ITV (UK) Blu-ray-titles coming (e.g. "The Boys from Brazil", "Great Expectations") (1 Viewer)

[Jari K]

DVD Times - ITV Blu-ray in June

"Exact features are TBC, though we expect bonus features to match the existing DVD releases. We can also confirm the discs will not be region coded.

The titles are: Black Narcissus, The Boys from Brazil, Bugsy Malone, Escape to Athena, Great Expectations and Strictly Ballroom."

 

[Paul_Scott]

Just last week I ebayed my Criterion Black Narcissus in anticipation of the ITV release. While the extras were great and will be missed, the actual pic quality of that release left something to be desired.

Of the others, given its cast and the heist style plot, Escape to Athena is a movie I've always wanted to see, but have never been able to find. I remember looking at the one sheet in the lobby as a kid and then for the longest time getting this and Force 10 From Navarone confused as both posters had chaotic action imagery with WWII elements, and an 'all-star' cast lead by a dominating character actor (Shaw/Savalas), a hero lead I liked (Ford/Moore) and some Euro support I didn't know. If I was a little more flush right now I'd love to order this blind. I got the ITV release of The Eagle Has Landed a couple weeks back and was happy with the quality- so I expect solid releases, tho probably bare bones, here.

 

[Rachael B]

I have The Eagle Has Landed and Capricorn One from ITC and they look pretty good but neither have extras. That's what you should expect from them, minimal or no extras.

 

[Danny_N]

Coming up from ITV:

On Sept 15 the classic Thunderbirds tv series
On Nov 10, The Ipcress File

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Or extras in PAL, according to DVD Beaver.

 

[DeeF]

I received Black Narcissus and Great Expectations BDs today from Amazon UK.

With my new 60" Kuro plasma, I must admit, I have never been so thrilled with a couple of movies in my life.

They're movie masterpieces, of course, but I feel like I've never seen them before (I've seen both many times before).

 

[dannyboy104]

Regarding ITV Blu-Ray UK titles, we have just had the screening on the UK channel 4 HD of "The Battle Of The River Plate"1956 (US 'Pursuit Of The Graf Spee') . Shot in a VistaVision , my initial thoughts were that it really looked splendid, with beautifully saturated colours, nice and sharp,with a very film like image with a small amount of grain present.
There was the occasional appearance of damage in the print, but overall it was in great shape.The Aspect ratio appeared to be approx 1:85:1, with a very good quality soundtrack in mono.(I will double check this as it was listed in the tv epg as Stereo)
The film is owned by Granada Ventures who are part of the ITV group. They have already released some well received classic films on Blu-Ray. I'm sure I'm not the only film fan thats looking forward to its eventual release on the home HD format.

 

[Rachael B]

If Battle Of The River Plate becomes available on BD, I'm so there.

 

[Edward Weinman]

...I don't know where to post this but...I hope the powers that be give us "The Best Years Of Our Lives" in blu-ray...I just saw part of it on Turner Classic Movies...what a remarkable work of art!...(now back to our regularly scheduled program...)

 

[Danny_N]

ITV will release David Lean's Brief Encounter on BD on Feb 9.

 

[Jeff_HR]

I have "The Eagle Has Landed" and "Capricorn One" & "The Boys from Brazil" on BD. I bought them all fron Xploited Cinema.

Another SD DVD to replace. I'm looking forward to this love story being available on BD.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Anyone purchase Boys From Brazil and care to comment
on the image quality?

Also, as a resident of the US, where is the best place to order this
title?

Finally, and I am sure this has been covered before, are there any
PAL speedup issues on BD as there were with DVD?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Paul_Scott]

the most economical place to order these is probably Amazon UK. The exchange rate is still in our favor and it usually only take about 10 days to get anything for me. I'm in NYS.
Xploitedcinema.com may still have these- they're much faster but they might be quite a bit more.
Boys From Brazil is supposed to be a real winner. Someone on AVS with a highly regarded fp set-up was very impressed with it. Black Narcissus is sensational. Eagle Has Landed looks great too. I just watched The new sd dvd of Capricorn One and I'm now wishing I had got the Bd instead (I was on the fence, but ended up getting it cheap in the DD sale). The dvd is fairly competent as far as sd goes, but I really want to see the climactic aerial chase in HD now.
No Pal speed up issues on any of the ITV discs I've seen so far (and none that I've heard of on the rest).

 

[Jeff_HR]

I thought that "The Boys from Brazil" had a very nice PQ on BD. But my opinion about PQ, I'm pretty sure, doesn't rank on the same planet with some of the other people on this Forum. In any case I liked it a lot better than my SD DVD.

I've purchased a good number of titles from Xploitedcinema.com as a way to support a kind of local merchant (The Cleveland area being "Local" to the Toledo area) I'm sure I could have found them cheaper somewhere else. Indeed they are FAST!!! I've never had less than great customer service from them be it with Blu-Ray, HD or SD DVDs. Unfortunately they are going out of business in the near future.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Thanks for the information, gents.

Xploitedcinema no longer had Boys from Brazil listed, but for $20 I got
it ordered and shipped from Amazon UK. Not a bad price.

 

[Jeff_HR]

I just this minute checked & Xploited's site lists it in stock.

THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL [BLU-RAY]

In any case enjoy the film.

 

[Brent Avery]

I am still looking into getting a copy of The Ipcress File but did order Escape From Athena, which apparently looks great on Blu ray but may not be everyone's cup of tea. It is listed on the ITV site. But heck, any WW2 flick with Roger Moore and Telly Savalas can't be all that bad, right? If anything, the scenery of parts of Greece are great and there is a well done motorcycle chase. So I'm a sucker for films such as this. Entertaining enough - how about Sonny Bono as an Italian soldier? I already have Capricorn One and The Eagle Has Landed - as well as Zulu. Keep them coming!

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Don't know how I missed that title on the Xploit site. I went to
Blu-ray titles and punched Boys From Brazil in the SEARCH
box. Now if it missed the title due to the omission of THE then
it deserves to be missed because I found it cheaper on Amazon UK.

Thanks so much for the help. Very excited to be getting this on BD.

 

[Cees Alons]

Amazon/UK is pretty inexpensive, because (1) the moment the site "knows" it is going to ship outside the EU, it deducts the VAT amount, (2) most prices are fairly competitive anyway already.

Make sure you order two or three titles you really want together, because the shipment starts with a "per order" amount (roughly $2.95, I believe) on international shipments.

PAL/NTSC is no longer applicable to Blu-ray, so anything like a PAL speed-up cannot be there.

The only problem might be the region coding. Many BDs aren't region-coded (e.g. until now all Warner's), but some are (beware for Columbia/TriStar = Sony in this respect; I'm not sure about Fox, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did it all the time).

In the US you need Region 0 (= region-less) or Region A (or else a Region-B player, if possible a single "modified" player).


(In Europe, region-free players are already starting to show up.)


Cees

 

[willyTass]

Boys from Brazil looks fantastic Ron