KING KONG VS. GODZILLA and KING KONG ESCAPES on BD April 1

[ebirahsmeg1]

[Dr Kain]

So... has anyone's discs been shipped out yet? Usually Amazon has my discs at least charged on Sunday mornings so they can get them out to be here by tomorrow, but there is nothing on these yet.

[Godzilla21]

[klen7]

I got a shipping notice yesterday from Amazon

[Dr Kain]

[lhb412]

I read this was gonna be a wide, general release, so I expect to pick these two up at a store tomorrow.

[MechaMinya]

I received my shipping notice from Amazon yesterday. Looking forward to tomorrow...

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

[Dr Kain]

Best Buy only carries the big blockbusters these days, and even that is minimal.

Anyway, my BDs shipped out finally and should be here around 245 tomorrow.

[mechagigan]

Got my Kong discs earlier today and KKvsG is currently playing! For those curious, no restoration work was done to this print. Due to the resolution, the flaws are more apparent with the print. At least Universal did not apply a lot of DNR, so grain is left intact.

[Joseph Goodman]

I'm looking at the KKvsG disc, and it seems a lot cleaner in many shots, compared to the DVD, so YMMV...

[John Schuermann]

Just got done auditioning sections of the two discs. Both titles look extremely sharp with excellent detail and contrast (no black level issues). Flaws in the prints themselves are pretty obvious (scratches, dirt, color fluctuations on KKVG, etc) but both films look just great overall. KKE looks the best, with solid color reproduction and far fewer scratches and dirt. Overall very pleased with these releases - they even sound pretty good (considering). If only the Toho HD transfers looked this good!

For anyone interested, playback was via my JVC HD950 HD projector equipped with a Panamorph DC1 anamorphic lens onto an 11 foot wide Stewart StudioTek 2.35:1 screen. Even from a seating distance of only 14 ft from the screen I am quite happy

[Dr Kain]

King Kong Escapes - So I just watched the BD to this and there are some issues I have with both the movie and the BD itself. For the BD, the video quality is actually quite good, better than I was expecting, but then, I never saw how it looked on DVD. Chance are though, if you have the DVD, there is no reason to upgrade to the BD unless you want to support Kaiju movies on BD in the US. There is not even a main disc menu, it is only a pop up menu when the movie is playing, and your only options are PAUSE, CHAPTERS, and SUBTITLES. I could have sworn Universal said the movie was going to include its original Japanese trailer, but there is not a single thing on it. Honestly, there should have been a lot more for $13 as this should not have cost anything more than $5.

As for the movie, it is pretty decent. The plot is okay, but the editing is bad at times as some scenes just don't make sense. For example, Carl, Susan, and Jiro are in a helicopter they have been told is going to Tokyo, and they are suspicious, but then they are suddenly in Dr Who's lab. Sure, we knew who the pilot was, but it just does not make sense because it just seems like they did not put up any sort of fight whatsoever and we are supposed to believe that. Another scene is the boss lady's sudden interest in Carl and everything dealing with the prison served absolutely no purpose. Then the trio escape, the boss lady tells them to come on, and in the next scene, Susan is in a yellow dress while the other two are still in their uniforms. WHAT?! The Kong costume is atrocious and his head is gigantic. The music is a good score, but could have been much better as it gets repetitive. The battle with Mecha Kong was not as cool as I remember, but it was nice to see them do something using Tokyo Tower instead of just your standard wrestling match style of fighting. Finally, the dubbing is pretty good when Dr Who is not on screen as they seemed to be able to match the lip movement pretty good for everyone BUT him. I will say Susan's "KONG!" is so god damned annoying after a few times. Did they have her sniff helium between takes?

Overall, I definitely feel the movie was a lot better when I was a kid, but that does not mean I hate it. In fact, I am glad to finally own even if it is dub only. As I said, you definitely don't get your money's worth of the disc, so if you are unsure as to whether or not you get it, you might want to wait to see if it goes on sale later on, as I doubt it is going to go anywhere any time soon. If you don't own the movie in any form, then you should probably get it if you don't mind spending more than you should for it. In the long run, I give the movie a 6/10 and the BD itself a 6/10.

[Cookie]

Anyone finding these in stores?

[lhb412]

I got mine at Moviestop during my lunch break.

[Goji 84]

And when was the last time you saw catalog titles released for $5 brand new? Please.

[Dr Kain]

[Goji 84]

Catalog titles from a major studio dude. Doesn't happen.

Regardless, it's such a petty complaint. The transfers for these are nothing short of amazing, and that's worth the asking price alone.

[Joseph Goodman]

I got mine at FYE, which means I overpaid...

[Alpha OTS]

I pre-ordered from amazon awhile ago, but no shipping notice yet.

[mechagigan]

I bought mine via Amazon, but I have Prime thus it showed up on release day (I love Prime!).

[Dr Kain]

King Kong vs Godzilla - Okay, I'm not sure what the hell Universal has been doing to their print of this movie over the years, but holy **** it looks 100 times better than the one Toho used on their DVD. Granted, this is BD and that is DVD, but still, the Toho print I have looks faded as hell while this, outside of a few specific scenes (like the evacuation one towards the end of the movie that looks extremely bad), this print was fantastic. The most notable for me is during the octopus attack on the island and Godzilla's breath does not look faded out. With that said, I will give the dubbing credit as they did a really nice job of keeping the dialog in synch with the lip flaps for the majority of the time. However, it is kind of sad when the Masters of Exposition actually know how to pronounce Hokkaido when the "Japanese" of the movie do not. That is probably the worst thing about the dub itself, is the way they would say Hokkaido, as it really pulled you out of the movie. The worst part though IS the Masters of Exposition with their breaking the fourth wall to tell the audience redundant information or wrong information (such as acting like Godzilla has never been seen before even though they know his name). Those scenes break the immersion of the movie more than the pronunciation of Hokkaido. Now, I have not seen this version since 1997 as I bought the Toho DVD in 2002, but the music changes did not bother me as much as I thought they would. It sounds weird to have Godzilla blowing up the tanks with no music in the background at all or to constantly hear the music from "Creature from the Black Lagoon" repeating itself during the final battle, but they did a nice job of making it fit. Overall, I am impressed, but I am still going to look for reviews on Toho's BD release of this movie when it comes out in hopes they fixed their video quality issues. I give the dubbed version of this movie a 6/10 (which is the same score I give the Jp version) and the BD itself an 8/10.

[Shokara]

[H-Man]

Toho didn't lose the negative, they threw away the trims they made in 1971 when it was released as part of the Champion Festival. IIRC, all those missing scenes were scanned from 16mm in 1991 and all home video releases since then have used that subpar transfer.

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

My work (Wal-mart), a local chain called Meijer, and my local Best Buy didn't get this in. My guess is all three will get it in when LP G gets closer to theaters. I also looked on K-mart and Target's websites and they only have the DVD version.

If I want this right now my only option would be to order online. I think I'll hold off for a bit before getting it. I'm in no hurry to watch it or any Godzilla film right now for that matter.