30/10 edit: Looks like the deals are no longer stacking. Marking this deal as expired but you can still get 2 for $40.
I noticed two current JB deals - 2 for $40 4k blu rays / 20% off movies - are stacking with each other. As a result you can currently get 2 for $32 4k blu rays.
The movie selection is pretty good too:
Top Gun Maverick
Dune
The Batman
Dungeons and Dragons
Delivery tends to kill the deal so its best to pick up from your local store.
I watched it a few weeks ago.
Some people online seem to have issues with its colour grading, but my guess is that they were watching on a set-up that doesn't support Dolby vision, because I thought it looked amazing (Panasonic UB820 connected to LG C2).
Definitely one of my favourites
2001 Odyssey in 4K looks absolutely stunning and I was blown away with the detail. I couldn't believe I was watching a movie that was released in 1968. Must have for 4k collectors.
Is dune 2k upscaled or true 4k
How's is the bladerunner 4k editions?
I haven't seen the original Blade Runner on 4k disc, but Blade Runner 2049 is reference quality, basically a must own for any 4k disc collector.
Edit: Otherwise from quick research Dune was shot at 4.5k and the disc is a 4k intermediate.
Is there a site that documents what BDs are high (reference?) quality?
There's no single authority, but just google or YouTube reviews of the 4k disc that you are interested in and you'll find something. There are many sites which do reviews of the audio and video quality of each.
There is, Blu-ray.com
A lot of technical data for each title (including if it's native 4K or an upscale), reviews, upcoming releases calendar…
@Alx75: The forums are way more reliable on video/audio quality than the formal site reviews. Technical data for each disc is a great resource.
@Randolph Duke: There's forums there too, so overall a very resourceful site. I use it all the time to see what's coming out and what is (or not) worth picking up.
Blade Runner 2049 is essential in anyone's 4k collection.
Perfection on an oled TV.
In the mid 2010s there were some movies that had 4K VFX, but Marvel for example were always changing their VFX and never leaving enough time. They upscaled most VFX from 2K. Classic example but even thought the Original Deadpool had 4K VFX despite having their budget cut, Deadpool 2 did 2K VFX.
Vast majority of films are shooting live action in 4K or even 5K depending on camera and lens choices, but the VFX path disappointingly despite significant increases in rendering speed have remained 2K.
This could be a price or pipeline but rending at 4K is still 4 times more pixels than 2K and the argument that I’ve read is event people with 75” screens aren’t noticing upscale 2K effects.
Go back to movies in the late 90s and early 2000s theVFX was usually laser scanned to film neg but they were only doing 1K and very little 2K because the render time.
I did some work with WETA on LOTR and between each film they would replace hundreds of blade servers because just the increase in render speed each year was quite substantial. That being said the texture maps on 3D models often look a bit ordinary LOTR is a 20 year old film and yes they laser scanned their VFX to film as well. These days it’s an entire digital path with RAW coming from the cameras, so live action on many blockbusters are shot on Arri 65mm IMAX in IMAX format but typically when we get the films, they are often in 2.39:1 or 2.35:1 and increasingly films, especially marvel we’re doing 1500 or more VFX shots per film and you’ll notice that you can watch on Disney+ IMAX enhanced where either certain scenes or the entire movie might be shown in this hybrid format, I’m not exactly sure of the aspect ratio. Back when the VFX was printed yo film you can scan that film now and get somewhat simplistic but decent resolution VFX shots, but there were also a lot of films doing VFX in 2K and upscaling them them because depending on how long the shot is you may not sit there closely examining the VFX.
Films where they used practical effects such as models and that still goes on depending on the director and VFX team, that’s shot to film at 4K but if they do the final grade at 2K then the entire film looks a bit soft on a 4K screen, it also depends on how far away you sit from your screen because at a typical 3 metre or more from a 55”” / 65” screen you are too far to be able to see the native 4K.
