captainsolo

Yes. It’s a weird thing that seems to also be on B&R and the widescreen review articles for these and also Schumacher’s A Time to Kill and a few other releases of that era.

For some reason the matrix audio has slightly better low-end and is for lack of a better term warmer than the discrete. With forever I’ve done a load of comparisons, and despite being the same mix- the presentation is different. Essentially there’s a lot of ADR dialogue and the discrete version emphasizes this along with effects opposed to the matrix version which seems better integrated and better balanced also the low-end seems slightly more natural as opposed to just having the LFE effects.
Doing this unfortunately made me notice all of the problems in the dialogue track as there’s a lot of inherent distortion that’s present on every single video release and it’s also present to a slightly lesser degree on B&R.

This is because the 5.1 remix done for the special edition and the later blu-ray port for some reason mixes down the low end that was present on the laserdisc and VHS matrixed audio and the original flipper DVDs 5.1 track which merely was a discrete version of the earlier 2.0.

It is most apparent in the opening title after the quick fade just before the actual title comes up. When the Batman title appears there is a large amount of low end present on the old mix that is gone on the new one and really lessens the impact. It is unknown what made the difference, and I’ve often wondered if it’s perhaps the 35mm mix versus the 70 mm mix. However since the 70 mm mix did not have split stereo surrounds I don’t think the two were really all that different outside of the different formats.

Since the other three films also seem to have changed a very slight amount on their later releases I’m pretty sure WB did remixes from the ground up on all four films and conformed them to more modern specs in terms of EQ, dynamic range, and near field imaging. But it is the original film that really has the most audible difference when comparing the different copies. The rest seem OK but I swear by Forever’s LD matrixed audio which is better than the 5.1.

This will be a day long remembered.

So excited that this is on the horizon. I can’t wait to do a full mouse dropping Pug trilogy runthrough!

Thirded. I’m still really excited to see the Pug return.

As far as I know it’s always been SD only.

I’ve compared and the original widescreen LD is a different mix but the BD audio isn’t too far off in places. It may be a matter of the matrixing of the 70mm audio making it harder to distinguish as there is quite a lot of dialogue leakage to the rear channels.

The BD features are identical to the 2006 DVD set. The individual yellow case release fixed one or two audio errors but nothing else.

I finished the TOS films and started TNG season 1.
I see why people have many complaints about the first TNG season now…oh boy does it seem dull.

What do you guys think is the best TOS film? I couldn’t decide between II and IV but ultimately gravitate towards IV as it felt the most like the spirit of the original series.
I liked all six for the most part and didn’t actively dislike any of them.

TMP surprised me. It’s a hell of a lot of contradictions and does the characters quite badly but is the only film with an epic scope. If it had been trimmed to say 90-100 minutes it would play far better.

WoK was much better in tone but I felt a bit underwhelmed to be quite honest-though this may be due to the buildup of always hearing it was this amazing thing. I didn’t quite buy Khan’s character shift from his TOS roots and the sudden arrival of Kirk’s son was beyond coincidence and really shoehorned in.

SFS was never bad, but outside of
the stealing of the Enterprise, is nothing but filler and has a very confused tone leading one to think some sequences are a TV movie.

TVH nailed the tone in the middle section but I felt the bookends were rather dull and was especially frustrated to just see the probe disappear without any context for why it ever came in the first place.

TFF is not as bad as people make it out to be. The story was fundamentally broken and rewritten too many times. Many sequences either do not work and some are mind bogglingly silly. The ending is an incomprehensible mess. The effects are below par almost every shot. All that said, there are some well performed moments and I enjoyed a bit of it here and there.

TUC should have been great but the studio pressures and short schedule compromised the film. I also felt the prison sequence bordered on the silly and wasn’t very necessary. The tone veers form the optimism of TOS and instead of merely paralleling the Cold War, the film seems to try and force a duplication of world events at times. And the Shakespeare quotes got out of hand. Also-WHY IS THERE AN ACTUAL GALLEY ON THE ENTERPRISE???
At least the ending was a good sendoff and TUC is better than III and V in my mind.

How did I miss this thread? Too many to even fathom…

I have the death sentence on twelve systems!
This little one’s not worth the effort.
Biggs is right-I’m never gonna get out of here!
Don’t get excited!
I’m the administrator of this facility.

Luke and Leia being related was a cheap story fix to tie up the loose ends in ROTJ originally. Then when ROTS came around they were already backed into a corner with killing off Padme.

It’s where I stopped off. That said I’ve been meaning to give it another shot and then go into the following materials.

