Death Wish 4K UHD (1974)

[dcx4610]

Originally Posted by Brian81

Kino releases are as bad as Shouts. I order direct but wondering if I should just do Amazon. Scratched discs, inserts not even loaded into the sleeves properly with creases, it is f'ing sad.

All of that stuff is hand done by at the disc pressing plants from what I understand. I don't think it's a Shout/KL or any boutique labels fault.

It's unfortunately likely people that have quotas on how many discs they pack in a day and working as fast as they can. It's more of a sad state of affairs than a problem with the labels.

[dcx4610]

Originally Posted by DaylightsEnd

You mothers just made me go dig out DW 4, and put it on tonight's watch list. I've been neglecting it. Time for a revisit, now that DW1 is fresh in my mind.

I love the opening scene. It makes Bronson come across as Batman or another avenging action hero. It has the seriousness of part 1 but the action and overkill of part 3. It's not super memorable or anything but it's pretty solid. Curious to hear your thoughts when you are done.

I need to watch VinSyn's DW2 on UHD some time this week. I've been putting it off until DW1 got released. Now DW2 is the boring one. I don't remember anything at all with it. I think it was just more of the same of the first without being as good.

They had a perfect scenario built with DW1 of Kearsy cleaning up Chicago but I think they dropped all of that if I remember right.

[zepol]

Anybody get this 4k for $14 on Amazon 1/29/23?

[sb5]

Originally Posted by zepol

Anybody get this 4k for $14 on Amazon 1/29/23?

Was it from a 3rd party seller named Damian Exports with a terrible customer rating? There’s a thread about them in this forum. Probable scam - Amazon has shut them down. Have to see if anyone gets their shipments.

[zepol]

Originally Posted by sb5

Was it from a 3rd party seller named Damian Exports with a terrible customer rating? There’s a thread about them in this forum. Probable scam - Amazon has shut them down. Have to see if anyone gets their shipments.

For about an hour at Amazon on 1/29/23 you were able to get ARROW, KINO, SHOUT! 4k for $14. I ordered some and so did some friends of mine.

[dcx4610]

This will be spoilers so I'll tag it but one thing that really stood out for me watching it again this time was how realistic and bothered Paul was

[Show spoiler]when he shot his first mugger. The shaking hands and vomiting in the apartment after was wonderfully acted and I absolutely loved that scene.

No modern movie would ever have a scene play out that way. It showed how normal and far removed Paul was to that lifestyle. Then later,

[Show spoiler]it almost seems like he's addicted to it and gets off on it. It's a rush for him and he takes pride in it.

Death Wish gets a bit of a bad rep because of part 3 being so outrageous and there being 5 of them but the first movie is really serious and at its core, poses interesting philosophical questions. It's the vigilante version of a Clockwork Orange.

[singhcr]

Originally Posted by dcx4610

This will be spoilers so I'll tag it but one thing that really stood out for me watching it again this time was how realistic and bothered Paul was

[Show spoiler]when he shot his first mugger. The shaking hands and vomiting in the apartment after was wonderfully acted and I absolutely loved that scene.

No modern movie would ever have a scene play out that way. It showed how normal and far removed Paul was to that lifestyle. Then later,

[Show spoiler]it almost seems like he's addicted to it and gets off on it. It's a rush for him and he takes pride in it.

Death Wish gets a bit of a bad rep because of part 3 being so outrageous and there being 5 of them but the first movie is really serious and at its core, poses interesting philosophical questions. It's the vigilante version of a Clockwork Orange.

Agreed, that scene is pretty powerful and realistic. One of the scenes that also very much hits home for me is when Paul

[Show spoiler]gets his photos of his wife that he took while they were on vacation after she was already dead; that was the motivation for him to get his revenge.

DW1 and to a lesser degree DW2 have an emotional core that is missing from the later films that you see in scenes like we both described here.

[zepol]

Originally Posted by sb5

Was it from a 3rd party seller named Damian Exports with a terrible customer rating? There’s a thread about them in this forum. Probable scam - Amazon has shut them down. Have to see if anyone gets their shipments.

It was them!
My orders are getting cancelled from emails and I called amazon and they said that if I reorder again, they will refund me the difference.

