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A PEEK AT THE BLOB (1 Viewer)

haineshisway

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Well, well, well. Last night I watched The Blob – not the 1958 The Blob that we all know and love, no, the remake from 1988, which I’d never seen. After reading on another board of a transfer that barely looks better than VHS, of extreme grain, of barely better than DVD, and even a review that said that The Blob "may be" from a dated source, despite giving the transfer four out of five stars. So, why bring up the specter of a dated source, which introduces a note of alarm for no reason whatsoever?

So, what have we got here? I come to the remake of The Blob anew. I, of course, saw the original when it came out and I liked it a lot back then and still have a certain fondness for it now. The remake has spawned a rabid cult of people who probably saw it at an impressionable age, not in theaters, where it did not do especially well, but on cable, where they would apparently watched it over and over again, so that several of these folks call it their all-time favorite film. Makes you stop and scratch the old noggin’, doesn't it? I stayed away from the remake because of all the people saying it was ultra violent with really gory effects. I must have not seen that version when I watched the Twilight Time release. The version I saw had fairly standard issue effects and was not especially gory not even by late 80s standards and nowhere near as nauseating as the effects in John Carpenter's The Thing.

So, that was the first surprise. The remake replays quite a few of the original's scenes verbatim in terms of structure and what happens within the scenes and where they are set. But, an hour in and the film veers off into non-alien territory that is really quite silly. We've already had one wholesale lifting of a moment from Alien by that time, but as soon as the men in the bio suits arrive, at least for the first ten minutes of their arrival, we've suddenly wandered into a Steven Spielberg film, complete with one almost exact line rip-off from ET. Once we find out what's really going on, then we go into action mode for the rest of the film. It's all perfectly competent save for the acting, which is barely competent from every single person in the film except Candy Clark and Shawnee Smith, both of whom are very good. Kevin Dillon a hero is not and I found him slightly more off-putting than his brother, especially the hairdo.

All that said, there are a handful of amusing moments, the pacing is fine, and it's better than most useless remakes. It didn't exactly put its director on the map - he's really not had much of a career since, although according to the imdb he has about six movies about to be made - I kind of doubt we'll be seeing any of them anytime soon. Co-screenwriter Frank Darabont of course has had a bit of a career post The Blob.

Now to the transfer. Is it barely better than VHS and DVD? I think those with actual brains in their heads and who've seen the disc know the answer. It's a terrific transfer and looks just like a late 80s film should look. There are a lot of opticals, some heavy smoke and diffusion and it's all very well done and looks really solid in terms of detail, contrast and color. And as to "it may be from a dated source" - absolutely correct - if by dated you mean a transfer done at the beginning of 2014, which is exactly when this transfer was done. Facts are always a good thing to have at your disposal. If this is your sort of thing, I cannot imagine you will be disappointed - and it's down to its final couple hundred copies after almost thirty days of being able to purchase it. But when it sells out, be that in a day or two or even a week, you can bet that on other boards (well, one board) you will have thirty pages of posts that say "Damn you Twilight Time, I was just about to buy it." Mark my words.
 

McCrutchy

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haineshisway said:
It didn't exactly put its director on the map - he's really not had much of a career since, although according to the imdb he has about six movies about to be made - I kind of doubt we'll be seeing any of them anytime soon.
Chuck Russell probably had his biggest success with The Mask in 1994, but he was outshone by the cast and effects in that movie. Personally, I would be more inclined to say that he got that job from doing the third Elm Street film for New Line. It seemed afterwards, he was handed some pretty big projects (like Eraser) but for whatever reason, he didn't make any sort of mark.
 

Robert Crawford

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I haven't watched my BD yet, but my first viewing of this film took place during its theatrical run. I liked it more then as oppose to now. I'd probably have seen it three times during it's prior video formats including a HBO/Cinemax viewing so over time, my opinion of it has lessen since my theatrical viewing. However, it's been several years since I last viewed it so when I watch this BD, I will try to give it another chance.
 

AshJW

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Well, I haven't seen this one. The 1958 movie, with my all-time favorite McQueen, I like a lot.

Probably Sony will put this one out in Europe on BD, like Christine. We'll see.
 

TravisR

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haineshisway said:
So, what have we got here? I come to the remake of The Blob anew. I, of course, saw the original when it came out and I liked it a lot back then and still have a certain fondness for it now. The remake has spawned a rabid cult of people who probably saw it at an impressionable age, not in theaters, where it did not do especially well, but on cable, where they would apparently watched it over and over again, so that several of these folks call it their all-time favorite film.
I certainly wouldn't say that it's my favorite movie but I do think it's an entertaining B movie. No doubt nostalgia plays a part in my opinion but I'd point out that when the original came out, you liked it and 'old' people probably rolled their eyes at what they considered a goofy movie.


haineshisway said:
Now to the transfer. Is it barely better than VHS and DVD? I think those with actual brains in their heads and who've seen the disc know the answer. It's a terrific transfer and looks just like a late 80s film should look.
By no means am I an authority but I also thought the disc looked very nice and I can't imagine people thinking that the transfer is barely better than the VHS or DVD. I wonder how many of those folks have actually seen the disc and how many are just people who have some kind of weird desire to trash Twilight Time at all times.
 

Robert Crawford

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TravisR said:
I certainly wouldn't say that it's my favorite movie but I do think it's an entertaining B movie. No doubt nostalgia plays a part in my opinion but I'd point out that when the original came out, you liked it and 'old' people probably rolled their eyes at what they considered a goofy movie.
Hell, the original is a B movie too that played on NYC metro station WPIX Channel 11 on Chiller Theater in the 60s. Not the only reason, but one of the reasons for its popularity years later is due to Steve McQueen becoming a major film star in the 60s.
 

atfree

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I never liked this movie, it ran ad nauseam on HBO back in the 80's. But I'm glad it got a release for 2 reasons:

1)- so it's fans (and there are surprisingly, to me, many) can get it on BD

and, most importantly,

2)- so TT can make a bunch of money that can go to support more classic catalog releases (preferably from the 40's, 50's and 60's)!
 

