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DINODISC LASERDISC & RETRO GAMES

DINODISC IS A FORUM FOR COLLECTORS TO CHAT , BUY AND SELL LASERDISCS & RETRO GAMES
 
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PostSubject: LASERDISC REVIEWS   LASERDISC REVIEWS EmptySun Jun 05, 2011 4:22 am

Laserkb

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, let's get this review thing started. But where to begin? It's not as if there's any new product to discuss so that people can make up their minds whether to purchase or not. With laserdiscs, the best reviews are often those that compare different editions of the same title. It's astonishing, given the generally limited number of sales, how many films were issued in multiple versioins on LD, often by the same company.

So I decided to start with the first laserdisc I ever bought: 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY. After all the pathetic versions on VHS (Pan & Scan, would you believe? why did they bother?) I thought a laserdisc edition would be the ultimate version of this incredible movie. I was nearly right. I had the 2-disc CLV edition from MGM (ML 102233) and thought it looked and sounded amazing, certainly the best I'd seen outside of a movie theatre to date. But it's a long movie with an intermission and intro and exit music. These were all retained but somebody felt it necessary to put screen captures over these sections with titles stating the obvious. (INTRO. Yes, we'd just about gathered that.) I thought these rather spoiled the overall presentation.

Next up was the 25th Anniversary 3-disc Boxed Set, again from MGM (same cover) - Cat. No. ML 103104 - which was a lot better although picture and sound didn't seem to be any different. The side breaks were sympathetically placed, the intro/exit captions were removed, and the whole thing was solid and sturdy, BUT it did have some negatives. The featurette (in CLV) on Side 6 was only 17 minutes long, and some idiot decided to program the CAV stills file BEFORE the end credits. The movie ends, the stills file is offered, THEN you have to turn over to Side 6 for the credits and exit music! What a poor editorial decision, I thought, and it wasn't warranted by the release's CAV format. At 2 hours 20 minutes, the entire film could have been spread over the first 5 sides in its entirety, then you could have the stills AND the featurette on Side 6 - in CAV! Now that would have been perfect.

As it is, the award for best version of 2001 has to go to Criterion for their 1990 CLV release (CC 1235L) which, although it offers no extras, has superb picture and sound (the transfer apparently being supervised by Kubrick himself), a much better cover, the side breaks exactly right and the intro/intermission/exit music playing to a black screen - as it should do. There is an interesting essay on the back cover by one Howard Suber but I must take issue with his statement that the "rotating wheel" space station is "a nuclear warhead in orbit around the earth". Where does he get that idea from? There's no inference in either the movie or book - it's simply a halfway house for shuttles between the Earth and the Moon. Isn't it?

There were other editions - an earlier MGM release which may have been Pan & Scan, plus an AC-3 edition from Japan - but of the three editions I've seen the Criterion version wins on points.
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PostSubject: Re: LASERDISC REVIEWS   LASERDISC REVIEWS EmptySun Jun 05, 2011 4:24 am

pumpkin

wasnt sure when the hubby suggested a sub titled film (concentrating is not my strong point),but im glad i gave this film a try as its now one of my favourites.
its a true story about the violence and degradation still suffered by indian women even in this day and age. the main character phoolan devi is born into poverty in a remote village controlled by rich men and is marked a fallen woman after fleeing her arranged marriage to a violent rapist at the age of 12.through no fault of her own she ends up living in the jungles with bandits and starts to make a stand against the men who have damaged her.although phoolan devi would not give her name to the film as she claims it wrongly portrays her commiting a slaying it is still an amazing film and to be fair i would still have a lot of sympathy for her if she had commited the murders.it touched me so deeply i bought a copy of her book which is her own story and i read in 2 days.if anyone wants to read the book let me know and you can just send me an sae and ill send the book free of charge as i think its a story that should be told.
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PostSubject: Re: LASERDISC REVIEWS   LASERDISC REVIEWS EmptySun Jun 05, 2011 4:25 am

