Reviews on this site that you disagree with (good or bad, old or new)

[Lea74]

Thought this would make some interesting discussion.
What reviews have you found here on the site that you do not totally agree with, whether it is about the disc or the actual film itself?
Sometimes you are reliant on a review/reviewer here to help you decide in purchasing a movie on Blu-ray, especially if it is a new release or a blind buy or movie that you have never seen before.
Or sometimes you have already seen the movie so you know that you like it and you just want information about the technical presentation of the disc before you decide to part with your hard earned cash.
Occasionally I may read a negative ‘site review’ for a Blu-ray release but the reviews in the ‘User reviews’ section are completely different as if the site reviewer has been watching a different film entirely to the rest of us.
Some of the older reviews that go back ten years or so were obviously viewed on older equipment which may have influenced the reviewers ratings so maybe if the same disc from ten yeas ago was analysed on todays tech, OLED TVs, Blu-ray players with upscale, etc. the picture/audio rating may be higher or lower than it originally was.

Over to you guys

[Lea74]

This one goes back twelve years.
The review is pretty spot on regarding the technical aspects of the disc. I agree the picture was pretty good although I thought the sound quality of the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track was better than the reviewer has scored it.

The main thing with the review I disagree with was the score given to the actual film, only a measly 2 star for the movie rating.
OK, it's not Clint's best film ever, not his worst either.
Personally it is one of my favourite Clint Eastwood movies, in my top ten at least.
I found it funny and action packed, although the reviewer had a different opinion.

The Gauntlet is a wholly forgettable slice of 1970s Action. It's neither all that exciting nor all that interesting. The concept is fine and the acting sufficient, but the characters are fairly flat, the pacing is sluggish, and action sequences slow and dull. In the entirety of the Clint Eastwood canon, The Gauntlet ranks as fairly low on the scale, and in the history of Action cinema, it's a completely forgettable experience. Speaking of forgettable, Warner's Blu-ray release of The Gauntlet is terribly uninspiring. Featuring decent video, a lackluster soundtrack, and no supplements (and not even a main menu), this disc is strictly for hardcore Eastwood and The Gauntlet fans only.

The reviewer was obviously not an Eastwood fan , lol.

[sxerunner]

I don’t own the disc so I can’t personally contribute, but supposedly the 4K transfer of Goodfellas is a point of contention.

[Lea74]

Originally Posted by sxerunner

I don’t own the disc so I can’t personally contribute, but apparently the 4K transfer of Goodfellas is a point of contention.

Wow, that's an interesting one.
I've yet to add this to my collection so just had a check of the review.
Maybe at the time the reviewer's TV was faulty when he was viewing this?

[snipemonkey]

The rating for PQ on The Fan is utterly nuts. Reviewer must have accidentally put in the DVD instead of the Blu-ray, because the score should be, bare minimum, a 3 or higher, not 1 1/2!

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-F.../29786/#Review

[DukeTogo84]

The biggest ones for me are the Fan and Ice Harvest. Both actually look rather good and it made me really question if the reviewers were on acid or something else while they reviewed them.

[DukeTogo84]

Originally Posted by snipemonkey

The rating for PQ on The Fan is utterly nuts. Reviewer must have accidentally put in the DVD instead of the Blu-ray, because the score should be, bare minimum, a 3 or higher, not 1 1/2!

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-F.../29786/#Review

You beat me to the punch by four minutes, but yeah, I completely agree. The Fan actually looks pretty good. I'm thinking the reviewer put on the DVD on a 90 inch screen or something along those lines.

[Brandon K]

I just want to encourage everyone to write user reviews. So often there is a lot of critical info that comes up in a release thread, but then it’s lost in the middle of that thread, and to find it you’d have to read dozens if not hundreds of pages. That info isn’t added to the first post of the thread, or the official review. Even if you just put any ratings and contribute information about a release in a user review, it could be a big help. Months or even years down the road people who didn’t pick up a title when it was first released could look at its product page and want to know all the details without having to read hundreds of pages of posts - I often find myself in this situation. Same thing if you disagree with a review. Write a user review and help your fellow collectors!

[RadRen]

A lot of the BDs for the older Disney animated films have been relentlessly praised on the official reviews for scrubbing the films of grain, incorrect recoloring and sometimes even smearing the detail. See Cinderella as being one of the worst offenders, 4.5/5 for video quality is just laughable. (at least The Sword in the Stone's BD got rightfully called out, and the film now has a much improved restoration on Disney+)

Meanwhile some of the more faithful non-Disney releases like the BD for The Secret of NIMH got slammed for actually looking like something shot on film. Personally, I'll take film grain, cel dust and minor damage any day over another digital noise reduction disaster.