Blu Ray is freakin' amazing!

Kholi said:
Watch THE THING on Blu-Ray... realize that Practical Effects are the only way to go.

Batutta: Still think NetFlix or AppleTV can hang with Blu Ray? :D
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Yes...I stand by that. What people don't understand is that Netflix scales the bitrate to the speed of your connection. My connection rocks. Watched Raising Arizona and it was gorgeous.
 
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I understand that fully. The reality is that there is no such upstreaming method capable of feeding a continent the same data bandwidth as a Blu Ray Disc. I think I'm saying it's technically improbable as of today for netflix and/or AppleTV to look and sound as good as Blu Ray.

But, it may be a case of most people not being able to tell the difference.

Still, watch THE THING if you can.
 
Yeah, I recently upgraded my internet, and was watching LOST on netflix... looks darn near Bluray quality...
 
Kholi said:
I understand that fully. The reality is that there is no such upstreaming method capable of feeding a continent the same data bandwidth as a Blu Ray Disc. I think I'm saying it's technically improbable as of today for netflix and/or AppleTV to look and sound as good as Blu Ray.
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I never said it was AS GOOD, only that it was in the same ballpark. Someone said it was a VAST difference, and I disagreed, saying it was much closer than that, and far better than any satellite or cable feed.
 
Ah! Gotcha. I thought we were operating as "just as good". That would be a bit insane.

I will say that it's at least a bit better, with a fast connection, than Cable HD.

Third time's the charm: WATCH THE THING! hur hur :B
 
Kholi said:
Ah! Gotcha. I thought we were operating as "just as good". That would be a bit insane.

I will say that it's at least a bit better, with a fast connection, than Cable HD.

Third time's the charm: WATCH THE THING! hur hur :B
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I've been meaning to pick up that blu ray. I got and watched the DVD right before I bought a blu-ray player a couple years ago so I'm waiting for it to erase from my memory a bit more before watching again.
 
groveChuck said:
Wow! That's some sweet vintage 1962 Technicolor of Connery there!
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Technicolor rocks .... I'm gonna puke when I see another teal graded action flick ! Yes I'm exaggerating. Colorgrading is there to bring out certain emotions and the teal look is starting to look like a hospital scene over and over again .
The formula grey shirt cyan walls ...desaturated or oversaturated skintones. It works sometimes but I dislike it most of the times.
 
Batutta said:
Ever notice how the decline in Carpenter's work can be directly timed with him not using Dean Cundey anymore?
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I need to IMDB and see if that was before or after Christine. Although Escape from L.A. was great stuff. I just can't figure out what happened between Christine and Prince of Darkness. Especially the second half of Prince of Darkness.
 
Kholi said:
I need to IMDB and see if that was before or after Christine. Although Escape from L.A. was great stuff. I just can't figure out what happened between Christine and Prince of Darkness. Especially the second half of Prince of Darkness.
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Prince of Darkness was where the break occurred, that was Gary Kibbe. Never worked with Dean again. I didn't care for Escape from L.A...I thought it was almost a parody of the first film. Other interesting timings, Lucas produced films with Gary Kurtz up until Return of the Jedi. And James Cameron's writing, especially the dialogue, was less sharp sans Gale Anne Hurd (starting with T2). Much has also been made of Polly Platt's responsibility for Peter Bogdonavich's success.
 
John Carpenter, from Assault on Precinct 13 through They Live was all awesome stuff.

In the Mouth of Madness was his best post-80's film.

Also, the Dean Cundey theory is interesting. I also feel that Carpenter's films lost some of their magic when he began moving away from his signature minimalist synthesizer scores.

The Aliens remaster is simply insane. I think I'm still getting used to how good it looks, as it almost feels too crisp compared to the various VHS and DVD copies I've seen so many times over the years.

For all of you that are fans of Baraka, check out the Blu-ray of Chronos, which was a shorter earlier work by Baraka's director Ron Fricke.
 
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Ugh. I gave Alien 3 another look just to check out the 'director's cut' and it was not improved, just more of what was already bad. Aside from the fact that the movie starts off on a bad foot at minute one by killing Hicks and Newt, I tried enjoying the film on its own merits but even there the film is a failure. Ripley crash landing on a prison planet certainly had dramatic possibilities, but this is the dullest bunch of criminals ever put on screen. Not a one of them did I find interesting or give a crap about. Only Charles Dutton makes any kind of impression. That wouldn't be so terrible if Ripley was given other characters to interact with, but all we get is Charles Dance as the prison doctor whose character has the charisma of a log and zero chemistry with Sigourney Weaver. Michael Biehn and Sigourney got more out of a few looks than these two do with pages of dialogue. Even the cinematography, which I previously thought to be one of the film's only virtues, looks overlit now and not close to the wonderfully dark atmosphere of the first two films. Fincher also makes the mistake of thinking gore=horror. Cameron says in the Aliens special features that gore disgusts people, but it doesn't terrify them, so the less you show the better. Fincher missed that memo. The alien being birthed from the ox, which is a change from the original edit, has all the terror of a baby deer emerging from its mother's womb. When watching Alien and Aliens back to back I was struck by how well Cameron studied the first film, being faithful to the look, tone and character of Ridley's film while adding his own elements. Fincher seemed determine to not repeat anything either had done, which is commendable, but what he brought to the table instead wasn't an improvement. Not sure which is worse, this or Alien 4. May have to go with this one only because it's so damn dull.
 