Film scans from the past before VFX or where there are a lot more practical SPX stunts look quite decent on a UHD-BD disc, it’s only since the full digital path where there is no film involved where everything is digital I wonder whether they will go back to doingbVFX shots at 4K or keep doing them at 2K. Render times are less but comic book films where the have a huge number VFX shots they are still having to outsource to 8-12 VFX houses and many of those VFX facilities might spend six nine months on one particular part of the film - credit goes to the collaboration between the person who is the VFX supervisor and working with a bunch of technical directors to make sure the look of the VFX shots look the same. And on big VFX scenes one house will concentrate on one scene which could consist of 300 different shots which is why they are often starting work as soon as principal photography starts though that’s a misnomer, since it’s all digital capture.
Old films need to find a good quality print or the original neg, once that’s scanned in, the could spend months removing film dirt, specs, sparkles etc. That is huge effort alone - but you want to decide if you are doing anything more than HDR10, and Dolby Vision is probably the only HDR format we will see where they can spend a good amount of time grading each shot. Also remember any movie before about 1991 typically has analogue audio, so they also need access to whatever original audio, typically it might be magnetic multitrack but it degrades over time. There’s a low bake process that’s kept pretty quiet that stabilises the magnetic oxide on the tape enough for maybe one pass, to get it into Pro Tools and then begin to build a 5.1 or 7.1 surround audio track that’s huge effort as well. You can see why older films they wanted to do Criterion releases of the classics.
Most of studios are not prepared to front up the money as a really good 4K remaster they might be lucky and already have the audio from a bluray or DVD version depending on how much the studio spent on doing the releases. In the early days of Bluray, I saw appalling transfers where no money or effort was spent on despot, and no effort on grading -and it’s really disappointing to see that.
It’s only because I worked in the industry for years where when FHD first came out all the post houses had to spend a fortune buying the new equipment and they had to pass on the costs so this brings me back to my original comment where UHD-BD as a format will become more and more niche for collectors- price might go higher they might all end up being criterion releases you might not see $40 UHD-BD for much longer.
Remasters of TV shows, not one has made a profit. Paramount lost a fortune doing ST: TNG, it depends on how far back we go but when all SPX or VFX were practical that should look good on UHD-BD. There are going to be a bunch of mishmash through the 2010s especially the directors who insist on shooting on film and there are about two dozen who want to keep film alive, that means you have to put film grain onto your VFX shots. That’s just extra effort.
It’s honestly hard to say where we will end up.
Computing power and video cards are at a point now where they could do 4K but I suspect we might be at the cusp of $200 million feature films going away because the vast majority are losing money - that’s partly because of woke still being quite big in Hollywood we really need the studios to recover from their huge losses because none of them, especially Disney aren’t doing very well financially - whether it’s woke or streaming or writers and directors they are churning out a lot of films which aren’t making back their budgets and if you are Ian investor you won’t put up with these losses for much longer. Paramount are hurting, WarnerMedia/Discovery they are hurting more. Disney took the worst hit, not sure how Universal are doing but we may end up seeing 20-50 million films with actual story , hopefully without the woke crap and constant recasting for inclusiveness - everyone is frustrated by everyone wanting to have their own streaming service that is bleeding studios as well.
Sorry got off track but we may get stuck with this upscale VFX for a while longer but there are bigger questions, can hollow wood take a chance on original concepts instead of sequels and for those films to appeal to audiences. This year there have only been a handful of films that have done reasonably well. Physical media used to be icing on the cake but the studios are actually saying they aren’t selling enough to make it worthwhile. Except on a 25 year old SD format which to me makes no sense but then again I’m like most of you guys,! I want to see quality, but I also want to see some decent stories that aren’t hijacked with woke agendas.
Sorry for the long post.
I hope physical media sticks around but we already know Disney is no longer releasing physical media in AU and NZ. Why? No clue. Can only guess it’s not worth it to them.
That just forces people to sail the high seas.
