This is unnecessary. It's a bad EU cycle prequel style. But made for TV.
Soon to be on the Sci-fi channel! In the 3AM Wednesday time slot!
Bingowings said:
Meanwhile, It would be interesting to see if the original cuts are presented along side any restored cuts made available.
Fantastic news on the hammer front. Thank goodness this is actually happening now that the missing bits from Dracula have been found.
You know, I don't think George really hates anybody. He just doesn't want to do the big blockbusters or run the company anymore and I wish the guy all the best. Yeah, we'll probably never see the OOT officially restored the way it should be but so is life. (Not that we'll let that stop us. ;) I didn't ever want to see any more LFL stuff personally so I'm totally fine with this news.
But I do find it sad that people just give up. I mean, if George actually does those little art films that's one thing. (And something I'd really like to see to be honest. Even if it's just a litmus test.) But just going "hey, I'm done-and screw the haters" is something else.
Mielr said:
I'm actually looking forward to Mark Hamill's new film, more than this one* (*meaning, I'm actually not looking forward to this one at all). ;-)
I hope at least Hamill's film gets a theatrical release and doesn't go straight-to-
video. :-/
http://www.sushigirlmovie.com/
I don't care anything about Red Tails, but what the heck is that? It looks weird in a bad sort of modern low budget sorta way, but Mark looks like he gets to ham it up so I'm in. (and that hair?) Plus the trailer has one of the best songs ever so...it can't that bad can it?
Die Hard-what makes this movie are the little moments...the human elements...and that crazy look that comes across Bruce Willis's face when he goes bug eyed covered in blood. But it suffers too much from the 80's action syndrome for me to enjoy it as much as others. 3.5 balls out of 4.
Die Harder-I think I might actually prefer this one to the first film. Yes it's silly, but a good silly-over the top craziness and rehashing enough to feel like the same universe. Kinda Temple of Doom esque in this regard. 3.5 balls out of 4.
Die Hard With a Vengeance AKA: Die Hard with a Hangover-tired, uninspired, lacking, and obviously the abandoned Lethal Weapon 4. It's as if everyone lost interest 5 minutes in. There is no immediacy, no inspiration, no worth, no great action sequence and some of the worst CGI ever. (Water in the tunnels) It just is so uninspired that you never want to watch the thing again. And that's even with Jeremy Irons as another Gruber which is merely an afterthought. Thank god the new transfer is okay, because the DVD was just about the worst I've ever seen. 2.5 balls out of 4.
Live Free or Die Hard-It played okay the first time around, but doesn't hold up on repeated viewings. As a spectacle it works, but once again there's no immediacy and the whole idea of playing McClane against the modern world gets old rather quickly and actually downplays the hero's strengths a bit too much. Still it's not bad, but when you think about it-it still doesn't really feel like Die Hard. Either PG-13 or Unrated cut. 2.5 balls out of 4.
And the 5th one is going to be set in Russia. With McClane's son. What the heck? Haven't they realized yet that John McClane works better without a sidekick? That way we get the wonderful McClane-isms and self-depreciating commentary!
Just watched the Connery Collection version of Thunderball and it looked near identical to the 89 disc. Same mono mix with Thunderball closing theme. I'd be hard pressed to note much of a difference in image, although I really noticed some reoccurring vertical print/negative damage (thin black lines). There was less video noise, so everything looked more detailed I guess but this boxset was a bit banged up and I have to watch LD on an old 19"CRT so picking out minute detail isn't the easiest thing to do.
hairy_hen said:
Out of all the Bond films, I think GoldenEye has the most satisfying mix on an artistic level. True, they did use a lot of sound effects from older recording libraries, so it can be a bit low-fi at times, and its LFE is kind of boomy and one-note, but I love the way it sounds anyway. It's just so well put together—the surrounds integrate very well, dynamics are impressive, and you've gotta love the way the bass just dominates and gets in your face in some places. I highly recommend watching a version that pre-dates the Ultimate Editions, because even though the remixed track cleans up some distortion, its bass response is so much lower than the original most of the time that it can't compare.
I just watched my new THX LD and listened to the Dolby Surround PCM.
Holy crap. My subwoofer has never gotten that much of a good workout. The Surround was so well done that I thought I was listening to 5.1. Deep, balanced, warm, and I just wanted it to go on forever.
The UE DTS can never compare to this.
Is it in HD? I don't have Netflix, but see if it looks like this: SE image with red border showing the UE cropping. This is the easiest shot to check.
It was the Gritty New York you always hear about, the one we all still have in our heads when we think of NY, the one that felt like a living organism filled with grime. Now it's sparkly.
Just like Marty's films today. He needs that inspiration back, but without the coke.
