High Hopes (Mike Leigh) February 2011

[The Driver]

What a treat. Hopefully!

http://www.play.com/DVD/Blu-ray/4-/1...s/Product.html
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004IZ3VLS/

# Mike Leigh On High Hopes (4 mins)
# On Set News Footage (4 mins)
# Original Production Notes
# Original Biographies
# Stills Gallery
# Poster Gallery

Looks like the Blu-ray is a copy of the SE DVD. Oddly there seems to be 2 parallel DVDs of this in the UK. Review of the Fabulous Films release here

Lovely British film.


http://www.fabulousfilms.co.uk

[McCrutchy]

Excellent to finally get some Mike Leigh on Blu-ray.

I hope we could see Naked at some point.

[The Driver]

Dropped to £8.99 http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004IZ3VLS/

[kinoeye]

Would love to know if this is region free.

[The Driver]

Originally Posted by kinoeye

Would love to know if this is region free.

It's had a delay I think until the end of the month but as soon as it arrives I'll check the playback on my US player.

[kinoeye]

Originally Posted by The Driver

It's had a delay I think until the end of the month but as soon as it arrives I'll check the playback on my US player.

Fantastic! I'll keep my eyes on this forum. Thanks.

[The Driver]

Arrived!


Scan of the cover


Looks to be locked Region B. Only loads to a black screen. That's usually a sign of a crap disc producer as they've not managed to figure out the technology and load the appropriate "WRONG REGION F*** OFF" message. I think if it contained PAL (it may well do too) then you usually get a warning before the errr.. warning.

Anyways, gave the disc a spin and it looks utter shit. DVD quality. I'd usually hold fire with such an opinion but it's bad enough for me to say that on first look. We've seen what can be done with material like this from Criterion with Leigh's Naked so no reason here apart from laziness, ignorance and a complete lack of respect for their licensed property.

2nd worse transfer I've seen behind the Australia release of Pulp Fiction.

Saying all that, let's not be too rash, I'll pencil it in to watch it

Maybe someone else can comment on their first impressions.

[Bruce Morrison]

Originally Posted by The Driver

Looks to be locked Region B. Only loads to a black screen. That's usually a sign of a crap disc producer as they've not managed to figure out the technology and load the appropriate "WRONG REGION F*** OFF" message. I think if it contained PAL (it may well do too) then you usually get a warning before the errr.. warning.

Anyways, gave the disc a spin and it looks utter shit. DVD quality. I'd usually hold fire with such an opinion but it's bad enough for me to say that on first look. We've seen what can be done with material like this from Criterion with Leigh's Naked so no reason here apart from laziness, ignorance and a complete lack of respect for their licensed property.

2nd worse transfer I've seen behind the Australia release of Pulp Fiction.

Saying all that, let's not be too rash, I'll pencil it in to watch it

Maybe someone else can comment on their first impressions.

I noticed it's been released by some outfit named "Fabulous Films". Well, the films may be fabulous, but they sound like one to avoid.

[kinoeye]

Originally Posted by The Driver

Arrived!


Scan of the cover


Looks to be locked Region B. Only loads to a black screen. That's usually a sign of a crap disc producer as they've not managed to figure out the technology and load the appropriate "WRONG REGION F*** OFF" message. I think if it contained PAL (it may well do too) then you usually get a warning before the errr.. warning.

Anyways, gave the disc a spin and it looks utter shit. DVD quality. I'd usually hold fire with such an opinion but it's bad enough for me to say that on first look. We've seen what can be done with material like this from Criterion with Leigh's Naked so no reason here apart from laziness, ignorance and a complete lack of respect for their licensed property.

2nd worse transfer I've seen behind the Australia release of Pulp Fiction.

Saying all that, let's not be too rash, I'll pencil it in to watch it

Maybe someone else can comment on their first impressions.

Too bad. I saw this film a long time ago and I remember it being one of my favorite of his films. I could imagine wear and tear to the print over time but it the PQ sounds really unfortunate.

According to imdb, the film was shot 1:85 and according to the back of your scan, the blu ray has a 4X3 aspect ratio which showcases the real lack of effort put into this disc.

