What Blu-Ray did you watch last night?

[Graham Ritchie]

Two nights ago it was once again the blu-ray of "Cinema Paradiso" Its been a while since I had last watched it, "Cinema Paradiso" seems more important now to watch, than it might have been before, due to the fact film projection is all but gone at cinemas these days.

The blu-ray quality is really excellent, the soundtrack is in Italian with English subtitles which is how it should be. On the DVD side of things, the four disc box set I bought a while ago, is what to go for. Its a excellent box set nicely presented. and for those who don't like sub-titles, then you will only find that on the US HBO dvd release Region one Italian or English dubbing. I bought that one before, I bought the Arrow Box set and the blu-ray version also I think its now out on 4K.

All the versions wither on blu-ray or DVD have a aspect ratio of 16:9 and are of excellent picture and sound quality that I have come across, for anyone interested in the cinema, then "Cinema Paradiso" is a must to watch.

[Graham Ritchie]

If there was ever a book about the sea and the Second World War, this is the one to read, Its been a very long time since I last read it. The film version is one of the best on the subject. Tonight it was once again projected using the Epson VP. The picture and sound quality is excellent and its one blu-ray I would highly recommend.

[Graham Ritchie]

Last night it was the 2D version of Hugo in saying that if you get the chance to watch it also on 3D its very impressive, usually I would watch it in 3D but last night try out the 2D. The blu-ray picture quality is outstanding. Its interesting to note the movie is in a 1:85:1 ratio, but my 35mm trailer screen shots taken below are in Scope. Its not the first time I have come across 35mm trailers in Scope with the feature release in flat, interesting.

Anyway apart from the blu-ray cover shown just below, the screen shots are from a 20 minute 35mm Scope trailer reel that I run through the Ernemann 2 projector every so often


And now for the 35mm film print.

[Douglas Meltzer]

Don Rickles was surprisingly good in Kelly's Heroes!

[Graham Ritchie]

I always liked "Where Eagles Dare" along with Ron Goodwin score. The 3/400 Super 8 from MGM I always thought was one of the best edit jobs around, still rate it highly. "Where Eagles Dare" was in my mind, a typical 1960s war movie. I still watch the blu-ray every so often

[Mike Newell]

Double bill of Clint. Where Eagles Dare & Kelly Heroes. I have watched Where Eagles Dare a zillion times on all formats. It still holds up well after all those years but have to admit Burton is a bit annoying with his typewriter delivery of the twists and turns in the story. Clint apparently handed dialogue to him and he comes out on top. Another downer is the state of some of the actors Richard Burton and Donald Huston look decrepit and old. The action scenes which the double did particularly the cable cars. Amazing how Clint and Mary hit every German they shoot at every time. The 3x400 digest 51-54 minutes really did grasp the spirit of a 2 and half hour Film.

Kelly Heroes has aged better but then it was a comedy. Great cast and story. Oddballs Donald Sutherland is still a strange character 1960s hippie in WW2. Positive Waves.

[Graham Ritchie]

One of the interesting things about both those films below is that they were written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, and in both cases he is in it as well, With "The Sixth Sense" I picked up, that he was the hospital doctor, with "Signs" he there neighbour. Both good movies. There are some real good bargains out there in blu-ray land, combine it with Video projection and we really have it made .

PS I only have the 35mm trailer for Signs and its a good one I will have too look for a Sixth Sense one, better still 35mm prints of the features would be a nice find

[Douglas Meltzer]

I did not know about the book. I do know that John Morris' score is perfect for that film. I wish the Piccolo digest included the Paul Newman wheelchair chase.

[Osi Osgood]

Here's some really neat trivia about "Silent Movie"! When the film came out, there was a novelization of the film, which was really just the script. It was paperback, but what was really neat about it, was that all four corners of the paperback, had a complete "flip book" of four individual short scenes from the film! You had, Mel Brooks making funny faces on one, Dom Deluise eating corn on the cob and spitting it up, Marty Feldman saying naughty things to a nurse on stairs and getting whacked, and one other one which I can't remember, off hand. So, this almost one of a kind paperback book was not only about the film "Silent Movie" but also even had four genuine silent movies on all four corners of the book!

[Steve Klare]

We're in kind of a Mel Brooks phase: last night it was Silent Movie.

It's interesting with our discussion of streaming video this week: in this case my son couldn't find it being streamed anywhere. (That's his job: I just know where all the 8mm and 16mm films are!) So in this case we had to find the disk.

It's good that we liked it!
.

"-No!"

[Graham Ritchie]

Came across this blu-ray in the $2 pile in excellent condition when we were out and about two days ago. I have not watched anything of "The Sixth Sense" since I ran the 35mm print many moons ago. The film itself did really well at the cinema, that I do remember and tonight with the help of the Epson VP, watched it. Both the blu-ray picture and sound quality was really excellent. The cast in particular, Bruce Willis was I think one of his best films he has made. The story was top notch, keeps you guessing until the end. Although I did run the film print long ago, I could not remember much about the film itself. Well tonight made up for that, I really enjoyed watching it and I guess to sum it up as, a good nights entertainment.

[Ed Gordon]

Is The Birds really "Alfred Hitchcock's second scariest movie" ?

In my opinion, that is a hard NO!. I watched this 2 hour long dud last night. The 4K transfer is suburb, but this movie has not aged well. I found it painfully slow paced and it never motivated me to suspend my disbelief. The review I read was overall unjustly positive with this exception:

What makes The Birds so compelling, unsettling, and a tad frustrating is that we don't ever discover what causes such a docile species to suddenly go berserk. There's no nuclear explosion, solar anomaly, or climate issue to incite such a drastic behavioral change.

If you are an avid Hitchcock fan, watch the Universal 8 400 foot cutdown instead of this 4k disc.

[Alan Paterson]

DOCTOR DOLITTLE (1967)

Yup, the Rex Harrison version. It was mentioned on this very website a few weeks ago so I had a hankering to see it again. I last saw it in a Dunfermline cinema around the time of release when I was 10 years old. So slow and ponderous that I'm not surprised it didn't do well. My other half and I stuck it out till the very end. Can't see a modern audience lasting that long. Only a couple of good songs in it, but they weren't exactly delivered with great gusto by the cast. Jeez, all that fuss about about a giant pink sea snail that turned out to be a damp squib. The movie lived up to its title as 'Doctor Dolittle' didn't do much for me. Just put me down as undecided. :-)

[Graham Ritchie]

I certainly am Ed is was good stuff, thanks I will try DTS MA 2:1 The amp I use for everything is a Yamaha RX-V750.

I have had it for a few years now so its getting on, but still good it really comes alive when the digital processor from the 35mm is fed into it.

I picked up second hand the LP of the soundtrack a few years ago, its really good. I like the way the cover is done "very nice".

[Ed Gordon]

...

Interesting enough Doug the blu-ray does say English DTS-HD Master Audio 2:1 with Sensurround, in saying that the Yamaha amp only played it at DTS 5:1 and in saying that, what I heard a mono track would have been just as good . Interesting enough, we had a number of amps that were once used at that time to give that Sensurround which originated from cinemas that used them for that effect in NZ. They must have bought them second hand when Movieland opened. They were really nice high quality amps, I think each had a rating of 750 watts. I should have bought some them when the place closed, they were going for less than a couple of hundred dollars each.

When I read Doug's comment, I thought, "I bet Graham has the Sensurround setup from the theater he worked at before it was closed". You must be kicking yourself for not buying that equipment at fire sale prices!

PS: Did you try to change the soundtrack source on your Bluray player to DTS MA 2.1?. More than likely that your Yamaha amp will decode it.