Today only on the fox connect website, all titles are 50% off with code PUMPKIN. This includes the new actor sets and the white box complete set which is everything but the new bonus disc from the black set with the EON doc. Thus you can get all 20 (with three coasters) for $65.
That seems to make sense.
You know, I think all this technology would have driven SK nuts. 😉
LTK
CBS-Fox WS LD vs MGM remastered WS LD vs SE vs UE vs BD:
Audio: Two mixes. Original Dolby surround and 5.1 remix done for the SE. The UE and BD variants appear to be the same mix but I will say the version found on the SE has a few deficiencies that were cleaned up. Again, the original mix is far better here. Comparing sequences reveals they got it right in 1989 and everything is mixed much better. The 5.1 mutes parts of the score quite frequently and dials them down in favor of isolated effects. Not good. The older Fox disc sounds a bit lesser and the MGM is perfect.
Winner: MGM LD hands down. The 2.0 mix on UE and BD is the original mix but neither sounds as good as the LD.
Video: Old Fox disc is a bit contrasty and video like. Very 1989-video look to it. Colors are on the drab side and somewhat muted. The MGM is like lifting a veil off. Everything is better and improved. Same transfer. The SE is another leap forward, but there is additional damage here and there. Colors are better, contrast appears mostly healthier. The edges of the frame on the sides though reveal that perhaps too much area was revealed. Also there is very little fine detail and there is an overall look of video processing going on. The UE improves all these again but there may be some Lowry-esque tints poking their head in. Some shots just look quite un-1989. The BD bumps this to 1080p and does a few additional bits of cleaning from what I can tell.
Sooo…BD for detail and overall. MGM LD/SE for more original look, though they’re very very close. I think with a touch here and there it would be fine, or that this may be a print source vs. higher source issue.
I think what we’re seeing is the difference between 35, SK attempting to time on the equipment of the day, MGMs 65 scan and eventual attempt to match SK’s timing and then WBs now outdated higher res scan of the 65mm elements. This is why it lacks all the coloring of the others and is limited to 2k.
Like many other WB transfers, the color is missing due to using higher negative elements and at times it appears some non-original tints have leaked in. They should redo it at some point isn’t he near future as other Kubrick titles have been hinted at or done such as ACO in 4K. Many of the others are equally if not more problematic and all based on old work.
The 1990 print being in Dolby 4-2 is correct as then no one would have been able to mix in the old Todd-AO system of five-one. Plus I think it might suit the film a tad better by isolating the low bass-not that I like losing the LC and RC channels.
Until they do new work we are stuck with these. Utilizing the Bluray and adjusting the color timing whilst adding the MGM PCM (less damage than CC) and 5.1 ac3 for theatrical approximation is about the best we can do. Once this is done perhaps we can then try to tackle a mathematically correct smilebox version.
Sorry it’s taken me so long but I got an HDCRT a few months ago and it’s been like starting all over again with calibrations and the like.
TLD
LD P/S vs LD WS vs DVD SE vs UE vs BD
After comparing all of these, I can safely say that the WS LD and SE had color differences unique to them. They have both a slight push to the reds, most notable in skin tones and some yellow-brown overall cast in certain shots. I don’t know if this is from a source element or just how it may have been mastered at the time. The SE additionally has boosted contrast that is wrong. Source appears the same. The UE and BD are identical. Far better blacks, good contrast but rather colorless in comparison to the earlier discs. However, when comparing against the old CBS-Fox P/S disc it shows the exact look and feel of the Lowry transfer.
Checking against the 007 Dossier trailer scan, it appears the image is correct, though that apparently when timed for film there was some of the color I found on the WS LD.
The old discs open with the standard MGM/UA and UA logos. The UE and BD use only a UA logo with the letters being solid dark blue.
