[J.R.]

Last night I watched an incredible UK film called Ghost Stories which I can't recommend enough, and today I watched the Fyre festival doco on Netflix... blimey, what a Fustercluck!!!

Right now I am enjoying the current series of Doctor Who.

[maxlevel]

@JR ghost stories is great! It was a stage play a few years ago in London. Mark Gatiss who works with that team a lot made a great history of horror series a while back as well. https://youtu.be/ZkZBJd4UTlM

Also, started with the sons of anarchy spin off Mayans MC this week. At the moment it feels like a spin off but for us Brits it’s interesting to see what use walls can do against capitalism. My gut feeling is fuck all, and the Berlin Wall proved that

[skeletonbutt]

thanks for the info guys. i think i need to wait a couple more years for 4k projector prices to come down before i can upgrade but it's good to know it is worth it.

[inksb]

Wait, sorry for the double post, are 4K region free always? Because if so then I’ll be monitoring that dawn of the dead release much more closely.

Yup. I bought two of the 4 UHD Carpenter releases from the UK (EFNY & Prince of Darkness) and I'll be buying the two standalone releases in March when they come out (They Live & The Fog). The UHD's are region free, the blurays are locked to region B.

So you should be buying the Dawn of the Dead UHD from Second Sight when it comes out :) Hopefully it doesn't suck.

Inks, if you are ever down state come calibrate my set for me haha!

Yeah I got an LG, and the only thing I changed on the ISF expert (dark room) setting was a little contrast bump and I adjust the backlight depending on when I’m watching, but otherwise it looks great. I have no idea if the warm2 setting recommended is close to d65 on my set, (like you say, no way to check by eye) but it feels right and everything looks solid.

Also, we could go on for days about the Halloween color timing et al. Is the 4K remaster close to that 35th anniversary Blu-ray, or is it the VERY green grass looking one from the first HD master (If I haven’t switched them, i get them all mixed up, you are spot on about cundey)

Warm2 is perfect, that's what I would set it to. Unfortunately I don't have my calibration equipment any more. I do miss it and have thought about buying some cheaper equipment so I could do it again but fleeting thoughts. As for the Halloween UHD I think it's close to the 35th Anniversary blu, if I'm remembering correctly, like you I get them mixed up. Slightly cooler, blue and pushed a little dark.


Ghost Stories was one of the movies from last year that received so much praise and did not work for me at all. I would definitely go see the stage show but I thought the movie was weak on many levels. And the ending was garbage. Just my though as others love it :)

[EvanCampbell]

(Sorry to hijack the thread)

Perish the thought. This is a fascinating bit of business.

I agree...this is a good kind of hijacking!

[inksb]

Weekend Viewing:

This was a complete let down and I can't recommend it to anyone. I really enjoyed Nightcrawler, I was really excited to see his next movie especially with this great cast. Well there was pretty much nothing to like here. The film is a mess, it has concept of time. From scene to scene we can jump minutes to days to weeks ahead in time. The effects are pretty terrible but the films biggest flaw is it's inability to figure out what it wants to be. It sets up this dark and menacing idea, teases it but never fully embraces it. Instead we get unispired kills that lack any real punch. And to make matters worse the least likeable actress becomes the main character for a majority of the film. Seriously Zawe Ashton who I've never noticed in anything before was terrible, her delivery was flat.


So I let this sit for a few days before I formed an opinion. I have many feelings about it. Overall I liked it, as a film called Suspiria and being a remake of one of the best Italian films of the 70's it pretty much fails in my eyes. As a beautifully shot and acted film about witches, I found it fascinating and fairly entertaining. I really enjoyed the witch story they presented. Tilda Swinton I thought was wonderful. For a film that was over 2 and half hours it actually didn't feel too long but could have been trimmed in a few section. My biggest issue with the film comes from the fact that while the original isn't a very compelling or well written story, it is a visual and auditory feast. This film went in the exact opposite direction, while it's well shot, it's very drab and boring to look at (so much grey) and the score did absolutely nothing for me, the only piece I liked was the big "dance" number with the red string outfits. I wish that some one had the balls to tell Thom Yorke to shut his fucking mouth and just make music because all of his vocal tracks were terrible and seemed extremely out of place. I used to like Radiohead in The Bends - Kid A era but everything since has continued to make me like them less and less. I love Johnny Greenwood's work on scores but that's my extent of Radiohead love these days. The main actress did nothing for me either, I thought she did a good job with the role but something about that actress just bugs me. My wife really disliked the climax of the film, she thought it tipped towards parody of itself with how "extreme" and monotonous that scene was, while I disagree, I kind of enjoyed it in all of it's excess I understand her criticism of it. I think Luca was able to create his own vision of Suspiria, one which I don't like due to certain stylistic choices, I did enjoy his expansion on the witches in that universe. Not a film I will return to often, as I have the original and it is far more entertaining but one that I think was worth being made.


