A few words about... ™ 12 Monkeys -- in HD-DVD

Re: A few words about... ™ 12 Monkeys -- in HD-DVD

I've never seen this before....

Re: A few words about... ™ 12 Monkeys -- in HD-DVD

Tim, it's definately worth checking out. And it's in HD, too, so...no brainer.

Re: A few words about... ™ 12 Monkeys -- in HD-DVD

Ditto. A very good film that has kind of disapeared off of the charts. It is good to see it as a release in HD.

Re: A few words about... ™ 12 Monkeys -- in HD-DVD

Oh man, another killer app.

Re: A few words about... ™ 12 Monkeys -- in HD-DVD

This is probably one of Gilliam's best works... the story is tight.

I hope they rectify the one problem the DVD had--the commentary ran longer than the movie, but the DVD cut it off.

- Steve

Re: A few words about... ™ 12 Monkeys -- in HD-DVD

love this movie.
gilliam was so good, what happened.
his last 3 just dissapointing.

havent seen the new one but its getting killed in the reviews ive seen.

Re: A few words about... ™ 12 Monkeys -- in HD-DVD

You all have sold me...

Re: A few words about... ™ 12 Monkeys -- in HD-DVD

The new SD DVD Special Edition fixed this problem the earlier Collector's Edition had. I would assume Universal used the new master to produce this HD DVD edition, so you shouldn't experience this problem.

Re: A few words about... ™ 12 Monkeys -- in HD-DVD

I have always been a bit stand-offish as far as Gilliam is concerned.

I absolutely loathe Brazil. It's a film that I just could
never get into, yet for most, it's one of the biggest cult classics
of all time.

On the other hand, I loved Baron Munchausen, mostly for
its superb cinematography.

As for 12 Monkeys, it remains my favorite Gilliam film that
stands right up there with The Fisher King. It is these two
films that are perhaps the Director's most mainstream fare. Anyone
that has never seen 12 Monkeys should consider this a
blind purchase.

Glad to see that Mr. Harris has put his stamp of approval on the
transfer.

Re: A few words about... ™ 12 Monkeys -- in HD-DVD

Does the HD release have the fantastic documentary as well?
Actually, my wife convinced me to sit down and watch this movie. After years of exposing her to good movies, she returned the favor.

Re: A few words about... ™ 12 Monkeys -- in HD-DVD

Just completed my pre-order thru Amazon.

Re: A few words about... ™ 12 Monkeys -- in HD-DVD

I love this film. I have an extra reason to buy, as one of my best friends has a bit role as one of the nurses who wrestles with Willis while he's in the psychiatric ward. That'll be a great way to demo HD DVD to my buddy.

Re: A few words about... ™ 12 Monkeys -- in HD-DVD

Oooooh, yeah.

Nothing else need be said.

Re: A few words about... ™ 12 Monkeys -- in HD-DVD

Robert,

it was widely reported that the last Universal SE release in SD-DVD of this movie had cropping problems and wrong color timing. Especially the dream sequences, that appeared lacking the proper effect filter. Can you´please comment on these issues? Is the HD-DVD properly framed and colored?

For reference:
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCom.../12monkeys.htm

Re: A few words about... ™ 12 Monkeys -- in HD-DVD

In the case of THE BROTHERS GRIMM at least, three words: The Brothers Weinstein

Vincent

Re: A few words about... ™ 12 Monkeys -- in HD-DVD

Already pre-ordered along with Out Of Sight. Funny that those were two of my first DVD purchases back in 1999.

Re: A few words about... ™ 12 Monkeys -- in HD-DVD

Love this movie. Hate my horrid SD DVD transfer (the original DVD). Looking forward to watching this in HD...

Re: A few words about... ™ 12 Monkeys -- in HD-DVD

My copy was shipped today according to amazon! Can't wait to see this...as I mentioned before, I've never seen 12 Monkeys. Looking forward to it.

Re: A few words about... ™ 12 Monkeys -- in HD-DVD

I skipped replacing my CE with the not-so-special SE 'cuz I knew this would be an early U HD DVD. After telling me "Short Wait" Monday and yesterday, I now note that Netflix is shipping it to me today.

". . . crazy as a loon,"
-p

Re: A few words about... ™ 12 Monkeys -- in HD-DVD

High Def Digest is not kind to this release.

Re: A few words about... ™ 12 Monkeys -- in HD-DVD

Yeah, I just saw that too Brett. Well mine just got delivered this morning so I'll post a mini review later.

Re: A few words about... ™ 12 Monkeys -- in HD-DVD

I love the diversity of opinions here. See, I love Brazil, Time Bandits and 12 Monkeys, could take or leave Baron Munchausen, and am not a fan of The Fisher King.

That being said, it's getting harder and harder all the time to resist upgrading to HD. I trust RAH's judgment on these titles; after all, he does have one of the best trained sets of eyes around here.

