What Emmanuelle Movie Did You Just Watch?

[patronsaintofcheeseburgers]

I watched it on Blu last night. Seemed fine to me. Granted I didn't watch any extras or anything but I rarely do.

[Abraham Smashington]

http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/409/gangsofnewyork.html

The studio has simply recycled the old DVD master. Thus history repeats itself and a movie with one of the worst-looking DVD releases because one of the worst-looking Blu-ray releases available.

Things start to go south as soon as the movie cuts to a rather edgy medium shot, and then everything goes utterly to hell when we get to the first wide shots during the Battle of Five Points. The entire picture is smothered in grotesque edge enhancement artifacts. Further, Digital Noise Reduction has been slathered on to reduce grain, which kills all textural detail and causes smearing during camera pans and fast movement. When it is present, film grain looks noisy due to the electronic sharpening and regularly freezes in place or swims in unnatural patterns due to the DNR. There's also something wrong with the gamma in the transfer. Whites (like the snow) and bright reds and oranges frequently bloom and crush detail. Posterization artifacts are visible in bright portions of the frame. The result of all this is an image that looks extremely dupey and electronic, and never gets better during the entire three-hour run.
Certain scenes also have colored vertical stripes at the extreme left and right edges of the frame. I don't know whether that's a photographic flaw on the original film negative or a fault of the video transfer. I don't normally advocate cropping, but in this case shaving a tiny bit of picture off the sides might have been less distracting.
All in all, the 'Gangs of New York' Blu-ray is a travesty. It might look acceptable on a small screen -- in fact, I played it on a 17" LCD monitor while I was listening to the audio commentary, and it looked pretty good there; the edge enhancement was still visible, but not quite as distracting at that size -- but any decently-sized home theater display will magnify its flaws. The disc may look better than the old DVD edition, but that's damning it with faint praise. By High Definition standards, it's just terrible. Blu-ray is capable of better than this.

[patronsaintofcheeseburgers]

Hmmm...I didn't notice much of that, not that I was really looking for it or would even know what to look for...Bill the Butcher is still creepy as fuck.

[Captain Russ]

Just got back from Moon.

Very very good film (sci-fi or otherwise). Rockwell is spectacular as Sam Bell. Kevin Spacey steals some of his thunder as Gerty, the robot helper monkey.

Alternates between eerie dreamscape, dry comedy, and some gut-wrenchingly sad revelations. Definitely one to see, fellas.

[Abraham Smashington]

If it ever opens here I will. Although I have a feeling that I'll have to wait until blu. Which I'm perfectly fine with.

[patronsaintofcheeseburgers]

- Innocent Voices...check it out on Instant View. Great movie about the civil war in El Salvador and the recruitment/auto draft of 12 year old boys. Great action, great story, really worth checking out.

[Captain Russ]

Shit, how do I forget one of the most obvious positive aspects of Moon: Clint Mansell.

The man turned in another beautiful score. On par with his work on The Fountain.

[Abraham Smashington]

Goddammit. I hate having to hear about how awesome the flick is and that I've wanted to see it since I first heard about it, and yet CANNOT SEE IT YET. aurhghghghgh

[Captain Russ]

Sorry Rob.

You can shoot my spy face off sometime this week in DA. Shitty consolation prize, but it's all I got.

(Plus: You do have the chance to see the Watchmen DC on the big screen soon, which is nice.)

[Ed Hocken]

Goddammit. I hate having to hear about how awesome the flick is and that I've wanted to see it since I first heard about it, and yet CANNOT SEE IT YET. aurhghghghgh

Hey, it's a consolation for our sky high rents and shitty traffic commutes. 'Dems the breaks.

Also, I saw The Friends of Eddie Coyle. A small 70s crime film with Robert Mitchum.

[Abraham Smashington]

So I didn't watch it last night, but last week and forgot to mention it: VARSITY BLUES!

Haha. Watched it while working out and I was able to watch the " I DON'T WANT YER LIFE" scene. Oh James Van Der Beek, where have you gone to? You really made me believe that you cared about Billy Bob and his head injury.

[Ed Hocken]

Ah yes Varsity Blues. Big newsflash for anyone who has seen it. The fat guy in that movie: No longer fat.

[Nathan]

Dawson was great in Rules of Attraction.

[Abraham Smashington]

Ah yes Varsity Blues. Big newsflash for anyone who has seen it. The fat guy in that movie: No longer fat.

Yeah, I saw him on a talk show a few years ago. And James was indeed awesome in Rules of Attraction.

[Nathan]

No one was better than Fred "I can feel my dick" Savage.