Jaws - Robert Harris review (see post #1 for link) - Page 9

That doesnt sound good...

A tease? Here at AVS?!

I'm curious about that opening sequence at night, where they said something about SS (maybe it was someone else involved?) always having wanted that scene just a wee bit brighter, so apparently they did?

I wasn't expecting anything miraculous from Universal. They suck big time.

That pic brings kind of a meta element to the proceedings. Also, goddamnit - etc etc

Thanks for the update, Mike... as much as it sucks.

Thanks for the info, Mike.

I'll wait for a price drop before picking this one up.

Just curious: has there been a title where what is mastered on Blu-ray is less "massaged" than the print (digital or otherwise)?

Hi DVDMike

I was going to see it yesterday at my local cineworld till I noticed it was not on one of their larger screens but it was on a small screen and thought I will wait for the blu and watch on my 100"+ screen instead.

Saw Jaws this afternoon at Cineworld in West India Quay - mid size screen. It's not as bad as the re-released Jurassic Park and BTTF I saw at the cinema, but it is pretty much what I expected from Universal - there's DNR, and the image appeared brighter than I would have thought was correct (could be the cinema set up mind). If this is what ends up on BD I'd say 3.5 out of 5 might be an accurate picture score. As dvdmike says - it's not Patton, but it's not what it could have been. Still a great, great film.

I relented in teh end and decided to give it a go, I am posting here what I posted earlier today on the avforum site if you are interested.


Well just got back and what can I say!!!! I was well pleased, better than I thought it may have been considering it was on one of Cineworlds smaller screens.

It was a 2.40pm showing and there was me and one other guy in the cinema (approx 150 seater I would think) he sat about 6 seats from me on the same row (4th row from the front) the pillock was coughing spluttering and sniffing virtually all the way through the movie (twit or rather the four letter version).

Anyway the sound was in 3.1 (or sounded like it was) and was pretty good throughout, decent bass where necessary, gunshots etc had plenty of punch.

I was sitting pretty close to the screen with the image almost filling my field of vision, I did notice there was a drop off in brightness to the final right hand quarter of the screen as I was sitting effectively 5ft off from centre screen as the seats were in two blocks and I was sitting in the furthest right seat in the left hand block.

I could also detect some screen hotspotting and screen texture which may have been better had I sat a couple of rows further back and sat in the isle rather than on a seat.

I saw the trailers for Batman and Spiderman prior to Jaws and as I had not been to a commercial cinema in about 2 years thought the image quality certainly has moved on recently as prior to this I felt my 100" 1080p screen at home was as good as the cinema was a couple of years back.

Then Jaws came on and Oh my!! it was certainly the best I have even seen Jaws before, I can't remember how good it was back in 1975 picture quality wise but this must have been far better. As the movie progressed though I have to say it was a bit variable.Some sections were truly stunning and almost as good as the trailers for Batman etc but generally the quality was more than acceptable for a restored 37yr old film.There were more than a few occasions though where the quality dipped to the just about ok but thankfully it was not that often and did not spoil my enjoyment of the movie.

Overall it was definitely worth going but as I have now seen it in all it's glory I won't be rushing out to get it at full BD launch price I shall wait and pick it up later when there is a few quid off.

Anyone sitting on the fence as I was get out and see it now as you may never get the chance to see it on general release again.

Cheers

Keith

Not necessarily Lawrence of Arabia will be out soon and that should look better as does Ben Hur restoration which is stunning and can be had from amazon for less than £10.

Jaws may be out tomorrow per bluray.com.

Yea most likely not....but at least there is a sliver of hope so ill take it.

Looks to be just wishful thinking based on some sale markers that several Best Buy stores printed up and attached to the shelves. The new rumor (started by a BB employee at Blu-ray.com) is that Best Buy might have worked out a deal to have it available for sale starting on July 3rd, but it's doubtful.

Long time Jaws fanatic weighing in....

I took my son to see the re-mastered Jaws in the theater last night. It was a perfect opportunity
to see it with my son at this point, as we are vacationing at and around Martha's Vineyard this summer. It's at the Bell Lightbox theater in Toronto at the moment - a "high end" art-house theater with state of the art equipment.

It was well attended (for a 7:00 show, I'm sure they get more for the 9:30 shows) and it was a blast. It's just amazing how well the movie holds up on pretty much every level as entertainment. Though, familiarity (I guess I've seen it 50 times or so)
does bring a certain rote feeling to the process of watching it, at this point. Still probably my favorite movie.

As to how it looked: I thought it looked terrific! It was rich in color and contrast (though the projector being used doesn't do black levels like my JVC projector at home), dimensional, clear and detailed through most shots, and quite clean. It definitely had a newness about it, like watching a first print of the movie, and that also helped the movie not feel dated. It felt "vital" to watch again, seeing a print this nice. Film grain? Yup. I noticed quite a bit of fine grain in the skies during the Orca scenes. Though
I did have the feeling that some DNR had been applied in various places throughout, because sometimes it looked THAT clean. I can't say for sure though. But it didn't look oversharpened. It didn't have quite the sharpness of a high tier Blu-Ray so whatever they did I don't think they took it too far from the original look. The end result was something I was quite happy with. It brought the film alive. I remember some shots of the Orca as it is almost sunk and Brody is climbing out of it with his rifle at the climax. The Orca just sat there looking so 3 dimensional and you-are-there, it was awesome.

The only bummer visually didn't have to do with the print itself. The movie screen (quite a large one) was clearly high gain for a nice bright image, but the cost was very obvious hot-spotting to my eyes. We were only able to grab seats near on side of a row (not way off axis) and the hot-spotting nature of the screen meant it was darker on the side further from us (Gawd I hate hot-spotting...I consoled myself that I'd be able to watch it without hot-spotting at home on Blu-Ray).

Anyway...thumbs up from me!

I know they can screw up the blu ray at will, but I'm remaining cautiously optimistic about it. We don't have long to wait.

Just wanted to point out that it's interesting that news is heating up about Great White's off the coast of Massachusetts, the Carolina's and California.

PERFECT timing for a theatrical re-release in the States, but nooooooooooo...

Hmm, looks like Chicago is getting 4 showings on July 13-15th. Lucky bastards:

http://www.facebook.com/events/433898069975809/permalink/433898076642475/

Just got home. Got the feeling the shark just looked better and had surprisingly realistic eyes that I never noticed before. I then remembered someone on bluray.com heard from a guy who heard from a guy (lol) that they did do some work on Bruce's skin and eyes. Maybe it was just the restore or seeing it on the big screen but I really felt some work might of been done.

All and all looked really good. A little waxy though...

Oh.... and that horrible ADR edit is still there when Hooper is examining the swimmers remains.

Good stuff can't wait

Inside a month until release. Yes, I am counting down the days. My favorite movie will be my favorite Blu Ray.