The New PQ Tier thread for Blu-Ray - Discussion - Page 647

Chronicle

For 14 minutes, the opening is shot with DVD-era resolution including edge enhancement to spruce it up. Past that, it's generally glorious. Fantastic definition, outstanding color, and the most minor of problems. Texture is superb too.

Tier 2.25*

Do you remember which alternate scene they used when the Gremlins break into the projection booth? Was it the home video version where the screen turns into a test pattern? I didn't see it in your review on your site.

It's the film version. The VHS version is in the extra features.

The Devil Inside

Crummy video is the nature of these found footage clunkers (most of the time). Beginning with '80s era VHS and moving to sub-par, low res everything else, only a scene or two of this movie looks appealing. It's muddy, full of noise, and lacking any real fine detail.

Tier 4.0*

War Horse


I pretty much agree with every point mentioned. Implied in the remarks by Igans is that depth was very good in "close shots," which is certainly true. I was delighted with the depth and dimensionality throughout the whole film, though *some* medium and long shots suffered in this regard.

As a lover of facial details I was impressed with *most* close-ups; the texture was finely rendered revealing every wrinkle, bead of sweat, scar, etc. Definitely Tier 0 quality in this department! Details in general were striking, though here too it was somewhat inconsistent. The big war scene had moments were they fell flat with less-than-stellar detail, though there were sporadic shots that were quite compelling.

Colors were natural and vibrant throughout the many outdoor shots, whether the director was zooming in close or giving us sweeping, panoramic shots of the lush countryside.

Black levels were more than satisfactory for 90% of the movie, with exquisite shadow details in nighttime shots. Low Tier 0/high Tier 1, for sure.

If not for the soft and flat shots in the war scene I'd be tempted to nominate this for Tier Blu. Penalizing it as I must, it's still demo-worthy and I'm going to bump it up a notch from the 1.75 given by Igans (and GRG)....

Tier Recommendation: 1.5*

Pioneer 60" KURO Elite (1080p/24)...Pioneer Elite 05...Viewed from 7.5'

PS When the war scene began the audio rocked...BIG TIME. the galloping of horses and all the cannons going off had me smiling.

PPS Being a sucker for movies in this genre (i.e., "horse" movies), I found it very acceptable, not spectacular, but good enough to watch again someday.

One for the Money

Bland Katherine Heigl vehicle is tolerable without much of a push towards precision. Colors have nice variety and saturation. The encode is harmless and the contrast has energy. Blacks do too for that matter. It's fine detail where this disc will fail to find its groove, although it's never unnatural.

Tier 2.25*

The Grey

How can I sum up The GREY in a word? Let's see...how about "GRAY"...or perhaps "GRAIny." Yeah, those TWO WORDS will do.

Let's talk about GRAY. Most of the 2 Hr. running time had a consistent GRAY, muted color palette. Nothing exciting that screams EYE CANDY...but perfectly true to the solemn theme of the movie, which is one of desperation and death.

Now let's muse on GRAIny. I can't recall the last time I saw a current title with this much grain...and this grain was intrusive and downright NOISY in many scenes, especially the night scenes and the multiple daytime scenes when it snowed. It wasn't pretty, though it didn't reach Tier 5 status like 28 Days Later.

So, were there any redeeming qualities? I'm happy to say there were, and they happened to be my favorite kind of EYE CANDY....FACIAL DETAILS!! Thankfully we are treated to many facial close-ups in the second half and they don't disappoint, with the director favoring Liam Neeson AND the FACES OF WOLVES (yes, we see many angry wolves "up close and personal" and you can see every strand of their unkempt hair, the threatening yellows of their glaring eyes (at night) and the pearly whites of their ravenous teeth).

Details in general were also quite good towards the end (once they reached the wilderness and during "the river" scenes) coupled with appreciable depth. Blacks were good at times; but...you guessed it, a "dark gray" at other times.

As you can imagine from my somewhat unusual description of the PQ, this is going to be a hard call. This isn't a "black and white" situation as in other titles...instead it's a....oh, what shall I call it?...well, I'll just say there's too many "gray areas" to be certain where it belongs. But one must reach a conclusion....so after considerable deliberation I'll put it right here...

Tier Recommendation: 3.25*

Pioneer 60" KURO Elite (1080p/24)....Pioneer Elite 05....Viewed from 7.5'

Nice review Denny. Had huge expectations but looks like I have to tone it down.

Puss in Boots

Top quality presentation. Decent animated flick. Couple of soft moments but looks to be intentional and widely prevalent in modern animation. Enjoyed this better than Rango which I felt was too dragging.