Audio boils down to preference. The mix is the same, just the presentation that is changed. The 5.1 early mix done for the THX LD/SE DVD line is really just the Dolby stereo discretely presented. I prefer the original for better bass and midrange. Comparing the the UE/BD tracks reveals the newer one as very clear in the highs and featuring tighter bass response. But that comes at an overall loss of clarity in addition to certain things being slightly less audible, such as Bond’s reverberating gunbarrel shot. Compression seems to be in play here, as the track is far louder, requiring me to lower from reference volume. With the LD I can go up as much as I want with no issues. The P/S disc appears to be the same track just in analog. Both the DD 2.0 tracks on the UE and BD are the original mix, just heavily compressed, lacking in bass and a touch on the tinny side.
Video-BD, though I do prefer what the WS LD was doing and think they missed on some of the color timing for the new release.
Audio-WS LD Dolby Stereo PCM, hands down. No loudness compression, better mixed, better dialogue reproduction, better music mixing.
I'm still pretty sure, at least for ANH, that the video transfers didn't get the look quite right--especially since most of them had the pink tint run rampant through Mos Eisley. Until we find a print source it's going to be very difficult to figure out exactly what they did. The best I've found were reviews at the time saying the new prints despite the hoopla seemed a bit softer and diffused in color in comparison to the last reissue from about 1993 or so.
I do truly hope TeamBlu gets to finish these at some point as the SE really should be preserved since it was really the last official presentable version and remains the best source the films currently exist in. But the big winner was the resurrected GOUT which is so shockingly amazing that it still makes my head spin. Hard to believe a huge Frankenstein resurrection of the old dead horse we all know/love/hate could result in such a staggeringly good HD finished product. If someone showed it to you and said that it was really from an old MUSE 1080i disc or something, you'd believe it.
Catching up. The ratings are out of 4. Bold denotes classic status.
Night Moves (1975)
Brutally honest, painful and unforgettable slice of 70's pessimism. Hackman may have done his best work here. Masterful classic.
The Yakuza
My favorite Pollack picture; a tough, nasty and yet somehow poetic tale of old wounds brought to light in the modern Japan. A great picture shamelessly ripped off for BLACK RAIN.
Marathon Man****
Made by its tone and the performances. one of the essential 70's classics.
Sexy Beast**1/2
The Replacement Killers (Theatrical cut)***
Hollywood Homicide**
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
Probably the best definition of cinematic style there is. The story is threadbare, the stars drive the picture and yet you don't forget any of it.
Dinner at Eight***1/2
Far From the Madding Crowd (2015)*1/2
RoninMasterpiece. Last great work of a master, last great DeNiro performance, car chases that are a dream, and a picture that never once insults your intelligence.
Truth or Consequences, N.M.**1/2
Libeled Lady****
Stage Door***1/2
A River Runs Through It**
The Parallax View****
Bringing Up Baby****
The Philadelphia Story****
To Be Or Not To Be****
La Femme Nikita***1/2
Big Trouble in Little China***
Leon (full International cut)***1/2
Unforgiven****
Superman
Finally saw this on the big screen via a private owned 35mm print. Flawed yes but a classic and rousing experience nonetheless. The expanded version was unnecessary and the print revealed the 35mm Dolby mix is indeed the flat mono-ish track from the DVD and BD. Color is closer to the new BD but without the teal hue pushes.
Great movie with a certain and definite look. Probably the definitive picture of its kind.
Superman II Donner Cut***1/2 +Theatrical***1/2
Watching these back to back reveals just how much they snipped and cut the picture as it was to ribbons. Neither quite works as the story was never fully finished but the theatrical is the more complete. The Donner cut has all the necessary meaty dramatic moments that should have been reinstated to the theatrical cut. A compromise edit is really what was and is called for and not the in places amateurish and empty feeling DC.
If we're lucky it will be a big bandied about process resulting in a simple presentation of the 35mm general release editions.
If it actually happens, we're probably talking about conforming a new 97SE scan to the original cut with probably the Dolby Stereo track for each-probably then upmixed to 5.1.
But...if we get really, really lucky..a full-on restoration process could be underway, akin to what the majors do on their big titles like Sony and Warner. Robert Harris has even offered his opinions on several occasions.
Heck if Universal can start actually doing this stuff correctly from time to time, there's no reason why it can't happen.
