The Official Olive Films Thread

[captveg]

Originally Posted by bluskies

I have just started watching The Mountain and the Paramount VistaVision opening made me think of another Par movie I hope Olive will do on Blu...The Court Jester starring Danny Kaye.

I'd also love that, but that might be one Paramount keeps for themselves, as it's always sold well for them on home video.

[Pirate King]

Originally Posted by Atreyu

The Court Jester could be marvelous on blu if handled properly. "The pellet with the poision is in the vessle with the pestle, the flagon with the dragon holds the brew that is true."

One of my favorite films, and IMHO one of the funniest films ever made. Danny Kaye was an incredible actor.

BTW, I recently introduced The Neverending Story to my nine year old grandson, who had never seen the movie. After watching it with me, he borrowed my Blu-ray and watched it several more times over the next couple of days.

[Dex Robinson]

I see amazon.ca have moved my copied of TALES THAT WITNESS MADNESS and THE SPIRIT IS WILLING into the "Shipping soon" category. Again, I commend amazon.ca for getting their act together and having all of the Olive releases in stock and ready to ship. They were pretty spotty a few months ago.

Last night I watched PROJECT X. I thought it looked terrific. It's a great example of how these catalogue titles should be treated. It lacks the "polish" of a big studio release and that might be a good thing. Their looks to be virtually no digital tinkering. Colors and contrast are excellent and appropriate grain is present. This looks very much like a film. The only minor issues, again, look to be purely source related. There are sporadic bouts of slight image wobble. Some scenes are a bit softer and grainier although that may be related to a lot of optical effects. If every small, 45 year old catalogue title looked like this, I'd be happy.

[HuggyBear73]

Not sure if this has been mentioned in this thread, but are you guys having difficult get the security stickers off your Olive titles? Especially the front part. Leaves a lot of residue.

[The Duke]

Originally Posted by HuggyBear73

Not sure if this has been mentioned in this thread, but are you guys having difficult get the security stickers off your Olive titles? Especially the front part. Leaves a lot of residue.

Yeah, they're certainly industrial strength. Usually I break the seal by pulling the case open and then peel them off, but the ones on Olive BDs I have to slit open with scissors, and then they're still hard to peel off and, as you say, there's often residue left on the front. I clean it off with a rag & Ronsonol lighter fluid.

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by HuggyBear73

Not sure if this has been mentioned in this thread, but are you guys having difficult get the security stickers off your Olive titles? Especially the front part. Leaves a lot of residue.

Originally Posted by The Duke

Yeah, they're certainly industrial strength. Usually I break the seal by pulling the case open and then peel them off, but the ones on Olive BDs I have to slit open with scissors, and then they're still hard to peel off and, as you say, there's often residue left on the front. I clean it off with a rag & Ronsonol lighter fluid.

Sounds like the same security seals Lionsgate used to use for their early blu-ray releases.

[captveg]

Titles no longer being planned for release from Olive:

Fear is the Key (1972)
The Long Day's Dying (1968)
Macaroni (1985)
Promise Her Anything (1965)
The Proud and the Profane (1956)
The Savage (1952)
The Savage Innocents (1960)
Shanks (1974)
The Turning Point (1952)
Warpath (1951)

Source: http://www.hometheaterforum.com/t/31...0#post_3942475

[NoirFan]

I was looking forward to Shanks! There's the excellent MoC R2 disc of Savage Innocents, but it's now OOP.

[bluskies]

Originally Posted by HuggyBear73

Not sure if this has been mentioned in this thread, but are you guys having difficult get the security stickers off your Olive titles? Especially the front part. Leaves a lot of residue.

A couple, yes. On Olive releases, I've taken now to using a sharp blade to cutting the middle of the white tape along along the case's top crease to open it that way. I'd rather leave the white tape on, than having that sticky gunk.

[tenia]

Beaver on Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Still don't understand how you can release a Blu Ray where the Disc Size is only 14 Gb, whatever how good the movie can already look.
Just use the freaking disc space !

Same for High Noon.

Both are stuck at 22 Mbps when they could have been at 35 Mbps.

[GrouchoFan]

Has there been any news about a decent-looking version of The Quiet Man coming out of this deal?