Re: A few words about... ™ 12 Monkeys -- in HD-DVD

Too bad the "Production notes" have been dropped.

Was moving through the "12 Monkeys Archives" similarly 'uncontrollable' on the SE? You seemingly can only start it and watch--no pausing or otherwise controlling the speed of advance from one image to the next.

Re: A few words about... ™ 12 Monkeys -- in HD-DVD

On this HD DVD, the first part of the movie is cropped until after the scene where Bruce Willis sits in a metal chair to go back into the past. Is this the way the actual film was made?

Re: A few words about... ™ 12 Monkeys -- in HD-DVD

I just finished watching 12 Monkeys on HD-DVD.

It was great seeing this film again for the first time in
10 years. I consider this film Gilliam's "masterpiece," and
it certainly has not lost any of its impact after all these years.

Just great watching this film again!

That being said, I totally have to agree with Peter Bracke's
assessment of the HD-DVD presentation in that it's really
subpar. I don't think this is a film that was made to be
shown off in HD. Picture quality varies tremendously from
scene to scene. In some spots you see that terrific film quality
that only HD can deliver. In other spots, the picture loses all
its sharpness, becoming noticeably soft. Mostly, there's a lot
of film grain to be seen throughout.

As Peter mentioned in his review, this transfer is certainly not
bad by any means -- but it certainly doesn't gain much in its
transformation to the high definition format.

Fortunately, the audio is the one thing that remains consistently
good here -- and it's always great to hear the old man's voice
channels calling to "Bob" from different corners of the room.

Re: A few words about... ™ 12 Monkeys -- in HD-DVD

I spun the SD through several segs that caught my eye as looking problematic on the HD. I originally agreed with Bracke's comment that the HD looks like SD at times but now recant.

I think that maybe Gilliam suffered from constraints of the $29M budget? There are shots that do look soft, but I think it's open to debate that it's because of the transfer as opposed to this higher rez medium simply better revealing what's on that original film stock.

The odd, purplish lighting that's on the right side of Bruce's face when he's leaning forward from the backseat of Railly's Jeep Cherokee enthusiastically asking her to turn up the radio . . . that's on the SD, too--we can just see it better now in HD. Some of the two shots of Bruce and Railly in the car that looked like such obvious matte shots on the HD, what with some haloing around Bruce's chrome dome: is that the transfer, or HD revealing dated vifx tech on a "lower" budget pic?

Granted I'm watching on "just" a 34" but every scene that I thought looked like SD on the HD was still sharper and more detailed upon direct comparison.

Re: A few words about... ™ 12 Monkeys -- in HD-DVD

I also loved this film, and while the HD release was far from a show piece, it was an enjoyable watch. I wonder if we are just expecting too much for many of the HD releases. Some movies just don't justify the cost and time involved in the preperation to produce a pristine copy. 12 Monkeys, while a very good film, is no The Searchers. While this is not an excuse for studios to deliver shoddy releases, Like DVD's, and for that matter, much the same for the LD releases, the average HD release will not be films you want to use to show off your theater.

Just a thought.

Re: A few words about... ? 12 Monkeys -- in HD-DVD

or could it be that not every film was concieved to look like The Searchers?

Are people expecting the first Superman movie to look all clean, sharp and 3D as the recent Thing, just because they were produced fairly close to each other (4 years apart)? Should Superman look as brilliant as Blazing Saddles?
I would have thought, especially here, that people would be more astute to realize that each film is using different film stock, different lighting styles, different lenses, and has elements that have been stored with varying degrees of care over the years...
I look at standard def versions of these movies, and no matter how good the disc, I still see instability, vibration, and ringing (not haloing or EE) around fine details and especially in details in background shots. I look at the HD DVD and these qualities are gone and the details are solid and consistent.

Y'know I expected many of the pans and criticisms I read with these titles to have been slung on the Bd side- there it would have been no surprise at all since they are trying to piggyback the format on the enthusiasm of gamers who (I would assume) generally have little in the way of cinema history appreication. I'm really disappointed to see that same ignorance taking root with this format.

no offense meant to anyone personally here-

Re: A few words about... ™ 12 Monkeys -- in HD-DVD

I couldn't agree with you more Scott. What people sometimes fail to recognize is that *any* home video presentation should attempt to, as closely as possible, reproduce the movie experience as it was intended by the filmmakers. With HD-DVD and Blu-ray the ability to do this is much better than it ever has been, BUT NOT ALL FILMS WILL LOOK THE SAME. More to the point, not all films will look like "The Searchers" or "Batman Begins" because they never were never meant to look that way. "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" is a perfect example of this. Many people criticized the HD-DVD when it was first released, saying that the transfer was "soft". The film was DESIGNED to look that way and the HD-DVD presented it wonderfully, but the complaints abounded.

Films are like paintings in many ways - each one is unique. All we can ask for is that they are reproduced as closely as possible to the original and as transparently as the available source elements allow.