Jari K

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I gotta hand it to TT. When 80s horror flick like The Blob gets this much attention, their LE business model is probably working. At least with horror/sci-fi titles.
 

Robert Crawford

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Jari K said:
I gotta hand it to TT. When 80s horror flick like The Blob gets this much attention, their LE business model is probably working. At least with horror/sci-fi titles.
If it wasn't working then they wouldn't be increasing the number of BD releases per month versus the number of title releases in the beginning.
 

Nishad Chowdhury

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I have searched INTERNET to watch this kind of film but could not get any one, do u have any referral url for that. I will arrange and see within few days.
 

Mark Cappelletty

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I got my copy last week and it looks great, certainly an upgrade from the DVD. It's a fun B-movie that doesn't pretend to be anything else and the Blob effects are pretty amazing-- even five years after this, they would have been largely CG and would have looked dated as hell. Like THE FLY and THE THING, this is -- and I know I'll take flak for this -- this is an '80's reimagining that I think works better than the original.
 

Robert Crawford

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Mark Cappelletty said:
I got my copy last week and it looks great, certainly an upgrade from the DVD. It's a fun B-movie that doesn't pretend to be anything else and the Blob effects are pretty amazing-- even five years after this, they would have been largely CG and would have looked dated as hell. Like THE FLY and THE THING, this is -- and I know I'll take flak for this -- this is an '80's reimagining that I think works better than the original.
As much as I love Carpenter's The Thing which really freaked my brother and I out as it was probably one of the best theater experiences I ever enjoyed in my lifetime. However, with that said, the original is still one of my favorite all-time films for different reasons beyond freaking me out.
 

bgart13

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There's people stating that the picture is bad? Sheesh. I've got it, but haven't watched it yet. If it looks at least as good as the 1080i hdtv recording that's been around, it must look very good. Ingrates.
 

ROclockCK

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Sony's 'House of Crisp' is as close as we have to a gold standard in terms of 4k re-scanning and re-mastering for Blu-ray. Although my Blob '88 hasn't arrived yet, I don't need to see that disc to know that any title which has gone through Sony's expert workflow cannot be anything less than what's actually on that movie's OCN.

Sorry folks, but in this world of seemingly few guarantees, a circa 2014 Sony 4k job which looks "barely better than VHS or DVD", just...aint...one...of...'em. Of course, as always, you have to consider the source of this nonsense...
dogs3.gif
 

Wade Sowers

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Watched the original version again on the Criterion Blu and it was (as usual) great, then I watched Hammer's X THE UNKNOWN (1956) an early blob-like movie as it was made a couple of years before THE BLOB (1958) - this one looks pretty good on the old Anchor Bay DVD . . . then, on to the 1988 THE BLOB from Twilight which is also very enjoyable (love the sink!) and looks fabulous on my 65" Panasonic. You know, I just do not understand people who go on and on (and on and on) about Twilight Time and the quality of their transfers, they must really have very refined sensibilities.
 

haineshisway

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TravisR said:
I certainly wouldn't say that it's my favorite movie but I do think it's an entertaining B movie. No doubt nostalgia plays a part in my opinion but I'd point out that when the original came out, you liked it and 'old' people probably rolled their eyes at what they considered a goofy movie.



By no means am I an authority but I also thought the disc looked very nice and I can't imagine people thinking that the transfer is barely better than the VHS or DVD. I wonder how many of those folks have actually seen the disc and how many are just people who have some kind of weird desire to trash Twilight Time at all times.
Well, they didn't roll their eyes because I wasn't obsessive about it - I liked it a lot and kept it to myself. I didn't watch it fifty times on cable because we didn't have cable and it certainly wasn't my all-time favorite movie, which was the point of that part of my post - how could this film be anyone's all-time favorite movie? That's the head scratcher. I do understand the nostalgia thing and I certainly have a bit of nostalgia for the original, but all-time favorite? :)
 

John Sparks

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I don't think it has to do with the transfer, just the movie itself. My SD will suffice and I will wait for something that I really want. I did for all the Ray Harryhausen fliks!

So far TT releases have been stellar, except for Night of the Living Dead...way too dark! Sold mine for a good profit and kept the SD.
 

Eastmancolor

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I've always enjoyed the movie. It's no great work of art, but it's a fun picture.

I have the TT Blu-ray and the picture quality is excellent. I know for a fact that this is a fresh scan off of the camera negative, so I don't know what some of these "reviewers" have to complain about.

I particularly find it cute when some reviewers complain about "poor quality 1970's and 1980's film stocks." That complaint was hurled at this picture too. Here's a news flash, while some low budget pictures might use leftover ends of rolls, they're still using Kodak, Fuji or Agfa negative stocks. The stocks of the '70's and '80's were every bit as good (if not better) than color stocks used during the 1950's and 1960's. Finer grain, higher ASA versions of those same stocks are in use today. Usually if a film is excessively grainy, like some films of that era are, it's because the director of photography was pushing the stock too far in not using enough light.

Anyway, where the Twilight Time Blu-ray of THE BLOB is concerned, it will never get any better than this. Buy with confidence!
 

bugsy-pal

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I saw this film on VHS many years ago. I almost grabbed it when I heard that numbers were getting low. I had it on my shopping cart, and then thought to myself "I can't justify spending close to AUD $50 (including shipping) for a second rate film with a bit of nostalgic appeal". I'll get the DVD, maybe...
 

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