Topic: The Movie Thread

Not too worry @Ravix, I was always going take advantage of the Black Friday sales, whilst also avoiding the shops today.

Yes I started to froth at the mouth that your collection isn't in alphabetical order. 😂

I hear they corrected Batman Begins when they did the 4K transfer, as the blu ray was quite poor. The other two films were good even on Blu Ray though, so should be even better. I cheated slightly and gave my blu ray Trilogy away so I can buy it on 4k.😂

@JustCameHereToSay I like to support it when possible, and alway check there before using Amazon.

@JohnnyShoulder @Ravix I can attest to the 4K Batman Begins being superb, I recently acquired the trilogy myself. Excellent collections both. I’m not fully focused on 4K at the moment, more adding absolute favourites as I go along and then for other titles if the price is right or if the transfer is improved over the Blu-Ray. I even still buy dvds, Dead Man’s Shoes and La Donk and Skorsezy for example I don’t think have a better release.

@Bob_Salat

I started doing what I can only assume is "the thing" last night. The thing being looking at blu-ray .com at the difference between their blu-ray and 4K ratings for certain movies whilst adding and deleting items from an online basket and trying to justify spending x amount more right now even if the bloody thing won't get watched for 14 months 😅

I managed to resist in the end and just added 'The Guest' to my 'Drive' order, as they are both 'Second Sight' releases

But you can make a list of say: Scarface, Gladiator and 2001 ASO for £30 on, I think, Zavvi rn, which seemed pretty decent. Amazon's sale equivalent was about £38/40. I might still bite 😬

Ah, the Batman movies can be an extra bonus then, as I wasn't expecting much from them quality wise, but tbf the last iteration I owned were DVD's anyway so it's going to be a big step up, regardless.

Oh, and just to emphasise a point, @JohnnyShoulder just below I have American Psycho one space to the left of American Beauty 😱 "it's so close" they cried, "why wouldn't they just put it in order" 😈😈😈

@Ravix I've never done "the thing", but I do use the site to track my collection. I religiously follow The Digital Bits as they are, to my mind, the best online resource for physical reviews and release news. The people reviewing titles there are thorough and knows their stuff.
For example, I've been holding off upgrading "Seven Samurai" from my old DVD for a while and I was ready to pull the trigger on the Criterion Collection 4K when I read their review of the BFI edition, which turned out to be the, as of now, the best version released in 4K (though only marginally, so the Criterion one is still a good buy).
(Side note: I'm still angry at Zavvi for no longer shipping to Norway; been happily shopping there for years and then all of sudden they pushed us Scandinavians out into the cold)

@Ravix I used to do 'The Thing' but stopped for some reason, along with paying so much attention to what the experts say. I used to read a lot of the reviews on AV Forums which I did find useful for a time, but was finding I was not noticing half the stuff they (and other sites) would highlight. If I hear about a bad transfer (such as Terminator 2) I will still avoid them though.

@FuriousMachine @JohnnyShoulder

Yeeahh. I did start deep diving and rabbit holing at one point, but quickly reigned myself in to simply checking the number score, and if it seemed to stand out as very high or very low, I'll make a mental note to check which version if it's one I'm considering or whether it'd be worth saving £ by just getting the Blu-Ray if that is known to be good anyway.

I have my copies of Drive and The Guest now, so I'm happy enough. The last major definite I want to add ASAP is 1917, and the rest on the list I've compiled can probably wait.

Stuff like:

Gladiator
Total Recall (I think the Studio Canal version in the UK, but conflicting reports 😅)
The Fifth Element (Studio Canal)
Scarface Golden Edition
The Revenant
2001 ASO
Ran (which I saw mentioned on here by you guys, I think. I"m going to probably binge the sh** out of all kinds of Feudal Japanese content in the wake of Shogun, AC Shadows, and during the build up to Yotei)
Blow Out (Criterion)

I was also hoping to get some other Roger Deakins shot films on 4K, but there isn't any releases for things like The Assassination of Jesse James, True Grit or Jarhead. 1917 will be acquired, Bladerunner 2049 I got first anyway. And I do have the remastered Fargo Blu-Ray which is superb, so I doubt I'll get that in 4k. Also already have No Country for Old Men on Blu-Ray.

I suppose I could get Skyfall in 4K. I just wish there were a few more options, as Roger Deakins is a true master.

@Ravix You can find Sicario in 4K, in my opinion one of Deakins’ most underrated works. Great film to boot.

@Jimmer-jammer good shout, ill keep that one in mind. I think it's criminal that some haven't gotten a 4K transfer yet. Jarhead is perhaps the most underrated of them all, I feel Sicario got some coverage when it was out. And Jesse James has the most iconic train robbery scene and not sure why there isn't a 4K version.

