UHD Review A Few Words About A few words about...™ The Good, the Bad and the Ugly-- in 4k UHD Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[RobertSiegel]

If we could only get MGM and Kino to do a 4k disc of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Fiddler on the Roof, 2 films that could look glorious on 4k. But in a thread, Kino has said they have no interest in doing Chitty in 4k, but MGM is the one that released the blu-ray, so maybe they will shock us all and do it themselves? I think I will stick with my blu-ray of Good, Bad and the Ugly. It's a film I wanted to have in my library but it's one of those where the blu-ray is just fine considering how many times I will probably watch it.

 

[Chewbabka]

I don’t know exactly how these co-distribution deals work, but maybe MGM’s new deal with Warner (replacing Fox) means more titles will be forthcoming. Or not.

The best hope for the MGM/UA catalog may sadly be for MGM to finally sell itself completely to Warners.

 

[haineshisway]

Kino has no interest - what a laugh that is. They had no interest in Flower Drum Song - absolutely not a whiff of interest. And now they're releasing it, with nary a word about what changed their mind. Thus, Kino.

 

[Carlo_M]

As one who normally loves extended cuts, I'm actually more than okay with the fact that this is the 162 minute cut. My rationale for this is, admittedly petty. I do think the extra scenes flesh out characters and add to the overall movie. But my big misgiving about it is that the new dubbing by a much older Wallach and Eastwood sound so different than the work they did back in the 60s. I actually would have preferred if they got professional voice actors/mimic-ers (do those exist? they've got to) to dub the restored scenes to more closely match the original voices of Eastwood and Wallach in the 60s.

As an aside, the only experience I have with a voice mimic-er is the video game I play, Destiny. One recurring character was voiced by Nathan Fillion who has a very distinct voice. The final season that his character was in Destiny 2, he was unavailable to record, so Nolan North dubbed his lines and did a darned good job. So I'm sure there are professionals out there who could have been employed to match the voices to Eastwood and Wallach's work in the original film.

That said, I will be doing what RAH recommends and keeping my extended cut near at hand, and when I need to see those extra scenes I can always refer to that, but I don't mind at all that it's the theatrical cut that will be in this release. Looking forward to it!

 

[Alan Tully]

Well looking at caps (yes, caps damnit!), I rather like the look of the Italian Mondo Home Entertainment Blu-ray release, & if it had had an English track I think they would sold a lot of copies internationally.

 

[TravisR]

As one who normally loves extended cuts, I'm actually more than okay with the fact that this is the 162 minute cut. My rationale for this is, admittedly petty. I do think the extra scenes flesh out characters and add to the overall movie. But my big misgiving about it is that the new dubbing by a much older Wallach and Eastwood sound so different than the work they did back in the 60s. I actually would have preferred if they got professional voice actors/mimic-ers (do those exist? they've got to) to dub the restored scenes to more closely match the original voices of Eastwood and Wallach in the 60s.

Never say never but I don't think any impersonator is going to blend seamlessly so going with the original actors is probably as good as it gets. It's like when a cartoon character's voice changes, you can always hear it at least a little bit. The new actor might be good and sound really similar but just like going from young to old Eastwood and Wallach, it's probably nearly impossible for the switch to not stick out somewhat.

 

[Robert Harris]

Never say never but I don't think any impersonator is going to blend seamlessly so going with the original actors is probably as good as it gets. It's like when a cartoon character's voice changes, you can always hear it at least a little bit. The new actor might be good and sound really similar but just like going from young to old Eastwood and Wallach, it's probably nearly impossible for the switch to not stick out somewhat.

Agreed.

Although there may be new technologies within the digital universe, having done this multiple times in the analogue, I can tell you that it's nigh impossible to hit anything near perfection.

 

[David_B_K]

Never say never but I don't think any impersonator is going to blend seamlessly so going with the original actors is probably as good as it gets. It's like when a cartoon character's voice changes, you can always hear it at least a little bit. The new actor might be good and sound really similar but just like going from young to old Eastwood and Wallach, it's probably nearly impossible for the switch to not stick out somewhat.

I don't know which would be better (or worse) - voice actors doing an imitation or the older voices of the actors. One would think they could do things with pitch control or speeding up voices to get the them to match better than they did on GBU.

On the substitute front, voice actor Paul Frees did some of Bogart's dialogue in The Harder They Fall and did quite well. Anthony Hopkins did a great job dubbing Olivier in Spartacus. However, I never care for Charles Gray's dubbing of Jack Hawkins. He always sounded like Charles Gray to me.

 

[Dave Moritz]

While this transfer seems to have it's plus and minus there is a good chance I will be buying it as it still should be a good upgrade from the dvd I currently own. Not sure how they could take a classic like this and not end up with a rock solid transfer and let it slide the way they did.

 

[Robert Harris]

For those on the fence, this is probably the best the film will look on home video.

 

[PMF]

For those on the fence, this is probably the best the film will look on home video.

Another advancing step forward.
I’ll take that, and will always give it my support.

 

[Carlo_M]

Agreed that there’s no perfect match. But the actual actors voices has changed so much I’m relatively confident some of the tremendous voice talent in the industry could have gotten closer than the end product we got.

 

[jayembee]

A disagreement about Blue Underground discs, or any disc from any company is just shocking.

!

"I'm shocked! Shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!"

 

[jayembee]

On the substitute front, voice actor Paul Frees did some of Bogart's dialogue in The Harder They Fall and did quite well. Anthony Hopkins did a great job dubbing Olivier in Spartacus. However, I never care for Charles Gray's dubbing of Jack Hawkins. He always sounded like Charles Gray to me.

I thought Hopkins did as good a job as anyone could expect, but I'm afraid I always hear Hopkins in that dialogue, not Olivier.

Anyway, my copy of the GBU UHD is making its way to me. Should be (fingers crossed) getting it by Friday.

 

[PMF]

I thought Hopkins did as good a job as anyone could expect, but I'm afraid I always hear Hopkins in that dialogue, not Olivier.

Anyway, my copy of the GBU UHD is making its way to me. Should be (fingers crossed) getting it by Friday.

Funny, whenever I hear Hal from “2001”, I hear half of Hannibal Lector.

 

[PMF]

Ordered GBU much sooner than expected.

Seriously, it's Sergio, Ennio and Clint in 4K/UHD.

"You dig?"

 

[haineshisway]

Just to be absolutely clear - the included Blu is this new color-grading?

 

[Wubble]

Just to be absolutely clear - the included Blu is this new color-grading?

Yes, the included blu in this new release will contain the new color grading and will also contain the corrected version of the US theatrical cut, they're not just repackaging discs from the earlier release.

 

[Robert Harris]

Just to be absolutely clear - the included Blu is this new color-grading?

Yes

 

[darkrock17]

Here's a comparison video of all 3 blu-ray releases so far. 2017 looks to be the best of the 3 as 2008 is too yellow looking and 2021 is too dark.