Favorite Blu Ray.......With a Lousy Transfer (1 Viewer)

[montrealfilmguy]

North by northwest is by far my favorite Hitch.


And maybe its just me or my eyes have been blinded by the awesome razor sharp Vistavision Searchers one i bought

a few months ago,but it just seems to that NBNW is very soft looking (although one can never complain about Eva Marie-Saint looking all dreamylike.)


methinks its probably me and this is still the very best its ever looked.

 

[CraigF]

Originally Posted by Ethan Riley

Well I don't like the first two Harry Potter movies on blu

I'll up your two and say the first three...they're still selling them, still a waste of money IMO, the Oppo-upscaled DVDs on a 60" (at least) look just as good. But if you get a "first six" set at the right price, the first 3 BDs are essentially "free".

 

[Ethan Riley]

Originally Posted by CraigF

I'll up your two and say the first three...they're still selling them, still a waste of money IMO, the Oppo-upscaled DVDs on a 60" (at least) look just as good. But if you get a "first six" set at the right price, the first 3 BDs are essentially "free".

Well I wanted to know if the special editions used a completely different transfer. (They should--considering they cost about $40 each.) After the first two, I never even bothered to "upgrade" the third film to blu, because I pretty much knew what I would be getting myself into.

 

[FoxyMulder]

Originally Posted by Michael Reuben .


Thankfully, though, I didn't buy it.


Runners-up: Face-Off and Trading Places, but they don't really count, since I avoided the Blu discs, once I confirmed they were unchanged from the HD DVDs.

I have the German edition of Face/Off, looks pretty good, no major DNR, some fine film grain is intact and overall on a large screen it looks cinematic.


I also recommend the French edition of True Romance, some screencaps at my site which i won't publicize here, ooops already did.


For me some blu ray releases which are truly bad and i did own some of them ( rented others ) include Basic Instinct, Spartacus, Zulu, The Untouchables and Star Trek 6.

 

[Erik_H]

Another vote for "Out of Africa." A favorite film of mine that has the potential to look terrific on Blu-Ray---what a disappointment.

"Out of Africa" aired in HD recently on one of the HBO multiplex channels. I recorded it on my DVR and compared the HBO recording to the misbegotten Blu-Ray; the picture quality of the Blu-Ray was decisively (and embarrassingly) inferior.

 

[Martin Teller]

Do the Right Thing, with the color timing completely ruined.

 

[montrealfilmguy]

huh ? wait ! what ?


color timing is way off on do the right thing ?


this is interesting.would you care to elaborate ?

 

[Kevin EK]

He's referring to the difference between the Criterion laserdisc/DVD of Do The Right Thing, and the 2009 Blu-ray from Universal.


The Criterion transfer uses a warm orange filter, to emphasize the heat of "the hottest day of the year." And this transfer was done with the approval of Ernest Dickerson, the director of photography on the movie.


The 2009 Blu-ray does not use that filter, although the day still looks like a warm day. When I posted my review on it, there were several people who had serious issues with the lack of that filter. Comments were made that Spike Lee could not have approved this, that it had been ruined, etc. We researched it at the time, and were informed by Universal that Spike Lee and Ernest Dickerson had indeed seen and approved the transfer for the Blu-ray. Spike Lee provided a new commentary for the 20th Anniversary while watching the new transfer. At no time then or since did he make any comment about the filter or lack thereof. That's telling in itself, as he would not take kindly to someone ruining the look of his movie. If he or Dickerson had a problem, we would all have heard about it at some point during the last two years.

 

[Radioman970]

Last Starfighter. Everybody looks plastic except for the lizard dude, he looks good. In fact, the non-human parts of the film look fabulous. This film didn't need anything else to deter from its enjoyment since it's aged so much. Why'd they want plastic people in this?

 

[Kevin EK]

When I reviewed The Last Starfighter, I remember noting there were other reviews at the time talking about DNR, but I couldn't really see it on my 40". What I did notice was the obvious artificiality of the early CGI work - which really jumps out at the viewer on the Blu-ray transfer. You go from the softer and more pleasing Earthbound trailer park scenes to what looks like very crude computer animation with an extremely different look than the live action. As I said in the review, this isn't a reflection of the transfer so much as it is a reflection of the movie itself. That's always been one of my issues with the movie. The other thing is that the Blu-ray makes the rubber alien masks really, really obvious - which again knocks me out of the film almost as fast as the villain...

 

[Radioman970]

I have a 42" plasma. And I found the DNR on Last Starfighter so disappointing. My thought was I'd hopefully not expect so much next time and have more fun.

Oh, I agree about the rubber mask problem. Coming back to it, it now looks like a cheap parody of itself almost! Or we're just remembering it through younger eyes. Maybe they always looked like masks. hee!

Now, with the effects I was a huge HUGE fan of computer images at the time and all through the 80s. I loved reading about what they were doing with computer, including Commodore Amigas later in the 80s. I wanted to do that stuff but never did. Anyway, that helps me at least nostalgically enjoy what it is and somehow it still stands the test of time because of it, for me at least. Tron is exactly the same. I love Tron because of the dated look (haven't seen the reboot, but looking forward to it). Of course, with Tron the obvious move from real world to a cgi world enhances the story quite a bit. Not so with Last Starfighter unfortunately. They were going for realistic but so much does look pretty bad. A mix of cgi and sets/matte paintings/models would have been way better. Terrestrial effects were partially lacking, if I remember right.