Thanks for sharing - you should write this as a blog post :)
There's an open matte (Imax ratio) version of 2049 sailing on the high seas out there which is worth a look. There was a decent AI upscale of it out there in 4K apparently but I could never find an active seed… :(
Nonetheless the 1080p open matte version is well worth a look if you don't need it super sharp.
https://www.reddit.com/r/bladerunner/comments/10853s5/blade_…
https://www.reddit.com/r/bladerunner/comments/uwy3dv/the_ope…
Note that Denis Villeneuve and Roger Deakins never really intended for BR 2049 to be in Imax format (hence you can't buy it on 4K), but the studio did it with CG touch-ups etc for the $$$
https://theasc.com/articles/uncanny-valley-blade-runner-2049
Unrelated but of note:
The Tron 4K open matte AI upscale file on the high seas is actually amazing and much better than the non existent 4K blu ray imo.
Awesome deal, thanks OP, bought 6 films.
Of course the only two that I want are not available in my local store. Boo.
I got ZS Justice League, Dune, Both Blade Runners and Interstellar and Batman for $96
Thanks op
Nice choice - though there are so many different cuts of the original blade runner. BR 2049 is actually quite a decent film and some quite innovative VFX, can’t wait to see Dune Part 2 - the first one I thought was quite well done, no woke crap, was a good remake - alas WarnerMedia didn’t make much on that or many of the films in 2021 since they were releasing to cinema but also onto HBO max. Still good choices I have most of those myself. I can’t tell how many times I’ve rewatched Interstellar. Hans Zimmer did a killer soundtrack. Nolan used real IMAX as those scenes look brilliant. Nolan is one who continues to shoot film and includes some genuine IMAX in most of of his films, haven’t seen Oppenheimer yet.
WarnerMedia are actually licensing a bunch of movies to Tubi and Roku and are in talks with Netflix to license quite a lot of content - even talk of ZS continuing his take on Justice League , but even Netflix cut back their budget for originall content. They aren’t getting good completion rates on some shows.
Blowing the biggest budget this year was Amazon on content for Prime Video. The CEO stepped in and questioned a lot of decisions- completion rates on Rings of Power were terrible. There have been some seriously misleading articles that Ring of Power did well, but with streaming it’s all about completion.
Netflix shows will be cut even if audiences watch 80%, but if they don’t finish it, Netflix are ruthless.
Netflix cut their original production budget but they also have been losing subscribers for the first time They were typically spending about six billion on original content. They cut it by a billion this year but the are also looking at licensing more stuff.
Amazon was six billion but the CEO stepped in and told the head of Prime TV that Wheels of Time because of the woke writing and inconsistencies especially with VFX, on the first series, actually did pretty bad. They also had Perception, a show which I liked, but didn’t do well, that’s now been killed off and a major retooling of Rings of Power. Seems Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy have a slate of programs they are hoping Amazon Prime Video will fund. They got burned when The new CEO of WarnerMefia/Discovery killed season five of Westworld and then has pulled it off the streaming service and licensed it to Tubi or Roku. He is placing a lot of faith in James Gunn and Peter Safran for ten years worth of DC films but a lot are not mainstream characters. Though they are starting off with a Superman film, there’s some really questionable stuff in there which may not attract audiences.
One thing I’ve noticed, and maybe others have too, Screenwriters for films or Showrunners for TV are writing female characters who are already good at everything and there’s no journey with any failures (a big criticism Rings of Power, but inconsistency as well) this seems to be a common theme on many series it’s part of the woke agenda and swinging the pendulum to having many female protagonists and older white males as the villains. Hasn’t this gone on long enough? We get it!!! There have been some strong female chapters over the years like Sigourney Weaver playing Ripley in Aliens, Linda Hamilton playing Sarah Conner in multiple Terminator films and even though Not a lot of people saw or were interested in Terminator: Dark Fate, she still owned her scenes. I agree there were still way more male leads, but they were still being written. Right now every film has to have a strong female lead who is automatically good at everything. Five years of this I had hoped we would start to see a bit of equalisation.
Anyway good choice of films. All favs of mine. Sorry got off track again.