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Yeah, Alien 3 is one of those films that I have to be in the right mood to watch. I don't love it, but I can't really bring myself to hate it. It certainly has some good points going for it, but it breaks down when you compare it to the first two. Say what you will about Alien Resurrection, but it is at least fun to watch if you just relax and try not to compare it to the first two films in the series. Another thing is that Alien and Aliens were both dark, but had just enough of a ray of light plus mountains of suspense to keep the audience engaged. Alien 3 is just downright depressing, and not nearly as suspenseful as the two previous films.

I hate to say it, but I think the best thing for them to do with the Alien series would be to either:

1) Restart it from the end of Aliens, with different actors for Ripley, Hicks, Newt, and Bishop. I know Superman Returns wasn't that great, but the idea wasn't horrible, of restarting it after the second film and forgetting about the abominations that were Superman 3 and 4. Also, both in Superman Returns and Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles, the recasting actually worked in both cases. Both Brandon Routh and Lena Headey were able to pull it off I though. If someone could find the right actress for Ripley, then it could work I think. I know that sounds like blasphemy, but I'd actually like to see that story and those characters continue. Give me a story with them getting back to Gateway Station, marines, aliens on Earth, more conspiratorial shadow play by the Company, and I'd be a happy camper.

2) Start it out with a completely new set of characters. No prequel crap, no trying to tie it to the previous films. No Predators. Just start it with a completely new cast that stumbles upon another Space Jockey wreck or settlement, and then someone gets facehuggered... and then we're off and running. Keep the blue collar space trucker aesthetic and have the new crew be planetary surveyors or a new colony that is just starting or something along those lines, or just use the Colonial Marines again. Maybe a new squad of marines happens upon an alien nest or another wrecked alien ship. There are tons of possibilities.

This whole two film Alien prequel thing that Ridley Scott is doing worries me. I mean, look at the fourth Indiana Jones film. That had all the original players: Lucas, Spielberg, and Harrison Ford, but would have probably been a better film if it had starred and been produced/directed by a different group of people who were fans of the original three.
 
Nektonic said:
I hate to say it, but I think the best thing for them to do with the Alien series would be to either:
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I think all things considered they should just let the series die. Between the first two films I don't see how much more juice can really be squeezed out of the Alien concept. There really isn't much more to be explored with regards to the Alien lifecycle, so there is no element of shock or surprise there. Nothing more can be done with Ripley as a character. Anything will be a retread.

Back on the blu-ray subject, both Alien and Aliens have the best making of docs I've ever seen. Tons of production details are given, from the conception all the way through to the release, with amazingly candid interviews. Kudos to the producers of these docs for not making EPK style puff pieces and actually letting the interview subjects relate all the conflicts and personality clashes that happened during the making of the films. Dan O'Bannon is especially vocal about his poor treatment, although his stories pay off wonderfully when he finally sees Alien with a paying audience. I think in hind sight it was a poor idea to let David Fincher direct Alien 3 as his first feature. Ridley was considerably older, and had made The Duellists, a relatively ambitious period piece he produced on his own. Cameron had his trial by fire on Pirhana 2 and also made Terminator before doing Aliens. Fincher was 27 and out of his depth, although time has certainly revealed his talent.
 
Just wondering something about the Blu Ray thing. Do you guys find a bigger difference between a DVD on an SD set up vs. a DVD on a Blu Ray HD set up, or DVD on Blu Ray vs. Blu Ray on Blu Ray. Which has the bigger jump in quality to you?
 
DVD's played on Blu-Ray over HDMI look better to me than from my old DVD player component output.

Blu-Ray discs from high quality masters are much more impressive all around though.

Blu-Ray restorations of 2001, A Clockwork Orange, and Jaque Tati's classic "Play Time" are absolutely pristine and gorgeous. Can't wait for a good Blu-Ray release of the restored Lawrence of Arabia.
 
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Jim Brennan said:
Just wondering something about the Blu Ray thing. Do you guys find a bigger difference between a DVD on an SD set up vs. a DVD on a Blu Ray HD set up, or DVD on Blu Ray vs. Blu Ray on Blu Ray. Which has the bigger jump in quality to you?
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You lost me, but I'll try and decipher. At my screen size, roughly 96 inches, the difference between DVD and blu-ray is painfully obvious no matter what. On some exceptionally well transferred DVD's, my blu-ray player can uprez them to pretty decent quality, but it's still not that close. You're also gaining color fidelity along with resolution.
 
Nektonic said:
This whole two film Alien prequel thing that Ridley Scott is doing worries me. I mean, look at the fourth Indiana Jones film. That had all the original players: Lucas, Spielberg, and Harrison Ford, but would have probably been a better film if it had starred and been produced/directed by a different group of people who were fans of the original three.
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This should ease your worries. Seems the Alien 'prequel' has morphed into a totally original project called Prometheus--

http://www.deadline.com/2011/01/rid...and-charlize-theron-circling-2nd-female-lead/
 
Thanks and sorry for being so cryptic. It's really just academic, but I was curious. I hooked up a Sony BR player via component to my 720P Epson Cinema projector. I noticed a huge difference between watching DVDs on a regular DVD player vs. watching the same discs through the Blu Ray player. The few BluRay disics I have watched looked great, but I couldn't tell much of a difference between the BR discs and the DVDs played through the BR player.
 
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