UHD New Releases, Reissues and Upgrades

[nicolas]

Red category:
- The Long Kiss Goodnight (Arrow)
- Night of the Creeps (Shout)
- Tommy (Shout) - I can confirm. Amazing restoration, encode and sound

Blue category:
- Some Like It Hot (Criterion) - caps show slight encode improvement vs. KL and additional damage clean-up. Mono mix is still the filtered 2019 one but the 5.1 mix is apparently different. Not yet known if it’s less filtered and/or revisionist.
- Choose Me (Criterion) - I got that one and while the master looks good this isn’t Criterion’s best encode. No disaster but neither a reference disc.
- Chungking Express (Criterion)
- King of New York (Lionsgate) - Arrow master, good 2.0 mix, botched 5.1 but Lionsgate are looking into it
- Sneakers (KL) - good new master, 5.1 audio okay, not enough info yet re. encode but the master itself may make up for it as the old BD was so bad

Disappointing:
- Armour of God (Nameless, German import) - HD upscale
- Armour of God 2 (Nameless, German import) - HD upscale
- Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead (Kino) - caps confirmed poor encode
- The General’s Daughter (Kino) - caps confirmed poor encode
- Career Opportunities (KL) - poor encode but original 2.0 that sounds better than their BD

FYI, their Foul Play has no original mono but too little info/caps about the 4K master so far.

Not enough info yet on their two John Wayne titles but the two masters on their own look very good in the BR.com review screenshots.

[therewillbeblus]

Moved to another thread

[Fus1on]

I'm a bit confused as to why Some Like It Hot (Criterion) is considered a blue tier disc if it's better than the Kino release which is currently labeled as red tier?

[andyli]

There's talk that this additional clean up removed tiny details from the image in some places.

[tenia]

There's talk that this additional clean up removed tiny details from the image in some places.

Yup.

[nicolas]

I also think it’s rather disappointing that Criterion didn’t use the opportunity to undo the filtering of their mono mix. I hope someone can find out how the 5.1 is, otherwise I don’t see any reason to upgrade from the Kino disc.

[Fus1on]

That's a shame. It looks like some highlight detail is missing in Criterion's version, even though the encoding looks a little better.

[nicolas]

Last Tango in Paris (VS) Short review and caps by Kyle @BR.

@fus1on: also red is Universal UK and Germany’s The Brutalist 4K. It’s the best one of the bunch and in total slightly ahead of the Elevation. Subtitles are also 100% correct compared to the Elevation, which have one line missing. Caps by fkid

[kekid]

I am happy to read that "Last Tango in Paris" is placed in the red category.
I am not an expert in judging the technical information about the image, but to my eyes the grain on this film seems to be so prominent as to be distracting. Perhaps that is inherent in the source material.
Separately, I stand corrected about the earlier comment I made regarding the language of this 4K version.I had incorrectly assumed that all characters speak in their native language, thus Brando would speak in English throughout. That was an incorrect assumption; characters speak in different languages based on who they are talking to. Thus Brando speaks in English only part of the time. This is correctly captured on the disc.I apologize for that error.

[nicolas]

La Haine (BFI) review. I’d leave the Criterion where it is in the ranking but add that the BFI is the best one.

[Finch]

1080p caps of Celluloid Dreams's 4K Short Night of the Glass Dolls at the bottom of this review

[Finch]

Dirty Harry 4K confirmed to have the original mono in a 2.0 container. That alone makes it an upgrade over the old BD but early takes on the 4K also mention a good HDR10 grade and encode. Here's hoping for more of the same with Outlaw Josey Wales and Pale Rider.

[Fus1on]

Outlaw Josey Wales and Pale Rider also have 2.0 tracks, so we're probably getting OG audio on both discs as well.

[nicolas]

George Feltenstein also confirmed that it’s now Warner policy to include original audio mixes with (4K) re-releases. A shame that some of their biggest classics (Blade Runner, The Shining,…) came out long before this policy went into effect.

[captveg]

That's been their policy for a few years now.

[nicolas]

That's been their policy for a few years now.

