What Have You Just Seen... Marks Out of 5

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 11 Feb 2008, 19:42

Markgway wrote:Dirty Harry 3/5

Hmm... not as great as I remembered. Some scenes I still really like but there's a whole section I would have cut (the peeping tom and jumper scenes) and Andy Robinson's psycho becomes increasingly annoying rather than scary... I don't think I'll keep this.

Brilliant movie still imo though i thought Magnum Force was as good...loved the peeping tom sequence..."is that why they call you dirty harry" or something like that

Crank Extended Cut hd-dvd 5/5

This is a great movie and gets better on repeated viewings. the hd-dvd pisses on the blu-ray one,which is a surpise as the blu-ray one was great itself.

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 11 Feb 2008, 19:43

saltysam wrote:the hd-dvd pisses on the blu-ray one,which is a surpise as the blu-ray one was great itself.

Why's that, different studio releases?

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 11 Feb 2008, 19:47

gasteropod wrote:
saltysam wrote:the hd-dvd pisses on the blu-ray one,which is a surpise as the blu-ray one was great itself.
Why's that, different studio releases?

yep,the hd-dvd is from germany.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 11 Feb 2008, 20:01

Is it much better? What about the audio quality? Is the Extended Cut much better? Thanks.

Rewind have updated their Crank BD comparison to reflect the new German HD Disc, which is available on BD and HD-DVD. I'd probably plump for th BD myself.

http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/f ... ?fid=10655

The USA BD has Lossless PCM over the German BD/HD-DVDs Lossy DTS-HD HR but the German disc easily wins for being the extended cut, having better looking extras and better picture quality.

p.s - What an earth is the "Cranked Out Interactive Movie (87:39)" though?

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 11 Feb 2008, 21:19

a nifty, if somewhat stilted feature titled "Crank'd Out Mode" overlays a screen featuring Neveldine and Taylor, a handful of producers, DP Adam Biddle, Statham, Cantillo, the SFX designer, the stunt coordinator and actor Efren Ramirez contributing a running commentary while behind-the-scenes clips play over their comments. It's a neat conflation of featurette and commentary track, with the added bonus of not having to leave the film. (taken fom dvdtalk,i haven't watched it myself)

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 11 Feb 2008, 21:32

Thanks but that's the PIP Commentary on the USA BD. I meant the "Cranked Out Interactive Movie" on Disc 2 (the DVD) of the HD-DVD 2 Disc German SE.

Any ideas?

p.s - Is the Extended Cut much better? So the HD-DVD looks much better to the USA BD?

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 11 Feb 2008, 21:51

bradavon wrote:Thanks but that's the PIP Commentary on the USA BD. I meant the "Cranked Out Interactive Movie" on Disc 2 (the DVD) of the HD-DVD 2 Disc German SE.

Any ideas?

p.s - Is the Extended Cut much better? So the HD-DVD looks much better to the USA BD?

my quote is from the dvd review not the BD-it'll be the same thing. http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=26008

The picture looks stunning on the hd-dvd but i am watching it on a better television than before, the extended cut doesn't add anything major but it extends the lift scene greatly towards the end which was good.the rest is mainly short extensions of existing sequences.do you know german

http://www.schnittberichte.com/schnittb ... hp?ID=4440

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 11 Feb 2008, 22:18

HungFist wrote:La Femme Nikita (France, 1990) – 3/5

Terrible first 40 minutes.

bradavon wrote: Check out the American remake if you want to see an terrible film from start to finish.

I like that one. I've got some fond childhood memories of it (I was 9 when I secretly watched it... in the living room, while my parents were sleeping... left eye on the TV screen and right on the bedroom door... ready to act sleeping if I saw any movement, hah).

bradavon wrote: Doesn't the kitchen shoot out happen in the first 40 minutes? That's ace.

43 min PAL. My favourite scene is not the shooting, though, but the moment before when she realizes that after years of imprisonment the guy didn't bring her to the restaurant to celebrate but the kill someone

Watcher in the Attic (Japan, 1976) – 3/5
Hard to think of a better director to adapt Edogawa Rampo’s novels into high brow exploitation than Noboru Tanaka. The outcome doesn’t reach the level of excellence of the director’s best works, but it is still obvious right from the beginning – where we see Junko Miyashita having sex with a clown while the landlord (Renji Ishibashi) is spying on them from the attic – that this is no routine production in Nikkatsu’s Meisaku Roman series. The first half suffers from some occasional drifting but the film becomes more solid during the second half. The impressive last 20 minutes turns the piece into pure arthouse.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 11 Feb 2008, 22:39

I like that one.

So did I until I saw the original and then I realised what a shallow film it really is. It has none of the style or suspense of the original at all. It's your typical Hollywood remake, shite!

My quote is from the dvd review not the BD-it'll be the same thing. http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=26008

Oh right thanks then. It sounds like it's basically a PIP commentary so no different to the USA BD's PIP commentary really, which is also fake.

