I would also include Assault On Precinct 13 (essentially a remake of Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo) as a JC classic ( and I will always have a soft spot for Big Trouble in Little China)
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I’m not a fan of Assault but BTILC is a favourite.
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As if by magic, Talking Pictures is showing They Live tonight which is a very much underrated JC pic IMO
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Director Paul Schrader would be my favourite ‘neo noir’ director. He seems to get close to the lost soul struggling against all odds on the edge of society.
Gere,a male prostitute, becomes involved with a messy murder investigation. His clientele and even their knowing husbands turn against him. A contrived ending.
The bluray is notoriously scruffy because no decent original stock could be found. There is a new praised 4K but at a price.
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The BBFC prevented this being released in the UK due to ‘the mouse scene’, but I managed to pick up a copy in Spain whilst on holiday. It has English soundtrack and subtitles, so I’m happy.
Maybe - I’ll report back when I’ve had chance to watch it properly!
Mark
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I had the Abyss Director’s Cut on Laserdisc. The print was pristine with about 17 seconds of lesser quality audio and video of the mouse scene.
FWIW, the fluid is real and the mouse was fine.
Aliens Special Edition was more of a problem. There were literally no original prints left when they got release it. So you got a very hissy and blurry transfer. However, processing technology had clearly improved between when I had the Laserdisc edition and the DVD one. So I’m sure the 4K one isn’t that bad but almost certainly a waste of 4K.
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I’ve actually had a copy of “Abyss” for some time now. The transfer to 4K/HDR along with the Atmos soundtrack is absolutely first class and in my opinion far better than the original film that i first saw in the cinema. And by the way, it was a rat, not a mouse and it’s name was Beany 
Out of the 3 (so far) Cameron films to get the 4K/HDR treatment, Abyss is the finest with True Lies a disaster.
The BBFC didn’t prevent it’s release. Cameron refused to submit the film to the BBFC because he knew they would demand the rat scene to be cut, because they did so when the film was first released.
I assume you haven’t actually watched Aliens 4K/HDR then ? I have and it’s very very good.
I said I hadn’t.
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Then why say it’s almost certainly a waste of 4K ?
Sort of. Disney (who now own the rights to the film) informally contacted the BBFC to ask them if their position in 1989 was likely to be any different if they resubmitted it. BBFC confirmed that their position would be the same: cut the scene or no release. Disney contacted Cameron, he refused, and so here we are.
I’ve read that the DNR on the 4K is quite extreme, with skin looking waxy and plastic, so I’m hoping @kitfit1’s short summary above is accurate!
Mark
I am glad you have reported it looks and sounds great. I’ll be sure to check it out.
But I also know a bit about how the 4K HDR edition came onto existence. They did not locate a better print as one never existed. As stated, the first Special Edition on LD was direct transfer from the print they had to D1 to D2 to LD. To say it was ropey is an understatement. When the Alien Quadralogy DVD box set was released, they had about 15 years of progress to have another shot but still the same print. And it was massively improved. Not crystal clear like other films but the contrast was fixed and the background hiss removed from the audio and the worst of the sibilance.
When the BluRay edition came out, they applied minimal processing onto the new digital master they had made on the DVD release. When the 4K HDR came around they weren’t able to find anything worthy of working with better than the 1080p version already released. So they actually took that as the source and put it through studio grade 4K upscaling, colourmetric dynamic range expansion, and a newer set of filters to remove another layer of grain. But the starting data was the 1080p BluRay. Hence a bit of skeptacism. But bear in mind I also indicated the iterations of progress amde me think it would be fine and I never claimed I’d seen it.
I’ve heard wildly mixed opinions on the product from those who have seen it from “spectacular” to “sadly lacking”, which are very hard to reconcile. I can only assume playback equipment differences account for the polar opinions.
I take your comment as a good sogn and look forward to goving it a screening when I have the chance.
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Thanks for the comprehensive reply @feeling_zen.
I wasn’t aware that that’s how it came into existence. Up until watching the 4K/HDR i had only seen it in the cinema when it first released lol.
It could well be that the mixed opinions might be based on playback equipment. Mine consists of a Panasonic UB820, LG G2 77" tv and a Sony HTA 7000 with sub and rear upfiring rears.
I remember going out to buy my first DVD player and the first disc I bought was The Abyss special edition. This disc used seamless branching in order to offer the theatrical cut as well as the much longer extended cut. However I found that not all players at the time could handle seamless branching properly. I went through two Toshiba machines and both could not deal with it. In the end I settled on a Sony DVD/SACD player that handled the seamless branching perfectly. I wonder how many other DVDs used seamless branching?
Quite a lot Richard. T2 special edition springs to mind, as does Alien director’s cut and Blade. In fact almost any that have alternate endings or theatrical and directors cut on a aingle disc. Space being a premium. Oddly enough, I had one of the very first Panasonic DVD players on the market and it handled it fine. And 30 years later nearly, it’s still working!
It was generally only the really expensive box sets that didn’t use it. Like the Blade Runner 25th anniversary edition that came in the silver briefcase. 4 versions on 4 discs.
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Civil War
Clunky storyline but overall a painful exposure to the special horrors of civil wars. Worth a view.
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I had high hopes for this movie. It has received a fair amount of praise, even hype.
It does not quite live up to the hype. It is a good movie with great acting. There are some nice moments in it.
It just does not achieve greatness for me. Still worth a watch.
I’m about half an hour into The Abyss - some thoughts:
Although the case and disc labels are all in Spanish, the actual disc contents are clearly identical to the English version since everything defaults to English. Probably normal, I’d just never given it any thought.
Picture & sound quality is excellent. No evidence of processing which is excessive (IMO). Grain has been removed, sure, but skin etc. looks very realistic.
The rat scene is intact - in fact, considerably extended based on the old (UK) DVD. I hadn’t realised how much had been cut out of the rat actually in the fluid and reacting. To be fair, I can now see the BBFC’s point a bit more!
Mark
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