captainsolo

Persuaded to watch Kingsman.

Wished I had done anything else instead. Just plain dreadful. Completely flat, tone so poorly chosen that nothing worked, the main character felt like more of a subplot in an X-Men training scenario despite the main plot being given less screentime, hyperviolent for the sake of being violent, desensitizing in terms of this hyperviolence, and really painful for anyone like me who grew up with the great British spy medium.

Using the umbrella of course only made me think of Patrick Macnee's refusal to use firearms as Steed, and just how that particular moral qualm is nowhere to be found in this picture. Yes I know it's from a graphic novel which means "it must be over the top" but there is absolutely nothing to recommend here.

Painful, far too long, dull...and it even ends on a beyond crass sex gag that isn't even a gag. Fitting.

Zero anything.

Finally back to doing these...

FYEO

WS LD vs SE DVD vs UE DVD vs BD

PCM Dolby Surround vs DD 5.1 vs remixed 5.1 DD/DTS vs same remix in DTSHDMA vs BD Dolby Surround

DVD shots:

http://sd.caps-a-holic.com/vergleich.php?vergleichID=196

UE vs BD:

http://www.caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergleiche/multi_comparison.php?disc1=628&disc2=833&hd_multiID=973#auswahl

The LD is opened up a bit, it loses a sliver on the left side and has more information across the top than the SE. LDDB credits a 2.10:1 ratio and it looks a little stretched. SE has better blacks and deeper color, whereas the LD is contrastier but has a nice look to it. The colors of the LD appear slightly different to all other versions.

The UE improves on the SE, restoring the frame edges so that it has a more balanced look and doesn't seem stretchy. Colors are good mostly but there have been many tweaks like the other Lowry video handled entries that induce some teals etc. and overall everything appears boosted. Fine detail appears better but everything that might have been grain was obliterated.

The BD slightly advances the image, but is really only a 1080p bump of the same.

And apparently no one knows how to color time Loque's death. The LD is broad daylight and the others all try some attempt at a day for night filter.

Sound:

The LD sounds just right with good detail in all places. However it does have some distortion in few select places (helicopter sound effects in the teaser for example) that crop up. This also appears in the SE 5.1, UE 5.1 and is cleaned up for the BD track.

The mix is essentially the same on LD and SE but the latter tends to accentuate the highs more and feels a bit less authentic despite having nice discrete placements. The UE gives more clarity but accentuates the highs even more, in addition to replacing the title song with the soundtrack master. The BD DTS is the same mix but in HD; even more clarity with more emphasis on the upper midrange. It also goes without saying that the UE and BD mixes are both louder due to added levels of compression.

The BD includes what is said to be the original Dolby Surround, but I believe it is merely a folddown of the 5.1 as it also has the distortion cleaned up, and sounds identical in every way. Why they go to this trouble only to include a fake 2.0 track is beyond me.

I believe the UE/BD remix was done at MiCasa studios where they did the series and primarily used the soundtracks to replace the music. The SE 5.1 was prepped for the scrapped THX LD and is really just a 5.1 upmix of the original 2.0.

If anyone as the Japanese or European LDs or anything else I haven't covered, please feel free to chime in.

Soooo...again we are left without knowing exactly what is accurate to the source. Thanks to the lovely HD trailer scans that have been done from the 007 Dossier, at least it is possible to see that the better blacks of the new transfer are more accurate...but that it overall falls well short of what the 1981 release print would have looked like.

Sound: LD. SE is also acceptable, and the BD HD presentation gives the best in clarity but it isn't fully original.

Video: UE/BD for detail/resolution but it's nowhere near perfect. Far too video-ish for a film that should have a stunning transfer. Colorwise I prefer the SE and LD despite the ratios being a touch off.

For those also inclined the Ryko CD is just as good as the US LP on the original tracks (though the latter does have nice analog warmth) and being expanded is a no brainer purchase. The Capitol reissue was supposed to be a port but I don't have it to compare.

I've swapped for a newer Sony CRT, this one's a 32" Trinitron Wega in perfect condition. Still flat glass, 480i with 16:9 capable mode and component ins.

