When I started the Blogorium over on another social media site several years ago, I eventually became an early adopter of Blu-Ray. At the time, I worked at a used book store that sold video games and systems and I was able to purchase an 80gb PS3, partially for the games but mostly for the shiny new discs that beat HD-DVD in the "successor to DVD" format war. I wanted to upgrade TVs from the old standby 17" (?) set I had (and its twin, a loaner from a friend who moved) and eventually did pick up that HDTV monstrosity (it's in storage now for various reasons).
At the time, I was gently mocked by friends for taking such an interest in a "niche" market for home entertainment, to the point that I jokingly referred to all Blu-Ray and HDTV posts as being "fancy schmancy." Now that most of the world seems to be catching up (because Blu-Ray discs are often cheaper than their DVD counterparts and you don't have to get rid of your DVDs with a BD player), I haven't used the term in a while.
People seem to be moving more and more into the "all digital" direction, to the point that a younger co-worker derisively said to me "Blu-Ray is for noobs!" I laughed out loud, because that doesn't make any sense, especially coming from someone who never knew an analog world. I'm not articulating this well, but I think anybody who has been following the development of home media for the last... let's just say thirty years is far from being a "noob" on the subject. Maybe I'm the opposite - the fuddy duddy who still likes to have a tangible copy of something, an actual library of film, music, and books. I have plenty of digital copies and songs on iTunes (no e-reader to speak of), but there's something to be said for having friends over and giving them time to look through your shelves in the down time.
We've also established that I'm a "supplement junkie," and you don't get those kinds of extras with a digital copy. I get most people could care less about commentary tracks or making of documentaries or retrospectives, but it's not a coincidence that I buy Criterion discs that have lots of contextualizing extras about the films. To me, that's as interesting as the film itself - watch the second disc of The Battle of Algiers (if it's the DVD, the second and third discs) and then watch the film again. The all digital, just the movie world of cloud technology isn't totally for me just yet. It has its purpose, but it doesn't replace a shelf full of quality releases.
Speaking of quality releases, I think that was the point of this whole post... I must have gotten lost back there somewhere. Oh well, let's skip to the chase. The following are some of the most interesting discs I picked up in 2011. Not all of them were released in 2011 (I'm guessing with the imports anyway) but it's my list so you'll live. When possible, I'm going to put up links where you can buy them, because several are titles you probably didn't know you could buy and are already available.
For starters, let's look at this:
A Nightmare on Elm Street Collection - In the US, we got the first Nightmare on Elm Street on Blu-Ray released in time for the shitty remake in 2010. Last October, we got a double feature of 2 and 3 on one disc... and that's it. Not the worst deal, necessarily - two of the best entries in the series and... well, Freddy's Revenge. Still, it's not like we can replace our boxed set yet, right?
Not true, gang - Amazon.co.uk had an October 2011 release of the entire series on Blu-Ray. The five disc set replicates the individual release of the first film and then doubles up 2/3, 4/5, and 6/7, with a bonus disc of new extras, including episodes of Freddy's Nightmares, the anthology-ish series that you can only see if you're patient enough to watch Chiller for a week.
(Oh, Freddy vs. Jason fanatics are admittedly SOL, but that's not really a Nightmare film anyway. Wait... are there Freddy vs. Jason fanatics?)
Additionally, each of the BD discs has all of the interview clips from the seventh disc of the Nightmare on Elm Street DVD set, but without having to navigate the "labyrinth" to find them. Even though we're dealing with two films per disc, I have to say that all of the sequels look very good in high definition. This set will probably come out in the US (let's hope by next October) but if you've got a Freddy fix, the whole thing is available now. Most importantly, it's REGION FREE, meaning that all of the movies are going to play on any BD player you have here in the states.
Payback - also region free and available on Amazon's UK site, the release of Payback overseas improves the existing BD release here by including both versions of the film (the US release only has the director's cut) plus all of the extras from both original discs. Whether you like one version or the other, it's got something for all Payback fans, so you can watch it whenever you like, however you like. Let's hope Point Blank makes the leap to high definition in 2012...
Taxi Driver - Everything included from all the various versions of the DVD, plus the Criterion laserdisc commentary with Scorsese, at a very reasonable price. What's not to like?