[Yami]

Originally Posted by GrouchoFan

Has there been any news about a decent-looking version of The Quiet Man coming out of this deal?

Last I heard, the restoration was ongoing but it might be released late this year.

[The Duke]

I watched The Hangman last night, and enjoyed it much more than I expected, it's actually a very good story. And as Jeffrey Kauffman put it in his review, it's "a veritable treasure trove of iconic television roles" - Tina Louise (Ginger, Gilligan's Island), a blonde Jack Lord (Hawaii Five-O), Fess Parker (Dan'l Boone & Davy Crockett), and a very small part he didn't mention - Lorne Greene (Bonanza). A different kind of Western where the bad guy turns out to not be so bad after all. Very nice video & adequate audio.

[Dex Robinson]

Originally Posted by tenia

Still don't understand how you can release a Blu Ray where the Disc Size is only 14 Gb...
Both are stuck at 22 Mbps when they could have been at 35 Mbps.

I understand the sentiment and I appreciate that we'd all like to see full advantage taken of the format.

However, when you look at the statistics for discs in general, the specs for INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS are perfectly reasonable.

Keep in mind we are dealing with an 80 minute, Black & White movie with a mono sound track and no extras.

I was just checking statistics for other Blu-rays. APOCALYPSE NOW has an average bitrate of 17.99 mbps. The highly rated BATTLE OF THE BULGE has an average bitrate of 16.93 mbps. THE AVIATOR is just over 14 mbps. The first PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN movie was under 20.00 mbps. THE SAND PEBBLES from Fox (a gorgeous transfer) is 18.02 mbps.

So I don't see 22 mbps for INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS as any cause for concern.

[captveg]

More titles no longer planned:

"Yes, some of the Republic titles were also dropped for some reason or other. They're not on IMDB anymore.

BAJA (1995)
BLACK DAY BLUE NIGHT (1995)
BULLETPROOF HEART (1994)
FEMME FETALE (1991)
THE FINAL CUT (1996)
THE SEA SHALL NOT HAVE THEM (1954)
WITCHBOARD III (1995)

These were cancelled due to unavailable or unacceptable film elements.

COUNT DRACULA (1970)
DORIAN GARY (1970)

I heard that these two were dropped because they've been bootlegged by RARO and MPI"

[Arkadin]

Originally Posted by bluskies

A couple, yes. On Olive releases, I've taken now to using a sharp blade to cutting the middle of the white tape along along the case's top crease to open it that way. I'd rather leave the white tape on, than having that sticky gunk.

I know it's a meaningless "packaging" issue, but I really wish Olive would drop the cases they use and go with regular Elite bd cases with split whitetops that don't leave all that glue. EVERY Olive title I have bought has had the glue issue plus has anyone noticed they can't even get their spine/artwork cut properly?
Every title that I own has some issue with the spine artwork; it's either messed up as far as the title having extraneous lines on either side or part of the front cover art bleeds over onto the spine. I mean it's absolutely ridiculous that they don't see this and make corrections.
They are the only bd distributor that seems to have this issue.
makes them look very bush league imo, and with all these great titles coming out they need to get their sh%&t together asap imo.

[NoirFan]

Originally Posted by Arkadin

Every title that I own has some issue with the spine artwork; it's either messed up as far as the title having extraneous lines on either side or part of the front cover art bleeds over onto the spine.

Their covers are extremely low-res as well, like something you'd print at home. if I didn't know better, I'd assume a few were bootlegs.

[Arkadin]

yeah I really don't even get why they look as poor as they do.
I mean they do look very bootleggish.
I wish there was someone with the company on here that could address this issue.

[starman15317]

I want to get the Invasion of the Body Snatcher Blu but I don't want to pay $20 for it (does Olive ever put special features on their titles?) so I'll wait for a sale/cheap used copies to show up online.

[NoirFan]

Originally Posted by starman15317

I want to get the Invasion of the Body Snatcher Blu but I don't want to pay $20 for it (does Olive ever put special features on their titles?) so I'll wait for a sale/cheap used copies to show up online.

Buy all Olive titles from Import CDs - they're roughly $16 shipped. There's a 10% off sale through the end of the month as well.