Just Before Dawn (1981) (Original + Extended cuts) coming from Ronin

[HorrorBlu]

Originally Posted by The Geek

Mondo Digital review:

http://www.mondo-digital.com/justbeforedawn.html

Interesting info about Lieberman's interview being cut from the "Lions, Tigers and Inbred Twins" doc. Does he have beef with Code Red?

Yes. He's extremely unhappy they have the US rights, as he wants to self-distribute like Remote Control and Blue Sunshine.

Not mentioned in the Mondo interview is that Code Red did a poor job cutting him out of the featurette, as it throws the audio out of sync.

[The Geek]

Originally Posted by HorrorBlu

Yes. He's extremely unhappy they have the US rights, as he wants to self-distribute like Remote Control and Blue Sunshine.

Not mentioned in the Mondo interview is that Code Red did a poor job cutting him out of the featurette, as it throws the audio out of sync.

That makes sense. I can't blame the guy. If it was my movie I'd want complete control over everything.

I was looking for the audio sync mention in the review and was surprised Nathaniel didn't mention it.

[Braktastic]

Originally Posted by rillog

Sadly a disappointing upgrade. This could have been so great but they just botched it.

No surprise here. Code Red is the worst. Glad I passed on this one.

[Matt89]

How disappointing. Is the feature really only 18GB?? The 88Films release is 26GB and you can even see the compression issues in the screenshots on the mondo digital review.

So they cleaned up a version of the film nobody really cared about to begin with when really they should've just incorporated or branched those extra scenes rather than have an entire cut of the film that was of poor quality and just maximized the space for the main feature but no. That would make sense.

And to top it all off they simply cut Lieberman's footage out of the doc and then left the rest of it out of sync? Christ, why even release movies when you don't even really give a sh*t?? If I were Lieberman I'd be f*cking pissed too.

Really wish I didn't get rid of that 88Films edition of Just Before Dawn. It looks bettter than this for sure. What a mess.

~Matt

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by Matt89

How disappointing. Is the feature really only 18GB?? The 88Films release is 26GB and you can even see the compression issues in the screenshots on the mondo digital review.

So they cleaned up a version of the film nobody really cared about to begin with when really they should've just incorporated or branched those extra scenes rather than have an entire cut of the film that was of poor quality and just maximized the space for the main feature but no. That would make sense.

And to top it all off they simply cut Lieberman's footage out of the doc and then left the rest of it out of sync? Christ, why even release movies when you don't even really give a sh*t?? If I were Lieberman I'd be f*cking pissed too.

Really wish I grabbed that 88Films edition of Just Before Dawn. It looks bettter than this for sure. What a mess.

~Matt

Based on the caps it looks like the new Code Red is about on par with the 88 films detail wise but has better color. More detail than the older Code Red Blu-ray. Extended version cleaned up. 2019 Code Red looks to have best overall A/V quality for main features regardless of space used.

Regarding the extras, I don't care about those but I can see those that do not being the most pleased.

[davidthenikonuser]

Originally Posted by darkness2918

This movie is really enjoyable. Really thinking of getting this to replace my older CR version.

Get it for sure. The original CR blu was very poorly encoded. This new release is way better and has some nice new and old extras on it.

[davidthenikonuser]

Originally Posted by rillog

Sadly a disappointing upgrade. This could have been so great but they just botched it.

How is it disappointing and botched? This new release is much better then there original release. Now that release was disappointing.

[babybreese]

Originally Posted by davidthenikonuser

How is it disappointing and botched?
This new release is much better then there original release.
Now that release was disappointing.

Have you seen the cover? lol

That was also Code Red's 1st BD...
baby steps are OK on a first release.

I bought it, loved it.
Now it's time for a double dip......


General vibe is the transfers are still small,
squeezed to fit all the extras I guess.
They could have gone on a DVD or a 2nd Blu.

Clean up on the longer version was nice but limited.
Plenty of damage remains.

Fans would prefer a transfer that inserts the bits from the longer cut into the superior looking US release cut.

Or a new transfer of the longer version,
done with modern equipment.

