i bought at a discount with combo packs. Disney are cheapskates for their not being a 4K/BLU combo. And the overall price for the number of episodes is crazy. Cost me like 111 bucks just for Andor and OBI-WAN, take off the tax and shipping and its close to 90 its absurd. And Mando cost me about the same so 200 bucks for 4 shows/seasons.

Dune 2, amazing cinematography. And i’m one of those guys who hates digital.

I was reading the Star Wars liner notes on the LP from Charley Lippincott and it brought up how pissed i am at him being written out of Star Wars and the Lucas histories and how important he was to the early years of Star Wars.

The problem i have with Oz though is that Dorothy was bonked on the head and it was a dream, without Oz being a real place, a secondary universe the myth is shattered. Film is almost perfect for me but for the ending.

In Baum just like Middle Earth it exists as a real world, or like Wonderland does in the Alice books.

Does Coppola even still have the U-Matic workprint. I know it hasn’t been offered as a bonus video in SD resolution.

I was watching the featurette at the beginning of the Phantom Menace Letterbox VHS and i literally laughed out loud when Rick McCallum said its so dense.

Don’t get me wrong i’ve mostly been enjoying my tapes of the prequels warts and all but damn the people interviewed in this tape at ILM are laying it on thick.

James Horner The Rocketeer. Fantastic film scoring.

The 20th Century Records pressing of the Star Wars soundtrack, really great on Vinyl. Empire is almost as good from RSO Records. Finishing with Return of the Jedi, doesn’t sound as good as the other two on Vinyl one record two sides, severely truncated.

I’d love a theatrical version, too bad there never was a laserdisc for this like Phantom Menace.

As for film cels there are a lot of fake ones on Ebay.

I love that one guy who keeps finding the same fake 35mm ones for the sequel trilogy and all the poor sods who keep buying them. Just being a little humorous, i also was almost fooled by that guy.

I’m supporting the official releases on Blu-Ray, i got Mando season 1 and 2, and will get Andor and Obi-Wan. I hope they consider releasing season 3 of Mando, Boba Fett, Ahsoka, all of the Bad Batch, last season of Clone Wars, Visions, Tales of the Jedi, as well as Light and Magic.

Kyle just became another Luke, when he was a Jedi, force sensitive. The same complaint for Dash applies.

I thought Bruce Botnick’s remaster of the score was phenomenal and all the crisp detail i heard for the first time in the Atmos mix. At first the dnr bothered me but i very much enjoyed the new cut of TMP. I really wish they’d have let Shatner finish V, the effects in that one are bad. II-VI could of had the theatrical audio and a new Atmos mix, but no they just used the 2009 blu mixes.

I hope its worthy of seeing, not another remake of the OT, or rearranging the same ideas. Like if they get lazy and desperate they don’t crib something like the dark empire comic.

Do people want a 3 hour remake of Star Wars 1977? Or is the other cut sufficiently different enough to not mirror and follow the original nearly beat for beat.

I’m incredibly disillusioned by Return of the Jedi. I feel like it should have been deeper and more complex than Empire, and darker still. There are elements of it there Luke wearing all black, being tempted to the dark side. But it is also way too light and silly. I feel like Lucas wanted to do the first film again but bigger, with another death star a bigger battle, way more monsters in Jabba’s little kingdom than in the Cantina. I have similar problems with Indiana Jones the Last Crusade, having a lighter more comedic style and derivative of Raiders. and the complete misuse of Sallah and Marcus, and the complete lack of verisimilitude. Some really very bad and obvious model shots.

Like in Return of the Jedi the matte painting standing in for a real set that looks fake even on laserdisc. The Millennium Falcon behind Lando is so atrocious, why didn’t they build it out as a physical model?

Last Jedi is a better made film than Return of the Jedi, and Return is a bad sequel to The Empire Strikes Back.

I might like Lukes’s portrayal more in ROTJ, but its a weak entry.

I knew it was only a matter of time until 4k80 made its way into some jerk’s store. Guy used to be on Ebay and Etsy and now on Ecrater. Not gonna link because he will just get more sales.

I agree the score is great its the only thing i find worthwhile about that film.

Star Trek IV the Voyage Home, very uneven, too much goofy comedy. Some of it still makes me laugh though like the colorful metaphors, Spock neck pinching the guy on the bus, Scotty talking to the computer. I’ve gone back and forth over whether Rosenman’s score is good or awful.

Akira Toriyama. Creator of Dragon Ball. Character designer for Dragon Quest and Chrono Trigger.

Evergreen Laserdisc of Raiders of the Lost Ark fairly decent if old video master which is the same as the original VHS. Audio is digital stereo original 35mm mix.

Empire Strikes Back i think its the first or second pressing from Japan on Laserdisc, very clean looking better than the US release even though the video master is identical. No crosstalk or rot. Full screen and analog audio only.

Both were very fun to watch in Standard Definition on an old 4:3 set.

I also watched a bit of 4K77 on my laptop, and The beginning of the Korean Temple of Doom pressing on laserdisc very orange colored transfer with a heavy amount of grain.

I would have cast Jessica Henwick as Rey. She would have no blood relation to Palpatine or the Skywalker clan. Through her hard work and determination and grit, leaning on her skills as a scavenger she would become a Jedi. Proving herself to Luke Skywalker.

And give Finn an actual character arc. He becomes a Jedi leads a rebellion of stormtroopers. He isn’t a janitor, he isn’t the new trilogy Jar Jar or comic relief. He doesn’t exist to just yell Rey!.