What Blu-Ray did you watch last night?

[Graham Ritchie]

I there ever was a blu-ray worth getting its this one, "To Kill A Mockingbird" 1962, 50th Anniversary edition. Although this year 2022 its now been 60 years since it was made. I every way this is a outstanding release onto blu-ray. Digitally Remastered and fully Restored from the original Film Elements.

The b/w picture quality is really something as with DTS-HD Master audio 5:1 , hearing Elmer Bernstein brilliant score is amazing projected using the Epson VP last night, below are some screen shots.

For a 60 year old movie, the quality of "To Kill A Mockingbird" is a must have for any blu-ray collection, I would certainly highly recommend this one.

[Steve Klare]

I was born in 1962, Graham! (-no need for reminders how long ago that is!😁)

I had this kind of hodge-podge show tonight: not really planned ahead. -it just kind of happened and adapted as the situation unfolded.

It's so multiformat it basically has to be General Yak.

We started with shorts:

Batman(1966) Trailer (S8)

Minions Banana (S8)

Three Little Bruins in a Canoe (16mm)

Feature

Star Trek Generations (Projected DVD, up to the bar scene)

-but this thing happened: halfway through, my son had promised to call his Girlfriend at college, so we had to have an intermission!

-so the rest of us who stayed downstairs had intermission shorts:

Three Little Bruins go Camping (16mm)

Mickey's Memorable Moments (S8)

Donald Duck's Dilemmas (S8)

Then the phone call was over, so we went back to the feature:

Star Trek Generations (Projected DVD, AFTER the bar scene)

What a MESS of reels (and disk) I have to put away: I just made a pile to put away tomorrow!.

(Show me another cinema show quite like this anywhere else!)

[Ed Gordon]

If there ever was a blu-ray worth getting its this one, "To Kill A Mockingbird" 1962, 50th Anniversary edition. Although this year 2022 its now been 60 years since it was made. In every way this is a outstanding release onto blu-ray...

For a 60 year old movie, the quality of "To Kill A Mockingbird" is a must have for any blu-ray collection, I would certainly highly recommend this one.

It is indeed an essential film to add to any collection. As I recall Gregory Peck was particularly proud of his work in this one.

Gregory Peck tells a story about Harper Lee while filming TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains: #1 Hero - Atticus Finch

[Graham Ritchie]

What do you get when you join the talents of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp in a movie together? well you get a unusual film like this one "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"

I remember running the film print when it came out in 2005, yikes that's 17 years ago so last night I watched the blu-ray. A couple of interesting things about it if I remember right, was that Johnny Depp had been impressed with young Freddie Highmore, when they both worked together in the excellent film "Finding Neverland" that Johnny Depp recommended him for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory soon after. Another young actress in this film, was Annasophia Robb, she went onto doing "Bridge To Terabithia" another film print we ran, filmed here in NZ, and much later movie "The Way Way Back"

Anyway Charlie is a fun movie and still have the trailer, this is another feature film that was 1:85.1 ratio, yet the 35mm trailer I still have, is in full Scope.

[Graham Ritchie]

By the way if you are into soundtracks, this one from the above film is not bad. The main title and graphic graphics at the start are impressive. I always enjoyed watching and the main title music by Danny Elfman who I should add did the music for the Spiderman films as well as Charlie, when screening those 35mm prints many moons ago

Back to blu-ray, this is one I have watched a number of times from the Criterion Collection, "Its A Mad Mad Mad Mad World" .

Its great stuff, with excellent picture and sound and its another I would highly recommend just remember its under the big "W"

Screen shot from the two nights ago

[Lincoln Thorn]

Getting a chance to rewatch this movie tonight! It's a blast and a genuinely lovely film. Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan (Shortround from Temple of Doom) were a wonderful pair and you can tell they had a blast making this movie.

[Ed Gordon]

...Back to blu-ray, this is one I have watched a number of times from the Criterion Collection, "Its A Mad Mad Mad Mad World" .

Its great stuff, with excellent picture and sound and its another I would highly recommend just remember its under the big "W"

The "big W" has it appeared it appeared in the film


All that remains of the "big W"


There are several videos on YouTube that revisit filming locations for Mad World. The link below will take you there:

IT'S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD - Filming Locations Then & Now

[Phil Moors]

I saw ‘Everything Everwhere all at once’ today which only went to convince me how poor a great deal of modern movie making is these days. What a bunch of crap, CGI special effects top heavy modern piece of garbage. Whatever happened to cinema ?people have praised it for having an original storyline, which is true but the new story is truly awful and the acting is not far behind it. If this is where the cinema industry is heading what the hell are they going to be throwing at the cinema in five or ten years from now, the mind boggles. AVOID.