And no, I've never actually been to NY. ;)
Never Say Never Again
How bad can a movie be? How many times can you wince, groan, look away and ask WHY!?! AND why have I seen this crap over 10 times? Ugh.
Connery is great. As always. He sparkles. He shines. If you dropped everything else it's a good Bond performance because Connery gets his wish to play the character differently. It's an older Bond.
The villain is brilliantly played but allowed to do nothing and serves no real purpose other than to advance the plot. So this negates the great performance.
The score is awful 1983 lounge music. There is a great little 20 sec. motif that is repeated several times, but of course like everything else in this movie is never developed.
Rowan Atkinson is needlessly thrown in.
Felix Leiter is here, but serves no purpose.
The Fatima Blush character provides the only real zest to the film and after she goes all energy is lost. This is just like Fiona Volpe's demise but in Fatima's case, her sheer over the top factor and annoying delivery become grating and you can't wait for her to be offed. And she just seems so unrealistic that there is no real danger to Bond. Miles away from Fiona's cold and intelligent dispatching of her prey. Even the one-note Helga Brandt plays better today.
WHAT? YOU CAST MAX VON SYDOW AS BLOFELD ONLY TO HAVE HIM DO NOTHING?!?
The Q scene is funny, but short.
M is a complete irritating buffoon. Played by The Jackal. Ugh.
The title song is beyond awful.
The action is lame.
The look is all wrong, but the cinematography is great. They chose Douglas Slocombe so there's always this feeling of Indiana Jones throughout.
The sound leaves much to be desired.
The changes made to be more contemporary are severely dated, leaving this 1983 film more heavily dated than the 1965 original!
KIM BASINGER IS ATROCIOUS!
None of this is Kersh's fault. Or the screenwriters. It was a rushed production full of troubles, one that should have never started principal photography before nailing down that script or deciding just what they wanted to do.
It's a mess because Jack Schwartzman went ahead without a stable foundation.
I finally figured out what would have made this a great movie:
Sean Connery as James Bond 007 in Longitude 78 West.
Directed by Sidney Lumet.
Just as long as they haven't been tinkered with! And lossless mono not 5.1!
The 04 and 99 should share the same video transfer. All of the Legacy Collections re-used the original DVD transfers save for Bride of Frankenstein.
I'm going to grab the 1080i and check it out.
As far as a silent version goes, that's pretty much lost just as the original ending is. I have always wanted Universal to give these films the restoration they deserve, and hopefully that tag ending will finally resurface.
The silent version is much like the original green tinted Frankenstein-lost to the ages.
The TB set does indeed have a dropout on the right rear surround channel. It does not have this when played back in regular stereo. The rear right goes silent for a second and then comes back in.
You don't by any chance have other audio issues with this set do you? The end of every side goes bad on the sound for me.
I've never seen the LD, but it was always analog audio only even on the restored Encore editions. I'd say since you've got it it should be compared to the 99 to see the differences. It might even be good enough to be made into a lossless soundtrack.
The 06 audio is bad but in slightly different ways than the 04 audio was. It's processed slightly but highly degraded.
I haven't seen the HD version (still need to) so I can't really tell if it's the 06 or not. Judging form the caps I think it is and so I would believe it has the same audio.
Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy
The moore I watch these three, the moore I find John Glen's initial Bonds to be rather flat. In fact, Moonraker has gotten better to me over the years despite it's terrible reputation and the double taking pigeon. And I like my Bond serious. It's the last of the "grand" Bonds and has some of that imaginative spark that Harry Saltzman brought to the early films. FYEO in "going back to basics" leaves out too much and in turn when really examining its structure one finds little to make it really stand out. But it was perfect for the time of 1981. Octopussy is really just Raiders of the Lost 007. Probably my least favorite Moore film, but it still has a part of a great plot, some memorable set pieces and you can never say no to a mad psychotic soviet general can you? It runs entirely on charm. Which is certainly more than Never Say Never Again or any Bond post 1987 can say.
The problem is really in the writing. Too little of Fleming (yes, even FYEO because in spite of having bits of the short stories there is little for Kristatos and Columbo to do.), too little of Richard Maibaum. Too much of Michael G. Wilson and playing it safe. Glen can direct a Bond well, because he knows how they cut like Peter Hunt did. He proved this with The Living Daylights.
Ditto on Superman. The 5.1 just doesn't feel quite right. Added to my ever growing lddb wish list.
Going back from LD to DVD takes some adjustment. I just finished the UE of Octopussy and the original Dolby Surround included is very hissy and lacks that low end punch.
Harmy said:
Whoa. This looks really impressive. Much less on the dreaded pink tint, black levels look better and more frame information! Harmy are you still PM'ing the wp?
