Best Time Bandits Blu-ray?

[Paul MacLean]

I confess I have taken until now to get 'round to buying Time Bandits on Blu-ray -- but I find myself overwhelmed by the number of different releases!

I was thinking of the Criterion -- but that is $145 on Amazon!

There's also the region-free Arrow release. Anyone know how good the transfer is on that?

What about the Image release (which is cheapest)?

I have a region-free player, so country of origin is not so much of an issue with me. Any foreign releases which are superior to the above?

Thanks!

[AndyDursin]

The Arrow and Criterion releases have unquestionably the best transfers. They were derived from a fresh 2013 2K remaster and basically provide the same a/v quality (the discs have totally different supplements -- Arrow's package is better overall and has more content, but Criterion has their older laserdisc commentary).

Just a couple of tidbits:
-The Criterion disc isn't out of print; their website says it's on "backorder"
-The Arrow release is Region B locked, not that it matters to you Paul!

AVOID the Image disc -- it's 1080i and has terrible compression! (No wonder you can buy it for 99 cents on Ebay lol). It's also based off MGM's earlier HD master. That was one of the most disappointing releases of its day. I did import a German disc at some point in between that and the Arrow disc being released -- it was 1080p and better than the Image disc (anything would be), but that older MGM master isn't as good as that 2013 remaster you get on the Arrow/Criterion releases.

So, I'd say Arrow is the way to go unless you want to wait for the Criterion to pop back in stock. It probably sold out temporarily because Criterion just did their 50% off bi-annual Flash Sale last week.

[AndyDursin]

Here's a US Ebay member selling his Arrow for under $20 shipped -- that's pretty good!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Time-Bandits-B ... Swl1dgQQBt

Rarewaves has them for $20.96 on Ebay also, but keep in mind it will take a few weeks:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/John-Cleese-Se ... SwtBNgL0mz

[Paul MacLean]

Thanks.

Ordered!

I had also tried to look-up Time Bandits on DVDbeaver -- the Optimum release looked best to me, but that appears to be out of print.

Also -- if I make take this opportunity to carp -- DVDbeaver is an extremely difficult site to navigate. Their search function is just a link to Google search -- not limited to information on their website.

Their comparison pages provide a list of titles of each of a film's releases -- but you then have to scroll down and look at each screen grab, but then scroll back up to see which frame grab you're looking at! Can't they just superimpose the information of each screen grab instead?

[AndyDursin]

Yeah for sure -- the screen grabs on the DVDbeaver site can also be useless at times because occasionally he takes bad captures or they're compressed at different levels. Caps-a-holic is usually more useful on that end.

The Optimum release looks to have been the best of the lot apparently from the pre-2010 era, but it's also the older MGM master. The transfer is murkier/drabber in most of those comparison shots which relays with my recollections of the Image disc, which had bad compression on top of it (which the Optimum release didn't have). There's also less detail in that master.

Either way you have chosen....wisely

[Paul MacLean]

Either way you have chosen....wisely