Mad Max (1979) (Collector's Edition)

[solaris72]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

As I said earlier it is not negligible. Look at the hair and trees in some of those shots. The MGM disc looks noticeably better. I realize one of my eyes in 20/15, but still.

20/13 vision here. I see what you mean in the hair, but for me I think the difference in the post-update screenshots is sufficiently negligible that I doubt I'd notice it in motion. Not trying to start an argument, just stating where I draw the line.

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by solaris72

20/13 vision here. I see what you mean in the hair, but for me I think the difference in the post-update screenshots is sufficiently negligible that I doubt I'd notice it in motion. Not trying to start an argument, just stating where I draw the line.

I understand. I just don't agree with your line.

[tylergfoster]

Originally Posted by solaris72

Thanks for the update! Was gonna cancel my preorder and buy the MGM, but since the PQ difference is negligible and the SF has a better cover and an edge in the bonus features, I'll keep my preorder.

My only warning is that in motion, that slight decrease in sharpness has an aggregate effect of the film looking smoothed. Although the caps display a pretty minimal difference, especially in terms of color, I don't regret rebuying the MGM.

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

I understand. I just don't agree with your line.

I think "not noticeable in motion" is probably the most common sense line of all, really. I see slightly more grain detail on Arrow's Thief BD compared to the Criterion in caps, but I know I would never notice it in motion, so it's rather irrelevant. Same with the Ghostbusters bare-bones release versus the anniversary release.

[stvn1974]

Shipped.

[Martin_31]

My order has shipped!

[Darth Marcus]

Mine is arriving today. Although after looking at the screenshot comparisons I'm tempted to seek out a cheap copy of the original MGM disc. I'd just keep both, since this Shout copy will have more special features. Plus I like the case art more.

[cakefactory]

What is with the Mel Gibson Birth of a Superstar featurette? The film clips in it all shake like crazy, it looks like a 3-D Blu-Ray does without glasses!

EDIT: Mad Max Phenomenon is the same way.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by cakefactory

What is with the Mel Gibson Birth of a Superstar featurette? The film clips in it all shake like crazy, it looks like a 3-D Blu-Ray does without glasses!

EDIT: Mad Max Phenomenon is the same way.

It's probably Shout's tremendously shitty upscaling not jiving with the film cadence of the clips. Watching the old MGM features on the EFNY disc is like peeking through a Venetian blind.

[cakefactory]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

It's probably Shout's tremendously shitty upscaling not jiving with the film cadence of the clips. Watching the old MGM features on the EFNY disc is like peeking through a Venetian blind.

Yeah, it's borderline unwatchable, every clip from the movie is nausea-inducing. I will probably never watch those two features again because the video is so incredibly messed up. I don't get how it happened, i've never seen anyone mess up NTSC features before, it looks like some kind of crazy-awful PAL conversion. If they really tried to upscale them and that's what caused this, I guess that would explain it. It's probably the worst video glitch I've ever seen on a bluray and it's present throughout just about every single second of video footage in both of those featurettes (one was about 15 minutes and the other about 25 iirc).

The new feature suffers from none of these problems, of course. It's rather unfocused and the two legacy ones have better info, but the Mel Gibson clips interspersed throughout make it a must-watch. The guy has to be playing up the crazy Mel angle, almost every time they show him he says SOMETHING really nuts or bugs his eyes out repeatedly.

I watched the movie itself. I have never owned this on any format so don't take anything I say as speaking from a position of authority or comparing it to past releases, but the sound seemed really messed up, some scenes had the dialogue buried under the music and sound effects and it sounded like they were speaking in a closet or something. I'm guessing that's just how it has always sounded, but it resulted in me having to turn the subtitles on in a few scenes (ex, the one towards the end where the doctor is listing what's wrong). I tried listening to it in both 5.1 and 2.0 and it was the same muffled sound both ways, which further suggests to me that's just the way it's always been, but I will leave that to someone who's actually familiar with this movie to speak on that.

The video looked fine to me, but I wasn't trying very hard to look for issues. It certainly has some scenes which are much grainier than others and a few parts with odd flickering print damage or something, but neither of those are the fault of Shout. I didn't notice compression issues, but I was sitting quite a ways back and wasn't trying to look for them since I hadn't seen this movie in a long time, had only previously seen it on TV, and was busy being very surprised at how good it was. I've seen it 3 or 4 times before, but I always thought of it as the uninteresting member of the trilogy, with Road Warrior being one of my all-time favorite movies and Thunderdome also being a real masterpiece of bizarre world-building. The first just was like "they're barely even in a future society, where are the mohawks and hockey masks?!?!" This time around, I was thoroughly involved in it and saw how masterful a lot of the sequences are, particularly all the stalking scenes with his wife running away. The score really pushed it several levels higher than it would have been with a typical low-budget actioner score, too. GREAT movie. I just really hated the

[Show spoiler]fakey bug-eye insert shots which look like something out of Total Recall and upset the gritty realism.

[JackKnightStarman]

Originally Posted by cakefactory

Yeah, it's borderline unwatchable, every clip from the movie is nausea-inducing. I will probably never watch those two features again because the video is so incredibly messed up. I don't get how it happened, i've never seen anyone mess up NTSC features before, it looks like some kind of crazy-awful PAL conversion. If they really tried to upscale them and that's what caused this, I guess that would explain it. It's probably the worst video glitch I've ever seen on a bluray and it's present throughout just about every single second of video footage in both of those featurettes (one was about 15 minutes and the other about 25 iirc).

