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

[infiniteCR]

Originally Posted by trevrox

It's been years since I last watched it, since I was a kid, and it wasn't until watching again last night that I realized... First Blood Part II is not a good movie. I wonder if I will feel the same when I rewatch Rambo III.

First Blood still great though. Maybe I should have just bought that one instead of all three.

Sounds about right. The first one was a great book that balanced the perspectives evenly between Rambo, the colonel, and the sheriff. Was a great little narrative about Vietnam vets returning to an ungrateful nation, and in the end the colonel who helped create the lethal animal, Rambo, puts him down. THe movie does a decent job with the material, minus the ending and the more skewed perspective towards Rambo.

Even James Cameron couldn’t get the second one in order.

[trevrox]

Originally Posted by infiniteCR

Sounds about right. The first one was a great book that balanced the perspectives evenly between Rambo, the colonel, and the sheriff. Was a great little narrative about Vietnam vets returning to an ungrateful nation, and in the end the colonel who helped create the lethal animal, Rambo, puts him down. THe movie does a decent job with the material, minus the ending and the more skewed perspective towards Rambo.

Even James Cameron couldn’t get the second one in order.

Yeah, I guess I'll hang on to them just to have in the collection. Can't remember much of the third movie.

I remember liking the fourth one but wonder if my opinion will change on that one too if I rewatch. This is my first time revisiting Rambo since I was around 13-14. I pre ordered all 3 because I remembered loving them all, lol.

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by trevrox

It's been years since I last watched it, since I was a kid, and it wasn't until watching again last night that I realized... First Blood Part II is not a good movie. I wonder if I will feel the same when I rewatch Rambo III.

First Blood still great though. Maybe I should have just bought that one instead of all three.

The sequels are like big budget Canon movies, which is awesome if you're into that sort of thing (which I very much am).

[Majin Blu]

Originally Posted by lilboyblu

They will be available online for that price though too, right?

I hope so!

[ltb2.0]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

The sequels are like big budget Canon movies, which is awesome if you're into that sort of thing (which I very much am).

Ditto, look forward to getting these soon.

[ROSS.T.G.]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

The sequels are like big budget Canon movies, which is awesome if you're into that sort of thing (which I very much am).

We need Missing in Action. Like now.

[Geoff D]

Rambo III (1988), US Lionsgate UHD release. Thoroughly enjoyed the movie! I mean, Trautman's lecture to Evil Russian Dude about the Afghan peoples' resilience is laced with the bitterest of historical irony but damn, it's one fine bit of action nonsense. Wasn't it the most expensive movie of all time at that point? And it shows, what with those vast locations, literal tonnes of military hardware and a cast of - well, not thousands but close enough. Sly was as buff as he's ever been, they got Jezza back to do the score and it's just a glorious piece of '80s excess all-round. We even get to see what the Carolco logo looks like in 4K without all the grain taken away! *cough* T2. Magnificent.

As for the 4K disc, it looks fantastic. Lovely sharp detail and very fine grain (opticals aside, in both cases) and I got zero problems with the colour, yes it's all a bit yellowy greeny but the thing about these Eclair restorations versus Ritrovita's PisstaVision (© Markgway) is that they still let primaries look good and bold when that palette is available, the whole thing doesn't look like it's been left to steep in a bucket of urine for two weeks. Besides, in this movie's case so much of it takes place in hot, dusty desert/mountain locations anyway that the look is a perfect fit.

The HDR pass, much like the previous two films, doesn't do any heroics with the highlights in terms of detail retention and maybe looks a bit blown-out compared to what we might expect, but it's still better than the remastered Blu-ray included with this pack, and some of those spotlights in the Russian camp look pretty bright. Black levels are once again short of being 'letterbox' dark BUT as with Rambo II they do actually have enough density to convince the eye, maybe not all the time but enough to pass muster and not be as distracting as First Blood. (I'm having a hard time coming up with info on the cinematography for film 1 but it wouldn't surprise me if they flashed the negative to fog it up a bit and reduce contrast, and when combined with Eclair's 'contrast seems to be the hardest word' attitude to grading it makes it look much too milky. Just a wild guess.)

Now then, what about the compression on Rambo III? What will Geoffy Vision make of it? Well I thought it looked TERRIFIC. Still a bit untidy during, say, certain moments during the explosive assault on the Afghan village with all the bits flying about but all in all this is probably the most competently encoded piece of 4K HDR10 material I've yet seen come out of StudioCanal. Darkness, grain, flames, smoke, explosions, it handles them all with surprising ease and I noticed something very curious about the HDR metadata on this one.

See how the first two films are mastered to 1000 max/0.0001 min? This third one is mastered to 1000/0.005 which mightn't sound like much at all but it COULD be indicative of a different outfit handling the mastering and authoring of this disc, and after looking again at the vast differences in compression between this and its progenitors (First Blood has some similarly blocky Lego Vision moments as Part II, but there's less of them so it's less of a chronic problem) I do believe this to be the case. Whether SC farmed it out to a different outfit to get it done on time or what I dunno, but I'm very goddamned glad it turned out this way!

Rambo 4 next please, preferably with the Director's Cut. I hope Sly pulls rank on this one and insists upon it.

