PHE Press Release: Braveheart * Gladiator * Forrest Gump (Sapphire Series Blu-ray) - Page 7

Have you noticed the ratios of Blu-ray sales on action type movies to other types?

There is no point hijacking this thread over this - that is just my opinion. We'll see if i'm wrong when it comes out on Blu-ray.

I too think the Blu-ray demographics will tilt in favor of Braveheart and Gladiator - not to say Gump won't do pretty well as a catalog title.

Hopefully Forrest Gump is safe. The DVD looks pretty bad and they've never reissued it. I don't recall any other HD versions either (whether on TV or whatever). So hopefully Paramount will have created a HD master of the movie just for this release.

Perhaps one can also throw the fact that Gladiator is a Dreamworks title into the mix? Maybe Paramount could only use what they'd been given.

I was referring to the open matte version seen on TV. Original is maybe the wrong term here. I don't know which version was created when.

I wasn't challenging your opinion.  I was just trying to understand it.

I have never seen any sales information to indicate action movies outsell all other films on Blu-ray.  I'm always interested in that kind of thing...but find that it's rarely available.  Is there some easy place to get that info?

The numbers are available each week in Home Media Magazine.. (http://www.homemediamagazine.com/)

Here is the latest magazine..

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom151336DSC/index.php?startid=2#/12

Some examples of weekly charts showing the Blu-ray percentage of sales..

http://i27.tinypic.com/2eyl1g5.jpg
http://i25.tinypic.com/nxj7o.jpg
http://www.homemediamagazine.com/top-sellers/top-20-sellers-week-ended-81609

Darryl:

Very cool.  Thanks!

Just had a look at Gladiator and can confirm that in motion things are just as bad as the caps. The SE material picture looks great, the sound is great, the extras are great but the picture for bulk of the film is a big disappointment. This is a multiple Oscar winning favorite from a mere 9 years ago - released as a Sapphire Series title which touts "perfect picture" as a selling point on the back of the box. Not good enough by a long shot.

Does anyone actually watch these discs before they are shipped out?

At this point, I would much rather see titles not sell well due to poor transfers than sell well because they are catalog titles.  Remember, once a title is released, it is a while before it will be released again, if ever.  I would rather have waited another year or two for a first release of Gladiator than have to wait another 4 to 7 for a reissue and pray it does not use the same transfer as the first.

I might just pass on this one. Not going to reward them for them being lazy, cheap asses. Although I will wait and read the reviews from the various sites.

I do hope, that it is Robert Harris who will give us his "few words about" the Gladiator release.

Maybe they'll get the point if most people buy Braveheart, but not Gladiator.  They probably figured the same crowd that'd buy one would likely buy the other all else being equal.

I plan on getting Braveheart myself, but will definitely pass on Gladiator now -- it was never a fave anyway, but I would've considered getting it if the BD is actually a great all-around release.  If Forrest Gump is good, I'll get that.

_Man_

It's the same situation for me. I think both Braveheart (despite its many flaws and errors) and Forrest Gump are superior to Gladiator, but I would probably buy it if the release was any good. I do hope Gump is getting the treatment it deserves. Surely they can't get away with the master used for the dvd on that one (was that even in HD?)

But still, too bad about Gladiator. I would've loved to see the gas can in the tipping chariot in high def .

Canceled my preorder for Gladiator and will give it a rental before making a buy/no-buy decision.  I didn't have the other two titles pre-ordered as they weren't high up on my immediate "rewatch" list, but given that they receive favorable reviews I'll likely pick them up down the road.

I Can't believe Paramount started doing this to titles (this is under Dreamworks so maybe they had a hand in it) Since most Paramount titles like 3 Days of the Condor I think retains film grain and looks like a good HD transfer. I wish companies wouldn't spend more money making the images worse. I still don't understand that.

I've seen it mentioned several times that this may have been at least partly the responsibility of Universal (Dreamworks' partner on Gladiator), who's had almost the exact same issues show up on a number of catalog titles.

So Dreamworks co-owns the Star Trek movies as well? 

That's news to me, given the problems with DNR on those.

Um,no, that's not what I was trying to say. I was speaking mainly to the fact that Braveheart and Gladiator have roughly the same timeframe of release, but ended up with different PQ on Blu-ray, and that other people have stated that it's probable that the production companies could be involved. 

The Trek films are a whole other, unrelated can of worms, considering that each separate film is of differing quality, levels of DNR, etc.

This is only speculation of course, but I'm pretty sure that the issues with Gladiator are the exact opposite of what you're describing above. 

Apart from a half-ass attempt to cleanup print damage, which actually resulted in even less detail, little money was spent by the studio in order for Gladiator to make its way to Blu-ray Disc.  Again, it is just the opposite.  The studio's decision to use an outdated high-def encode of the film that's main purpose at the time of its inception was to create a DVD (hence the DNR and EE) has led us to where we are today. 

I didn't use quote but I was referring to the post you were responding to, since Powell said maybe Dreamworks has something to do with it since the image problems cropped up recently. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

For some reason, my Best Buy had the Braveheart discs on the shelves already. I noticed they had a $10 mail-in rebate for current owners of the Special Edition DVD. Maybe that'll take some of the sting out. ;-)

They're still doing the rebate? That's good. I paid around $16 for "Ghost" on BD, got the rebate which took about two or three months for them to send, making that upgrade from DVD to BD a hell of a bargain.

Me too. If anyone can speak to this issue it would be Mr. Harris.

NIIiice although I wish they'd make it so I don't need to cut up the BD cover for the proof of purchase UPC.

_Man_

anyone who has Braveheart, I noticed about 40 mins in right when Wallace starts beating up the guards to save his girl, I see at least 3 frame jumps, as if 1 or 2 frames are missing?

Since I haven't watched the movie in at least 10 years I can't remember if that has been there before.

Gibson intentionally removed frames during impact moments of the battles. He said as much during the commentary, at least on the old DVD release. Essentially, to give certain moments a jarring impact feel, he would remove the frame immediately following the hit and replace it with a duplicate of the frame before. So, what your seeing is frame 1, 2, 3, 3, 5, 6, 7, etc.

Those jumpcuts are also done during some weapon impacts. I thought those were needed to cut to the special effects prop attached to the actor/stuntman, as if they were cheating. I never knew they were intentional. 

Bill Hunt at Digital Bits has seen the discs, and his opinion is basically:

Braveheart: pretty much the perfect Blu-ray release in every way

Gladiator: First-rate audio and extras, but when compared to Braveheart, the video is even more of a disgrace than it already was, and hopes Paramount issues a fix.

Isn't it amazing that when people actually see the Gladiator disc, it confirms what was shown in the screen caps.

Very amazing...