But the big problem is that even if this does ever happen...no one is going to know, understand or even put the time in to get just how many variants, audio mixes and tweaks exist for the OT. I've spoken to many about things like for example the SW mono mix and they look at me like I'm nuts. How many in the loop do you think have even touched upon color consistency on Death Star interiors or garbage mattes or any of our usual topics?
The big interesting news is the hi-res release. That would indicate new work being done...unless the 2004 CDs which were merely a repackaging of the loud 1997 discs did indeed have some DSD processing going on for an abandoned SACD release.
Still, the hi-res files could be without loudness which would make for the best official versions of the non-LP material that's been released...
No mention of any additional material other than bonus interviews. And of course there's the now-obligatory overpriced vinyl boxset aimed at hipsters.
Why is there a need to mix stuff in 7.1 when it was never intended for it? I'm still not really a fan because I've always felt there should be a rear center plus on old roadshow epics like Spartacus the surround was mono only and at the time would have been largely limited at best. I can understand losing the two front channels because there's no modern equivalent way to play them back. what always gets lost though is all the directional dialogue effects and panning which is ridiculous. And of course nutty me would wish they'd include the mono mix just for comparisons sake.
Wow that brings back bad memories of singlehandedly having to move two steennecks across campus on broken brick cobblestones then cramming them into a small room the size of a closet. Those beasts are not easy to move at all so my hats off to you poita!!
THe Criterion was also timed to match dye transfer prints so the new restored version should resemble it. The amount of work and effort being put in is still staggering to me since for so long Universal has not cared about it whatsoever. If they can continue this trend maybe they can ally reverse their awful standing. And of course redo their Hitchcock catalog.
The only thing I've worried about is the sound. The restoration was done and completed in Dolby surround which was the format of 1991. The DVD upped this to a discrete 5.1 but was the same otherwise. I don't know if this faithfully reproduced what the large format presentation would have so I assume they will redo it.
hopefully they stick with the gorgeous Saul Bass artwork Criterion utilized.
I've asked both WB and the archive about a BD of the Fleischers....no go. ti may be the work was SD only. The standalone release corrects an error or two, but is otherwise the same. I'd like to patch in corrections from the Diamond Bosko DVD.
My pick for worst major studio release would be Family Plot. Universal does not and has never cared for their Hitchcock titles-not even back in the 80's during the LD days. Sure Vertigo and RW were restored but they have not been handled properly since nor have any of the others. The ones that come off well are those which are still based on older work and have not been futzed with at all. Instead of doing new work they simply crammed them onto a BD disc...with a few exceptions. Some titles like Frenzy were riddled with awful DNR...The Man Who Knew Too Much is rotting away and they reused the atrocious 2005 DVD master....Marnie looks terrible....and then you get to Family Plot which is so painfully pitifully bad it makes the DVD look like the Blu-ray.
It is an absolute insult on top of all the insults given their Hitchcock library since the 80's.
Do yourself a favor..buy the cheap UK boxset and keep your DVDs for the bad discs.
Wonderful! Keep at it, there's no sense in rushing anything if it's still not satisfactory...we can keep waiting. ;)
It can be. Of course anything is possible but its very rare to see only a handful of shots be hard matted if the rest is open. The only example I know of is the shower scene in Psycho that had hard printed mattes on the bottom and top edges to prevent any potential nudity when shown full open. (As it should be shown.)
SilverWook said:
Was in Barnes and Noble today, and they have a lot of classic 007 soundtracks on vinyl, with the original cover art to boot.
Were they the recent Capitol ones? Only DN, GF and LALD were done but I could never hear any samples or find out about the transfer lineage. These have also gone onto HDTracks in hi-res.
Welcome to the wonderful world of open-matte.
Sometimes you can see shots that come off better in the full open aperture but usually there is far too much dead space in either top or bottom. Many of the 50's films presented in both Academy and a matted presentation are hard to determine their intended look.
Ironically I caught a bit of American Gigolo the other night in open matte.
AVTAK
LD vs SE vs UE vs BD
The LD is slightly cropped on the left, a bit stretched on top and bottom, a bit contrasty but is otherwise an excellent transfer with only occasional spots of aliasing. The Dolby Stereo PCM is rich, full and has a touch of upper end distortion here and there but nowhere near as much as what plagued FYEO and OP to a lesser extent.