admin
Im sure that most of our members have music laserdiscs in their collections and I thought I would share with you my favorite . From 1992 - 2003 Pavarotti did 8 concerts for various charitys . Now dont be put off if you are not a fan of opera or the arias as these concerts crossed the borders of popular music and classical singing. Pavarotti challenged himself to sing with some of classic rock and pop singers whilst some of the pop and rock singers tried there hand at singing the arias some did better than others in paticular Michael Bolton did an excellent attempt at singing nessun dorma and Pavarotti himself was quoted saying BRAVO TENORE .Michael Bolton has since recorded a cd and dvd named my secret passion where he sings a number of the most famous arias.
There are so many great singers who took part in the concerts such as Andrea Bocelli, B.B. King, stevie wonder , Bob Geldof, Bono & The Edge, Brian Eno, Brian May, Bryan Adams, Celine Dion, Elton John, Enrique Iglesias, Eric Clapton, George Michael, Gloria Estefan, Joe Cocker, Jon Bon Jovi, Jon Secada, Lionel Richie, Liza Minneli, Mariah Carey, Meat Loaf, Michael Bolton, tracey chapman, Mike Oldfield, Natalie Cole, Savage Garden, Sheryl Crow, Simon Le Bon,Skunk Anansie, zucchero and many more. I have only the one laserdisc of the Pavarotti and friends concerts but I have the other 7 on a dvd boxset the last concert was Pavarotti and friends for Iraq but that is not due for release till 2020. I think anyone who loves music would find it hard not to enjoy these concerts as there is such a wide range of musical styles although there are parts of the concert that I tend to skip such as the spice girls.
This is by far my favorite music laserdisc , whats yours?
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] pavarotti & tracey chapman
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] pavarotti & queen/brian may
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] pavarotti & u2 / bono
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] pavarotti & bb king

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PostSubject: Re: LASERDISC REVIEWS   LASERDISC REVIEWS EmptySun Jun 05, 2011 4:27 am

laserkb
Music videos, like movies, are a matter of personal taste and if someone doesn't like a particular artist or music style it won't matter how good the laserdisc is, but I have to say that the most impressive music LD I've ever watched is Pink Floyd's P*U*L*S*E concert from Earls Court in London.

The sound is awesome and when the 'bombs' go off at the end of the final encore ("Run Like Hell") it's as if the speakers have blown up. It goes in your ears and reaches your guts. Also, the image quality, particularly when the laser beams are flickering all over the place, is staggering. How do they capture that on film (tape)? It's mesmerizing even to non-Floyd fans, plus you get the entire "Dark Side Of The Moon" album played live on Side 2.

Another impressive music LD is AC/DC Live At Donnington. This is not particularly my musical cup of tea, but the video really puts you in the best seat. It's just like being there, you can smell the sweat on Angus's brow.

However, saving the best till last, as a huge fan of Kate Bush, I have to give mention to the video compilation THE WHOLE STORY which, when it was first issued, WASN'T the whole story as Pioneer/EMI then re-released it with 3 extra videos. Had to buy it all over again, didn't I? (What did everybody do with their earlier 'shorter' versions?) And, finally, one of the rarest LDs ever, Kate Bush's mini-film, THE LINE, THE CROSS & THE CURVE. One side only, a mere 44 minutes long, but absolutely stunning. It links songs from the "Red Shoes" album into a sort of retelling of the original film - the sequence that goes with the song "Moments Of Pleasure" (whirling in snow) just goes round and round my head for days whenever I watch it.
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PostSubject: Re: LASERDISC REVIEWS   LASERDISC REVIEWS EmptySun Jun 05, 2011 4:28 am

laserkb
Given that, in the early 90s, laserdiscs were re-launched in the UK primarily to serious music fans (operas, ballet and orchestral concerts with George Martin as the face of Pioneer's big marketing campaign) rather than to movie collectors, it's interesting to note that there are still many music LDs - of all musical genres - that have not yet made it to DVD, or at least not in the versions originally presented.

One such, which I've mentioned elsewhere, is Peter Gabriel's concert movie SECRET WORLD LIVE, filmed in Italy in 1994. It's a stunning show, filmed in full screen (I imagine for TV in the first instance) but which has been ludicrously cropped for widescreen on the DVD. I haven't seen the cropped version, but Amazon reviewers are in total agreement that it's a travesty. The widescreen framing really reduces the visual impact of some shots and, apparently, even the soundtrack has been tinkered with. Most people, unaware of the laserdisc, say that it's a poor substitute for their earlier VHS copies.

But the LD? It's a superb demonstration piece which I've often played to my visitors. Even those who aren't aware of Gabriel's work, or aren't particularly fond of him, have sat open-mouthed in amazement at the combination of music and visuals in this performance.

