Saturday, December 25, 2010

Christmas swag redux

4:15 PM / Blu-ray / Comments11 Comments

Christmas swag sorted

And now my Christmas BDs, sorted in order of image quality, from best to worst (based on a fairly quick initial examination). Warner Home Video: excelling at mediocrity since 2006.

 
11 Comments

1. CraigTheRave said:

From Paris With Love? Oh Michael, I thought you had better taste than that. Lol.

Seriously though, I don't claim to be an expert, but the Inception BD looked wonderful to me.

(Posted on Saturday, December 25, 2010 at 5:43 PM)

2. Kamyar said:

Though I've got the German releases (they must be identical anyway I think) I preferred the image quality of "Inception", which looked razorsharp and didn't have any noticeable ringing/dnr/other codec problems to that of "Salt", which looked a bit soft for the most part.

But I only watched them on my Sony HX805 TV and didn't really analyze them via PC screengrabs, so that could be misleading in motion.

(Posted on Saturday, December 25, 2010 at 11:07 PM)

3. Author Profile Page Michael said:

What can I say? I like Luc Besson's films - even the ones he merely wrote and produced. I know next to nothing about FROM PARIS WITH LOVE and am fully prepared to admit that it could well be crap - but on the other hand I'm inclined to think Christmas is as good a time as any to take a risk on an unseen movie.

Regarding INCEPTION, to be fair I only watched a couple of scenes and it did look a lot better than BATMAN BEGINS and THE DARK KNIGHT, but definitely the least impressive of the above six discs and fairly typical of Warner's output: not too bad, not too great, just above average.

SALT looked absolutely excellent to my eyes, much more detailed than INCEPTION... though again I haven't watched the whole thing yet, so my initial impressions could well turn out to be unrepresentative of the film as a whole. As always, I'll endeavour to do full image quality reviews of each disc once I've watched it.

(Posted on Sunday, December 26, 2010 at 1:16 AM)

4. Kentai said:

Not to defend Warner, but Inception was anything but razor sharp when I saw it on an Imax Digital screen.

Merry Christmas, by the by.

(Posted on Sunday, December 26, 2010 at 1:43 AM)

5. Christopher D. Jacobson said:

Isn't that just the way films not shot with IMAX cameras look on IMAX screens? Only movie I've seen that hasn't looked like shit on an IMAX screen is The Dark Knight, but only during the IMAX-filmed scenes. Makes me hope The Dark Knight Rises is all-IMAX, 'cos those scenes in TDK look phenomenal.

(Posted on Sunday, December 26, 2010 at 5:40 AM)

6. Matthew McKinnon said:

I saw Inception at the Odeon Leicester Square, the Friday it opened, presumably the same 35mm print as was used at the premiere. It looked soft and a bit flat and generally uninteresting. The Blu-ray vastly improves on this, with much greater detail.

I know from friends who worked on the FX on the film that Nolan's obsessively anti-digital (insists on viewing all FX tests/shots on 35mm rather than direct digital projection etc), so I have a feeling that any problems in the look of the BR are down to the look of the film itself.

Merry Christmas.

(Posted on Sunday, December 26, 2010 at 9:28 AM)

7. Neil said:

From Paris With Love. Definetly worth owning for Travolta's hugely enjoyable OTT performance, and another enjoyable Besson production. It did slightly remind me of Empire of the Wolves.

People who hate FPWL should maybe try pulling the stick out of their ass before viewing these types of films. :)

(Posted on Sunday, December 26, 2010 at 12:35 PM)

8. ChuckZ said:

This is what I received for Christmas:

Mad Men: Seasons 1, 2, 3 (Blu-ray)
30 Days of Night (Blu-ray)
The Passion of the Christ (Blu-ray)
This is Spinal Tap (Blu-ray)
Killzone 2 (PS3)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - The Complete Recordings (3 CD + 1 DVD-A)

(Posted on Sunday, December 26, 2010 at 11:57 PM)

9. David S.H. said:

I did pretty well, sometimes pays to have big-ish family ;)
Although I probably spent as much as them....

Video Nasties: Guide DVD
Band of Brothers Blu-ray
Battle Royale LE Blu-ray
The Exorcist Blu-ray
Sound of Music Blu-ray + DVD set

Blu-ray "Romance Gift Pack"(£15)including:
50 First Dates
Closer
Cruel Intentions
Catch And Release
Hitch

Blu-ray Brit Indie Collection(£12):
Trainspotting
Shallow Grave
Sexy Beast
Gangster No. 1

The 7 blus for £27 was pretty good, I actually ordered those and gave to them to give to me lol

(Posted on Wednesday, December 29, 2010 at 2:46 AM)

10. Dirk Diggler said:

If you end up liking From Paris With Love,(and why not, it's a lovely romp), ditch that shit UK disc. Smacked onto a BD-25, the VC-1 transfer is awful and can't handle the grain that's meant to be there. Looks like a smeared shit-fest. The AQ is piss as well.

Lionsgate's US disc fixes these problems. Bloody Warner!

(Posted on Sunday, January 2, 2011 at 12:13 AM)

11. Author Profile Page Michael said:

Thanks for the information about INCEPTION's theatrical appearance, folks. By the sounds of it, it tallies with what I'm seeing on the disc.


Dirk:

I watched it the other night and, while I more or less enjoyed it, I didn't like it enough to justify buying another copy. I didn't have any major complaints about the audio, but I was definitely aware of the typical Warner-esque compression at times. To be honest I bought it without realising the UK release was Warner - I figured it would be Lions Gate like the US version.

(Posted on Sunday, January 2, 2011 at 3:40 PM)

 
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