What Blu-Ray did you watch last night?

[Ken Finch]

Screened this version a number of times for various grandchildren staying with us for sleep overs. Also the Johnny Depp version. Also took two of them to the cinema to see the recent prequel. Not sure if it is out on dvd or Blu-ray.

[Graham Ritchie]

Last night the store I was visiting was having a sale and highly recommend it

[Graham Ritchie]

Guess what I was watching on blu-ray last night?.

Oh! for the fan of this movie and lots of money you can buy this from Imprint, sadly its way out of my price range, but be in quick folks if you want one as its a limited run.

[Graham Ritchie]

Tonight, another screening of the 1977 film "Islands In The Stream" released onto blu-ray by Imprint, its one of those film I like to watch every so often, tonight being one. George C Scott was brilliant. My understanding it was filmed in 1976 and released in 1977. The transfer to blu-ray is very good indeed, I will include a couple of previous screen shots to show the picture quality. I used the Epson VP tonight.

[Steve Klare]

Last night I watched The Dying of the Light, a 2015 documentary by Peter Flynn about the end of film projection in commercial cinemas. This is a look at the lives of the men and women in the booth historically and especially in those years 2010 and later when digital projection was really displacing film.

It shows the projectionist at a Drive-In theater dismantling the 35mm machines after their end of season: he brought them home to save them from the scrap heap. He says he needs to find another job, but there s nothing else he feels as passionate about (In the epilogue, it says he retired.) In another sequence, the ticket booth attendant/snack bar worker/usher/janitor/plumber-electrician/projectionist/manager of a small town theater in Michigan is talking about the dilemma he was facing given the end of 35mm prints plus the high cost of digital conversion. He wasn't sure what could be done to save the theater (-it closed down soon afterwards.).

There is a generous amount of loading film onto platters and threading up, plus some demonstrations of two-machine changeovers. There are also sequences of equipment collectors climbing up into long abandoned booths trying to salvage what they can.

There is also a lot of in-person discussion of what the lives of a cinema projectionist were like and how they were quickly changing. This reminded me of another film I have: Black Five, about the end of steam on British railways. In both cases people in the film discuss how new technology is easing (-while also maybe even eliminating) their jobs and yet how they will miss the satisfaction of working with the old technology and the pride they got from producing the best results by virtue of their own skill and ingenuity. (It's not the same when everything is automatically done.)

Forum members Mitch Dvoskin and Joe Vanicola both appear in the film. (Joe also appears at CineSea!)

Peter Flynn has another film that is currently making the rounds of independent cinemas and recently showed on Turner Classic Movies. Film is Dead, Long Live Film! is about people like you and me: film collectors, and what their lives are like and the benefit they provide in preserving film and the practices and culture of film based cinema. Many people that I consider to be friends are in this one because Peter and his camera have been attending CineSea since well back into the Ocean Holiday era. One of the areas where it really shines is by interviewing family members of film collectors: their comments and expressions are priceless! (-and often vaguely...familiar!)

We saw a late edition of Film is Dead... at CineSea 25 and really enjoyed it.

[Graham Ritchie]

Watched "Went The Day Well" again a couple of nights ago, in some ways its theme of Germans taking over an English village is similar to "The Eagle Has Landed", however "Went The Day Well" was in made in 1942 and is certainly more violent. Its a blu-ray that is well worth looking out for, here are a couple of past screen shots.

Tonight being Saturday it is was back again to watching a movie with English Sub-titles, this DVD I picked up called "Central Station" I had never seen this movie before but after watching it I am not surprised it received a number of awards back in 1998. I would certainly recommend watching "Central Station" its outstanding in every way.

Both projected using the Panasonic VP.

[Graham Ritchie]

Double feature tonight.

Last week on my rounds I came across "Ma Vie En Rose" in a second hand pile of DVDs, thinking mmmm what is this about? anyway after reading the reviews I thought I will give this one a go. It turned out to good movie and very well made, so if you don't mind English sub-titles, do give it a go. I notice it has a "R" rating overseas, but on the DVD its not "R" rated, stating only BBFC suitable for persons 12 years and over. In truth I really didn't see anything wrong with this film that would restrict it.

