edited by Jonathan Doyle

Cloverfield [BLU-RAY] (Paramount Home Entertainment, 6.3.2008) Disguised under deliberately goofy, yet deliciously edible-sounding, aliases such as Cheese and Slusho, Matt Reeves' Cloverfield was produced and rushed into theaters under an equally appetizing shroud of secrecy. From last year's incredibly elusive Super Bowl ad to the film's viral marketing campaign, Cloverfield had everybody scratching their heads and drooling in anticipation. Aside from the as-yet untitled title and the Blair Witch-ian visual style, the film's biggest appeal was the enigmatic creature who was last (un)seen hurling the decapitated head of the Statue of Liberty onto the crowded streets of New York City. All we knew about the mysterious beast was that it was big and angry. Now that the highy-anticipated project has come and gone, one question has fortunately been answered: Cloverfield was a major success. (continued)

Upcoming

August 27

Traitor

August 29

Babylon AD

College

Disaster Movie

Goal II: Living the Dream

I Served the King of England

My Mexican Shivah

Sukiyaki Western Django

Year of the Fish

Young People F*cking

September 3

The Pool

September 5

A Secret

August Evening

Bangkok Dangerous

Everybody Wants to Be Italian

Mister Foe

Ping Pong Playa

Save Me

Surfer, Dude

Wait...Harry's Cool

email this story
read comments (5)
post a comment

I now have good reason to doubt Glenn Erickson's review of the Blu-ray Dirty Harry disc that I linked to and commented about yesterday. Erickson was cool with Fox Home Video's controversial Patton Blu-ray disc, but has claimed that the Dirty Harry disc shows "heavy tweaking to minimize grain, sharpen contrast and brighten colors" and that "heavy processing has given most night shots an almost unnatural look."

The reason is that transfer guru and unrequited grain-worshipper Robert Harris doesn't agree, and neither, according to a well-placed source, does Clint Eastwood himself. Harris says that the Harry disc looks like beautifully restored film and not digital data (unlike, in his opinion, the case with the Patton disc). And an on-the-lot source has told me that Eastwood approved the Blu-ray transfer during a test screening late last year.

Eastwood "came in to watch the first ten minutes, said it was fine, and then got up, went to the back of the room, sat down and watched the whole thing," the source says. "The only grain reduction was done to even out the grain structure. We also toned down a blood scene so it wouldn't look so day-glo red."

Gort Barada Nikto<< previous | next >>Contempt

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on July 3, 2008 at 1:29 PM

comment #1

redmond says ...

Keep these stories coming, Jeff! Just bought a Blu-Ray/PS3 and love reading about the transfers. I've been wondering, just how good can they make the old films look, so I'm anxious to see Dirty Harry.

On a related note, Digital Bits is saying Criterion is going Blu-ray in October.

Posted by redmond at July 3, 2008 2:05 PM

comment #2

btwnproductions says ...

Tamping down the blood color (a problem in early 70s films, where it looked to be ordered by the gallon from Sherwin-Williams) isn't necessarily a terrible thing. But the best transfers don't try to improve upon the source material.

Posted by btwnproductions at July 3, 2008 2:20 PM

comment #3

Ponderer says ...

Yeah, Criterion announced their Blu-Ray entrance weeks ago. Here are the initial titles, a very interesting selection:

The Third Man
Bottle Rocket
Chungking Express
The Man Who Fell to Earth
The Last Emperor
El Norte
The 400 Blows
Gimme Shelter
The Complete Monterey Pop
Contempt
Walkabout
For All Mankind
The Wages of Fear

Posted by Ponderer at July 3, 2008 3:25 PM

comment #4

The Bandsaw Vigilante says ...

I'll be picking up a healthy slice of those titles in a few months (400 BLOWS and THIRD MAN given the Criterion Blu-Ray treatment...my penis exploded again just thinking about it), but I really had my fingers crossed that BRAZIL would be a launch title, too.

Not that I'm complaining one scintilla otherwise, though.

Posted by The Bandsaw Vigilante at July 3, 2008 5:26 PM

comment #5

Bob Violence says ...

Erickson is a fine writer and a decent reviewer, but he's not much of a videophile. An infamous example would be his review of the (bootleg) Convoy DVD from a few years back, where it somehow escaped his notice that the disc wasn't simply in the wrong AR but the wrong proportions (i.e. a 2.35:1 image compressed to 1.78:1). There's numerous other examples of him failing to notice obvious PAL-to-NTSC conversion or just being too forgiving in general.

Posted by Bob Violence at July 4, 2008 3:03 AM