[johnnyringo7]

Of course First Blood is the best movie of the trilogy, a cult film. But the other two are some of the best action movies of all times (specially Rambo: First Blood Part II) amazing films in my opinion

[Dailyan]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Now then, what about the compression on Rambo III? What will Geoffy Vision make of it? Well I thought it looked TERRIFIC. Still a bit untidy during, say, certain moments during the explosive assault on the Afghan village with all the bits flying about but all in all this is probably the most competently encoded piece of 4K HDR10 material I've yet seen come out of StudioCanal. Darkness, grain, flames, smoke, explosions, it handles them all with surprising ease and I noticed something very curious about the HDR metadata on this one.

There is a glimmer light of hope for Canal catalog encoding UHD.

[Geoff D]

Let's just hope it's more than a one-off.

[Dailyan]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Let's just hope it's more than a one-off.

*Crosses fingers for Escape From New York*

[Geoff D]

Not to jinx that one but I'd imagine that it got mastered the same time as the other Carpenter 4Ks and may well suffer from the same problems, they've just given themselves the extra lead time to replicate it along with this other stuff that's just come out.

[Dailyan]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Not to jinx that one but I'd imagine that it got mastered the same time as the other Carpenter 4Ks and may well suffer from the same problems, they've just given themselves the extra lead time to replicate it along with this other stuff that's just come out.

[Show spoiler]

[KcMsterpce]

First Blood is a great movie, and a great story, with a powerful subtext. I only wish Trautman wasn't so corny (I like it for the cheesy charm, but it kind of throws me out of the dramatic levity), and I don't dig the "comedy" of the backwoods National Guard and their shenanigans. Other than that, I have zero complaints.

Rambo II is fun for me as a historical overview to Cameron's refinement of "the PTSD veteran going back to the war zone" theme that he honed to perfection with ALIENS. It's also a great, dumb action spectacle. At one point I'm like "What? Rambo is crying?!" and I start laughing. As others stated, if you're into Canon Pictures action flicks of the 80s, it's a big budget version of that kinda schlock, and I can dig it.

Rambo III totally sucks.

Rambo (2008) is freaking spectacular, IMO. I wish it was available in 4k, I'd order the box set in a heartbeat.

[Sky_Captain]

Originally Posted by KcMsterpce

Rambo III totally sucks.

Nah, mate.

[rocknblues81]

Originally Posted by trevrox

It's been years since I last watched it, since I was a kid, and it wasn't until watching again last night that I realized... First Blood Part II is not a good movie. I wonder if I will feel the same when I rewatch Rambo III.

First Blood still great though. Maybe I should have just bought that one instead of all three.

Part II is a fun movie.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by KcMsterpce

First Blood is a great movie, and a great story, with a powerful subtext. I only wish Trautman wasn't so corny (I like it for the cheesy charm, but it kind of throws me out of the dramatic levity), and I don't dig the "comedy" of the backwoods National Guard and their shenanigans. Other than that, I have zero complaints.

Rambo II is fun for me as a historical overview to Cameron's refinement of "the PTSD veteran going back to the war zone" theme that he honed to perfection with ALIENS. It's also a great, dumb action spectacle. At one point I'm like "What? Rambo is crying?!" and I start laughing. As others stated, if you're into Canon Pictures action flicks of the 80s, it's a big budget version of that kinda schlock, and I can dig it.

Rambo III totally sucks.

Rambo (2008) is freaking spectacular, IMO. I wish it was available in 4k, I'd order the box set in a heartbeat.

I actually kinda love that about the first film, that Trautman seems to have parachuted in from another movie entirely! His delivery is so wooden, so matter-of-fact it's like he's from some rinky-dink cheesefest of a war picture, it's so bizarre and yet it still works. Crenna's a good sport in Rambo III as well, he was 60-odd at the time and he's still in better shape than I ever will be.

[Dailyan]

Originally Posted by KcMsterpce

Rambo III totally sucks.

[Fat Phil]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Now then, what about the compression on Rambo III? What will Geoffy Vision make of it? Well I thought it looked TERRIFIC. Still a bit untidy during, say, certain moments during the explosive assault on the Afghan village with all the bits flying about but all in all this is probably the most competently encoded piece of 4K HDR10 material I've yet seen come out of StudioCanal. Darkness, grain, flames, smoke, explosions, it handles them all with surprising ease and I noticed something very curious about the HDR metadata on this one.

See how the first two films are mastered to 1000 max/0.0001 min? This third one is mastered to 1000/0.005 which mightn't sound like much at all but it COULD be indicative of a different outfit handling the mastering and authoring of this disc, and after looking again at the vast differences in compression between this and its progenitors (First Blood has some similarly blocky Lego Vision moments as Part II, but there's less of them so it's less of a chronic problem) I do believe this to be the case. Whether SC farmed it out to a different outfit to get it done on time or what I dunno, but I'm very goddamned glad it turned out this way!

I'm intrigued
Now I have to buy it.

[Mayhem007]

If you want the Rambo collection - iTunes and 4K version for $9.99

Rambo: The Complete Collector's Set by Lions Gate Films, Inc.
HTtps://itunes.apple.com/us/movie-co...et/id793318242