The Semi Official Blu-Ray Thread - Page 92

On top of Alien and Lawrence of Arabia, I'd also recommend Jurassic Park.  I recently picked the set up on the cheap and it's gorgeous.  It also has a banging 7.1 master, but not sure if you have an audio set-up yet to compliment the new TV.

 

Off the top of my head, I think those are the best looking blu's I have.  I was actually really disappointed with the picture quality of Raiders of the Lost Ark - so I haven't watched the following films.  I can't speak to their quality.
 

Oh, and Tron Legacy looks good.

I actually already added Jurassic Park 3D to my shopping cart!

 

Really sad to hear that Raiders doesn't look so hot. How disappointing.

Wuuuut?  The Indy trilogy transfers look great! 

Yeah, I thought the INDY films looked great.  No problems from me on RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, that's for sure.

Oh good, that's a relief.

The transfers for the first two are pretty good, imho, but Last Crusade looks FANTASTIC!  Do yourself a favor and check it out.

I mentioned in this thread, a few pages back, that Raiders gets fuzzy and then it gets crisp, fuzzy and crisp, etc.  It looks like someone is playing with the focus ring.  When it's crisp, and not a dark scene, the detail is wonderful.  However, the moment the focus drops, it looks like I am watching a DVD.  No other disc I have does this, and I can't find many people with this problem, but it's annoying as hell and makes me regret the purchase.

 

I noticed this a few times when I saw the film in IMAX last fall.  I haven't noticed it at all on the blu ray, though.  I'm sure it's there, but it's probably not bothering me at all.  Then again, it's my favorite film of all time, so I tend to just get absorbed in the damned thing and tune out any errors.

For those with a Five Below store near them (I know; I had never heard of them either before yesterday), they are selling some decent (and pretty goddamned random) blus for $5 each:

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Robin Hood (2010)

Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder

Futurama: Bender's Game

Death Proof

Planet Terror

 

And, this nifty little number:

 

The Coraline Gift Set, with a book and what I hope is a still valid digital copy (Amazon says the DC expires in 2015).

Best Buy is selling Ralph Bakshi's Wizards for $14.99, $9.99 if you trade in a DVD.  I'm glad I waited a year to buy it.

 

Hey Ben, I wanted to Thank You for this heads-up! Even though the website isn't showing the Coraline gift set as being one of the featured sale items, it is still at $5.00. Actually, every dvd and blu there is $5..and they have a pretty nice list of titles. Basically, if the store has it in stock, it's $5!

 

The store itself is kinda cool too. It helps that I'm a kid at heart and easily amused. So, yeah, threw some hula hoops in with the Coraline set while I was there.

 

That set is coming up as $15 on Amazon. Good looking out, I'm grabbing this.

Remember that mack daddy 4 disc Lawrence of Arabia set that came out last year?

Fry's is selling it for $29.99 this week.

 

Even if you don't live near a Fry's, they are offering free shipping (although it is currently back ordered.)

"This week", as in the sale ends on Saturday?

Fucking thanks for the heads up on that, dude. I want that set and was prepared to pay $60 on Amazon.com

Fry's sales run from Friday to Thursday, so it ends May 23.

Cool! I've never ordered from Fry's before. How are they on shipping? Will the set arrived dented or beat up, or do they ship things in solid packaging like Amazin? I'm on the verge of ordering right now!

I don't know how they ship their media; I ordered a laptop from them last year and had no complaints.

Thanks for the info!
Edited by Dr Harford - 5/17/13 at 7:34pm

Don't Fry's deals usually pertain to in-store purchases?

Now I don't know what to think....

Have you ever ordered media from them? Can you affirm that it arrives in secure packaging Amazon style and won't get crushed or something in the mail?

On certain occasions their deals are in-store only.  But most of the time they apply to online orders as well (according to the pricing on their website.)

 

And Harford, I would be shocked if they didn't package a media order so it survives intact through the shipping process.  And by "intact" I mean not bent or crumpled or damaged in any way.

Ben, thanks, dude! So cool. You've just saved me aprox 50% of the total cost of that DVD set. I am putting together a home theater, and what theater is complete without Lawrence? I had been tempted to just make a gigantic shopping cart and click 'buy now' on it all at once on Amazon (it would have been fun), but if I can get a solid deal by picking up certain stuff at other sites, I realize I should make effort to do so. More money left over for other stuff! It will be worth the time. Fry's says they don't know when they're going to actually ship those Lawrence sets, but as long as it gets here eventually, I'm not fazed.

Any ideas for other places to pick up Blu rays on the cheap? I just ordered that Coraline box set from earlier in this thread for $11 on amazon. Seems like a good deal, but certain other blus I am looking at are still pricy (I want the Bat Pod edition Dark Knight set, for example). Don't feel the need to do my research for me, I'm just wondering if you know any other good places you could point out.

6/11

Street Trash

 

7/9

The Jerk

 

7/16

Soloman Kane

 

7/30

The Fog

The Incredible Melting Man

Knightriders

 

8/6

A Boy and His Dog

Swamp Thing

Action Jackson

Passenger 57

 

8/13

Flashdance

Shaft (2000)

The Presidio

Shane

 

9/10

Sliver

The Talented Mr. Ripley

Jennifer 8

Snake Eyes

Marathon Man

Passenger 57 & Jennifer 8? Finally!!

Wow Solomon Kane is just now coming out in the US? Whats it been now? 4 years? I will certainly be picking up Marathon Man

This is a list of upcoming Criterions, right? Right?

Swamp Thing blu still isn't gonna have the Boobs Version, just the Not Quite As Much Boobs PG-rated edition.

 

Passenger 57

Jennifer 8

 

PASSENGER WINS

I'm very discouraged to learn that there hasn't been an Abyss blu ray released. You'd think that James Cameron, of all people, would get his movies released in HD.

Have you seen this lately? Like a year or 2 ago it was on Netflix streaming and wow was it terrible.

He has been working on the transfers for that and True Lies for a couple years because, as James Cameron, he requires perfection. Latest news is that Fox is holding back both blus for their forthcoming anniversaries next year.

Awesome, I should have known better than to think Cameron would let me down. I hope they release a big box set for Abyss with cool extras. I'd totally pick that up.

I want an Abyss box set so comprehensive that it stains your hand blue when you put your hand in it.

 

It's terrible if what you're looking for is anything close to the Wein/Wrightson run. I saw it at the right age on cable, so it gives me a warm fuzzy. It's fuckin' stupid, but you can tell Wes had fun making it. You want seriously, unenjoyably terrible, look no further than Return of the Swamp Thing.

 

I gotta say, too, and this is probably unpopular, but the Swamp Thing movie kind of shows what those Wein stories might've been like without Wrightson. I adore that run but if you look at it through halfway adult eyes it's really goofy monster-of-the-month stuff and its success is about 80% Wrightson and the mood he brought to it. The Batman TV show wasn't all that much goofier than what was happening in actual Batman comics in the '50s and early '60s, and the Swamp Thing movie isn't all that much goofier than pre-Alan Moore Swamp Thing comics, which was basically what Wes had to work with. By the time the sequel came out we'd had the Moore run, so there was really no excuse. I never saw the subsequent TV show or the cartoon, both of which, by most accounts, were so dumb they needed help putting their pants on the right way.

So I was in Wal-mart today and they had Rob Roy in their $5 section. Haven't watched it in years and it really held up. Shame it never got the love Braveheart did.

I frequent the blu-ray.com forums frequently and their Movie and TV Deals threads have been very helpful in tracking cheap blus.

Thanks, dude!