It's been a little while, but I fired up the Laserdisc player last night for this bad boy: Bloodsport (1988) [NJL-37099]. Was fullscreen and stereo but awesome movie! Great song too, 'Kumite, Kumite, Kumite...'

We watched the LaserDisc of Dick Cavett's Hocus Pocus, It's Magic on the Vestron label. What a terrible program. The camera work gives away many of the magic tricks and the whole program is just dull. It seems like a show better suited to the CED VideoDisc format, not LaserDisc.

Tonight we'll be watching the MCA Home Video LaserDisc of The Lost Weekend, which I've never seen before. The black and white mode of the Panasonic LX-900 really makes B/W discs shine, as well as getting rid of occasional color shimmer that can appear sometimes due to residual color burst being present.

Just got done watching That's Shock! (Terror in the Aisles) and comparing it to the blu-ray edition that comes as an extra with the Halloween II blu-ray.

Switching back and forth, while of course the blu-ray looks much better than the LD, the framing is much different though. The blu seems to be slightly zoomed in, while the LD has more picture on the top and right sides of the image.

Needless to say, I won't be getting rid of that LD anytime soon!

Ahhh, the 70's.

Stepford Wives (1975) [EE9433]

Last night I watched Adventures of Robin Hood, The: Special 50th Anniversary Edition #66 (1938) [CC1166L]. I can't imagine how anyone who likes Robin Hood could want anything more. Huge still frame collection, "home movies", great commentary. The only drawback I think were the somewhat abrupt side breaks. This makes we want more Criterion stuff.

I just watched the original CBS/Fox pressing of Yentl.... Damn, that's an ugly disc. It looks like an early Columbia title with heavily orange skin tones, milky gray blacks and lots of disc noise... Not rot, but pressed in grain. Even the highest NR setting on my 900 didn't improve it much.

Watched Face/Off (1997) [LV330553-WS] last night. It comes in a nice 2 disc gatefold package. Movie is ok,.. typically 90's action flick but the highpoint was the AC3 5.1 soundtrack.

Watched Dumb and Dumber tonight on LD. In my top 5 comedies of all time. Airplane, Caddyshack, Fletch, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels are the rest, IMO.

Also watched a few more episodes of the original Battlestar Galactica. Picked up the boxed set the other day. I grew up watching the show, one of my favorites. Athena was a brick house.
I like the new BG as well, I've seen the entire series twice and at some point I'll watch it again.

Just watched the first four episodes of the Water Margin that were released on laserdisc:
Water Margin, The: Part 1 (1977) [EE 1055]
Water Margin, The: Part 2 (1977) [EE 1063]

I have the entire series on DVD but it was nice to obtain these two PAL laserdiscs of one of my favourite childhood programs along with Monkey!

I’ve been watching Underworld Awakening (2012) Also listening to the other Underworlds on DVD
The lows on UA seemed to be within international standards X-curve (as too with the other Underworld films) not much go past 20Hz at high levels most of which I saw was between 20Hz and 100Hz often 30Hz to 80Hz its about the same loudness as Underworld Evolution DVD R2, Underworld seems like its been boasted in level on DVD R2 which is a bit annoying as I have to play that softer

Fader setting
Underworld Awakening (2012) “7” 0db
Underworld Evolution (2006) “7” 0dd
Underworld (2003) edit: I'm doing some adjustments



My Sooty looks like Selene he's got quick reflexes.




Interesting reading the budget and gross

The bluray is missleading calling it "the number one U.S. box office hit" huh? More like Underturkey. It hasn't made back its production or gross that I would call box office U.S. hit.
Underworld Awakening
Box Office
Budget: $70,000,000 (estimated)
Opening Weekend: $25,306,725 (USA) (22 January 2012) (3078 Screens)
Gross: $62,321,039 (USA) (4 March 2012)

Underworld rise of the lycans
Box Office
Budget: $35,000,000 (estimated)
Opening Weekend: $20,828,511 (USA) (25 January 2009) (2942 Screens)
Gross: $45,802,315 (USA) (1 March 2009)

Underworld: Evolution
Box Office
Budget: $50,000,000 (estimated)
Opening Weekend: $26,857,181 (USA) (22 January 2006) (3207 Screens)
Gross: $62,318,875 (USA) (12 March 2006)

Seems like UnderWorld was the only one that took in some money to pay for the production and fair profit.
Underworld
Budget: $22,000,000 (estimated)
Opening Weekend: $21,753,759 (USA) (21 September 2003) (2915 Screens)
Gross: $95,708,457 (Worldwide) (20 May 2009)

Just bought a large batch of Disney LD's. Watched George of the Jungle tonight. Picture quality was excellent!

Couple of false starts tonight. Started with Adventures of Ford Fairlane, The (1990) [PILF-1263] was over it after about 15 mins. Next I tried a bit of Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991) (Uncut) [NJL-12311] Got through the first side of that one. Now a bit of this Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels (1998) [PILF-2806] . Nice picture quality but no AC-3 soundtrack is a bit disappointing.

I watched Trog (1970) [11516] this afternoon. I didn't realize how late a release it was. It had a very nice transfer for a silly B-movie. It's listed as Pan and Scan, but I compared with pictures of the Widescreen DVD and it actually seems to have a lot of more on the top and bottom, but a little bit less on the sides, so I think it's more open matte than it is P&S.

Nightbreed (1990) (Uncut) [PILF-7045]
A Boy and His Dog
Tank Girl - Awesome Transfer
Boxed Jaws
Original Star Wars - Han Shot first, lol.

I was blown away by how great the transfer on that disc is.

Japanese copy no less. Words are in the black on the bottom, very nice.


Tank Girl (1995) [NJWL-55118]

Watched Broken Arrow (1996) [0896385] tonight. Ok movie, but great AC3 soundtrack.

Watched Frighteners, The (1996) [42969] tonight. It was interesting to see Michael J Fox in that Role. Plus it seems like the entire crew of this film ended up working on Lord of the Rings!

Now that I finally have a rf demodulator...it was time for this: Star Wars Trilogy: Special Edition (1997) [4102985]. First time hearing the Dolby 5.1 since 1997, and after years of the Surround downmix. Despite it's flaws, the SE still was a good presentation and the LDs are spectacular. Whoever did ESB's 5.1 mix went beyond themselves.