Think The Blues Brothers (25th Aniv Ed) will be worth buying again? (1 Viewer)

[CaseyL]

I finally folded and Pre-ordered this thanks to the review over at the Bits. I'm interested in owning the theatrical, and that's the biggest sell for me.

 

[Alex cosmo]

Those clips are great. Nice detective work. I'm just sad the film couldn't be tracked down. Sink the Bismarck would've been a better addition than most of the stuff that was actually put back in. Maybe for the 30th anniversary Hi-D-Green-Ray version.

 

[Bill Hunt]

Yeah, I wish the footage would be found too. I suppose there's reason to hope it might still be out there somewhere, but a lot of stuff was apparently destroyed by the studio in 1985.

My question is, why weren't these three audio tracks included on the DVD? At the very least, Sink the Bismarck should have been on there, with a featurette about the lost number. The recordings I have were played by Landis on a 1980 broadcast of the Dr. Demento Show, so I suppose it's possible that the original audio masters Landis had at the time were among the things destroyed by the studio in 1985. Still, decent recordings of the tracks have obviously survived in SOME form. The Demento Show staff should have at least a good analog recording of the episode, from which clean copies of the songs could be edited for inclusion on the DVD. It's a major oversight if you ask me. Either Universal didn't know the recordings still existed, or they didn't bother to consider the idea. I'm going to try to find out.

Anyway, at least people can finally HEAR the tracks at The Bits. It's something.

 

[Dale MA]

Great job there Bill. I can't wait to check out this new DVD.

 

[george kaplan]

I double-dip a lot, but this sounds like it's one I'll be passing on.

 

[Jeff D Han]

I'll be sticking with the collector's edition and passing
on this DVD also. I like the extended cut of the film more
than the theatrical version (The Old Landmark and Minnie
The Moocher numbers are better because they are longer).

 

[Mark Lucas]

So there's no PQ or SQ differences between this new version and the last despite new encoding schemes? The old edition has tons of DNR, grain, and some EE.

 

[Dan Hitchman]

In the same vein as "That's My Momma!": "That's my Universal!!"

 

[BenjaminG]

I had the R4 previous version and my R1 new edition arrived today (for the proper pitch), and in comparison I feel the transfer is a bit brighter, and the compression looks a bit more relaxed. The previous R4 had a heap of alternate language extra audio tracks as well, which the new R1 does not have, so thats no doubt helped the compression too.

 

[Steve Tannehill]

I have a review of last night's Blues Brothers Big Screen Special Event in preparation for today's 25th anniversary DVD release. A lot of celebrities were on-hand. I'll post pictures this evening (can't get the darned uploading to work right now, argh.)

Video clips from last night are supposed to be forthcoming. I'll post them for those who could not make it.

- Steve

 

[Shane_M]

To have the original theatrical version is always worth the double dip for me. I like to have originals I guess. I have all 6 version LOTR and same goes for a bunch of other films in my collection.

I feel like dancing crazy right now... hut. hut. hut.

 

[Steve Tannehill]

Clips from the event are now online in the other thread. Enjoy!

- Steve

 

[Parker Clack]

I watched the DVD last night and it has never looked better and the 5.1 surround was fantastic. I set there with a smile on my face the whole time.

Parker

 

[Steve Tannehill]

That was why I could not leave the theater. I had honestly intended to watch the Master Storytellers segment, watch a bit of the movie, then go home to write it up. By the time the Penguin had broken her ruler, I was hooked. Man, could I use a nap right now, but it was worth it.

- Steve

 

[Bill Hunt]

Which theater did you attend, Steve? I was actually at the Chinese Theater for the live session. Pretty cool.

By the way, I asked Landis about those deleted songs we posted (Sink the Bismarck, etc), and his response was: "Oh, I should have given them to Universal for the new DVD! I can't believe I didn't think of that before now." Then he joked that he'd make sure they were on the 30th Aniversary Edition. So I guess we're going to get dipped again in 5 years. It certainly was an interesting evening. ;-)

 

[Mark Lucas]

What did you think of the presentation quality, Bill? I was there too. I sat right behind Landis and his mother during the entire movie. I bet he was thinking "jeez, I really should've pushed to do a new transfer. This is fricking awful! And why are they using a cheap digital projector used for slides to show the movie on? I could've let them use the 35mm print I have in the trunk of my car!"

 

[Steve Tannehill]

A few photos from Monday's event are now online.



Of the 80 theaters across the country where this was broadcast, I was at the screening in Dallas, with 12 other fans of the movie who wanted to know why it had not been advertised anywhere. I talk about it in the other thread (linked above).

- Steve

 

[Patrick McCart]

I finally got this...

just by comparing the old DVD with the two versions on the new DVD...

The extended version looks mostly the same. Same color timing, same slightly blown out contrast, slight edge enhancement, and DVNR.

However, the new DVD gives the extended version an extra GB of space. There were some serious compression problems in the old DVD and they're gone in the new extended side.

As for the theatrical... it lacks the edge enhancement and DVNR. I'm guessing it's from the same source as the bulk of the extended cut, but they didn't add all that filtering. As a result, there's a ton of fine detail visible again. The contrast is much better, too.

 

[Dale MA]

Does anyone know if the Canadian release of this has a bilingual cover?

 

[Patrick McCart]

I finally watched the theatrical cut in full...

The audio on that version is only 2.0 stereo, but it IS encoded for prologic surround. Much like the 2.0 stereo surround track on American Graffiti, it's fantastic. The surrounds are almost always active. All it's missing is actual 5.1 encoding.