[Jonbaker]

Originally Posted by The Geek

Mondo Digital review:

http://www.mondo-digital.com/justbeforedawn.html

Interesting info about Lieberman's interview being cut from the "Lions, Tigers and Inbred Twins" doc. Does he have beef with Code Red?

In that review they mention the slipcover artwork being controversial. I'm not sure what the controversy is other than it being horrendous.

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by Jonbaker

In that review they mention the slipcover artwork being controversial. I'm not sure what the controversy is other than it being horrendous.

If you've seen the movie you'll know the movie it has a spoiler. But if you haven't seen the movie you probably wouldn't detect it has a spoiler as its very subtle. So not really a big deal IMO, not like the 2001 Fox DVD Planet of the Apes cover

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by babybreese

Have you seen the cover? lol

That was also Code Red's 1st BD...
baby steps are OK on a first release.

I bought it, loved it.
Now it's time for a double dip......


General vibe is the transfers are still small,
squeezed to fit all the extras I guess.
They could have gone on a DVD or a 2nd Blu.

Clean up on the longer version was nice but limited.
Plenty of damage remains.

Fans would prefer a transfer that inserts the bits from the longer cut into the superior looking US release cut.

Or a new transfer of the longer version,
done with modern equipment.

It would be nice for a full restoration but this allows people to get something that based on the caps looks ever so slightly better than the 88 films version due to the color correction on theatrical and cleanup on extended (despite more compression - many companies have proved less compression doesn't mean better PQ)… and of course better than first CR release.

As the 88 films version sells for $30+ these days used with no slip, this Ronin release is a good A/V upgrade for owners of the original Code Red version. Who knows if/when there ever will be a better restoration? On the other hand, if you already have 88 Films version then its a far tougher sell as the only thing you'll gain is additional minor color correction.

[Matt89]

I dunno, is it better than the 88Films release with only minor color correction that I can achieve by simply adjusting the tint on my television? I can see in the screenshots alone that the new Code Red suffers from compression that is not there on the 88 release. It’s also nearly 10GB smaller so of course there’s compression when we’re talking 26GB on the 88 vs 17GB on the Code Red.

I just don’t understand the decisions they make. Why would they take the time to restore the ENTIRE extended cut when they could’ve just spliced the scenes into the theatrical cut and called it a day? They wasted a massive amount of disc space (and their own time) for this sh*tty looking cut of the movie that STILL looks like sh*t so it really doesn’t appear like they did do much work on it even if they did. To top that off, the new special features (as well as the old ones), according to the review, are all mangled so like wtf are they doing over there do they not quality check their discs?

They REALLY could’ve made this the definitive edition but they very obviously f*cked it up.

This release was absolutely, 100% botched.

What a f*cking shame, Code Red screwed this movie YET AGAIN.

~Matt

[HorrorBlu]

Originally Posted by Matt89

I just don’t understand the decisions they make. Why would they take the time to restore the ENTIRE extended cut when they could’ve just spliced the scenes into the theatrical cut and called it a day?

If Code Red were to attempt this, the Extended Cut would have probably been out of sync as well.

[davidthenikonuser]

Originally Posted by babybreese

Have you seen the cover? lol

That was also Code Red's 1st BD...
baby steps are OK on a first release.

I bought it, loved it.
Now it's time for a double dip......


General vibe is the transfers are still small,
squeezed to fit all the extras I guess.
They could have gone on a DVD or a 2nd Blu.

Clean up on the longer version was nice but limited.
Plenty of damage remains.

Fans would prefer a transfer that inserts the bits from the longer cut into the superior looking US release cut.

Or a new transfer of the longer version,
done with modern equipment.

Yeah, I've seen the cover. So what. It comes with the poster art on the flip side. Really not a big deal.

Yes, maybe they could have done a 2 disc set, but this is what it is and it's still a nice release and better then the original release.

The longer cut is really just an extra and we should just be happy it got any clean up at all. Yes, adding the extra footage into the better scan of the film would have been nice for sure, but that's not the way it happened.

