First Blood / Rambo: First Blood Part II / Rambo III 4K UHDs (1982-1988)

[infiniteCR]

What a serious bummer about the tweaks on these. Glad I resisted that cheap price tag, it was difficult.

[Poya]

Originally Posted by indisposed

I know not everyone likes the sequels, because they are so out of alignment with the original, but it's always baffled me as to why someone can love Part II, but hate III. You could say that's because of what ultimately happened with the Taliban (which inspite of what some people say, DID NOT EXIST when the film was made and released) and it isn't quite as tightly paced as the first two... but the epic scale of the battle scenes particularly at the end, has arguably never been topped. It's all done in camera and it's glorious. Yeah, it's overblown and almost cartoony, but then, so was the second film.

The 80s sequels were made at a time when Stallone was all gunho about America being the best thing ever and made these films as a way to show his pride. Years later, he’d reject that kind of thinking and doesn’t hold those movies in high regard. That’s why the 2008 movie is the true sequel to the original. The Rambo in that film is consistent with what we saw in First Blood and the action is more down to earth and realistic. Have no idea why Stallone wants to make another one.

[emgesp]

What the hell is up with the boosted blacks and greenish hue?

[indisposed]

Originally Posted by Poya

The 80s sequels were made at a time when Stallone was all gunho about America being the best thing ever and made these films as a way to show his pride. Years later, he’d reject that kind of thinking and doesn’t hold those movies in high regard. That’s why the 2008 movie is the true sequel to the original. The Rambo in that film is consistent with what we saw in First Blood and the action is more down to earth and realistic. Have no idea why Stallone wants to make another one.

I thought the "War is natural... Peace? That's an accident!" speech in the extended cut of Rambo IV was surprisingly potent for a mainstream action movie. God knows why he cut it in the first place. I've heard some people say that it felt out of character for Rambo to say something like that, but it made perfect sense to me that he would feel that way after all that time.

As for Rambo V, I must confess I'm looking forward to it, but it will have to be a more low-key character study like First Blood in order to have any kind of integrity, if it really is going to be "Last Blood".

[Noremac Mij]

Originally Posted by emgesp

What the hell is up with the boosted blacks and greenish hue?

Some people just like to shake the air needlessly.

[PuppetMasterBlu]

Originally Posted by indisposed

Anyone know if the Blu-rays contained with the Lionsgate 4K sets are region free?

No way, it's Lionsgate. They are going to be Region A locked.

[indisposed]

Originally Posted by PuppetMasterBlu

No way, it's Lionsgate. They are going to be Region A locked.

That's a shame... the older discs were region free. That was a more "inocent" time, I guess. It will have to be Studio Canal and "bad encoding", then.

[tcripe]

Originally Posted by JAWS

This is one of the best 4K discs I have in terms of Upgrade.

Was blown away by how great it looks.

Wow... I even had the Canadian remaster Blu Ray and it blows that away also.

Fantastic!!

Yeah the upgrade for First Blood is outstanding! I wouldn’t say it’s as good as blade runner final cut in terms of upgrade quality. But, it’s definitely up there!

[Sky_Captain]

Originally Posted by indisposed

That's a shame... the older discs were region free. That was a more "inocent" time, I guess.

That wasn't yesterday, either.

[x5gb]

Someone on here confirmed the Lionsgate blurays are using the same encode as SC (exact same bitrate) so more than likely the UHD is as well.

[Vertizontal]

I suppose the best way to ensure a free code hand out goes to an actual forum member instead of a passer by is to have you shoot a PM. I have my First Blood 4k avail for anyone interested...


EDIT: Given away.

[Agent Kay]

Originally Posted by Bates_Motel

It’s the “modern” look of raised milky blacks with a blue cast in them. Certainly not indicative of a photochemical color time from the 1980s, but could’ve been a lot worse.



LOL you act like I've never color graded a film before. (I have.). I don't need to check my perfectly calibrated setup, but you can even see it in the caps. Fact is, there's too much blue/green in the blacks and it's not up for debate because its 100% there whether YOU see it or not. I've also projected the first 2 films so I'm aware of how 35mm prints look.

Black/brown hair shouldn't skew green/have a green cast to it. The proof is right there in the grade. And yes, that's the 1080p HD version, not the 4k that's been downconverter form HDR, so those are the identical colors that are on the disc.



It's cool if you like it, but its 100% a modern revisionist grade to look like other modern films. It's not how they looked in 1982/1985/1988, because digital grading of this nature didn't exist then.

Yep

[Markgway]

Originally Posted by emgesp

What the hell is up with the boosted blacks and greenish hue?

Teeeeel.

[BLMN]

Originally Posted by BNex99

On that note, is there a release of Rambo III anywhere in the world that is A) uncut, B) has English subtitles for Russian dialogue where they're supposed to go, and C) has the original English stereo audio?

A and B yes, C NO.

[iammynonny]

I know this might be a silly question but First Blood UK 4K disc has run-time 1:33:25 while US blu-ray (I don't have US 4K disc) is 1:33:11 so what is 14 second different? Just Liongate logo vs StudioCanal or because different framerate? 'cause I have a problem sync subtitle with UK disc (I believe my subtitle is based on US disc).

[barty22]

Originally Posted by BLMN

A and B yes, C NO.

What release is A + B ?

Edit: oh, right, the US blurays plus this 4k + blu-ray disc of course

[goodjay]

So is the sound mix the same crap was on previous blurays or is it improved ..seems to be contradicting comments

[BLMN]

Originally Posted by barty22

What release is A + B ?

Edit: oh, right, the US blurays plus this 4k + blu-ray disc of course

Has nothing to do with region coding on disc, i was answering another user questions he named them A, B and C.

[barty22]

Originally Posted by BLMN

Has nothing to do with region coding on disc, i was answering another user questions he named them A, B and C.

I know, that's exactly how I read it Wasn't asking which release has region code A + B Wanted to know which release is uncut and has the correct English subs.

In my head I was still thinking about the old SC remaster (which was the best quality until this 4k release), of which afaik there is no release with that remaster that is uncut and has the correct English subs (talking Rambo 3 specifically).

[StingingVelvet]

Watched Rambo 2 and had an odd experience with it. It played great on my Sony X800, looked pretty darn good! Halfway through it crapped out into a mess of digital noise, as quite a few discs do on my X800, which is why I have a backup player, the LG 875. I put it in that to finish the movie and wow... drained of color, no contrast, horrible looking. Put it back in the Sony, looked great.

Some will say "lol cheap backup player is cheap," but I did extensive testing on these suckers and the image quality before has always been identical, or at least damn near identical. Not sure if I bumped a setting or the LG booted up weird or something, but just something to keep in mind for LG or cheaper player users... if Rambo's skin look drained and grey like a vampire, it might be a player issue.

Anyway, as to the real disc experience on the X800...

Good stuff! Really nice detail, subtle use of HDR (which is what I generally prefer), really nice color. There are some dreamy Superman-type scenes here and there, but they look solid too. I did notice two issues though: 1) There's an early scene where a guard is lighting a cigarette before Rambo kills him and I noticed a weird moment there where artifacts appeared around the guard, like a compression issue, and 2) Blacks can be really weak on this disc, much lighter than the widescreen bars above and below. Black levels are not one of my personal pet peeves, so it didn't really bother me, but I could see others complaining about these.

Altogether though it's a lovely remaster and in motion I didn't see any color tint issues really. The boat fight looked a bit sepia tone and the whole movie is a bit "cooler" than a lot of other jungle movies might be, but I seem to remember it always being a bit cool? In any case it looks really good except for blacks and that one compression issue.