LDs use Pioneer D702 into the Panasonic DMR-es25 for its comb filter, component out. For the ac3 SE I use the DVL-700-into Sony EDP-800 or Yamaha DDP-1 for ac3 decoding.

Everything else is run PS3 via component cable. I sometimes get to bring in a midlevel 60hz 42" LG LED HDTV, but usually spend so much time fiddling with it that I give up.

Sound is still the same Sony receiver with Klipsch setup. Hopefully I can soon upgrade to a higher model Onkyo.

Headphones are the very revealing Sennheiser HD-380pros. I use these for virtually everything but they are very critical.

Wishlist:

Epson 8500ub or above, dedicated screen, anamorphic lens, Shure HTS-5300 for proper Dolby Surround decoding, dedicated power amps, floorstanding towers for the mains, a second subwoofer.

Damn Anctu, great find on that Kuro. Always wanted to see one in action up close.

AntcuFaalb said:

@team_negative1: Yep, I upgraded! The black level on the Pioneer Kuro is stunning and much better than my old Sony WEGA CRT HDTV.

 Is that really possible?

BTW, the best cheap addition to my HT are my el-cheapo masking bars. With the lights off I simply tape two halves of black foam board to the top and bottom of my monitor to take out the letterboxing sections. This suggestion has been made by others...and by god it works. With the lights on it looks terrible and induces laughter..but it really works.

SilverWook said:

Disney is going to get it's money's worth out of the new Millennium Falcon sets, that's for sure.

It'd be hard to beat Kenner/Hasbro for simply recycling the same basic 1978 mold for 30 years.

But look it has new stickers!

I'm also of many mixed feelings on this.

I don't really want to see somebody else tackle the role, and agree that many of the scruffy elements of Han's world that we know of i.e. smuggling, slavers, crooked dealers, the Hutts, running on the edge of the law, completely interfering in governments and murders would all be chucked out.

So I'm thinking we're really not going to see much Corporate Sector Authority action. Perhaps some bits of stuff like came out in the Bantam HS trilogy that directly reference the OT and blatant "how a young character gets to be his famous older counterpart" schtick.

...

But as long as they have Han say things like "Stang!" we're headed in the right direction. ;)

"Colour grading done in 1990 on a new print with Kubrick's approval."

Hmm..perhaps this had something to do with the CC transfer. I didn't know of anything SK approved after this which he supervised during FMJ's post-production. Of course it's more likely that he oversaw a new print to make the rounds as the older ones would have been deteriorating.

Re-posting here for more detailed analysis.

Anyone with the Jaws signature LD...how's it sound overall? I think it's the basis for the 30th DVD mono and BD mono. To best preserve the track we could use this and re-sync to the BD. The DTS version only has a spot or two of distortion but should have been lossless.

I also have the 1992 WS rescored version which other than the beach scene with replaced music sound mostly identical though it does feel far more robust in places somewhat akin to the 1985 home video SW mix. The "smile..you" line may have slight more clarity on the "bitch" than the mono but I could be hearing things.

Jaws

While the BD could be better (and it should being a 4K neg scan) it is nowhere near as bad as a Uni title usually is. The mono is intact with only a spot or two of distortion.

A great film that deserves more recognition of its technique and understanding of characters. This is why I frequently point to its heavy debt to both Duel and Sugarland Express; without these there would be no Jaws.

One of the great happy accidents that at least is polished up to a respectable BD but not truly what it could have been.

The 7.1 upmix is tamer than the atrocious 5.1 for DVD, but still totally out of place and ruins much of the ambiance in favor of a new soundfield experience. Completely unnecessary and prevents the mono from a having a restored 24 bit lossless presentation-AS IT SHOULD HAVE-as it really represents (along with SW) the pinnacle of mono mixing just before the jump to Dolby Stereo.

I still find it weird the for color they stayed very close to the old transfers. That shouldn't always be the case but I found this blurb from the SVP of technical operations which made me anxious:

Using colour as an example, we don’t just colour our films on the fly. We have everything that was previously done and because we’ve done this over and over again, from original theatrical release, when we did it for VHS, and when we did it for DVD, we have those tapes as our guide. That’s why it’s so simple: we match to the last look, which was already matched to the original look. There’s always a few tweaks that you want to do, but overall it matches what has come before.