One thing I’ve noticed, and maybe others have too, Screenwriters for films or Showrunners for TV are writing female characters who are already good at everything and there’s no journey with any failures (a big criticism Rings of Power, but inconsistency as well) this seems to be a common theme on many series it’s part of the woke agenda and swinging the pendulum to having many female protagonists and older white males as the villains. Hasn’t this gone on long enough? We get it!!! There have been some strong female chapters over the years like Sigourney Weaver playing Ripley in Aliens
I dunno, I feel like "this is a mostly perfect character that adapts to all situations and you know they'll always win" has been with us for a long time. We've had fifty+ years of Dr Who and James Bond doing this, but we cast a woman in that sort of role this century and suddenly it's WOKE. Feels kind of lazy analysis my dude (though your tech stuff above in the previous post was a great read, cheers for that).
Your point about Alien is kind of an example of this. Ripley was written in the original book/script as a man. Then
Does this mean wokeness began in 1979? Does this mean it's okay to have women play men's roles? Is it possible to enjoy things without having to view it through the culture wars prism? These are questions everyone needs to answer for themselves.
I think his point was very well explained with "female characters who are already good at everything and there’s no journey with any failures".
While some characters, male or female, have to be “automatically good at everything” because it's just that type of movie, a lot of today's movies/shows are crap because they jump straight to a perfect (female) character when they could have built that character over time, and in that way make it more realistic, likeable, authentic. It's as if she needs to be perfect from the start so we can all spend 2 hours/whatever number of seasons admiring how awesome she is. That's why they feel woke, not because it's a female character.
Alien… Ripley was scared shitless throughout the whole movie and (although we all knew she will "win") it didn't feel like she's in control, strong, confident from the start. She had to get to that point. She earned her respect with the audience and nobody cared that she is a woman. It literally didn't matter! If they made a remake today, with I assume black trans woman (because we also can't have original race/sex in remakes), it(?) would be kicking alien ass right from the start and saving crying scared men along the way.
While some characters, male or female, have to be “automatically good at everything” because it's just that type of movie, a lot of today's movies/shows are crap because they jump straight to a perfect (female) character when they could have built that character over time, and in that way make it more realistic, likeable, authentic. It's as if she needs to be perfect from the start so we can all spend 2 hours/whatever number of seasons admiring how awesome she is. That's why they feel woke, not because it's a female character.
Sure, so outside of projects that require a perfect character (the Dr Who's etc), making a character too strong without a development arc is a problem that makes the movie bad.
But that's shitty writing. That's not "woke".
Otherwise, are we saying that this only happens with female characters? I'm not going to find a movie with a far-too-perfect male character? I'm not going to find a lot of movies with that very same thing in it, but with male leads?
@Crow K: I agree it's partly bad writing, and not saying it's happening only with female characters, but the most important part of every movie/show is "does the charter feel right?". And the trend seems to be "it has to be a strong female character from the start" regardless of if it feels right or not.
In general, for me the problem is about unnecessary forced swapping (of any kind, not just male/female) and also about expectations.
Was it necessary, when they made Ghostbusters remake, that all characters had to be women? Why did Jaskier from the Witcher had to be bisexual? Why did Captain Flint, one of the most notorious (fictional) pirates, from Black Sails had to be gay? Why was Anne Boleyn, the Queen of England, black!?
If it was to improve the characters and make them even better and more interesting, sure, why not. But in every example above that was not the case, it was about forced "inclusion" of certain groups/races/ideologies. It added nothing of any value, it was objectively/historically incorrect and just made it awkward to watch because it just didn't feel right. And the interesting part is that it's never the other way around. An originally female/black/gay character will never be turned into male/white/straight.
Expectations… Imagine a full male cast remake of "Sex and the City". It wouldn't work, it's a "girly" movie. I guess that's why a full female cast of "Ocean's Eight" didn't work for many people, it's more of a "boys" movie. Why did everyone (except a bunch of "woke" media outlets) love Top Gun Maverick? Because the main character didn't suddenly become a black lesbian woman, it was exactly what people expected without any kind of BS thrown in. Break the expectations and you will fail. And that's the only reason why people are critical of all the swapping, because in most cases it doesn't make sense or add any value, not because people are bigots, misogynist, transphobic and racist.
@Alx75: Ghostbusters remake was awful in and of itself for a few reasons, including too much "improv" random gags and the fact they changed the underlying characters too much (they went from antihero schlubs to "we got this" types).
