A Few Words About A few words about...™ My Best Friend's Wedding -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Noel Aguirre]

Rupert Everett is sadly another case where an actor ruined their looks with cosmetic surgery, A real shame.

 

[Will Krupp]

Rupert Everett was definitely the highlight of the film. It's a shame he hasn't been working as much lately (I think he's been busy with political activism).

he also got himself a truly TERRIBLE reputation of being absolutely AWFUL to work with in the wake of this movie's success. Michael Childers, longtime partner of director John Schlesinger, has even gone on record as directly blaming Everett's on and off set behavior during the shooting of NEXT BEST THING for the stress induced (and ultimately fatal) stroke Schlesinger suffered after that movie wrapped. He's also spent the last ten years getting more and more erratic in interviews and endlessly trash talking his peers. He blames his lack of success on coming out of the closet because I guess that's easier for him than looking inward and blaming his own behavior.


He IS a highlight of this, and I was always a fan (I also enjoyed his novel HELLO DARLING, ARE YOU WORKING? which he based on his own adventures as a rent boy) but I'm not surprised he hasn't had more success or recent work as apparently he's become a total asshole and, in the movie business, reputation is everything.

 

[CobraVerde]

I believe the director's name is P.J. Hogan, not J.P.

 

[Mark-W]

I also enjoyed Hello Darling, Are You Working? and read it long before MBFW was released. That book was more shocking for alleging Hercules actor Steve Reeves was a sex-with-men-in-exchange-for-stardom fella (which Scotty Bowers also alleged in his biography) than it was about Everett's real life occasional rent boy status. (I became a fan of Everett's earlier with Cemetery Man, Another Country, and The Comfort of Strangers.)


I don't know how much one can blame his being open for his lack of film success. He did out himself as both gay and a former infrequent rentboy BEFORE he made My Best Friends Wedding and An Ideal Husband which had him cast (and quite believably) as a Lothario.


Even now when someone like The Hobbit and Dracula Untold's Luke Evans can come out early in his career (circa 2002), and then feels the need to go back in the closet out of fear of hurting his Hollywood career, one has to still wonder.


Time magazine reports Luke Evans back out of the closet

http://time.com/3491050/luke-evans-dracula-untold-coming-out/


Everett's career seems like it has gone downhill more for Shaia LeBeouf like too-openly-critical-of-the-business antics than his openness about sexuality.

Rupert Everett is back... and no one is safe

he also got himself a truly TERRIBLE reputation of being absolutely AWFUL to work with in the wake of this movie's success. Michael Childers, longtime partner of director John Schlesinger, has even gone on record as directly blaming Everett's on and off set behavior during the shooting of NEXT BEST THING for the stress induced (and ultimately fatal) stroke Schlesinger suffered after that movie wrapped. He's also spent the last ten years getting more and more erratic in interviews and endlessly trash talking his peers. He blames his lack of success on coming out of the closet because I guess that's easier for him than looking inward and blaming his own behavior.


He IS a highlight of this, and I was always a fan (I also enjoyed his novel HELLO DARLING, ARE YOU WORKING? which he based on his own adventures as a rent boy) but I'm not surprised he hasn't had more success or recent work as apparently he's become a total asshole and, in the movie business, reputation is everything.

 

[Mike Boone]

RAH, I really appreciate your review. My wife and I also went to see the film in 97, and we both really liked it. It's been in our DVD collection for years, but we somehow never got around to playing the disc. But now, seeing the very high regard that you have for the quality of the film's blu-ray incarnation, am going to hit Shop Amazon right now to order a copy.

 

[steve jaros]

Back in the summer of 1997, when I first saw P.J. Hogan's My Best Friend's Wedding theatrically, I was hooked from the main title sequence, and everything continued on an upswing for the next 100 minutes or so.


Before male readers get bent out of shape at the prospect of my recommending a "chick flick," give this a chance.

Funny story: At the time this film was playing in theaters, I was diagnosed as "morbidly obese", and told to go on a severe diet immediately. The day I got that diagnosis, July 17, 1997, I decided to have one last "food fling" before starting the diet the next day. So I went to the theater and saw "My Best Friend's Wedding", and ate a huge tub of butter-slathered popcorn and a pile of nachos and cheese.


The next day I did start the diet, and lost 200 pounds in less than a year (the old fashioned way, the gastric-bypass option was still a couple years away) saving my life. So I always have a fond memory of that film in my mind. I enjoyed it, thought Cameron and Julia were funny, but haven't seen it on any format since. Maybe I will get the BD.

