Blu Ray Suggestions?

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 1/6/13 at 1:58pm

I finally bit the bullet and got a Blu Ray player. Any suggestions of films that are a must on Blu-Ray?

I've gotten a few great things so far (West Side Box Set/Forever Marilyn/Several Musicals/X-Men Series/Harry Potter Series). Any suggestions would be much appreciated. :)

[DAME]

Posted: 1/6/13 at 2:04pm

The Sound Of Music Blu Ray is pretty neat. I still have not gone thru all the xtras and I have had it for a year. All the Disney Blu Rays are spectacular. My favorites are Wallee and Ratatouile. The Wizard Of Oz set is also spectacular. I highly recommend the High Def site for reviews. Also.. as I tell all my friends... all this stuff without a good sound system is kind of worthless ( in my opinion).
http://www.highdefdigest.com

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 1/6/13 at 2:17pm

Thanks Dame. I have Sound of Music and it is beautiful on High-Def. I've seen Wizard of Oz on Blu-Ray, have a copy on the way. I'm going to slowly get the Disney stuff, too.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 1/6/13 at 2:18pm

Disney has done a beautiful job with their animated films on BluRay. SLEEPING BEAUTY is gorgeous!

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 1/6/13 at 2:20pm

I'm definitely picking Sleepy Beauty up. Saw it with my nieces on their Blu-Ray and feels like you're seeing it for the first time.

Thanks for the link Dame. Just ordered The Tim Burton Collection at a great price on Amazon.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 1/6/13 at 2:49pm

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA is gorgeous on BluRay.

Check out this site. They have a great daily email you can sign up for, they send daily updates on sales and price reductions.
I got the Godfather series for $20.00 through this site---

[When I get low...]

Posted: 1/6/13 at 3:59pm

"The Music Man" Blu Ray is worth having if you don't. I can't speak to any extras, but it's a beautiful transfer of a good film musical. The use of green screen in the opening "Rock Island" scene is a bit glaring, but it's a small concession for a lovely and fun movie.

I also think the Blu Ray of the 1954 "A Star is Born" is pretty great even though it's a flawed film. The art direction was glamourous and sumptuous originally and looks great in this transfer.

Updated On: 1/6/13 at 03:59 PM

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 1/6/13 at 6:10pm

Bye Bye Birdie, Camelot and Dreamgirls are top notch blu ray releases as is Lawrence of Arabia. I was going to say to stay away from West Side Story, but I see you already purchased it. My Fair Lady is another huge disappointment on blu ray. Gypsy starring Natalie Wood is stunning on blu ray.

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/6/13 at 6:30pm

Roscoe, I'm ashamed to tell you I haven't bought Lawrence of Arabia on BD yet, and I actually worked on it (five years ago). It was a long time coming. I don't know what "sale" I'm waiting for, but I haven't found it yet.

As for my favorite Blu-rays:

Outstanding picture and sound:

To Kill a Mockingbird (watching it now, actually!)
Hugo
Titanic
Parts 2 and 3 of Lord of the Rings (Part 1 is an abomination with an unfortunate green/dark tint to it that makes it unwatchable for me)
It's a Wonderful Life
2001
Lost Horizon (1973)
Ben-Hur
The Harry Potter Movies
Wings (astounding)
Metropolis
Disney's Sleeping Beauty
Disney's Snow White
Psycho
Vertigo
Jaws
The recent Marvel movies: Iron Man 1&2, Captain America, Thor, The Avengers
Lady For a Day
All Quiet On the Western Front


Disappointments:

Several Warner Home Video titles that are too dark with severely crushed blacks and too much grain:

Wizard of Oz
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Singin' in the Rain

Gone With the Wind is okay but still suffers worse than it should from the Warners "dark" syndrome. I wish they'd fire whoever is doing their mastering and catch up to both Universal, Disney, and Paramount, who are light-years ahead of them.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 1/6/13 at 6:36pm

I wish Disney would treat their older titles (and their customers) a little better than they have been. Lately they release 15th or 20th Anniversary editions on BluRay with even less (if any) features than the DVD had. They're really pissing me off with this.

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/6/13 at 6:44pm

I haven't bought any of their latest releases since Bambi, which was a while ago now had plenty of extras on it. It also looked and sounded terrific.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 1/6/13 at 6:46pm

Sorry, I didn't mean their animated titles. I was referring to Touchstone, Hollywood, Dimension...

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/6/13 at 6:47pm

Oh, gotcha. That's a shame!

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 1/6/13 at 7:23pm

This one pissed me off the most, though -



No trailer, no commentary, no behind the scenes, no 25th anniversary interviews, NOTHING. The biggest feature the disc had was the scene selection. Don't they know movies like this have HUGE fan bases that would love some features!

