Imprint/ViaVision (Australia) Thread: New Announcements

[Monterey Jack]

Gave Dead Again a watch today, and while it's obvious no real effort at a top-to-bottom restoration was made (plenty of nicks and spots on the print), it's an appreciable upgrade on the old DVD. There was even an extra that wasn't advertised in the press release (or maybe I skimmed over it too quickly), a 16-minute narrated visual essay by some guy about the film's old-school Hollywood influences (mainly Hitchcock and Welles), and how the film's place in that early-90's run of adult thrillers now seems as quaintly old-fashioned today as those Hitchcock and Welles pictures seemed when it was first released.

All-in-all, some might grouse and moan that this isn't some luxe 4K restoration, but for major fans of the film (like me), they'll appreciate having it on Blu at all, and in a nicely-packaged form. Shame that none of the deleted scenes alluded to in the two commentary tracks were included, but that's life.

[Monterey Jack]

Big news here for me is THE BAD NEWS BEARS...talk about long overdue.

U.S. version coming, w/digital copy, even.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.ph ... st18544075

[AndyDursin]

Thanks, that's awesome, just canceled the Aussie order. I'll be able to get that one for review, if they're throwing in a digital copy it should mean it's not just a bargain-line release like their sub $10 titles.

Not surprised either, I expected it -- just not before the Imprint release. Usually you have to fork over your $35 before the (possibly better), cheaper disc comes along!

I did pick up a few other Imprint titles. I did buy FIRE IN THE SKY, they did a nice job on that with the extra features.

THE DEEP is a fine release. Unlike the lousy UK disc with the terrible transfer, Imprint did utilize the Sony US Blu-Ray transfer and the results are solid. You also get the 2.0 original stereo sound and the trailer (which never showed up on any prior release) and Illeana Douglas' commentary is a cut above the usual "historian" chit-chat.

YEAR OF THE DRAGON has some nice new extras including a talk with David Mansfield on the audio side. A very flawed but somehow entertaining movie in spite of the shortcomings. The transfer is the MGM master and it's probably not quite as pristine as the Warner Archive one, but its good enough, certainly.

[John Johnson]

Australian label Via Vision Entertainment has announced its next batch of titles from the recently launched Imprint Collection. They are: Alfie (1966), The Gambler (1974), The Chalk Garden (1964), The President's Analyst (1967), The Face Behind the Mask (1941), and Essential Film Noir - Collection 2.

All titles will be available for purchase in May.

Exact technical specs and supplemental features to be included on the upcoming releases are detailed in the individual press sheets below.

All titles will be made available for pre-order at imprintfilms.com.au.













[img]https://images.blu-ray.com/news/upload/12813_tn.jpg[img]

https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=28230

[Monterey Jack]

Looking forward to The Gambler, which is superb (I thought the 2014 remake was underrated, as well).

[Eric Paddon]

I just got my order of "Black Sunday" and "Bridges At Toko-Ri". Haven't looked at the latter but "Black Sunday" is the WORST looking Blu-Ray I have ever seen, hands down. Hell, there are BLACK BARS on the side of the screen as if I'm looking at an old non-anamorphic DVD! They look like they didn't even try with this title. I will never order another of these Imprint titles again.

[Eric Paddon]

A follow-up. The black bars on the side disappear after six minutes and the image is now "normal." I haven't seen the film in a few years but I have no recollection of it going from one aspect ratio to another in a few minutes or was this "windowboxing" done just for the sake of the credits??

[Eric Paddon]

Well, I must offer my mea culpa because I pulled out the old DVD and yes, the opening minutes of the film are "windowboxed". It's something I've never seen before on a Blu-Ray title and I simply wasn't prepared for it.

So I'm letting Imprint off the hook for now.

[Monterey Jack]

People have been saying that Black Sunday has one of the weakest Via Vision transfers to date, but I've heard good things about their release of Breakdown (which I should have early next week).

[AndyDursin]

Not surprising, Breakdown is out in a 4K UHD transfer I bought on Vudu for $5. I would imagine the Via Vision BD is derived from the same master so it would look great.

Black Sunday is probably like Day of the Locust, which means it was never remastered and is some 20+ year old HD catalog master Paramount had lying around. If the credits are windowboxed that would confirm its ancient.

I did buy it but at this point I might just keep it sealed and sell it off. I have the streaming version on Vudu and it sounds like its just the same transfer and likely doesn't look any different.

I can say without hesitation Day of the Locust is one of the worst "high definiton" transfers I've ever seen. If Via Vision had any QC they should have opted not to release it. Its that bad. That's where I fault them as a label.

[Eric Paddon]

The supplements in "Black Sunday" at least are okay. We get a four minute trailer that has a snippet of a deleted scene where during the climax, FBI agent Corley (Fritz Weaver) is radioing ahead from inside the helicopter to have the President evacuated from the Stadium because the blimp is approaching (and we see the Jimmy Carter lookalike watching the game through binoculars). The 12 minute segment on Frankenheimer is done by a person who doesn't seem to know what he's watching since he refers to the stadium as the LA Coliseum! The sequence on Williams is okay and the commentary track so far is okay.

[Monterey Jack]

Interesting trivia: the scene in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Volume 1 where Daryl Hannah goes to give a slumbering Uma Thurman a lethal injection in the hospital, and the screen splits in two, is inspired by a trailer for Black Sunday.

[Eric Paddon]

The commentary in "Black Sunday" is good......until I have to get subjected to WAY too much about Frankenheimer and Bobby Kennedy and having to hear him quote Frankenheimer's pablum about what might have been etc. I found myself impulsively going "blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." It's so amusing how in this day and age where our history is rewritten at the drop of a hat for the most asinine of reasons, one thing the Left NEVER allows any revisionism on is the saintliness of the Kennedys and their demi-god capabilities.

[Eric Paddon]

After righting itself with some great notes about Frankenheimer's use of authenticity at the Super Bowl, the commentary then goes south again in its final twenty minutues, overharping on the poor opticals/process shots, criticizing the film for not retaining the novel's downer ending and getting so self-indulgent that he totally fails to acknowledge Frankenheimer's cameo in the film!

Another thing. He keeps mispronouncing Joe Robbie's name as "Row-bie" when of course it's pronounced just like "Robby."

But one great point I think was made is how today you would NEVER see this kind of cooperation/permission regarding the NFL and a commercial entity (Goodyear) for a film about this kind of subject. He makes the point that that itself shows how the idea of a big terrorist attack event in America was seen more as a "it can't happen here" kind of thing which 9/11 proved otherwise.

[AndyDursin]

I just received my copy of BLACK SUNDAY -- happy to see the transfer is perfectly acceptable. This is a grainy movie to begin with and like I thought, it's a really old master (the windowboxing is a tell-tale sign!), but the encoding is fine. The bit-rate is maxed out, and the sound is terrific.

Sure, a new remastering would've helped, but this is a decent catalog master considering how old it is. There doesn't seem to be much DNR, so opticals do look really grainy but it's a product of the time, and it's better than having noise reduction plastered over it.

Can think of FAR worse transfers -- it's certainly better than DAY OF THE LOCUST!!