I thought I'd start with an amendment to Monday's piece about The Simpsons Season Twenty. While the episodes are, in fact, in high definition, so far there's nary a widescreen presentation to be found. Based on the opening credits, I may have mistaken the jump from 4X3 to 16X9 by a season. The current run (season 21) has different opening sequences, many of which poke fun at the wider image. Still, I'm a little confused why Fox pushed so hard to rush season twenty out, since it technically misses the 20th anniversary and it's Blu-Ray release doesn't take advantage of the screen in the way fans are going to expect.
Additionally, there is literally one extra on the disc: a three minute teaser with Morgan Spurlock for a forthcoming Anniversary Special. Unfortunately, there's no indication of when the special is airing, or if it's going to be available. None of the commentaries from other seasons are present, or deleted scenes, commercials, making of's, or anything else. It screams of a quick cash-in, and I'm really not going to be shocked if you see this season released AGAIN sometime before season twenty-one.
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For anybody with Netflix's "watch it now", while you can't see any new Warner Brothers releases, what you can do is catch two movies that are a little trickier to see: Big Fan and Che. Now Che comes out from Criterion next week, but Steven Soderbergh's four-and-a-half hour Benicio del Toro as Che Guevara epic is going to be a little steep on DVD or Blu-Ray. Luckily, you can watch Part One and Part Two in HD streaming right now. I might just do that in a bit.
While Big Fan technically came out yesterday, no store in the area was carrying the DVD and Amazon has it on a two week back order, so I wouldn't be seeing it that way until the end of the month. Netflix, sensing this problem, not only has Big Fan to watch Instantly, but they one-upped the DVD version by offering the film in HD. Since there's no Blu-Ray release listed, you're getting a bonus here.
I did watch Big Fan, but I'm going to save that review for tomorrow. In the meantime, if you have access to the movie (instantly or on disc) I highly recommend it. Patton Oswalt is excellent, the character study is engrossing, and the ending was a bit surprising. I'll say more tomorrow, but go seek Big Fan out now.
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The Cap'n promised I wouldn't make you sit through another pan of Terminator: Salvation, and so you won't have to. I won't tell you about the reasonably interesting action sequences hampered by an idiotic story punctuated with massive plot holes. I won't tell you about the squandered opportunities or the myriad references to other films that were bungled. I won't mention the stupid ending, a weaker version of the "John Connor is a terminator!" twist that leaked prior to filming. I won't mention how toothless the film feels with a PG-13. I won't tell you all about how fake the digital Arnold face looked or the REALLY STUPID plan by Skynet that JUST DOESN'T MAKE SENSE, or how Sam Worthington's accent goes from "Southern" to his native Australian while he's hanging by a car frame. Above all, I certainly won't mention how the film feels exactly like the exercise in futility that I thought it would, but somehow manages to be even less interesting than I expected.
No sir, you won't have to sit through that, and I won't have ripped off a Harlan Ellison article to not tell you.
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In the wake of having written my defense of Rob Zombie's Halloween II - which is the best way to prepare someone for that film, because it really is Rob Zombie's singular take on the series - I'd like to hear from Cranpire and find out what others thought. Don't get me wrong; I've seen a lot of bad reviews, but none from people I know. So if there are some guest bloggers out there, I'm asking for your input.
Showing posts with label The Terminator. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Terminator. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Friday, January 1, 2010
Guest Blogger Nathan Presents: So You Won't Have To - Terminator: Salvation
Greetings, readers! As promised on Wednesday, our Guest Blogger today is Nathan, who stepped up to the plate and swallowed down a steaming pile of Terminator: Salvation, So You Won't Have To, and - more importantly - So I Won't Have To. For his efforts, he receives a copy of Blood Car, one of My Favorite Movies of the Decade (Nobody Else Was Going to Mention).
Without further ado, here's Nathan:
People tend to question my taste when I tell them that I actually enjoyed Terminator 3. While I acknowledge that it has its failings, it never ceases to be fun and more importantly it feels as if it belongs in the series in both tone and mythology. Terminator: Salvation does none of these things.
Without further ado, here's Nathan:
People tend to question my taste when I tell them that I actually enjoyed Terminator 3. While I acknowledge that it has its failings, it never ceases to be fun and more importantly it feels as if it belongs in the series in both tone and mythology. Terminator: Salvation does none of these things.
What we get instead is an uneven and at times confusing movie that tries to emulate and reference the first two Terminator films without actually trying to BE a Terminator film. The writers and McG constantly throw out callbacks to the earlier films:
A chase sequence featuring a big truck and a motorcycle? Check!
“I’ll be back?” Certainly!
A factory brawl with lots of sparks and molten metal? Absolutely!
“Come with me if you want to live?” Couldn’t live without it!
Now, I’m not saying that references to the other films are inherently a bad thing. It’s just that they are handled poorly. In fact there is actually a perfect moment for John Connor to speak the iconic “Come with me…” line to Kyle Reese the first time they meet, but the line had already been wasted early in the film.
Despite this, the real problem with Terminator: Salvation lies within the handling of John Connor and the ongoing mythology. Most of Christian Bales scenes are flat and pointless. It’s not the fault of the acting, Bale does a perfectly fine job of getting all he can out of a one note role that feels shoehorned into the movie, but when it comes down to it the majority of his scenes could have easily been removed without really effecting the film overall.
The plot fares even worse upon close scrutiny. Skynet chooses an incredibly convoluted method of achieving their goal of ending the resistance movement. Basically it boils down to them tricking Connor into entering a Skynet prison camp to save Kyle Reese. The problem with this is that if the robots are aware of Reese’s importance, it would simply make better sense for them to kill Reese themselves thus negating Connor’s existence (a possible occurrence which is explicitly pointed out in the movie.)
Now, I don’t want it to come across as if there is nothing positive about this movie. The acting is very good overall, with standout performances by Sam Worthington as Marcus Wright and Anton Yelchin as Kyle Reese. The action sequences (at least some of them) are also a
The more I think about the movie though, the more I think that it would be the most improved if all of the Terminator mythology were removed. It would simply take some cosmetic changes (names and designs of the robots) and the removal of a couple of scenes for it to become a reasonably entertaining post apocalyptic robot movie. However the overall film feels so different from those previous that all the references to them and their characters simply feel forced. Unfortunately, for it to exist comfortably within its intended universe it would need an overhaul from the ground up. I can’t say that I hated it, but I also can’t fully recommend seeing it. You should probably just pop in one of the first three instead.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
By the way...
