Shockingly Good Remasters

[wasp_f15ting]

Buying Blu-Rays can be a bit of a minefield, with so many distributors, so many releases and so many regions.. So I am hoping we can share excellent remastered blu-rays that are worth your hard earned fun tokens.

This has really been spurred on my Greenman's suggestion of Paris / Texas. This remaster is shockingly good, the colours the film grain all make for a very aesthetic viewing experience. There seems to be a few boutique blu-ray companies that seem to do remasters particularly well.

The most well known of these is probably Criterion, Eureka and Arrow

Power House (Indicator) are also excellent - their remasters of Body Double was excellent. I see studio canal are doing great remasters too. If you have come across a particularly great remaster please share them here :)

My Top 5 are:

1. Paris / Texas - Studio Canal
2. Bigger than life - Criterion
3. The Red Shoes - Criterion
4. Peeping Tom - Studio Canal
5. Body Double - Powerhouse / Indicator

[Magnum Valentino]

Criterion's Night of the Living Dead is better than I ever thought I'd see it look, given the public domain issue. The Universal horror films tend to look amazing as well - pick up the 8-disc Universal Monsters set they released themselves and check out the Raven/Black Cat/Rue Morgue and The Old Dark House sets from Eureka.

[greenman]

It is a bit ironic that just as physical media is dying out we are arguably in the best era ever for quality releases, I spose you could argue the two things are linked as now the hardcore cinephine audience is a bigger part of the market than its ever been before and the spread of more special labels catering to it.

[Shit Good Nose]

88 Films deserve a mention here - they've invested a LOT of time, money and resources into giving genre films the same treatment as Criterion would give to Bergman.  Some of them are absolutely stunning - Lo Wei's Jackie Chan films that 88 have released probably didn't even look as good when they were originally released.

I'd also like to give props to Shout/Scream Factory's release of Graveyard Shift.  The film itself is no great shakes of course, but if all you've been previously used to is the pan and scan VHS, the soft-focus laserdisc, or the dull DVD, Shout's blu is basically a completely new experience.  Always found it odd that reviews have generally been a bit "meh" for it, and I know that Shout/Scream often cut corners with one thing or another during the process (they're infamous for it), but it really is a stunner.

Also a note to say that, these days, more often than not Criterion tend to release the weaker versions - they're often trumped by the UK boutique labels, and more recently by larger studios' archive releases.  Obviously they still do have exclusive rights to several films, though, so they remain the only option for a few titles.

[Paaaaul]

Arrow's Withnail And I.
I bought the blu-ray mostly for the extras, but was blown away by just how much dirt you can see in the flat now.

[wasp_f15ting]

88 Films deserve a mention here - they've invested a LOT of time, money and resources into giving genre films the same treatment as Criterion would give to Bergman.  Some of them are absolutely stunning - Lo Wei's Jackie Chan films that 88 have released probably didn't even look as good when they were originally released.

I'd also like to give props to Shout/Scream Factory's release of Graveyard Shift.  The film itself is no great shakes of course, but if all you've been previously used to is the pan and scan VHS, the soft-focus laserdisc, or the dull DVD, Shout's blu is basically a completely new experience.  Always found it odd that reviews have generally been a bit "meh" for it, and I know that Shout/Scream often cut corners with one thing or another during the process (they're infamous for it), but it really is a stunner.

Also a note to say that, these days, more often than not Criterion tend to release the weaker versions - they're often trumped by the UK boutique labels, and more recently by larger studios' archive releases.  Obviously they still do have exclusive rights to several films, though, so they remain the only option for a few titles.

Good shout re-88 films. I have pre-ordered a couple of shlasher films from them to check them out.

101 films are also interesting - they tend to release less successful films - I have got Runaway and The Exterminator 2 from them. Looking forward to checking them out. Criterion quality has dropped somewhat recently. The fellini box set I ordered came with scratched disks with finger prints all over it! - this was brand new from amazon.com too.

[Shit Good Nose]

Criterion quality has dropped somewhat recently. The fellini box set I ordered came with scratched disks with finger prints all over it! - this was brand new from amazon.com too.

I'm not sure it's so much that Criterion has dropped necessarily, more that they now have several direct competitors, and many of those competitors are trying even harder and regularly going another extra mile.  A couple of the studios who still distribute their own films have really upped their game in recent years as well, at least with picture and audio quality, if not when it comes to extras.