*facepalm to infinity*

I always thought the older master (1995 signature LD, recycled for DVDs) was fairly accurate but you cannot go by this stuff alone for accuracy. Just popping in the '92 WS disc shows boosted contrast and color that is already different and obvious.

The few Spielberg tweaks are very minor and seem to have to do with brightening the darker scenes-i.e. the opening. This goes with the tweak to the Raiders opening and how HD video today works far differently to the pitch blacks from the film world then.  Personally I think you should never mess with this stuff as maintaining those blacks is the integrity of the original scene as shot and presented-but you risk losing people today on their HDTVs. So it's not bad necessarily...but it's still tweaked nonetheless.

FanFiltration said:

 Oh my gosh where did these come from?? I would absolutely love to have these on a shelf.

I could totally see Hasbro making that empty Force box, call it super limited and charge 40 bucks.

The notonbluray column has a great comparison of the iTunes download that seems to be culled from the new restoration versus the DVD. It appears what has happened after doggy though AVS and other places is that they restored the audio and did the usual locking of dialogue to the center but then tealed the entire film!

this was done at Warner MPI which presumably produced the newer Supermans which of course were notoriously tealed. Apparently the LD has colors even different from the DVD so I'll pick up the CAV set soon. The DVD wasn't perfect but t was at least good. This new restoration also appatently screws up a few of the scope stretched Nautilus shots.

WHO ALLOWS THIS STUFF TO HAPPEN AND WHY WONT THEY GIVE ME JOB TO FIX IT!?!

;)

Absolutely! 16mm prints are usually projected on walls or bedsheets outdoors so it's not as if we're in the wrong territory. I still can't quite explain it, but these just have that spark to them that really get me involved in the films again. Almost as if you've found such a rarity and are screening it for yourself.

Of course this comes from the same person whose best viewing of Psycho came from an open matte 16mm reduction projected onto a theater's outside wall.

They have never appeared in video as they should. Partially because they had great video transfers for their era and the financial crisis MGMUA was perpetually in prevented further work. Indeed you guys are right in that the blus are all a mix of old, new and even Lowry scans without extra tinkering. Why it's such a mess is anyone's guess.

With the Brosnan era none are what they should be. The hdtv airing of the cropped Goldeneye is so grain filled that it is beautiful and finally somewhat like the film I saw all those years ago. It appears they somply reverted to the dated video master done all the way back for the LD which was incredible for the time. TND fares better but is colored differently from the old LD/DVD master and comes off as both flat and cold-not at all like the theatrical. TWINE goes further on this point, with the old DVD/Japan LD having at least a more aesthetically pleasing color palette. DAD looks best but still comes off as a bit videoish in places compared to the prints I saw many times.

These were gorgeous films all shot on the tail end of properly shot and developed scope celluloid and should look staggeringly good. And to be honest the controlling interests care more about flogging copies of the films in endless repackages more than the series preservation. For all the talk about the Lowry work, only 11 wee scanned and all have been mucked with.

Don't even get me started on the audio mixes. All four had pounding aggressive and stylized 5.1 audio that knocked you silly whether it was Dolby DTS or even Dolby stereo. The old LDs and DVDs give you an idea of this but to my ears the BDs just felt all level normalized and without the same immediacy. GE sounds great matrixed, in the hot LFE old mixes but the BD seems flat. TND is just louder in the BD and not like the theatrical which was one of the best iVe ever heard. TWINE I saw in Dolby EX and that was great, very active for a smaller film, the DVD may be the same track and sounds how I remember mostly. DAD for all its faults had an awesome mix in both Dolby ex and DTS es (I saw both). The first DVD has these encoded where the others do not. 

It looks as if it is hard matted for the 1.85 as composed. That fits perfectly as does a few shots having that slight golden cast which I have always felt was intentional and quite brilliant actually.

When I win the lottery the print collecting starts. ;)

Same here, good to see this is back up and running.

I suddenly realized that there was no thread for Hammers in preservations. With each film having different qualities on essentially each successive release it has always been a challenge to even see the classic horror cycles let alone in their original uncut form.