The new feature suffers from none of these problems, of course. It's rather unfocused and the two legacy ones have better info, but the Mel Gibson clips interspersed throughout make it a must-watch. The guy has to be playing up the crazy Mel angle, almost every time they show him he says SOMETHING really nuts or bugs his eyes out repeatedly.

I watched the movie itself. I have never owned this on any format so don't take anything I say as speaking from a position of authority or comparing it to past releases, but the sound seemed really messed up, some scenes had the dialogue buried under the music and sound effects and it sounded like they were speaking in a closet or something. I'm guessing that's just how it has always sounded, but it resulted in me having to turn the subtitles on in a few scenes (ex, the one towards the end where the doctor is listing what's wrong). I tried listening to it in both 5.1 and 2.0 and it was the same muffled sound both ways, which further suggests to me that's just the way it's always been, but I will leave that to someone who's actually familiar with this movie to speak on that.

I had a old 2nd gen vhs that had the American dubbed version from the early 1980's, but everything since when they released the original audio in america, this has been a issue with said scene and film.

[schlock]

Originally Posted by cakefactory

I just really hated the

[Show spoiler]fakey bug-eye insert shots which look like something out of Total Recall and upset the gritty realism.

Nah, those moments were VERY COOL moments for the film when it was first released. It made the film stand out not as simply a gritty action film, but with some really small special director flourishes that made you know they were trying to do something beyond the usual fare. Just like those cool shots of the raven. Loved ALL of that stuff, and I saw it way before Road Warrior was released. And you do know, Total Recall came out many years later so any comparison to that moment in Mad Max makes no sense. A tiny low-budget film from Australia adding in small cool stylish moments like that at that time (which they didn't have to do) is really what made the film even more unique and special. We've seen all this kind of stuff a million times since, but it was definitely very fresh back then.

[cakefactory]

Originally Posted by schlock

Nah, those moments were VERY COOL moments for the film when it was first released. It made the film stand out not as simply a gritty action film, but with some really small special director flourishes that made you know they were trying to do something beyond the usual fare. Just like those cool shots of the raven. Loved ALL of that stuff, and I saw it way before Road Warrior was released. And you do know, Total Recall came out many years later so any comparison to that moment in Mad Max makes no sense. A tiny low-budget film from Australia adding in small cool stylish moments like that at that time (which they didn't have to do) is really what made the film even more unique and special. We've seen all this kind of stuff a million times since, but it was definitely very fresh back then.

I said it looked like total recall cause it looked like the cartoony effect in total recall. Obviously I know Total Recall is over 10 years newer! There's no other movie I can think of that uses that particular effect in that particular manner, it certainly looked more like Total Recall than some other movie with popping eyeballs from closer to 1979 like say...The Beyond. I didn't know purely visual comparisons were only allowed to be made with things that were older. I never implied it was ripping off Total Recall, that would be idiotic.

I like all the stylistic flourishes besides those, they just looked really fake. The stuff with the birds, etc was all great as were the whacked out cartoony behavior from the biker guys (ex the scene with the mannequin).

[schlock]

^ And remember, I grew up watching the AIP English-dubbed version in 1980 so crazy eye-popping scenes and so-forth just fit in perfectly at that time with the silly dubbing. I see your stance as well and agree and accept. But I will never forget seeing Mad Max on pay-tv in 1980 and being seriously impressed with the small stylized moments, including the eye-popping, which even then looked goofy and fake, but it didn't matter - it was just fun!

[cakefactory]

Is the dub worth watching for entertainment value? I didn't try it, but it's on there!

[#Darren]

This sounds like a clusterfuxk.

[schlock]

Originally Posted by cakefactory

Is the dub worth watching for entertainment value? I didn't try it, but it's on there!

I think most people hate the dub, so choose your poison. I actually love the bad dub version as it gives the film an otherworldy feel, and it's the one I saw the film for years with until the later DVD finally came out and offered the original track for the very first time in the US. The original audio track is definitely superior, and I think after hearing the original audio and then going back and trying to accept the bad dubbed version afterwards may be difficult for those who didn't know it beforehand. But there's just something I still love about that insanely inept dub track.

[master gandhi]

Is there any solid info about the Mad Max trilogy re-release that's coming out April 28th? How is it two discs? Maybe 2 & 3 on one disc and the first one on its own? I'm thinking of getting this release, but information is scarce.

[Thomas Guycott]

The American dub isn't good, but it also isn't hilariously bad: it's solely perfunctory and serviceable, and there isn't a whole lot of "bad movie" quality to it.

Admittedly it's been some years since I only watched it once.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by schlock

^ And remember, I grew up watching the AIP English-dubbed version in 1980 so crazy eye-popping scenes and so-forth just fit in perfectly at that time with the silly dubbing. I see your stance as well and agree and accept. But I will never forget seeing Mad Max on pay-tv in 1980 and being seriously impressed with the small stylized moments, including the eye-popping, which even then looked goofy and fake, but it didn't matter - it was just fun!

I love the bug-eyed moments, they fit in with the cartoony vibe that the action has, like strapping a ****ing rocket engine to a car! Whenever I watch the film I half expect to see Wile E. Coyote riding the rocket car.

Yeah, I know the film has this rep for "gritty realism" but it's also darkly funny and downright surreal at times too, that's what I love about all of Miller's Max movies. One of my favourite bits in MM2 is when the two dudes are relaying the damage to the big rig back to Papagallo, the way that the guy says "Okay!" at the end cracks me up, I'm laughing just thinking about it.