Speaking of "So You Won't Have To"'s, regular reader Nathan stepped up to the trough and ingested Terminator: Salvation, which will be the Blogorium's first post of 2010. He also wins the extra copy of Blood Car sitting in The Apartment That Dripped Blood, so congratulations!
It also means that I won't have to watch Terminator: Salvation, which is extra awesome. Heh heh.
Meanwhile, the Cap'n will be back tomorrow with my Favorites of 2009 and the Honorable Mentions. Until then...
It also means that I won't have to watch Terminator: Salvation, which is extra awesome. Heh heh.
Meanwhile, the Cap'n will be back tomorrow with my Favorites of 2009 and the Honorable Mentions. Until then...
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Blogorium Review: District 9
I'm done taking my pot shots at Avatar. There's no sense in it, when I've already seen two science fiction films that in any other year would take the "best" list. It's only appropriate that District 9's Blu-Ray opens with a trailer for Moon, another movie destined to be one of my favorite films of 2009. But we'll get to Moon again next week. For now, I want to talk about the newest arrival of GREAT MOVIES, the Peter Jackson production of Neill Blomkamp's District 9.
The story concerns a spaceship that, for lack of a better term, stalls out over Johannesburg, South Africa. After rescuing the ailing passengers, the aliens - nicknamed "Prawns" because of their physical resemblance - are herded into a walled-off slum called District 9. The Multi-Nations Unit (MNU) confiscates their weaponry and technology, and a functional second class develops over the next twenty years. Anyone familiar with South African politics in the 1980s is going to notice some parallels here.
Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley) is a weasley MNU representative who enters District 9 with orders to con the Prawns into willingly evicting themselves, in order to be shipped to another ghetto outside of Johannesburg. To say that he meets resistance is an understatement, but it's nothing compared to an accidental exposure to alien liquid when Wikus interrupts Prawn Christopher Johnson (Jason Cope)'s plans to escape Earth.
By now you've seen the ads and some of you are probably still thinking that the film is another in the line of "Found Footage" movies, like Diary of the Dead or Cloverfield. To be sure, District 9 begins that way, with pieced together "documentary" footage punctuated by talking head interviews. For the first twenty minutes or so, it really seems like that's how the film is going to play out, but something weird happens. The subjective "documentary" camera turns into the objective third-person camera a few too many times, and almost imperceptibly, District 9 switches from "found footage" to narrative.
One of the many things I appreciated about District 9, which incidentally is also a variation on the "stranger who infiltrates us and then becomes us" that so many take Avatar to task for, is that Wikus never behaves altruistically. As late as the third act, when he has the chance to really help Christopher Johnson out, a change in plans causes him to nearly ruin the entire effort to restart the Prawn ship, just because Wikus is too selfish to put his own interests aside. Admittedly, if I was (SPOILER) turning into an alien and they only hope I had was suddenly pushed back three years, I might behave selfishly too, but it was refreshing that even as Wikus develops as a character, he never simply devolves into the "good guy" type.
I'm quite impressed that Blomkamp made District 9 on a 30 million dollar budget (compared to Terminator: Salvation's 200 million, for example), because with the exception of one or two shots, the Prawn look pretty convincing in the film. The ship always looks real, both the always hovering mother ship and the smaller escape vessel you see later in the film. Wikus' transformation is handled (mostly? totally?) practically, which really adds to the audience's ability to believe this change is happening - and painful. It may be as disgusting and painful of a slow transformation as I've seen since David Cronenberg's The Fly.
Speaking of disgusting, I might warn some sensitive viewers away from this excellent movie, if only because District 9 is an exceedingly violent film. It's not just the alien weaponry, which among other things causes people to explode (and frequently splatter against the camera), but also the tenor of sequences involving the Nigerians who exploit Prawns and try to steal their "power". You see, only Prawns can use their weaponry, so the Nigerian gang boss has been killing them and eating their limbs in an attempt to usurp their abilities. When he meets Wikus, with his alien hand and ability to fire the guns, he immediately plans to do the same to him.
I'll spare you any more spoilers or information. There are no less than a dozen reviews that focus on the relationship between District 9 and Apartheid, so forgive me if I leave that well dry. Needless to say, the parallels are there, as well as a number of other interesting comments about how information is perceived and delivered, and how that deviates from reality. Additionally, the acting is uniformly great and really helps sell the reality of District 9's world. It certainly doesn't hurt that Blomkamp adapted District 9 from his short film, Alive in Joburg:
Blomkamp's feature version is as assured and well put together as Duncan Jones' Moon, and it's going to be tough going deciding which of them I'm more likely to watch first. At any rate, we're lucky to have such a good year for science fiction, horror, comedy, and drama. The consistency of really good to great movies may seem like less than 2008, but I'd argue that the tops of this year are every bit as good as the top movies of last year. More on that next week.
The story concerns a spaceship that, for lack of a better term, stalls out over Johannesburg, South Africa. After rescuing the ailing passengers, the aliens - nicknamed "Prawns" because of their physical resemblance - are herded into a walled-off slum called District 9. The Multi-Nations Unit (MNU) confiscates their weaponry and technology, and a functional second class develops over the next twenty years. Anyone familiar with South African politics in the 1980s is going to notice some parallels here.
Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley) is a weasley MNU representative who enters District 9 with orders to con the Prawns into willingly evicting themselves, in order to be shipped to another ghetto outside of Johannesburg. To say that he meets resistance is an understatement, but it's nothing compared to an accidental exposure to alien liquid when Wikus interrupts Prawn Christopher Johnson (Jason Cope)'s plans to escape Earth.
By now you've seen the ads and some of you are probably still thinking that the film is another in the line of "Found Footage" movies, like Diary of the Dead or Cloverfield. To be sure, District 9 begins that way, with pieced together "documentary" footage punctuated by talking head interviews. For the first twenty minutes or so, it really seems like that's how the film is going to play out, but something weird happens. The subjective "documentary" camera turns into the objective third-person camera a few too many times, and almost imperceptibly, District 9 switches from "found footage" to narrative.
