[AlexBC]

I've just whatched the SPHE brazilian copy of Starman and it's awesome.


Save for a few exceptions, I've been really impressed with the quality of Sony catalog releases as of lately. They seem to be striking new transfers for most of the titles:


St. Elmo's Fire, About Last Night, Starman, A River Runs Through It, Gandhi, Glory, Dr. Strangelove, La Femme Nikita, etc.


Since I'm a film enthusiast and a purist, I wish the original sound mix was included, nevertheless, the remix seems to be quite good with no new foleys (that I could make of) and not much of in the way of gimmicks. On the loudest passages though, it sounds a little harsh, but I think that's inherent to the elements and most of the old Carpenter films I've watched sound more or less like that. It also reminds very much of the CEOTTK remix.


On the video part, there's a very thin EE on some ocasions, but that's something I've found on just about every other reference title out there. So don't let that scare you away

, the imagem is really beautiful with a very natural film quality (I already see grain haters screaming).


Too bad I can't take some caps of it.



I also got Blue Thunder and a few other early releases in regarding to the US, I'll be checking them out soon.

edit: check ou post 5

 

[FoxyMulder]

Great news and Sony is one of the few companies if not the only one i now trust to buy sight unseen and without reviews.


Let us all know what the quality of Blue Thunder is like.


I really like the music score for Starman.

 

[Stevie76]

Awesome news!


Already ordered this and Blue Thunder

Must have been about 15 years since I last saw Starman, and that was a beautyful 2.35:1 presentation on regular broadcast television here in sweden.


For some strange reason I never got this one on DVD.


Anyone remember the TV series back in the 80:s??

 

[AlexBC]

Thanks guys and I agree with you Foxy regading SPHE BDs.


Even though there's been a few slips from them, even their worst are miles better than Warner's best.


When you see awesome presentations like this, with pristine film elements and excellent compression job, it makes you want to throw crappy Warner 16mbps encoded discs strait into the trash can.


From top of my mind, in regards to day-and-date releases, the only SPHE titles that have disapointed me a little are Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist (some compression problems) and Frozen River (that looks a little filtered, but it may be due to the indie roots).


On catalog titles, even though they are usually miles better than what's been put out by other studios, I've found more serious problems with Striking Distance, The Messenger, Blue Streak, National Security, So I Married An Axe Murderer, Street Fighter (international release) and a few others that don't look good.


I wish they would have struck new transfers at least for Striking Distance, The Messenger, which are the ones that interest me.

On Starman, as amazing as it may sound, I had never seen it before.


It's nice, but it hasn't aged very well. And I'm not talking about special effects (old school SFX don't bother me as much as fake CGI), but the naiveness of some aspects of the plot like:
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) Spoiler  
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) how the guy distracting the police barricade wasn't shot down to pieces;

how quick he was to offer a ride to Karen;

how Jeff and Karen got past the barricade and got a new ride;

how the SETI agent was still allowed to go around, etc



I liked the score much better than the movie (as it is with most John Carpenters movie IMO).

 

[AlexBC]



Quote:
Originally Posted by FoxyMulder /forum/post/16943254


Let us all know what the quality of Blue Thunder is like.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stevie76 /forum/post/16943593


Awesome news!


Already ordered this and Blue Thunder

You won't regret it.

Got around watching Blue Thunder and I could quote word for word what I said about Starman. Incredible!

In addition to St. Elmo's Fire, About Last Night, A River Runs Through It, The Deep, Gandhi, Glory, Dr. Strangelove, Kramer vs Kramer, if this is what we're getting from SPHE catalog from now on, I need to prep up my wallet.

 

[butsu]

I will pick this one after rejected this Starman.Also,Bluethunder,the picture and sound was great too but too little LFE.

 

[sb1]

I watched Blue Thunder recently, and still greatly enjoyed it (on television). I haven't seen Starman in a while, but I remember liking it very much. Not sure I'd buy it, though. I'd get Blue Thunder.

