RoboCop (Blu-ray) release on Ocober 9, 2007 (1 Viewer)

[Jim_K]

Same here but Bracke lost my respect many years ago when he was reviewing DVD's at DVDfile. Problem was back then, like now there's just not many professional review sites aside from Highdefdigest reviewing these things on a consistent basis. So the uninformed out there rely on Hackes judgment. Hopefully HDM, like DVD will catch on someday and we'll have some quality reviewers to select from and Bracke will fall back into obscurity.

FWIW I watched this last night and this I'm sure the PQ will be disappointing to the crowd who demand every disc to look like Discovery HD. I can imagine the TV shots and RoboPOV sections will make the AVS tier-fanatics go apeshit. It's not a pretty film that's for sure. Could this have looked better? I don't know so I'll leave that opinion to the experts. It's definitely a step up from the Criterion, never bought the new SE that came out so I can't compare to that.

I can confirm this is the X-rated cut for those interested.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I can see disagreeing with any reviewer, but some of you guys are rough with your personal criticism towards Bracke. How does a person lose your respect? There are a lot of people I disagree with here, but that doesn't mean I don't respect them.

 

[Jim_K]

You may be right. To clarify things Peter Bracke may very well be a good egg, don't know him personally though.

As both a movie reviewer and a technical reviewer I just don't respect his methodology for reviewing so his opinion doesn't carry any weight with me.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Thank you, that's all I'm saying.

 

[Paul Arnette]

Exactly, Jim. It is in this capacity that he has lost my respect. Professionally, not personally, as I do not know him by any other means than his reviews. So, to Robert and anyone else that may have been confused, there's nothing personal between me and Bracke or the rest of his HDD staff; but I will admit I do get frustrated seeing the legion of followers that site has garnered who will buy HDM based on video/audio scores alone when I feel, as Jim said, their reviewing methodology is fundamentally flawed in my opinion.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Their loss, your gain is how I look at it.

 

[Paul Arnette]

That's one way to look at it, sure. Another way to look at it is what if this "legion" becomes the majority of HDM buyers. It will undoubtably affect studio's decisions about not only what titles to release on HDM, but also how they're transfered. That's what really frustrates and worries me.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I don't worry about that because I think most people that buy HDM now, don't even know that site.

 

[ppltd]

I am not sure any one would disagree with this. The only time I, and probably most others, take the reviewers comments into their buying decisions is when they are on the fence about a purchase. Robocop was one for me. I was on the fence because of the price (I bought it anyway) but the not so kind reviews may well have delayed my purchase until I had the opportunity to rent the film first.

I certainly have not always agreed with Bracke (certainly did not on his review of 'The Last Starfighter' which I found to be a very good release), and he is only one of many sources I tend to go to (Widescreen Review being another). But these reviews have allowed me to adjust my buying decisions. Halloween I rented first. The issues with the color irate me and I am not sure I will be buying the release, but the bad PQ reviews of Evil Dead II certainly will not stop me from buying the release, as it is probably the best this very low budget film will ever look.

The great reviews of 'For Love of the Game' made me take a second look at the release and I ended up buying it. All I am saying is the reviews have their place are are only one of many items that go into making a purchase decision.

 

[ppltd]

I am not sure 'the unimformed' are buying HD or BD releases and they are certainly not visiting HighDef-Review. One needs to be at least 'moderatly informed' to even know it it there. They are still in the SD camp and quite happy there.

 

[Paul Arnette]

No agenda as far as the format war is concerned. The agenda I referred to was simply about the color timing. It was clear that that was all that mattered to him. I agree it is important, but it shouldn't result in a 1.5 stars or whatever it was for picture quality, especially since the issue doesn't appear to be as cut-and-dried as some would have you believe. For more details on that, you can reference this picture here:



I'd prefer not derail this thread further re: this particular review though.

What were we talking about again? Oh, Robocop.

 

[Grant H]

I never expect Robocop to look pretty. I'm sure it's supposed to look rather dingey. Grainy in the dark scenes? Duh! The only thing that concerns me is the talk of edge enhancement. If true, that's very disappointing, especially with a supposedly new transfer.

It would be nice to have full-blown SE with Verhoeven's seal of approval on a new transfer, properly color timed, with the OAR of 1.66:1. Kooky as the guy is, he's about the only director I'd trust to give us a proper presentation of his original work. I don't see him going back and tinkering with his projects.

 

[ppltd]

Thanks for the clarification, and I agree.

 

[Mike_G]

Ok, I got my copy of RoboCop on BR the other day and played it on my PS3 and 1080p display. I see this odd.....smearing sometimes. I've never seen this on a BR or HD-DVD before (on the same 1080p display). It's like when someone's head turns, some of the picture is still there where an eye or lip was a frame or two or three before. It's very strange, but it looks like bad MPEG-2 artifacting from what I've seen before on a computer.

I have a Samsung BR player downstairs but I haven't put RoboCop on it yet so I don't know if this is a problem with my PS3 or not. Do other people see this? I saw a lot of it in the board room scene (chapter 2).

 

[Geoff_D]

Mike, I see a very similar thing on the recent BD of Dawn Of The Dead ('78), like an outline trailing behind a quick movement for a split second. Seeing as how the grain has magically disappeared in the jump from DVD to BD, I would lay the blame at excessive grain/noise reduction in that case.

As for Robo, I can't say. I'd love to pick it up but Fox are taking the piss by offering it with zero extras. I'm not adverse to buying a spangly new edition of a movie to complement any version(s) that I have already, but Fox's pricing is outrageous. I bought Top Gun on HD-DVD for one reason: that sumbit was cheap.

 

[Douglas Monce]

My problem with Bracke is that he seems to be more an AV guy than a film guy. He just doesn't seem to get the idea that a film is supposed to look a particular way. Its interesting the only negative comments he made about the PQ on Transformers was that he could see some grain and that some sections of the film had used filters. I have to assume thats why he 4 and a half stars rather than 5. I'm really not sure why you would take off points for being able to see film grain. If the HD DVD is accurately depicting the film shouldn't it get 5 stars? Maybe I'm way off base here but I think if you are doing a review of a High Def disc, it should be about how that disc shows off the movie, not how that disc shows off HD.

Perhaps Bracke needs a separate section of his review where he talks about the photographic style of the film and if he liked it or not.

Doug

 

[Duncan Harvey]

Just finished watching Robocop. Its been a number of years since I last saw it, and my MGM trilogy set was still shrink wrapped on the shelf.

I fired up the BD and was initially disappointed - especially at the treated to look like VT footage on the news etc. But once the film gets properly underway I was very pleased with the image.

I did actually open up my SD set to compare, and ugh! The SD looks horrible compared to the BD.

Would have been nice for it to be AVC and BD50 so we could have had the extras, but I'm glad I bought it. What a tremendously witty film, and a true great of the SF/satire genre.