Epic:
Elvis Presley In Concert 4K
(2026/NEON*)/New
York New York 4K
(1977/UA/MGM/MVD 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray)/Popeye
4K
(1980/Paramount/*both Alliance 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
w/Blu-ray)/Presenting
Lily Mars
(1943/MGM/Warner Archive Blu-ray)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: B/B+/B+ Picture: B-/B/B-/B- Sound:
B/B-/B-/C+ Extras: C-/B/C/C+ Films: C+/B/C/C+
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Presenting
Lily Mars
Blu-ray is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner
Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.
Now
for four new major music releases, most of which are here in 4K...
Epic:
Elvis Presley In Concert 4K
(2026) is a compilation documentary (and practically Rockumentary,
save its too-contemporary style) curated by Baz Luhrmann, who did not
direct one bit of this (despite how prominently his name is featured)
and did direct the mixed Elvis drama with Tom Hanks. An interesting
selection of never-before-seen filmed footage of The King from
various eras is better than most of the straight-to-video
compilations we got back in the day, but it is enough at 97 minutes
that fans will be pleased and others will be at least curious.
Almost
good enough to be a companion to the two big screen concert films
that MGM issued when he was still alive, Elvis:
That's The Way It Is
and Elvis
on Tour,
it obviously is not going to be as consistent, but it has more
highlights than not and when it is not being fancy in its editing, is
a pleasant watch. The high quality of the treansfers is a plus and
what ultimately saves this release.
Extras
include a Teasers, Original Theatrical Trailer and two TV Spots.
Martin
Scorsese's New
York New York 4K
(1977) is back and finally in 4K, though it was only about a year ago
we covered the film in this import 3-Blu-ray disc set, where I had my
latest thoughts on the film:
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16653/The+Brutalist+(2024/A24+Blu-ray)/High+Society+4K
Since
then, a cycle of horrid Music Biopics have arrived and they keep
getting worse, so this film more than reminds one of the basics of
any music film, basics that have gone out the window with the bad
ones we have had to suffer through (save respect) in recent years.
But seeing it in 4K after just having seen it in a better transfer of
its older HD master still delivers an experience you cannot get
unless you see it in 4K or with a mint-condition film print. Now
that The
Odyssey
is getting people interested in epics again that are not action or
superhero films, I hope more people discover and rediscover New
York New York
because it deserves to be and just keeps getting better with age.
Extras
include reversible artwork, while the 4K disc includes an
introduction by Scorsese, feature length audio commentary track by
Scorsese and film critic Carrie Rickey, then the Blu-ray bonus
features disc includes the International Version of
the film in 1080p, then repeats much of the third disc from the
Imprint/Via Vision (and a few other pieces) including a
scene-by-scene Audio Commentary by cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs
The
'New York, New York' Stories
documentary in two parts
Liza
on 'New York, New York'
interview with actress Liza Minnelli
Photo
Gallery
Theatrical
Teaser
Original
Theatrical Trailer
Alternate
Takes and Deleted Scenes.
Robert
Altman's Popeye
4K
(1980) was the groundbreaking director's one-time attempt to do a big
commercial Hollywood film, based on the legendary comic strip that
came out of the Thimble Theater strip in the 1920s. When The
Fleischer Studios (distributed by Paramount Pictures, who co-produced
this live-action feature film with Disney) turned out a series of
brilliant black and white animated shorts, he went through the roof
and became the biggest character around. Some might even say he was
a forerunner of the superheroes to come, but just had too much
formula storytelling and humor for that to be totally so.
Co-written
by the legendary Jules Feiffer and featuring songs by the late, great
Harry Nilsson, the makers managed to get Shelley Duvall just coming
off of Kubrick's The Shining to play Olive Oyl and a rising Robin
Williams (TV's Mork & Mindy) in his first feature film, in what
is a really excellent set of casting. The sets and costumes are
decent and the supporting cast includes Ray Walston, Paul Dooley,
Donald Moffat, Roberta Maxwell, Linda Hunt, Wayne Robson, Dennis
Franz, Klaus Voorman and Van Dyke Parks. Morton Stevens even did
more music uncredited. So what went wrong?
Popeye
is looking for his long lost father, finds Olive, as well as Bluto
who is engaged to her and he has to step in to help raise infant
Swee'pea, which is what you would expect from the storyline. Then a
supernatural twist used to save money on licensing a character is
used and it does not work. Some of the songs are interesting
attempts to make musical ideas long associated with the characters,
but they somehow do not add up to a full musical like they could or
should. The film has some energy, but not as much as it needed and
now that we know drug use (especially cocaine) was rampant on the
production, that makes more sense.
The
chemistry one would have hoped for, especially with this cast, does
not gel as it should, but I could say the same for John Huston's
Annie
that was made a few years alter and also had very mixed box office
and was based on a character from the same time. They had a good
budget too, so despite Paramount's successes with Saturday
Night Fever,
Grease
and Urban
Cowboy,
they were nto able to parlay that into a commercial or critical hit
here. Still, it has remained a curio for decades, Williams presence
has made it more so and any infamy from the production or connected
to Duvall (she was having difficulties on The
Shining)
make people still want to check this one out.