So again, it's a case of hang on to those laserdiscs - you won't find better elsewhere.
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PostSubject: Re: LASERDISC REVIEWS   LASERDISC REVIEWS EmptyMon Jun 20, 2011 10:44 am

LASERDISC REVIEW: STAR TREK - The Animated Series 1973/4

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Format: Laservision
Studio: Paramount Studios
Year of Release: 1990 then re-released 1997
TV Standard: NTSC
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 (4:3)
Sound: Analogue, mono
Running Time: 520+mins (approx.)
Discs/Sides: 6 Disc, 11 Sides, CLV
Replay Equipment:

PIONEER CLD-D925 Laserdisc Player, connected via AV amp
Samsung 46” 1080p LCD HDTV (calibrated using a Video Essentials Laserdisc calibration tool)
PIONEER SR-609K A/V Receiver
Ixos Gold Tos-Link audio cable, AV-GOLD composite leads.
Eltax Speakers/sub

Movie Genre: SF space adventure.

The Movie

People wonder why Star Trek has gained its legendary status, a show which barely lasted through three seasons in its initial run. Yet it is still very much alive. Indeed it is now re-launching on a second set of brand new, cinematic adventures with a whole new cast in all the familiar roles.

Star Trek has a long and rich history across multiple media, from TV to books, comics and models, to clothing, movies and VHS…and, of course, on Laserdisc.
In fact, the animated STAR TREK adventures are listed (according to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] as the first ever TV show to be released as a complete boxed set on the format.In 1973, FILMATION studios produced 22 episodes with each one lasting a nominal 30 minutes (in actuality, about 24 minutes, with the remaining 6 minutes filled with advertising).

Unusual, though not unique, was that the entire principle cast returned to voice their characters, with the exception of Walter ‘Chekov’ Koenig. But then he did in fact get a full writing credit as he contributed a written episode to the series (the only other show where the leads reprised their original roles was in Filmation’s second run at BATMAN). So thorough were the attempts to make the animated TREK as ‘real’ as possible that even the voices of slightly more peripheral characters sounded like the originals, so Sarek still sounds like Sarek and Harcourt Fenton Mudd still sounds like Leo Walsh (sorry…Trekker’s in-joke there!)

Sadly for Gene Roddenberry and his crew, and in spite of trying their hardest to keep a sense of continuity, two things worked against them.

1) The 25 minute running time, which was just not long enough to build the kinds of stories they were trying to tell.

2) Filmation Studios themselves. As a studio, they had the industry-wide reputation for doing things ‘on the cheap’. This was usually achieved by using lots and lots of recycled ‘stock’ shots. Also, the fact that the actual level and overall quality of the animation was not very high, all lead to a associated faults, like a terrible lack of continuity within the episode.

And yet, for all its faults, it is not without a certain amount of charm. Even though Roddenberry himself eventually disowned the show later on, you can see what the makers were trying to do, even through the cheapness. So in many ways, it is true bona fide TREK.

THE DISKS.

The Picture.

This NTSC only set, is encoded in the CLV format, allowing four episodes per disc at two per side. Rather than the cover-all name of LASERDISC, this set is identified as a LASERVISION set.

Video quality is actually rather good, considering the material being stored was cheap from start-to-finish. It is framed at 1.33:1 (4:3 Academy ratio) and the series has been transferred rather well, all things considered, with no bleed and good sharp edges. Colour does seem a little diluted and a little weak. However, I compared it to my PAL Region 2 DVD set and there is a difference (of course) but the LD holds up very well by comparison. Even with what I suspect is a fair amount of tinkering having been done to the DVD set before release, the two are actually a lot closer than some people might feel comfortable admitting.

The Sound.

With the video being pretty good, the audio was not too far behind. Sadly it only comes in a mono and analogue flavour, but it is still pretty good. It would have been good to have the sound in at least stereo. I know that in 1973 (when we got the series in the UK) stereo TV was a looooooong way away, but for the LD release, would a stereo mix have been too much to ask..? I guess so.

CONCLUSION.

Presented over 6 discs, this is actually a rather nice set to have. It marks a point in history for STAR TREK, as well as marking one for Laserdisc as a format. So content aside, it is of historical significance in the life of the big silver platters.

That said, it is sadly let down by its cover art, which does everything in its power to claw back the “kiddie” element that the TREK production crew (not the Filmation crew) tried studiously to get away from. The words ‘garish’ and simplistic’ would not be out of place as descriptives. The lower box face has the titles of the 22 episodes shown in order, with a thumbnail snapshot of each episode.

