THE BORE
General => The Superdeep Borehole => Topic started by: TVC15 on November 10, 2007, 03:58:10 AM
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I'm watching Fincher's The Game (HD-DVD) right now. I've always liked the movie, but I have to confess that the only reason I chose it was because it was the only Fincher movie available in HD. Weird, right? The Game, Fight Club, and Se7en are all visibly striking movies, but it's somewhat odd that the weakest of his little twisty trilogy was the one to make the leap to HD first. I figured they would have gone with the cult classic Fight Club to lure in the savvy crowd, or his biggest box office hit, Se7en. The Game was no flop, like Fight Club was, but there's not a person in the whole world that would paint it as a more desirable movie than the other two.
So naturally, the reason The Game must have been chosen was probably that it was the only option readily available. Maybe it was the quickest to transfer or something. 2007 is, I think, its ten year anniversary, but the package is not advertising that.
But the transfer's quality betrays the HD label. This was most definitely a quickie, something they got on the market in a pinch in order to capitalize on the Fincher audience. This is the weakest HD effort I have yet seen. It's still a visually striking film, but the quality is, well, it looks like a decent quality DVD upscaled. The colors are muted, and not because it's a dark film, but because it hasn't really been restored. It looks similar to what happens when you upscale a DVD onto the big screen: since there's not color information to fill in all the pixels, information is lost, and everything appears faded when it comes to color. Similarly, some shots, not all, are a bit fuzzy, as if even getting the film to the proper HD resolution was a half-assed effort.
Don't get me wrong, it's not like this thing looks like the cinematic equivalent to Synbios; it's just that this is my first not great HD experience, and as such, it will be something of a benchmark to me. And if you folks need a benchmark of what is not a good quality release for HD, here it is. At least the movie is pretty good. Well, at least if I can beat down my suspension of disbelief, which I think takes quite the effort as the movie goes on.
The Departed also wasn't a great transfer, but Scorsese isn't a director that relies on visual pop frequently. No slam on him, it's just style. Some directors do a few iconic shots to better stick in your memory, but Fincher, in his early days, relied on MTV-like visual stimulation once every couple of minutes. Of course a weak transfer hurts the more visual movie more. The Departed also wasn't as bad as this. Since it is a more recent film, and it probably had more digital processing involved to begin with, the coloring was fine. Not superlative as it has been in the best HD releases, but fine.
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Definitely one of the most entertaining suspense flicks I've ever seen. Haven't seen it in awhile but it seems like an odd choice to watch in HD; Michael Douglass is awesome but I don't want to see his wrinkles all over mah teevee
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Not my least favorite Fincher film (that's Panic Room), but an incredibly shallow movie. It's the kind of thing you see once for the twists and then never feel compelled to watch again. It's not a classic, so I'm guessing they didn't feel any pressure to work hard on making sure it got a good transfer. :(
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Not my least favorite Fincher film (that's Panic Room), but an incredibly shallow movie. It's the kind of thing you see once for the twists and then never feel compelled to watch again. It's not a classic, so I'm guessing they didn't feel any pressure to work hard on making sure it got a good transfer. :(
I have never seen Panic Room, actually. It had an interesting premise, but it sounded like it came out average on all fronts. I figured Fincher had to do a "safe" movie after Fight Club kinda upturned his momentum.
If I ever see it cheap, I will grab it, just so I have all his movies.
EDIT: the volume is also excessively low on this disc.
One thing I have noticed lately is that games, HD-DVD, blu ray, and DVD all seem to have different base volume levels. It is a bitch when I play a loud video game after watching a movie that requires volume cranking. Some standards need to be established re: volume.
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Panic Room's not bad. I don't know if HD would do much for it though. The movie was really cheap with special effects. I haven't seen The Game in awhile since I didn't think much of it. From what I can remember, it wasn't as entertaining as Panic Room.
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Oh, wow, I didn't know The Game came after Seven. I thought it was the other way around.
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Is Seven in HD? Like Fight Club, it was kinda overrated because young people thought it was "cool". Still, I'll like to see Seven again in 1080P.
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Panic Room was pretty shitty. The Game was alright. The only Fincher movie I haven't seen is Alien 3.
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Alien 3 gets a lot of hate, and it's definitely uneven, but I think when judged fairly, it's a good movie. I mean, not one of Fincher's best, but better than Panic Room.
