Blu-ray Review Thoroughly Modern Millie Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[Malcolm R]

Who is this kino insider? A rep for the company?

From the Kino Announcements thread. I believe this is all we know:

Home Theater Forum is very excited to welcome KINO LORBER INSIDER, a representative
of Kino Distribution, who will be providing the membership with the latest Blu-ray and DVD
catalog announcements.

 

[usrunnr]

I think we are stuck with it as is and just listen to your DVD if you want to hear the roadshow music in stereo.

I'll have to check, but I think the old CD has the instrumentals all in stereo as well. ????

 

[roxy1927]

The lp did but there seems to be some confusion as to if the instrumentals match what is part of the roadshow presentation.
I never got the CD. Is it an exact duplication of the lp or does it have additional cuts?

The lp sounds terrific.

 

[dukiejosh54]

I compared both the Overture from the DVD and Blu-ray with my sound system and I honestly didn't think there was a huge difference. The DVD's audio is only in dolby digital which means it's highly compressed, so it's still not going to sound as good as it should.

 

[GlennF]

I'm just jealous that you all have it. Amazon.ca does not have it. DeepDiscount is out of stock. Grrrr!

 

[haineshisway]

I was just about to get the DVD. Glad I didn't pull the trigger. Will live with that great 60s stereo lp sound.

Yep, they say "we've only sold 800 copies" like that's anyone's fault but their own. Then they add, "We pressed 1200 (why so low?) and are sitting on 400 and no one is out of them. Well, oops. But they're too busy announcing another hundred titles for January.

 

[Will Krupp]

I'm just jealous that you all have it. Amazon.ca does not have it. DeepDiscount is out of stock. Grrrr!

Glenn, DeepDiscount.com is showing it as available and on sale. Is it a different site for Canada?

 

[usrunnr]

Mine shipped today from Best Buy. Ordered yesterday after cancelling my Amazon order.

 

[MartinP.]

I feel lucky that we still have hard copies and people who produce them. Discouraging demands to recall something based on intermission music isn't helping our ability to have access to older films or discs. I am glad there are people out there taking notice, but the disc looks great and is a gem for any personal library.

I have to agree. The film looks better than ever on this restored Blu-Ray release and yet the complaints are about intermission music. If people want to have the full roadshow experience I suggest they play the film, miss part of the Overture as you, or most people, would be talking and getting settled in. When the Intermission music starts go to the bathroom and then go to your kitchen and get some popcorn or other preferred snack and then come back into the room for the second act. When the Exit Music starts leave the room. The full Roadshow Experience.

If that is how the general readers of this site feel about restored movies with mistakes, I feel sorry for everyone.

Why is Mono a mistake and not an option? One might sound better to someone, but now Josh in the above post (#144) thinks the DVD and Blu-Ray don't sound that much different.

And you all know how this is going to end, right?

Spoiler

It already has.

 

[KPmusmag]

I'll have to check, but I think the old CD has the instrumentals all in stereo as well. ????

The CD is all stereo and the programming is identical to the original LP release.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I think some people are being rude as what happened on that other forum has no bearing on how we treat people here. Let's stop it now! Posts have been deleted as I'm trying to get this thread back on track. Any further such posts that are personal insults towards the Kino Insider will be deleted and thread bans issued. If you need to discuss this warning further with me then PM me as there won't be a public debate about it. Again, treat people with respect when posting about them here on the HTF.

 

[MBrousseau]

I finally got the chance to watch Kino’s Blur-ay of Thoroughly Modern Millie yesterday. My package finally arrived safe in Canada after 16 days in transit and it was shipped International Express… So, it was really anticipated but rapidly I’ve been cooled off when I sit and watched the movie on my 65” 4K OLED. With all due respect, I think Matt Hough’s review was a little bit overated as for the video and audio specifications. I was so excited to see how the movie was looking with this 4k restoration claimed by Kino on the back side of the Blu-ray jacket. Of course, this is high definition and it shows more details than the previous Universal’s DVD of 2003, but not much. Surprisingly, to my taste, there is not much improvement between the DVD and the blu-ray. I am not impressed. I was expecting greater definition, much finer grain, camera depth, better color rendition… You know? A lot of 60’s and 70’s movie have been scanned in 4K before and there is no comparison between the DVD and the Blu-ray. This leads me to believe that, even though this is a 4K scan restoration, it has NOT been proceeded using the original camera negatives like it should have been. I have asked Kino on their public Facebook, when they announced the release of TMM, if the scan was performed on the camera film negatives but they never answered me back. It’s pretty obvious to me now that Kino received from Universal a 4K scan from a positive film copy of the movie. Maybe Universal is keeping the best one for their own release in the future?