As a STAR TREK fan who is more than old enough, I remember this airing originally on the BBC, so the series holds some emotional connect for me. I am glad to have it in my collection and that it is presented here as well as it has been.

Not all the stories make sense, and some of them are just plain daft…but some, they hold that spark of classic TREK originality and brilliance, and truly benefitted from the fact that it was made in animation. Otherwise the costs involved in producing such episodes in ‘live-action’ would have deemed it un-filmable.

STAR TREK will live forever, 46 years later I am writing a Laserdisc review of it as proof.

“Fascinating!”

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OVERALL MARK: 25 OUT OF 30




Last edited by PeaceMaker1 on Tue Aug 09, 2011 6:29 am; edited 3 times in total (Reason for editing : Spelling errors.)
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PostSubject: Re: LASERDISC REVIEWS   LASERDISC REVIEWS EmptyTue Jun 21, 2011 6:47 am

A good an detailed review, thanks : )
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PostSubject: Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer: Laserdisc Review   LASERDISC REVIEWS EmptyThu Aug 04, 2011 2:29 am

Laserdisc Review: Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer.


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Format: Laserdisc
Studio: MPI Home Entertainment
Year of Release: 1990
TV Standard: NTSC
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 (approx)
Sound: Stereo on analogue and digital tracks
Running Time: 83mins
Discs/Sides: 1 Discs, 2 Sides, CLV

Replay Equipment:

PIONEER DVL-909 Laserdisc Player, connected via the Pioneer AV amp.
Phillips 47” 1080p LCD HDTV (calibrated using a Video Essentials Laserdisc calibration tool)
PIONEER SR-609K A/V Receiver
Ixos Silver Tos-Link audio cable, Belkin ‘AV-GOLD’ Video Lead.
Eltax and Acoustic Solutions Speakers/sub

Movie Genre: Graphic Horror Thriller.

The Movie

This film is very well made, despite its very modest budget. It is based loosely on the musings of real-life serial killer Henry Lee Lucas.
The film opens with a montage of scenes that follow Henry’s trail of horrific murders. As the camera follows each death scene, an overlay of audio from that particular murder bursts out from the film, to truly cement just how brutal Henry really is.

On the outside, Henry (Michael Rooker) is a stand-up guy. He is polite, helpful and holds down a regular job – it’s a quite apt one, he’s an exterminator. He shares an apartment with an old prison friend named Otis (Tony Towles).

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Into their lives comes Becky (Tracy Arnold), Otis’ sister. She has recently split with her husband and their daughter is with her mother, whilst Becky tries to earn some money for them. She moves into the apartment and almost straight away, feels an attraction for Henry. His quiet and shy demeanour attracts her and, whilst Otis is out, she confides in him of her troubled and abused past. Henry too confesses that he also had an abusive parent, an alcoholic prostitute mother that made him watch as she ‘conducted her business’ with men in front of him and then beat him. He also confirms a story that Otis has already told her, that his prison sentence was for killing his mother. This bond of confidence draws her to him.

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The next night, whilst Henry and Otis are in the company of two prostitutes, Henry gets angry at them and kills them both by breaking their necks. Otis is shocked, but does not show or feel any guilt. From that point on Henry begins to school Otis in the way of being an as-yet-free serial killer. He explains that the first step is to make every kill different from the last, and to keep moving from place to place, so that no clear patterns emerge.

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Therein lay the clues as to how the film will end.

Despite its horrible reputation and awful subject matter, this is an important film. It is well made too. It presents Henry as the monster, but sadly, the only person we have as a comparison is Otis. Otis is physically and morally repugnant, who was clearly only one step away from murder long before Henry ever arrived on the scene. His incestuous letching over his own sister is repulsive on every level of human decency, so when Henry has to step in and take control of the situation, you cleverly find yourself cheering for the non-repentant mass murderer!

The two main leads are very good indeed, with Tony Towles being superbly disgusting as the perverted letch, Otis. But Henry as played by a very young Michael Rooker is excellent, both quiet and deadly all rolled into one.

