Here's some of what I've been watching on Blu-Ray lately... Halloween - John Carpenter's scary--though not gory--boogeyman flick can still give you chills. Great transfer makes it look better than ever (though some debate rages about the proper color timing for some scenes). Recommended. (7/10). 2001: A Space Odyssey - mind-blowing sci-fi film that opens with the dawn of man and ends with...some kind of transcendence. Raises big questions and leaves you to answer them; you'll love it or you'll hate it. Awesome transfer lets you see all the details in Kubrick's world. HIGHLY Recommended. (9/10) Mr. Brooks - enjoyable thriller with Kevin Costner as a man with a strange addiction: murder. Demi Moore's the cop trying to bring him in. Decent transfer. A commentary and some light extras. Probably a good rental. (6/10). The Shining - some find Kubrick's entry in the horror genre--which takes considerable liberties with Stephen King's original story about a couple and their young son staying in an isolated hotel for the winter and the gradual turning insane of the husband--too long and Jack Nicholson's performance over the top. Works for me, though. Recommended. (7/10) Spider-Man 3 - third installment of the web-slinging superhero series tries to do too much and nearly overwhelms with spectacle, but I still find the movie very entertaining. Beautiful transfer. Recommended for most, HIGHLY recommended for a demo disk. (8/10) Close Encounters of the Third Kind - the first of Spielberg's films to hit either HD format, CE3K remains a terrific film 30 years after its release. Richard Dreyfus is delightfully manic and the resolution of the plot--aliens making contact--remains awe-inspiring. Damned fine transfer, too. HIGHLY recommended. (8/10) Alexander - the final cut (?) of Oliver Stone's biopic about the Macedonian youth who conquered the world moves along better, but it's still overlong and overwrought. Beautiful transfer and an interesting commentary by Oxford historian Robin Lane Fox are big selling points (for me, anyway). (7/10) Ratatouille - a terrific animated movie about a rat who fulfills his dream of becoming a chef in a Paris restaurant. It works on every level. Absolutely gourgeous transfer, plenty of extras on the making of the film. HIGHLY recommended. (9/10)
I'm watching Bad Santa right now, the picture is fantastic and I love this movie. A great demo disc is Blue Planet, which is a documentary about the Earth with a lot of NASA participation and great shots from Space. It looks amazing. I think you rated The Shining too low, it really shows how well old movies can clean up with Blu Ray. I'd give it 8/10. Day of the Dead has been the only disappointment for me so far. I think it's because I thought the movie was boring, full of bad acting, and I wasn't that impressed with the quality either. Babel was a terrible boring and pointless movie, but it looked great on BD. I'm looking forward to Seasons 5 and 6 of the Sopranos when I get to them on my blockbuster list. Ohhh, I watched American Psycho last night and it is spectacular. I highly recommend it. 8/10
Good to hear this is a good disk; I was thinking of picking this one up. I also wanted to see 'Roving Mars.' I think you may be right. I was never really a huge fan of 'Day' and Highdefdigest.com rated the transfer pretty weak, so I passed on it. DAWN, however, absolutely rocks on Blu-Ray, even if HD does reveal the weaknesses of some of the makeup effects. Another one I might consider!
Oh, Live Free or Die Hard is a great disk! I watched it last night. Transfer is beautiful, I enjoyed the film, and there are some good extras. Best line: "You're probably still on hold with the 'send me another dead Asian hooker bitch.'" Reviews on the first three Die Hards coming soon!
Good to know, that one is on the way in the mail right now along with Evil Dead 2. I also want to see the Planet Earth series which is on my blockbuster list. So far I only own 300 and Bad Santa(got this one for 19), but I'm looking to add to that list. I'm also considering picking up one of those 1080i HD-DVD players for 100. There are quite a few things on HD-DVD that I want to see, Star Trek TOS in HD for one. Maybe I'll just see if I can get my gf to get me one of those for Christmas or something.
The word on Evil Dead 2--a movie I was really looking forward to--is that the transfer is pretty weak, yielding a picture not much better than an upconverted DVD. If you see different, let me know. I'd like to add this one to the collection if it actually looks good.
Evil Dead 2 - It looked better than it did when I saw it on DVD but still wasn't up to Blu-Ray quality. Dirty Dancing - (yes I rented this one for me ) My girlfriend chose the movie last night and I have to say it was quality. Tonight it's my choice, Mission Impossible 3. I'm looking forward to this one.
I read on highdefdigest.com that Evil Dead had a pretty weak transfer (not much better than an upconverted DVD was what they said, IIRC) so I passed on it even though I'm a pretty big fan of the film. OTOH, MI:3 is supposed to be pretty damned solid. (Edit: in fact, highdefdigest.com rated MI:3 so highly, it attained the rare 'Must Own' recommendation; I think I'll be buying a copy...)
MI:3 Best movie on Blu-Ray so far. I will probably buy it in a few months when I'm ready to see it again.
Blockbuster online sent me 2 copies of the Bonus Disc of Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl and NO MOVIE AT ALL!!! It's bad enough that they count a bonus disc as one of your rentals and force you to take it with the movie, but now they're just wasting my rentals all together. Fuckin cockbags.
Can't you just go to the local Blockbuster and swap in one of the bonus discs for the real thing? Meanwhile, do you really need to see Johnny Depp screwing up in front of the camera in high definition? It sucks that they count the bonus disc as an extra rental, but at the same time, is it something you're seriously invested in?