In fact, it could even be a side topic of its own, as this is a gaming forum, and I think any game that looks half decent in the last however many years has directly borrowed from Roger Deakins shot scenes in some way 😅

@Ravix He did receive an Oscar nomination for his efforts, so perhaps ‘underrated’ wasn’t the best descriptor, and may have been better reserved for someone like Peter Suschitzky and his work on A History of Violence. It’s a real shame how many beautifully shot films have yet to have 4K releases. What I’d give for a 4K copy of There Will Be Blood!

What Roger Deakins does so well is shoot in service of the story, something few games do. It’s what I think truly elevates the recent output from the likes of Naughty Dog and Santa Monica Studio.

@Jimmer-jammer ah, fair point. I think I just mean in general as the film as a whole, it's kind of never mentioned any more in any way, or thought of as a must watch.

There Will be Blood would be absolutely insane. If there's a good quality Blu-Ray I might just get that for the OLED, in fact. As it's still going to be some sight.

@Ravix Yeah I can vouch for Sicario in 4K, a solid transfer and a cracking film too. Probably the most tense traffic jam scene I can think of committed to film.

Edit: And I have the first three films on your list, which I can also recommend.

@Ravix It is! I have the Bluray and it certainly does not disappoint, though my OLED tends to really bring out the graininess of film (which I love) but might not be for all tastes. Still, I feel PTA’s practical and earnest approach to filmmaking (we’re seeing developed dailies here, largely no digital intermediates) really benefits from the OLED’s more accurate contrast ratios.

For some random reason, Disney/Fox have released Alien Romulus... on VHS?! For 60 dollars lol. Not sure exactly who it is for, collectors maybe? It would be not something I would think of buying to watch. And scalpers have got their dirty mitts on it too, so i think it was going something like 100 dollars on ebay.

VHS 😅 there are still people who collect tube tvs and old tech though, so maybe a niche.

Picked up 1917 and Joker, and I'm going to hopefully call it a day now and not snatch up anything else for a while, at least 😬

@JohnnyShoulder VHS releases are for collectors and speculators. Which is fairly annoying because these two groups are in competition with one another but for vastly different reasons. You can even get VHS graded now which adds a whole slimy new layer to it all. God forbid anyone just get some enjoyment out of a hobby without other people coming along and asking "wait how can we make money off that?"

@zupertramp It happens to everything. I love analog media because of its flaws and the unique product compared to what you’d get off a CD or DVD, I’ll happily buy tapes both cassette and VHS because it’s a fun hobby and they’re cheap. But then when I saw Taylor Swift selling tapes for nonsense prices, I knew the writing was on the wall. People ruin absolutely everything looking for a profit, even stupid hobbies like buying objectively worse quality tapes because I like the format.

Watched three (what used to be called) nunsploitation films - "The First Omen", "Immaculate" and "Benedetta". The first two are essentially the same thing - an unsuspecting nun is impregnated with the spawn of the devil by a siniister cabal of zealots in order to facilitate the apocalypse for nonsensical reasons. Neither is particularly bad - but while the former is hampered by (possibly studio mandated) references to the earlier entries in the franchise, the latter has acting non-entity Sydney Sweeney (predictably) bathing in translucent cassocks if that's the sort of thing to swing your vote. The third movie is an altogether different beast - a Paul Verhoeven directed French language tale about the goings-on at a 17th Century Italian nunnery when one of the order begins a forbidden love affair having experienced intense erotic and violent visions and (possibly self inflicted) stigmata. Completely mental, frequently brilliant - it's a Verhoeven movie through and through- coming acoss like a mix of "Flesh and Blood" and "The Black Book" with more than a dash of Ken Russell's "The Devils" thrown in for good measure. I loved it.

Wicked was… unexceptional, if I had to describe it. It was fine, but eh, I’m probably not the target audience. It does some interesting things and has some talented singers but it’s hurt by being a ‘Part 1’ of 2. Too much bloat and pomp. Could have been edited down to 2 hours fairly easily and been better for it.

Genuinely cannot think of a worse movie to watch with your son, especially at that age. I’d rather show a child Cannibal Holocaust to be honest. Happiness is one hell of a movie though!

1917 4K Dolby Vision

And as I gawped at all the Roger Deakins goodness once more. I just kept thinking... I think Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is going to be the 1917 of games 😅 Definitely similar vibes during the more serious elements in previews so far, for sure. And the premise "deliver a letter to try and stop even more pointless death"

Couldn't help myself. Great film, anyway, as we all probably know.