 

[IanRW]



Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexBC /forum/post/16943824


Even though there's been a few slips from them, even their worst are miles better than Warner's best.

I agree. How The West Was Won and Watchmen are low bit-rate VC-1 nightmares.

 

[FoxyMulder]



Quote:
Originally Posted by IanRW /forum/post/16947953


I agree. How The West Was Won and Watchmen are low bit-rate VC-1 nightmares.

You have just passed the final exam and i now award you your diploma in sarcasm. Use it wisely Obi Wan.

 

[AlexBC]



Quote:
Originally Posted by IanRW /forum/post/16947953


I agree. How The West Was Won and Watchmen are low bit-rate VC-1 nightmares.

Can't you read? I'm talking about recently released catalog titles. Watchmen clearly doesn't count and it's a bit filtered if you ask me. I took a peak at the Paramount version and it seems to be better (but I'll need to check more carefully).


And yes, HTWWW is an exception, maybe the best BD ever released. But one title obviously doesn't excuse them for all the other crap they put out. Actually it means quite the opposite: they can and should do better.

 

[AlexBC]

If we're going the day-and-date root, I could quote you dozens of SPHE titles that smoke the average, at best, (like Gran Torino, Yes Man, Nights In Rodanthe, etc) that Warner has been puting out.


But let's not turn this into a studio flame war and appreciate the great quality of the reviewed titles.

 

[Filmmaker]

Wow, all these posts and no one's asked about STARMAN's bonus features? Did any of the extras from the R2 SD-DVD get moved over to this BD or is it really, truly, inexplicably barebones?

 

[AlexBC]

It's barebones.

Though personaly, I don't really care about extras. All that matters to me is the main feature.

 

[Filmmaker]



Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexBC /forum/post/16949899


It's barebones.

Son of a m-in' f-in' B!

 

[Ray_Rogers]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Filmmaker /forum/post/16949976


Son of a m-in' f-in' B!

Looks like both you and I are going to keep the R2 Special Edition DVD. I imported mine from the UK. Such a big letdown as I was hoping the Blu would finally have those extras. The commentary is quite good.

Glad I only rented Blue Thunder and held off on purchasing it since I read somewhere online the Blu keeps all the grain and all the features from the Special Edition DVD.

Will certainly purchase A River Runs Through it and of course GLORY. I'm keeping the Special Edition 2-Disc DVD of GLORY though. Is everything ported over from it sans of course the Pan and Scan (Or Open Matted?) transfer to the Blu?

 

[Stevie76]



Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexBC /forum/post/16949899


Though personaly, I don't really care about extras. All that matters to me is the main feature.

+10


Having the movie in perfect High Def is all I care about!

 

[AlexBC]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Ray_Rogers /forum/post/16950614


Glad I only rented Blue Thunder and held off on purchasing it since I read somewhere online the Blu keeps all the grain and all the features from the Special Edition DVD.

What do you mean by 'keeps all the grain from the DVD'? DVD has no hability whatsoever of a correct reproduction of film grain, it's a distortion of grain that would be there at best.


I can't help you on Glory since I don't check extras nor do I have the DVD.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stevie76 /forum/post/16951500


+10

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stevie76 /forum/post/16951500


Having the movie in perfect High Def is all I care about!

Sure thing! I don't ask for anything else

How good is a disc that brings a thousand things like IME and stuff, yet the main feature is suffers from DNR, bad compression, etc? To me it's worth nothing.

 

[Ray_Rogers]



Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexBC /forum/post/16951577


What do you mean by 'keeps all the grain from the DVD'? DVD has no hability whatsoever of a correct reproduction on filme grain, it's a distortion of grain that would be there at best.


I can't help you on Glory since I don't check extras nor do I have the DVD.

Whoops! I meant the Blu-ray keeps the film grain from the FILM and the extras from the Special Edition DVD.

 

[jasongt06]

I cant wait to get Blue Thunder on Blu Ray.

 

[pacpisces]

Blue Thunder for me when it goes under $20 mark @ a B&M store.