Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas 4K UHD (Criterion Collection)

[PowellPressburger]

Originally Posted by asacmurr

These are all from a friend who gave me permission to share these. Obviously the TV photos aren't 100% representative of the disc, but it should be a decent way to note how different the discs are. The Rhino logo is restored at the end, and according to him this is a different transfer entirely, it's a bit piss washed, the grade is way darker than the Arrow's (the second set of photos in these comparisons), for the later hotel scenes the Criterion is teal while the Arrow is a deep blue (likely same with the other blue scenes), and the black and white footage is tinted sepia at the start (lmao).

Packaging photos
https://imgur.com/a/2QiNBXP

Comparison photos
https://imgur.com/a/arGqbLT

I prefer the Arrow for sure…

That screen grab of the car interior with the dashboard having that tint to it … I don’t like that at all.

I think Criterion had Lee Kline look at a 35 mm print and he tealed it.

Would be odd that it finally shows up now after so many editions for a film from the late 1990’s

[Telemachus]

Originally Posted by SpookyDollhouse

Watched the Criterion this weekend had to laugh reading this thread, not a total teal job like suggested and I think the color grade looks best here after going back and forth w the Arrow.

How are you enjoying the forums so far since March of 2024? We laugh a lot around here!! How exactly did you go back and forth with the Arrow, did you compare both discs in person? I don't think your comparison sounds very reliable with that little information

[VIDEOgameDROME]

Oh man what did Criterion do? Lmao

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by VIDEOgameDROME

Oh man what did Criterion do? Lmao

Gilliam supervised it.

[dwk]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

We were somewhere around Barstow when the teal began to take hold

Funnily enough, I live in an area close to this and have made the drive to Vegas a number of times in the past (both of my brothers lived there at various points in the early and late '90s and early '00s) and the colors in the shot in the car in the Criterion read more true to life to me than the Arrow, which is way too red, but

Originally Posted by JohnCarpenterFan

This film isn't a natural-looking film to begin with...

So, yeah that is all I have to add.

[asacmurr]

Originally Posted by Refuse Revisionism

Yes it would be odd just like if Twister was now green.. This is revisionist this movie was never teal. I saw this and Twister at the cinema and they never looked like this modern teal and orange crap.

I'd wait for actual disc pics before judging Twister honestly. It did seem strange that there was a tint in that trailer or whatever though - I saw folks saying tornados turn the sky green so I just chalked it up to that lmao - something left off other releases

[DR Herbert West]

Originally Posted by Refuse Revisionism

The tornados were never green in Twister ever.

Yep, they were bright orange.

[asacmurr]

Originally Posted by DR Herbert West

Yep, they were bright orange.

Bright teal I think you mean

[DR Herbert West]

Originally Posted by asacmurr

Bright teal I think you mean

Teal didn't exist before 1999. Twister was pure orange in theaters.

[Schism213]

Originally Posted by MassiveMovieBuff

Does anyone know if Arrow will put out a standard edition of this since the LE is OOP? Trying to decide if I want to wait for that or just go with the Turbine.

Diabolik and Orbit both have the Arrow LE in stock if you’re looking!

[DR Herbert West]

Originally Posted by Refuse Revisionism

What colour is gaslighting?

Purple.

[KubrickKurasawa]

I don't remember myself (grey saw it in theater again) but they'll definitely give your house a blow job it won't soon forget.

[MassiveMovieBuff]

Originally Posted by Schism213

Diabolik and Orbit both have the Arrow LE in stock if you’re looking!

Thanks for the info. I'm still going to hold off now though until I can get a better idea of which release I want to go with between all of them.

[secretplace]

Here's the BDInfo for the new CC UHD. I'm going to re-rip my copy of the Arrow UHD and post tonemapped comparisons in a few hours but here's this in the meantime:

Disc Title: FEAR AND LOATHING
Disc Size: 94,112,665,168 bytes
Protection: AACS2
Playlist: 00005.MPLS
Size: 91,372,984,320 bytes
Length: 1:58:34.440
Total Bitrate: 102.75 Mbps
Video: MPEG-H HEVC Video / 82342 kbps / 2160p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / Main 10 @ Level 5.1 @ High / 4:2:0 / 10 bits / 1000nits / HDR10 / BT.2020
Video: * MPEG-H HEVC Video / 9147 kbps (10.00%) / 1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / Main 10 @ Level 5.1 @ High / 4:2:0 / 10 bits / 1000nits / Dolby Vision FEL / BT.2020
Audio: English / DTS-HD Master Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2011 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Audio: English / DTS-HD Master Audio / 5.1 / 48 kHz / 3673 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Audio: English / Dolby Digital Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps
Audio: English / Dolby Digital Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps
Audio: English / Dolby Digital Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps
Subtitle: English / 55.395 kbps

At first glance the encode doesn't look as bad as a usual NexSpec encode.

[RageATL]

The site review is up and is rather positive (no mention of any color issues): https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Fear-...357581/#Review

[Telemachus]

Originally Posted by RageATL

The site review is up and is rather positive (no mention of any color issues).

"4/5 pretty good"?

[secretplace]

Here are comparisons between the Arrow UHD and the Criterion UHD tonemapped with bt.2390 with a target peak nits of 130 - comparisons here

And some selections for those who don't want to leave the site (Arrow first, CC second):

[Show spoiler]

The grade is radically different throughout most of the film. The CC has the teal push and warmness that you probably expect from a contemporary 4K restoration, but I'm usually a defender of that look given a reference is usually used for new restorations vs. whatever was done previously (see: Three Colors trilogy). Ultimately it'll be up to the viewer to decide which they prefer. I do think that the flatness in the heavy chroma scenes like #15 is concerning - could be an encode issue. And yes prints aren't perfect (and as another commenter mentioned the final answer print would be best), but most prints I've seen lean heavily towards warm and teal. I usually like to use The Witches of Eastwick as an example, if a 4K restoration came out with a warm look similar to what we see here it would be significantly closer to the 35mm print I saw recently than the previous BD.

Importantly, NexSpec did a decent job encoding this disc (thank god). I actually don't think there's much of a difference in encode quality between the two and I might even prefer the CC in some scenes (e.g. #4 where the inner portion of Johnny Depp's left eye is more clearly delineated than on the Arrow). Because of this, I would say pick the master that you prefer and go with it. It's very fortunate that we don't have to be stuck between one disc with a good encode and one with a bad one so that there's potentially a caveat in picking the grade you prefer.

Haven't compared the audio, but the restoration notes claim that they were newly remastered: 2.0 surround from the magnetic six-track master and 5.1 from the 35 mm stems and 35 mm 5.1 DTS print master. I think the audio on the previous Arrow releases was quite nice so probably no upgrade there.

[MifuneFan]

Besides that one scene that's very teal, I think I like the Criterion ones better there. The Arrow just leans too magenta/red in most shots.

Also, is this a new 4K scan as well? In some areas I looked at, I wasn't sure if it was the same base scan used for Arrow's release or not.

[lfpeng]

I’ve bought this movie too way many times - Criterion DVD, Universal HD-DVD, Universal BR, Criterion BR, Arrow 4K, and now Criterion 4K.

[teddyballgame]

#6 is a good one you can clearly see the compression and color differences. I go back and forth on the color lol

noticed shadows are also deeper on the Criterion in some shots, like under his cap in #4

nice job secret, I'm sure it took some time