I don't own a multiregion player yet. If I get one, I might not bother with this release at all. I suppose I had High Hopes for this release that weren't met.

Thanks for the info.

[The Driver]

The 4:3 quote is just laziness as the film is framed for 16:9 (doesn't mean that's right but it looks as it's always done in 'widescreen' to me). The format was odd at the cinema IIRC.

The transfer is shit for sure but it's still an upgrade (just) to the DVD.

I think Freemantle own this film or license it off someone and then on to Fabulous Films. Not sure if Freemantle own that company.

It's just -literally- a bad transfer (nothing to do with age) due to technical problems (worst artefacts I've seen apart from Tremors of course) and I also consider the disc badly 'mastered'. I use that in the loose sense because nobody involved with this disc's production is a master of anything except crapness.

I was putting up some new shelves over the last few days and it amazes me what will not ever get it to Blu-ray. It's never going to happen and if it did it would essentially be upscaled with a few flashing lights on your AV amp to say it's 'better'. We can only accept (or be happy with the DVD) these odd bad releases so I'll try and smooth my opinion a bit but there's no getting away from it, this release does not benefit from the Blu-ray disc format.

I paid £8.99 for it. That's more than enough.

[peptalk]

1080i

[The Driver]

Originally Posted by peptalk

1080i

Yeah, it's safe to say we have a DVD on a Blu-ray.

[Arkadin]

a review on amazon.uk says it is essentially a dvd on a blu-ray.
sounds like we have another "The 39 Steps" debacle.
what a shame.

[The Driver]

I've not seen The 39 Steps alas but the debacle of this transfer shouldn't put everyone off as it's still -albeit not literally- an upgrade to the DVD. I realise it's poor but it's better than nothing. The special features are interesting and the version you order is that version -the DVD releases had some barcode/UPC errors and people got the version with no special features IIRC.

Not an attitude I take lightly but I think this is only one of a very small handful of Blu-rays I've bought that are not worthy of the format. I struggle to think of any others -there's a few Australian 1080i releases which are pretty good too.

At least the distributor will make very little from this release. That's the best we can hope for.

[buffetfroid]

This is very disappointing.

[Arkadin]

The 39 Steps bd looks almost identical to the Criterion dvd upscaled, and the Criterion release may even look a tad sharper.
sounds like this release is similar.

[nametag]

I'd be interested in seeing a side by side blu-ray to DVD comparison for this. I didn't get the impression from The Driver's comments that the situation was quite as bad as the 39 Steps thing.

I may still get it, because I want to get Blu-ray when I can and I can't imagine this ever getting another BD release anytime soon.

I'd like to see more Leigh, though. Secrets and Lies would be great, as would Another Year which bizzarely has no set BD release yet despite already being out on DVD. I can't think of another recent new release that has had no planned BD release at all. Topsy-Turvy is coming out on Criterion soon as well - has anyone else seen this film, what's it like?

EDIT: I see Another Year is now on Amazon.com as a blu-ray/DVD combo only. I hope that doesn't mean DVD packaging, with no other releases. Oh well, no release date yet, time will tell!

[John Hodson]

Originally Posted by nametag

Topsy-Turvy is coming out on Criterion soon as well - has anyone else seen this film, what's it like?

On the face of it, an atypical Leigh project, but a beautiful examination of not only the relationship between Gilbert and Sullivan but also the world they live in. It's a fascinating, tragi-comic tale, wonderfully and lovingly filmed, acted and sung.

One of my favourite Mike Leigh films.

[Bruce Morrison]

Originally Posted by nametag

I'd like to see more Leigh, though. Secrets and Lies would be great, as would Another Year which bizzarely has no set BD release yet despite already being out on DVD. I can't think of another recent new release that has had no planned BD release at all. Topsy-Turvy is coming out on Criterion soon as well - has anyone else seen this film, what's it like?

Topsy Turvy is an excellent film and Jim Broadbent is especially good as Gilbert. I'll be very happy to have this on Blu-ray.

The other Mike Leigh film I would really like to have on Blu is Vera Drake, his absorbing look at the issue of illegal abortions in 50's Britain.

[arisdisc]

One of the very worst looking BluRay's I've ever seen. It's downright blurry.
Avoid.