[elecrofunk]

I love all 5 films. There is diminishing returns but they all have quirks and charms of their own. I think 2 is an underrated classic. As much as I would have argued that '82 and '74 were vastly different back in the day, in retrospect they were so silimilar and 2 underscores that for me. There's enough grittiness leftover from the 70s in the early 80s that dissipated by the time that DW3 was filmed. The glossiness of the 80s was everpresent in that one. Part 4 is definitely a product of the late 80s. There's almost a 90s style cynicism permeating it. It's also another underrated chapter in the saga. There's enough colorful characters and quirkiness going on to sell it. Death Wish 3vis definitely a movie for "guys who like movies" category. I've put it on many times when I wanted an ironic crowd-pleaser. It's almost like DW3 is the king of guilty pleasures, and a movie you go to when there's friends around drinking beer and getting h*gh. You can almost guarantee non stop laughter and retro good vibes with Part 3. Death Wish V with its made- for-cable vibe is also an excellent watch. Michael Parks turns in an over the top performance as a sleazy mob boss that is so enjoyable in a quirky way.
You just can't go wrong with this series it goes from serious to parody but remains likeable throughout the five films. I only hope they remaster 4&5 at some point and why wouldn't they?
Now how about those Dirty Harry 4Ks we've been hearing about....

[cash_black]

I see the review is up on this site and it’s more negative than most other reviews out there.
I picked this up at Barnes and noble 30% off. Not watched yet.

[John Earls Umbrella]

Originally Posted by cash_black

I see the review is up on this site and it’s more negative than most other reviews out there.
I picked this up at Barnes and noble 30% off. Not watched yet.

Yeh just read it and it’s not great, suggesting people get the 4K for the extras and not the PQ, which in some respects is worse than upscale of the old blu!

I’m still waiting for mine but quite surprised by this negative review as it’s been praised elsewhere.

What do people think who’ve seen the 4K?

[John Earls Umbrella]

Same goes for The Italian Job, that’s been panned on this site as well. Wtf?

[ronnie21]

the amazing thing about the first death wish and most realistic! is the fact that paul never knew who his wife and daughters attackers were. they were never seen again! they almost pulled this off again with jodie fosters the brave one until the very end.. you actually forgot about those attackers till the end..

[DaMikstar]

Originally Posted by John Earls Umbrella

Same goes for The Italian Job, that’s been panned on this site as well. Wtf?

Dr. Svet ...

[DrEricVornoff]

Originally Posted by cash_black

I see the review is up on this site and it’s more negative than most other reviews out there.
I picked this up at Barnes and noble 30% off. Not watched yet.

Originally Posted by John Earls Umbrella

Yeh just read it and it’s not great, suggesting people get the 4K for the extras and not the PQ, which in some respects is worse than upscale of the old blu!

I’m still waiting for mine but quite surprised by this negative review as it’s been praised elsewhere.

What do people think who’ve seen the 4K?

Originally Posted by DaMikstar

Dr. Svet ...

Yeah DaMikstar's shrug is right on the money... Svet is notoriously uneven with his reviews. I take all of his reviews with a grain of salt.

He did a pretty epically horrible review of the Criterion Pink Flamingos... but I will testify that after watching my copy - it's the best the film has ever (and probably will ever) look... so...


But anyhow... back to Death Wish... I just threw in both my Kino 4K UHD and my Paramount copy and watched the first few minutes of each...

And I think the 4K looks stunning. The 4K is definitely less bright... which does crush some blacks a bit... but not much. But to me the 4K looks more "real"... the Paramount copy looks almost unnaturally bright in comparison... and even the Paramount version has dark scenes where crush is evident. Frankly, the film itself is quite dark in places... so it's kind of par for the course.

But I think the 4K look great and I am happy to have it on my shelf... it's definitely an upgrade.


A note on this "unnatural" brightness in Blus:

This is something I've generally suspected has gone on for years... ever since the advent of the Blu-ray almost 2 decades ago.

