The Taking Of Pelham 1-2-3, anamorphic? (1 Viewer)

[Jari K]

Thanks for that. I mean it would be a perfect opportunity to re-release this film (also in BD).. At least make it anamorphic this time.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

That would be unfortunate indeed, relegating the 1974 original to a mere extra just for the new remake. At this stage if this is turned out to be the only way I'd be able to get the '74 film in anamorphic, then I'd have little choice but to spring for the package. But I'd probably place the '74 disc in my old DVD case and discard the remake.

 

[Robert Crawford]

For those of you that have a Blu-ray player you might be interested to know that Best Buy has an exclusive with The Taking of Pelham One Two Three for a Blu-ray release on 05-29-11 which is today.

It's selling for 9.99 and I recently viewed a HD presentation of it on HD Net Movies so I'm thinking this BRD is derived from the same transfer.

As to a DVD release in Region One. I haven't heard a thing.







Crawdaddy

 

[ahollis]

Originally Posted by Robert Crawford

For those of you that have a Blu-ray player you might be interested to know that Best Buy has an exclusive with The Taking of Pelham One Two Three for a Blu-ray release on 05-29-11 which is today.

It's selling for 9.99 and I recently viewed a HD presentation of it on HD Net Movies so I'm thinking this BRD is derived from the same transfer.

As to a DVD release in Region One. I haven't heard a thing.







Crawdaddy

Checked the web site and local stores have it. After lunch this and MIDNIGHT COWBOY will be mine.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Wow...


That came out of nowhere.


Going to Best Buy today to buy Pelham and Midnight Cowboy.


Going to see if I can reserve it online.


Edit: No go. Midnight Cowboy is in stock at all area stores but none of them

have Taking of Pelham in stock. Damn! Will just wait till Amazon has these.

 

[Harry-N]

Thanks for the tip Robert and Ronald. Now that I have a Blu-Ray player, this will be a perfect upgrade. I've checked local availability and found one store not too far away that lists one, ordered it for pick-up and just got confirmation to go to the store.


Thanks again, guys!


Harry

 

[Robert Crawford]

Originally Posted by Ronald Epstein

Wow...


That came out of nowhere.


Going to Best Buy today to buy Pelham and Midnight Cowboy.


Going to see if I can reserve it online.


Edit: No go. Midnight Cowboy is in stock at all area stores but none of them

have Taking of Pelham in stock. Damn! Will just wait till Amazon has these.

Ron,


Keep checking everyday as they become in stock. I was able to buy five titles today from BB only The Firm isn't in stock yet.

 

[Harry-N]

I just finished watching the new Blu-Ray of THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE and thought I'd make a few comments here.


Video:

The whole movie looked darker to me than I'd remembered it from the last time I looked at the non-anamorphic DVD. The Blu-Ray image was clear as a bell for the most part, with noticeable grain in spots, but everything just seemed a shade too dark to me. Images were lost in dark shadows and corners. So I compared it to the DVD with a side-by-side feature on my Sony television. There's a definite difference in the brightness levels between the DVD and the BR. The DVD looked like a TV with the brightness setting too high, so that black areas had a grayish look to them. The Blu-Ray again looked like it was a shade too far the other way, losing some image in a black crush.


Color:
The Blu-Ray color balance looked natural to me. If you look on one of my earlier posts in this thread, you'll see a comparison of the DVD and the old LD transfer, and I discuss there the overly pinkish hues that were prevailing on the LD. That was toned down on the DVD, but compared to the BR, the DVD is still too pink-looking. In one scene, part of a wall of the subway car looked a natural greenish color on the Blu-Ray, where the DVD had washed that color out to a gray.


Audio:

It's mono all the way here with the main English track being a 2.0 dts track. There's also a Dolby Digital 2.0 French and another one in Spanish. The mono 2.0 dts track acted strangely on my audio receiver. Instead of pushing all of the audio to my center channel speaker, it fed the mono track to my two left-right channel speakers. With most Dolby Digital movies that are in 2.0 mono, the sound processor forces everything out to the center channel speaker. This one just seemed a little odd to me - not bad, just different from my usual. The audio track on the English 2.0 dts sounds clean, clear and crisp - quite good for a mid-70's audio track.

Lost in the upgrade is the old static menu on the DVD had David Shire's theme music in stereo. On the Blu-Ray, there IS no static menu at all. The movie plays after the legal notices without operator intervention. There is only a pop-up menu to get to the "Play", "Chapters", "Setup" and "Extras" sections. Upon finishing, the movie simply restarted rather than going to any kind of menu.


The disc's packaging has both MGM and 20th Century Fox logos. When you play the disc, you get a 20th Century Fox Home Video logo at the start, and on the film itself is a UA logo.


Overall I'm thrilled to have one of my favorite seemingly forgotten movies upgraded to the latest technologies, but I guess I'm just not used to seeing it so dark. Now, I know that subways are inherently dark places, but even the bright, sunny streets of New York look a little underdone here. I'll be interested to see what others come up with on their viewings.


Harry

 

[ahollis]

Originally Posted by Ronald Epstein

Wow...


That came out of nowhere.


Going to Best Buy today to buy Pelham and Midnight Cowboy.


Going to see if I can reserve it online.


Edit: No go. Midnight Cowboy is in stock at all area stores but none of them

have Taking of Pelham in stock. Damn! Will just wait till Amazon has these.