The SE utilizes the same print source from apparently a fresh scan, as has been evidenced by most of the other SEs. Color is generally more refined along with fine detail. The biggest difference is in skin tones which are now reddish, whereas on the LD they were washed out and pale looking. I did notice some shots looking as if they had gone with a pink tint-(iceberg sub for example) but overall this only pops up every once and a while. Great transfer for the SEs to be honest. The 5.1 is a remix of the Dolby stereo and seems virtually identical save for one bit. The distortion is lessened but still present in the helicopter crash during the teaser. High end is better defined along with channel seperation. The LFE is about the same as the matrix track despite being discrete. Overall it is compressed a touch and comes across as louder than the LD PCM.
The UE of course has the cropped opening for no apparent reason and slight cropping for the rest of the feature. It seems to use a scrubbed copy of the SE master being one of the video sourced titles. Bits of the Lowry teal and pink tints that are in OP and MR start to pop up but they are more subtle than what we usually describe. Skin tones appear a bit less reddish but it does look like the contrast and brightness levels were raised a bit. The BD tames this back a bit and overall looks much healthier without the video nasties of DVD. Both have the original Dolby Stereo track from the LD in DD 2.0.
Mix differences I noticed:
The helicopter hitting the ice and exploding has noticeable distortion on all versions. The title song has some slight distortion on the Dolby Stereo, and this was fixed up for the SE 5.1. Both UE and BD use a new 5.1 remix of the tile song which adds heavy vocal echos in places along with pumping up the rear channels unnecessarily.
The Dolby stereo has the gunbarrel fire go straight to the rear, and the SE pans it hard to the right rear. UE and BD follow suit leading me to believe they simply worked from or ported the 5.1 remix.
Conclusions:
All are good but being the nitpicky person I am I'd have to go with the SE overall for more closely replicating the 1985 release prints. It's not perfect but with a little tweaking could better match the LD and UE/BD in some shots. It seems to strike a balance between them. And of course it's fully uncropped.
The LD may be closest to the 007 Dossier's trailer scan.
But for HD if we worked backwards from the BD it could be slightly tweaked to get rid of the pinks, teals etc. that were added in 2006+reinstate the missing camera shake for the earthquake and add in the LD PCM.
The Killer, TFC, Patton, Spartacus, the cheap studios sourcing titles from pitiful sources...these are all the usual suspects.
It goes without saying that I despise the SW discs..but hey don't we all?
But add in every single Disney release. What they are doing is destroying their legacy...and people just let them get away with it.
They've already done several 4Ks which have popped up in a few locations. I know Goldfinger was confirmed and perhaps FYEO but as to the other titles I'm unsure. GF was mentioned as a new anniversary restoration, but that moniker has been used several times before without any work done.
Actually they may not be forced to remaster...as there are higher res Lowry materials out there not to mention the 35mm prints they struck. I saw Dr. No this way right down to the UE Lowry credits. Just imagine the BD on the big screen...except now it looks extremely weird being magnified in such a way and looks not at all accurate.
TServo, I've seen DN via the Lowry print, Thunderball from a studio print (not sure the age-it did have the mono), and the Brosnans on their original release. TND may have been DTS, TWINE was thunderous DD EX, and DAD twice-premiere night in DTS ES and a month later in DD EX.
It appears that prints still circulate, though presumably only for those without DCPs readily available or in 4K. In other words the video sourced ones.
Nope, they're being branded as the nine films that compromise the SPECTRE story so far. Which of course makes absolutely NO SENSE, as S.P.E.C.T.R.E. was featured or involved in six of the first seven original films...and this makes the Broccoli f-you to McClory of the unofficial Blofeld double cameo in FYEO now official.
The covers are nice until you look closely. FYEO uses the blue bubbles from the titles but with a Moore image closer to the LALD era. If they were proper new discs with adequate transfers for 2015..I'd be fine...but of course MGM/Fox/whoever will simply point to 2006 and call any and all further work unnecessary due to that flawed process..which of course was only done for some titles.
