What Blu-Ray did you watch last night?

[Graham Ritchie]

Tonight, its still very much wintery temp 5C with lots of rain, so have all the heaters on, so thought mmmm what is a good winter's night movie, so came up with the "1977 Islands In The Stream" blu-ray, released a while back now by Imprint in Australia. Its not the first time I have watched this blu-ray title, and it certainly wont be the last. "Islands In The Stream" is an excellent movie in all respects, starring George C Scott. Its films like this I like the most. So if you have the DVD, then dump it for this Imprint blu-ray, its light years ahead in picture quality

[Graham Ritchie]

Last night it was the blu-ray of "The Man Who Never Was" 1955 starring Clifton Webb, based on the true WW2 story, an excellent film. I first watched this film long ago on 16mm Scope and always liked it. The blu-ray quality is very good. Tonight it was something quite different, this time the blu-ray of "Chicken Run", this is a excellent addition to any movie collection, excellent picture and sound. I remember running the 35mm print many moons ago, still have the trailer somewhere.

To finish of the night and its something I would recommend looking out for on DVD, are the series of "British Transport Films Collection" issued by the BFI. The ones I do have are "See Britain by Train" volume two, "Running a Railway" volume three and "Off The Beaton Track" volume five. The title I did watch tonight after Chicken Run was "The Coast of Clyde 1959", only a few years after this film was taken we moved to Dunoon from Glasgow in 1964, I was 12 at the time, they were good times.

[Osi Osgood]

OK, it's not Blu-ray, but I was finally able to acquire an HD 1080p copy of the restored "Slipstream", and after watching it for over 35 years off of old VHS , and DVD's made from VHS copies, this is a revelation!

[Graham Ritchie]

Tonight another viewing of "Journey To The Center Of The Earth" 1959, the blu-ray quality looks stunning a real gem if you like old films highly recommend it.

[Ed Gordon]

Tonight another viewing of "Journey To The Center Of The Earth" 1959, the blu-ray quality looks stunning a real gem if you like old films highly recommend it.

That is an old favorite of mine. Your bluray looks like a newer release. Who released it? I did not see it on ebay, but there were some selling for $70 US (The Brendon Frasier 3D version was awful, but available for $5 ).

Have you or anyone with a 3D projector tried the option of viewing a 2D movie in 3D?

[Graham Ritchie]

Hi Ed

There is a company in the UK called Eureka, Home of the Masters of Cinema, if you Google it there web site should come up. They do have quite an extensive list of titles. I got my copies through Amazon UK. I only got a few titles from them through Amazon, one I was very happy and glad to get on blu-ray was "The Flight of the Phoenix" 1965. both are for Region "B" only.

I have never tried 2D to 3D on the Epson, but I think it can be done I will have a read of the Epson instructions later on.

[Ed Gordon]

Graham, I did find it. It is no longer available. There are other releases out there, but this one from 2017 looks like it may be a higher quality scan.

[Graham Ritchie]

Hi Ed

I just checked with amazon uk and its only available as a second hand copy, one of, but at a very high price of 55 pound. When I bought mine it was only a few years ago, I must have been lucky they still had a few new copies still left and priced thankfully well below what is listed now. What I find with all blu-ray titles, is when they are first released that's the time to buy it. With Imprint as an example, they will only do a short run of a title with limited numbers, after that and very quickly they move onto something else.

The disc number I have is EKA7027 same as you mentioned above.

[Graham Ritchie]

Well I really need to get the blu-ray of this title, tonight it was just the DVD, however it is still one of my favorite films that needs watching every so often.

[Graham Ritchie]

One DVD I picked up on my rounds the other week was "The Bedford Incident" from 1965. Its very good and well worth watching.

[Graham Ritchie]

Well I did try something with the Epson VP a few nights ago that I had not done before, and that was to try the 2D to 3D conversion option with JAWS. After going to the menu and changing the settings, I did indeed get a 3D effect, however not quite good enough, so returned to the start of the movie again, but this time only in 2D. It might be that later projectors are better than this one for that conversion effect. There was a drop of brightness on the screen and that could have been turned up, but chose not to as the 3D effect although not bad in some places, just didn't quite meet the standard I wanted overall.

However, last night just to confirm my thoughts I placed a 3D blu-ray in the player. This time the Epson VP kicked into overdrive with brightness etc automatic. The 3D disc looked great. The movie itself was "Jurassic World". I hope that one day "JAWS" will get a 3D blu-ray release, now that would be something.

The final showdown in the clip below is really something, even more so looking through 3D glasses

[Ed Gordon]

Well I did try something with the Epson VP a few nights ago that I had not done before, and that was to try the 2D to 3D conversion option with JAWS. After going to the menu and changing the settings, I did indeed get a 3D effect, however not quite good enough, so returned to the start of the movie again, but this time only in 2D. It might be that later projectors are better than this one for that conversion effect. There was a drop of brightness on the screen and that could have been turned up, but chose not to as the 3D effect although not bad in some places, just didn't quite meet the standard I wanted overall....

I have an Epson projector as well. I did briefly try it and my impression was the same as yours. I enjoy a good 3D movie, but when 90% of the movie does not benefit from the 3D effect, it is not worth the bother of wearing those glasses for two plus hours. When done well, 3D can be amazing. Even old movies, like The Wizard of Oz look spectacular. Years ago I tried a 3rd party 2D to 3D software package that only produced mediocre 3D effects. I wonder what software was used to produce Oz.

[Ed Gordon]

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

Leading into one of the best scenes in “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning,” Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt turns a wheel on a submarine and the aspect ratio of the film expands from widescreen to fill the IMAX screen. It’s a wonderfully clever beat. After all, Tom Cruise is credited with saving the movie-going experience with “Top Gun: Maverick,” so it makes sense that, even in character, he’s controlling the image around him. Sadly, it’s one of the few clever beats in “Final Reckoning,” a movie that forgets so much of what makes this franchise memorable in an unwieldy and truly clunky first hour that plays like the longest “Previously On” you’ve ever seen. Repetitive and pretentious to the point of parody, it’s the worst segment in the entire franchise. That the film recovers as much as it does might be the most impressive mission that Ethan Hunt has ever proven possible.

Source: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/m...ie-review-2025

The remark, "first hour that plays like the longest “Previously On” you’ve ever seen.." can also describe the conclusion of the film nearly three hours later which seemed like an unending epilogue. I kept thinking, "please, can you just stop it and insert The End?

No, I did not hate the movie. It is far to long, but keeps your interest. I enjoyed it, but I would never watch it again.

[Graham Ritchie]

I must have watched this film many times over the years, tonight blu-ray was "The Untouchables" picture and sound quality is excellent highly recommend it.

[Graham Ritchie]

Tonight it was again Silent Running, I remember buying the U8 digest many moons ago, I gave the print away long ago, only myself and Yvonne were the ones that could understand it anyway this ERK release from the UK is excellent. After watching the feature I also watched "The Making of Silent Running" 50 minutes, plus a much later "A Conversation with Bruce Dern" 11 minutes. Its interesting what he had to say about the film itself, full of praise of the film and working with director Douglas Trumbull.