Hit BEST BUY around 2PM today and they had a side display with all the MGM Blu-ray exclusive titles. I had checked the racks first and did not find any of them. Then started checking the side displays and low and behold there they were. Picked up Midnight and Pelham. Very happy with Pelham and found the transfer much better than the non-anamorphic DVD. True it was dark in the subway tunnel, but the drabness in the offices and even the outside scenes give structure to the story. It's funny, if it was not for the make of the cars and no cell phones, then you could have a hard time placing the year the film takes place in. The trailer is included in Pelham and the DVD extras on Midnight Cowboy are also carried over on that title (Audio Commentary, Documentaries).

On a side note, the Blu-ray Pelham remake with Washington and Travolta was on also on sale for $9.99, so double check which one you pick up.

 

[Jay E]

Happy to finally trash my non-anamorphic Pelham DVD!

 

[cineMANIAC]

This is a title that deserves full-blown Special Edition treatment but I suppose it IS better than that old letterboxed DVD.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

So, for the heck of it, I went to Best Buy today, and

despite the fact it was indicated online that they did

not have these titles --- they did -- sort of.


The display was there at the side of the aisle. They

had Midnight Cowboy in stock. All the copies of

Pelham were gone.


That kind of pissed me off. I could have had both

these films over the weekend if the online stock

indication was correct.


Did not pick up Midnight Cowboy. I figured, I can

stop by tomorrow and see if both are in stock together.


How long is this sale going on?


Also, I have to thank Fox for putting the original

Pelham out on Blu-ray. For the life of me, I could

not figure out why they chose to release this obscure

title to Blu-ray so quickly....then I remembered...I had

many conversations with their team shortly after the

DVD release about the lack of anamorphic in the release.

I had urged them to do another re-release as soon as

they could. Kind of sounds like they kept that suggestion

in the back of their mind. Thank You.

 

[ahollis]

Originally Posted by Ronald Epstein

So, for the heck of it, I went to Best Buy today, and

despite the fact it was indicated online that they did

not have these titles --- they did -- sort of.


The display was there at the side of the aisle. They

had Midnight Cowboy in stock. All the copies of

Pelham were gone.


That kind of pissed me off. I could have had both

these films over the weekend if the online stock

indication was correct.


Did not pick up Midnight Cowboy. I figured, I can

stop by tomorrow and see if both are in stock together.


How long is this sale going on?


Also, I have to thank Fox for putting the original

Pelham out on Blu-ray. For the life of me, I could

not figure out why they chose to release this obscure

title to Blu-ray so quickly....then I remembered...I had

many conversations with their team shortly after the

DVD release about the lack of anamorphic in the release.

I had urged them to do another re-release as soon as

they could. Kind of sounds like they kept that suggestion

in the back of their mind. Thank You.

Thank you for suggesting it to them. They should send you a copy for if Best Buy was out of the title, then this is one good seller. Sorry it is so elusive to you.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Ronbo,


This should be the sale price at least until Saturday.







Crawdaddy

 

[David Com]

Had a similar experience with Best Buy and their online stock counts on Sunday. Really wanted "Pelham," so I showed up at the local store twenty minutes after opening and they were all sold out. There are about ten stores in my area that are easily reachable by car, so I used my phone to check availability. According to the Best Buy site, they were sold out everywhere. Decided to go to the second closest store anyway, walked in, and there was one last copy of "Pelham" sitting on the rack. It made my day, and reinforced the idea that all of this modern day technology still ain't perfect!

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Hope the stores continue to get more stock on these

by week's end and that this wasn't based on availability

through sellout.


Really surprised PELHAM is selling so well -- even over

MIDNIGHT COWBOY (if that is the case). As much as

we all love PELHAM, I never considered it an immense

classic.

 

[ahollis]

Originally Posted by Ronald Epstein

Hope the stores continue to get more stock on these

by week's end and that this wasn't based on availability

through sellout.


Really surprised PELHAM is selling so well -- even over

MIDNIGHT COWBOY (if that is the case). As much as

we all love PELHAM, I never considered it an immense

classic.

I think that it might be DVD was non-anamorphic vs. the anamorphic Blu-ray. And, while I found nothing wrong with Midnight Cowboy transfer, there are some that do not share my thoughts, for the last DVD release of the title was pretty good and the Blu-ray does not offer anything new except, for me, a better transfer. While the price is right, these are the only two that I picked up for they have other meanings for me. Midnight Cowboy because I sneaked in to see under age, it was a lot harder to do back in those single screen days. And Pelham because it is such a damn good New York movie. With Hair coming out later this summer, MGM does seem to be taking care of those non-anamorphic transfers from he past. Keep them coming.

 

[Harry-N]

Since I used the online-purchase/pick-up-in-store option, I never really noticed any display of these in the store I went to. I DID glance in the regular A-Z section, but there weren't any Pelham movies of either iteration.


Happy to have this - and thanks for resurrecting the old thread with the news. Otherwise, I never would have known.


Harry

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Lessons Learned


1. Don't ever rely on Best Buy's online stock indication

2. The FIRST time you go to the store and don't see something on the shelf....ask!

3. The SECOND time you go to the store and actually ask for an out-of-stock Blu-ray, check the entire inventory first.



I go to the same Best Buy store, second day in a

row, and no Pelham in the rack (Midnight Cowboy was there)


By chance, I ask the salesman to check inventory, and

lo' and behold there are 3 Pelham copies in the store.


...and you know where they were? In the general population rack.


So, today I walked out with Pelham and Midnight Cowboy.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Good for you, Ronbo.









Crawdaddy