One of the many things I appreciated about District 9, which incidentally is also a variation on the "stranger who infiltrates us and then becomes us" that so many take Avatar to task for, is that Wikus never behaves altruistically. As late as the third act, when he has the chance to really help Christopher Johnson out, a change in plans causes him to nearly ruin the entire effort to restart the Prawn ship, just because Wikus is too selfish to put his own interests aside. Admittedly, if I was (SPOILER) turning into an alien and they only hope I had was suddenly pushed back three years, I might behave selfishly too, but it was refreshing that even as Wikus develops as a character, he never simply devolves into the "good guy" type.
I'm quite impressed that Blomkamp made District 9 on a 30 million dollar budget (compared to Terminator: Salvation's 200 million, for example), because with the exception of one or two shots, the Prawn look pretty convincing in the film. The ship always looks real, both the always hovering mother ship and the smaller escape vessel you see later in the film. Wikus' transformation is handled (mostly? totally?) practically, which really adds to the audience's ability to believe this change is happening - and painful. It may be as disgusting and painful of a slow transformation as I've seen since David Cronenberg's The Fly.
Speaking of disgusting, I might warn some sensitive viewers away from this excellent movie, if only because District 9 is an exceedingly violent film. It's not just the alien weaponry, which among other things causes people to explode (and frequently splatter against the camera), but also the tenor of sequences involving the Nigerians who exploit Prawns and try to steal their "power". You see, only Prawns can use their weaponry, so the Nigerian gang boss has been killing them and eating their limbs in an attempt to usurp their abilities. When he meets Wikus, with his alien hand and ability to fire the guns, he immediately plans to do the same to him.
I'll spare you any more spoilers or information. There are no less than a dozen reviews that focus on the relationship between District 9 and Apartheid, so forgive me if I leave that well dry. Needless to say, the parallels are there, as well as a number of other interesting comments about how information is perceived and delivered, and how that deviates from reality. Additionally, the acting is uniformly great and really helps sell the reality of District 9's world. It certainly doesn't hurt that Blomkamp adapted District 9 from his short film, Alive in Joburg:
Blomkamp's feature version is as assured and well put together as Duncan Jones' Moon, and it's going to be tough going deciding which of them I'm more likely to watch first. At any rate, we're lucky to have such a good year for science fiction, horror, comedy, and drama. The consistency of really good to great movies may seem like less than 2008, but I'd argue that the tops of this year are every bit as good as the top movies of last year. More on that next week.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Back in business...?
The Cap'n is back. Again. From yet another internet blackout. For those keeping count, this is the third time in a month that regular Blogorium service was interrupted by sub-par internet access. Somehow I think that the cable company is trying to send a message. Or, two possible messages:
1. Stop paying us for high speed internet.
or
2. Pay us more so this doesn't keep happening.
(yes, I did just suggest that nameless cable company with a Looney Tunes related bird for a mascot is running a protection racket. They once again refused to replace my router, instead blaming it on a "main line" problem. I'm just saying)
So it's back on. And Mystery Science Theater 3000 volume XVI is here (I picked it up after cable man left). Things are temporarily good. I'd like to be more upbeat about all this, but you should expect more from the Cap'n, and you aren't getting it. But I'm working on that.
Scroll down and you'll find Trailer Sunday where it should be, along with a review of Outlander that I wrote after spending two hours on the phone Saturday night. The movie was okay, but it has its own review, so please read it.
Tomorrow you'll have a review of Observe and Report. The day after that, The Limits of Control. Then I'll break up the reviews with something, and come back with Thirst on Friday. I've got a schedule of school related business, but if I could spend all day wrapping up a German class and still watch Observe and Report, I can fit in a movie a day until Christmas.
Speaking of watching movies, I've got an extra copy of Blood Car here. Review Terminator: Salvation, So We Won't Have To, and it's yours. Since it's just that hard to find, I should hope that brings one of you to the table with an appetite for mediocrity.
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This is sort of embarassing to post, but I'm hoping most of you can't read German. If so, then you're Major Tom or Adam. Please don't laugh too hard at the awkward sentence structure, or the simplicity of the descriptions.
For everybody else, this is what I spent all day doing for class. It's a Wiki project on German Cinema, specifically Literary Adaptations after 1945. I'm not going to pretend it's terribly insightful, unless of course you know nothing about German cinema or Tom Ripley movies not starring Matt Damon or John Malkovich. But enjoy.
1. Stop paying us for high speed internet.
or
2. Pay us more so this doesn't keep happening.
(yes, I did just suggest that nameless cable company with a Looney Tunes related bird for a mascot is running a protection racket. They once again refused to replace my router, instead blaming it on a "main line" problem. I'm just saying)
So it's back on. And Mystery Science Theater 3000 volume XVI is here (I picked it up after cable man left). Things are temporarily good. I'd like to be more upbeat about all this, but you should expect more from the Cap'n, and you aren't getting it. But I'm working on that.
Scroll down and you'll find Trailer Sunday where it should be, along with a review of Outlander that I wrote after spending two hours on the phone Saturday night. The movie was okay, but it has its own review, so please read it.
Tomorrow you'll have a review of Observe and Report. The day after that, The Limits of Control. Then I'll break up the reviews with something, and come back with Thirst on Friday. I've got a schedule of school related business, but if I could spend all day wrapping up a German class and still watch Observe and Report, I can fit in a movie a day until Christmas.
Speaking of watching movies, I've got an extra copy of Blood Car here. Review Terminator: Salvation, So We Won't Have To, and it's yours. Since it's just that hard to find, I should hope that brings one of you to the table with an appetite for mediocrity.
---
This is sort of embarassing to post, but I'm hoping most of you can't read German. If so, then you're Major Tom or Adam. Please don't laugh too hard at the awkward sentence structure, or the simplicity of the descriptions.
For everybody else, this is what I spent all day doing for class. It's a Wiki project on German Cinema, specifically Literary Adaptations after 1945. I'm not going to pretend it's terribly insightful, unless of course you know nothing about German cinema or Tom Ripley movies not starring Matt Damon or John Malkovich. But enjoy.
