Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits $10 after Amazon price drop

[h3llbring3r]

Terry Gilliam fan's, the marginally produced Time Bandits just dropped to a more reasonable $10 at Amazon.
It's a ~$5 price drop.

Review
PQ issue: This pressing features an "interlaced 1080i/AVC" encoding. If you have the muddy looking DVD pressing that I have it's still an upgrade for $9.

Plot teaser:

Spoiler

The film follows the adventures of a band of time traveling midget pirates (of holy origins) and a boy who tags along.

Cast:
Monty Python alums- Cleese, Gilliam, & Palin
Sean Connery
Ian Holm
David Warner
Shelley Duvall
. .more.

 

[Squarehard]

I loved this movie but I never really bought the DVD since the quality was never really that great to begin with, but this is tempting.

Also it's at $10 now, not $9, so not sure if that just changed while you were posting or a mistake.

Either way, I may be tempted to jump on this.

 

[h3llbring3r]

Thanks, OP adjusted.

 

[LeRoy]

I love this movie but it's hard for me to pay for the less than stellar transfer that's on this Blu-Ray. Think I'm gonna have to pass on this one the way I did on Near Dark.

 

[arcane93]

[quote name='h3llbring3r']If you have the muddy looking DVD pressing that I have it's still an upgrade for $9.[/QUOTE]

Which DVD version do you have? I have the Criterion DVD, and I'm wondering how it compares to that. I wish Image had just let Criterion handle the blu-ray, if they weren't going to put any effort into it.

 

[h3llbring3r]

[quote name='arcane93']Which DVD version do you have? I have the Criterion DVD, and I'm wondering how it compares to that. I wish Image had just let Criterion handle the blu-ray, if they weren't going to put any effort into it.[/QUOTE]
I'll pull it and check, I know it's not the Crit' though.

 

[arcane93]

Oh, looking it up, the Criterion version was non-anamorphic. It's been so long since I've watched it that I had forgotten (probably didn't have a wide-screen TV at that point either, so it wouldn't have been noticeable). I guess on that note, the blu-ray is probably still an improvement, even if the transfer isn't that great.

Bah. I wish I were optimistic that this will get a better release at some point down the road, but I'm not.

 

[simmias]

Ugh, after reading some of the BD reviews I don't think I can buy this for even $10. This is one of my all-time favorite movies, too. I'll bump it to top of the queue at Netflix to check out how bad it is for myself. Maybe I'll import the UK version... sounds like that one got a better treatment? At the very least I can see this dropping even cheaper due to the bad transfer.

 

[simmias]

Just got the Blu from Netflix. On first glance it's a pretty terrible transfer. However, I popped in my Criterion version and realized just how badly that version has aged. This is a pretty marked improvement in picture and definitely sound. Wish they could have gotten rid of some of the grain.

Looking at screenshots comparing the region B and region A blus here it's pretty obvious the B has much better picture. However, our version in the states has the superior sound. Ugh. I wish I could get the B version's video combined with the lossless track from A.

 

[h3llbring3r]

[quote name='simmias']Just got the Blu from Netflix. On first glance it's a pretty terrible transfer. However, I popped in my Criterion version and realized just how badly that version has aged. This is a pretty marked improvement in picture and definitely sound. Wish they could have gotten rid of some of the grain.

Looking at screenshots comparing the region B and region A blus here it's pretty obvious the B has much better picture. However, our version in the states has the superior sound. Ugh. I wish I could get the B version's video combined with the lossless track from A.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for checking that out. If only someone could remaster the best from A & B.

__________________________________


Yea, I think next time I find a steal on Amazon UK I'm adding there version in. If I have to pick between sound and PQ I usually lean towards PQ.

 

[simmias]

[quote name='h3llbring3r']Thanks for checking that out. If only someone could remaster the best from A & B.
__________________________________
Yea, I think next time I find a steal on Amazon UK I'm adding there version in. If I have to pick between sound and PQ I usually lean towards PQ.[/QUOTE]
I went ahead and ordered this anyway. It really is one of my all-time favorite movies. Once I got to the ending credits with the Harrison song playing over the photos I had to pull the trigger. Great bad guy, great cast, great sets, one of the greatest movie endings ever, and the credits always put me in a melancholy mood - the kind I get in after finishing a great book. Thanks for creating this thread!

 

[Ruined]

[quote name='LeRoy']I love this movie but it's hard for me to pay for the less than stellar transfer that's on this Blu-Ray. Think I'm gonna have to pass on this one the way I did on Near Dark.[/QUOTE]

If you have a player that is good at deinterlacing 1080i (i.e. Oppo BDP-83, Panasonic DMP-BDT350) then the transfer is great. If you have a PS3 or other player which botches 1080i, it might not be so good.