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Post by ck100 on Feb 26, 2023 5:39:21 GMT
Writer/director James Cameron has said we'll get the Blu-ray/4K release of "The Abyss" in March 2023 at the latest. Well it's almost March 2023 with no word at all. Oh well. Anyway, it's rare when an extended cut is better than the theatrical of a movie, but that's how it is (at least in my opinion) for "The Abyss". It's the version that I'd recommend to someone if they were watching it for the first time. The theatrical version is fine overall, but it does feel like it's lacking and especially in particular for the last part of the movie with the aliens. The extended version gives a longer and better last part with the aliens. It also has more character stuff spread throughout here and there which makes the movie more well-rounded overall. Leonard Maltin Movie Guide Review: The Abyss (1989) - 3 out of 4 stars"Spectacular underwater saga about an oil-rig crew that gets involved in a perilous mission to rescue a sunken nuclear sub. Better as an underwater adventure than futuristic sci-fi, with a couple of crises too many, but still a fascinating, one-of-a-kind experience. Great score by Alan Silvestri; Oscar winner for Visual Effects. Special edition includes 27m. of extra footage, some of it all-too-obviously cut from theatrical release. It fleshes out characters, amplifies plot points, and includes some spectacular special effects--but "literalizes" the other-worldly finale. Super 35."  |
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Post by ck100 on Feb 26, 2023 5:41:33 GMT
Movie critics Leonard Maltin and Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert each take a look at "The Abyss: Special Edition".
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Post by wmcclain on Feb 26, 2023 13:13:04 GMT
The Abyss (1989), directed by James Cameron. When a US Navy sub has a close encounter with a mysterious object it crashes on the ocean bottom. Deep sea miners are tasked with investigating the wreck and looking for survivors. (Shades of Armageddon (1998): roughnecks to the rescue!) Compared to the other undersea thrillers that appeared that year -- DeepStar Six (1989) and Leviathan (1989) -- this is an entirely different level of filmmaking. The budget, dedication to realism and actual underwater filming are vastly impressive. Further: unlike the others there is no monster in this thriller. The deep-sea aliens turn out to be friendly. The humans bring their own terrors with them. Great cast, and we particularly love the three leads: - Ed Harris could easily be a villain, but here he is the everyman hero, always ready to do the right thing.
- Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio: we see why people don't like her, with that sharp sarcastic tongue. But with her lovely face, physical bravery and moral courage: we can't get enough of her.
- Michael Biehn is another actor who could be hero or villain, a favorite of the 1980s. In this case it is not his fault he has deep-sea psychosis and he even retains a sense of humor during his breakdown.
I had forgotten: in the final instant of the submersible battle, just as Biehn is about to slip over the edge, both he and Mastrantonio reach out as if to touch:  On the downside: - The blue-collar workers are always the same in these pictures. Homely but colorful.
- Another race to clip the wires on the nuclear warhead before the countdown timer expires.
- Strangely humanoid aliens.
- The alien rescue platform (?) on the ocean surface is disappointing, looking like a concrete sculpture. How else could it have been done? If at night we could have had the standard alien carnival lights, also unsatisfactory.
- The happy ending is supposed to be moving, but tends toward a Spielbergian sweetness.
- Are we to suppose the aliens magicked away the hurricane, just as they waved away the decompression problem?
- A romantic reunion in the last moment. That's always so nice.
Score by Alan Silvestri -- Predator (1987), Contact (1997). I'm not going to review the long weepy history of Home Video Hell for this title. It never even had an anamorphic DVD and every few years we are teased with promises of a superb Blu-ray "real soon now". I don't know if the holdup is Cameron or Fox (now Disney) or what. Why I should care more than they do escapes me. 1080p broadcasts have appeared on cable channels. 
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Post by HumanFundRecipient on Feb 26, 2023 13:47:30 GMT
I have found out the 4K release has been moved to August. A long enough time to make sure that it's both the theatrical cut and the special edition original cut.