I believe they did put those back in (crummy Dolby 2.0 @ 192 kbp/s) from reviews I've read. Still not PCM though.
http://monsterkidclassichorrorforum.yuku.com/topic/40203/DRACULA-Restored#.TuOZp1bdKPQ
This might interest you.
This is a topic I got heavily into back in October. Most of the other Uni horrors don't have any DVD issues (aside from low bitrates etc.) but Dracula has issues on every edition.
The 99 disc and 04 Legacy collection are almost the same, but the 04 audio is heavily processed and has a great deal of noise reduction applied. It is also missing the death screams at the end. The 99 disc is only missing a small amount of music from the end of the ballet scene.
The 06 Legacy DVD is artificially brightened, sharpened and does not look like the original film. The audio is processed but complete.
I personally watch the 99 disc, and have the LD on my wishlist (even though it lacks a PCM track).
I've thought about doing a version, but as TAF pointed out there are some unofficial and official 1080i and HD versions of the films floating around. It seems Universal did HD masters some time ago and are just sitting on them for a Blu-ray release. I've only seen a bit of the HD Frankenstein but according to others it looks like many if not all of the previous issues have been fixed.
And Bride of Frankenstein was just restored!!! Maybe we can finally see these on Blu! Still holding out for an ultimate Criterion boxset though.
FanFiltration said:
Tobar said:
Er but wait which version did you see? I hope it was the director's cut. Apparently the studio really screwed up the theatrical version.
Melancholia (2011)
Went and saw this tonight. Coincidentally Kiefer Sutherland also has a role in this. I saw the trailer for it last week and it looked interesting. It uh....was very artful but not much else. I spent most of the movie wanting to slap Kirsten Dunst. All I can really say about it is that it tastes like ashes.
It was the Director's Cut of "Dark City" that I saw. Now I am kind of interested in seeing the original for comparison. Knowing that it was made before "The Matrix" helped me disregard the similarities.
The differences are very subtle for the most part. The Theatrical is a few minutes shorter, and has a short opening narration by Sutherland that explains a bit too much. Overall, this is one of those Director's Cuts that improves everything without harming the original intent.
I have to admit, I'm getting to where I prefer the PCM Dolby Surround downmixes on LD rather than the 5.1 lossy DVD.
HH, I think you're right on Goldeneye being the most artistic surround mix of the Bonds. I think Tomorrow Never Dies is the best actual mix (and boy does that get loud!!!) but Goldeneye is more playful. (something to do with the score maybe?) I do need to get another version because every time I pop in the UE even in stereo it doesn't have the low end I'm used to. Even the DTS track.
Certainly Apocalypse. FF, if you have the original 93 Letterbox LD try the PCM stereo track. It's as close as we're ever going to get to the original theatrical 4.1 surround, and the dynamic range is unbelievable! Walter Murch put the whole soundtrack through Dolby ProLogic processing to get on the LD and there was no other processing done. I have the 5.1 LD as well, and that PCM doesn't sound as immersive.
Good suggestions on Pixar films. They always do have a good sound mix don't they? Toy Story 3 was the first theatrical Dolby 7.1 release. (If you could find an equipped theater that is.)
I'm still watching everything in SD, and my receiver is about 10 years old so no Dolby EX and other goodies. I think the best sounding thing I own besides LD PCM is my DTS LD of The Shadow. I keep returning to it, because it just sounded so clean and balanced. It hearkens back to my childhood when theaters were in the midst of the DTS/Dolby codec war. Back then the mixers were always trying to top the other company and some serious $$ was spent on sound systems. Now it doesn't matter. What happened to being able to go to a preferred location to get a THX certified theater showing a movie in DTS and then get that loud DTS logo?
Yep. Exactly the same cropping even in the titles. I wish I could remember the theatrical presentation, but I was a wee lad of 5.
I noticed the UEs that lack original audio are because of disk space. When a third commentary was added they jettisoned the theatrical track. (LALD, TSWLM, FYEO)
Want! I want to shoot with it!
Bit of inflation though.
I just patched in my surrounds and have been testing out my new 5.1 configuration.
Anybody have a good recommendation of a DVD or LD with a good surround mix?
Also, what's the best surround track you've ever heard, home or theater?
The HDTV Goldeneye has print marks that aren't on the UE and more grain but still has the tight framing.
You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Diamonds Are Forever, Live and Let Die, The Man With The Golden Gun, The Spy Who Loved Me
I finally got to watch Spy in Pro Logic Dolby Surround from my LD. Very little surround usage but it was nice to hear the film track as intended and not remixed in a tinny little 5.1.
