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Interesting and unusual DVD/Blu-Ray releases (News)

I remember watching a bunch of these on DVD borrowed from my local library 20 years ago, and I remember the DVDs looking awful. Glad to hear these are getting restored!
 
hbenthow said:
Warner Brothers is finally releasing a Blu-ray of the Max Fleischer Superman cartoons with high-quality restorations and a few bonus features. It's available for pre-order and is being released on the 16th of this month.

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https://www.amazon.com/Fleischers-Superman-Blu-ray-Clayton-Collyer/dp/B0BXQM8FTK/
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Whelp, sounds like it got DNR'd/soften up a bit....

Comparison between the unrestored footage from the featurette on the release and the actual shorts themselves:

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Better than that Gaiam pathetic excuse for a release............but it still ain't the best.
 
Editzilla said:
Whelp, sounds like it got DNR'd/soften up a bit....

Comparison between the unrestored footage from the featurette on the release and the actual shorts themselves:

superman-max-fleischer-cartoon-bluray-review-5.png

superman-max-fleischer-cartoon-bluray-review-6.png

superman-max-fleischer-cartoon-bluray-review-9.png

superman-max-fleischer-cartoon-bluray-review-10.png


Better than that Gaiam pathetic excuse for a release............but it still ain't the best.
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It looks like a good candidate for a fan-made regrained and regraded edition.

Here's Blu-ray.com's review:

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Max-Fleischers-Superman-Blu-ray/333896/#Review

EDIT: I did a little experimenting to see what a regraded and regrained version would look like.

Unrestored Footage:



Blu-ray:



Blu-ray footage color-matched to unrestored footage (using Dr. Dre's Color Matching Tool) with added film grain:



Unrestored Footage:



Blu-ray:



Blu-ray footage color-matched to unrestored footage (using Dr. Dre's Color Matching Tool) with added film grain:



I think the results look quite promising. A full restoration of this nature would take quite a bit of work, but could likely have very good results.
 
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Those are excellent results!

PS thanks for bringing up this tool. For one of my projects I've been trying to match two video sources with slightly different coloring but my eye for color correction is terrible. I happened to find one frame that they have in common that is exactly the same, so using this tool to create a LUT is exactly what I've been needing!
 
Editzilla said:
Severin Films just announced a Brucesploitation boxset that I am way too excited for:

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Oh! Any details on restorations, languages, etc? The Dragon Lives Again in particular is a pleasant surprise. The rights issues on that alone - even as protected parody - have to be a legal nightmare.
  • Bruce Lee, himself.
  • Linda Lee
  • James Bond
  • The Man With No Name
  • The Godfather
  • The Exorcist
  • Popeye
  • Kung Fu (The David Carradine series)
  • The One-Armed Swordsman
  • Dracula, but he's public domain - no problem on that one at least.

And those are just the ones I remember off the top of my head!
 
Kind of the opposite of this thread's purpose but... I noticed Amazon Prime (in the UK at least) had just added 'Heaven's Gate' to their free to watch roster. I noticed they've uploaded (possibly by accidental incompetence) not the widely available Criterion HD remaster of Cimino's long 3.5-hr 1st premiere cut but Cimino's very rare, shorter, very different and superior 2.5-hr "finished" 2nd cut (with new scenes, overture etc). Previously only available as a bonus on one German blu-ray set (and on an awful looking old French DVD).

Give it a watch, it's the way this much maligned movie should be seen... and before Amazon realise they've put up the wrong version and replace it with the standard cut.
 
A bit late (sorry if this has been posted already and I haven't noticed), but only just found out that the Theatrical Version of the Peter Weir's 1975 "Picnic at Hanging Rock" has been released on both blu-ray and 4K. Interestingly, it is 119 minutes long (barring additional restoration credits), 4 more than the 115 minutes of the version that I was familiar with or 107 of the truncated Director's Cut (also included), suggested on movie-censorship.com (https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=8055) that this is an Australian (instead of international) version.

In any case, this appears to include all the footage featured in the shorter official versions and at a taller 1.66:1 aspect ratio but without the cropping that hampered the older Theatrical Version releases and fan-extended editions (my own included). The only question is whether the (presumably looser) editing makes for a better film, if not it may require another fan-reconstruction of the not-included international version!
 
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TM2YC said:
Give it a watch, it's the way this much maligned movie should be seen... and before Amazon realise they've put up the wrong version and replace it with the standard cut.
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I took your advice. Glad I did. Thanks for the rec.
 
The Scribbling Man said:
I took your advice. Glad I did. Thanks for the rec.
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Did the same, thanks @TM2YC for the notice! While I admit that it's been a while since I saw the "final" cut (the first and only time prior that I've watched this much-discussed film), I could only detect the absence of the John Hurt speech at the beginning and his line "I love Paris" at the end.

