Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb on June 16, 2009

[pro-bassoonist]

Originally Posted by MikaLove

Just reading here Svet's review of the CC edition and he gives PQ/AQ 5/5.
There's virtually NO DIFFERENCE between the image on the CC edition as compared to the last (Sony) edition.
Is Svet biased, whenever we get a new Criterion release?
I stopped believing in the reviews here some time ago.

No, he is not. He has described exactly what type of a presentation you get. Your logic appears to be no difference, should be the same score. I disagree.

You should ask yourself why is it that the other review gives the presentation a lower score. Everyone is entitled to have an opinion, but I can tell you with absolute certainty that at least on my disc -- which is sourced from the same Sony 4K restoration of the film -- there is no edge enhancement that spoils the integrity of the image.

[MikaLove]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

No, he is not. He has described exactly what type of a presentation you get. Your logic appears to be no difference, should be the same score. I disagree.

You should ask yourself why is it that the other review gives the presentation a lower score. Everyone is entitled to have an opinion, but I can tell you with absolute certainty that at least on my disc -- which is sourced from the same Sony 4K restoration of the film -- there is no edge enhancement that spoils the integrity of the image.

Funny how you speak about yourself in third person.
Anyway, your logic seems to be that the precious release had a problem with edge enhancement. Well, I've compared PQ for both releases and while there is a difference, it's minuscule to say the least. Also bitrate is quite similar. If something "spoiled" the image on Sony's release, then the CC release has issues as well.
There's a real difference between 4/5 and 5/5, even if opinions differ.
I see you rate CC releases extremely high most of the time. Sure, they are qualified, but they aren't gods who do everything perfectly with every release.
PQ is really good on Dr. Strangelove, but it's not great or fabulous and IMO not worth 5/5. Especially since the release offers very little more than the added extras, besides the minimal upgrade technically.

[nitin]

He is saying the other reviewer gave the Sony image a 4/5 because that reviewer incorrectly assumed there was EE when there wasn't.

I think everyone accepts that the image on the Criterion hand Sony are virtually indistinguishable.

[pro-bassoonist]

Originally Posted by MikaLove

1. Anyway, your logic seems to be that the precious release had a problem with edge enhancement. Well, I've compared PQ for both releases and while there is a difference, it's minuscule to say the least.

Originally Posted by MikaLove

2. Also bitrate is quite similar. If something "spoiled" the image on Sony's release, then the CC release has issues as well. There's a real difference between 4/5 and 5/5, even if opinions differ.

Originally Posted by MikaLove

3. I see you rate CC releases extremely high most of the time. Sure, they are qualified, but they aren't gods who do everything perfectly with every release.

Originally Posted by MikaLove

4. PQ is really good on Dr. Strangelove, but it's not great or fabulous and IMO not worth 5/5. Especially since the release offers very little more than the added extras, besides the minimal upgrade technically.

1. It is not my logic at all. The Sony and Criterion releases are sourced from exactly the same 4K master, which I have made very clear in my review, and on this master there is no built-in edge-enhancement that spoils the integrity of the image. I have these releases and I can see exactly what Sony did.

2. I don't think anything "spoiled" the image on the Sony release. Let's repeat this again: It comes from the same 4K master, which Grover Crisp supervised. If I had reviewed the Sony release, I would have given it exactly the same video score I gave the Criterion release, which is 4.75/5.00.

3. You have an odd generalization there that simply does not work. It is irrelevant to me where the release I review comes from. I review what is on the release. If Criterion consistently get high scores for their releases, it means that they consistently deliver high-quality releases. By the way, they have been doing it since the LD days, which is why they have built such a solid reputation.

4. You are wrong again. The folks at Sony did indeed produce a great master. Of course, you can have a different opinion and question their decisions, but given the history of this film and the surviving elements, I have nothing but praise for the restoration/reconstruction of Kubrick's film. The 4K master Sony have in their vaults now will be the source to access for a very, very long time.

[StingingVelvet]

It's funny people always pull the "CRITERION FAVORTISM!!!" card instead of thinking that maybe Criterion do high quality work 95% of the time. Every company has a flaw here and there (Ruby Rose for example?), but Criterion does amazing work the vast majority of the time, which is why they get high reviews the vast majority of the time.

That said, there are certainly a few reviewers (*cough*Gary Tooze*cough*) that trust Criterion a little too much and ignore flaws that should be pointed out, like on Dressed to Kill before it was corrected.

[JimDiGriz]

Originally Posted by MikaLove

Just reading here Svet's review of the CC edition and he gives PQ/AQ 5/5.
There's virtually NO DIFFERENCE between the image on the CC edition as compared to the last (Sony) edition.
Is Svet biased, whenever we get a new Criterion release?
I stopped believing in the reviews here some time ago.

Is Svet biased

Criterion's always get 5/5 for everything dont they? Its the law here.

[Killer Meteor]

Originally Posted by JimDiGriz

Is Svet biased

Criterion's always get 5/5 for everything dont they? Its the law here.