 

[Konstantinos]

This Bluray seems to have black crush, and as it was noted on bluray.com it isn't limited to this specific Bluray but to a couple of other latest sony releases (The Interview, Fury).


here's more on this:

http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=257809

Apparently the UV copies don't share this problem! So, it is only on Blurays!


a possible explanation:

Somebody mixed up PC levels with TV levels during the blu-ray rendering process.

http://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=10443458&postcount=6



here's a couple of comparisons by a Bluray.com member:


http://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=10445147&postcount=50


UV version:

Bluray:

UV:

Bluray:

 

[Mike Boone]

This Bluray seems to have black crush, and as it was noted on bluray.com it isn't limited to this specific Bluray but to a couple of other latest sony releases (The Interview, Fury).


here's more on this:

http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=257809

Apparently the UV copies don't share this problem! So, it is only on Blurays!


a possible explanation:

http://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=10443458&postcount=6



here's a couple of comparisons by a Bluray.com member:


http://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=10445147&postcount=50


UV version:

Bluray:

UV:

Bluray:

My Best Friend's Wedding, in its blu-ray incarnation, supposedly suffering from black crush, seems like an odd claim, since in judging that blu-ray's visual quality, Robert Harris said this about it: " The Blu-ray is typical of Columbia, which means absolutely perfect in every way. Color, densities, black levels, whites, film grain, shadow detail. All dead-on."

 

[Konstantinos]

supposedly suffering from black crush, seems like an odd claim,

Supposedly?

I'm sorry, did you see the screenshots?

 

[Mike Boone]

Supposedly?

I'm sorry, did you see the screenshots?

Yes, those screenshots have been presented as representing how My Best Friend's Wedding looks on blu-ray, so I expected that someone would react to what I said, the way that you did. But I'm sure that many, if not an overwhelming majority, of HTF members consider Robert A Harris to be the foremost authority on the look of film, as well as what a high grade transfer of a film to blu-ray should look like. And since RAH described the blu-ray of My Best Friend's Wedding as being "absolutely perfect in every way" and having "color, densities, black levels, whites, film grain, shadow detail. All dead-on.", I can only come to the reasonable conclusion that the screenshots posted on this thread, do not accurately represent the blu-ray that Mr Harris evaluated.


Regrettably, I don't yet have a blu-ray of the film myself, but did click on Shop Amazon and order it, not very long after reading RAH's evaluation. I'm glad

that I took seriously the recommendations of Mr Harris in deciding to buy blu-ray versions of such favorites as Lust For Life, In Cold Blood, The Professionals, From Here To Eternity, and The Best Years of Our Lives. RAH hasn't let me down yet.


I'm only sorry that I was too ignorant to check out HTF much earlier than when I joined, just 4 months ago. If I'd been with it a lot sooner, there's

no doubt that Mr Harris, as well as other HTF members, would have helped prevent me from making some mistakes, with bad choices, while building my 551 movie blu-ray collection.

 

[Konstantinos]

Oh, i hope then Mr. Harris could tell us his opinion on the 2 different masters of The Interview, and let us know which is the "right" one.

Spoiler

UV:

Bluray:

 

[Robert Harris]

Oh, i hope then Mr. Harris could tell us his opinion on the 2 different masters of The Interview, and let us know which is the "right" one.

Spoiler

UV:

Bluray:

Both are incorrect. The image should be darker. Far darker. 4.0 density would do the film well.


RAH

 

[Konstantinos]

Both are incorrect. The image should be darker. Far darker. 4.0 density would do the film well.


RAH

Even darker than the Bluray?

Oh, i didn't expect this..

 

[KPmusmag]

Even darker than the Bluray?

Oh, i didn't expect this..

Unless I am mistaken, 4.0 is pure black. There may be a hint of sarcasm here.

 

[Will Krupp]

For what it's worth, when I sat down to watch the blu-ray, I thought the blacks were crushed, too.

 

[Konstantinos]

Unless I am mistaken, 4.0 is pure black. There may be a hint of sarcasm here.

Oh, i see!

 

[Robert Harris]

Black levels derived from a Blu-ray disc, can be very much in the eye of the beholder, and totally dependent upon how the disc is being viewed.


Blackest blacks will be seen on plasma and OLED devices. Blacks are more open in projection. The air just above black is also dependent upon setup of the device.


All of this, is affected by the way that colorist sees the image and translates to final disc.

 

[schan1269]

About "black crush"...

First thing I always ask...

"Watching via LCD?"

Last I checked, every computer monitor is LCD*. Therefore "screen grabs on the 'net" mean squat...

Unless you connect your computer, via HDMI, to a DLP, CRT, plasma or OLED.

*Rare exception of AMOLED.

 

[davidmatychuk]

Black crush, Orange Crush, this Blu-Ray looks beautiful on my JVC D-ILA display. Actually, so do the Blu-Rays of "The Interview" and "Fury". Do people watch movies one screen shot at a time these days or something?

 

[lukejosephchung]

I have a rear-projection DLP screen for my home theater setup and detect no black crush in any of the scenes of "My Best Friend's Wedding" 4k-mastered BD...