Deutsche Filme: Literarische Anpassungen
Inhalt:
Bild eins. Filmplakat für Effi Briest (1974)
Bild zwei. Filmplakat für Der Amerikanische Freund (1977)
Bild drei. DVD Abdeckung für Die Blechtrommel (1979)
Bild vier. Klaus Kinski und Isabelle Adjani von Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (1979)
Bild fünf. Filmplakat für Mephisto (1981)
Vorwort: Mein E-Wiki zeigt fünf bilder über die Filme von Deutschland nach 1945. Diese Filme sind auf Literarischen quellen gegründet. Ich finde diese Filme interessant, weil sie deutsche und Amerikanische Literatur auf deutschem Kino beziehen. Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht ist auch ein anpassungen von einem früheren deutschen Film. Diese Anpassungen jede Annäherung die Romane anders als und ich glauben, dass sie zu deutscher Nachkriegsgesellschaft Stellung nehmen.
Bild eins ziegt ein Filmplakat für Rainer Werner Fassbinders Effi Briest (1974). Fassbinder passte sich an der Roman Effi Briest durch Theodor Fontane, und wiederholte den Text so nah, wie möglich. Der Filmaufbau ist formal und Dialog ist sehr gestelzt, aber dieses war die Direktorenabsicht. Ich finde Fassbinders annäherung oft herausforderun, aber Effi Briest ist ein zuverlässig anpassungen.
Bild zwei ziegt ein Filmplakat für Wim Wenders Der Amerikanische Freund (1977), mit Dennis Hopper und Bruno Ganz.Der Amerkanische Freund ist nicht auf einen Deutsch roman, aber von Patricia Highsmiths Ripley's Game. Der Film is auch intressant weil es auf englisches und deutsch ist. Hopper spielt Tom Ripley, ein Buchstabe von Highsmiths serie der Romane, die einen sterbenden mensch (Ganz) in Tötung betrügt. Ich habe The Talented Mr. Ripley gesehen, und Der Amerikanische Freund war eine angenehme Überraschung.
Bild drei gibt die DVD Abdeckung (cover) fur Die Blechtrommel (The Tin Drum) (1979), ein Film von Volker Schlörndorff. Günter Grass schreibt Der Blechtrommel im 1959 und wurde einen Nobelpreis zugesprochen. Schlorndorff verwies Die Blechtrommel zwanzig jahre später und gewann einen Preis der Akademie (Academy Award) für besten ausländischen Film 1980 (Best Foreign Film 1980). Die Blechtrommel war erfolgreich, aber sexueller Inhalt hat Kontroverse verursacht. Ich finde Die Blechtrommel auf DVD bei The Criterion Collection, und sieht es bald an.
Bild vier ziegt Klaus Kinski und Isabelle Adjani in Werner Herzogs Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (1979). Der Film ist ein neuauflage (remake) von F.W. Murnaus Nosferatu, eines Symphonie des Grauens, und auch ein Anpassung von Bram Stokers Dracula. Ich finde diesen Film intressant weil Herzog aufzügt von beide Versionen und verursacht neues etwas. Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht wurde in zwei Versionen gefilmt: Englisch und Deutscher. Die englische Version wird Nosferatu: The Vampyre benannt.
Bild fünf ziegt ein Filmplakat für István Szabós Mephisto (1981). Szabó ist ein ungarischer Direktor, und Mephisto ist einen Anpassung des Romans durch Klaus Mann. Mephisto war ein Koproduktion von Ungarn, von Österreich und von BDR. Der Film und der Roman sind ein wiederholen des Doktor Faustus, aber in Nazi Deutschland. Ich fand den Film interessant, weil er klassische Literatur anpaßt, um zu moderner deutscher Geschichte Stellung zu nehmen. Die verfassung fur Mephisto (Klaus Maria Brandauer) ist also ein Anpassung von F.W. Murnaus Faust (1926).
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
This Time I Should Call It "So I Won't Have To"
Are any of you brave readers willing to bite the bullet for the old Cap'n? My schedule is going to be a little busy for the next nine days or so before settling down to "jack and shit" for a month of movie viewing, but I've got some "So You Won't Have To"'s either coming from or already here via Netflix.
I'm willing to sit through the not-so-well* reviewed The Limits of Control because I'll watch pretty much anything Jim Jarmusch makes, even if it goes nowhere for two hours and sounds at best like an exercise in self-indulgence. Hey, the man made Ghost Dog, Dead Man, and Down by Law, to name a few. Hey, I'll name three more: Broken Flowers, Night on Earth, and Stranger Than Paradise. I even enjoyed Permanent Vacation, his first feature that's the extra disc on Criterion's Stranger Than Paradise dvd. How bad could The Limits of Control really be? Maybe it's secretly great! Or not. But it could be, right?
So I don't mind watching it So You Might Have To. I've certainly been advocating lots of movies that people disagree with me about (Whatever Works and Funny People spring to mind), and you might end up being informed that you should see it.
On the other hand, I just can't bring myself to watch Terminator: Salvation. I even jumped it up to the top of the old Netflix queue, but when it eventually arrives, I'm not sure I can do the deed, even for you guys. Gals. Whatever**.
It's not McG, per se: truthfully, I don't think I hated the first Charlie's Angels. I haven't seen it since the first time I saw it, but I seem to remember enjoying Crispin Glover and Bill Murray. I never saw the second movie, and I guess I never did watch the epic team up of McCoughnaFox in We Are Marshall, so it's not like I have any animosity towards his films.
The problem that I have with Terminator: Salvation is that it seems so unnecessary. Yes, at first the idea of John Connor tooling around in the post-apocalyptic future fighting robots sounds like it would be fun. We all know how much of a sucker I am for post-apocalyptic films. The big BUT though is that we already know how it pans out. Terminator: Salvation isn't going to shake things up like Star Trek, so there's really no tension. Kyle Reese can't die, because he has to go back and knock up Sarah Connor, or there's no John Connor to send him back, etc. If a new character is introduced, as T:S does, they either see Kyle Reese off to the past or die before it happens.
If there were more Terminator movies, I suppose they could show what happens to John after he sets the first film in motion, but unless there's some serious ret-conning going on, we still know how that ends up as well. The T-800 from Terminator 3 killed John Connor, so in an act of ironic time travel, his wife sends Arnold back to protect him long enough for Judgment Day to happen. Since Connor's wife is in Salvation, it looks like they didn't feel like ignoring Terminator 3 that much, so this whole supposed "new" series is based on plot points that we know are coming. How exciting!
Now that I've made my case for not seeing Terminator: Salvation, allow me to extend the opportunity to one of you. This is, in all likelihood, a strong candidate for SYWHT, and I'm really hoping that one of you good people has more of a morbid curiosity to see digital Arnold face beat up Christian Bale than the Cap'n does. Someone who would be willing to watch Terminator: Salvation So I Won't Have To.