Popeye's
then-owners were so unhappy with the results that he refused to
license the character to anything like this in his lifetime, so the
recent attempts to maybe do a 3D CGI feature film was a relatively
new development, though that fell through. Fans have had mixed
reactions and the film itself is almost a cult item. Many more fans
were far more unhappy with the recent revision of Popeye as some kind
of gangster, no matter how many t-shirts that sold. At least the
animated classics keep getting restored and reissued (look up
'Popeye' and see the list elsewhere on this site) and now everyone
can see the film looking the best it has looked in eons outside of
really good 35mm or even 16mm color film prints.
Extras
include Digital Movie, while the disc adds four featurettes: Return
To Sweethaven,
The
Popeye Company Players,
Popeye's
Premiere
and The
Sailor Man Medleys
and (uncredited) an Original
Theatrical Trailer.
Norman
Taurog's Presenting
Lily Mars
(1943) was MGM's attempt to keep featuring a growing Judy Garland in
the public eye with another musical romp (only four years after The
Wizard Of Oz)
and this 'gal out of nowhere to stardom' tale is not bad, the songs
are mixed, as is the plot, which is a little formulaic and the songs
are not bad, but not as memorable as in her better films. Van Heflin
is her male lead and the orchestras of both Bob Crosby and Tommy
Dorsey are featured, so they wanted this one to be a big one. The
WWII was still going on, so any joy was sadly going to be limited.
Still,
Garland is amazing here, even when she is better than the material
and supporting turns from Richard Carlson and Fay Bainter are a plus
against a decent cast. Everyone should see this one at least once,
especially if they like Garland or musicals and director Taurog is
able to juggle it well enough. A nice restoration too.
Extras
include the MGM live action short Heavenly
Music,
hilarious detective/mystery animated MGM Technicolor Tex Avery
cartoon spoof Who
Killed Who?
and four audio-only bonuses: song outtake ''Paging
Mr. Greenback,''
separate complete sequence of and film version in stereo of ''Where
There's Music''
and Lux Radio Theater version of the film with June Allyson and Van
Heflin.
Now
for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 1.78 X 1, Dolby
Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition
image on Elvis
4K
offers various aspect ratios because of the variety of film sources
form the archive of never before scene footage used in this
compilation. The sources of the footage include 8mm, Super 8mm,
16mm, 35mm and 35mm Techniscope footage, usually in color, so you
will get some fine color often, but expect some flaws and limits too.
The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image on
thew regular Blu-ray version is fine for what it is, covering up some
flaws and not as good in handling color, so the 4K edition is the one
to go for. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes on both
versions are the same mix and do their best to sound as good as they
can, with some of the audio coming from magnetic sound sources.
However, the sound ranges from mono to simple stereo most of the
time, so only expect so much.
The
2160p HEVC/H.265, 1.66 X 1, Dolby Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD
Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on New
York New York 4K
may be a little softer throughout than I would have liked, though
that is part of the film's style. However, the color is great and
the closest to the dye-transfer,
three-strip Technicolor look for the film Scorsese intended. I liked
the older Blu-rays, represented here by the International Version
included in 1080p on the bonus disc here, but this is even better.
The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 and PCM 2.0 lossless mixes are the
same as the previous editions and sound about as good as the film is
ever going to.
The
2160p HEVC/H.265, 12.35 X 1, Dolby Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD
Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on Popeye
4K
looks the best I have seen the film since its original release, shot
nicely enough if not in a groundbreaking way, with Director of
Photography Giuseppe Rotunno bring it all to light. If anything, it
reminds me of the live-action Flintstones
films at this point, but the look is consistent and can look good, as
shot with the ever-underrated Technovision family of anamorphic
lenses. The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image is the
older Blu-ray transfer and looks fairly, good, but 4K is the way to
go here.
The
Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless mixes on both discs are almost the same,
with the 4K sounding a little different and slightly more open and
maybe naturalistic, versus the older mix on the blu-ray which might
be a little more direct. Instead of using Dolby, old magnetic stereo
technology or even DBX noise reduction, a brief-lived 4-track
magnetic stereo surround format called VistaSonic, only used on some
copies of Star
Trek: The Motion Picture,
Dragonslayer
and Raiders
Of The Lost Ark,
but those also had Dolby releases and this did not. As a result,
this has some interesting sonic moments and adds to the film's
slightly different feel. With the 4K disc here, the film's
soundtrack needs to have some kind of audiophile reissue soon too.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 black and white digital High Definition image transfer
on Presenting
Lily Mars
can show the age of the materials used in some of its softness, but
this is far superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film
that I have ever seen and Warner Archive obviuo9usly did their best
to save and preserve the film, as usual. The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix from the original
theatrical monophonic release sounds good, but shows its age with
sonic limits, so this is likely as good as this will ever sound.
To
order the Presenting
Lily Mars
Warner
Archive Blu-ray,
go to this link for it and many more great web-exclusive
releases at:
https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/ED270804-095F-449B-9B69-6CEE46A0B2BF?ingress=0&visitId=6171710b-08c8-4829-803d-d8b922581c55&tag=blurayforum-20
-
Nicholas Sheffo
