Jaws is coming on Blu-ray

[kidgloves]

Watched this last night on the big screen and it does indeed look fantastic. The detail in the crowded beach scenes is incredible but the transfer still has that soft 70's grainy look that I personally love from that era. There were lots of scenes that I don't remember seeing before then it occured to me that I had only ever seen the tv cut of the movie which I would imagine didn't have the long and slow suspense of the theatrical release. A really enjoyable experience overall and, yes, the shark is still very convincing.

[bassman]

I've just finished going through the blu ray and it's really quite simple - if you're a fan of Jaws and don't buy this blu ray, you're doing yourself a huge disservice. As kid mentioned, the restoration is remarkable. It's absolutely beautiful, while still maintaining the slight grain that keeps the overall visual aesthetic of the film intact. As Speilberg mentions on the restoration doc, the film never looked this good and it exceeds all expectations. The two hour "Making of Jaws" is ported over from the previous dvd release, so you know what you have there. The blu ray exclusive features of "The Shark is Still Working" and a small restoration doc are both very entertaining. "The Shark..." surprisingly covers a lot of ground not available on the "Making of..." and is a fantastic look back at the legacy and fanbase of the film(s). The only way I could see there ever being a better release of this film is if Speilberg ever decides to do commentaries, which I believe he's said that he won't. This release is a solid 9/10, only missing the 10/10 because of no commentary. Buy it.

[MinionZombie]

I should have mine sometime next week after it's released. I've had it pre-ordered for a few months now. Very much looking forward to the upgrade from my pan & scan copy on VHS.

[shootemindehead]

Got mine yesterday and agree with bassman there. The restoration is lovely. I personally think that there's not that much of a difference between a good DVD transfer and most Blu-Rays to be perfectly honest, but 'Jaws' looks absolutely beautiful. Watched it again, even though I could act in the damn thing (I've seen it so many times). I only just saw it in the cinema a few weeks ago too! It's just one of those film that you can watch any time. It's Speilberg's best film, bar none. I have some gripes though (Oh really!!!!! ) The extras are great and I wanted this edition because I've been waiting to see 'The Shark is Still Working' for bloody ages, ever since I heard about it on YouTube. However, I cannot expand the picture of most of the extra features to 16:9, which is a bit of a bummer. In other words they remain at 4:3 no matter what settings I use on my Blu-Ray player. On other disks, I can expand the ratio just fine by selecting the "16:9 Full" setting, but with 'Jaws' it's a no no. It's all the more irritating, because 'The Shark is Still Working' looks like it's been produced for 16:9, but it's outputting at 4:3 So you end up looking at a 16:9 ratio picture in a 4:3 frame on a 16:9 TV. In other words, a tiny rectangular box on a big fu*kin tele. The documentary itself is very good and it's great to see more of what went on behind the making of the film and its aftermath and even though I already know a great deal of that story, it's always a joy to hear more. 'The Shark is Still Working' and 'The Making of Jaws' are great companions to the film. I haven't watched the restoration documentary yet though, but more than likely it'll retread the usual restoration ground, interesting though that is. All in all a great package, it's just pity that 'The Shark is Not Working' wasn't produced in 16:9 for the disk and a shame that Blu-Ray doesn't allow 4:3 to be blown up to 16:9, but that's a tech limitation.

[MinionZombie]

Maybe it's a weird conflict with your Blu-Ray player that stops you from expanding the picture to fill your widescreen TV - I too understand the nuisance when special features aren't rendered out to the appropriate aspect ratio. Heck, even on Red State the extra features had that - and they were produced in widescreen, yet whatever numpty rendered out the files did a piss poor job (not only in 4x3, but the NTSC to PAL conversion is awful - thankfully the film itself is perfect in these regards, but as an extras junkie, I was pissed about that). As for the restoration doc - it was made available online months ago when the set was announced. Curious really as it's brand-new content, but I found it to be fascinating. It was about 8 or 9 minutes, I think, and I'd have liked more, but what's there I found to be fascinating. I'd always wondered how they did these restorations, rather than just the normal 'before/after' comparisons you so often get. Should have mine middle/late next week.

[shootemindehead]

Maybe, but I'm not sure. I think that some BDs just don't allow for picture expansion. I wouldn't mind that much if 'The Shark is Still Working' was actually shot for 4:3, like 'The Making f Jaws'. But it's not, which makes the whole situation absurd. What you have is black bars on the top and bottom, as well as the sides. The actual picture is tiny on my 32" 16x9 screen. It makes you wonder what kind of gombeens they're getting in to engineer the disks. I love extras too, which is why I loved the DVD thing in the first place. There's disks I've bought purely for the extras! Anyhow...

[AcesandEights]

So...any commentary tracks?

[shootemindehead]

Um...not that I can find.

[MinionZombie]

Shoot, aye, it is a nuisance when they have widescreen features but rendered out to 4x3 ... I've got a couple of movies that are the same way, such as "Death Machine", which is a 2.35:1 movie which was rendered out to 4x3!!! Clearly they just ripped it from a master VHS or something, but it's so annoying and because it's 2.35:1 it looks really ruddy stupid if you don't "zoom" the picture, which in itself is a nuisance because that drops the picture quality ... but slightly fuzzier picture is better than a big black bar prison around the image.

[EvilNed]

Death Machine as in... the Death Machine?

[MinionZombie]

Death Machine as in... the Death Machine? You know it.

[bassman]

So...any commentary tracks? None. As I mentioned in my review, I believe Speilbarg has never done a commentary and has gone on record as saying that he won't as "the film should speak for itself" or something along those lines.

[shootemindehead]

Shoot, aye, it is a nuisance when they have widescreen features but rendered out to 4x3 ... I've got a couple of movies that are the same way, such as "Death Machine", which is a 2.35:1 movie which was rendered out to 4x3!!! Clearly they just ripped it from a master VHS or something, but it's so annoying and because it's 2.35:1 it looks really ruddy stupid if you don't "zoom" the picture, which in itself is a nuisance because that drops the picture quality ... but slightly fuzzier picture is better than a big black bar prison around the image. I think I've figured out the problem... ...It's bloody Universal. Their BD's don't allow zooming. They don't seem to allow the resumption of playback either. The bloody clowns. WB's, Fox, etc seem to be fine.