Imprint/ViaVision (Australia) Thread: New Announcements

[Eric Paddon]

I'd get "Marooned." Drags at the end, but I enjoyed it. The other titles, forget it.

[AndyDursin]

April titles with some OOP cult movies back in circulation:

[AndyDursin]

I have the German WARRIORS but this should sell well for them. The Neo Noir set has too many clunkers like TWILIGHT to be viable for me but looks nice.

[Eric Paddon]

This was a reminder to me to place my order for Marooned which I have now done.

[Monterey Jack]

Shame that most of these Aussie releases have such poor compression.

[Monterey Jack]

The Neo Noir set has too many clunkers like TWILIGHT to be viable for me but looks nice.

There are at least two reasons to watch that, especially for Reese Witherspoon fans.

Aside from that and Elmer Bernstein's score, it's a snooze, though. Shame, considering the cast.

[AndyDursin]

Shame that most of these Aussie releases have such poor compression.

Exactly. Sometimes they get it right -- the HARRY PALMER box is pretty sound -- but I already have the German theatrical WARRIORS mediabook and I'd rather wait and see if Paramount does a 4K UHD restoration, but I'd still be interested in checking it out.

There are at least two reasons to watch that, especially for Reese Witherspoon fans.

Aside from that and Elmer Bernstein's score, it's a snooze, though. Shame, considering the cast.

I had forgotten that!

But the movie is SO dull. A shame given all the talent involved. Newman's previous collaboration with Robert Benton, NOBODY'S FOOL, was really quite good too...that's one I haven't seen in a long time and should probably revisit.

[Monterey Jack]

I do like their effort, but they are quite spotty when it comes to compression -- at this point it's got to be something unique for me to spend $$ on their releases

I know I'll be kicking myself when Sam Raimi's The Gift gets a much-cheaper U.S. release, after I spent almost $30 for Imprint's ancient, mediocre DVD-era "high-def" release. Their version has a nice commentary track, and a brief "Zoom" interview with Christopher Young, but I would have sacrificed both for a better transfer.

[AndyDursin]

Imprint will be sending me a couple of review titles it looks like every month, starting with THE WICKER MAN and ACROSS 110TH STREET. Hopefully I'll be able to look at THE WARRIORS when it's available.

[AndyDursin]

Nice array of titles for May.

BARABBAS is interesting if it's a newish master, the one that was released in France was dreadful, so is the one that's streaming. So who knows what we might get there...

[Eric Paddon]

I have to get Barabbas. I wish it was out in time for the Easter season (so I'll have to give the DVD one more spin) but I'm glad it's finally getting some kind of Blu-Ray release that should be an improvement.

[Eric Paddon]

My copy of "Marooned" arrived. The transfer doesn't look overly exceptional but it's nice to have it in this format at last. The extras are a bit thin. We get a 20 minute talking head lecture by British sci-fi writer Kim Newman that is okay for the most part. The commentary track by Bryan Reesman is too fanboyish and doesn't really reflect a great deal of actual knowledge about the film's production. He falls into the usual trap of reciting an actor's credits like he's regurgitating an IMDB listing, and then of course when it comes to Lee Grant he decides to give us a snarky little two minute "history lesson" about the blacklist era that had me blowing razzberries at the screen as he talked (frankly in Lee Grant's case, she would have been better advised to not fall on her sword for Arnold Manoff, who wasn't exactly the most noble of figures). Once again, the old drinking game goes into effect when one of these functional illiterates about history links Joseph McCarthy to Hollywood blacklisting which he had NOTHING to do with, and then his ranting about the whole era as a "fascist" thing proves how these loonies are the biggest whitewashers of Communism you will find today. In this day and age where these are the same people who are beating their chests about going to war with Vladimir Putin and who believe in fake Russian conspiracies about 2016, it's so laughable to hear them dig their heels further on the matter of the 1950s.

And then finally I had to give up on the commentary because when Reesman doesn't show off his shallow vapidness when it comes to American history, he commits the cardinal sin of commentator by becoming insufferably boring. The polar opposite of a bad commentary where someone says too little is someone who drones on and on without stopping to take a breath and when this information is not production centered but is instead devoted to rattling off IMDB style information about cast and production team, that is simply a BAD commentary. Its frustrating that so many are this bad and become unlistenable.

[AndyDursin]

There are a slew of these guys whose commentaries are frequent across KL and Imprint and are best avoided -- Reesman who is an "entertainment journalist" is definitely one. I've heard him for a few minutes on a couple of discs and came away unimpressed each time. Daniel Kremer is another. Peter Tonguette somehow gets a lot of work also. I guess he was published but like Reesman and Kremer, his commentary is like listening to a "talking IMDB" as they refer to their phones and the credits of the people on-screen. Or, like Kremer, looking up information on Wikipedia and then reciting it.

It takes work to do an effective commentary but, much like writing liner notes, there's an art to spending time, doing research, and then speaking for a couple of hours. It's not easy but the better commentaries are head and shoulders above these...yet these guys keep getting work. At this point it must be easy money for them, because in many of these commentaries, there's not a lot of work being performed. Just reading their phones outloud!

[Monterey Jack]

It takes work to do an effective commentary but, much like writing liner notes, there's an art to spending time, doing research, and then speaking for a couple of hours. It's not easy but the better commentaries are head and shoulders above these...yet these guys keep getting work. At this point it must be easy money for them, because in many of these commentaries, there's not a lot of work being performed. Just reading their phones outloud!

I just wonder what a lot of these "entertainment journalists" are going to do for a living when physical media becomes extinct. "WILL RECITE WIKIPEDIA PAGE FOR FOOD"

[AndyDursin]

I ended up picking up MAROONED, it's actually not as horrible as I recall it being. Maybe it's because the transfer is a lot better than I had seen it previously. The source material IS rough at times -- especially for a Sony master, there are scratches, nicks, a little print damage and speckles all throughout. Gives it a "vintage" look but I'd imagine someone in the US was holding out for a remaster that never came, hence the reason why it never surfaced on Blu-Ray from Twilight Time or someone else.