Kino Lorber 2 - Disc 4K Blu-ray 2017

[Le Bon]

Review and comparison video

https://ultrahd.highdefdigest.com/91299/thegoodthebadandtheugly4kultrahdbluray.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puWPXSbhxJo

[dave jenkins]

After undergoing new color timing, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly now sports a desirable balance between the overly pee-yellow/mustard-brown timing of the 2014 Blu-ray and the hazy icy-blue tones of KLSC?s own 2017 disc. From the opening credits, the red title cards are a richer red dipping deeper into crimson as the rest of the credits showcase impressive primary pop with rich navy blues and bold yellows. When that gunslinger?s face takes up the full screen in the opening shot of the movie you can already feel and appreciate the color timing differences giving flesh tones a more natural healthy pallet than the previous Blu-ray releases. This timing carries on throughout the film with excellent results all the way through the final iconic standoff.

KL will get my money.

[dave jenkins]

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film9/blu-ray_review_137/the_good_the_bad_and_the_ugly_4K_UHD.htm

KL will get my money.

[dave jenkins]

https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?d1=15782&d2=4091&s1=166680&s2=38018&i=11&l=0&a=0

Yeah, crushed blacks on 2021, but they look just as bad on 2014. With 2021 you at least get the right colors.

[Le Bon]

It's selling well. Out of stock apart everywhere apart from  Kino's own website.

[dave jenkins]

Mine arrived (according to amazon). I'll have to see if I can find it in the mailroom tomorrow. It's gonna be a GBU weekend!

[Lil Brutto]

You're going to have a great weekend.

[dave jenkins]

Took it for a spin and it is a HUGE improvement over what has been available until now. (I am writing about the standard blu-ray; I'm not equipped for ultra HD.)

Colors can be very pleasing. The opening credit sequence finally looks the way it should, with red reds, and white whites.

Detail, except where blacks are crushed, is very, very good.

I enjoyed the viewing experience very much. But. These are not the colors, for the most part, seen by U.S. audiences in 1968. Skin tones are never correct. And many shots have those orange-and-teal leanings we have come to expect from certain restoration houses.

It is instructive to compare this release with KL's recent issue of FAFDM, the current benchmark of what Dollars films should look like. FAFDM has correct skin tones, and we never see the orange-and-teal push. You can compare the colors of Eastwood's and LVC's faces in the two releases. They are almost always correct in FAFDM and almost always wrong in GBU. I do not say the skin tones in GBU are unsightly. They can be very pleasing. They just aren't correct.

I did not see the film in theaters when it was released. However, I'm speaking as one who did a pilgrimage to the New Beverly and watched Tarantino's IB Tech print. I am not sorry I have the new release. It is a pleasure to watch, and I will watch it many times I'm sure, while I await the next home video release which, I hope, will be definitive.

[drinkanddestroy]

Does anyone have the Amazon link? Thanks

[dave jenkins]

A Leone-nerd talks for 93 minutes about this release. Wow, man, get a life! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ko0utoKX2w&t=58s

[Lil Brutto]

Isn't that what nerds do?  Lol

I enjoyed it.

[stamper]

The Dollars More disc, Dave, just look more pleasing to you because it's from an old transfer, and you are used to colors from old video transfers. It's still total crap unlike the prints (which I have seen several times in the cinemas), which are closer to the look of the new GBU. The new Kino UHD is not 100% there and indeed, you can see that ugly teal behind trying to pop up over the color correction, but it's nearly there.

I would say the regular Blu is sightly worse than the UHD though, the UHD is the way to go.

The original german FOD (or the italian variation) also closely ressemble the prints, only they are incapacitated by the old limitation of then scan transfers.

The best is yet to come. As long as Ritrovittata don't get involved!

[Cusser]

A Leone-nerd talks for 93 minutes about this release. Wow, man, get a life! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ko0utoKX2w&t=58s

Same guy talks about the 3-CD GBU music score  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWEXRxAVRXQ

[dave jenkins]

Posters at HTF are reporting an "oily residue" inside the UHD/Blu-ray case which, if it gets on the discs, can interfere with playback.
https://www.hometheaterforum.com/community/threads/a-few-words-about-tm-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-in-4k-uhd-blu-ray.371814/page-12 (scroll down)
No telling what long-term damage it could do. I checked my copy and there was definitely something there: I think the plastic resin that the case is made of is sweating. I'm moving the discs to another case. The rest of you, take heed.

[dave jenkins]

The Dollars More disc, Dave, just look more pleasing to you because it's from an old transfer, and you are used to colors from old video transfers.

Kino's claim is that the new disc is from a "brand new 4K restoration." It sure looks good. Previously, the standard for Dollars films on home video was set by the Ripley's FOD, but the transfer on the Kino FAFDM is, to my eyes, a notch above.