[Ed Gordon]

Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of those movies your either love or hate. I watched 30 minutes before deciding I was not in the mood to endure another two hours. Having read the reviews online, I expect this movie has the potential to generate a lot arguments on this forum as well. I don't hate the movie, I just don't have the interest to watch it through to the end.

[Xander van der Merwe]

We also gave up after about 45mins of Everything Everywhere All at Once - it may be a good film, I can’t tell, but I suspect it is more a matter of “The Emperor has no clothes…”. 45mins I won’t get back.

[Douglas Meltzer]

I thoroughly enjoyed Everything Everywhere All at Once. It's chaotic, absurd, funny and incredibly imaginative. It also has a lot of heart. I found the cast charming.

[Graham Ritchie]

You might think why on Earth would somebody who has already this title on blu-ray, bought years ago would buy another blu-ray of the same title?

Well to answer that, check this below you tube link, this person is better explaining than me After reading about this new 4K scan and restoration a while back, I thought I would give it a go getting a copy. It sounds simple but both amazon uk where the price was only 10 pound, a huge drop considering the price when this new edition was released would not post it to NZ, OK so they wont do it, mmm all about amazon Australia, they had it listed, but sadly they would not post this title to NZ.

I did find a place in Aussie that had it for sale, I thought mmmm try them In the end they would post to NZ, thinking that's good, weeks went by, they confirmed it had been posted. A knock on our door this week by our neighbor said, this was in our post box today I think its yours. Well it had not come from Aussie but from England instead, no wonder it took so long, to travel 12000 miles, only for our postie to put it in the wrong box.

So was it worth it? after screening it on the Epson and comparing it with the 2012 release it was quite an improvement. To start with it was 1:85 .1 ratio not the 1:77.1 of the earlier release. The color on the 4K as with detail was a "lot" better, plus a lot of extras on this new disc as well.

"Flight Of The Navigator" is your typical sort of 80s film, and one that our wee ones used to watch when they were small, Its good that "second sight" have given there earlier 2012 release this 4K scan and restoration. I think they have done a good job of it, so if you like the 80s stuff I think its worth adding it to your list.

PS...If you are thinking about getting this new release, grab it while you can.

The original release...

The new one.....

[Graham Ritchie]

Forgot here is that you-tube link to the above release

[Osi Osgood]

It's the same old situation, as well as problem, depending on who you speak to, but the adjustment of the color is always moving to excessive blues with facial tones that belong on an orange.

[Ed Gordon]

It's the same old situation, as well as problem, depending on who you speak to, but the adjustment of the color is always moving to excessive blues with facial tones that belong on an orange.

You are not going to get the best colors until you move to 4k UHD. The latest release of The Navigator is a 2k bluray made from a 4k scan. John Clancy does an excellent review of his "Top Ten" UHD releases in the video below.

There is also a comprehensive article on UHD:

UHD 101: Demystifying 4K, UHD Blu Ray, wide color gamut, HDR, 4:4:4, 18Gbps and the rest!


March 9, 2016 51 Comments | Leave a Comment


This comprehensive blog article is intended to demystify some of the technical details behind UHD or Ultra High Definition.
UHD is the next generation of video formats, and has many potentially picture enhancing features over our current HD format. As we’ll explain, 4K resolution is only part of the UHD concept. There are other important components such as wider color gamuts (more colors), higher color bit depths (smoother color gradations) and brighter image highlights (HDR).
Here are the items covered in our introductory section. Read this if you want the high level details:

• What UHD Sources are there?
• What is the Ultra HD Blu Ray specification?
• What capabilities does my display need to have to enjoy UHD content?
• Does my AVR / Pre-Pro need to be HDMI2.0 / HDCP2.2?

Then we get more technical, and explain some of the aspects of UHD:

• 4K resolution
• Wide color gamut
• Color bit depth
• Color subsampling
• HDMI versions
• HDCP
• HDMI data rates
• HDMI cables
• Display certification standards
• HDR

Full article is here: https://www.acousticfrontiers.com/uhd-101-v2/

The reader's comments at the end to the article are also worth reviewing...