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Post by politicidal on Feb 26, 2023 15:59:55 GMT
This might be the closest thing to James Cameron filming a Spielberg-lite movie. Good call by wmcclain. |
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Post by ck100 on Feb 26, 2023 16:17:17 GMT
I have found out the 4K release has been moved to August. A long enough time to make sure that it's both the theatrical cut and the special edition original cut. Assuming that it's actually being released, and that it's being released later instead of now, I've heard the delay is to have the release coincide with the release of Avatar 2 on physical disc. The idea being to have the two Cameron films come out simultaneously. |
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Post by ck100 on Sept 29, 2023 4:53:12 GMT
There was a Special Edition screening in Los Angeles on Wednesday with James Cameron in attendance. Cameron says that a remastering of a 4K/Blu-ray is done and should be out pretty soon. thedigitalbits.com/columns/my-two-cents/092823-1000“We did the transfer, all the mastering is done, I think it drops pretty soon. Like in a couple months—it’s out of my hands. There’s a lot of added material that they’re sticking in there, and it will be available on streaming simultaneously. But I didn’t just want to look at the old HD transfer. I wanted to do it right. And I kind of had a day job getting Avatar 2 done.”
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jjamp48
Sophomore
@jjamp48
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Post by jjamp48 on Sept 29, 2023 21:20:17 GMT
Good to know he has not forgotten/been ignoring this movie. That would be a shame.
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Post by ck100 on Nov 13, 2023 19:00:25 GMT
4K version of the Special Edition is coming to theaters for one night only on December 6th. With a 4K version available to screen in theaters, then a DVD/Blu-ray/4K for home version should be coming soon.
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Post by Jep Gambardella on Nov 13, 2023 19:10:20 GMT
4K version of the Special Edition is coming to theaters for one night only on December 6th. With a 4K version available to screen in theaters, then a DVD/Blu-ray/4K for home version should be coming soon. I just might go see it on the big screen if is shown locally.
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Post by ck100 on Nov 14, 2023 19:56:31 GMT
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Post by ck100 on Dec 7, 2023 18:47:53 GMT
Did any of you go to the December 6th screening? If any of you did, how did the movie look/sound in 4K?
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jjamp48
Sophomore
@jjamp48
Posts: 488
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Post by jjamp48 on Dec 8, 2023 0:42:41 GMT
Did any of you go to the December 6th screening? If any of you did, how did the movie look/sound in 4K? I caught the screening last night. Theater was packed, but the screen they used at the theater was more about presentation than cramming as many people as possible. Still, it was quite a turn out for 34 year old movie that really wasn’t a big hit when originally released. FYI, I hadn’t seen the movie for probably about a dozen years or more(I think I was more or less subconsciously waiting for an upgrade), but I was familiar with the director’s cut and easily accepted it as the significantly better version of the film. In my option, the three hour cut IS the definitive version. Anyway, now that that’s outta the way, I thought it looked and sounded great. Zero issues there. It has never looked or sounded better. For me though, the biggest revelation was seeing this thing on the big screen, the way it was meant to be seen and the version that was meant to be seen, after having not seen it for so long. If it’s not a great film, it’s pretty damn close. With all the claustrophobia, confinement and darkness of the film, you would think it would make the theater experience difficult for such a lengthy viewing, but really it wasn’t. It was easy to sit through and the audience was very engaged throughout. There are a very few shots, here and there, that date the film to something from the late 80s/early 90s, but if you had shown what I saw last night to someone who had never seen it before, they could be forgiven for thinking it was something from the late 90s/early 2000s. I don’t know what it says about me, or the current films being released, but some of my best theater experiences I had this year are highlighted by three classics I had not seen in a number of years: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Stop Making Sense and this. Again, I don’t think it says much for 2023’s output that these three mopped the floor with anything new I saw in theaters this year. A lot has changed for me since I last saw those three films, and all three resonated incredibly strong. Some final thoughts. Cameron is known as a very technical director, but once again his films yield strong performances. Here there are three from Mastrantonio, Harris and Cameron regular Michael Biehn. Supporting cast is petty solid. I think, more than the two Terminator films and Aliens, that it is The Abyss which points to the direction Cameron would be headed in with Titanic and Avatar. You can clearly see the makings of both those films in The Abyss. Back in the day(I’m talking about before Titanic), a lot of people would pick this as the worst James Cameron film(we’re excluding Piranha II: The Spawning). It isn’t. After this viewing, it is clearly a step up from True Lies - although that remains a very amusing romp. PS James Cameron DID appear at the beginning to talk to us lay people about his work. |
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