Double Indemnity (1944) Criterion 4K UHD and Blu-ray Review

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Күн бұрын

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@JB-dm5gm 3 ай бұрын

You know I read that essay also and I was struck by her injection of race into it. It was a really feeble attempt to make assumptions regarding race. It felt like the lady writing it had a chip on her soldier and an axe to grind regarding white America. Sad to see Criterion allow such biased opinions within their essays.

@nitrateglow2087 9 ай бұрын

I tried listening to a Schickel commentary years ago and lasted ten minutes. I think the film was Hitchcock's Rebecca. Too bad they didn't get someone like Imogen Sara Smith to do a new track-- I love her noir essays and her commentary on The Spiral Staircase is one of the best I've ever had the pleasure to listen to. Then again, I guess it was easier to have her chat with Muller.

@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader 9 ай бұрын

I think actively disliking Schickel commentaries is a cinephile rite of passage. I’m always surprised when I come back to this one to remember it’s relatively solid, even though there are multiple points at which I am practically screaming at the track itself in frustration. The second universal track is much better and it’s a shame they didn’t port it over. You’d think that Criterion would’ve gotten one of the usual names to do a commentary or even ask Eddie Muller to do one-but I think their preference now is for these conversation pieces. Frequently more and more they skip commentaries all together. Smith does some really great work especially in the Noir realm. I really want to attempt a commentary myself if I can find the time.

@nitrateglow2087 9 ай бұрын

I can only imagine the prominence of the chat format is more cost-effective than a commentary? But surely those aren't so expensive to produce?@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader

@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader 9 ай бұрын

You'd think a commentary would be cheaper. I've always wondered how labels go about producing extras and how much if any commentators get paid or if they have to rent studio recording time etc. I think everyone does it differently. Criterion just seems to be moving away from commentaries but also I think they might have started doing these conversations at different locations during Covid.@@nitrateglow2087

@davidosborn6714 9 ай бұрын

In a better world we'd be watching the Indicator release with the Joseph McBride commentary and the latest installment of fan-favorite Kim Newman's "what multicolor waistcoat am I wearing this week?" segment. Packaging would be their single-film hardcase with an 80-page booklet (like their recent release of REMEMBER THE NIGHT)....sigh... Oh well, it could be worse... at least Universal doesn't have an agreement with Mill Creek ---yet!

@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader 9 ай бұрын

My thoughts exactly. How did you know I was thinking specifically of the Indicator LE box of REMEMBER THE NIGHT?! haha.

@brettbarton1985 3 ай бұрын

Indicator, Arrow and others have surpassed the grandaddy of boutique labels in Criterion. Sure, they paved the way to what the consumer now expects a release to be, but unfortunatly, the others have out classed them in the way of packaging, extras and in some cases the presentation of the film. My last purchase was The Roaring Twenties - and upon hearing that Criterion would be releasing it, I was disappointed. Really skimped on the extras too!

@eric-gc3fj 12 күн бұрын

I really wish you could come to your point in due time...ranting over a film and taking more than an hour is plain Narcissistic

@matheus5230 9 ай бұрын

I missed the live chat! Happy you enjoyed this release! I wonder what you would think of The Apartment UHD by Kino, another Billy Wilder classic. Lots of people lamented the lack of HDR at all in it, but I think that UHD is a good example of how great and vibrant an SDR presentation can still look. That said, it would still have been nice if it had HDR. The one complain one could have is that the high contrast can crush some of the darkest details. Nothing major, but it happens in this UHD. HDR would be very helpful, the increased dynamic allows the grading to fully have its cake and eat it too when it comes to have high contrast while also preserving all highlight detail and shadow detail. Regarding the rumors of a Warner/Paramount merger, I hope it doesn't happen, and it needs to be clear these are just rumors, and such mergers take very long to happen anyway. If it happens, I hope for the best scenario: Warner improves the quality control of Paramount, and Paramount increases the pace of Warner catalog releases. That said, I've also heard rumors that what might actually happen is Comcast buying the Warner studio and its library next year. Comcast once tried to buy Fox, but Disney ultimately won.

@MS-co2ss 9 ай бұрын

I also missed the live chat. I know you have a lot on your to do list. But I would really like to know your thoughts on Arrow's release on An American Werewolf in London, and how the arrow 4k compares to the arrow 2019 blu ray. I'm not saying you should do it immediately, I'm just saying whenever you have the chance to do it. I've heard that the blu ray looked better compared to the 4k. On the back of the 2019 blu ray case it says it was approved by John Landis, but the 4k case doesn't. I'm not sure what arrow's 4k looks like in Dolby Vision, I was only able to watch it in HDR and the encoding looked worse, whereas the blu ray looked better. I don't trust any of the reviews on the 4k because the 4k image would look different in other comparison videos. The most misleading review of arrow's 4k to me, has to be twin flicks' vid. In my opinion, I find a lot of his videos to be very misleading. I don't know what tv he uses, but I still find it irritating and makes me question if his tv isn't calibrated correctly. I'm not trying to bash twin flicks, I just don't think he's being very honest in his reviews. But anyway great review as always. I really like how honest you are with your videos. They are very well made and the skits are pretty funny. I hope you have a happy holiday.

@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader 9 ай бұрын

Thank you!! I've heard some discussion about American Werewolf but should look into at some point. I really appreciate the kind words and it's nice to know people recognize my efforts to be as honest and fair as possible. I try my darnedest to cover every aspect to the best of my abilities. Oh boy...I don't like to express frustrations with other channels publicly but you mentioned the one channel that I really am most flabbergasted by. I have no idea where he gets some of the "information" he puts out but the video he did on American Graffiti is the single worst disc review on this platform I've ever seen. The sheer amount of made up crap and things he was spouting as if they were facts would make any cinephile start screaming at the screen. Then he gave the disc a pass as if it was somehow representative of the original film instead of admitting the utter desecration of a classic that it is. (Though his video title was clickbait.) The two bits that got to me most were his claiming that Techniscope (though he never named the process) wasn't supposed to be grainy (it's one of the grainiest processes in history) and somehow he thought he could claim Kubrick loved shooting 2 perf film and shot all of his films from BARRY LYNDON onwards as 2 perf. That was when I started yelling at the screen uncontrollably....

@matheus5230 9 ай бұрын

While it is always better to have the original negative, it's impressive that Casablanca's UHD looks so amazing despite no original negative surviving. I would never think it wasn't from the original negative.