TV’s Frink said:

How was there a gif from “The Car Hater” and I didn’t know about it??

This is becoming more of a trend for people to say. I think it’s a combination of the passage of time and the Disneycation of all Star Wars materials.

I never felt the prequels were horrible in every way-particularly since most everything was fleshed out or smoothed over by EU material.

Star Trek TMP

As you guys know I’m going through Trek chronologically for the first time ever.

I knew the motionless reputation, I knew Wise’s work, I knew the studio’s cash in mentality…but I didn’t quite expect this mixed bag.

This is the absolute definition of a cinematic mixed bag. It so obviously a tv pilot stretched out agonizingly to feature length and on top of that extraordinarily similar to a TOS episode I loved. Then the characterizations of the returning cast are either widow dressing or not all together there leaving the only constants for returning viewers somewhat skewed.

The redesigned ship and costumes were to me not only bland but quite awful. This combined with the slow pace really date the film more so than anything else. And that said it’s not a bad watch or ever too slow to feel annoyed or frustrated. There’s still enough good material interspersed to keep an audience going…but it’s far too little and the studio really and truly screwed TMP over royally.

The production history is insane for TMP and the fact that both Trumbull and Dykstra were brought on last minute and managed some incredible work is really amazing.
The effects make the film to a large degree, but it is Jerry Goldsmith who saves it with his incredible and huge score. He literally scores his ass off and it helps immeasurably.

All in all I liked parts of this but it misses the energy of TOS; its heart, its exuberance and most of all its inherent silliness.

But the the few seconds of Bones here and there are priceless.

The letterboxed laserdisc is fantastic btw. I was quite impressed with the matrixed surround track.

I feel dead inside. At a complete loss still and evermore.
As Michael Caine put it the world will never be the same.
Roger was truly the knight errant both onscreen and off.

The standalone fixes a few errors but not all. The bds merely replicate the previous SD versions on the DVD box set.

You know we should have in there somewhere that there isn’t even an official release that looks as good as the SE prints 20 years ago which weren’t perfect but at least were serviceable and relatively accurate.

I finally finished TOS. At first the overbearing color was weird but I got used to it. Now I quite like it-particularly since eitnlooks amazing on my hdcrt. But every female crew member always having to wear miniskirts is really silly.

So I now get all the season three hate. No one episode is really bad but s3 is endless great or decent ideas that are either never developed fully or developed at all. However I will say that at time I did have this sense in later season 2 episodes.

But I did an actual spit take when I came across SPACE HIPPIES. That was hysterical.

My thoughts are that season 1 is the best overall with some episodes from season 2 roped in. I’ve now started the animated series which is far better than I expected for a 70’s filmation show.

Is the alternate Where No Man Has Gone Before a completely different edit or just slightly different?

The ultimate way to see Blade Runner is theatrically. The final cut print is amazing and when the sound is run very loud it almost pulses. But the DC print is even better and is in my eyes the definitive BR experience save only for the missing violent shots.

MIB II
I had forgotten how dull this was. A bored and late retread of the original.
2 out of four.
MIB III
Finally saw this and felt it was really unnecessary. The present day scenes feel rather tacked on and once J jumps back it’s still the same old “find one alien who’s gong to wreck everything”. I did truly enjoy Brolin as young K as it was a great performance in character instead of some CG nightmare (listening here LFL?)
But the ending was truly just a final twist that was tacked on there and to me at least doesn’t achieve the significance it wanted.
2 1/2 out of 4.

Sony is apparently going to reboot the franchise. Wonderful…

LaLa Land.
I tried to avoid it…and then I was talked into seeing it.
I’m not a musical guy first and foremost but I can appreciate them and the artistry behind them. But this is really not one of those. This is some kind of weird modern “throwback” that doesn’t have one iota of real lasting significance. It also has such a wildly uneven tone that the movie itself can’t seem to make up its mind about what it wants to be. And being a geek I found the camerawork rather off putting as it is a fake CinemaScope cropping of a regular Panavision shoot and a film where the cinematographer does not prowl around in swirling choreographed moves but rather swoons around like an idiot.

Some people love this and good for them but I’m really not one of those.
I found it a shame that it was even a Best Picture nominee.
(Admittedly I audibly griped when I saw the unexplained green lit curtain in the character’s apartment. A nod to great films is one thing…but stealing that…augh!)

Has anyone tried playing around with PLII and PLIIx as they not only are supposed to do a better decoding job but sound quite good reproducing single mono surrounds.
I was quite surprised when I added two rear speakers for 7.1 how well Dolby ProLogic decodes into a 7.1 setup.