The highlight of my weekend, Jackie Chan's Project A. This was a first time viewing and boy was it a blast. So much fun. The action was over the top, Sammo and Biao Yuen interactions with Jackie are so much fun. Knowing that they did a handful of films together in the 80's makes me very happy and I can't wait to check more of them out. For those that haven't seen this, Jackie is part of the Coast Guard in Hong Kong, pirates have been stealing and destroying ships, the government is not happy with them and disbands the coast guard. Forces all of them to become cops and then a story of deception and kicking pirate ass ensues. Highly recommended if you haven't seen it. Jackie does a crazy drop from a clock tower with no padding on the ground and there are two very different shots of this stunt which means the crazy bastard went back up and did it again. Honestly I have no idea how this man has not died or suffered life debilitating injuries.
(I put the Thai poster there for everyone to enjoy!)

[Bezulsqy]

I bought two of the 4 UHD Carpenter releases from the UK (EFNY & Prince of Darkness) and I'll be buying the two standalone releases in March when they come out (They Live & The Fog). The UHD's are region free, the blurays are locked to region B.

How are those releases? I am thinking of getting at least the They Live version. When you are talking about a standalone release I guess you mean without any additional discs as the current release?
I am saving up to get an UHD BR-player. That will probably take another couple of months. First I need to get a new receiver as my current doesn't support 4k-pass-through.

Since I got my tv on Friday I have only watched three movies and one episode of Star Trek Discovery on it. Is is an absolute treat.
I bought a Sony that uses the whole screen as the speaker. It let's you use it as a center speaker in your surround set-up. That is such a cool experience.

I still need to see how SD-content will look. I am checking that tomorrow.

[inksb]

@bez the two I bought look great. EFNY is the best it's ever been on home video by a lot. I have heard there are some slight issues with They Live and The Fog which is why I'm waiting for the standalone UHD releases ( the original releases were fancy boxsets and steelbooks which had UHD and bluray in them). The issue in They Live is pretty minor, sometimes it's hard to tell if people are making a bigger deal out of something than it should be. The Fog UHD seems to have an issue on certain TV's at least that is what I could put together from the folks over at bluray.com there is supposed flickering in certain scenes that did not exist in any previous version, but not every one is experiencing this. Since they both had minor issues I decided to wait as those sets were selling for £35 at the cheapest I could find, the steelbooks were £29 at the cheapest. The new standalone releases are MSRP at £20 which means they will probably drop to around £15-£18, so I'll be able to grab them for under $30. Out of all four films I already own them on bluray and was very happy with The Fog and Prince of Darkness from Scream Factory, the other two had pretty weak transfers from SF and I will/have happily upgrade/d. Just an FYI on your UHD BR player, I have a Sony UBP-X800 and it has two HDMI outputs so you wouldn't need to upgrade your receiver, one HDMI to the TV for video and the other to the receiver for audio. I highly recommend that player or the equivalent to it where ever you live, models outside of the US are usually different numbers. Unless you are rich and fancy and can afford Oppo players, then I ask that you buy me one as well when you pick one up :)

[Bezulsqy]

@bez the two I bought look great. EFNY is the best it's ever been on home video by a lot. I have heard there are some slight issues with They Live and The Fog which is why I'm waiting for the standalone UHD releases ( the original releases were fancy boxsets and steelbooks which had UHD and bluray in them). The issue in They Live is pretty minor, sometimes it's hard to tell if people are making a bigger deal out of something than it should be. The Fog UHD seems to have an issue on certain TV's at least that is what I could put together from the folks over at bluray.com there is supposed flickering in certain scenes that did not exist in any previous version, but not every one is experiencing this. Since they both had minor issues I decided to wait as those sets were selling for £35 at the cheapest I could find, the steelbooks were £29 at the cheapest. The new standalone releases are MSRP at £20 which means they will probably drop to around £15-£18, so I'll be able to grab them for under $30. Out of all four films I already own them on bluray and was very happy with The Fog and Prince of Darkness from Scream Factory, the other two had pretty weak transfers from SF and I will/have happily upgrade/d. Just an FYI on your UHD BR player, I have a Sony UBP-X800 and it has two HDMI outputs so you wouldn't need to upgrade your receiver, one HDMI to the TV for video and the other to the receiver for audio. I highly recommend that player or the equivalent to it where ever you live, models outside of the US are usually different numbers. Unless you are rich and fancy and can afford Oppo players, then I ask that you buy me one as well when you pick one up :)

Haha. I am going for a region free Oppo 203. That is why I need to save up some more.