But.
If we take it as a given that we aren't getting the original comedians back in the role, the question is then "well, who do we cast?". And I can't see any part of the original Ghostbusters concept that doesn't work gender flipped. It's not like there was a huge masculine-culture centric part to the original movie we are suddenly moving away from.
They screwed the movie up with bad idea changes, but I don't think "the cast are women" was the worst of it. But people held the original in high regard and found the shitty decisions a betrayal (as did I).
To wrap up your other thoughts, I agree it's not quite as simple as just gender flipping stuff, there's still cultural issues lurking underneath what we like to see. "Jokes" about a baddie being raped in prison are only to be made about male baddies, not females etc.
@Alx75: Yeah, but doesn't the Alien thing play into my discussion? People saying "oh if they made Alien now but changed Ripley to (an unconventional minority for representation) it would be woke garbage".
If in an alternate timeline that 20th century Fox film president hadn't made the suggestion, we would have had a male Ripley back in 1979 Alien and when someone said this year "let's remake Alien with a woman as Ripley" people would be going "you're ruining alien with your woke nonsense, a FEMALE Ripley????"
But we're not in that timeline, and it was fine/brilliant for a film president back in 1979 to say "what if we made Alien now but changed Ripley to (an unconventional minority for representation)"
(In 1979 female hero/lead characters being the minority in the action film genre)
@Crow K: I truly believe the same would happen, people would hate it if the remake did a gender swap to male. However, if we originally had a male "Ripley" then I believe people would complain if the remake did a gender swap to female. Same as if the new Blade movie featured a white woman. Or a new Lion king featured hippos. Again, it's about expectations, about what made the original so good and if any kind of swapping makes sense and actually improves on the original or it's done only because it's a "trendy" thing to do.
@Alx75: I'm not sure about this, but doesn't the USA have an 'affirmative action' thing legislated to require that all (some?) employers have a certain percentage of staff being a minority and/or female/other?
Is this part of the so-called 'wokeness' we're apparently reeling from these days?
@Thiefsie: It's not wokeness, its just the natural progression of our legal system- Courts are making decisions following the results of current laws combined with human frailty in the wild. After all, they must act to justify their position and time.
We are the ones that elect the custodians of this chaos, who avoid accountability to the point that everything piles up until actual train wrecks are litigated to the point that cases are scheduled for hearings, and the legal system reacts to the resultant chaos. All this in the vacuum of near-zero proactive legislation (old statutes, unmaintained, with just a light dusting of politically expedient add-ons at random times, etc), but it's too much for 2 min package between ads, so we invariably rinse & recycle until abject disaster.
National Lampoons and the original Ghostbusters don’t apply any discounts in cart.
Any ideas?
I haven't checked all of the National Lampoon's, but it appears that the original Ghostbusters 4k is not part of the 2 for $40 deal, only the 20% off deal.
Crazy. Deal applies to TV shows too, so you can get Game of Thrones - 1 season for $35, or 2 season for $40
It stacks with 20% so 2 seasons for $32 (I got 1 to 6). Season 8 isn't 2 for $40 so you either get any 6 of seasons 1 to 7 in pairs or pair the odd one with another TV show that is 2 for $40 (can't stack movies with TV).
At the risk of being greedy, there are not too many titles for me to pick from this time around. My 4K collection is semi decent and outside of the occasional new release I have pretty much everything I'm interested in. That said I've purchased a few titles I previously haven't had (V for Vendetta) and other titles that I've partially but not fully collected (eg: Breaking Bad - complete series blu ray… when I only own Seasons 1 - 3 on dvd - figured it was better to start fresh in better quality!).
My 4K collection has just been a steady collection of titles I've already got the dvd and bluray of. I'm hoping to be able to collect titles I've never ever purchased before in any format previously, but that's a tall order. I've resorted to importing the titles I don't actually have, as they've only been released in various regions (UK or USA) and not released in Australia and may never be.
I feel ya, the Arrow 4k Limited Editions are a good example of what you are talking about.