The picture looks stunning on the hd-dvd but i am watching it on a better television than before

Do you still have the USA BD to compare it against?

the extended cut doesn't add anything major but it extends the lift scene greatly towards the end which was good.the rest is mainly short extensions of existing sequences.do you know german

Thanks.

I saw that but seeing as it's in German and clearly full of spoilers I didn't look at it much. A simple sentence why it's better/worse is all I wanted, so thanks.

Of course the USA BD has the fact it's considerably cheaper.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 11 Feb 2008, 23:51

saltysam wrote:Brilliant movie still imo though i thought Magnum Force was as good...loved the peeping tom sequence..."is that why they call you dirty harry" or something like that

Magnum Force is probably the best of the sequels...

I thought "the peeping Tom" scene made Harry look foolish. Not only does he get beat up a couple of old blokes but he lets them get away with it. Even the milder Chico is thinking WTF? It's immediately obvious that the tan case blok is NOT Scorpio but he keeps staring in the window. Why? Is he actually a pervert? Does he lie old ladies with saggy tits? I would've cut that scene and the subsequent fire rescue. It takes away strongly from the manhunt. Why waste time on this when there's a serial sniper on the loose? You could lose about 7 mins of footage here, redub one explainatory line onto the beginning of the next scene, and keep the film trim (which for the most part it is).

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 12 Feb 2008, 05:40

Heart to Hearts 3/5

Pleasant romantic fluff.

The Exorcist 4/5

Well-crafted, disturbing religious-horror holds up rather well after 35 years.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 13 Feb 2008, 16:18

Balls of Fury: 2 / 5
If you've seen the trailer, you've seen the film.
There's no plot, no character development and no quality. Apart from a couple of funny gags, there's nothing to salvage from this wreck.
Keep watching the trailer. You'll save 90 minutes.

Bleach: The Substitute (Japan - 2005) Season 1: 4,5 / 5
Brilliant anime series.
Lots of action, lots of comedy...
Awesome soundtrack by Sagisu Shiro (Musa / Casshern / The Restless).

Bleach: The Substitute (Japan - 2005) Season 2: 0,5 / 5
Amazing, isn't it ?
There are 26 episodes and there's nothing in them. Nothing at all.
I've seen this happen with other shows (Stargate SG-1 Season 6, Buffy Season 4), but it's the first time I'm seeing this in an anime series.
That's 650 minutes during which the story doesn't move forward at all.

Tsubasa Chronicle (Japan - 2005) Season 1: 4,75 / 5
Kinda like a japanese version of Sliders.
There's a little bit of everything (action, melodrama, comedy, sci-fi), but it all works.

Great characters, great animation, awesome music.
By far the best anime series I've ever seen.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 13 Feb 2008, 16:42

tom2681 wrote: Bleach: The Substitute (Japan - 2005) Season 2: 0,5 / 5

Lemme guess, the Bount arc? That was made-up filler because the anime had run out of manga volumes/chapters to adapt. What's more the following arc is also all filler. Actual NEW adapted episodes don't start until like episode 108 or some ridiculous number like that.

Bleach was nothing to special for me. Just some brain dead 14-year-old boy fodder that I watched to pass the time in between lectures, three years ago.

As for Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, I'd recommend Card Captor Sakura. Now that is a sugary sweet but heart-warming series.

dragonhero005 · Post by **dragonhero005** » 13 Feb 2008, 17:02

Justice, My Foot!

Watched this for three days, because I always fell asleep at a certain point.
There is budget, there is nice cinematography, there is Johnnie To directing and Anita Mui co-starring. But somehow, there is no soul, or I just didn't get the feeling because the jokes were lost in translation.
Sadly after a strong and funny beginning this movie strongly dissapoints.

2/5

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 13 Feb 2008, 17:25

@Eva:
Thanks. I didn't know anything about the manga.
I'm at episode 54, now. Are you saying I've gotta go through 54 more episodes for it to become interesting again ? Damn.

Card Captor Sakura ? I'll check that one out, thanks.

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 13 Feb 2008, 19:43

Blade Runner-Final Cut blu-ray 2/5

Don't get the love for this film at all.it's boring,bleak and ultimately goes nowhere. Rutger Hauer gives the film's best performance, Sean Young is wooden and Harrison Ford looks disinterested. some nice set designs though.i won't be keeping this. i hear some previous dvd editions were ropey,well i didn't think this hd version was any great shakes. some scenes have a lot of noise and there is a presence of white sparklies in many scenes.

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 13 Feb 2008, 20:12

saltysam wrote: Blade Runner-Final Cut blu-ray 2/5

Don't get the love for this film at all.it's boring,bleak and ultimately goes nowhere. Rutger Hauer gives the film's best performance, Sean Young is wooden and Harrison Ford looks disinterested. some nice set designs though.i won't be keeping this. i hear some previous dvd editions were ropey,well i didn't think this hd version was any great shakes. some scenes have a lot of noise and there is a presence of white sparklies in many scenes.