[babybreese]

lol
you asked...don't shoot the messenger.

Meanwhile
from the review, more technical incompetence outside of audio sync

The main feature is also preceded by a couple of brief, perplexing intros
with the label's zombie version of Banana Man goofing off with actors
Greg Henry and Jamie Rose, with a choppy frame rate.

New to this release are four separate video interviews with Henry (13m48s),
Rose (15m34s), Chris Lemmon (28m5s),
and producer David Shelton (30m50s).
The Henry and Rose interviews have the same choppy playback issue

[twozbar]

Originally Posted by HorrorBlu

Yes. He's extremely unhappy they have the US rights, as he wants to self-distribute like Remote Control and Blue Sunshine.

Not mentioned in the Mondo interview is that Code Red did a poor job cutting him out of the featurette, as it throws the audio out of sync.

Actually, the real reason is the producer has never paid DGA or SAG-AFTRA residuals on this film.

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by babybreese

lol
you asked...don't shoot the messenger.

Meanwhile
from the review, more technical incompetence outside of audio sync

The main feature is also preceded by a couple of brief, perplexing intros
with the label's zombie version of Banana Man goofing off with actors
Greg Henry and Jamie Rose, with a choppy frame rate.

New to this release are four separate video interviews with Henry (13m48s),
Rose (15m34s), Chris Lemmon (28m5s),
and producer David Shelton (30m50s).
The Henry and Rose interviews have the same choppy playback issue

The choppy framerate on extras is done on purpose to improve the PQ of main movie. The compressionist can save a lot of space for the main feature by cutting the framerate on extras. Has happened on a lot of kino releases.

[Matt89]

Originally Posted by Ruined

The choppy framerate on extras is done on purpose to improve the PQ of main movie. The compressionist can save a lot of space for the main feature by cutting the framerate on extras. Has happened on a lot of kino releases.

It is not done on purpose, it happens when companies like Code Red and Kino don't know wtf they're doing. It's not a way of compressing the file, those extras on those Kino discs are also botched. If a compressionist is "cutting the framerate" to make the file smaller and this is the result, then they don't know how to do their job. And if they did this in order to "save space" for the main feature, why is the main feature only 17GB? REALLY maximizing the space there on a 50GB dual-layered disc.

Also, Arrow doesn't seem to have a problem with encoding their extras, so this argument is null. The special features on their disc of The Thing, for example, take up a small amount of space yet the frame rate isn't choppy.

~Matt

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by Matt89

It is not done on purpose, it happens when companies like Code Red and Kino don't know wtf they're doing. It's not a way of compressing the file, those extras on those Kino discs are also botched. If a compressionist is "cutting the framerate" to make the file smaller and this is the result, then they don't know how to do their job. And if they did this in order to "save space" for the main feature, why is the main feature only 17GB? REALLY maximizing the space there on a 50GB dual-layered disc.

Also, Arrow doesn't seem to have a problem with encoding their extras, so this argument is null. The special features on their disc of The Thing, for example, take up a small amount of space yet the frame rate isn't choppy.

~Matt

There are two seperate encodes of the film, 90 min and 102min, plus nearly 2 hours of extras (including long interviews the 88 films version doesn't have) on a single bd50.

There is simply no way one can fit all of that on a single bd50 with no tradeoffs somewhere, and it's best to make most of those tradeoffs in the extras.

It is up to the compressionist to decide what tradeoffs to use in order to maximize bitrate, and in this case he used reduced framerate in some extras which greatly saves space. I believe Code Red uses the same compressionist as Kino now and this compressionist has a history of reducing framerate on extras to save space.

[Member-222782]

If this is a residuals thing, I don't expect the film will ever get a proper restoration without Lieberman's involvement. Having said that, Lieberman shouldn't be mad at Code Red as they have nothing to do with the original contract. He should just sit with Bill and work on getting a full, proper restoration of his film by people who know what they're doing. Do it for the fans.

I think I'll pick this up despite the flaws. More interested in the cast interviews. I usually don't buy Blu-rays just for the extras but this is a rare exception.