American Gigolo BR

[J.M.P.]

Hi Guys, I would like to have your opinion for those who purchased the BR version of American Gigolo, PQ, AQ and extras. Thank for your input.

[marblearch]

Just spent the afternoon watching the French blu rays of Kiss the Girls and American Gigolo. For both I would recommend a purchase.

American Gigolo visuals start off a bit ropey -For the opening credits bar a tail light close up the image is in parts grainy and soft. Once Gere reaches the beach house details kick in and it's sweet from here.
Some of the background details are stunning for example in the antique store.
Night shots and interiors are strong. Colours are rich and deep with good contrast and balance. Occasional white specks appear on the print and a couple of twilight shots display a lot of grain in the sky portion of the shot.

The audio is less impressive. The Moroder music score is vibrant but the dialogue seems a little tinny and muffled with little ambiance. It's DTS HD but sounds at times like a lossy soundtrack. There are no extras on the disc at all but with the image so strong if you like this movie it is worth the buy.

[J.M.P.]

Hi Marblearch, thank you for your feedback, could you please post the picture of the cover front and back ?

[marblearch]

Hi J.M.P.

The Luddite spirit lives on in that I don't have means to take picture ( digital camera etc) - the cover as presented by Amazon Fr and Bluray.com is correct as in the black and white photograph - the back cover has another black and white image of Gere and a woman ( I presume Hutton) faces kissing. The picture on the static disc menu screen is the same image used for the Warner US reissued dvd.

Looks like Japan and Spain are getting the ( in my opinion) superior sleeve cover from the well known movie poster used for the initial video and dvd.

.

[J.M.P.]

Great, thanks I prefer the original DVD cover. How is the PQ and SQ compared to the dvd ?

[J.M.P.]

Another strange thing the movie is not being released in the US or UK...

[pro-bassoonist]

Originally Posted by J.M.P.

Another strange thing the movie is not being released in the US or UK...

I don't know about a U.S. release yet, but there will be a UK release.

Pro-B

[J.M.P.]

Hi pro-bassoonist , do you know when the UK release will come out ?

[marblearch]

HI - the picture ( compared to the original Paramount UK dvd release) is a significant improvement. The audio less so ( for the dialogue and surround/ambiance).

If only the sleeve had the original artwork instead of the moody art house b/w picture.

[J.M.P.]

Hi All, I just received my AG BR from Amazon order today. Paramount did a BAD job regarding the cover + the writing "American Gigolo" in the spine is upside down !!!

[jah13]

Originally Posted by J.M.P.

Hi All, I just received my AG BR from Amazon order today. Paramount did a BAD job regarding the cover + the writing "American Gigolo" in the spine is upside down !!!

The text on the spine being upside down is consistent with French DVDs, Blus, and CDs, at least all of the ones in my collection.

[marblearch]

Upside down text on the spine is annoying - some French labels like M6 and Metropolitan do not invert the text on the spine but most of the other distributors tend to.
Just received my French blu of The Jacket and it's the same inverted text.
Not as annoying as forced French subs though.........

[J.M.P.]

I have over 300 BR an 1000 DVD and you are right almost all french spine texts are "inverted". Regarding the PQ for a 33 old movie it does not look bad. The AQ sounds a little muffled as stated above. But I am glad I made the purchased the BR. I love the soundtrack. Recommended for all 80 lovers.

[marblearch]

Agreed it is an 80's classic. Quite risqué for the time re the subject matter - Maybe Pacino's Cruising will get HD treatment some time. Was reminded of this seeing the news that Sorcerer is being released next year on blu ray - with that great Tangerine Dream score.

[J.M.P.]

Because it is a low budget film the studio did not spend a fortune on the transfer...

[jah13]

Originally Posted by J.M.P.

Because it is a low budget film the studio did not spend a fortune on the transfer...

Sometimes I'd rather it be this way instead of having a "fortune" spent on a new transfer that results in too much tweaking, de-noising, de-graining, etc.

[baheidstu]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

I don't know about a U.S. release yet, but there will be a UK release.

Pro-B

Pro-B, will you be doing a review on any of these European releases of the film at all?

My copy is supposed to come this week, I'm very much looking forward to it!

[baheidstu]

Originally Posted by J.M.P.

I have over 300 BR an 1000 DVD and you are right almost all french spine texts are "inverted". Regarding the PQ for a 33 old movie it does not look bad. The AQ sounds a little muffled as stated above. But I am glad I made the purchased the BR. I love the soundtrack. Recommended for all 80 lovers.

I watched Scarface a few weeks ago and it got me in the mood for more early 80s Giorgio Moroder, so I watched my AG DVD. It was after that I decided on a whim to Google "American Gigolo Blu Ray" and found out about it coming out on blu in Europe. So even though I watched the film fairly recently, I'm already looking forward to watching it again on blu.

I realize that sort of music probably sounds very dated to most people, but I think it's great and brings back wonderful memories of the early 80s (not that my life was like Julian Kay or Tony Montana's back then mind you!)

[tylergfoster]

Locked?

[baheidstu]

Originally Posted by tylergfoster

Locked?

Nope, I'm glad to report it's REGION FREE!