Blu-Ray Best Of The Best - for discussing releases only

[JP]

I enjoy most of his stuff but Europa is a favourite of mine. The first time I watched it was on some late night film series and I knew absolutely nothing about it and I sat through most of with my mouth open and being complete thrown by what I was watching.

I know it borrows a lot from German expressionist films but as is pretty normal for him he seemed to tear up every rule as he worked through it. Right from the hypnotic first scene to the very last one I was in complete awe of what I was seeing.


I'm hoping that it's going to be Criterion's upcoming blu-ray releases as I've got rid of my DVD now.

Have you watched The Tin Drum? A very different film in some ways but watching one always makes me want to watch the other.

[Temple81]

I don't have meny bluray yet, but one I was VERY happy to get for only £6.99 was Shigurui: Death Frenzy. I saw it on fansub when it came out at 720p and it looked fantastic, this blows it out the water.

I can't say how the dub is as I'm never going to watch it, but the Japanese and the subtitle is great.

I so want more of this series, there is plenty of manga for them to do it too.

[Mad Gear]

Are there any reviews for the Robocop Trilogy anywhere? It's out in the states and i can't find any reviews whatsoever.

[JP]

It isn't terrible but it is quite distracting. Also the original film is only in 480p which peeved me off quite a bit. Still for ?10 for both films you can't go far wrong!

I've had a brief look at both versions now and I'm really surprised at just how poor they both are. I can't understand how they've managed to get it so wrong.

[teddymeow]

Picked up Ron Burgundy yesterday!

Looks great, all the time, not 60% of the time.

It sounds good too. A step up from the HD-DVD which I've owned for a while!!

[JP]

It's a really nice surprise that this turned up so early, I ordered it on the 4th and it's not released until the 19th and they still managed to get it over to me from the US 10 days early.

I have have a couple of other films delivered today but they've been forgotten about due to this turning up.

[Strider]

I got Anchorman as well. Love on the back how Burgundy is the new Blu

[Rossco]

Same here. Watched it with commentary which wasn't that good to be honest.

[teddymeow]

I got Anchorman as well. Love on the back how Burgundy is the new Blu

That is funny!!

"What's that? You pooped in the refrigerator? And ate a wheel of cheese? No I'm not angry, I'm actually impressed!"

The film is comedy gold! Can't wait to watch the "lost movie".

[JP]

I'm in a bit of a Jean-Pierre Jeunet mood at the moment after watching Delicatessen on blu-ray so I've ordered Micmacs ? tire-larigot and Amelie.

I remember that I was really looking forward to Micmacs ? tire-larigot when it was first announced but I'd completely forgotten that it existed until looking into these blu-rays yesterday.


It seems that it only got a very limited release in the UK for some reason.

I won't go into the details about Amelie again as I've moaned about it in the irk thread which covers most of it.

The other versions of Amelie are OK too apart from the first Canadian release which was a 1080i release for some reason. It did get a proper re-release but as far as I know the only way to tell the difference between the two is actually watching the film.

[SuperDanX]

It's a really nice surprise that this turned up so early, I ordered it on the 4th and it's not released until the 19th and they still managed to get it over to me from the US 10 days early.

I have have a couple of other films delivered today but they've been forgotten about due to this turning up.

Is this region locked John? Also what is the best version of Amelie? The Aussie release?

[JP]

Just tried it for you now and all three blu-rays work perfectly on my US (A) and UK (B) PS3s. Bear in mind that blu-rays aren't region free, they're actually multi region but I'm not aware of any reason's for them to have authorised it for regions A & B but not C.

It's the Full Disclosure edition I have rather than the Special Edition but I'd be surprised if there was ant difference in the region locking. The Full Disclosure edition has the Hearts of Darkness documentary on the third blu-ray which is a fantastic film in it's own right.

There's some caparison shots from different versions of Amelie here, here, here, here and here. There are some differences between them with both Canadian editions coming off worst for me. There's also a German version which appears to be the same as Dutch version.

I was torn between the French and Australian versions but went with the Australian one as the French version only has French subtitles.

I think it's very difficult to judge in a film like this as each frame was coloured digitally by Jeunet so we can't really compare with real life. When it comes to grain I think the French version just edges it but they only one with really issues is the first Canadian print which was pressed at 1080i.

With any of the others I think most people would be fine with any of them and it's only with side by side screen captures that you can really see the differences. I'd question whether most people would be able to pick up the differences with all of them running on the same set-ups next to each other apart from the two Canadian versions.

The additional content on blu-rays does vary but it's only really the French TFI version really which has anything of note as Jeunet is involved of the some of the extras on that version.

The only other major difference is the cover art with the French one being the only one which doesn't seem to mess it up in some way. It's not that important though.

[SuperDanX]

Thank a lot for doing that. Good news.

[Rossco]

That is funny!!

"What's that? You pooped in the refrigerator? And ate a wheel of cheese? No I'm not angry, I'm actually impressed!"

The film is comedy gold! Can't wait to watch the "lost movie".

I LOVE Anchorman but thought the extra film was a bit crap tbh. Nowhere near the quality of Anchorman.

[Lyris]

Just watched Beauty and the Beast - no big complaints apart from some small QC issues, but I wasn't happy to see a box pop up over the ending credits. It's a BD-Java based suggestion that you might want to watch the special features now that you're done watching the film and is just totally unwelcome; there's no way to turn it off either short of ripping the film and watching it "unauthored".

Please don't start squishing the credits into a little box like they do on downmarket TV channels...