Citizen Kane (Ultimate SomethingorOther Edition) - Best Buy has a two-disc version with Kane and The Battle for Citizen Kane, which is nice, but the super fancy schmancy edition (for a few dollars more) also includes RKO 281 and The Magnificent Ambersons. If you want to quibble, only Citizen Kane is a BD disc, but it's a nice set that encompasses all things Kane with the added bonus of the only version of The Magnificent Ambersons we're ever going to get included as a bonus. The film looks fantastic, by the way.
Battle Royale - I know Anchor Bay is releasing BR next week on Blu-Ray, but Arrow Films beat them to the punch in the UK with a region free set of the theatrical cut, the director's cut, and an additional disc of extras for what amounted to $35 at the end of 2010. As I didn't get it until 2011, I'm counting it - it also doesn't include Battle Royale II, which is a very nice thing for Arrow to do. That would only sully the experience. I opted for the super fancy, now out-of-print Limited Edition, which came with some other fun stuff, but you can still get the three disc version for a reasonable price.
The Lord of the Rings Extended Editions - Is it maybe a pain to switch out the discs? I guess. Are the "appendices" just DVDs? Well, yes. Will I take this over the "theatrical" Blu-Ray set? Any day. The movies look better, all of the extras are intact, and the extra documentaries from the "Limited Editions" are included for good measure. It's an impressive package, all things considered.
The Twilight Zone - I finally have all five seasons on Blu-Ray, and it's more than worth your while to pick the sets up. Yes, you can watch the episodes on Netflix, and they look pretty spiffy. The sets are packed to the gills with everything a TZ fanatic like the Cap'n could possibly want to see, hear, or know. I didn't think a series would catapult past Battlestar Galactica's complete set, but The Twilight Zone on Blu-Ray did it in spades.
Blue Velvet - on Blu-Ray, with an hour of long thought lost footage, restored and fancy schmancy-ed by David Lynch.
I couldn't narrow down the Criterion selections, so here's just a sampling of what they kicked our collective asses with this year: Kiss Me Deadly, Three Colors, The Great Dictator, The Killing / Killer's Kiss, Island of Lost Souls, The Music Room, 12 Angry Men, Cul-De-Sac, Blow Out, Carlos, The Phantom Carriage, and Sweet Smell of Success. That's not counting the HD upgrades to Beauty and the Beast, Orpheus, The Naked Kiss, Shock Corridor, Rushmore, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Dazed and Confused, The Double Life of Veronique, Army of Shadows, Le Cercle Rouge, The Battle of Algiers, Robinson Crusoe on Mars, Solaris, Diabolique, Smiles of a Summer Night, or Fanny and Alexander. To name a few.
Special kudos also go to Lionsgate for slowly but surely releasing Miramax films in a way that doesn't suck (*coughEchoBridgecough*), including Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Cop Land, Trainspotting, The Others, Mimic (in a Director's Cut!), Heavenly Creatures, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, and Amelie. It's too bad Echo Bridge got From Dusk Till Dawn with all the Children of the Corn and Hellraiser sequels, because unless you want to see what happens when FDtD looks like when crammed onto a disc with both of its sequels and the documentary Full Tilt Boogie, you won't be seeing it on Blu-Ray (unless Criterion gets it... knocks on wood*). Oh sure, it's ten bucks, and that's three dollars more than just From Dusk Till Dawn on Blu-Ray (no, seriously), but it looks like crap. Trust me; someone bought it for me and I looked at all four movies on the disc. From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter probably looks the best of the three of them. Technically they're all watchable quality, but it's a missed opportunity to be damned sure when you see that Lionsgate is releasing HD versions with all of the extras from the DVD versions. Echo Bridge? Not so much.
Finally, I must admit that while nobody else seems to care for them, I was quite impressed in having everything together in the Stanley Kubrick Limited Edition Collection and I also bought the nine disc Star Wars Saga. I watched most of the extras and some of the movies. Guess which ones (okay, one) I haven't put in... Hint: It's EPISODE ONE THE PHANTOM MENACE. I won't be buying the 3D Blu-Ray Set, even if I have a 3D TV at that point. I'm also not going to see The Phantom Menace in 3D. You don't need to believe me because I know that's true.