Since myself, TAF and many others have often discussed the Hammers and their varying states of presentation across the various rights holders it’s high time there was one definite place to discuss…so here goes…

WB has finally announced their BD Hammer release…only to say that it is only four films presumably just upgraded from their old video masters (much like all the recent Warner catalog material). However the good news is that is is credited to Warner Archive which might mean BD-50 presentations. However, the box art is simple and regular WB style so I presume it’s actually a major release with each film simply slapped onto a BD-25 and basically feature-less.

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=16969

Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, Dracula Has Risen From the Grave, The Mummy, Taste the Blood of Dracula.

The Vol. one tag alludes to the fact that they’re obviously missing the other three Warner owned Hammers and for some beyond idiotic reason refused to include them here. There is no reason for Dracula A.D. 1972 to not be here as it is just in the same based-on-video-master shape as the others.

The real news is the lack of Curse of Frankenstein and Horror of Dracula…the two most awaited titles that have had both poor and questionable releases in the UK. Warner holds the best elements and hasn’t put too much work into them other than making a newer scan of CoF a few years back.

Sooo…where does that leave us? At least we will have decent BD releases of two great horror films stateside (FMBD, Mummy). Maybe it will give the option to watch FMBD without the horribly tacked on bedroom scene as it was outside the US.

I know it was long, but what that represents is roughly three years of trying to alone program around: college courses, lesser seen films, what I could obtain and titles requested. We'd meet on weekends and basically steal time away whenever possible.

That's what you get in college: no backing, no support and no help.

It's much harder to program films into schedules and programs than you'd think. I'd love to do it for festivals or a theater someday.

When the choice arises, it's sometimes tough but due to time pressures and discussion topics it can be more useful to introduce people to the lesser known works or gems versus the tried and true.

Antcu, I agree in the historical context (and still think it should be available in it's original version of course)..but respectfully disagree in favor of Pinocchio..for the same reasons as you. ;)

The best experiences I ever had doing this in both high school and college were probably going in depth into Hitchcock's career, explaining the deeper facets of the Bond series and most of all when I ran the Puggo Grande for a mixture of students and faculty which turned into a packed room and many, many amazed people afterwards.

