BLACKJACK (John Woo, 1998, TV pilot)

[Jox]

‘My Films Had So Much Anger’
John Woo reflects on a career driven by action, ambition, and artistry.
https://www.vulture.com/2023/07/john-wo ... -more.html

[Scorpio]

Where could I buy this edition of the film?
Has anyone bought it?

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Blackjac ... ay/331276/

[Jox]

As far as I know it's not released: me and other member Leigh ordered it from Platinum Cult / Digidreams and have not received anything (not even a response to emails)...

So my advice is, "don't order it"!

EDIT:
This prompted me to pen another email, and now I'm told it should be out "within the next month"...

[Leigh2704]

This prompted me to pen another email, and now I'm told it should be out "within the next month"...

Which roughly translates to 'within the next year, give or take'.

[Leigh2704]

This prompted me to pen another email, and now I'm told it should be out "within the next month"...

Which roughly translates to 'within the next year, give or take'.

I actually meant this as a joke, but it's looking increasingly like it might be accurate, ha

[Jox]

Interview with the Master by the New Yorker

John Woo Returns to Hollywood
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-n ... lent-night

[Jox]

This prompted me to pen another email, and now I'm told it should be out "within the next month"...

Which roughly translates to 'within the next year, give or take'.

I actually meant this as a joke, but it's looking increasingly like it might be accurate, ha

It's now announced again for February 15
https://bluray-disc.de/blu-ray-news/fil ... auf_bluray

[JuV]

Let's hope it finally releases now. I've had it pre-ordered since early this year...

[Jox]

It shouldn't be an April fool's prank given the date, so apparently here they are
https://www.facebook.com/PlatinumCultEd ... bpQC1gY6yl

[JuV]

Received mine today! Happy to finally have this one in my hands, took a long time...

[Leigh2704]

Mine just arrived too, and I'm super thrilled that the first thing that happened was me hearing all the discs bouncing around loose inside the case like pinballs. Looking forward to checking out the last Krekel disc I'll ever buy! Yay lol

[Scorpio]

I just received my Blu-ray copy of "Blackjack":



If you haven't bought it... Don't buy it! It's a scam, we've been deceived. The previous edition is better.
To begin with, that new image "remastered" in 1:85... It's false! The only thing they have done is apply a "zoom" to the image.









This new "remastering" also appears in 4/3, so that wouldn't be a problem, that's not the worst...
The worst thing is that this new "remastering", only seems to have been "restored" at the beginning of the movie, the casino scenes look pretty good, but as the movie progresses, the image starts to look worse...
Little by little, a kind of "pixel" in the form of a "stripe" begins to appear in the image (this probably happened, because the original video was in 25 frames, and they changed it to 23,976 frames), and furthermore, you notice that image is not remastered, they have simply added a "filter" (probably with artificial intelligence) that instead of giving sharpness to the image, what it does is give it a shine that makes it worse and tacky.







In short... It's an editing disappointment. Whoever had the previous edition does not need to buy this one, if I had known this, I would never have bought it.

[JuV]

To begin with, that new image "remastered" in 1:85... It's false! The only thing they have done is apply a "zoom" to the image.

Didn't their website say the 16:9 version was simply reframed? The results of your screenshots look rather disappointing but it's about what I'd expect from it.

Little by little, a kind of "pixel" in the form of a "stripe" begins to appear in the image (this probably happened, because the original video was in 25 frames, and they changed it to 23,976 frames).

I haven't had the time to dig into this release, and I know Digidreams isn't exactly known for their quality. But man, this looks incredibly bad! Didn't they say they found the (NTSC) editing tapes? Did they mess up the deinterlacing or something?

I don't own their previous release of this one. But I've seen some screenshots and videos of that transfer, and I don't remember it having these issues. It might be better to go for that older release then...

[Scorpio]

This new edition also comes with the Blu-ray disc of the previous edition, so you can get both.
The video from the previous edition has less sharpness, but I prefer that to these "stripes" in the image that can be seen in many scenes, especially in scenes with a lot of movement, that is, in action scenes.
This happens especially from the middle of the movie forward, until then everything looked good, but then it breaks down and all this appears. It is a pity.

[Moltisanti]

Sorry to hear this edition doesn’t measure up. It’s a movie I’d like to upgrade over the DVD but I’ll continue waiting.