Let me sweeten the pot for you. If one of the Blogorium readers is willing to step up to the plate and take one for the team, I'll return the favor. I will watch any movie without the word Twilight in the title, no matter how shitty, so that the rest of you won't have to. I'll even lift my almost universal Uwe Boll ban for this. I'll watch Alvin and the Chipmunks. I'll watch Old Dogs. Hell, I'll watch 2012 So You Won't Have To.
I just don't think I can do this Terminator thing. But I'm curious, in a very wary way. I don't want to see it, but I want to know. And I'm certain at least one of you is also a good enough writer that you can fill all of us in. In return, take your pick. Anything but the Twilight series.
Want me to watch Cruel Intentions 3? Done.
Command Performance with Dolph Lundgren? Done.
Carnivorous with DMX? Done.
Planet 51? You got it.
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel? ugh..... As you wish.
I will finish Vampire Men of the Lost Planet. If that's what you want.
Throw me a bone here, gang. I'll make it worth your while...
*EDIT* Let me throw in a quick caveat, just so nobody says I'm making up new rules later: the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad movie I agree to watch has to fit within the parameters of So You Won't Have To. If you're curious what that entails, click the tag and read previous reviews. The whole point is to choose movies that people have some strange curiosity about (okay, that I have curiosity about) and report back to others rather than all of us watching it. Like, say you're curious about Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, but you wouldn't spend your own money to see it. I'll do it, So You Won't Have To. If you can make the case your choice fits that criteria, and that you aren't just picking a movie arbitrarily to mess with the Cap'n, you got it.
* Vern's review is easily the kindest I've seen The Limits of Control get, aside from a fawning DVD Talk write up. Seriously, read those "positive" reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. Most of them are cautious recommendations with serious "but"'s.
** I really have no idea who reads this of late. The Blogorium gets weird links to websites I've never heard of, so somebody finds the Cap'n interesting. So thanks.
I'm willing to sit through the not-so-well* reviewed The Limits of Control because I'll watch pretty much anything Jim Jarmusch makes, even if it goes nowhere for two hours and sounds at best like an exercise in self-indulgence. Hey, the man made Ghost Dog, Dead Man, and Down by Law, to name a few. Hey, I'll name three more: Broken Flowers, Night on Earth, and Stranger Than Paradise. I even enjoyed Permanent Vacation, his first feature that's the extra disc on Criterion's Stranger Than Paradise dvd. How bad could The Limits of Control really be? Maybe it's secretly great! Or not. But it could be, right?
So I don't mind watching it So You Might Have To. I've certainly been advocating lots of movies that people disagree with me about (Whatever Works and Funny People spring to mind), and you might end up being informed that you should see it.
On the other hand, I just can't bring myself to watch Terminator: Salvation. I even jumped it up to the top of the old Netflix queue, but when it eventually arrives, I'm not sure I can do the deed, even for you guys. Gals. Whatever**.
It's not McG, per se: truthfully, I don't think I hated the first Charlie's Angels. I haven't seen it since the first time I saw it, but I seem to remember enjoying Crispin Glover and Bill Murray. I never saw the second movie, and I guess I never did watch the epic team up of McCoughnaFox in We Are Marshall, so it's not like I have any animosity towards his films.
The problem that I have with Terminator: Salvation is that it seems so unnecessary. Yes, at first the idea of John Connor tooling around in the post-apocalyptic future fighting robots sounds like it would be fun. We all know how much of a sucker I am for post-apocalyptic films. The big BUT though is that we already know how it pans out. Terminator: Salvation isn't going to shake things up like Star Trek, so there's really no tension. Kyle Reese can't die, because he has to go back and knock up Sarah Connor, or there's no John Connor to send him back, etc. If a new character is introduced, as T:S does, they either see Kyle Reese off to the past or die before it happens.
If there were more Terminator movies, I suppose they could show what happens to John after he sets the first film in motion, but unless there's some serious ret-conning going on, we still know how that ends up as well. The T-800 from Terminator 3 killed John Connor, so in an act of ironic time travel, his wife sends Arnold back to protect him long enough for Judgment Day to happen. Since Connor's wife is in Salvation, it looks like they didn't feel like ignoring Terminator 3 that much, so this whole supposed "new" series is based on plot points that we know are coming. How exciting!
Now that I've made my case for not seeing Terminator: Salvation, allow me to extend the opportunity to one of you. This is, in all likelihood, a strong candidate for SYWHT, and I'm really hoping that one of you good people has more of a morbid curiosity to see digital Arnold face beat up Christian Bale than the Cap'n does. Someone who would be willing to watch Terminator: Salvation So I Won't Have To.
Let me sweeten the pot for you. If one of the Blogorium readers is willing to step up to the plate and take one for the team, I'll return the favor. I will watch any movie without the word Twilight in the title, no matter how shitty, so that the rest of you won't have to. I'll even lift my almost universal Uwe Boll ban for this. I'll watch Alvin and the Chipmunks. I'll watch Old Dogs. Hell, I'll watch 2012 So You Won't Have To.
I just don't think I can do this Terminator thing. But I'm curious, in a very wary way. I don't want to see it, but I want to know. And I'm certain at least one of you is also a good enough writer that you can fill all of us in. In return, take your pick. Anything but the Twilight series.
Want me to watch Cruel Intentions 3? Done.
Command Performance with Dolph Lundgren? Done.
Carnivorous with DMX? Done.
Planet 51? You got it.
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel? ugh..... As you wish.
I will finish Vampire Men of the Lost Planet. If that's what you want.
Throw me a bone here, gang. I'll make it worth your while...
*EDIT* Let me throw in a quick caveat, just so nobody says I'm making up new rules later: the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad movie I agree to watch has to fit within the parameters of So You Won't Have To. If you're curious what that entails, click the tag and read previous reviews. The whole point is to choose movies that people have some strange curiosity about (okay, that I have curiosity about) and report back to others rather than all of us watching it. Like, say you're curious about Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, but you wouldn't spend your own money to see it. I'll do it, So You Won't Have To. If you can make the case your choice fits that criteria, and that you aren't just picking a movie arbitrarily to mess with the Cap'n, you got it.
* Vern's review is easily the kindest I've seen The Limits of Control get, aside from a fawning DVD Talk write up. Seriously, read those "positive" reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. Most of them are cautious recommendations with serious "but"'s.