University of Tampa Film Appreciation Society Programming:
All titles were culled from the best available sources (DVD, VHS, Laserdisc or fan made preservations) The films were screened in the Department’s Screening Room A in their proper aspect ratios (1.33, 1.66, 1.78, 1.85, 2.35, 2.55 and 2.21:1) on a Epson projector integrated into a dedicated surround sound system with their original theatrical audio mixes (Mono, Stereo, Dolby Stereo, Dolby Stereo SR, Dolby 5.1, Dolby 5.1 EX, DTS 5.1, DTS 6.1 ES, PCM and audio derived from 70mm 6 track mixes). Each film was preceded by an informative speech either about the film, its makers, or the context of the time period and ended with a friendly chat over coffee.
Film series:
Hitchcock At Work:
1.    The Lodger (1926)
2.    The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
3.    The 39 Steps (1935)
4.    Secret Agent (1936)
5.    Sabotage (1936)
6.    Young and Innocent (1937)
7.    The Lady Vanishes (1938)
8.    Rebecca (1940)
9.    Foreign Correspondent (1940)
10.    Suspicion (1941)
11.    Saboteur (1942)
12.    Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
13.    Lifeboat (1944)
14.    Spellbound (1945)
15.    Notorious (1946)
16.    The Paradine Case (1947)
17.    Rope (1948)
18.    Stage Fright (1950)
19.    Strangers on a Train (1951)
20.    I, Confess (1952)
21.    Dial M For Murder (1954)
22.    Rear Window (1954)
23.    To Catch a Thief (1955)
24.    The Trouble With Harry (1955)
25.    The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
26.    The Wong Man (1957)
27.    Vertigo (1958)
28.    North by Northwest (1959) 50th Anniversary Restoration
29.    Psycho (1960)
30.    The Birds (1963)
31.    Marnie (1964)
32.    Torn Curtain (1966)
33.    Topaz (1969)
34.    Frenzy (1972)
The Revisionist Sam Peckinpah:
1.    Ride the High Country (1962)
2.    Major Dundee (Extended Restored Version, 1965)
3.    The Wild Bunch (1969)
4.    Straw Dogs (1971)
5.    Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973, 1988 Preview Version)
6.    Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)
John Frankenheimer and the surreal paranoia of reality:
1.    The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
2.    Seven Days in May (1964)
3.    Seconds (1966)
4.    Ronin (1998)
The Epic Cinema of David Lean:
1.    The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
2.    Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
3.    Doctor Zhivago (1965) (45th anniversary restoration)
4.    Ryan’s Daughter (1970)
Kurosawa, a Portrait:
1.    Drunken Angel
2.    Stray Dog
3.    Rashoman
4.    Ikiru
5.    Seven Samurai
6.    Yojimbo
Once Upon a Time…..the revolutionary Cinema of Sergio Leone:
1.    A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
2.    For a Few Dollars More (1965)
3.    The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) (original 1966 US theatrical cut supervised by Leone.)
4.    Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) (Restored 165 minute version.)
5.    Duck, You Sucker!/A Fistful of Dynamite/Once Upon a Time…the Revolution (1971) (restored 157 minute version.)
6.    Once Upon a Time in America (1984) (Restored 224 minute version.)
The essence of Billy Wilder:
1.    Double Indemnity (1944)
2.    Sunset Blvd. (1950)
3.    Ace in the Hole (1951)
4.    The Apartment (1960)
5.    One, Two, Three (1961)
6.    The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)
Purity of Essence: The Visions of Stanley Kubrick:
1.    Killer’s Kiss (1955)
2.    The Killing (1956)
3.    Paths of Glory (1957)
4.    Spartacus (1960)
5.    Lolita (1962)
6.    Doctor Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb (1964)
7.    2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
8.    A Clockwork Orange (1971)
9.    Barry Lyndon (1975)
10.    The Shining (1980)
11.    Full Metal Jacket (1987)
12.    Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Wellesian Cinema:
1.    Citizen Kane (1941)
2.    The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
3.    The Stranger (1946)
4.    The Lady From Shanghai (1948)
5.    Touch of Evil (1958)
Coppola:
1.    The Godfather (1972)
2.    The Conversation (1974)
3.    The Godfather Part II (1974)
4.    Apocalypse Now (Theatrical version, 1979)
Scorsese:
1.    Who’s The Knocking at My Door? (I Call First, 1967)
2.    Mean Streets (1973)
3.    Taxi Driver (1976)
4.    The King of Comedy (1981)
5.    After Hours (1985)
6.    The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
7.    The Age of Innocence (1993)
8.    Casino (1995)
9.    Bringing Out the Dead (1999)
Sidney Lumet:
1.    12 Angry Men (1957)
2.    The Hill (1965)
3.    Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
4.    Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
5.    Network (1976)
6.    Prince of the City (1981)
7.    The Verdict (1982)
8.    Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007)
Changing attitudes towards the police:
1.    The French Connection (1971)
2.    Bullitt (1968)
Francois Truffaut:
1.    The 400 Blows (1959)
2.    Shoot the Piano Player (1960)
3.    Jules and Jim (1962)
4.    Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
5.    Day For Night (1973)
Jean-Luc Godard:
1.    Breathless (1959)
2.    My Life To Live (1962)
Carol Reed:
1.    The Fallen Idol (1948)
2.    The Third Man (1949)
John Huston:
1.    The Maltese Falcon (1941)
2.    The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
3.    The African Queen (1951)
4.    The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
F.W. Murnau:
1.    Nosferatu (1922)
2.    Sunrise (1927)
Spielberg:
1.    Duel (1971)
2.    Jaws (1975)
3.    Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
4.    Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
5.    Empire of the Sun (1987)
6.    Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Alan J. Pakula’s “Paranoia Trilogy”:
1.    Klute (1971)
2.    The Parallax View (1974)
3.    All The President’s Men (1975)
The Archers: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger:
1.    A Matter of Life and Death (1947)
2.    The Small Back Room (1949)
3.    Peeping Tom (1960) (Dir. By Powell alone)
Disney Classics:
1.    Pinocchio (1940)
2.    Fantasia (1941)
50’s Sci-fi:
1.    The Day the Earth Stood Still (1954)
2.    The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1955)
3.    The Blob (1958)
4.    The Thing From Another World (1951)
5.    The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
Hammer Horror:
1.    The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
2.    Dracula (1958)
3.    The Hound of the Baskervilles (1958)
4.    The Mummy (1959)
5.    Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966)
6.    Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell (1974)
Roman Polanski:
1.    Repulsion (1965)
2.    The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967)
3.    Chinatown (1974)
4.    The Ghostwriter (2009)