New repackaging set announced with a few steelbooks with artwork based on the titles...
http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=17180
A much better and eco-friendlier boxset with simple art, complete with regular cases, and a release of the EoN docu... (Not to mention an easy way for me to throw out the three that never happened and replace them with NSNA, CR.) So...are they going to do this every two-three years now? Was Bond 50 just a throwaway? The price is ridiculous considering I got Bond 50 for around $80 shipped.
The new steelbooks are nice ideas, but they are merely based on the titles and really just new photoshop jobs that are edited and conformed to BD size.
The discs are still the same and will likely be marketed and flogged to us every 1-2 years in new artwork/packages until the end of the format. They will never redo them for any foreseeable reason.
I will keep doing research on the rest of the titles to finally determine how to best preserve each. The endless repackaging of thoughtless transfers has got to stop. This has been going on since the dawn of video and still none of the films has a truly caring definitive release. I am so done with MGM for continuing to do this crap to us. We don't need to have 75 versions of Goldfinger. Do it right once and for all.
Selling some extra discs from my collection for those who are interested:
Yep it got the Dolby Stereo in the 70mm blowup, but has since been MIA. Due to the usual constraints and producer's dislike for added costs, I don't think the blowup would have differed greatly if at all from the 4 track master. There also vague references and rumors of previous films getting a 70mm blowup such as YOLT (Japan only), TMWTGG, Spy, Moonraker. I'd have thought it likely for Thunderball to have received a blowup but probably not due to the harried post-production schedule.
All this aside one interesting tidbit from John Glen's autobiography: they did a stereo multi track mix for OHMSS!!! He goes into great detail about how it was discovered the premiere theater was only wired for mono and how they had to take apart the fake cabinets to actually install true stereo rigs along with additional speakers for what I presume is the rear channel.
Octopussy
LD vs SE vs UE vs BD
http://sd.caps-a-holic.com/vergleich.php?vergleichID=199
LD master ported but corrected for SE, SE master cleaned and stripped by Lowry for UE and re-color timed. BD is a 1080p bump.
The LD master has the original MGM logo with plain white UA presents logo. These were errored on the LD, with the MGM lion section leaving a garbage matte, then the UA logo shifting down to center itself onscreen. The LD is very contrasty and has bright whites combined with some deeper saturation of colors. Sadly it does also have some aliasing issues that crop up throughout. The entire LD is cropped on the sides a bit, with the top and bottom edges stretched out a bit to make some kind of 2.20:1 or narrower. (LDDB lists 2.20:1)
Don't go thinking this was a 70mm print as the scanning technology for large format was only getting in place by 1991, and the fact that the SE actually corrects the scan back to proper 2.35:1! Color is far more balanced and loses the overdosed contrasty look. The opening logos are still intact and fixed. Audio is a lossy DD 2.0 copy of the LD PCM. Aliasing problems still present though.
The UE has increased detail from the newer processing, and the new 5.1 remix which is cleaned up but not as detailed as the original 2.0. Most important is that the aliasing problems are gone. Color timing by Lowry is all over the place. Better in one shot, worse in the next. Here they infused in teals, beiges and messed with the brightness levels to make a modern HDTV palatable image out of a 1983 picture, much as they did throughout Moonraker etc. The BD is identical.
At least the 2.0 surround track on UE and the BD is the original. It has some inherent distortion across the board that isn't on the remix track. The remix does a good job at re-purposing the film with split surrounds but it does lose an effect or two I noticed right off the bat and doesn't quite have the same level of detail in the high end as found on the 2.0 original.
So here we have a case where the LD PCM should be added to the BD, which should then be re-timed to better match a print source. OP is a bit tougher than the others to do as it has always had this slight haze cast to its photography that seems to wreak havoc on home video transfers. Each transfer has its moments on color...there are times where I like the LD, times when the SE is better, and times when the UE/BD are better. None are quite consistent but this may be one time where the SE wins overall.
But we have to use the BD for the resolution, bitrate and thankfully the lack of aliasing.