Actually hires is extremely important and can be quite amazing. It all depends on the materials and most of what is commonly sold on hires download sites is usually based on older materials or previously released SACDS which were themselves mastered differently.

The theater I saw the SEs in is still standing but now derelict. (Built in the 70’s next to a shopping mall) I found out much later that the two big halls in the back (8 screens) were originally one large 70mm theater where Temple of Doom premiered in TN.

The big Regal I saw TPM in was an early version of their huge multiplexes and had amazing quality when it opened in 1998. They still operate as a big theater but the quality is nothing like it was. I saw TFA here in the premium theater and it was nothing like films used to be in the same space.

The renovated six screen vintage theater I saw midnight openings of AOTC and ROTS is still operating.

The IMAX I saw AOTC still is operating…as is the Omnimax dome where I had the extreme motion sickness inducing pleasure of also seeing AOTC. You haven’t hated sand until you’ve seen AOTC across an IMAX dome.

I think the text looks great already but for dramatics I think it should paraphrase the 97 SE trailer somewhere:

For an entire generation people have experienced Star Wars the only way it has been possible: in altered and mutilated forms.
But if audiences only see it this way then they haven’t seen it at all.
Now for its fortieth anniversary the adventure of a lifetime returns to the world at large in its original unaltered form.

I just found out that apparently 4 track magnetic audio prints were made up until 1983 ending with Scarface. Is it possible that there were mag-optical combo prints of the OT? There’s a thread over on filmtech where someone remembers running a magnetic/optical ESB print.

It is possible that if Star Wars had magnetic prints that it would indeed be a fourth mix as it had different standards than Dolby Stereo and a limited mono surround controlled by a test tone.

4 star scale as always.

Murder by Death-pure classic fun that just ends much too soon. The LD is the same as the DVD.
3 stars out of 4.

Men in Black-revisited after finding the BD trilogy set for super cheap and plan on doing some other Sonnenfeld films for the heck of it. The film works well due to its spontaneity and character byplay. But it ends far too soon and feels half baked-much of which is explained by how the entire ending was changed last minute and budget was withheld for sequences until the studio felt it was worthwhile. Many of the CG shots stick out like a sore thumb. But it is far more enjoyable than 99% of what we get these days. 3 stars out of 4.

Addams Family-a lark that is fine but never really impactful. Nothing of much interest really happens outside what would have appeared in a cartoon originally. The design and sound mix is quite good and the actors have fun but this ends up as somewhat forgettable. It’s nice to finally see the movie that inspired the legendary pinball table I’ve played for years. And someone must’ve literally seen this and thought to copy it over as Casper in the 90’s. 2 stars out of 4.

Addams Family Values-Much better, more fun and a bit silly. Much more of a plot this time around which is a complete improvement. 2.5 stars out of 4.

The Devils
I waited for years to see Ken Russell’s infamous 1971 film, and I’m glad I did. I saw an Eastman studio scope print apparently of the UK theatrical release that quite surprisingly was in good shape and not faded. This is a supremely powerful film that should be seen by anyone curious as it really tries to depict the depths of human depravity in circles of power that existed then and now. It isn’t a great masterpiece as with every Russell film I find myself begging for more story and less over the top visuals. If there was more story and narrative this would be one of the great films. As it is, the performances are staggering, the visuals and cinematography hauntingly great, and the film is quite unforgettable.
4 stars. That the studio still refuses to release the film or its restored uncut version completed in 2003 is CRIMINAL. Particularly since Russell made the Director’s cut and was not able to see it released before he died in 2011.

HD masters actually first started appearing in the mid to late 90’s but of course these were very very low res and by no means measure up today. WB did a number of high scale scans for several of the classic titles early on but it was mainly Sony who led the front in new or spruced up HD or quasi-HD scans. After a certain point they released everything as a “mastered in High Definition” title.

It wasn’t until the advent of BD on the horizon that 4K really began to take off. But still the vast majority of things are 2K scans/workflows and most films are only finished at 2K.

The original ideas are the core of my SW-exemplified by the radio drama and novelizations.
I adore the open feeling of the EU and how even despite some silly or bad entries-everything still felt connected in some fashion.

I don’t hate the prequels but I dislike the way they were made and produced.

But I do hate Force Awakens and despised R1…but none of that compares to how much I hate that Star Wars itself feels so damn empty and hollow these days as merely a commodity designed to cater to both fans and the general public to entice them into purchasing endless merchandise.