And I'm out of steam... there were more, but I'll get to them another time.
* This is not as crazy as it sounds - I still have the Miramax DVD set of the Three Colors Trilogy, and Criterion picked up the rights to that...
Showing posts with label fancy schmancy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fancy schmancy. Show all posts
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Throwing the Baby Out with the Bath Water
For almost twenty years, possibly longer, but certainly as long as the "director's cut"* of Blade Runner has been available on home video, a long standing debate exists as to whether Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is a replicant or not.
In fact, any iteration of the boxed set (the four disc set or the five disc "briefcase" edition) has a ten minute featurette titled "Deck-A-Rep: The True Nature of Rick Deckard" where both sides make their case (Ridley Scott says Deckard is, Harrison Ford says he isn't, and a number of people involved in or admirers of the film weigh in). One of the contributors is director Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Mist), and his impassioned defense of why Deckard isn't a replicant is embedded below:
What I've always found interesting about Darabont's argument is how many people I know simply dismiss his entire reading of the film because of the last sentence. Because he "rejects" the "Deckard is a replicant" argument out of hand, they accordingly reject the points he's making. One professor suggested that his unwillingness to consider the alternative automatically invalidated his position, which seems problematic to me.
Darabont's point - that Deckard's evolution in the film is meaningless or at best ironic if he's a replicant - is a valid reading of the film. His reading that the film being about Deckard's slow return to humanity is a valid one, a point that has plenty of thematic evidence in the narrative. If Deckard was a replicant, the character arc is somewhat rendered moot because his sense of humanity is totally artificial; the film ceases to be a "human" story and instead a clinical study of manufactured morality played out by pawns.
Now, I'm not saying that's not also a valid reading of the film: Blade Runner opens itself to a myriad of interpretations, beyond whether the protagonist is actually what he hunts or not. What I find fascinating is the willingness to completely ignore a perfectly valid reading of the film based on the last part of one sentence. Darabont rejects Deckard-as-replicant, and therefore several people I know summarily reject his argument, not on the grounds of the argument itself but because Darabont makes a sweeping claim on personal grounds.
It's fine to disagree with Frank Darabont that the "theme" of Blade Runner might not be the emerging humanity of its protagonist, or even that the idea Deckard might be a replicant undermines that, but to simply disagree with his point simply because he disagrees with one reading of the film is actually performing the exact kind of sweeping claim he closes the argument with. He rejects the "Deckard replicant" argument, ergo you reject his argument; the baby out with the bath water. It doesn't matter that he might have a point (or that "Deckard is a replicant" proponents might have a case), because you disagree with his disagreement, everything is nullified. In a manner of speaking, the whole dialectic collapses for almost comical reasons: I disagree with your disagreement, therefore you are wrong, regardless of your evidence.
Not to put too fine a point on this, but this is an academic equivalent of internet "comment wars" between two opposing sides: your valid claim and argument is eradicated because you misspelled one word in your argument, therefore I am correct. While that may sound ridiculous taken out of context, consider that many people are ignoring the almost everything Darabont says in order to focus on the word "reject" in order to invalidate his position entirely.
He's taken not on the grounds of his argument, but the perceived imprecision of his closing, coupled with what I will concede are sweeping claims about the sophistication of the theme, which can either be applied to Darabont himself or to the editor who chose this particular thirty second clip from the entirety of an interview. Regardless, the contention I've found almost never stems from the "theme" argument, but from the word "reject." I'm not going to reject your rejection, but I will say that it confounds me that spirited academic (or cinematic) debates collapse so easily.
* Contained in quotations because the 1992 re-issue was not overseen by director Ridley Scott, who was filming Thelma and Louise during its construction, thus necessitating his "Final Cut" in 2007.
In fact, any iteration of the boxed set (the four disc set or the five disc "briefcase" edition) has a ten minute featurette titled "Deck-A-Rep: The True Nature of Rick Deckard" where both sides make their case (Ridley Scott says Deckard is, Harrison Ford says he isn't, and a number of people involved in or admirers of the film weigh in). One of the contributors is director Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Mist), and his impassioned defense of why Deckard isn't a replicant is embedded below:
What I've always found interesting about Darabont's argument is how many people I know simply dismiss his entire reading of the film because of the last sentence. Because he "rejects" the "Deckard is a replicant" argument out of hand, they accordingly reject the points he's making. One professor suggested that his unwillingness to consider the alternative automatically invalidated his position, which seems problematic to me.
