Time Bandits is one of my all time favorite films. I was excited to find this on Blu-Ray. Then I saw that it was listed as 1080i on the packaging and was concerned. Why on Earth would a company release a feature film as 1080i on a blu-ray disc? Apparently this is the standard format for films put out on blu-ray by Image Entertainment as they've done this with several other major films they've released. With a business model like that, I doubt they'll last.
The print's color is much better than the old DVD I had, and the image is nowhere near as dark. HOWEVER, the image seems to have simply been artificially lightened to make it less dark and the result is that the dark areas show blocking, compression noise, and artifacts.
What was MOST disturbing is that no attempt has been made to give us a clean print! This blu-ray disc shows tons of dust flecks and scratches in many scenes throughout the film, and there's even a splice shown that for a single frame has half of one frame and half of another, with the splice line clearly seen on screen. This was obviously taken from a projection print that is worn and damaged and not given the care and attention that it properly deserved.
The film has been released in other countries as 1080p with less compression and on dual layer blu-ray discs. This U.S. version by Image Entertainment is not that same quality. As usual, the U.S. market is treated poorly.
Why can't someone get this disc right?
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