While they’ve indeed been treating us with mono tracks for a while now, I haven’t come across a confirmation like this from someone at the studio until today (and the BR folks seem to agree): https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php? ... tcount=849

[Finch]

I just finished the Dirty Harry 4K (going to watch Outlaw Josey Wales tomorrow). Colors looked more natural than on the Blu-Ray and occasionally you get some striking, almost three-dimensional feeling close ups (like the bank robber who Callahan delivers the famous Do you feel lucky? speech to). The textures of some period costumes stand out, like the green coat Chico's wife is wearing. Interesting that the 4K is brighter than the BD; usually, with this format, it's the other way round. My hearing isn't good enough to say whether the mono track has been filtered at all but it sounded pretty clean and good to me. The inclusion of the mono alone makes me not wanting to return to the BD ever again.

Video: 4K B; Blu-Ray B-
Audio: 4K A-; Blu-Ray C

If we end up putting this in the Solid Upgrade tier, I'd say it's one of the best releases in that category and add a comment that the audio is excellent. But if a majority feels that the 4K belongs in the top tier, then I'm good to go along with that.

[nicolas]

Glad to hear your thoughts Finch, I’m excited to revisit the Eastwood films once my copies arrive after having not seen them for ~10 years. The brighter and less nuanced grading appears to be more due to the colorist’s preference rather than the films’ original stylistic intent. People at BR also discussed this and while doing some research, I found a spreadsheet with the credits of the colorist and he did all of the Eastwood 4K titles and some other WB grades where the colors leaned similarly. It’s a bit like the anti-Ritrovata whereas a middle ground similar to Amadeus would’ve probably been more appropriate at least partially. There’s one cap of the Dirty Harry BD at caps-a-holic that leaned a bit more yellow but the 4K grade neutralized it. I haven’t seen it in motion though and don’t want to judge too early as I’m also curious how the grain looks in motion and if they managed it.

On another note, here are very beautiful caps of Criterion’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg 4K. Surely this’ll end up a red-tier disc unless the audio is botched.

[Finch]

Josey Wales looks consistently better than Dirty Harry in 4K. The textures are more tangible more frequently than they do in Harry. If I was just looking at the 4K on its own, I'd probably say it's a red tier disc but i remember the film's BD being very good (better than Harry's BD, too). I don't have that disc anymore to compare directly but I've seen bigger gaps with other films. I'd err on the side of caution and call this an appreciable upgrade. Since the mono track is, to my ears, wonderful, this is a must have for everyone who loves the film as much as I do.

4K video: A- BD video: B
4K audio: A BD audio: C

PS.: Someone else will need to speak for Pale Rider as I only bought those two.

[Drucker]

Finch are the BDs you are grading the old masters, or BD versions of the new 4K restos? Thank you.

[Finch]

Sorry, Drucker, should have clarified, the old BDs. I went with the US steelbooks and they only have the 4Ks in them (I don't know if the UK ones come with a BD).

PS.: Pale Rider has been confirmed elsewhere as being in stereo, which is correct.

[nicolas]

Basquiat (Criterion) - Chris’ review

[nicolas]

I’ve earlier suggested moving Criterion’s Some Like it Hot to the blue tier compared to Kino’s red but now after having seen it myself, I think it should be the other way round:

It’s an improvement over the Kino and the MGM BD in the audio department when it comes to the 5.1. It looks like Kino ported over MGM’s mix whereas Criterion did something new or they retooled it as the differences are immediately audible. Music and dialogues do appear more naturally dynamic and less boxy based on a quick listen. I’ll definitely be using this track for my next viewing.

Image quality is also different. Criterion occasionally looks a tiny bit less filtered but the real difference is in the grayscale, which is less contrasty and also a touch dimmer than the Kino. Looking at both of them in Dolby Vision side-by-side, I lean towards the Criterion and their more subtle, film-like approach. This is personal preference though as I’m more a fan of less showy grades with "older" films although Kino’s grade is not bad at all. I’d initially thought that the differences as seen in the caps-a-holic caps were only due to varying screenshot settings but they indeed reflect the different grades and hint at the differences as described above.

[Finch]

Okay, flipping them around and adding Basquiat as well.

[therewillbeblus]

How are Mubi's 4Ks generally? A24 is putting out Queer on blu-ray only, while Mubi has a 4K planned