Topic: The Movie Thread

@JohnnyShoulder Yeah - his Zack Snyder impression was quite the thing. I love a good Kermode rant - I listened to a couple of his audio books recently on a long car journey. His story about a trip to a movie studio in Russia featuring a particularly unhelpful taxi driver is extremely funny.

I’ve started listening to Tarantino’s new podcast ‘Video Archives’ and have watched a couple of films they discuss.
Moonraker (1979) - diabolically bad film. Worth a watch for how ridiculous it is - so many hilariously bad moments. 3/10
Firefox (1982) - strange one, part espionage thriller, part Top Gun-sequel action movie. The former works a lot a better. Some really terrible decisions with the Russian dialogue though. 6/10

@MB81 Didn't Tarantino recently say he preferred "Crystal Skull" to "Last Crusade"? Whatever, dude.

@LN78 haha yea I actually just heard him say that not an hour ago (on the Reel Blend podcast). He didn’t really like either, but loved Temple of Doom.
Also he praised Top Gun 2 a lot. Said it was the nearest thing we can get to a Tony Scott film, and he enjoyed the cinematic spectacle of it.

@MB81 He's a genius filmmaker but he got addicted to the smell of his own farts many years ago. He's always had a weird boner for Tony Scott flicks - I remember I watched the semi-obscure Kevin Costner movie "Revenge" (can't remember what it's about) on his say so. It's absolutely atrocious.

Has anyone watched a 4K version of Interstellar on an OLED panel??

I watched it last night and while I love the film still (even if it's a bit sappier than I remember when I watched it last in the cinema), most of the space scenes stand out for the wrong reasons on an OLED screen. I guess I was expecting deep blacks like I've seen in films like Prometheus but Interstellar's space is very grey and lit up in comparison to the black borders on the non-IMAX shots.

Just checking to see if other people have found this or whether my copy of it wasn't very good. Had a look on Reddit and some people don't seem to have had the same experience and some people have said "Nolan doesn't like true blacks" without citing a source. What are all of your experiences watching this film in 4K on an OLED??

I suppose the movie looks very film-y, like the lit up graininess makes it look more like classic cinema. It's not a bad thing but I guess I was surprised. I might chuck on my 1080p blu ray copy of it today while I'm cleaning the flat and see how it compares

It's kind of weird though because the black bars on the sides of the interview footage at the beginning of the film are completely black on my OLED, yet the space scenes aren't

@LN78 I'm quite a fan of Tony Scott myself. His morals and style may not have aged so well but he is for sure an auteur.
I love listening to Tarantino talking about film - he's unashamedly an insanely enthusiastic film fan and for sure he has his own idiosyncratic taste, like everyone does I suppose. And his tastes have fuelled the weird and wonderful cinematic worlds he creates.

@MB81 I like a lot of Scott's stuff - "True Romance" and "Crimson Tide" being the standouts but then he made so much irredeemable crap like "Domino" and "BHC2" and "The Fan" that it's difficult for me to rank him amongst the greats. Like I said, Tarantino is too far up his own arse for my liking. I think I'll stick with Mark Kermode - I don't agree with his every opinion but at least he can have a laugh at himself.

@ralphdibny "Interstellar" is the only currently available Nolan movie that I don't have on 4K blu-ray (because it sucks) but none of his other films have issues with their black levels on OLED, if that's helpful. A few of them definitely have issues with the sound mixes, though!

@LN78 I like Mark Kermode's reviews a lot, and his sense of humour but I can't listen to his podcasts, I'd rather they just talked about film instead of the running jokes and interactions with their fans.

@MB81 Each to their own! I unashamedly love "Moonraker" by the way.

@MB81 enemy of the state and true romance are.my favourite Tony Scott films. Enemy of the state is wicked! Need to watch it again.

@LN78 fair play, it's good to note. I've stuck on the standard blu ray and while the resolution takes a hit, the blacks do seem a lot darker even if they are not completely black. Maybe I'll try and track down a 4k blu ray copy and if someone else can attest to it's quality

I fell off Nolan after Batman, the only two post/mid-Batman films I've seen were Interstellar and Inception. I thought Inception was lame and massively overhyped but I really liked Interstellar. I should really give Inception another go now that the hype has died down. I love the cast so I might enjoy it more without the hype in my ear. Ive learned to not watch massively hyped or hated films on release because the general consensus really clouds my judgement and hyped films always end up being a let down

@ralphdibny Check out "The Prestige" - for my money the best CN movie. I'd forgotten about "Enemy of the State" - it works really well as a sort of unofficial sequel to the movie Coppola made between the first two "Godfather" films called "The Conversation" which is also about the surveillance state and paranoia and similarly stars Gene Hackman. It's a top to bottom masterpiece.
PS Try adjusting the deep black toggle in your OLED's advanced settings to "low" or "deep" if your model has such a thing. That might help. Black levels sometimes get thrown out by HDR.

@LN78 I love The Prestige, I'm big fan of early to mid Nolan. Not sure if I have a favourite of his these days but I definitely have a least favourite which is Inception!

I haven't seen The Conversation, I'll keep an eye out for it when I get some time to watch something new.

I'll have a look into the OLED settings. It's not something I'm keen on doing normally, especially if it's going to be different settings for different films. Kinda spoils the experience watching part of a film so I can adjust the settings and then carrying on with it. I normally watch films with my partner who is less of a videophile than I am so her interest will wane real quick if I spend the first ten mins of a film she hasn't seen before adjusting sliders.

@ralphdibny Your OLED will probably have three or four user preset "profiles" that you can set up in advance so that you don't have to dick about with the remote every time you watch different sorts of content - one each for HDR and non HDR movies is really useful in my experience.

@LN78 fair play, cheers. I'll look into that

Just having a mess around with settings on the OLED. Playing a 4K blu Ray of Inglourious Basterds at the moment. Contrast is at 80 and Brightness at 40. I'm trying out the Stiglitz release/bear Jew tunnel scene and it looks better than it did on the standard settings of 100 and 50

If anyone has an LG C1, what settings do they use for 4K+HDR content?

I'm Gona plug in the hard drive in a minute and see how Interstellar looks on these new settings.

Normally I just let the TV do its thing. It changes settings automatically based on the source and admittedly I don't watch as many blu rays as I used to as I mainly use streaming.

@ralphdibny Dunkirk is worth a try, even just to experience the incredible technical achievements in 4K! The narrative didn’t do much for me (first time anyway) but I was marvelling at HOW it was made when I first saw it.

@ralphdibny I have a different model, but I assume you have Filmmaker mode turned on? It was off for a couple of movies I streamed in 4K and they looked atrocious, like they were shot on an iphone.

@ralphdibny The only real rule of thumb is to trust your own eyes and what looks best for you. The guides on YouTube (HDTVTest etc.) and Rtings. com are a good starting point but obviously the light in your room and the position of your panel are unique to you. I can't offer any further advice vis a vis streaming content as I almost exclusively watch 4K blu-rays but I've found that a good disc for working out baseline settings (that is if you're going for a realistic and "accurate" picture) is the BBC documentary "Planet Earth".