Blue Thunder (1983) (Blu-ray) Available for Preorder (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

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[Kyrsten Brad]

Wish listed for now.

 

[andySu]

Heads up on the fake re-mix!!!

I have this on bluray and what a mess it is.

Its a bit of an amateur mixing with pro-tools R'us in the basement?

The surrounds are faked with stereo like. Whoever mixed this, has taken the front left/right that carry sound effects and music as mixed it on top of the mono discrete surrounds, effectively masking the original 70mm Dolby discrete.

It gets worse.

The phantom image between left/right has been mixed onto the centre discrete, thus masking some of the cool bass music notes and sound effect Foley soft sounds like when Murphy, starts up BLUE THUNDER to expose the truth. The sound of the helmet that he puts on, is not as clear as the DVD region 2.

And if the above wasn't worse.

The LFE.1 has been faked up. The LCR low end as been sandwiched onto the LFE.1 so you, won't have clue as to when the real LFE.1 cuts in and fades out on the mix? The LFE.1 is playing all the time.

This is a huge

Buy the early region 1 or 2 DVD pressing.

Not sure if the issue of the re-mix has come from the SE DVD (or has been purposely done for bluray to con people) the SE DVD was released a few years before the bluray, but I won't spend out and waste no more £20.00 on this one, thank you.

 

[Ruz-El]

I bought this for $10 a few months ago and haven't watched it yet. Harumph. Had no idea the sound was buggered. does it have an original 2 channel or mono option?

 

[andySu]

I bought this for $10 a few months ago and haven't watched it yet. Harumph. Had no idea the sound was buggered. does it have an original 2 channel or mono option?

Won't make blindest bit of difference if you down-mixed it.

 

[Kevin EK]

Hang on a second.

I had purchased the original DVD of Blue Thunder, and then upgraded to the special edition DVD when that became available. I upgraded further to the Blu-ray when that came out a few years ago. Unless I'm mistaken, the special edition DVD offered a new 5.1 mix, which is the one that's being criticized here. And I believe the existing Blu-ray offered a Dolby True HD version of that same mix. Am I understanding this correctly?

I had not noticed significant deficiencies in the mix, but I haven't watched the Blu-ray in some time. I do remember it having heavy bass throughout, to the point that I recall turning the subwoofer off when watching it late at night.

Is the new Blu-ray a re-issue of what came before, or did they do a new mix for it?

Also, I do recommend picking up either the SE DVD or the existing Blu-ray for their excellent special features. The interview material with Dan O'Bannon is priceless. I note that he does not get into the really serious criticisms he had of the movie back in 1983 when he'd been fighting with John Badham. At that time, he was not happy with the design of the helicopter - which he'd wanted to be a "fast black wasp - deadly and efficient" rather than having all the gadgets on it. He also had said at the time that he came up with the idea of the movie while he was crashing at Ronald Shusett's place when they kept getting buzzed by LAPD helicopters pursuing suspects in the neighborhood. His original vision of the story - of an LAPD officer who goes crazy and attacks the city with his helicopter - got morphed into that of a good officer who's fighting the system with his helicopter. Not quite what O'Bannon had in mind...

 

[andySu]

Also 2010 (1984) has the same issue on bkuray another one for the dustbin. Glad I never sell my DVD or laserdisc for less than perfect overrated Hi-def classic films being messed and tampered around with by some amateur mixer?

When Murphy checks his watch at the start the tone of the bleeping is leaking on left/right stage and surround channels, annoying! (The sound should be isolated discretely to centre, like it is on the first DVD pressing release).

When the helicopter chase starts at 79m 43 on (Pioneer DV-515) the mono surrounds go active with the score and sound effects.

On the bluray its just annoying to listen too as the surrounds are OVER-LOUD and active all the way though the film I get listening fatigued with it after a less than 1 min. SWITCH PLAYER mode on AVR back to DVD. sigh, oh that is much better.

I have both films playing at same time.

 

[Kevin EK]

Andy, I'm still trying to determine if the current Blu-ray of Blue Thunder is using an HD version of the 5.1 mix found on the SE DVD. Is this the case?
And is the new Blu-ray going to contain the old sound mix? Or is it just a re-issue of what came before?

For myself, I don't have as many problems with the SE 5.1 mix but I understand where you're coming from. At the same time, the picture quality on the Blu-ray is way above what was on the original DVD pressing, so I'm happy to have it. And as I said before, the special features are really good too.
It sounds like fans of the movie would do well to have both the original DVD for that sound mix (unless it's included on the new Blu) and the Blu-ray for the picture and the extras.

 

[ChromeJob]

Any answers on this? I was all ready to buy the BD for $7.99 (BB ) or $7.18 (Amzn) to test out a new subwoofer, but not if the soundtrack is buggered.

Explanation: I was a hanger on at USC's Eileen Norris theater when John Badham brought the film to the 466 class. The projectionist always ran a reel before the class to set the matting, sound level, etc. The sound system was state of the art, in fact I remember Dolby technicians came to swap out a circuit board or two and using a studio print of STAR WARS to test. Well, before the class, "Wolfie" is setting up reel 2 IIRC, and got to the point when Murphy and JAFO turn on "Whisper mode." Normally theater volume was about 8-9, he turned it up to 11. We just had a geekgasm together hearing what the film did in the theater sound system.

Echoing Amazon reviewers have said, the surround mix of helicopters flying in and around the the LA skyscrapers for the final confrontation (also remember when an LAPD car pulls over Candy Clark, and Blue Thunder rises up from behind the bridge), should be remarkable. If someone's screwed it up on a remix from the original (which was?) to the Dolby TrueHD, they've done this action flick a big disservice.

 

[Dr Griffin]

Any answers on this? I was all ready to buy the BD for $7.99 (BB ) or $7.18 (Amzn) to test out a new subwoofer, but not if the soundtrack is buggered.

Explanation: I was a hanger on at USC's Eileen Norris theater when John Badham brought the film to the 466 class. The projectionist always ran a reel before the class to set the matting, sound level, etc. The sound system was state of the art, in fact I remember Dolby technicians came to swap out a circuit board or two and using a studio print of STAR WARS to test. Well, before the class, "Wolfie" is setting up reel 2 IIRC, and got to the point when Murphy and JAFO turn on "Whisper mode." Normally theater volume was about 8-9, he turned it up to 11. We just had a geekgasm together hearing what the film did in the theater sound system.

Echoing Amazon reviewers have said, the surround mix of helicopters flying in and around the the LA skyscrapers for the final confrontation (also remember when an LAPD car pulls over Candy Clark, and Blue Thunder rises up from behind the bridge), should be remarkable. If someone's screwed it up on a remix from the original (which was?) to the Dolby TrueHD, they've done this action flick a big disservice.

Andy has a THX monitor which allows him to isolate any channel when comparing. If anyone would know something's amiss it would be him . I've got the old DVD and the Blu-ray and there seems to be a difference with the LCR panning details that were on the original DVD for some unknown reason. I saw this in the theater in '83, but damn if I recall the details of the mix . It wouldn't be the first movie to receive an "upgraded" (read downgraded) sound mix by some clueless skippy.