UHD New Releases, Reissues and Upgrades

[nicolas]

Sunset Boulevard 75th Anniversary Paramount Presents 4K coming later this year. I was hoping they licensed it to Arrow or Criterion.

I've seen a few of the usual wide ranging views on the other forum but any thoughts yet on Paramount's release?

Mine hasn’t yet shipped but I’ve taken a look at the digital version on Apple and to me it looks like the usual hit-and-miss Paramount stuff with decent amounts of processing sprinkled throughout, particularly for the opticals. I’m not sure if the HDR is representative of what ends up on disc but blacks are very deep and contrast is limited. From how I understand the BR comments, it’s not like that on disc and an improvement over the BD. The new 5.1 mix also got surprisingly positive impressions, so for $20 shipped I’ll give it a try as this is one of my favorite films.

[Finch]

Nic, is the Thief 4K that much better than the Arrow BD? I don't want to buy the film for a third time, to be honest. I had the Arrow BD, then replaced it with the Criterion 4K. I don't mind the revisionist grading on the Criterion and I remember thinking their encoding on the 4K was pretty good.

PS.: Going by the screenshots on the previous page, I'm good with the Criterion.

[yoloswegmaster]

It's been over a decade where people keep calling the grading for the 4K restoration of Thief "revisionist" and yet I have never actually seen hard evidence that suggests that. Is there any actual proof of it being revisionist?

[Drucker]

No, and there's a video of Lee Kline claiming he timed he directly with Mann's personal answer print. I myself made this error when writing an article on Mubi.

[nicolas]

Nic, is the Thief 4K that much better than the Arrow BD? I don't want to buy the film for a third time, to be honest. I had the Arrow BD, then replaced it with the Criterion 4K. I don't mind the revisionist grading on the Criterion and I remember thinking their encoding on the 4K was pretty good.

PS.: Going by the screenshots on the previous page, I'm good with the Criterion.

I think the Criterion is totally fine and only has the occasional highlight issues as always due to HDR. It’s my only copy of the film and I’m happy with it too but thought about getting the Arrow BD for the extras. Since you had it before, have you had a chance to take a look at them? I don’t see myself watching the theatrical cut with its old magenta master and Arrow incorrectly pitched the audio but maybe the doc and interviews are interesting.

[Finch]

I've not watched the Arrow extras, unfortunately.

[Finch]

As per a few comments on BR, Arrow's Zombie Flesh Eaters is a bit stronger than the very good Blue Underground 4K:

The differences in the body of the film are negligible, but Arrow does have all three main credit sequences (Zombi 2, Zombie Flesh Eaters, and Zombie) that play in 4K via seamless branching. They also un-stabilized the handheld shot in the Zombie closing credits that Blue Underground had stabilized when they added new digital titles. It's back to looking properly handheld.
Also has the original Italian mono - think someone said earlier that the BU was a downmix on that track and the Arrow is corrected

[Zot!]

It’s a fine 2K upscale like most films from that time

Sorry, what does this mean? I would expect popular 70s studio pictures to receive a native 4k scan, not an upscale. Or do you mean this was an early UHD BR?

[nicolas]

It’s a fine 2K upscale like most films from that time

Sorry, what does this mean? I would expect popular 70s studio pictures to receive a native 4k scan, not an upscale. Or do you mean this was an early UHD BR?

The Equalizer is not a 70s film that was shot on film. It’s from 2014, shot digitally and finished in 2K. Sony upscaled that DI for their 4K release. With digitally-shot films that have lots of VFX, such as the Equalizer films, native rebuilds aren’t going to happen.

[Zot!]

Full apologies, that makes perfect sense. I havent had my morning coffee and for some reason thought you were talking about The Enforcer (Dirty Harry).

[nicolas]

No problem at all.

[Finch]

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Sony)

[nicolas]

Erin Brockovich (Universal) and Erin Brockovich (Sony International) - caps. The old BD is abysmal and despite some shortcomings in the highlights for both discs, the Universal is the better one as it lacks the filtering Sony applied for their encode.

[nicolas]

Disappointing: Sense and Sensibility (Sony) - caps. The 2021 Columbia Classics disc isn’t perfect either and looks filtered but the new standalone MOD release is just awful. Makes me wonder if they’re hiring the guy who does Kino’s discs.

[Finch]

I actually looked on ebay for the titles I wanted from the Columbia Classics and Sony Pictures Classics sets and got them all for reasonable prices, with only His Girl Friday being a bit more expensive. So I got that, Orlando, Last Picture Show (don't care for Texasville so am fine with the Sony over the Criterion), and The Devil's Backbone in the last two weeks, ditto Across 110th St and Truck Turner from Shout's first Blaxploitation set.

[nicolas]

Nice selection. With how these Sony MOD releases have turned out as of late, you’re most likely on the safe side with all of them.

[Finch]

Yes and all but one of the Sony 4Ks were just under $20 each. Now I'm hoping Sony does more boxsets so I can grab the individual titles on ebay. One last title from my haul I forgot to mention was the Sony Pictures Classics edition of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon which is the only version with the Dolby Vision layer. Anatomy of a Murder prices are still too high right now.

[Fus1on]

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) (Arrow) + The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (Arrow) - Apparently both releases were sourced from new OCN scans, but they are surprisingly subtle improvements compared to older Blu-ray releases. On the other hand, color grading and compression are definitely better on the new UHDs.

Caps for TCM: The Beginning

[bearcuborg]

Fus1on, question for you: Do you have a website you trust for home television calibration? I have a Sony A95L, using a Sony UBP-X700M player. Sony Theater Quad if that matters.

[mfunk9786]

Thief (Arrow) - caps

I hate that I can spot several improvements in the very first example here. Already picked up the Criterion disc, oh well!

[nicolas]

Thief (Arrow) - caps

I hate that I can spot several improvements in the very first example here. Already picked up the Criterion disc, oh well!

Same! I didn’t think Arrow would get to access Criterion’s master that quickly. I guess that’s the power of MGM and them not granting anyone exclusivity windows.

[danbez]

Still about Thief, remind me - what is the most recommended cut? theatrical or director?

[jt938]

Still about Thief, remind me - what is the most recommended cut? theatrical or director?

I'd go director's just because it's from a better master, the theatrical cut is source from an old MGM telecine master and looks very dated.

Here's the differences between the two cuts

https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=665044

[andyli]

The comparison between BFI and Shout's Aguirre 4K releases is a hard case to crack: surprisingly, there's not only framing difference between the two, but also vastly different grain structure and color grading, almost suggesting two completely separate 4K restorations out there. Overall it seems BFI wins in most departments but there are places where the grains are scrubbed too clean to my untrained eyes.

[nicolas]

But I'm a Cheerleader (Lionsgate) is a disaster. Caps by DonaldMcDonald / BR. He also took a look at the disc stats and it's got the same huge Dolby Vision layer Kino's encoder uses.

@Fus1on:

Better Man (Paramount US / Entertainment in Video UK) - comparison. I think this film is strikingly ugly and it ultimately doesn't matter much which one to take. Paramount's looks low-pass filtered (as usual) which EIV doesn't have but it looks like they did some filtering of the chroma but compression-wise, both could be better.