Recommendation: Tier 0 (Below Rango)

Chinatown

Really nice looking transfer. Extremely filmic. Rock solid black levels, quite good dimensionality. Focus effects diminish detail around the edges of frame, but generally speaking detail is quite strong. Foliage and cloth really stand out. Facial detail is middling to very good depending on where the actor is in frame. Colors are vibrant and realistic. Grain is present and consistent. No undue DNR or EE seem evident.

Basically, this looks every bit as good as "LA Confidential," which was filmed more than 20 years later. Really excellent transfer of 1970s material. Easily trumps dvd level presentations.

Tier Recommendation: 2.0

Sony 52EX700, 8 foot viewing distance

That sounds like a fantastic transfer from your description. I've been meaning to pick it up but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Whisper Of The Heart

recommendation: Tier 2.5*

Studio Ghibli's 1995 coming-of-age tale looks fine on this edition produced by Disney. Whisper Of The Heart does not have flashy animation and the color palette stays relatively muted for animation, producing a solid transfer that is not going to knock the socks off veteran Blu-ray owners. It's possible a modicum of digital noise reduction has been used, but there is little noticeable effect on the picture quality.

The traditional cel animation looks painterly in the backgrounds but character designs are somewhat limited and simplistic in style. Set mostly in a realistic suburban environment in Japan, the story does not provide the opportunity for the type of artistic flourish the medium is best suited.

On technical matters Disney has once again done a credible and near-perfect effort on the actual transfer and encoding. Claiming to be from a new digital master, there is virtually nothing one can criticize and point to as a fault of the transfer. The BD looks to be a pristine copy of the original animation, free of visible flaws. The animation is clean enough to allow a video bitrate that frequently dips below 20 Mbps while maintaining transparency and detail.

When it comes down to it, ranking an animated title like this one is more subjective than objective. It looks perfectly fine but on the whole possesses less artistic value and demo potential than newer Studio Ghibli efforts on the format.

Hondo

Absolute gem of a 4K restoration, unfortunately downed by a source that is consistently hampered by chemical fades. At its peak, it's one of the best of the best in terms of pre-1960 catalog titles I've seen. At its worst, it's down there with the cheapest throw-away piece on the market. What a shame, but it's unavoidable.

Tier 2.75*

I figure some that follow the thread might be interested to learn I've gone pro and started reviewing BDs for DoBlu. The first one for Coriolanus went up a few days ago. After passing up opportunities to review in the past for other sites, Gamereviewgod made me an offer I couldn't refuse.

This should not impact my contributions here and the PQ Tiers will be run the same as they always have been under my guidance.

Awesome news Phantom!!

I thought you were already a PRO Phantom.

Exactly! Only now he's *officially* a pro, so we have the right to call him on the carpet when we think he's way off on his critique (like we do with the "other experts" on various websites other than this thread).

All kidding aside, congrats Phantom! You most definitely have the ability to see the good and the bad in any given title...and the gift to write it down as well. I'll certainly be reading your reviews, along with GRG's.

After I come from Facebook and then here, I am often looking for the 'like' button...

See, I'm still here.

Journey Through The Past

recommendation: Tier 5*

Solely released as part of the mammoth box set known as the Neil Young Archives, this film should be treated more as a historical document than anything else. It's enough that it exists and fans finally get to watch it years after it was made in 1972, but the picture quality is quite poor. Combining archival footage and 16mm film that is extremely rough, the final result is barely watchable. Fans will eat up the rare glimpses of Buffalo Springfield and outtakes from the Harvest sessions, but be prepared for copious amounts of grain with poor contrast and crushing.

Beyond

MEDIOCRE...that word came to mind throughout most of the 90 minute running time. There just wasn't the WOW factor that one longs for in the Blu-ray format, though I don't mean to imply that there were no redeeming features. Let me name a few:

1) Blacks were decent in most scenes, as were their corresponding shadow details.

2) Contrast rose to the occasion in most instances as well. In fact, there was one daytime scene in particular at about the 41 minute mark (and lasting 2-3 minutes) that took place in the harbor (where Jon Voight was looking for a suspect among the slips) and the white snow in the background was dazzling and served to enhance the detail quite nicely.

3) Facial details were fairly good, revealing the aging of the lead actors.

But on the negative side there were numerous shots that were soft and fell flat and this contributed to my ongoing thought that this was going to end up in the average bin (i.e. Tier 3) or close to it. My gut is dictating the following...

Tier Recommendation: 3.0*

Pioneer 60" KURO Elite (1080p/24)...Pioneer Elite 05....Viewed from 7.5'

Haywire


Once again I find myself quite tired and having found a previous review that I happen to agree with, I will take the easy way out and echo GRG's sentiments. I will add that there were some scenes (particularly towards the end) that had remarkable detail and depth, along with warm and vibrant colors (without the dreaded bronze or teal). Black levels were also pleasing at times, which is always a big plus.