From what I have read, Rooker uses the ‘Method’ acting technique and would often stay ‘in character’ all day, sometimes even in the car on the way to the set. It’s said that the person that used to give him a lift to the set never really knew if it was Michael Rooker or “Henry” they were talking to on the way. So much was he to stay in character, it is said that his wife fell pregnant during filming of H:POASK…but she did not tell him until well after he had finished the movie!!

The Disk


The Picture:

This was not an expensive film. With a budget of only $110,000(US) it was shot on 16mm film and there was no real budget to hire even extras for the movie. The crew, their friends and members of their families, play many different parts, one actress play two of the murdered women in the opening montage sequence and one of the prostitutes killed by Henry and Otis! Now, I know exactly what I was expecting this film to look like on Laserdisc.

What a great surprise then to see that this MPI Home Entertainment, 1.33:1 NTSC, pressing is actually very good. The details are crisp and clean, with no colour bleed (no pun intended) was obvious and though the colour saturation seemed a little washed out, it did not damage that fact that this was a well made film. Despite (or maybe even because of) its 16mm origin, it does indeed have a very natural and film like quality about it.

The Sound:

Audio is available in both analogue and digital flavours, and we watched the film with a digital feed. Everything is fine for the whole movie – both sides – until you get to the last 10 minutes of side 1. It is here that there is some distortion on the digital sound that is very intrusive indeed. It is part buzz, part distortion and part drop-out. It is not, however, present on the analogue tracks.
That minor glitch aside, the sound is a very acceptable stereo.

Conclusion:

I should point out that this film is the unrated and uncensored version. If you have not already seen it, it is still quite shocking even by today’s standards. Indeed, it took 13 years for it to be available uncut on DVD (that’s 1990 to 2003!) Before that, you had to get it in from abroad.

But the thing is this… It’s not so much that acts of violence themselves as such, you would see the same kinds of things in any modern gangster movie, but it’s the cold clinical way in which Henry pursues his predilection, that one minute he’s quite and polite and the next minute he unleashes the cold powerful beast of brutality he is capable of being. His justification in the movie…”In this world, it’s them or us!”

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OVERALL MARK 9/10

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PostSubject: LASERDISC REVIEW: BATMAN (1989)    LASERDISC REVIEWS EmptyThu Aug 04, 2011 2:43 am

LASERDISC REVIEW: BATMAN (1989)

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Format: Laserdisc
Studio: Warner Home Video
Year of Release: 1990
TV Standard: NTSC
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (approx) Letter-boxed
Sound: DOLBY SURROUND on both the analogue and digital tracks
Running Time: 126mins
Discs/Sides: 2 Discs, 3 Sides, all CLV

Replay Equipment:

PIONEER DVL-909 Laserdisc Player, connected via the S-Video feed.
Phillips 47” 1080p LCD HDTV (calibrated using a Video Essentials Laserdisc calibration tool)
PIONEER SR-609K A/V Receiver
Ixos Silver Tos-Link audio cable, Belkin All AV-GOLD S-Video Lead.
Eltax and Acoustic Solutions Speakers/sub

Movie Genre: Gothic Superhero Thriller.

The Movie.


The story is very simple, it is not THE USUAL SUSPECTS in terms of complexity, and even I (a life long BAT fan) can clearly see that the more-style-than-substance criticism aimed at the film has merit. Never the less...

The police are after The Bat. A six foot nightmare that is scaring Gotham's criminals. The latest 'victims' of his crusade are wheeled away by cops and emergency teams, injured and in shock. Also hot on The Bat's heels are photo-journalist Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger) and reporter Alexander Knox (Robert Wuhl). Whilst attending a charity social function, Vale meets billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton) at his mansion. Despite their immediate attraction for each other, Wayne is called away by his butler Alfred (Michael Gough) to attend to an “urgent matter” The urgent matter is in fact a bogus operation at a factory, set up by crime lord Carl Grissom (Jack Palance) and designed to rid himself of an overly ambitious underling, Jack Napier (Jack Nicholson), that has been having an affair with his girlfriend Alicia (Jerry Hall). What Napier and his crew does not realise is that Grissom has betrayed them to the police, who show up in force and are lead by Grissom's pet cop, Lt. Eckhardt (William Hootkins). Eckhardt tells his men to shoot to kill but Commissioner Gordon (Pat Hingle) arrives, so he tries to slip away because he realises that he has been discovered.