** I really have no idea who reads this of late. The Blogorium gets weird links to websites I've never heard of, so somebody finds the Cap'n interesting. So thanks.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Bad News, Everyone!
The Greensboro Summer Fest Massacre Part 2 will most definitely not take place in the Apartment of Solitude. The Cap'n has been given his marching orders by a landlord keenly interested in renting the place out for more money (so interested that he snuck in a For Rent sign while I was at work and won't return phone calls).
While this may not be news to most of you, the unfortunate part is that the new apartment the Cap'n thought he'd be moving into is suddenly not available, so I have a week and a half to avoid being homeless. I'll be hitting the pavement tomorrow in order to avoid this, but considering the time limitations, it may come to the point where beggars can't be choosers. I'm not really thrilled about that since a large living room was a big priority and the no-such-luck apartment met that criteria.
Apologies in advance if things are a bit cramp-y come July 2nd.
Speaking of which, we are starting on Thursday, July the 2nd of 2009 with a field trip to see Drag Me to Hell, followed by night one of Summer Fest shock-o-rama. They will continue, pretty much unabated, until sometime late Sunday night, July 5th. The list of films is nearly finalized and when (if) I know where it's happening, I'll put everything together in an official bulletin.
---
Very quickly I'd like to address something I've been noticing online. Since Ghostbusters arrived on Blu Ray this past Tuesday, buzz online has included lots of griping about the amount of grain in the picture. Having recently seen this version of Ghostbusters, I thought I'd compare it to another movie that isn't getting this much grief but has similar grain presence.
First off, you should know that Ghostbusters is grainy. So grainy, in fact, that if you look at some of the books in the library scene, they look like aphids are crawling all over them. It can be, admittedly, distracting; this does in some respects draw away from the "perfect image" reputation Blu Ray is supposed to have. I understand that, and it takes some getting used to.
On the other hand, two things jump out immediately: 1) Many movies released on BD from the 1980s have similar grain issues. Part of this has to do with the film stock being used at the time, and part of it is because in order to "remove" that grain, studios will use something called Digital Noise Reduction. It clears up grain but also robs images of fine details. Terminator 2 has a healthy dollop of DNR and you can tell at times. The other point, 2) is that even with this grain, you can still make out more in the image for Ghostbusters than previous dvd editions. Once you get used to the grain, the picture does admittedly look better and more "film like", however you take that to mean.
More importantly, I don't hear the same complaints about Criterion's The Seventh Seal, which is getting rave reviews about it's "perfect" image but also begins with a persistent layer of grain. Under the grain, sure, it looks great but unless I'm crazy or something, it's the same essential issue. I had a similarly jarring encounter with The Third Man, which looked much grainier than I ever remembered it seeing, improved clarity or no. And yet, like The Seventh Seal, nobody seems to be mentioning it. Ghostbusters, on the other hand, is getting calls of "buyer beware!"
Personally the Cap'n finds it a little ridiculous, but if you want my opinion both of them look pretty damned good considering their age. So does The Third Man, it just took some adjusting to. Truthfully, people with smaller tv's might not even notice the grain. On a larger screen, it's pretty pervasive, but not so distracting I couldn't watch two very entertaining movies. Yeesh.
---
Off to bed. I have to find something of Summer Fest is going to be tragic...
While this may not be news to most of you, the unfortunate part is that the new apartment the Cap'n thought he'd be moving into is suddenly not available, so I have a week and a half to avoid being homeless. I'll be hitting the pavement tomorrow in order to avoid this, but considering the time limitations, it may come to the point where beggars can't be choosers. I'm not really thrilled about that since a large living room was a big priority and the no-such-luck apartment met that criteria.
Apologies in advance if things are a bit cramp-y come July 2nd.
Speaking of which, we are starting on Thursday, July the 2nd of 2009 with a field trip to see Drag Me to Hell, followed by night one of Summer Fest shock-o-rama. They will continue, pretty much unabated, until sometime late Sunday night, July 5th. The list of films is nearly finalized and when (if) I know where it's happening, I'll put everything together in an official bulletin.
---
Very quickly I'd like to address something I've been noticing online. Since Ghostbusters arrived on Blu Ray this past Tuesday, buzz online has included lots of griping about the amount of grain in the picture. Having recently seen this version of Ghostbusters, I thought I'd compare it to another movie that isn't getting this much grief but has similar grain presence.
First off, you should know that Ghostbusters is grainy. So grainy, in fact, that if you look at some of the books in the library scene, they look like aphids are crawling all over them. It can be, admittedly, distracting; this does in some respects draw away from the "perfect image" reputation Blu Ray is supposed to have. I understand that, and it takes some getting used to.
On the other hand, two things jump out immediately: 1) Many movies released on BD from the 1980s have similar grain issues. Part of this has to do with the film stock being used at the time, and part of it is because in order to "remove" that grain, studios will use something called Digital Noise Reduction. It clears up grain but also robs images of fine details. Terminator 2 has a healthy dollop of DNR and you can tell at times. The other point, 2) is that even with this grain, you can still make out more in the image for Ghostbusters than previous dvd editions. Once you get used to the grain, the picture does admittedly look better and more "film like", however you take that to mean.
More importantly, I don't hear the same complaints about Criterion's The Seventh Seal, which is getting rave reviews about it's "perfect" image but also begins with a persistent layer of grain. Under the grain, sure, it looks great but unless I'm crazy or something, it's the same essential issue. I had a similarly jarring encounter with The Third Man, which looked much grainier than I ever remembered it seeing, improved clarity or no. And yet, like The Seventh Seal, nobody seems to be mentioning it. Ghostbusters, on the other hand, is getting calls of "buyer beware!"
Personally the Cap'n finds it a little ridiculous, but if you want my opinion both of them look pretty damned good considering their age. So does The Third Man, it just took some adjusting to. Truthfully, people with smaller tv's might not even notice the grain. On a larger screen, it's pretty pervasive, but not so distracting I couldn't watch two very entertaining movies. Yeesh.
---
Off to bed. I have to find something of Summer Fest is going to be tragic...
