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UHD Review A Few Words About A few words about...™ - Some Like it Hot -- in 4k UHD (1 Viewer)

haineshisway

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I find this one to be more subtlety humorous rather than laugh out loud - it’s dark humor about a depressing situation. I appreciate Wilder’s work here but warm and fuzzy it’s not.
I suspect that all the people who don't find this laugh out loud funny have never EVER seen it with an audience. In 1959, I can assure you it was not only laugh out loud funny, you frequently couldn't hear the dialogue because the laughs were so loud and so long. Comedy is hard when you're sitting at home alone and especially when a film has been ripped off by so many lesser films as much as Some Like it Hot has.
 

Josh Steinberg

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I suspect that all the people who don't find this laugh out loud funny have never EVER seen it with an audience. In 1959, I can assure you it was not only laugh out loud funny, you frequently couldn't hear the dialogue because the laughs were so loud and so long. Comedy is hard when you're sitting at home alone and especially when a film has been ripped off by so many lesser films as much as Some Like it Hot has.

My mistake, I thought we were talking about The Apartment for some reason. Some Like It Hot is a laugh out loud movie for me as well.
 

Rick Thompson

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It should be understood that viewing something in 4k derived from the original negative, that does not at least begin with a finely grained source is a bit akin to an unnatural act - a bit like breeding a buffalo with a chicken.
Is the result something like a turducken? And is it called a "buffen" or a "chickalo"?
 

TheSteig

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I watched Some Like it Hot today. I thought it looked excellent, with the black and white image looking a bit richer to me
I didnt laugh at any of the "funny" scenes but I love the movie anyway, it's a great story backed by tremendous acting by the cast. It doesn't have to be funny for me to enjoy it! And Marylin Monroe was a Goddess :D
 

Chewbabka

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I watched Some Like it Hot today. I thought it looked excellent, with the black and white image looking a bit richer to me
I jumped around the Criterion after watching the new disc, and it’s drab in comparison. The 4K DV is fantastic.

I didnt laugh at any of the "funny" scenes but I love the movie anyway, it's a great story backed by tremendous acting by the cast. It doesn't have to be funny for me to enjoy it!
:/
And Marylin Monroe was a Goddess :D

:)
 

Egore

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I saw Some Like It Hot in the late fifties, when it first hit theaters in my home town. I was a senior in high school at that time and I'd go see anything with Marilyn Monroe in it. And, I'd go see almost anything directed by Billy Wilder. Wilder left the best line to the end in my opinion. When Jack Lemon and Joe E. Brown are running away to get married, Lemon's character (in full drag) pulls off his wig, turns to Brown and says "I'm a Woman". Brown, without changing expression, just shrugs it off by saying "Well, nobodies perfect". It was funny in those days, but times change and maybe it's not funny to later generations. Speaking of funny, I had to laugh out loud at B-ROLL's reaction to the Buffalo and Chicken comment in the Harris review. B-ROLL said: "Yes but when they did we got tasty Buffalo Wings ;)! Regarding the review, I don't have a ten foot screen, but it seems to me that if a person sits closer than ten feet to a ten foot screen, then I don't see how one could expect not see the film grain if the image contained a high level of detail.
 

Gerani53

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Interesting; I had the opposite reaction. I hadn't seen SOME LIKE IT HOT in years, always respected it, but somehow thought it might be overrated, its closing line suggesting a saucy social awareness that instantly guaranteed classic status. But what about the rest of it... two hours of drag-derived humor -- doesn't that wear thin after awhile? About a year ago, I finally sat down and watched the movie from beginning to end, sitting across from an old film buff friend who hadn't seen it in ages, and wasn't a HOT disciple. We were both completely blown away by the experience, and "sat corrected." Because SOME LIKE IT HOT wound up being so sharp, so clever, so SOMETHING, that we both instantly agreed it fully deserved all the praise it's received over the decades. That was my personal journey regarding this movie. Good luck with yours!
 

JimJasper

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Crazy....but a 4K version of SLIH (great film!!) ...somewhat technically reminds me of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" ....filmed in 1974 in 16MM (16 mm (Eastman Ektachrome 25T 7252) ....remastering, then blowing it up to 35MM...then Blu-ray to 4K....is it really going to make a huge difference? Of course, it's fun to be proved wrong!
texas chainsaw massacre halloween GIF by Challenger


SLIH 4K release also reminds me of Raiders of the Lost Ark (RotLA) (1981) was remastered and prepped for release on 1080p Blu-ray in 2012, and was theatrically re-released (and blown up) in IMAX.... I went and saw it in an IMAX theater. Film was clean, with vibrant crisp colors, and natural, but like Harris' review of SLIH, RotLA's grain was astoundingly glaring. Natural, but....yikes.
 