Into this volatile mix comes The Bat, dressed from head-to-foot in black rubberised body armour and armed with a wealth of 'smoke-and-mirrors' tricks and gadgets. During the ensuing fire fight Jack and the Bat come face to face. Jack shoots at him but the bullet ricochets off an armoured gauntlet, a control panel and then back towards him. The bullet hits Jack in the face, passing straight through his flesh and bones. He stumbles around, badly wounded and falls over the rail and the Bat lunges forward and just reaches his hand. He is hanging by the one hand, over a vat of noxious chemicals. The Bat does not seem to have a very secure grip and Napier falls into the vat and is swirled away, out through the venting pipes and out into Gotham East River. Some minutes later, a hand breaks the surface of the river water, it is covered in a partially dissolved leather glove and the skin is bleached a cadaverous shade of white. So is born The JOKER.

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For the rest of the film, BATMAN must use all of his cunning, his technology and a fair amount of brute force and martial arts to foil the JOKER and his plans.

There was a real buzz in the late 80s, as BATMAN was announced as having been green lit for production. But I remember distinctly, the big question about this new big screen film was...Which direction would the mega-budget production follow, camp, or straight?

The first few stanzas of the new and grandly operatic BATMAN theme music by (long-time Tim Burton collaborator) Danny Eflman finally put to rest the notion that this new version of the BAT was going to be in any way reminiscent of the 'colourful but camp' 1960s version, with its deep horns, bombastic tympani and piercing strings. No, this was to be an animal of an altogether different breed.

The very first indications that something very new was going to happen in Gotham City was that there would be the very strictest of strict “No Cameras On Set” policy during production. The feeling was good, excitement and expectation were exceptionally high.

Then the cast was announced.

The backlash was enormous. I remember it very well indeed. It went something like this... “Who is playing the JOKER? You've got...Jack Nicholson? As the JOKER? Jack Nicholson as the JOKER! You'll be telling us that you have a comedian playing BATMAN next. Ha ha ha. What? What do you mean...you have got a comedian playing BATMAN” The lead star team of Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson really did not go down too well at the time and so, just as suddenly as it had grown, the shine had worn off the BATMAN movie just a little, for a short while. The few pirate photos to reach the mainstream press were not really anything to go by either, being quite low quality and because they had clearly been heavily enhanced.

Then after a while, when things had actually had a chance to happen, production commenced and filming got well under way, the trailer appeared.

“I'm BATMAN” rasped Keaton in his beautifully crafted, fantastically carved Bat cowl. The rest is history. It began a two movie run that cemented BATMAN as a viable franchise for Warner Brothers and made a worldwide star of Michael Keaton. Nicholson rode the extra attention, and sat back with his fee and a percentage.

Whilst it was (rightly) assumed that Nicholson would happily chew the scenery and try to steal the whole show – an opinion that was voiced and shared by the majority in '89 – it was only a few years after Keaton left the role that people actually recognised just what a great contribution he had made and that the “just a comedian!” label was harshly applied. He made a good BATMAN, but he made a great Bruce Wayne.

Marks 78%

The Disc.

The Picture.

Considering that most of the film is supposed to take place at night, this film has a very high picture quality throughout. Because of the predominantly dark shoot, you would think that there would be a lack of colour, but the high contrast things here are stable and well presented, such as the golden background on BATMAN's chest plate, and the yellow of his belt, the light blue of Vicki Vale's dress during the museum chase sequence and the dark purple of just about everything that The JOKER wears. All are reproduced well against the dark streets and do hold stable. The sheens of shiny or wet surfaces, such as the ultra deep black of the BATMOBILE and the wet streets looks good and not blown out in anyway. Skin tones look natural (except the JOKER's). Fine details are well resolved, such as the feathered edges of Nicholson's prosthetics. A very good picture.

Mark 88%

The Sound.

The Dolby Surround on this is really quite good. It is available as Analogue and Digital with only a very little to choose between them, bar the fact that the digital track is a little bit louder and separation is a little cleaner. I suppose on that front that makes it a shade better, but there is really nothing wrong with the other track at all. There are sections where there is great broad activity to give a full and vibrant sound field, like the busy street scenes and the AXIS CHEMICALS factory attack but also, a more subdued and closer arena during the more conversational moments. During these times, the dialogue is locked firmly to the centre speaker and sounds very good for it.

Mark 80%

Overall Mark 82%

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LASERDISC REVIEWS
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DINODISC LASERDISC & RETRO GAMES :: LASERDISC CHAT-
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