What Blu-Ray did you watch last night?

[Lincoln Thorn]

Watching the 60’s classic THE HUSTLER. One of my favorite of many George C. Scott roles as the Faustian owner of a seedy pool hall.

[Ed Gordon]

Have any of you seen the YouTube videos converting the special effects in Jason and the Argonauts and other stop motion classics, into 64 fps? It makes those same special effects, that look so dated in those old movies, look incredibly good.

I had not seen this before Osi. I think Doug Trumbull shot 2001 special effects at high speed and slowed it down to 24fps to get that "smooth" look in the final film.

The Argonauts clip you mentioned has a note from the creator:

What if the 1963 movie Jason of the Argonauts had smoother stop-motion animation for its effects scenes made by the famous Ray Harryhausen? I used an AI program to interpolate the scene to a higher frame rate to see what that would look like. You liked a similar video I did about 1933's King Kong, so I thought I'd do a sequel of sorts. What do you think of the results? ✨ Programs used: -I used Flowframes with RIFE to interpolate the framerate from 23.98 fps to 191.74 fps and then used FFMPEG to reduce that back to 60 fps. Flowframes is free and you can find it here: https://nmkd.itch.io/flowframes I'm #captrobau and I like to make interesting videos about AI. Don't forget to like this video and subscribe to my channel if you want to see more videos like this. I regularly upload AI upscaling examples, reviews/tutorials for AI software and more.

And the video:

Before CGI we would look at something and ask how they did it. No we look at something and say, it's too perfect to be real; its just a drawing.

[Lincoln Thorn]

Tonight’s feature:

[Graham Ritchie]

Well folks this was a pleasant surprise. A few days ago I picked up a second hand "Top Gun" 3D plus Blu-ray. To be honest I cant remember much about this long ago 1986 release. I thought for $10 dollars I would give the 3D a go so bought it as I really wasn't expecting much.

Well after watching it in 3D tonight, this conversion of an old movie really impressed me. The flying in 3D was very impressive indeed as was the music soundtrack, which included a EX channel for rear speakers to give you that all around effect if your amp can do it.

I would rate this 3D conversion as one of the best I have come across and would highly recommend getting this one .

[Mike Newell]

Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde. Clever retelling of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. I reckon best Ralph Bates Hammer movies with great performance from Martine Beswick. Jack the Ripper and Burke and Hare are also thrown into the tale. Superb transfer in terms of print and sound on this Blu ray. Highly Recommended.

[Graham Ritchie]

Another pleasant surprise with this $15 dollar second hand double disc. I still don't have 4K projection yet but the blu-ray that came with it is really good. Saturday night at the movies was "Rambo 3" 1988. I had never seen this movie before but heard it wasn't that good compared with the first two.

However from my angle I thought it was well done. Out of the three Rambo films released, this one had a huge budget and was full on action from start to finish. Written by the man himself Sylvester Stallone and Sheldon Lettich. I think Stallone did a really good job working on the script.

Rambo 3 blu-ray picture quality was excellent as with the sound although I would have liked too hear more "BOOM" coming out of the sub-woofer channel.

PS...Due to excessive nightly use of the Epson of late, I am glad I have a spare lamp for the Epson

All up great stuff from the 1980s armed with a packet of chips and a glass of wine, what more can you ask for..

[Mike Newell]

I upgraded my Daily Mail promo DVD of Ipcress File for a Blu ray. Classic Film that established Michael Caine in film land. Nice clean sharp print and great soundtrack with this transfer.

[Graham Ritchie]

Has anyone here ever bought the Derann 600ft release of "The Red Balloon"? I had been thinking of it for a while back in the day, but never got around to it. However a while back I did pick up it up on blu-ray. After watching Rambo the other night, I thought it would make a nice change to watch a couple of short films instead. The color and image quality looks great on "The Red Balloon", as with the quality of the B/W film "White Mane" that came with it.

My guess is that the Derann release would have been of excellent picture quality on Super8.

Using the Epson VP.

[Graham Ritchie]

Change of tact last night from "Rambo 3" to "The Red Balloon" to this one on blu-ray tonight however I would prefer using a 35mm print if I can find one mmmm. I remember screening it at the cinema, I still have the 35mm trailer. Its a good remake and the CGI work is really good .

[Mike Newell]

LA Confidential. Rattling cop gangster movie set in LA in the 1950s. It really does move at a fast pace and the cast of Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce , Kim Basinger , Kevin Spacey Danny DE Vito and James Cromwell have never been better. Blu ray is stunning a significant upgrade from DVD release. The first Blu Ray release is identical in terms of print and sound quality to the 25th anniversary later release so you can save some money if purchasing.

[Mitchell Dvoskin]

One of my favorite movie lines is in LA Confidential, when the cops beat up an out of town gangster, the head cop looks down at him and suggests he leave Los Angeles by saying “your in the city of the angels now and you don’t have any wings”.

[Douglas Meltzer]

A big favorite of mine. Director Curtis Hanson did a magnificent job.

[Mike Newell]

It’s funny Curtis’s career sort fizzled out after that movie. He had directed The Hand that Rocked the Cradle and River Wild both good movies. Guy Pearce is an actor who never really broke out. He would have made a great James Bond but too similar looking to Pearse Brosnan. Alway thought the remake of The Time Machine with him was very underrated.

[Graham Ritchie]

Well folks from the desert in "Flight Of The Phoenix" to the water in "JAWS" once again last night.

The 4K plus blu-ray is really outstanding value. The store that was selling them here brand new a while back, had the retail price of only $25 NZ dollars, that's incredible value. I checked the hour clock on the Epson VP this week for the first time. I have clocked up 1,125 hours so far. The lamp life is 4.400, so even taking that into account I have a lot of hours to go That little Epson VP has been great value, for a more or less entry level VP projector its been outstanding.

Anyway back to last night, and the "JAWS" screening, the level of image detail on the blu-ray is really something, you can even read the writing on the bottle of wine at the dining table, amazing. One thing I discovered is to select on the menu the original two channel "mono" To be honest for my hearing at least, sitting near the screen, it sounds better than the 5:1.

Well the only thing missing last night, was the 1100 people screaming that I first watched "JAWS" with at the "Savoy" single screen cinema in town way back in 1975.

Its great stuff from the 70s.

PS...I still covered my eyes last night at that severed head scene. I will not watch it as my brain is still wired up from 1975 to make me jump, so I wont look at it.

There is one scene where you see two, what I would call falling stars going across the sky, does anyone here know if they were added? they might have been always there, but I can't remember seeing them

[Mike Newell]

Baby Driver. Taut thriller heist movie. The basic premise is odd, there's a lot of violence and some scenes - gun fights set to music - border on the preposterous. Dominated by “Baby”Ansel Elgortis but good support from Kevin Spacey and Jamie Fox.

Terrific sound track, some great car chases, and the main character Ansel Elgortis has major screen persona a name for the future. I see Spielberg cast him in West Side Story as Tony. Can be picked up for a few pounds. Make sure you fasten your seat belt!

Super quality in print and sound.