TonyD

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I've never been able to get into it either, probably because I'm not a fan of Jack Lemmon (same with The Apartment). It's best feature is that George Raft is one of the players.
I'll have to give this another try sometime. I know I've watched it at least once, but did not find it as hilarious as everyone claims it is. Not sure if that's a case of the film being overhyped for me as the greatest comedy ever made before I actually watched it, or if the humor just doesn't land with me.


I think it’s as simple as the movie isn’t funny.
At least it’s not laugh out loud hilarious.
Has some amusing things going on but it’s never made me do more then chuckle a few times.

If I went in not expecting it to be a comedy maybe I would like the movie more then I do.
 

white vader

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I think this movie shows the folly of judging something based on expectations even more than something like Kane, because of the humour. The disappointment will be even more pronounced if you expect to be howling with laughter and you're not. It's the tail wagging the dog. And people often bizarrely also judge grain and sharpness based on theatrical showings. And God knows that's generations down the line and much poorer condition based on a whole number of factors. There's a huge rift between seeing a movie in a cinema with great projection and sound, and what most people see/the average.

I understand what RAH is saying. But for me personally I'd rather see something based on the best most accurate source, and yep letting normal viewing distance resolve it a bit (as well as my eyes being older). Because that's more akin to the answer print a director sees and what they intend, to some dodgy cineplex showing where it's spooled onto one reel and run loose, there's so much correction for the raked seating that it's invariably out at one place, less than optimal lamps, same for sound, and so on. Is it any wonder grain isn't as apparent in those situations, which is what most audiences were subjected to especially in the final days of film where things were appallingly lax?

The other thing I don't understand is how people think b&w films don't really benefit from 4k rez and HDR. I'm not really a numbers/technical guy (do work in movies though), but grain can be resolved in a more organic/accurate fashion with not just the rez but less compression, and then there's the huge thing of HDR. Even if there's no colour information, it's the difference between HD being 8 bit and therefore only being able to resolve 256 levels of grey. As opposed to over a thousand with 10 bit/HDR. Even if that's not 16 million v over a billion for colour, it's still huge!! How on earth does that not benefit B&W?! Watching the 4k/hdr Elephant Man bears this out for me personally, and I can't wait to see Kurosawa classics this way. And Kane in 4k for me was a revelation with the amount of subtle detail in what I'd previously thought were basically silhouettes.

And, of course SliH and The Apartment. For me personally, I didn't come to it with a load of expectations unfairly placed on it and judging from that perspective. Except I guess maybe a little in the opposite direction in that I have never liked Lemmon. But the rapport between he, Curtis and Monroe blew me away, as did the sparkling filmmaking skill. The pacing the dialogue the balance between slapstick to screwball dialogue to dramatic stakes and so on. I love The Apartment too despite Lemmon being more front and centre (even I have to admit it was perfect casting though). For me Wilder really did have 'the Lubitsch touch' with those two. Anyway just my subjective 2c there.
 

PMF

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I think it’s as simple as the movie isn’t funny.
At least it’s not laugh out loud hilarious.
Has some amusing things going on but it’s never made me do more then chuckle a few times.

If I went in not expecting it to be a comedy maybe I would like the movie more then I do.
Well, we can’t force everyone to laugh at the same comedies until their stomach hurts…but here at HTF, you know that we’re gonna try and do our darndest.

FILE UNDER: Some Like It Not
 
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Egore

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I don't think that's the line, or the punchline makes no sense.

It must be either "I'm a man" or "I'm NOT a woman."
Malcolm R, Thank you for making the correction, that line certainly was "I'm a man" and it definitely was not "I'm a woman", which as you pointed out, wouldn't have made any sense. It was a case of an 80 year old man having a brain fart and thinking one thing while writing just the opposite.
 

PMF

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Yup, when a film is so much loved, it’s funny how one side will spend their days trying to convince the other side into feeling the same way. I think it has something to do with sharing our joys. My grandfather was the same way with me whenever he sat down to eat some tripe.:oops:

For the record, Some Like It Hot remains a personal top, top tippity-top favorite.:thumbs-up-smiley:
 
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haineshisway

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I think it’s as simple as the movie isn’t funny.
At least it’s not laugh out loud hilarious.
Has some amusing things going on but it’s never made me do more then chuckle a few times.

If I went in not expecting it to be a comedy maybe I would like the movie more then I do.
Have you seen it with an audience, yes or no?
 

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