Same thing for the stereo soundtrack. How can a stereo soundtrack from a 6 track stereo movie can deserve a 5/5 rating? I was expecting a real surround remaster or at least a 3.0 audio spec. Sure, the stereo audio is very clear and sharp. Better than the DVD but still no spatialization. I wished the dialogs would have been concentrated in the center and no bleeding on the sides where the music stands.

A nice bonus would have been to enjoy an audio track with music only.

And finally, what about those three inserts in the movie (Overture-Intermission-Exit) formerly in stereo on every previous medias but not this time. Now, a band new restored MONO audio!

This is not a definitive blu-ray version of the film. I believe Universal should get working on something I know could be done to satisfy the fans.

Blu-ray

DVD

 

[GlennF]

Glenn, DeepDiscount.com is showing it as available and on sale. Is it a different site for Canada?

Thanks for looking, Will, but once I put it in the cart it says out of stock. I get the same thing with Ziegfeld Follies, Annie Get Your Gun, Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex and In the Good Old Summertime. Some of the Warners ones have been a couple of months now.

 

[dukiejosh54]

I think Matt Hough’s review was a little bit overated as for the video and audio specifications. I was so excited to see how the movie was looking with this 4k restoration claimed by Kino on the back side of the Blu-ray jacket. Of course, this is high definition and it shows more details than the previous Universal’s DVD of 2003, but not much. Surprisingly, to my taste, there is not much improvement between the DVD and the blu-ray

I have to politely disagree. I think there is a pretty big difference between the DVD and the Blu-ray. The clarity alone on the blu-ray is miles better. The colors on the blu-ray pop a bit more compared to the dull colors on the DVD. I don't think Matt's review is overrated in my personal opinion.

 

[Rob W]

I'm just jealous that you all have it. Amazon.ca does not have it. DeepDiscount is out of stock. Grrrr!

Not sure where you are in Toronto, but Bay St Video on Bay just south of Bloor St has it in stock.

Picked mine up last week. Plenty of copies there today when I was in the store. (And all of the Warner Archive titles you mentioned are also in stock. Wait 'til you see Elizabeth and Essex !! )

 

[RolandL]

Same thing for the stereo soundtrack. How can a stereo soundtrack from a 6 track stereo movie can deserve a 5/5 rating? I was expecting a real surround remaster or at least a 3.0 audio spec. Sure, the stereo audio is very clear and sharp. Better than the DVD but still no spatialization. I wished the dialogs would have been concentrated in the center and no bleeding on the sides where the music stands

Never released in 70mm 6 track.

 

[roxy1927]

The music for the menu of Millie is in stereo. Sounds really good.
So the film is in 4 track?

 

[Will Krupp]

I don't think Matt's review is overrated in my personal opinion.

I'm with you on this.

While I agree wholeheartedly with Matt's assessment of this particular disc, I'd also like to take a moment to stand up for him personally since I believe he's too much of a gentleman to do it himself. Matt is a reviewer through and through and he's no rookie. Unlike many online opinion pieces, his reviews follow the unwritten code that says you review what's in front of you as opposed to judging something against the perfect version of it (whatever that may be) you've created in your head. I admire that.

Now that the internet has made us all casual film/disc critics and supercharged our opinions, I can't tell you the number of times I've seen people fall into this (in my opinion) "bad faith" trap over the course of writing non-professional reviews.

 

[MBrousseau]

I'm with you on this.

While I agree wholeheartedly with Matt's assessment of this particular disc, I'd also like to take a moment to stand up for him personally since I believe he's too much of a gentleman to do it himself. Matt is a reviewer through and through and he's no rookie. Unlike many online opinion pieces, his reviews follow the unwritten code that says you review what's in front of you as opposed to judging something against the perfect version of it (whatever that may be) you've created in your head. I admire that.

Now that the internet has made us all casual film/disc critics and supercharged our opinions, I can't tell you the number of times I've seen people fall into this (in my opinion) "bad faith" trap over the course of writing non-professional reviews.

Please gentlemen... don't get me wrong. I simply expressed my thoughts about the video and audio quality of that Blu-ray, starting with Mr. Hough’s review as reference. I am not attacking his professional judgment. I am not here to start a fight or to gain members on my side. I compared the DVD to the Blu-ray to objectively see the differences between the two. I made my opinion watching both. Bad faith has nothing to do with it.

 

[RobertSiegel]

I compared both the Overture from the DVD and Blu-ray with my sound system and I honestly didn't think there was a huge difference. The DVD's audio is only in dolby digital which means it's highly compressed, so it's still not going to sound as good as it should.

but one is mono and one is full stereo, also same with the intermission and exit music. Surely you can hear the channel separation on the DVD, it's great stereo too.