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Minor Life Lessons with Cap'n Howdy
The, uh, vote is in. Major Tom* successfully campaigned for La Haine and won because, well, nobody else bothered voting. This tells the Cap'n two things:
1. I'll be watching La Haine sometime soon.
2. That whole "vote for what the Cap'n watches next" will not be back next week.
That's cool. It's better to know early when an experiment isn't working and course correct than take forever only to suffer months of crushing futility**, so I'll scale back the "reader interaction" for now. Nevertheless, look for a write up of La Haine next week, hopefully better than the Star Trek one from Monday.
---
Onto other business: Mr. Cranpire, I checked up and Ghost House Underground is, in fact, part of the craptacular Ghost House productions Sam Raimi is responsible for. This does not help his case, I'm afraid.
Also, every time I think about After Dark Bore-or Fest, I grow slightly frustrated. The After Dark Horrorfest started the same Halloween I launched Horror Fest here, and while I selfishly think my fest is better, more people know about 8 Films to Yawn For.
For that reason (and many others), I won't show any of their films; not even Frontier(s) which never technically played at an After Dark. They also put out The Butterfly Effect 3, Crazy Eights, Dark Ride, Penny Dreadful, Wicked Little Things, and (theatrically anyway) Snoop Dogg's Hood of Horror. If you count Frontier(s), they're still doing better than Ghost House and Ghost House Underground.
---
I haven't finished watching anything in the past few days. Honestly, I spend most of my day doing homework and most of the evening at work. When I get home I do more homework (never take summer classes, gang), and write the blogorium. I did manage to watch pieces of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and Star Trek: The Boring Picture all on fancy schmancy discs. They all looked pretty nice, even if the T2 disc is so overcomplicated that it won't actually start the movie when you press "Play _____ Version"***.
Actually, the T2 disc is kind of creepy. It pretends to be linking your "disc" with Skynet, including an on-screen readout of where you live, what kind of internet connection you have, the provider, and a map showing where you're watching the Blu Ray from. Any time you ask it to do things, "Skynet" spends a little time downloading crap to help it "function" better. Sure, most of its just Java-related stuff for the picture-in-picture modes, but dammit that's creepy. Because, you know, I WANT Skynet (and we all know it really exists) to know I'm watching a movie about how it fails to kill John Connor. That's going to earn me brownie points during the inevitable robot invasion.
To be fair, I'd rather be wasted in the Robot Holocaust called Judgment Day than to wake up in The Matrix after it happens. You guys did know that's what happens, right? John Connor fails and the Terminators hook humans up to The Matrix to grow their Skynet Empire. Surely you've heard this already.
---
Oh, Star Trek? Well, Wrath of Khan looks very good and The Boring Picture is, as ever, pretty boring. Unless you have a huge boner for long, uninterrupted model shots of Klingon ships and the Enterprise or V'Ger (SPOILER: it's the Voyager 6 space probe. What a twist!). For some reason, HD makes the Klingon makeup look really bad, like something from the BBC Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I'm glad they improved it in time for Christopher Lloyd (SPOILER: He's a Klingon in The Search for Spock! Baron Von Trapp and Evil from Time Bandits are also Klingons but in a later movie. So was Shakespeare. What a twist!).
---
Finally, while I could always be very wrong when it comes to Werner Herzog (the trailer for Rescue Dawn looked like the most generic "inspirational prisoner of war" movie, after all), the trailer of Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans - and that's actually the title - looked baaaaaaad. Like, Wicker Man crossed with Bangkok Dangerous BAD. I was going to share it with you, but the user who posted it on Youtube wisely removed the clip.
If it helps give you some idea what you missed, here are some things Nicolas Cage uttered in the trailer:
"You don't have a lucky crack pipe?"
"What are these fucking iguanas doing on my coffee table?"
"Shoot him again. His soul is still dancing."
I can't remember whether it's supposed to be a remake or a sequel to Abel Ferrara (The Driller Killer)'s Bad Lieutenant, but I'm suddenly regretting that mandate that (like Harvey Keitel), Nicolas Cage unleash the schlong for his version.
Oh, who am I kidding? The only thing I think when I see this trailer is "well, they made a Basic Instinct 2 and look how well that worked out."
*EDIT* Just kidding. Look what I found
Trailers speak louder than blogs, and this trailer sounds like it's saying "Crap Sandwich."
---
Class dismissed.
* Major Tom is, I believe, left his vote the same day during his comment about locating Terrorvision.
** Yes, I'm sorta kinda talking about the Blogorium in general...
*** You have the choice of the theatrical cut (which I prefer), the Director's Cut that James Cameron prefers, or the super-mega-everything back in cut with all of the deleted stuff including the T-1000 killing John Connor's dog and "glitching" after freezing and re-constituting.
1. I'll be watching La Haine sometime soon.
2. That whole "vote for what the Cap'n watches next" will not be back next week.
That's cool. It's better to know early when an experiment isn't working and course correct than take forever only to suffer months of crushing futility**, so I'll scale back the "reader interaction" for now. Nevertheless, look for a write up of La Haine next week, hopefully better than the Star Trek one from Monday.
---
Onto other business: Mr. Cranpire, I checked up and Ghost House Underground is, in fact, part of the craptacular Ghost House productions Sam Raimi is responsible for. This does not help his case, I'm afraid.
Also, every time I think about After Dark Bore-or Fest, I grow slightly frustrated. The After Dark Horrorfest started the same Halloween I launched Horror Fest here, and while I selfishly think my fest is better, more people know about 8 Films to Yawn For.
For that reason (and many others), I won't show any of their films; not even Frontier(s) which never technically played at an After Dark. They also put out The Butterfly Effect 3, Crazy Eights, Dark Ride, Penny Dreadful, Wicked Little Things, and (theatrically anyway) Snoop Dogg's Hood of Horror. If you count Frontier(s), they're still doing better than Ghost House and Ghost House Underground.
---
I haven't finished watching anything in the past few days. Honestly, I spend most of my day doing homework and most of the evening at work. When I get home I do more homework (never take summer classes, gang), and write the blogorium. I did manage to watch pieces of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and Star Trek: The Boring Picture all on fancy schmancy discs. They all looked pretty nice, even if the T2 disc is so overcomplicated that it won't actually start the movie when you press "Play _____ Version"***.