What?! Ignoring your opinions about the film itself, you must have some bizarre picture settings because it has one of the most impressive image qualities I've seen in high definition.

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 13 Feb 2008, 20:31

gasteropod wrote:
because it has one of the most impressive image qualities I've seen in high definition.

good for you,glad you like it. from dvdtimes

"Blade Runner was always going to be one of those films that would be trouble for a digital encoding. There is simply far too much smoke and rain, the unpredictability of both showing in a transfer that in spite of the best efforts of all concerned, isn't quite as pristine as it might have been. There aren't any faults on the version of the Final Cut presented here, nor on the Theatrical/Director's Cuts but they do present signs of having been softened a little through a digital cleaning-up. Blade Runner isn't as pin-sharp as I had hoped it would be and though it still looks very impressive, maybe not quite as much as I would have liked after all the hype of this set."

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 13 Feb 2008, 22:42

Didn't we have a discussion recently whereby I said you didn't like BR, you then said "No Brad upon re-watching it I like it" and not it turns out you don't all along, or was that Bourne

p.s - I think the DC is outstanding. I cannot wait to check out the FC in a few months.

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 13 Feb 2008, 23:04

bradavon wrote:p.s - I think the DC is outstanding. I cannot wait to check out the FC in a few months.

I've become obsessed with it lol, watched the Final Cut countless times already, also got my mate obsessed with it, and I now have a big Blade Runner poster on my wall 8)

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 14 Feb 2008, 00:06

I pretty much agree with Sam. As a film it's great art direction.

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 14 Feb 2008, 11:06

bradavon wrote:Didn't we have a discussion recently whereby I said you didn't like BR, you then said "No Brad upon re-watching it I like it" and not it turns out you don't all along, or was that Bourne

p.s - I think the DC is outstanding. I cannot wait to check out the FC in a few months.

nope i said i'd give BR another chance as i hadn't seen it in years. still very much underwhelmed. Bourne i never said i didn't like,i said it was overrated but i liked it more 2nd time around

(still overrated mind)

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 14 Feb 2008, 22:24

Justice League:New Frontier blu-ray 3/5

Nice JLA animated movie based on the graphic novel. unusual for a dc jla movie neither Batman or Superman are the stars,the main focus is on Hal Jordan voiced by David Boreanz.a bit patriotically preachy at times,nice to see the likes of Adam Strange and Blackhawk in animated form.

30 Days Of Night blu-ray 3/5

Decent vampire yarn with a decent premise. an alaskan town suffers 30 days of darkness each year and a group of vampires realise it's the ideal feeding ground.believe this is based on a comic,some good gore sequences and good performances,has a feel of Near Dark to it but unfortunately there's some derivative plot here,ie locals barricaded in and under siege.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 15 Feb 2008, 13:35

Total Recall HD-DVD - 4/5
A bonafide classic action film, that reeks of quality. It's been a few years since I've last seen the whole thing, but it's just as good as I remember it being.

The film is well-written; has a superb score; the action scenes are well edited, choreographed and always exciting. For most part the special effects (aside from the obvious animatronics) have aged really very well, being much more convincing and seamless than a lot of CGI in Hollywood blockbusters of recent years.

Arnie's one-liners are as fun as ever. "Consider that a divorce." "Screw you!"

The transfer was good IMO. Studio Canal's print obvious had a very nice natural grain, thus the entire presentation has a genuine cinematic feel. The detail of everything and the colours looked great.

This disc was amongst Studio Canal's earliest HD-DVD releases, which reportedly suffer from sped-up sound. I couldn't tell at all, no one at any point sounded like a chipmunk to me.

Open Water - 1.25/5
Utterly boring and tedious. I found the two central characters totally unlikeable, it wasn't long before I was wishing for the deaths of these fuckers.

The extra 0.25 is for the editing, which was fairly good, giving an unsettling feeling when appropriate.

I didn't like the digicam photography. Normally it's used to give a placebo effect of greater immersion/realism, but it had the opposite influence upon me in this case. The single camera fixed upon the couple totally pulled me out of the experience and made me focus upon their amatuerish and thus unconvincing performances. This film may've been much better on celluloid, even if it were Super8.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 15 Feb 2008, 18:04

Agreed Total Recall has aged well, most of Arnie's action films have.

I don't think it's a classic though, like most of Verhoeven's work it's so trashy. It's not Predator, Terminator or Terminator 2. As far as I'm concerned (I've not seen Black Book) Verhoeven has only made on really decent film: Basic Instinct.

saltysam wrote: 30 Days Of Night blu-ray 3/5

That must rank up there with "The look and sound of perfect" and "The way you are". How hard is to at least attempt grammar?

"30 days of darkness" would've been better.