'Paranoid Park' - High-Def Digest Review

[Attebery]

Kenneth has reviewed 'Paranoid Park.' His reaction: Not a fan. This import Blu-ray may be the best representation of difficult, highly stylized video and audio. Supplements are PAL encoded (the film itself plays without any problems). For fans only.

Full review here:
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/1407...idpark_uk.html

[RandellG]

I stand by what I said before, the part where the dude was in the shower and the scene after that had a sounded great. Great work with the surrond

[depooter]

any chance of a u.s. release on BD?

[poof2124]

I hated this movie! I like Van Sant's work and I heard it was slow and thoughtful, but so many of the scenes just went on and on and felt like it was padding time to get feature length. It either needed a tighter plot or should have been a short film. I thought it was going to be a nervous little thriller about a boy dealing with his wrongdoings, but it turned out to be a dull as dishwater coming of age film where nothing happened.

I did enjoy Elephant. At least those kids' monotony was more interesting because it all led up to a focal point of violence. PP had none of that power.

This film reminded me of Wild Tigers I Have Known, which had similar conventions, but a protagonist that I actually cared about.

[Roger Mathus]

I purchased this BD disk of Paranoid Park last month and liked the film. I thought that the look fit the story. As early adopter of Blu-Ray I am beyond the stage of expecting all discs to look perfect and more into concentrating upon the movie. I question, however, the moral implications of the ending. I plan to re-watch to determine if I interpreted it correctly. Of Van Saints films, I tend to like MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO best. Gerry was rather unique and reminds me of desert areas near my home in central Oregon.

[project-blu]

Originally Posted by depooter

any chance of a u.s. release on BD?

probably not for some time. Tartan, the distributor, folded. their catalog is going to be/has been bought up, so then it's up to THAT distributor. so this, and I'm a Cyborg, and Lady Vengeance, which all hit in Europe before ours that got cancelled, may not arrive here for some time, sadly.

edit: Roger, i agree, besides the great, great, great Good Will Hunting, My Own Private Idaho is Van Sant's best.

[Ken Brown]

Originally Posted by Roger Mathus

I purchased this BD disk of Paranoid Park last month and liked the film. I thought that the look fit the story. As early adopter of Blu-Ray I am beyond the stage of expecting all discs to look perfect and more into concentrating upon the movie. I question, however, the moral implications of the ending. I plan to re-watch to determine if I interpreted it correctly. Of Van Saints films, I tend to like MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO best. Gerry was rather unique and reminds me of desert areas near my home in central Oregon.

How I neglected 'My Own Private Idaho' when mentioning Van Sant flicks I liked is beyond me. It's an excellent film indeed.

[deviationer]

Van Sants worst movie. I really don't understand how he even got money for this, let alone why it's on blu-ray. Hell that skate part is not even called Paranoid Park, it's the Burnside Skatepark. But of course it's based off of a book and not something Van came up with.

[intrigued]

I am a fan of Gus Van Sant's films and enjoyed Paranoid Park. I wouldn't mind picking it up If I can find it at a reasonable price.

[mattshiv]

The standard US dvd is available now for rental (as a Blockbuster exclusive) from IFC/Genius. It is presented in 1.33:1 and the transfer was pretty good, but I was bored to tears by the movie. I think the retail disc is set for October, but I wouldn't expect a Blu-ray release.

I liked "Elephant", but couldn't get through "Last Days." I thought that the basis for the story is good here, but it just is executed in an odd way. The story is told all out of order and in a repetitive way (unlike in the original book) and some of the young non-actors are pretty awful. The leading actor was pretty strong, but I didn't care for several of the other performances.

I made it through to the end, but just barely.

[kannisto]

Originally Posted by intrigued

I am a fan of Gus Van Sant's films and enjoyed Paranoid Park. I wouldn't mind picking it up If I can find it at a reasonable price.

I liked Paranoid Park as well, and also liked Elephant quite much. Very nice cinematography and sound + it was moody and fascinating. I wasn't bored at all.

[Sarang]

Originally Posted by n8boss87

probably not for some time. Tartan, the distributor, folded. their catalog is going to be/has been bought up, so then it's up to THAT distributor. so this, and I'm a Cyborg, and Lady Vengeance, which all hit in Europe before ours that got cancelled, may not arrive here for some time, sadly.

edit: Roger, i agree, besides the great, great, great Good Will Hunting, My Own Private Idaho is Van Sant's best.

Speaking of Tartan I would like to make something here clear. I checked on "A Tale Of Two Sisters" on Amazon UK and the box art shown had both TrueHD and DTS-MA listed. I say this because if whoever owns the rights for it now and releases it in the U.S. or UK without the Lossless sound, citing bandwidth, they're totally full of shit and don't accept it. This movie deserves to have Lossless offered. Anything less would be a travesty given it's great sound design. IMO this has one of the best soundtracks ever for a movie. JMO. I was meaning to buy the OST but didn't get around to it. It's probably out of print now. Sadly there's no SACD of it.