Battle Creek Brawl (88 Films)

[chen lung]

Can we wait for a proper comparison before making judgement, folks?

[Owenjohnston]

Originally Posted by chen lung

can we wait for a proper comparison before making judgement, folks?

+1

[Keung]

The film has always looked like shit, to be fair.

[saltysam]

Caps, click through for full res

[Show spoiler]

[Magic Monkey]

Originally Posted by saltysam

Caps, click through for full res

Thanks! Any chance of you taking caps of these?

Originally Posted by Magic Monkey

It would be interesting to see how this transfer compares to the Nordic release.

[Shingster]

It doesn't look good in screenshots, does it? It's got that weird smudgy DNR'd appearance I always associate with Universal's Restored Edition of American Werewolf in London, where the whole image looks smudgy and the grain is severely reduced and looks really weird like it's been dabbed onto the image, however Battlecreek appears to also have been shot with heavy diffusion filters (as opposed to AWiL) so that's making the image look softer still.

I think this is just one those titles that really needs a stellar restoration to get the most out of it and nobody's really gonna be interested in forking out or dedicating the time for that given the rather shoddy nature of the film itself, so this is probably the best we'll see for it for the forseeable future.

How does it look in motion Salty? A bit better?

[saltysam]

Originally Posted by Shingster

How does it look in motion Salty? A bit better?

It's a mixed bag really, the first sequence after the credits starts off swarming with grain, then after about a minute it suddenly looks much smoother like someone pressed a DNR button. On the whole it doesn't look too bad, some sequences look quite good (the roller skating sequence early on) but this film has always looked pretty poor on home video and it does at least blow away the Shout! which was truly horrendous. I suppose my initial verdict is could be better but could be a lot worse.

[Shingster]

Yeah I guess it is what it is, not good but not a deal breaker for fans of the film. I don't suppose there will be many people out there demanding it looks pin sharp and pristine throughout. Some films you just accept in any quality so long as it at least looks genuine HD!

[Markgway]

So was my cap off or what?

[chen lung]

My first reservation was that it might have some grain-removal, as others have more-or-less said. However, I believe it's generally better than what I've seen of previous masters (colours; genuine HD).

Overall, the Blu-ray ticks most boxes for me; the extras are nice too.

[Menteith]

In any way, even when DNR'd, this should still be better than the US double pack, as that was only an upscale, right?

[Markgway]

Actually the mono sounds better than I first thought.

[Killer Meteor]

I'll stick with the R1 Fox DVD. Sorry.

[Owenjohnston]

I'll be buying this, Snake & Crane, Wheels on Meals and any other HK remastered movies out this year

[Shingster]

Originally Posted by Markgway

So was my cap off or what?

It wasn't that far off in the end by the looks of things! The geometry looks better in salty's grabs mind, so it might be the scene you chose that looks stretched.

[Markgway]

Originally Posted by Shingster

It wasn't that far off in the end by the looks of things! The geometry looks better in salty's grabs mind, so it might be the scene you chose that looks stretched.

You can tell in motion that the geometry is off.

It's not unwatchable but definitely something that should have been spotted and corrected.

[Killer Meteor]

Originally Posted by Markgway

You can tell in motion that the geometry is off.

It's not unwatchable but definitely something that should have been spotted and corrected.

I think it might the same issue that affected the first pressing of Criterion's BD of Dressed to Kill.

Didn't the City Hunter release from Eureka have a geometry problem?

[Nutcracker]

Originally Posted by Killer Meteor

Didn't the City Hunter release from Eureka have a geometry problem?

The master had a geometry problem and Eureka corrected it.

[Killer Meteor]

Originally Posted by Nutcracker

The master had a geometry problem and Eureka corrected it.

Ah, I see. It's hard to tell as the HKL had a squished picture so I was getting confused!

[saltysam]

Few more caps

[Show spoiler]