Pirates of the Caribbean 1 and 2 were both 8.5/10 visually. I'll have to check out 3 when it comes out next week.
PotC3 is supposed to be a pretty good disk. Highdefdigest.com gives it a 4/5 on video, which is pretty strong (if not stellar) performance. I watched The Omega Man (which looks incredible for a 36 year old movie!) and Die Hard with a Vengeance over the weekend and am happy to report that they're both good disks. (Funny thing about The Omega Man: although it's supposed to take place in a future where Charlton Heston's character is the last normal man alive, the disk has SO MUCH DETAIL that, in some of the shots which have the city in the background, you can see moving cars and people waaaaaaaaaay in the distance. I bet you could never see that much detail in the DVD version.) Also, I did the firmware upgrade on my PS3 a few weeks back and since then have had absolutely NO issues with it.
I've been updating my PS3 every time a new upgrade comes out. I use it to play Resistance Fall of Man online a lot so I have to keep it up to date. I haven't had a single problem with it yet.
No, Vengeance is #3, the one with Samuel Jackson. #4 is a terrific disk (good video, good audio, good extras), but if you don't care for the movie itself then you should skip it. I had to have it simply because I'm going to get all the footage of Mary Elizabeth Winstead I can gather. (And, actually, I liked 4; it's probably my 2nd favorite of the Die Hard series.)
The Sopranos Season Six Part 2 is freakin outstanding. 9.25/10 I didn't get to see The Sopranos in HD while it was on the air, now I do on Blu-Ray and it's just awesome.
Die-Hard 2: Die Harder - decent disk, movie is fun but falls quite a bit short of the original. (6/10) Dir Hard: With a Vengeance - decent transfer, better than DH2 but connection with the original harms rather than helps by reminding us of a better film. (7/10) Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - pretty good transfer (not as good as PotC2, though) and lots of good effects, but I think this franchise is ready for Davy Jones' locker. (7/10) The Omega Man - terrific transfer for a film this old (check out that opening sequence!) but the film itself is pretty clunky and ridiculous. I love you, Chuck Heston, but you just don't seem right for this story. (5/10) Speed - prototypical action film holds up well after all these years, transfer is pretty good. (7/10) Cast Away - not all the way finished with it yet (paused to get dinner), but the transfer is very good. The movie? Hanks carries the film well, but that ending just can't satisfy. (7/10)
Galapagos is a great Demo Disk. It really has some great visuals. Rock Band is cutting into my Blu Ray time for now.
Maybe HD is too good. I just watched the opening to 'The Omega Man' again; every time I do, I see moving cars and people who aren't supposed to be there in the background. I noticed a moving pickup truck and a person walking on the sidewalk this time around. I also noticed that the 8-track Heston puts in at the beginning is labelled 'Frank Sinatra' but it isn't a Sinatra song that plays. These details would, I'm sure, be totally obscured in the DVD or VHS versions...
That's actually what eliminated the on-screen in-jokes on Enterprise. The studio didn't want the graphic designers to essentially have free license to communicate directly with the audience.
Well, what happened was back in the day, on TNG, DS9, and VOY, the graphic designers that created the control panels on the ship added in a lot of in-jokes. While they tapered off in later years, TNG was most famous for them - things like the tiny airplane on the giant Engineering schematic of the E-D, a readout in Sickbay of the current patient's health insurance information, etc. Those little ID stickers that appeared on everything often had the most, filled with dozens of jokes and references to the graphic designers friends, loved ones, etc. Hell, I even seem to recall a certificate from the Daystrom Institute or something that was basically one giant Hitchhiker's Guide joke if you could actually read it on-screen. Thing was, you couldn't. There would be very, very rare shots where you could see in-jokes, but those were only where people on-set forgot to cover over the jokes with tape. Anyway, as Enterprise was, I think, one of the first TV series to shoot with HD digital cameras, Paramount was concerned that not only would the jokes create too much prep work per-shot, but also that if someone missed something, the resolution would be good enough that it could be read on anyone with a decent television, live, rather than something someone advanced frame-by-frame on a tired old VHS cassette might manage to catch a glimpse of. Hell, just look at how people have gone over that shot in Through A Mirror Darkly where it showed the Enterprise crew bios. If Paramount wasn't going with the somewhat intelligent policy of appearing to forget Enterprise ever existed, that would create a major problem for them - fans would claim that anything that appeared on-screen is canon, so that display readout would qualify. At the same time, it was material written by a graphic designer (IIRC?), who might not be the best person to determine the ultimate destiny for these characters.
Can't really blame them for that. They were stupid from the start to allow Berman and Braga to have as much control over the creative aspect of that series as they did. Had someone like Coto even been more involved from day 1 things might have turned out better generally speaking for the series.
Fry's Electronics in Plano has a huge Blu-Ray sale going. I just bought 4 movies for $10 each. 28 Weeks Later X Men Last Stand Black Hawk Down The Patriot I also bought Donnie Brasco the other day. Now I've got some watching to do.
Bought 3 of the Harry Potters last night (Stone, Chamber, Goblet), watched the first. Looks great in Blu-Ray. The 5th (I'll pick up in a few days) got a 5-star (highest) video and audio review from highdefdigest.com...