Woody Allen:
1.    Bananas (1972)
2.    Sleeper (1973)
3.    Annie Hall (1977)
4.    Manhattan (1979)
5.    Match Point (2005)
Ridley Scott:
1.    The Duellists (1977)
2.    Blade Runner (1982)
3.    Kingdom of Heaven: Director’s Cut (2005)
Cary Grant and the Art of Screwball:
1.    Sylvia Scarlett (1935)
2.    Topper (1937)
3.    The Awful Truth (1937)
4.    Bringing Up Baby (1938)
5.    Holiday (1938)
6.    His Girl Friday (1940)
7.    The Philadelphia Story (1940)
8.    Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
9.    I Was a Male War Bride (1949)
Classic Swashbuckling and Adventure:
1.    The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)
2.    The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
3.    Gunga Din (1939)
4.    The Mark of Zorro (1940)
Roger Corman Poe series:
1.    House of Usher (1960)
2.    The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)
3.    The Premature Burial (1962)
4.    Tales of Terror (1962)
5.    The Raven (1963)
6.    The Haunted Palace (1963)
7.    The Masque of the Red Death (1964)
8.    The Tomb of Ligeia (1964)
Vincent Price:
1.    Witchfinder General (1967)
2.    The Abominable Doctor Phibes (1971)
3.    Doctor Phibes Rises Again (1972)
4.    Theatre of Blood (1973)
Bogart:
1.    They Drive By Night (1940)
2.    High Sierra (1941)
3.    The Maltese Falcon (1941)
4.    Casablanca (1942)
5.    To Have and Have Not (1944)
6.    The Big Sleep (1946)
7.    Dark Passage (1947)
8.    Key Largo (1948)
9.    The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
10.    In a Lonely Place (1950)
The Insanity of Monty Python:
1.    Monty Python and The Holy Grail (1975)
2.    Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979)
3.    Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (1983)
Arthur Penn:
1.    Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
2.    Night Moves (1975)
Fritz Lang:
1.    Metropolis (1927)
2.    M (1931)
3.    Fury (1936)
4.    The Big Heat (1953)
Chaplin:
1.    The Gold Rush (1925)
2.    The Circus (1928)
3.    City Lights (1931)
4.    Modern Times (1936)
5.    The Great Dictator (1940)
6.    Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
Buster Keaton:
1.    Sherlock Jr. (1924)
2.    The General (1926)
The 60’s in a nutshell:
1.    Our Man Flint (1965)
2.    The President’s Analyst (1967)
3.    Casino Royale (1967)
Nicholas Roeg:
1.    Don’t Look Now (1973)
2.    The Man Who fell to Earth (1975)
Capracorn:
1.    It Happened One Night (1934)
2.    Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
3.    It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
The Pink Panther:
1.    The Pink Panther (1963)
2.    A Shot in the Dark (1964)
3.    Return of the Pink Panther (1975)
4.    The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976)
5.    Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978)
NOIRFEST:
1.    Elevator to the Gallows (1957)
2.    Touchez Pas Au Grisbi (1954)
3.    The Maltese Falcon (1941)
4.    The Big Sleep (1946)
5.    In a Lonely Place (1950)
6.    Out of the Past (1946)
7.    Gun Crazy (1950)
8.    Detour (1945)
9.    Laura (1944)
10.    Gilda (1946)
11.    Double Indemnity (1944)
12.    Ace in the Hole (1951)
13.    Chinatown (1974)
Evolution of a Superhero: Batman:
1.    Batman: The Movie (1966)
2.    Batman (1989)
3.    Batman Returns (1992)
4.    Batman Forever (1995)
5.    Batman & Robin (1998)
6.    Batman Begins (2005)
Development of the modern action film in the 1980’s and its refinement in the 1990’s:
1.    To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)
2.    Lethal Weapon (1987)
3.    The Living Daylights (1987)
4.    Die Hard (1988)
5.    The Hunt for Red October (1990)
James Bond: The Ultimate Adventure Hero and Escapist Fantasy:
1.    Casino Royale (1954, CBS Television Adaptation)*
2.    Doctor No (1962)
3.    From Russia With Love (1963)
4.    Goldfinger (1964)
5.    Thunderball (1965)
6.    Casino Royale (1967)*
7.    You Only Live Twice (1967)
8.    On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
9.    Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
10.    Live and Let Die (1973)
11.    The Man With The Golden Gun (1974)
12.    The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
13.    Moonraker (1979)
14.    For Your Eyes Only (1981)
15.    Octopussy (1983)
16.    Never Say Never Again (1983)*
17.    A View To a Kill (1985)
18.    The Living Daylights (1987)
19.    Licence To Kill (1989)
20.    Goldeneye (1995)
21.    Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
22.    The World Is Not Enough (1999)
23.    Die Another Day (2002)
*Denotes unofficial entry.
Single Films:
Blade Runner (1982) (The 2007 Final Cut, with comparisons to four other archival versions.)
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Star Wars (Original 1977 theatrical Version compared to the first Special Edition from 1997.)
The Third Man (1949)
THX-1138 (1971) (original 1971 theatrical version.)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
8 ½ (1963)
The Conformist (1970)
Jackie Brown (1997)
Charade (1960)
Cat People (1942)
The Killers (1946)
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
The Ipcress File (1965)
Get Carter (1971)
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (1965)
Blazing Saddles (1974)
The Guns of Navarone (1961)
Superman animated serials by Max and Dave Fleischer (1941-1945)
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
The Fall of the House of Usher (1928)
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Being There (1979)
Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
The Most Dangerous Game (1932)
On the Waterfront (1954)
sex, lies, and videotape (1989)
Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
Clue (1985)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence (1962)
Anatomy of a Murder (1950)
Le Femme Nikita (1991)
The Last Picture Show (1971)
White Heat (1949)
The Long Good Friday (1980)
Special Events and Double Features:
-An Evening with John Woo, Saturday Sept. 11 2010: Hard Boiled (1992) and The Killer (1989)
-Halloween Horror FestEvil Night 1:
Original British Double Bill of Don’t Look Now (1973) and The Wicker Man (1973)
-Universal Classic Horrors Night 2:
Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (1932), The Invisible Man (1933), The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
-Duel (1971) and Jaws (1975)
STAR WARS:
-Star Wars (fan preserved original 1977 16mm print with since unheard original Dolby theatrical mono audio!)
-The Empire Strikes Back (fan made 30th Anniversary 1980 Theatrical Reconstruction)
-Return of The Jedi (fan preserved 1983 Theatrical Version with original Dolby Stereo track)
-A rare presentation of the 1997 Special Edition Trilogy in Dolby 5.1
- The Jerk (1976)/Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982)
- The Yakuza (1975)/The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973)

