THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1 2 3 (Blu-ray; Columbia/MGM)

hearingimpared

Zitro wrote: »

I just watched the modern version on DVD for the first time last night, and actually enjoyed it a lot, especially Denzel's character. But then again, I am rarely disappointed with Washington's performances. I also liked Travolta's character as he was written, but didn't particularly like Travolta's portrayal of it, if you know what I mean. It just didn't feel that believable to me, if that makes sense.The modern version caught my interest enough to find the original; I wasn't even aware that this was a remake!

I don't know what you mean here. Could you elaborate please?

Mike LoManaco

hearingimpared wrote: »

You hit the nail on the head but there is more. There was more humor in the original, like when Matthau was giving the Japanese the tour of the facility as well as the look on his face at the end of the movie when Martin Balsam sneezed. There is much much more.

Right -- these elements definitely lent some charm to the original film, and I pointed the (especially) closing sneese sequence out in both reviews as the difference in downright cleverness between them. In my review of the original film, I also pointed out your reference to the Japanese men being referred to as "dummies" and "monkeys" by Matthau because he didn't believe they could understand English -- hysterical moment.

Mike LoManaco

Zitro wrote: »

I just watched the modern version on DVD for the first time last night, and actually enjoyed it a lot, especially Denzel's character. But then again, I am rarely disappointed with Washington's performances. I also liked Travolta's character as he was written, but didn't particularly like Travolta's portrayal of it, if you know what I mean. It just didn't feel that believable to me, if that makes sense.The modern version caught my interest enough to find the original; I wasn't even aware that this was a remake!

Zitro,

Some younger audiences were never aware this was a remake; Tony Scott likes to call it more of a "re-imagining" of the original story to include updated modern elements and themes. I think I follow what you are saying about Travolta's performance of the role as written for him, as you feel the role was written well but perhaps "hammed up" by Travolta, correct?

Zitro

Mike LoManaco wrote: »

Zitro,

Some younger audiences were never aware this was a remake; Tony Scott likes to call it more of a "re-imagining" of the original story to include updated modern elements and themes. I think I follow what you are saying about Travolta's performance of the role as written for him, as you feel the role was written well but perhaps "hammed up" by Travolta, correct?

Exactly what I meant lol.

Mike LoManaco

zitro wrote: »

exactly what i meant lol.

AsSiMiLaTeD

I still haven't seen this movie yet, how is the transfer on BR?

KASR

Very awesome review!

Mike LoManaco

Update: After finally putting into implementation a new BD player that bitstreams the native TrueHD/Master Audio signals (the OPPO), I was able to go back and re-evaluate some titles I reviewed in the past -- this time without DTS core extraction and with full lossless DTS-HD MA/Dolby TrueHD.

This was the first disc I sampled in lossless Master Audio; my impressions were that it was not much different, sonically, from the DTS core that I had been listening to. There may have been some slight ambient support that was a bit more pronounced (the echo of subway cars in the rear channels and such) and maybe, at best, a very minor improvement in LFE, but for the most part, the MA lossless extension didn't sound much different from the DTS core. I expected this, based on input from many others that have sampled MA in their own systems already and have made comparisons between the lossless and core extractions and have reported on them, but alas -- not much sonic difference between the two. I still hold that this isn't the most enveloping Blu-ray soundtrack I've heard; in fact, I would call it bordering on "restrained."

I will sample more titles when I have spare time -- it's in varying states of supply these days.

Mike LoManaco

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

I still haven't seen this movie yet, how is the transfer on BR?

Check the Video Quality Analysis section of the review for this; in my opinion, the video fared better than the audio.

Mike LoManaco

KASR wrote: »

Very awesome review!

Thanks, KAS.

cnh

Well not to highjack this thread or anything...but over here...as you know you can get the latest releases, unfortunately, even as they are hitting the screen. I just saw the DVD version of 2012...a bit overdone..but amusing at points!

And you wonder if you should believe China and CR laws! Nah!!!

I will spare all of you my FULL review.

cnh