A few words about…™ – Planes, Trains and Automobiles — in 4k UHD

Robert Harris said:

I'm confused by what I'm seeing in Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

Initially, back when the John Hughes set was released, I presumed (possibly incorrectly) that it was one of the worst Blu-rays I'd ever seen.

I've checked to make certain that it was shot in 35mm, and it was.

I've checked to make certain that I was viewing the 4k and not the Blu-ray, and I was.

But what I'm seeing appears to be a bit cleaner and more cohesive image than on the Blu-ray, which still isn't Blu-ray quality.

No grain. No look of cinema or film.

Could this be the old transfer, cleaned up?

Not a clue, but what's obvious is that Paramount has released a new 4k of the film, that has far less than 2k resolution, and I have no idea why.

A waste of plastic.

Image - 2 (HDR)

Audio – 5 (DTS -HD MA 5.1)

Pass / Fail – Fail

Plays nicely with projectors - No

Upgrade from Recent Blu-ray - Nope

Makes use of and works well in 4k - 0

Color me confused

RAH

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there's a special place for those people....

What is Paramount's problem?

OMG!! And I was waiting for this, assuming it will be much better than the blu-ray with nice looking grain!

Insert Angry Steve Martin gif here. The role of Paramount will be played by Edie McClurg.

Paramount is so damned inconsistent it makes my head spin! WHY?

dpippel said:

Paramount is so damned inconsistent it makes my head spin! WHY?

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Leadership.

There is nothing difficult about any of this. Every release should be a 5!

Thank you, Robert. I was going to order this, but now I ain’t gonna.

Worth said:

What is Paramount's problem?

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dpippel said:

Paramount is so damned inconsistent it makes my head spin! WHY?

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FWIW, I think Paramount is actually more consistent than is noted - but consistent not in a good way.

The goal of their mastering model appears to be to divorce the image captured on the film element from the characteristics of the actual film itself. It’s less apparent on some titles than others but I’ve noted it in discs that have been well reviewed as well as ones that have been poorly reviewed.

Josh Steinberg said:

FWIW, I think Paramount is actually more consistent than is noted - but consistent not in a good way.

The goal of their mastering model appears to be to divorce the image captured on the film element from the characteristics of the actual film itself. It’s less apparent on some titles than others but I’ve noted it in discs that have been well reviewed as well as ones that have been poorly reviewed.

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I would have to agree with you, Josh, and feel lucky that occasionally a good to outstanding product (I'm lookin' at you as a recent example, Top Gun Maverick) slips out the door unnoticed.

Robert Harris said:

Leadership.

There is nothing difficult about any of this. Every release should be a 5!

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If there was leadership wouldn't almost every release look either outstanding or digitally scrubbed? Instead, we keep getting a mish-mash of quality from them. It almost feels like there's a secret group of employees that are able to rescue something from the Paramount Overprocessing Police every so often. The rest of their output gets put through the shredder. It's that inconsistency that I find so baffling, and infuriating.

What has been learned here is not to pre-order unless it’s a new theatrical title,

On the upside, this release finally includes the deleted scenes, which have been long sought-after by fans of the film.

Kyle_D said:

On the upside, this release finally includes the deleted scenes, which have been long sought-after by fans of the film.

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All well and good, but one must wonder who eye-balled this and declared “4k!.”

dpippel said:

Paramount is so damned inconsistent it makes my head spin! WHY?

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This is so disappointing. I guess ill
Stick with the iTunes digital which hopefully will upgrade to some sort of 4K.

I had my fingers crossed for this.

I purchased the "Paramount Presents" 48 HRS which I was satisfied with. Never saw it in cinemas on 35mm but the Blu Ray looked fine to my eye and was happy with my purchase.

I thought we might get a proper release on this prior to the poorly reviewed blu ray.

Seems as though they just fleecing the consumers here. Or am I being too harsh?

Really like this movie too and a big John Hughes fan.

Will probably just get the older blu ray now as it will be a cheaper option of the two.

A shame.

Paramount 4Ks & Blus in the last year are just awful.

If it happens to be a Paramount film released by say KINO generally those are fine… it’s almost as if KINO samples some of these and passes on them cause the 4K transfers are so bad and only acquire those that look good. For instance KINO’s The Score / Indecent Proposal / although Escape from Alcatraz seems to have some heavy DNR so I figure they needed a cash grab 4K sadly it doesn’t look correct.

Saturday Night Fever / Friday the 13th are epic messes.

So many recent Paramount catalog titles they have dropped esp this past spring are atrociously bad… the DVDs looked better! 200 Cigarettes / Intersection / In Dreams and many more were horribly released.

Let me be blunt, whoever is approving these transfers & releases at Paramount need to find new jobs be fired or get help, cause consumers getting burned release after release end up passing on future titles.

So we haven’t really progressed since the days of To Catch a Thief .

and from reading comments from those who’ve seen Saturday Night Fever 4k and Escape From Alcatraz 4k Paramount DNR rages on

we won’t talk about iL Padrino

Ms Kallas , take a bow

This is disappointing and irritating that this film would receive a lack luster transfer on the 4K disc. I was very much looking forward to buying this film but will not I will instead redirect those funds to another title.