I’m super annoyed that BD and UHD-BD players enforce the old regions and zones ACCC made such a big deal on DVDs - I’ve written to them and said so why were BD players allowed to have three regions and enforce DVD zones. Never got a satisfactory answer. There a some hardware modders around that will remove that annoyance. All my BD are Region 2 and UHD-BD finally got rid of it. But still enforce it on earlier formats.
Still coming up at $32 in the cart for me.
I've been waiting for this! Grabbed Top Gun and DND. Thanks for posting this!!!
Awesome deal - thanks for sharing. Stacked with gift card discounts that brought it down another 5% for me
Does anyone know which of these have Atmos sound?
Probably over 70% of them, but the ones I specifically know include:
Top Gun Maverick
EEAAO
The Northman
Crouching Tiger
Dune
Blade Runner 2049
The Batman
All Spider-Man movies
There are 4k TV show series that work with this as well. For example: 4k Game of Thrones seasons are 2 for $32 ($16 each)
Don't sleep on the 2 for $20 deal (now 2 for $16). There's some great niche titles in there that are usually quite expensive (like Umbrella titles).
In my opinion 4K bluray movies are only worth it if you have a very good surround system, I rather buy my 4K movies from Apple TV store for convenience video quality difference is minimal thanks to Dolby vision on Apple movies
Stack with $10 off Perks code?
What 4K movies on this deal are worth having and which ones should I stay clear off as some 4K I believe are not much different to blu ray.
I believe it was mentioned both blade runners are recommended.
Which 4K ones on this deal really stand out.
I have only just updated to a 4K so would love your recommendations.
I'd go BR 2049, Chris Nolan's efforts, Luc Besson's efforts, Kubrick's efforts, Oblivion, The Thing, Pacific Rim, 1917, Top Gun, Mad Max, MI: Fallout, Sicario, Dune, Wall-E, Martian, John Wick and otherwise your favourite movies that you love regardless.
And what makes them mostly stand out far above all else is the HDR colouring and Atmos soundtracks (if you have the hardware to display them well).
If you just got your kit up and running, I'd say Pacific Rim and Valerian are the most mind boggling to start with (mainly the colours and brightness of HDR), then when you've matured past the initial 'awe' you'll beign to appreciate the subtlety of more of the others above.
Because 4K is such high fidelity visually, a lot of old movies just don't actually translate that amazingly well (beyond standard blu-ray with a good TV upscaler) unless the original film has been scanned/remastered at 4K, (which is rare) or the soundmix is considerably upgraded.
Sometimes they end up noisy as all hell too, such as Looper or Black Hawk Down. But YMMV. Saving Private Ryan for example I believe was largely shot in digital (early digital) and is noisy as well, but frankly it's the audio you're going for there above all else.
Even to this day, not many movies are actually filmed in full 4K+ transfers, but rather 2K or thereabouts and upscaled, and often the CGI is only at 2K too.
Obviously it lends itself to blockbusters more than your 'quiet' flicks.
Side note: Some movies are criminally not available in 4K (for various reasons) such as Gravity, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Tron Legacy, Children of Men, Abyss, Event Horizon, Fight Club, Sin City, Se7en, No Country for Old Men, and so on.
Second side note: Buying a movie in 4K will not elevate it above average or craptacular if you just don't like it. Keep this in mind. Just buy what you like. Best example of this is probably Gemini Man, the movie looks great and the 60fps is spectacular, but it can't be elevated above a turd, no matter how good it looks - it still stinks.
I think only the latest movies , at least the big Visual Effects movies ,
have gotten good enough to make much of a difference to me .
I thought tenet was good , the flash , the latest marvel movies on an oled .
Everything everywhere all at once would probably be ok on a good tv ,
but haven’t watched the 4K version.
Ready player one and valerian are both awesome Visual Effects movies ,
but whether there any better than the bluray versions ,
I don’t know .
All this is my personal opinion ,
I’m sure there’s more knowledgeable opinions out there .
Back to 2 for $40
Thanks - I've marked it as expired.
Yes! Jurassic Park: Dominion…😂
Has anyone watched the 4k 2001 space odyssey? Wondering what the quality is like