VOTE: Worst Catalog Release 2011 (Blu-ray)  

"My Fair Lady" hands down - a 70MM film which has been painstakingly restored and looks incredible when projected in 70MM on a movie screen - is unwatchable on blu-ray. I've seen the film projected in 70 about half a dozen times over the last 17 years and it truly is a work of art.

 

The blu-ray needs a new master off the 70MM elements. The Blu-ray has fading at the sides of the image and it looks like "the movie theater lobby doors are open and the lobby light pours in lighting up the sides of the screen".

 

We watch Blu-ray for the image - otherwise why upgrade? If the image is pour the film looks terrible and there is no reason to buy this Blu-ray - and this is one of a few truly classic titles that will sell along the lines of "The Wizard of Oz" and "The Sound of Music" (which both, by the way, look incredible on Blu-ray)

 

"My Fair Lady" is definitely the worst release on blu-ray of 2011 (even 2010)

 

The others:

 

"Star Wars" looked fine to me, the problems are less with the transfer than with George Lucas's constant tampering with the film

 

"West Side Story" looks great for the most part - the opening glitch in the overture can be corrected - but the transfer is very good otherwise, much closer to the recent 70MM screenings show around LA in the last 4 years. This one was just a sloppy release

 

"The Greatest Story Ever Told" looks like a DVD. There is nothing to recommend about the disc - the film relies on it's image (Shot in 65MM) and without a beautiful transfer the film's a total bore. MGM slapped a 12 year old DVD transfer onto the blu-ray disc and it shows. How this one was allowed on store shelves reeks of office politics and not quality control - in short the consumer loses.

 

 

Considering three of these films were shot in the superior 70MM film process and they are among the top five worst releases this year says a lot about Hollywood's standards for the blu-ray format and their estimation of the buying public's intelligence

My Fair Lady, for all the reasons cited above.  There's no excuse for having used the incorrect elements.  When you factor in the importance and popularity of the film itself, and the historical importance of the restoration, you have a winner.

 

 

"Considering three of these films were shot in the superior 70MM film process and they are among the top five worst releases this year says a lot about Hollywood's standards for the blu-ray format and their estimation of the buying public's intelligence"

 

Well said.

 

Overall, considering its importance of the title and the poor results in the Blu-ray, MFL gets my vote.

1. SW is afflicted by damaging content changes. Given these changes, however, the Blu-ray looks and sounds fine, just what I would have expected. Since I saw the movie in 70mm on opening night (Stanley-Warner Theatre in Paramus, NJ, one of the few 70mm launch presentations), I have my own memories of what it should be and am hopeful that I will see it eventually. The copyright owner should respect his audience more than we are seeing.
2. As a Blu-ray quite specifically, The Greatest Story Ever Told is even worse than MFL, a very bad effort indeed. I saw this in original Cinerama 70 presentations and know that it can look good. However, not a great film in any case so the the overall damages to the art of the cinema do not begin to compare to MFL.
3. West Side Story looks like a great try at doing justice to the title with a few issues. Seeing as how the title fade has been fixed by the studio, I have to say that I am fairly pleased overall. Some of the artifacts that people are complaining about (e.g., the shimmering on the chain-link fence) appear to be optical issues that may have been in the original film. I am not sure how I come down on the issue of which soundtrack is better since I saw the film in 70mm during its original release in a roadshow house with wonderful sound and neither sound track seems quite perfect but both are good. I had to make some adjustments to my projector (primarily reducing the contrast) but after doing so, many scenes look fantastic! In any case, I would say that WSS should not be included in the "worst" list by any means at all.
4. Not sure why folks are complaining about Lebowski. The original was never too great looking and the Blu-ray seems plausible. This may be one of the cases where Universal should get a pass. Out of Africa (also a 2011 Blu-ray release from Universal) is much more hideous looking and also a more important film (IMHO); Out of Africa is actually worse than Spartacus, which had set the low-water-mark for a poor Blu-ray of a classic title.
Edited by rsmithjr - 1/2/12 at 11:42am

My Fair Lady.

I was SO excited for one of my favourite films to come to Blu, but ultimately passed on it because of the poor reviews. What would we do without the HTF?

My Fair Lady with TGSET a close second, both should look fantastic, then why dont they?

My Fair Lady is a travesty.

Star Wars was a very good dvd; and now they upconverted it to blu. Big deal. Ditto for My Fair Lady.

I think the only message I really want to send the studios is that we are not interested in old movies being ported over from previous formats. Blu is potentially the best you can get, and they have to put some more work and money into them; not just re-use old materials that were intended for old formats.