So after a short break it was back to another blu-ray screening of "Jurassic Park 3" I remember running the 35mm print at the cinema long ago and thought then and still do its a enjoyable full on action adventure

Both movies picture quality and sound are excellent using the Panasonic VP


Plus a couple of screen shots of JP 3 taken tonight



Trailer for "Ma Vie En Rose"

[Graham Ritchie]

Thanks Ed that's great, I notice its region "A" I will check out if there is a region "B" and review of a release

[Ed Gordon]

Tonight being Saturday it was time to sit back with the blu-ray and the Panasonic VP with a a 60s winner of six Academy Awards from 1968 and that is "Oliver." They really made some brilliant musicals back then and this was certainly one of them, what a great way to spend a Saturday night. I hope this release although it does look good, is one title that gets that 4K transfer in the future, it certainly deserves it...

Graham, your wish has been granted:




The review at https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Olive...lu-ray/293230/ is very good, but the review says the disc he reviewed had problems:

...I experienced severe pixilation and an audio dropout at the 25:41 mark. Chapter skipping resolved the issue but rewinding and replaying the scene did not. There was no evidence of dirt or grime on the disc. Cleaning the disc did not resolve the issue; as it is, my copy of the movie is unplayable without manual manipulation to skip through the trouble area.

However the review of the UHD was very good.

[Mike Newell]

Tonight being Saturday it was time to sit back with the blu-ray and the Panasonic VP with a a 60s winner of six Academy Awards from 1968 and that is "Oliver." They really made some brilliant musicals back then and this was certainly one of them, what a great way to spend a Saturday night. I hope this release although it does look good, is one title that gets that 4K transfer in the future, it certainly deserves it

However I must add, I do have the Super 8 Scope trailer shown below

Nice trailers. Wonder how many films and tv shows Patrick Allen narrated in his lifetime? Such a distinct voice.

[Graham Ritchie]

Tonight being Saturday it was time to sit back with the blu-ray and the Panasonic VP with a a 60s winner of six Academy Awards from 1968 and that is "Oliver." They really made some brilliant musicals back then and this was certainly one of them, what a great way to spend a Saturday night. I hope this release although it does look good, is one title that gets that 4K transfer in the future, it certainly deserves it

However I must add, I do have the Super 8 Scope trailer shown below

[Graham Ritchie]

Brilliant....

[Graham Ritchie]

Tonight it was back to projecting 35m film , but last night and the night before it was these two from the 80s

a couple of quick screen shots

Long before Spielberg did A.I there was D.A.R.Y.L a good 80s movie.


"Outland" well basically its "High Noon" is space brilliant soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith. I can't imagine this film without it. We watched it at the cinema way back in 82 and still like to watch it every so often.

[Graham Ritchie]

Last night and after its delivery from Amazon a couple of weeks ago, I got around to screening from the "Criterion Collection" the blu-ray release of "The Kid", for a film that was made 100 years ago, they have done a amazing 4K transfer of this classic. The picture quality is really something with so much more image detail than the previous DVD release. This is a must have for any film collector, I also watched some the extras than came with it afterwards. Criterion have excelled themselves with this blu-ray. I still can't figure how they can obtain such quality from a 100 year old film.

Now to add just one thing, my previous DVD from Image of this title has a longer running time so a small part has been left out. In saying that,the slightly shorter version I feel is much better, this is the shorter one Charlie Chaplin wanted to release sometime around the 1970s. The "Image Entertainment" DVD below, is the only release you will find being the full length.

To follow on from Jackie Coogan huge success in "The Kid" Image has also released "Oliver Twist", this is another DVD I bough new from the US many moons ago and is also worth looking out for.

Back to Criterion blu-ray of ""The Kid" get it while you can, you wont regret it.


The Image DVD



And lastly this one

[Ed Gordon]

I had seen this one a few years ago, and enjoyed it. Yesterday I watched the 3D Bluray version.



The use of 3D in Dredd avoided the gimmick of hurling stuff into your face, but instead used it to give the sense of depth. The screen became a window you see the action through. If you can only find a 2D version, you will still enjoy it. No time is wasted on credits; the action starts immediately and the fast pace continues (much like the Bourne movies) for 90 minutes.