Universal Catalog Titles on Blu

[domino harvey]

Seems Universal's dumping a few more too

Best Buy August 8th: BASEketball, Bowfinger, EdTV, For Love of the Game
Amazon September 5th: Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, Fletch Lives, the Paper, the Skulls

[John Shade]

Best Buy exclusive of Problem Child on August 8th. Finally, Jack Warden's ass in Hi-Def!!!

Wow, one of my HBO frequent viewings from childhood (it still seems to be on there now too), I hinted at this during one of our Criterion guesses a few months ago. Kind of hoping 1 and 2 would be packaged together.

[AfterTheRain]

Also, standalone release of Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy in September.

[flyonthewall2983]

21 Grams October 31st

[domino harvey]

Universal is the latest studio to turn to fucking BD-Rs for catalog titles: Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid and Fletch Lives-- both available already on region-free Blu-rays from... Universal-- are coming later this month

[eastguy]

Universal is the latest studio to turn to fucking BD-Rs for catalog titles: Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid and Fletch Lives-- both available already on region-free Blu-rays from... Universal-- are coming later this month

Ugh. I saw these went up on Amazon, but didn't see a mention of BD-R. I imagine if it is the case, The Paper and For Richer or Poorer, also releasing that day, will be the same?

[domino harvey]

Blu-ray posters are reporting these are unexpectedly NOT BD-Rs after all!

[McCrutchy]

Blu-ray posters are reporting these are unexpectedly NOT BD-Rs after all!

It seems like Universal may be following the example of Warner Archive Collection. I've received three of the four titles so far (all pressed BD-50s), and the covers have the slight facsimile appearance of WAC Blu-ray jackets. Of course, it may also have simply been a mix-up, which will only affect this batch of titles. I would still greatly prefer to see Universal releasing these Blu-rays at retail, rather than online only.

[McCrutchy]

With the arrival of For Richer or Poorer, I can now confirm all four titles released on December 26th, 2017 are indeed pressed BD-50 discs. I have yet to check out at all four in my home theater, but according to others, they continue Universal's new trend of no menus (just a subtitle on/off option), and no extras, and it seems that all four titles have only English SDH subtitles.

I initially thought this was okay in terms of no extras, but I was rather stunned to discover that For Richer or Poorer, while not having any extras on the standard or DTS DVDs, actually had a Signature Collection LaserDisc with a director's audio commentary, a making of, an alternate ending and deleted/extended scenes, outtakes (which may or may not be different to those with the end credits) and the film's theatrical trailer. This must make it one of scant few Universal titles where no extras survived the jump from LD to DVD (to DTS DVD) and then Blu-ray. Worse still, the LD and the standard DVD were both released simultaneously on May 5th, 1998.

[CSM126]

The Wizard. Gotta admit: didn’t expect that to happen. Also gotta admit: I’m buying it.

[JSC]

So Universal's release of For Whom the Bell Tolls, got a right-royal
paddling at blu-ray.com. One of the lowest scores since Universal's
equally mediocre treatment of Hitchcock's Family Plot.

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/For-Whom- ... 57/#Review

Has anybody seen or can comment on the UK release of the film by
Fabulous Films?

[AfterTheRain]

So Universal's release of For Whom the Bell Tolls, got a right-royal
paddling at blu-ray.com. One of the lowest scores since Universal's
equally mediocre treatment of Hitchcock's Family Plot.

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/For-Whom- ... 57/#Review

Has anybody seen or can comment on the UK release of the film by
Fabulous Films?

And it's not even the 166 minute archival edition that was released on DVD.

[Jameson281]

So Universal's release of For Whom the Bell Tolls, got a right-royal
paddling at blu-ray.com. One of the lowest scores since Universal's
equally mediocre treatment of Hitchcock's Family Plot.

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/For-Whom- ... 57/#Review

The blu-ray.com seems to naively believe that the original three-strip neg for the full-length version of the film still exists. Considering the film came to Universal from Paramount--which notoriously junked most of its original nitrate--and the film was cut down to a shorter version, it's very likely that parts of the film only exist in the form of composite dupe neg. A full GONE WITH THE WIND or BAND WAGON style restoration may well be impossible.

[tenia]

Still, it seems that the PQ is plagued with various other issues outside of color registration, such that the end look isn't enticing at all. From what the caps look like, it almost makes the whole point of releasing it on BD moot because the material barely seems worth it.

[L.A.]

What about the German disc from Koch Media?

[Jameson281]

What about the German disc from Koch Media?

The DVD Beaver review doesn't compare it against the Universal, and doesn't mention if it's completely free of registration issues. (One of the frame grabs does look like it might have a very slight registration issue, and another shows that not all damage has been cleaned up, so it's not 100% perfect.)

[solaris72]

What about the German disc from Koch Media?

It does at least have the overture and intermission FWIW.

[domino harvey]

Man's Favorite Sport?, the Producers remake, Remember the Night (which already had an OOP Blu-ray release via TCM), Strange Bedfellows, and Tammy and the Bachelor coming in November

[captveg]

Universal has been consistently releases 4-6 catalog titles every 3 months or so for a while now, which is pretty great. (This is in addition to licensing titles to Criterion, Kino, Shout Factory, Arrow, etc.)

Here are the recently announced titles for Feb 5, 2019:

A Countess from Hong Kong (1967)
Greedy (1994)
Heart and Souls (1993)
In Good Company (2004)
Shadowlands (1993)


In Good Company is one of the few remaining HD-DVD releases that they had not released on BD yet.

[domino harvey]

I only remember In Good Company for having that ten minute long Iron and Wine song on the soundtrack

[captveg]

4/16/19

Housesitter (1992)
Mr. Bean's Holiday (2007)
Smokey and the Bandit II (1980)
Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 (1983)

[captveg]

6/4/19

Arabesque (1966)
The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000)
How to Make an American Quilt (1995)
Mr. Baseball (1992)
Winning (1969)

[captveg]

Seems they are also wrapping up the releases for the DreamWorks Animation back catalog on 6/4/16 with the releases of Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2004), Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), and Flushed Away (2006).

[captveg]

8/13/19

Fierce Creatures (1997)
Leave It to Beaver (1997)
Radioland Murders (1994)
Undercover Brother (2002)

Fierce Creatures and Leave It to Beaver were only 1.33 on DVD in the US, I believe.

Personally, Undercover Brother is a favorite of mine, so I'm pretty happy about it finally getting a BD upgrade. Hopefully the transfer source isn't simply the same one from the original DVD release.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Fierce Creatures finally got an OAR reissue in 2011, but they snuck it out in on one of those bargain-bin multi-film packs and it was still non-anamorphic; my guess is they dug out the master for the widescreen laserdisc. Would be nice if we finally got the original ending, but who am I kidding?