Thanks for the info on the BR's. I have to say that reading on A/V forums or Blu Ray forums tend to leave one with an insecure feeling. Those people are so critical. I do not think I see or hear most of what they are talking about.

Edit - I did not know about the two HDMI outs on a player. I just now checked and see the oppo 203 also has 2 outs. 1 video and 1 intended for audio. That means I'll get the first and then upgrade my receiver. That means I can get the oppo a month earlier... With some luck and budgeting I am thinking end of April...

[Hatter313]

bluray.com threads are stunningly insane, i usually just go with the sites review and ignore a lot of the commentary. although i would agree that the EFNY scream transfer was't that great.

[inksb]

I've been around there for going on almost a decade now, I was a frequent poster for 2-3 years. It can be pure insanity. So much trolling, overly critical armchair critics/experts and some insanely knowledgeable people. I like that a few of the labels do have a presence on there like Scorpion Releasing, 88 Films, Kino, Vinegar Syndrome and Mondo Macabro but others have left due to the trolls. Unfortunately their reviewers waver from people who have technical knowledge about the transfers to people who don't know what DNR, black crush or macro blocking is. I do not have an eagle eye but I can notice some stuff. I depend on some of the ridiculous forum members to actually bring attention to problems in releases. Some of these films I already own blurays for and need to know if it's worth upgrading for another $30. An example of something the review on the site failed to mention was Hellraiser 3 released by Arrow wasframed incorrectly, they did not crop the negative properly. The scene where the big pinhead column eats the woman the whole left side of the frame shows the wood set that the column was built on and the rigging stuff from the chains. On top of that the screen composition seems off through out the entire film because they left extra screen space so shots that were centered no longer are due to this. So I wade through the shit over there to get to the actual useful information.

[Mateo Sanboval]

bluray.com threads are stunningly insane, i usually just go with the sites review and ignore a lot of the commentary. although i would agree that the EFNY scream transfer was't that great.

Well said, Hatter. I couldn't agree more on both counts. That forum is a black hole and Scream's EFNY was absolutely crushed.

[Hatter313]

Yeah, I’m fine with it for now, and Im a big scream factory supporter, I feel like they usually do a good job, but I’ll be upgrading all the carpenter to 4K as they become available. I’m gonna take a look at those editions from the UK, but I may hold out for the inevitable US releases. The 4K of Christine we got is...as mentioned by myself and Inks, unbelievable. It’s that UK dawn of the dead I’m more anxious to see since the rights issues for that are so annoying. Let me rephrase, Rubinstein’s ask for the license is nuts.

The only time I dip into those forums is for exactly what inks said, if it’s a blu double dip, I want to know what I’m getting myself into. That and checking that thread for Opera for a preorder announcement from scorpion.

Anyone on here that waded through the Suspiria Synapse thread knows that it’s like haha

[ChrisMcQueen007]

Haha. I am going for a region free Oppo 203. That is why I need to save up some more.

Thanks for the info on the BR's. I have to say that reading on A/V forums or Blu Ray forums tend to leave one with an insecure feeling. Those people are so critical. I do not think I see or hear most of what they are talking about.

Edit - I did not know about the two HDMI outs on a player. I just now checked and see the oppo 203 also has 2 outs. 1 video and 1 intended for audio. That means I'll get the first and then upgrade my receiver. That means I can get the oppo a month earlier... With some luck and budgeting I am thinking end of April...

I also have my eyes on the Oppo. I‘ve been quite happy with my region-free Sony for 8 years or so but now feel it would be time to take the plunge with UHD as there are more and more discs being released. Bought a 4K TV last year and normal blu rays already look stunning. Waiting to see if the prices for Oppos go down in the next months (should be the case eventually as they announced last year that they will not produce players anymore so at some stage retailers will start clearing their stock). Otherwise I‘ll probably just go for a Sony again.