It did feel less "epic" to me than I remember, but this may just be a result of having 67 fewer minutes, would need to break out the longer version again to be sure!
 
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Arrow's Bruce Lee set:


I have seen the theatrical cut of The Big Boss, something I never thought would happen. This version won't change how you feel about the movie. If you loved it (like I do!) there's more to love. If you weren't too big on it before, this won't change your mind. It's interesting to see how many of the decades-old descriptions of missing scenes were right, partially right, or outright wrong. The movie was always an even mix of brutality and sentimentality, and the new scenes reinforce both aspects. The human element of the story was always what helped make the movie stand out, and those elements are further reinforced here. The new footage does stand out from the pristine restoration of the material from the shorter version - colors are washed out and tinting of shots is inconsistent especially when new frames are added to shots that we already had. But considering they are sourced from a 50+ year old theatrical print, it's a miracle it even exists, let alone shows remarkably little damage.

If you've never heard Wang-Fu Ling's score for the Mandarin version before (there are no less than three other soundtracks for this film!)... well, it sucks. Music seldom fits the scenes right. A few pieces are decent, but more often than not, things feel downright random. I had hoped that the reinstated footage would make this element of the movie flow better, but other than being less choppy, that's really the only improvement. When I get well someday, I'm going to try and sync up the Peter Thomas / Mandarin hybrid audio from the Criterion set with as much of this version as possible. And if that works, also the Frankie Chan / Joseph Koo Cantonese version (the only version with Bruce's battle cries), too.

Here's a quick quality comparison, using a shot that exists in every version:

Criterion (look how yellow the sky is):

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Arrow, raw scan version of extended cut - this is a good example of the look of all the new footage in the main version:

vlcsnap-2023-07-22-22h18m18s172.png.6fb01508e2bd10e74be95ed42d361305.png



Arrow, extended cut main version:

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matrixgrindhouse said:
Arrow, raw scan version of extended cut - this is a good example of the look of all the new footage in the main version:

vlcsnap-2023-07-22-22h18m18s172.png.6fb01508e2bd10e74be95ed42d361305.png
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Ahhh...this wonderful washed-out stuff brings me back to the halcyon days of my youth. ;) Seriously, that Extended Cut footage looks great, though.

3 New BD remasters of Hideo Gosha Films

I'm still getting to know Gosha, but he's made two of my favorite samurai films of all time, Three Outlaw Samurai and Sword of Doom. These other three films are decidedly more of the exploitation style, but I love that more of his work is getting the proper exposure.
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www.criterion.com

The Last Picture Show

One of the key films of the American seventies cinema renaissance, The Last Picture Show is set in the early fifties, in the loneliest Texas nowheresville to ever dust up a movie screen. This aching portrait of a dying West, adapted from Larry McMurtry’s novel, focuses on the daily shuffles of...
www.criterion.com www.criterion.com

The most interesting of Criterion's recently announced discs is 'The Last Picture Show' because they're including the little seen and critically disfavoured sequel 'Texasville'. And it's "my version" of it ;) . When I watched it 2-years ago (https://letterboxd.com/tm2yc/film/texasville/) I decided to view the old Laserdisc-only Director's Cut which I switched to black & white so it felt closer to the 1st movie. That's the version that is going to be on the disc. I think this'll lead to a rediscovering of how good the sequel is.
 
TM2YC said:
The most interesting of Criterion's recently announced discs is 'The Last Picture Show' because they're including the little seen and critically disfavoured sequel 'Texasville'. And it's "my version" of it ;) . When I watched it 2-years ago (https://letterboxd.com/tm2yc/film/texasville/) I decided to view the old Laserdisc-only Director's Cut which I switched to black & white so it felt closer to the 1st movie. That's the version that is going to be on the disc. I think this'll lead to a rediscovering of how good the sequel is.
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I will be quadruple dipping this...DVD, HMV Premium, Columbia Collection edition 4K and now the Criterion. I won't even take the VHS from the 80's into consideration. The announcement of Texasville as a bonus has me sold. @TM2YC - I never realised you made a version of Texasville in B&W - it was always something i intended to take a crack at eventually...Criterion has saved us a job (y)

I love the annoucement of some Malick on 4K aswell with the release of Days of Heaven....hopefully we'll get The New World DC (with Theatrical cut colouring)) , The Thin Red Line and Tree of Life.
 
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I've heard that Japan are doing a 4K re-release of Super Mario Bros (1993), also putting it in theaters there again.
 
Atreyu said:
I've heard that Japan are doing a 4K re-release of Super Mario Bros (1993), also putting it in theaters there again.
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Umbrella Entertainment in Australia is giving it a 4K release too with a remastered Workprint.

Also, a Christmas miracle:

prey-2022-predator-prequel-4kultrahd-bluray-cover.png
 
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