Although they should have more extras for a lot of their movies, I think they're the best when it comes to older movie transfers. I've watched tons of 80's movies they're released, and I'm astonished at how good they look. Anybody else agree, or have opinions?

Depends on what you mean by "older" movies. MGM are notorious in some circles for their extremely shoddy treatment of films from the 1930s and 1940s. They certainly don't compare to Warners or even to Universal, Fox, or Paramount in that regard.

Welcome to the forum. You may have to read the rules of the forum again to see that this kind of vague threads are not seen with good eyes by the members and moderators. Use ? to ask questions and do a search before posting, because maybe somebody else asked the same question before.

Nonsense...with a few excpetions they are one of the worst!!!

Ciao,
Pro-B

While I would take most studios over MGM in terms of quality transfers for classic films, WB and Criterion would fight for the top spot.

-JP

What movies have you seen that you're impressed with?

Death Wish II, Death Wish 3, Death Wish 4, Revenge of the Ninja, American Nina, Teen Wolf, Road House, The Last American Virgin, to name a few. And these are lower level B-movies. It's amazing to see these type of movies look so good.

They did a splendid job with 'The Horse Soldiers'....

haahhahahah no.

WB is the best with their catalog, hands down. MGM has done well with a "select few" of their titles (Mad Max comes to mind), however as a whole, not a chance.

I don't know if this thread is more about 'reference quality for the exacting cinephile' vs 'REALLY nice transfer given the source,' but MGM does do nice work. Has no one here ever viewed a 'Midnite Movies' disc? Take a gander at 'Panic in Year Zero/ The Last Man on Earth.' I have most of the MM's, and they all look very nice.

On that particular release, there's a bit of edge enhancement, a lot of softness in the images, and some bad combing in the motion sequences (as pointed out by DVDBeaver with the following screen capture from "The Last Man on Earth")..



Their transfers may top all of the $2 public domain copies, but I certainly wouldn't call them "very high quality," and definitely would not do so in respect to the work being done by WB, Criterion and the like.

-JP

If by the above statement you mean bastardizing about 90% of the Brando titles they own and the fact that one of the greatest American actors was treated with snubbing "releases"...while...Get Shorty, Legaly Blond and the like were granted the obligatory SE then...I suppose I am one of those "exacting cinephiles", unhappy with MGM, and their "REALLY nice transfers given the source".

Ciao,
Pro-B

MGM generally does a great job with their catalog horror titles. Not only are most of them remastered and presented in their original aspect ratios and 16x9 enhanced, but many times when there is a longer European cut of the film MGM will use that longer cut for the DVD. Such is the case with the 1976 suspense/thriller, The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane starring Jodie Foster. I have a lot of their horror DVDs. The Amityville Horror 4-Disc Box Set (including parts 1, 2, and 3), Clownhouse, The Fog (1979), Killer Klowns From Outer Space, The Howling (SE), The Last House on the Left, Poltergeist II: The Other Side/Poltergeist III (Double Feature), etc. All of them are 16x9 and look great. MGM has also done a really great job with a lot of other films in my collection including Showgirls (VIP Edition), Spaceballs (Collector's Edition 2-Disc Set), Escape From New York (Special Edition 2-Disc Collector's Set), Firewalker, The Princess Bride (Special Edition), etc.

MGM dropped the ball big time with the Death Wish films. They may look good in terms of sharpness, detail, and color, but they're all presented in open matte and/or pan and scan when they should be anamorphic widescreen. Death Wish II suffers much more. There is a European cut of the film that is BRUTAL and I can't emphasize that enough. I saw this particular cut of the film playing on Encore's Action channel about three or four years ago. The scene at the beginning where the housemaid is raped and murdered is extremely graphic. When you watch this scene on channels that edit their movies and have commercials you don't see anything. It's completely cut out. In the R rated theatrical cut (which is on the DVD) you do see a little bit of nudity, but it's very quick cuts and the entire rape sequence is completely glossed over. You see the thugs stripping her, but not much else. I'm serious when I talk about the quick cutting. The scene isn't long at all. In the Unrated cut it seems to go on forever. I'm talking probably 5-7 minutes whereas the R rated is probably 2-3 minutes. You actually see the thugs gang banging the victim. She's completely naked, bent over the bed, and the thugs are taking turns running and jamming themselves into her while yelling and laughing. Later on, when Bronson's daughter jumps to her death, you see her get impaled on the metal fence bar. You then see a tight shot of her face spitting blood. You don't see anything in the R rated cut.

I mainly buy horror titles from them, so I gotta agree, they do great work. Their transfer on Tentacles ('77) is one of the best I've ever seen.

Actually, have you seen the $1 public domain transfer of The Last Man on Earth? Non-anamorphic, but not really that bad.

Take a look at their transfer of Heavy Traffic, a movie made in 1973. Great movie, but what a shitty transfer! (Their transfer of Fritz the Cat was better, though.)