Blu Ray is freakin' amazing!

Batutta

Batutta

Major Contributor
I've been watching Bond films on Blu-Ray and some of these new transfers and restorations blow my mind. Dr. No and especially Live and Let Die are flawless and dare I say probably didn't even look this good when first released. Here are some full frame screencaps. Just look at the amount of detail. Dr. No has a nice subtle, grain, but Live and Let Die was so sharp I couldn't even see any. And it's not because they digitally removed it, the source materials were just in great shape. Here's what a properly restored and transferred 40, nearly 50 year old movie looks like--

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When I click them they go to the screenshot. I don't get it. Maybe it's a browser thing. I did try embedding them here but I just got a question mark so i did direct links.
 
David Jimerson said:
That was just a great flick, Bond or no. Too bad Moore's shtick got so ridiculous by the time he was done.
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Yeah, it's another underrated Bond. Jane Seymour is just amazingly gorgeous in the movie, there's a lot of great lines, and the boat chase stacks up against any set piece in the Bond cannon, all the more amazing because you know they did every stunt for real. Speaking of which, this was in the special features, all the takes of the crocodile hopping stunt in the movie. Check out the shoe on take 4--

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I AGREE
 
Batutta said:
Yeah, it's another underrated Bond. Jane Seymour is just amazingly gorgeous in the movie, there's a lot of great lines, and the boat chase stacks up against any set piece in the Bond cannon, all the more amazing because you know they did every stunt for real. Speaking of which, this was in the special features, all the takes of the crocodile hopping stunt in the movie. Check out the shoe on take 4--

IMPORTANT NOTICE: No media files are hosted on these forums. By clicking the link below you agree to view content from an external website. We can not be held responsible for the suitability or legality of this material. If the video does not play, wait a minute or try again later.
I AGREE
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OMG....that was stupid....crazy....cool as heck!!!
 
if you want to see amazing on blu-ray, i highly, highly recommend you watch the following two films:

8½ (black and white, but oh so good)
Baraka (shot on 70mm glory)
 
David S. said:
On a slight threadjack, who was the best Bond?

I say Sean Connery with a close second Roger Moore.
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Definitely, although I notice people tend to prefer the one they are first exposed to. When I was a kid I liked Roger Moore, because I saw Octopussy like 15 times (my sister worked at the town theater and could get me in for free). After growing up and seeing all the films I preferred Connery. He could woo a chick and smack her around at he same time, and get away with it, which none of the other Bond's really could. Dalton is my least favorite just because he was boring. Lazenby almost doesn't count because he only made one. I give Craig the edge over Brosnan mainly because Brosnan never made a film as good as Casino Royale. That said, I think Craig's portrayal is a little colorless and might get boring over a few more films. I would have preferred Clive Owen, as he has the edgy ruthlessness Craig has, but also some of the debonair, Cary Grant quality I think Bond needs. Look at the guy--
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The main strike against Owen is that his voice can be kind of monotone.
 
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Blu-ray is excellent. But what makes these re-releases so good is that they were shot on film. I say that because the film can be rescanned at a higher level than was done for DVD, re-graded, etc for the extended range of blu-ray. And the end result just rocks, as you say. The restoration of Baraka on blu-ray is killer. Even the restoration of Casblanca on blu-ray is knock-your-socks-off stunning.

If these films had been shot to video tape, or to file, would we have been able to up-rez it to blu-ray and have it look so good? Or more to the point, up-rez it to whatever follows blu-ray?

And this is why I'm interested in shooting at higher resolutions than 1920 x 1080. Not that I can afford to go the Red route. And certainly not that anything I shoot is going to be released on disk and distributed beyond my house. ;)

But some of you will produce stuff that good. Films that get re-released onto new media over time. And that's the stuff I'm worried about.
 
so... i don't know why i just found out about this, but apparently 2001: Space Odyssey was filmed on 70mm film. has anyone seen the blu-ray? was it scanned from the 70mm?

oh and Bruce, i totally understand what your saying about resolutions higher than 1080. it is a disappointing reality that whatever we're shooting on dslr's now will quickly become/look dated in the grand scheme of things. but it is what we have, and what we can afford.

but who knows, with computers getting more powerful and software more sophisticated, i wouldn't be surprised if in a few years there was a flawless 'uprezing' software or plugin that can turn standard-def footage into 4K high-def glory.

did you know that, currently, you can buy a 'personal super-computer' for under $10,000? google: nvidia tesla. these things have something like 1,000 'cores'. can you imagine what the video-software industry would come up with to take advantage of that much processing power? i'm not saying it'll happen tomorrow, but i'm sure demand will catch up with this technology pretty quick.
 
Fahad said:
so... i don't know why i just found out about this, but apparently 2001: Space Odyssey was filmed on 70mm film. has anyone seen the blu-ray? was it scanned from the 70mm?
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No idea - but I can tell you that seeing a pristine 70mm print of 2001 is one of the best movie experiences I've ever had.
:thumbsup:

If you ever have the opportunity to see it projected, do not pass it up.
 
Fahad said:
so... i don't know why i just found out about this, but apparently 2001: Space Odyssey was filmed on 70mm film. has anyone seen the blu-ray? was it scanned from the 70mm?
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I have the HD DVD (I got the xbox360 add on cheap a few years ago), and apparently it's the same encode. It looks great, good enough to see the seams in some of the rear projection work in the Dawn of Man sequence. I saw 2001 in 70mm at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood several times, which is about as awesome a venue as you can possibly have to see that film. Here are some screencaps from DVDBEAVER.COM, which is the same site I got the Bond screencaps from--

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDReviews33/2001_HD_Blu-ray.htm
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