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Alien 3 gets a lot of hate, and it's definitely uneven, but I think when judged fairly, it's a good movie. I mean, not one of Fincher's best, but better than Panic Room.
How would you know? You'ver never watched Panic Room.
I agree that Alien 3 wasn't that bad.
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It'd have to be pretty bad to be worse than Panic Room. Granted, I saw it when it came out in theaters and maybe I was expecting a "cooler" movie back at that age, but it was pretty much the definition of bleh.
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Alien 3 gets a lot of hate, and it's definitely uneven, but I think when judged fairly, it's a good movie. I mean, not one of Fincher's best, but better than Panic Room.
How would you know? You'ver never watched Panic Room.
I agree that Alien 3 wasn't that bad.
Every indication I've had on Panic Room is that it's average in every way. Alien 3 is at least solid stylistically, and the story is somewhat non-typical.
But yes, I should have said something different there. Alien 3 is at least ambitious. Panic Room is safe in every way.
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TVC watch Game Box 1.0.
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Plus, doesn't Alien 3 have Winona Ryder? :hyper
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TVC watch Game Box 1.0.
I did, I own it.
And Cajole, that's Alien Resurrecton.
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oh :(
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A few quick thoughts:
-In the wake of "alternate reality games" going mass market, this movie is a bit more believable. Such games did exist prior to this movie, dating back to I believe the 80s or 70s, where one famous one that I do not recall the name of started in the Seattle area as a sort of puffed up scavenger hunt with puzzles and what not. I would not be surprised if those early, not well known examples were an inspiration for this movie.
-Technology just ten years ago. Michael Douglas has a flip phone that would be passable today (though not for someone as hoi polloi as Douglas), but laptops still look like things from the stone age. Oh holy shit his car phone is HUGE.
-This is my first subtitled viewing, and there have been several background talking "hints" that I never caught before.
-Also, the movie has a very clear influence on Saw that seems obvious now. The whole game thing, the creepy clown doll thing. Well, just those two things really, but that's significant.
-Stock footage stands out REALLY badly in HD
-The surreal "fake" city is reminiscent of the Chase Manhattan sequence in the American Psycho film. It's doing the whole layers of reality thing, too. Never realized that.
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The Departed also wasn't a great transfer
you must be joking.
anyway, the only fincher's movies i like are, Se7en (not yet announced) and Zodiac (Jan 08 on HD-DVD), the other are "meh" including The Game.
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Zodiac was really great.
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Why were you watching it with subtitles? And what are the "hints" that they reveal?
This was most definitely a quickie, something they got on the market in a pinch in order to capitalize on the Fincher audience.
Not to knock the guy, but does Fincher really have an audience sizable enough to be capitalized on? I know that there are people who go ga-ga over Fight Club, but even they don't really seem to be following him as a director.
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Why were you watching it with subtitles? And what are the "hints" that they reveal?
If I have seen a movie a bunch of times before, I watch it with subtitles as a sort of definitie viewing, so I know I catch everything. Also, it is sometimes curious to see the phrasing changes in them.
In foreign movies, even british, I always watch with subtitles because you never know when you are going to catch a beastly accent.
Some of the hints, maybe all of them, I am sure people know about. Lots of things said in the background in the first 15 minutes or so of the movie that elude to things later on. I mean, nothing super awesome or creative, but it's nice to see foreshadowing and stuff like that. All of it was incedental enough that I can't recall any specific examples, even a day later (it is a popcorn movie).
This was most definitely a quickie, something they got on the market in a pinch in order to capitalize on the Fincher audience.
Not to knock the guy, but does Fincher really have an audience sizable enough to be capitalized on? I know that there are people who go ga-ga over Fight Club, but even they don't really seem to be following him as a director.
I think he does. I recall being a freshman in college when Fight Club came out, and the more film savvy people were excited even before seeing it. Fight Club was also a big success on DVD, and Fincher's 3 most well known movies all share storytelling and possibly thematic aspects, which would be attractive to a specified audience.
Also, Fincher's influence is near enough to still be on the radar of studios, and far enough away to have had an influence on current movies, so why not?
I'm not saying if the HD-DVD people properly targeted any existing cult following by picking the game and giving it a crap transfer, but I bet modern film geeks that like cult directors are typically early adopters for this shit.
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Zodiac > Se7en > Fight Club > Panic Room > The Game >Alien 3
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Zodiac > Se7en > Fight Club > Panic Room > The Game >Alien 3
you are my new friend :bow