He gave Touch of Zen a lower review, but that was probably because he'd already criticisted the practically identitical transfer on the UK disc.

He's that transparent!

[ThisKid]

Originally Posted by JimDiGriz

Is Svet biased

Criterion's always get 5/5 for everything dont they? Its the law here.

Most Criterion's get a 4/5 and up when it comes to picture quality, except with-
-Lola
-Playtime (Box-set version)
-Last Days of Disco
-Dressed to Kill (1st Printing)
-Children of Paradise
-The Earrings of Madame de...
-The Ice Storm
-The Friends of Eddie Coyle, and
-Downhill Racer

And when it comes to special features, it depends. And as for audio quality, I don't know what Criterion has ever gotten below a 4/5.

[JoeBuck]

Originally Posted by ThisKid

Most Criterion's get a 4/5 and up when it comes to picture quality, except with-
-Lola
-Playtime (Box-set version)
-Last Days of Disco
-Dressed to Kill (1st Printing)
-Children of Paradise
-The Earrings of Madame de...
-The Ice Storm
-The Friends of Eddie Coyle, and
-Downhill Racer

And when it comes to special features, it depends. And as for audio quality, I don't know what Criterion has ever gotten below a 4/5.

You're also forgetting:

High and Low
Sword Of Doom
In the Mood For Love

I always laugh when dinguses try and make that dumbasses claim of him never giving movies less than 5 for picture, I especially get annoyed though when people dont think about the fact that he never reviewed the old release.
How can there be favouritism in his reviews if he didnt write the original review?

[jlk5844]

No doubt some scores are questionable, though. Like Paris, Texas.

[MikaLove]

So I see I started a flame war? (I reported one post here.)
Is all this so important to you all?
I wrote that Criterion are good, even great, at what they do. I don't have many of their titles because they may be OOP or too expensive to get, but those I have I hold on to.
So stop being stupid about me thinking it's "favoritism" to give a CC release high scores...
However, like with everything else, they can't get everything right every time.
I'm not saying they got it wrong at all with the Dr Strangelove release, but I don't know, I think the picture is a tiny bit noisy for me. However I think it's really good. Just not worth 5/5.
Again, opinions may differ. Maybe you should bash the reviewer here instead for thinking it had EE? But maybe you think it's easier to get away with flaming members here rather than staff?

Anyway, it's not such a big deal.
And Svet already cleared it up for me, because I had missed that the first reviewer thought Sony's release had EE (I can see myself it hasn't).
Let's just move on.
The only thing I will say is that CC releases still are a bit too expensive, especially considering the discs must be imported from the U.S. so that a lot of $$$ for one movie.
And it's still my opinion and several others that this might not be worth it, if not for some extra material which maybe you can skip.
IMO CC would also benefit from removing the region lock. My player is region free, but I assume a lot of Europeans don't have region free players.

Another real gripe I have about CC releases is that the so often if not always neglect to include English (preferably non SDH) subtitles.

[StingingVelvet]

I don't think anyone was starting a war or getting overly dramatic except for you bro.

[MikaLove]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

I don't think anyone was starting a war or getting overly dramatic except for you bro.

I know my first post was unneeded, but I had missed that the review itself for the Sony disc was flawed. So I just based my annoyance on the great score difference. Even if i still don't agree on the 5/5 score for PQ. Then again, that's me and how my logic and scoring works. I tend to round down a lot. 4.75 is in fact a reasonable score.

Anyway, I feel I was flamed, because JoeBuck called me a dingus and a dumbass. How the hell is that OK without being moderated?
This site doesn't tolerate political, factual criticism, but it tolerates bullying.
Well, f**k that.
Up yours forever to the haters on the internet.

[Drake2222]

So how’s the 4k Dr. Strangelove disc?

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by Drake2222

So how’s the 4k Dr. Strangelove disc?

It's only available in that big Sony UHD gift set right now, right?

[Drake2222]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

It's only available in that big Sony UHD gift set right now, right?

Yes, or by folks selling it from their set

[Gacivory]

Originally Posted by Drake2222

So how’s the 4k Dr. Strangelove disc?

Pretty good!

Here’s a thread for the 4K.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...=325434&page=5

Here’s the review on this site.

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Dr-St...266974/#Review

[edmoney]

Can anyone explain how to get the audio for the Cold War Picture-in-Picture special feature working for the interview video clips? Is the audio supposed to play automatically when starting up this special feature? On my Blu-ray disc (that comes with the 4K UHD) there's no audio for the video interviews, just the audio that's playing for the movie itself. Not sure if I have a defective Blu or if it's known that the audio for this extra doesn't work.

[koberulz]

You need to turn on secondary audio in your Blu-ray player settings.

[edmoney]

Originally Posted by koberulz

You need to turn on secondary audio in your Blu-ray player settings.

Ah, wasn't familiar with that function. That did the trick - thanks very much.