Actually, the T2 disc is kind of creepy. It pretends to be linking your "disc" with Skynet, including an on-screen readout of where you live, what kind of internet connection you have, the provider, and a map showing where you're watching the Blu Ray from. Any time you ask it to do things, "Skynet" spends a little time downloading crap to help it "function" better. Sure, most of its just Java-related stuff for the picture-in-picture modes, but dammit that's creepy. Because, you know, I WANT Skynet (and we all know it really exists) to know I'm watching a movie about how it fails to kill John Connor. That's going to earn me brownie points during the inevitable robot invasion.
To be fair, I'd rather be wasted in the Robot Holocaust called Judgment Day than to wake up in The Matrix after it happens. You guys did know that's what happens, right? John Connor fails and the Terminators hook humans up to The Matrix to grow their Skynet Empire. Surely you've heard this already.
---
Oh, Star Trek? Well, Wrath of Khan looks very good and The Boring Picture is, as ever, pretty boring. Unless you have a huge boner for long, uninterrupted model shots of Klingon ships and the Enterprise or V'Ger (SPOILER: it's the Voyager 6 space probe. What a twist!). For some reason, HD makes the Klingon makeup look really bad, like something from the BBC Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I'm glad they improved it in time for Christopher Lloyd (SPOILER: He's a Klingon in The Search for Spock! Baron Von Trapp and Evil from Time Bandits are also Klingons but in a later movie. So was Shakespeare. What a twist!).
---
Finally, while I could always be very wrong when it comes to Werner Herzog (the trailer for Rescue Dawn looked like the most generic "inspirational prisoner of war" movie, after all), the trailer of Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans - and that's actually the title - looked baaaaaaad. Like, Wicker Man crossed with Bangkok Dangerous BAD. I was going to share it with you, but the user who posted it on Youtube wisely removed the clip.
If it helps give you some idea what you missed, here are some things Nicolas Cage uttered in the trailer:
"You don't have a lucky crack pipe?"
"What are these fucking iguanas doing on my coffee table?"
"Shoot him again. His soul is still dancing."
I can't remember whether it's supposed to be a remake or a sequel to Abel Ferrara (The Driller Killer)'s Bad Lieutenant, but I'm suddenly regretting that mandate that (like Harvey Keitel), Nicolas Cage unleash the schlong for his version.
Oh, who am I kidding? The only thing I think when I see this trailer is "well, they made a Basic Instinct 2 and look how well that worked out."
*EDIT* Just kidding. Look what I found
Trailers speak louder than blogs, and this trailer sounds like it's saying "Crap Sandwich."
---
Class dismissed.
* Major Tom is, I believe, left his vote the same day during his comment about locating Terrorvision.
** Yes, I'm sorta kinda talking about the Blogorium in general...
*** You have the choice of the theatrical cut (which I prefer), the Director's Cut that James Cameron prefers, or the super-mega-everything back in cut with all of the deleted stuff including the T-1000 killing John Connor's dog and "glitching" after freezing and re-constituting.
Friday, May 22, 2009
What if You Threw a Doctor Who Party and No One Showed Up?
The Votes are in, and it looks like I'll be watching...
Star Trek!
This means I'll have to go see it tomorrow, since I'm working on Sunday. It's still strange to me that having NOT seen a Star Trek movie makes you lame all of a sudden. What bizarro planet did I wake up in?
Kudos to all who voted for Who Are You, Polly Magoo? and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and also to Cranpire who is the only person I could imagine would vote for Ghoulies IV. Don't worry, I'll get to all of them soon enough.
I'll put up a new poll tomorrow for you to vote one, but be warned that I'm going to be using a very loose definition of what makes up a "day" now that the Cap'n works until midnight.
---
In honor of Star Trek's win, I submit the following:
---
Just so I could say I watched something Terminator related (sorry, I'm not watching Salvation), I popped in the original film last night and watched part of it before bed. In light of Terminator 2: Judgment Day and the other sequels*, I'd forgotten just how low budget the first film was. I mean that in a good way, however; it limits how much of the future James Cameron could show, and he still gets a lot of mileage out of the big "set piece" involving Kyle Reese and the Hunter-Killers.
It's really hard to say if the increased budget in successive films helped the Terminator series. To be fair, Arnold's makeup can look a little dodgy late into the first film, but there's something endearing about a movie co-produced by Orion Studios (now out of business) and Hemdale (the same company that co-produced Return of the Living Dead.) Cameron works like crazy with what he has, and I'm not sure that the leap upward to Judgment Day carries the same independent spirit that The Terminator does.
---
There should, theoretically, be a Doctor Who Party going on right now but no one has yet decided to arrive. I think Neil said he'd be here around 9, so that leaves everybody else the option of being fashionably late I guess. In the meantime it's a good excuse to get some homework done, since I think it needs to be turned in by midnight. I think.
* that's really all they merit when discussing Terminator-related business.
Star Trek!
This means I'll have to go see it tomorrow, since I'm working on Sunday. It's still strange to me that having NOT seen a Star Trek movie makes you lame all of a sudden. What bizarro planet did I wake up in?
Kudos to all who voted for Who Are You, Polly Magoo? and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and also to Cranpire who is the only person I could imagine would vote for Ghoulies IV. Don't worry, I'll get to all of them soon enough.
I'll put up a new poll tomorrow for you to vote one, but be warned that I'm going to be using a very loose definition of what makes up a "day" now that the Cap'n works until midnight.
---
In honor of Star Trek's win, I submit the following:
---
Just so I could say I watched something Terminator related (sorry, I'm not watching Salvation), I popped in the original film last night and watched part of it before bed. In light of Terminator 2: Judgment Day and the other sequels*, I'd forgotten just how low budget the first film was. I mean that in a good way, however; it limits how much of the future James Cameron could show, and he still gets a lot of mileage out of the big "set piece" involving Kyle Reese and the Hunter-Killers.
It's really hard to say if the increased budget in successive films helped the Terminator series. To be fair, Arnold's makeup can look a little dodgy late into the first film, but there's something endearing about a movie co-produced by Orion Studios (now out of business) and Hemdale (the same company that co-produced Return of the Living Dead.) Cameron works like crazy with what he has, and I'm not sure that the leap upward to Judgment Day carries the same independent spirit that The Terminator does.
---
There should, theoretically, be a Doctor Who Party going on right now but no one has yet decided to arrive. I think Neil said he'd be here around 9, so that leaves everybody else the option of being fashionably late I guess. In the meantime it's a good excuse to get some homework done, since I think it needs to be turned in by midnight. I think.
* that's really all they merit when discussing Terminator-related business.
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