[Mateo Sanboval]

Anyone on here that waded through the Suspiria Synapse thread knows that it’s like haha

Bingo.

[Bezulsqy]

Finished poliziotessco number something. One of the first of the genre. Franco Prosperi's 1966 Tecnica di un omicidio a.k.a. Hired Killer
Excellent score by Robby Poitevin.

[J.R.]

Just finished a triple feature of Texas Chainsaw 3D, Retrun of the Living Dead and the ROTLD coco, More Brains.

Phew.

[maxlevel]

Re: murder mountain Netflix doc. Just discovered today my brother is going there next week to try the local delicacy

[Bezulsqy]

[Bezulsqy]

[Hatter313]

Waiting on that US deluxe to drop and I’m there

[J.R.]

I dig Opera, not my favourite Argento but a cracker of a film nevertheless.

I finally got around to watching the giallo 'Eyeball' after wanting to see it all these years... I don't think I need to see it again.

[Hatter313]

A few days late, but finally taking the annual trip to Valentines bluffs tonight.

Also watched the umbrella academy, very good if you like that sort of thing. I wanted it to go a bit weirder, as I understand the source material doubles down on the quirk, but I liked it a lot. The broad strokes aren’t exactly “new” to comic fans, but more of an offbeat riff on a lot of the modern wave post Alan Moore/Frank Miller superhero stuff with a different sort of style and characters I genuinely really liked across the board.

Thirdly, I discovered that a friend hadn’t seen fright night before, and since Sony finally saw fit to give the film a wide Blu-ray release, I remedied that situation immediately.

[inksb]

I just started Umbrella Academy yesterday. I'm two episodes in and while I'm not entire sold on it yet I do want to keep watching to see what happens. @hatter what are you thoughts on the monkey man? I'm pretty blown away by the CG used on him. It seems like big budget money that I honestly was not expecting at all. The lip sync isn't as good as something like the new Planet of the Apes films but for "TV" it's way more impressive that I had anticipated.

I managed to squeeze two films in this weekend. One a masterpiece and the other, well not so much....


Shocking Dark aka Terminator 2. I'll start by saying I really love Italian rip-off action films, 1999 After the Fall of NY, Blast Fighter, Raiders of Atlantis and Hands of Steel. After seeing some stills of this film and the artwork, I was bound to love it. Unfortunately I did not love, in fact it's one of the worst films I've ever seen and thats coming from some one who really enjoys those listed above. It is a straight up rip-off of Aliens then Terminator then back to Aliens and finally resolves on Terminator again. After I finished the film I was thinking about how bummed I was about not liking it and why I didn't compared to other Italian rip-off films. I came to the conclusion that it's because those I listed above were directed by competent directors, Lamberto Bava, Sergio Martino, Ruggero Deodato. Shocking Dark on the other hand was directed by Bruno Mattei who I don't think is a competent director at all, I've never enjoyed a film I've seen by him, he has no skill at all when compared to the others. Maybe I'm being harsh and some one on here will say they think he's good. Back to the film, it looked like it was filmed in an industrial hall way for 75% of the run time, the "Newt" character had one line of dialog "SAAARAAAH!!!" that she said maybe 50 times in 40 minutes. I did love the creature designs, the Terminator voice was laughably bad but the shoddy direction, lack of a lighting department, no set design and atrocious dialog/writing just lowers this one down too much for enjoyment.


Drunken Master II [Korean poster above] is a modern master piece of martial arts genre. I have never seen the uncut Hong Kong version, only the chopped up Dimension/Miramax dub we got here in the US. It is incredible. Lots of fun little tricks with wires that allows Jackie to really push the drunken style to extremes. While this one has tons of stunts like previous films, it seemed more focused on providing great martial arts action than crazy death defying stunts. It's incredibly funny and Anita Mui absolutely stole the show here for all of the non-action scenes. There is a scene at the end that has been cut from most versions of the film, the copy I watched had it inserted back in and looked to be from a VHS or bad DVD, but due to Jackie's final showdown drinking it has made him mentally handicapped and boy does that play out inappropriately. I laughed, it's definitely a product of it's times. I'm really hoping Eureka get's the rights to restore this film, it really deserves it.

[Hatter313]

They actually went to Weta to make that character because they knew they had experience with realistic ape cgi. It’s not motion capture though, pure CG, which is why it’s not as synched as we’ve become used to, but yeah I think it’s stunning for the budget they had.