Before I hit the STOP button on my Harmony Remote I said to myself, "I'm giving this one a 2.75," so I was surprised to see GRG on the same page in his placement too....

Tier Recommendation: 2.75*

Pioneer 60" KURO Elite (1080p/24)....Pioneer Elite 05....Viewed from 7.5'

Edit: I thought I should add the movie itself was DIFFERENT. I had never seen a martial arts flick that was so REAL; every fight looked like they were packing real punches and kicks and they didn't come across like super heroes either.

Ip Man

recommendation: Tier 2.5*

Ip Man is widely considered one of the best, if not the best, martial arts films of recent vintage. Unfortunately the transfer exposes severe limitations in the filmed source's cinematography and has its own problems to boot on this disc. Some moments are razor-sharp and pristine in their clarity, easily qualifying for the upper level of tier one.

That pulchritude does not hold up, especially in the darker scenes. A significant portion of General Miura's “tournaments” are shown in dim light and the picture quality becomes severely degraded with noise and constant underexposure.

Those problems do not even begin to account for the sporadic ringing seen throughout several different scenes. Ip Man's production standards are not quite up to the caliber of a Hollywood movie and the entire transfer's contrast looks slightly off here. I was surprised to see this film had a digital intermediate, that usually translates to a higher level of picture quality for the BD than what we got here.

Goon

Very bright, chipper looking film with intense primaries. Contrast is marvelous even if the black levels tend not to be. Detail is here and there, but at the peak, it's flawless. No signs of noise give this one a reality-like base that is immediately appealing.

Tier 2.0*

Lucio Fulci's Zombie

recommendation: Tier 3.5*

Blue Underground has produced an excellent BD that looks very good considering the origin and age of the film. The 91-minute Zombie was released in 1979 and has never looked better on home video. Claiming to be from the camera negative, the transfer looks pleasingly film-like with a lack of notable digital processing. Magenta has been oversaturated to some degree, leading to flesh-tones that are a bit too warm. It does provide some visual benefit to the copious amounts of blood on the screen.

Unlike several other Blue Underground BDs, Zombie does not seem to suffer from the analog noise problem that has proven bothersome in the past. Print damage is kept to an absolute minimum, with a few faint lines in a couple of scenes the only visible problem. The AVC video encode averages 22.99 Mbps and does a satisfactory job in most instances, though some early blue skies have a touch of artifacting.

Zombie on Blu-ray is not anyone's idea of a demo disc but is a clear upgrade over the DVD.

BDInfo scan (Courtesy of eNoize):
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...9#post21172809

Congrats, Phantom! GRG can spot talent, that's for sure. That probably means you'll be watching more movies!

Btw, sorry guys for the whole 8K comment on Baraka. Don't know where my head was. I just saw new packaging and thought it was a new scan.

Gone

Very film-like digital source loaded with fine detail. Texture is immense. The drab blue/orange color palette saps some of the intensity out of this one, which is a shame. Black levels are dominating and consistent.

Tier 2.25*

Insidious

recommendation: Tier 2.0

My thoughts on the disc are not that far removed from Djoberg's review. The Blu-ray has a fairly clean, sharp look to it. Outside of the persistent ringing and stark teal color palette, I found it a relatively pleasing appearance. It did have more sharpening than most new films these days, but clarity is very high for a horror movie.

BDInfo scan (courtesy of Cinema Squid):
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...9#post20732769

This Means War

Surprisingly stern grain structure that has a number of spikes, but the encode holds out. Colors are super, ultra, mega saturated at times, including flesh tones. Then, CIA headquarters turns teal, because all super computer monitors are monochrome teal, right? Fine detail is tight and focused, while black levels will skip the occasion in spots.

Tier 2.0*

I have an interesting question... does anyone know what the highest ranked blu-ray transfer for a movie made prior to 1960 is on this list?

Just out of curiosity sake, I wouldn't mind seeing just a few older films that have been given exceptional restoration treatment.

The oldest animated film in Tier 0 is Disney's Sleeping Beauty, from 1959. The highest ranked live-action film of that vintage is How The West Was Won in Tier 1.0, released in 1962. For those wondering, the oldest live-action film in Tier 0 is Baraka. It was released in 1992. There are a few older films scattered throughout Tier One. The Professionals is in Tier 1.25.

As Phantom mentioned, How The West Was Won; it's simply amazing!

Spot on. Superb looking title except for the first 14 minutes. Interesting movie but expected more. Felt a bit underplayed, lack of budget??