But yeah, as greenman says, in many ways we are in something of a golden age at the moment.  As a film fan and collector for 30 years, I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought importing laserdiscs from the States would never be topped.

[greenman]

I'm not sure it's so much that Criterion has dropped necessarily, more that they now have several direct competitors, and many of those competitors are trying even harder and regularly going another extra mile.  A couple of the studios who still distribute their own films have really upped their game in recent years as well, at least with picture and audio quality, if not when it comes to extras.

But yeah, as greenman says, in many ways we are in something of a golden age at the moment.  As a film fan and collector for 30 years, I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought importing laserdiscs from the States would never be topped.

The main thing Criterion have fallen behind on is not moving to UHD's whilst several other labels have, the Synapse UHD of Suspiria might be the best release in the format I'v yet seen, Blue Undergrounds version of Fulci's Zombie is very nice a swell and Arrow have started more recently, Tremors, Crash and Cinema Paradiso all excellent UHD's.

Studio Canal have kind of established themselves as a luxury label on UHD now as well, a lot of the best releases in the format like Apoc Now, Angel Heart, Don't Look Now, The Ladykillers, The Elephant Man and Flash Gordon.

Arrows Tremors|(either the UHD or the BR) might be the biggest upgrade I'v seen in recent years as the old BR looked rubbish.

[wasp_f15ting]

Criterion were slow to adopt BRay as well weren't they? I think they waited a good few years!

I am glad arrow are doing 4K, I am looking forward to watching Crash at some point.

[studpuppet]

The colour bits of Criterion's A Matter Of Life And Death look like they were filmed yesterday.

[Shit Good Nose]

The main thing Criterion have fallen behind on is not moving to UHD's

I know they've been teasing their foray into UHD at trade shows for a good few years now, but I'm sure I read or heard something a while ago where they basically confirmed that they actually now weren't going to bother at all.  Even though 4K uptake has been pretty weak generally (even less than laserdisc), surely their overheads for producing a UHD title would be easier to swallow than the other less established boutique labels  - Severin Films have only been around since 2006, 88 Films (a literal two-or-three man band) and Vinegar Syndrome have only been around for 10 years, Kino Lorber, though a long established distributor of art house and educational films, have only really dipped their toes into the proper home video entertainment arena since the late 00s - yet they all have either already released their first UHD, or are in the early process of doing so.

It really is baffling.

Criterion were slow to adopt BRay as well weren't they? I think they waited a good few years!

They didn't wait that long - less than 2 years - and that was only because they were waiting to see who would win out of blu and HD DVD (I seem to remember them saying that they didn't want to gamble with the upfront costs of going one way or the other, and they didn't have the funds of the studios who were able to bankroll duplicate releases for both formats).

[greenman]

I know they've been teasing their foray into UHD at trade shows for a good few years now, but I'm sure I read or heard something a while ago where they basically confirmed that they actually now weren't going to bother at all.  Even though 4K uptake has been pretty weak generally (even less than laserdisc), surely their overheads for producing a UHD title would be easier to swallow than the other less established boutique labels  - Severin Films have only been around since 2006, 88 Films (a literal two-or-three man band) and Vinegar Syndrome have only been around for 10 years, Kino Lorber, though a long established distributor of art house and educational films, have only really dipped their toes into the proper home video entertainment arena since the late 00s - yet they all have either already released their first UHD, or are in the early process of doing so.

It really is baffling.

They didn't wait that long - less than 2 years - and that was only because they were waiting to see who would win out of blu and HD DVD (I seem to remember them saying that they didn't want to gamble with the upfront costs of going way or the other, and they didn't have the funds of the studios who were able to bankroll duplicate releases for both formats).

I suspect part of it is they think the Criterion brand is strong enough to carry on selling without UHD but it would be interesting to see how well their BR's of stuff like The Elephant Man and Crash have sold when importing UHD's is a possibility with no region coding.

Maybe also as well there afraid of segmenting the market? unlike other labels they don't do "limited editions" and I think trade on the idea the standard stuff is "definitive", if you suddenly have a level of release above that maybe the fear is acknowledging the BR releases aren't definitive? seems like nonsense to me as I happily buy both but perhaps a fear?

I don't personally think UHD will ever become the "standard" for these kinds of labels personally but Critierion do have plenty of films were I'm sure a UHD would sell well, directors like Tarkovsky cinephiles will pay for any upgrade.