What first tipped me off was the 4K of Ghostbusters... when I first watched it I thought it look unnaturally "bland" in it's color temperature... but what it did remind me of was what it looked like growing up on VHS. Then it hit me... I came to the conclusion after I threw my old Blu copy of Ghostbusters in and compared... and my conclusion (which has been proven over and over with other releases) is that often times Blu-rays releases of films look "over-saturated" compared to the way they looked in theaters... especially older films. I think that companies (especially earlier on in Blu-ray's existence) wanted to make films "pop" in HD (1080p) and so they pumped up the color temp saturation - and this is what I saw on my old Ghostbusters Blu.

Anyhow... I think the Paramount version of Death Wish (when you compare it to the 4K) actually looks unnaturally bright. But that's just MHO...

[DrEricVornoff]

Oh... and one other thing I'll mention...

The grain, compression, and filmic qualities of the 4K are head and shoulders above the Paramount release...

[kchrules]

Originally Posted by DrEricVornoff

Yeah DaMikstar's shrug is right on the money... Svet is notoriously uneven with his reviews. I take all of his reviews with a grain of salt.

He did a pretty epically horrible review of the Criterion Pink Flamingos... but I will testify that after watching my copy - it's the best the film has ever (and probably will ever) look... so...


But anyhow... back to Death Wish... I just threw in both my Kino 4K UHD and my Paramount copy and watched the first few minutes of each...

And I think the 4K looks stunning. The 4K is definitely less bright... which does crush some blacks a bit... but not much. But to me the 4K looks more "real"... the Paramount copy looks almost unnaturally bright in comparison... and even the Paramount version has dark scenes where crush is evident. Frankly, the film itself is quite dark in places... so it's kind of par for the course.

But I think the 4K look great and I am happy to have it on my shelf... it's definitely an upgrade.


A note on this "unnatural" brightness in Blus:

This is something I've generally suspected has gone on for years... ever since the advent of the Blu-ray almost 2 decades ago.

What first tipped me off was the 4K of Ghostbusters... when I first watched it I thought it look unnaturally "bland" in it's color temperature... but what it did remind me of was what it looked like growing up on VHS. Then it hit me... I came to the conclusion after I threw my old Blu copy of Ghostbusters in and compared... and my conclusion (which has been proven over and over with other releases) is that often times Blu-rays releases of films look "over-saturated" compared to the way they looked in theaters... especially older films. I think that companies (especially earlier on in Blu-ray's existence) wanted to make films "pop" in HD (1080p) and so they pumped up the color temp saturation - and this is what I saw on my old Ghostbusters Blu.

Anyhow... I think the Paramount version of Death Wish (when you compare it to the 4K) actually looks unnaturally bright. But that's just MHO...

After watching the 4K, I definitely think it has more natural colors than the Blu.

For the audio, the 5.1 is interesting. It uses the original sounds, but seems like echos have been removed from some instruments in the soundtrack. Listen to the electric keys on the title music. It sounds like it might have a noise gate on it. Not sure if they had access to the original sound elements or had to do some editing/separation to the mono track

The commentary is a very interesting listen. The casting talk is informative and I love hearing differences from the book. Makes me want to read it. Also finally people can stop erroneously saying Denzel Washington is one of the muggers

[edmonddantes]

I also thought the kino 4k looks wonderful.

the movie is definitely better than critics gave it credit for, and its a lot less right wing than some people pretend. Its also a product of a time where even walking in new york was a lot more dangerous than its now. In fact new york in the 70s remind me a lot of bogota at the present time

Also having watched this again, bronson does a pretty good job, a lot better than I remembered, and vincent gardenia is hilarious.

I think my only gripe is steven keats character, when he calls bronson "dad" its cringy AF.

Finally I wanted to mention Michael winner. He does a really good job here. He was quite a good action director.

[DMRI2006]

Originally Posted by edmonddantes

Its also a product of a time where even walking in new york was a lot more dangerous than its now.

Have you been to New York recently? Or seen subway crime over the last couple of years?

This movie holds more relevancy than ever -- sadly.

[edmonddantes]

Originally Posted by DMRI2006

Have you been to New York recently? Or seen subway crime over the last couple of years?

This movie holds more relevancy than ever -- sadly.

so Ive heard, but what I meant is new york isn't the seedy, disgusting place it was in the 70s, and even with its problems now, current new york is no Bogota.

Basically if a city needs a Charles bronson right now is bogota and not new york. Or perhaps every city needs a Charles Bronson nowadays