TheBoost said:

Warbler said:

TheBoost said:

Warbler said:

You think "Son of Frankenstein" is better than Frankenstein, Bride of, and Dracula?   *beats up Boost*

 Just not having Edward Van Sloan in it makes it better. 

Lugosi as Igor!? Basil Rathbone! One armed Lionel Atwil! 

 Lugosi as Dracula? The first two performances of Boris Karloff as the Monster?  The scene of the Monster with the blind man?  Colin Clive?  Elsa Lanchester?

Edward Van Sloan. 

He also sucks the life out of "The Mummy."

 NO!

His voice to me is one of the key ingredients of every October. I still hang on every syllable of his character expositions with baited breath just like I did as a child.Also, probably the only reason I got through Dracula's Daughter.

As far as the list, it's an impossible thing to merely nail down a cohesive list of titles to give people an all around glimpse of the medium. Everyone has their niche favorites, and many things will never be covered in the best-of's and textbooks in as good of detail as they should. Being a massive film historian, this was a huge challenge for me when I ran my own film society in college; in that I also tried to fill in all the huge gaps left by the pitiful classes.

Also, since this quickly became an American led medium it is always hard to pull back focus and examine many foreign features.

The best I can do is share the list of films I screened, lectured, discussed and programmed in college, otherwise I'd be here all day:

Wait...is that faint lead in noise of Yub Nub I hear?