 

[Charles Rees]

I agree. This Blu-ray let us down badly.

Alfred Hitchcock's "North by Northwest" was shot in VistaVision and should have looked extraordinarily magnificent (something like the Blu-ray of John Ford's VistaVision film "The Searchers"). This was expected. Instead this release actually looked soft - why make a Blu-ray at all, then? It was also - needlessly - sombre and dark (Cary Grant's tan became unattractive, which it never used to be). The transfer team obviously did not know what the film should look like. Why did they not get advice from people who remembered how it looked?


The lack of definition was extremely disappointing. The only reasonable explanation for this would be that the original VistaVision (approx. 70mm) elements were either lost or could not be used. Was that the case? With such a careless transfer one does not trust these people's judgement or approach (as one would, for example, those of the faithful transfer team of "The Ten Commandments" to Blu-ray - a labour of love).


"N.by N." was disappointing, evidently, because those responsible for its transfer neither loved nor respected the film.
Sloppiness, skimping or cutting of corners should not have been permitted with a film of this importance.

We continue to wait for a proper Blu-ray transfer of this VistaVision film. Like the absurd Blu-ray of Howard Hawks' "Rio Bravo" this effort should be ignored.

 

[benbess]

I thought NNW looked quite good. I guess you already know that Hitchcock used a lot of filters.


I think for Searchers they had protection elements that were not available for nnw.

 

[Matt Hough]

I also thought North by Northwest looked wonderful. It certainly exceeded my expectations.

 

[Vincent_P]

Originally Posted by Cinescott

Also, quite probably the worst transfer of a decent film I have ever seen: Leaving Las Vegas. A Best Buy exclusive that is a complete abomination. Awful contrast, bad color timing, washed out, grain galore. I could go on.

I haven't seen the Blu-ray of LEAVING LAS VEGAS, but the film was shot in Super-16, which could explain an abundance of grain.


Vincent

 

[Douglas R]

Originally Posted by montrealfilmguy

North by northwest is by far my favorite Hitch.


And maybe its just me or my eyes have been blinded by the awesome razor sharp Vistavision Searchers one i bought

a few months ago,but it just seems to that NBNW is very soft looking (although one can never complain about Eva Marie-Saint looking all dreamylike.)


methinks its probably me and this is still the very best its ever looked.

I agree....... I was puzzled by the unanimous approval this transfer had but it does indeed look soft to me as well. I saw the film at a 35mm showing and it was pin-sharp and brighter..


EDIT. Wrote this before seeing Charles' post above. Charles is spot-on with his comments.

 

[Mark-P]

I am one who falls on the side of feeling that North by Northwest is a great-looking Blu-ray. For any of you who are calling it soft, by any chance might you be referring to the soft-focus of Eva Marie Saint's closeups? If so, you do realize this was due to the "soft focus contracts" that many actresses had during this period of time? The poor cinematographers HAD to slightly throw off the focus for these actresses' closeups. How times have changed.

 

[benbess]

Originally Posted by Mark-P

I am one who falls on the side of feeling that North by Northwest is a great-looking Blu-ray. For any of you who are calling it soft, by any chance might you be referring to the soft-focus of Eva Marie Saint's closeups? If so, you do realize this was due to the "soft focus contracts" that many actresses had during this period of time? The poor cinematographers HAD to slightly throw off the focus for these actresses' closeups. How times have changed.

And Cary Grant insisted on it too. After all he was 50 something...

 

[Charles Smith]

Funny about North by Northwest. It's one film I always felt I retained a vivid memory of how sharp as a tack it could look when properly projected -- in particular, one night at the Vagabond Theater (repertory house in L.A.) back in the day. That memory, or what I've always believed it to be, has been my benchmark for that film since the '70s.

Another such vivid visual memory that I like to tell myself I've retained is how Lawrence of Arabia looked in 70mm at the Plitt in Century City.


Those filtered or soft-focus or thru-the-stocking shots (whatever technique they used) for the Eva and Cary close-ups were always apparent, but they never detracted from my sense of the overall sharpness and vividness of NxNW. Anyway, these comments are interesting. When the Blu-ray came out I didn't have the plasma that still thrills my very soul with every great disc I watch, so tonight I'm going to take it for a spin and see what I think.

 

[benbess]

Originally Posted by Chas in CT

Funny about North by Northwest. It's one film I always felt I retained a vivid memory of how sharp as a tack it could look when properly projected -- in particular, one night at the Vagabond Theater (repertory house in L.A.) back in the day. That memory, or what I've always believed it to be, has been my benchmark for that film since the '70s.

Another such vivid visual memory that I like to tell myself I've retained is how Lawrence of Arabia looked in 70mm at the Plitt in Century City.


Those filtered or soft-focus or thru-the-stocking shots (whatever technique they used) for the Eva and Cary close-ups were always apparent, but they never detracted from my sense of the overall sharpness and vividness of NxNW. Anyway, these comments are interesting. When the Blu-ray came out I didn't have the plasma that still thrills my very soul with every great disc I watch, so tonight I'm going to take it for a spin and see what I think.

It'd be good to hear your report. I never saw it in the theaters the way it should look, and so for me first seeing it on broadcast, then vhs, then dvd, and now blu-ray it's been a continual upgrade. On the blu-ray I think the scene in the hotel after the cropduster sequence shows off the patterns and texture of Eve's red (iirc) dress quite well, and with nice detail.