Hondo (1953) - June 5, 2012 Review

[The Duke]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

Wal-Mart tends to stock about all of John Wayne's titles on BD. I bet we will see it there on release day for $15 or less, but you're right $15.99 is a good price to do that.

Walmart has it now for $14.96. But I have to pay 9.5% sales tax for items shipped to store and wait until after the release for free site to store shipping to become available. So Amazon is a better deal for me, for now. But good point to look around other places, even with a family Prime membership I use Amazon less & less as better deals are often found elsewhere.

But I am getting The Big Trail from Walmart, since it's an exclusive, but waiting for May 8 to place the order for free site to store shipping.

[Jennifer Lawrence Fan]

Al Bundy would be proud.

*If your a Married With Children fan you'll get the reference*

[Drewza89]

Target had Big Jake and Rio Lobo for $12.99 each the week they were released last year. Hopefully they'll do the same for Hondo since it's from Paramount too.

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by The Duke

Walmart has it now for $14.96. But I have to pay 9.5% sales tax for items shipped to store and wait until after the release for free site to store shipping to become available. So Amazon is a better deal for me, for now. But good point to look around other places, even with a family Prime membership I use Amazon less & less as better deals are often found elsewhere.

But I am getting The Big Trail from Walmart, since it's an exclusive, but waiting for May 8 to place the order for free site to store shipping.

9.5%? I would imagine that's a reason why so many retirees live there. Only 7% here, but no one wants to voluntarily live here.

[lemonski]

Originally Posted by Michael Bay Fan

Al Bundy would be proud.

*If your a Married With Children fan you'll get the reference*

You going to take a vacation on your sofa to watch it?

[The Duke]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

9.5%? I would imagine that's a reason why so many retirees live there. Only 7% here, but no one wants to voluntarily live here.

State sales tax is only 6.1%, currently 6.6% because we passed a temporary .5% increase to help the state out of it's budget mess but it expires next year. But most cities tack on local sales taxes that boosts the rate to 9-9.5%.

And yes, no offense but I'd pass on living in Mississippi - I made the mistake of visiting my brother in Baton Rouge and other family in Tallahassee one July. BIG mistake, it was 99 degrees and 99% humidity, absolutely miserable. They only get visits during the winter now.

[The Duke]

Originally Posted by The Duke

Amazon finally dropped the pre-order down to a much more reasonable $15.99.

Hondo Blu-ray

Although June is still a long way off, might be a good time to lock in a pre-order, I did.

That pre-order didn't last long - $10.46 w/ free shipping at DeepDiscount.com after applying $5 off coupon ENJOY5, good 'till Friday 3/30 midnight central time. Details in the Movie and TV Deals forum here on blu-ray.com.

[Arkadin]

I don't use deepdiscount anymore unless I pay extra to get 3 to 5 day shipping.
I can't handle the endless waiting for orders from them anymore.
When I pay for the "real" shipping I feel good about using them; when I don't it's usually a frustrating nightmare from hell.

[The Duke]

Originally Posted by Arkadin

I don't use deepdiscount anymore unless I pay extra to get 3 to 5 day shipping.
I can't handle the endless waiting for orders from them anymore.
When I pay for the "real" shipping I feel good about using them; when I don't it's usually a frustrating nightmare from hell.

Sorry you had bad experiences with them. Yeah, they're not Amazon with new releases usually delivered on release day, but last time they had one of these coupon deals I pre-ordered several BDs and had them later in the week after release day.

[HonestJohn]

Originally Posted by The Duke

That pre-order didn't last long - $10.46 w/ free shipping at DeepDiscount.com after applying $5 off coupon ENJOY5, good 'till Friday 3/30 midnight central time. Details in the Movie and TV Deals forum here on blu-ray.com.

Thanks for the heads-up, was waiting for something like this.

I haven't had any problems with DeepDiscount either and frequently order from them ..... just forget about using their order status page, it's pretty much useless.

[stlcards]

Anyone get Hondo yet? I will buy it but may wait for it to go down a few dollars. I saw it was $12.99 on Amazon and Best Buy.

[Deciazulado]

Hondo Blu-ray Review

Since we lost posts, and the posts about Hondo and its original run 3-D theatrical release are gone, specially ones by 3-D expert Bob Furmanek, here's a link to his site and Hondo 3-D article:

http://www.3dfilmarchive.com/home/hondo-3-d-release

http://www.3dfilmarchive.com/

[AgentOrange]

I was going to ask why some scenes suddenly had severely degraded picture quality. Maybe it had something to do with the 3D? Was it just certain scenes originally shot in 3D or the whole picture? This blu-ray has some of the wildest fluctuations in picture quality I've ever seen. It never looks "great", not even considering it's age. Usually it looks OK, but at times it looks absolutely terrible - even in broad daylight/outdoor scenes it will suddenly shift from decent to horrible.

Checking the review on DVDbeaver it seems like that was an issue on the DVD as well... but man some scenes really can't be distinguished much from DVD (if at all). Plus I think I would prefer the unmatted 1.37 ratio on this one, the 1.78 feels too cramped. Oh well. Guess this will be as good as it gets for a long, long time.

[WJWS Channel 13:Amity]

Sorry to dig up a old thread, but just thought I would pass along this info for those of you in the Socal area, TCM will be screening a digitally restored presentation of the 3D version of Hondo as part of the TCM 2013 film festival at the Grauman's Chinese.

I am hopeful this means we will be seeing a 3D bluray release in the near future as well, since the movies that premiere their new restorations at TCM every year usually end up on bluray within a year or less.

[Blu-Velvet]

Originally Posted by WJWS Channel 13:Amity

Sorry to dig up a old thread, but just thought I would pass along this info for those of you in the Socal area, TCM will be screening a digitally restored presentation of the 3D version of Hondo as part of the TCM 2013 film festival at the Grauman's Chinese.

I am hopeful this means we will be seeing a 3D bluray release in the near future as well, since the movies that premiere their new restorations at TCM every year usually end up on bluray within a year or less.

Good news! With luck it will happen this summer. And regarding the picture quality suddenly changing from good to bad, I read (or saw in the bonus documentary -- it's been a while) that the production was having problems with one of the 3-D cameras on location and were forced to use just one of the R/L exposures for a number of shots, so it will periodically switch from 3D to 2D once we can finally see the 3-D version. I suppose the same camera problems may well have required duping of some shots or optical blow-ups to replace closeups, resulting in the quality shifts on the Blu-ray.

[Clark Kent]

For people looking for a cheap way to pick this disc up, it was released in a three-pack containing: Hondo / Once Upon a Time in the West / True Grit. Walmart had it available for $12.96 in their stores.

[fanofmovies]

Why don't they release the John Wayne classic,"Hondo" in it's ORIGINAL 1953 theatrical 3-D release as a re-mastered Blu-Ray?!It really needs to be released in this format since it was first filmed to be seen in 3-D.

[Early Memphis]

I just picked it up as a blind buy for $7.88 at Wal-Mart.

[Early Memphis]

I have a UV/Vudu code for Hondo available. PM me if interested. Free! Not For Sale!

[Tns49]

Originally Posted by fanofmovies

Why don't they release the John Wayne classic,"Hondo" in it's ORIGINAL 1953 theatrical 3-D release as a re-mastered Blu-Ray?!It really needs to be released in this format since it was first filmed to be seen in 3-D.

Holding out for the 3-d version. Not hard for me as I was not a great fan of Hondo and so not in a hurry to get a copy.