Congrats on nearing the finish. I've been waiting to do my big Mouse dropping Trilogy night.

http://www.amazon.de/gp/aw/d/B00N29D6FW/ref=aw_wl_ov_dp_1_1?colid=16VXM69HS4ACL&coliid=I2PQ9C2AGYIQVP

Anybody know if his cheaper double version would be region free? It costs almost half the cost of the two separately.

I just purchased the wb set and hope to see what they may have corrected. Also realized the older Image disc is a straight port of their LD and has PCM. If anyone has this how does it sound compared to the Bosko? The big difference will come due to the wb having the master material with greater dynamic range but the Bosko already sounds very good for print transfer.

Lethal Weapon franchise:

1: a Classic, filled with great material and two truly wonderful lead performances. The only film to not dilute Shane Black's original script any and it remains a defining classic. I do think that the fake Director's Cut is better though, since all the extra bits with Riggs are absolutely essential.

4 balls out of 4.

2: A bit sillier due to Black leaving when his dark story was rejected and reshaped into more commercial product. While still good the film starts to sag and is held up by the Leo Getz character, in the first and last time he would be endearing and not annoying. this one gets even more cartoonish but at least maintains the necessary level of darkness.

4 balls out of 4, but the slo-mo in all the big moments ruin them entirely.

3: A tired old workhorse, but manages to pull it together here and there. This one feels uninspired and even lame in parts. The longer fake Director's cut features some better moments that should have been kept over others. It's not bad but very run of the mill and really feels just slapped together.

3 balls out of 4. Cop killers.

4: better and worse than 3. This was the only one I saw theatrically, and before I knew anything about LW. It's darker thankfulyl, has a great villain in Jet Li, but simultaneously ruins it by placing a huge focus on building families and Rigg's getting old. The film should have been called Riggs gets beat up for two hours.  Seriously. From 2 onwards they threw out Riggs being a Lethal Weapon and we see him not really be remarkable in any way. And the fact that Chris Rock stops the whole film to do a standup routine every time he appears does not help.

2.5 balls out of 4. Odd because I used to prefer 4 to 3.

The Last Boy Scout

A big, nasty, violent piece of work that ultimately falls short due to too many forces pulling in different ways. It's gorgeous to look at thanks to the late Tony Scott, and has enough dark humor-edged Shane Black-isms to make it work. Willis is at his best here in the movie that comes closest to the feel of the first two Die Hards. Reccomended, and the Blu-ray finally gives a great presentation of a classic Tony Scott looking film.

Dark, nasty and lowdown. That's why I kinda like it so much. 3.5 balls out of 4.

Hudson Hawk

Normally I give things a chance. Willis post Die Hard, made by the director and writer of Heathers, writer of Batman Returns and Die Hard? Originally mixed in CDS? With James Coburn? So I figured I'll give it a shot.

Holy crap. How wrong could I be? How brainless could anyone be to greenlight this travesty and to keep it going when obviously they made it up as they went along? Millions were blown in this unthinkable torrid mess that would understandably make people walk out. It doesn't make any sense, it doesn't want to, it keeps going and trying to top itself; it thinks itself so clever when it really isn't.

What it most resembles is a 60's Euro spoof attempting to make fun of something from Western culture that it ultimately doesn't quite understand. Add in a host of star actors and you basically have the 90's equivalent in HH.

Just an absolute mess from start to finish on the level of the worst of the worst. This makes the usual "worst ever" picks like Batman & Robin look GOOD. All sense is thrown out the window, along with proper edits and structure. Not only is it confusing and willy-nilly but it has no care whatsoever for the audience watching it.

No balls. Ultimately absolute trash. One of the big flops with good reason. Probably the worst film I have a copy of. Shamefully bad. It resembles the deformed love child of Casino Royale, Once a Thief, Die Hard, Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs.

...Wow!...can't wait for this...thanks so much for all the hard work over the years guys. I can't tell you how it feels years after rediscovering the film on the old Angrysun DVDR from the awful DVD.

I think it will remind me most of the first time I ever saw THX...late at night, sneaking up to watch on the graveyard TCM hour on a school night. Needless to say I wasn't thinking about school the next day!