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 1/6/13 at 9:38pm

^ Haven't seen that film in ages. I remember going to see it the day it was released. I liked it very much, too bad for a release they are touting as a 25th Anniversary Edition that it's strictly bare bones.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 1/7/13 at 12:23am

Animation looks stunning on BluRay--Disney has been mentioned, but Secret of Nimh looks gorgeous (and Goldsmith's spectacular Stravinsky inspired score sounds amazing), as do the Studio Ghibli masterpieces, though unfortunately Disney is being slow to release them to BluRay, I believe only Nausicaa and Ponyo are on BD so far (I have the Japanese releases which come with the dubs and subtitles--Princess Mononoke is particularly breathtaking as is Spirited Away).

Some live discs I love--but it depends on your interest--is the recent Company in Concert DVD, as well as La Scala Ballet's recent recreation of the original 1898 Petipa ballet, Raymonda on BluRay. (Oh and I also have Kylie Minogue's last tour on BluRay which is amazing in 3D--if you have the capabilities *blush*)

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 1/7/13 at 1:46pm

North By Northwest
Doctor Zhivago
2001

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 1/7/13 at 1:49pm

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! My list just grew!

[Roscoe]

Posted: 1/7/13 at 1:54pm

Oh, Best12 -- what are you waiting for on that LAWRENCE Blu-Ray? It really is something amazing.

These things are of course a matter of taste. The green tint that makes LORD OF THE RINGS: FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING such an abomination for some doesn't register with me at all.

Kino has been releasing Buster Keaton's films on Blu-Ray for a while now, and their release of THE GENERAL is a godsend. Gorgeous.

And I don't know how you feel about Pixar's films, but their Blu-Ray releases are always marvelous. The 3D TOY STORY 3 is a must own.

[DAME]

Posted: 1/7/13 at 2:00pm

Just curious as to what issue you have with the Wizard Of Oz?

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/8/13 at 8:30am

Dame, it's way too dark overall. Garland's hair looks dark brown instead of reddish brown. The wonderful details on the Wicked Witch's costume (her satchel bag, lattice threads going up the front etc.) all are gone or only barely visible.

The term for this is "crushing" the black levels, when so much of the detail is lost. It's a sad state of affairs when the DVD contains more detail than the Blu-ray. Same is true with Singin' in the Rain, Baby Jane, and many other recent Warner titles. My (non-popular) opinion is that their mastering sucks. They should fire whoever is doing it. They don't rise up to the level (literally) of even Paramount or Universal.

Sample of crushing:

http://forums.solidsignal.com/auximages/crushed.png

[DAME]

Posted: 1/8/13 at 2:08pm

Wow. I would have never noticed. But I am so glad to learn about this. Some of the times I just think that I have my tv settings all wrong and just put up with it.

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/9/13 at 8:11am

Dame, I would think the same thing about my TV settings, if it weren't for the fact that other classic releases from virtually all other home video divisions look great on my TV.

I don't think I should have to adjust my settings just for Warner Home Entertainment and nobody else.

Paramount's "Wings" is a masterpiece of restoration.
So is Universal's "All Quiet On the Western Front."
So are Disney's "Snow White" and "Sleeping Beauty."

So why hasn't Warner Bros. figured out how to make Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind, and Citizen Kane look that good? They are all way too dark with crushed black levels.

I have to ask anybody obsessed with inky black levels ... I see it written up in many video reviews ... Have they actually looked around the world or even their own room lately? There is almost no such thing in the real world as "true black levels." Even if you stare into the shadows, there are other shades, colors, levels mixed in. No solid blacks anywhere in reality. To me, anytime something is mastered that dark, it looks really off, fake, or badly done. The other studios don't try to push for this the way Warners does. It's an obsession with them.

I think people with the large projector systems (rather than TV monitors) tend to like this "dark look" better. Maybe it plays better if it's being beamed onto a giant wall somewhere. I don't know.

Honestly, I've stopped buying their classic Blu-ray releases because of it. When my standard-def DVDs look better, there's something wrong.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 1/9/13 at 9:20am

I'll take another look at my BluRays of WIZARD OF OZ, GWTW and KANE, they all looked really great to me, but I'm one of the folks who wasn't bothered by the re-colored FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING.

I've had one very strange experience with Blu-Rays and my TV, and that was with BLUE VELVET. It just looked hellishly awful, fleshtones looked awful, it was a disaster, I have to change settings on my TV in order to be able to make it watchable.

Agreed about WINGS -- a marvelous job all round. I saw it at the Castro last year, on that enormous screen, and it was most impressive. A pretty silly movie, but it looked great.

Universal's Horror Movie set is also pretty marvelous.

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/9/13 at 3:04pm

I love the Universal set! With all those sinister black levels and moody shadows, they got it right. Excellent detail, and absolutely no "crushing" at all, which would be easy to do on these older B&W films. Bravo, Universal!

Roscoe, I think you've mentioned it, but what kind of TV do you have? I'm sure it makes a difference in what you see vs. what I see. I have an embarrassingly expensive Panasonic plasma (that you can now buy for half the price). It's 58", 1080p, fantastic quality. No image issues at all for almost everything ... except these older Warner titles.

I have not watched the Blue Velvet BD, though, so I can't weigh in on quality. I'm glad you think Wings looks great, too!