Darabont's point - that Deckard's evolution in the film is meaningless or at best ironic if he's a replicant - is a valid reading of the film. His reading that the film being about Deckard's slow return to humanity is a valid one, a point that has plenty of thematic evidence in the narrative. If Deckard was a replicant, the character arc is somewhat rendered moot because his sense of humanity is totally artificial; the film ceases to be a "human" story and instead a clinical study of manufactured morality played out by pawns.
Now, I'm not saying that's not also a valid reading of the film: Blade Runner opens itself to a myriad of interpretations, beyond whether the protagonist is actually what he hunts or not. What I find fascinating is the willingness to completely ignore a perfectly valid reading of the film based on the last part of one sentence. Darabont rejects Deckard-as-replicant, and therefore several people I know summarily reject his argument, not on the grounds of the argument itself but because Darabont makes a sweeping claim on personal grounds.
It's fine to disagree with Frank Darabont that the "theme" of Blade Runner might not be the emerging humanity of its protagonist, or even that the idea Deckard might be a replicant undermines that, but to simply disagree with his point simply because he disagrees with one reading of the film is actually performing the exact kind of sweeping claim he closes the argument with. He rejects the "Deckard replicant" argument, ergo you reject his argument; the baby out with the bath water. It doesn't matter that he might have a point (or that "Deckard is a replicant" proponents might have a case), because you disagree with his disagreement, everything is nullified. In a manner of speaking, the whole dialectic collapses for almost comical reasons: I disagree with your disagreement, therefore you are wrong, regardless of your evidence.
Not to put too fine a point on this, but this is an academic equivalent of internet "comment wars" between two opposing sides: your valid claim and argument is eradicated because you misspelled one word in your argument, therefore I am correct. While that may sound ridiculous taken out of context, consider that many people are ignoring the almost everything Darabont says in order to focus on the word "reject" in order to invalidate his position entirely.
He's taken not on the grounds of his argument, but the perceived imprecision of his closing, coupled with what I will concede are sweeping claims about the sophistication of the theme, which can either be applied to Darabont himself or to the editor who chose this particular thirty second clip from the entirety of an interview. Regardless, the contention I've found almost never stems from the "theme" argument, but from the word "reject." I'm not going to reject your rejection, but I will say that it confounds me that spirited academic (or cinematic) debates collapse so easily.
* Contained in quotations because the 1992 re-issue was not overseen by director Ridley Scott, who was filming Thelma and Louise during its construction, thus necessitating his "Final Cut" in 2007.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Flim-Flammers Yammer
Greetings, my little Katzenjammer Kids! Hope you didn't mind the Cap'n taking the night off out of laziness giving you a blast from the past last night. Actually, considering how long it's been since You're All Doomed magazine actually existed, it might have been brand new for 90% of you. Those reviews are totally legit, by the way. The Cap'n wouldn't lie to you, would he?
---
I know, I know; The House of the Devil. I so promised a review shortly after the disc arrived, and then... life happened. It has a nasty habit of doing that, and my plans to set aside 95 minutes for a movie I've been assured I'm going to dig the hell out of have kinda been put on the back burner. But soon, I promise. Like, on the other side of a paper due on Thursday.
By then, A Serious Man should also be here (it would already be here, but UPS has a curious policy of sometimes leaving packages and sometimes leaving notice for "signature confirmation") and I'd like to see Bronson soon. If you'd like to play a fun game, put bets down on how many of them I actually see between now and "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer" on Saturday*.
Oh, and Black Dynamite comes out next week on DVD and Blu-satility-Ray-Disc.
---
To follow up a smidge on that "Criterion Out of Print" business, I noticed that next week brings two Blu-Ray releases from Lionsgate of former Spine Numbers: Contempt and Ran. They're being released under the Studio Canal banner, which I suppose is a fancy way of distinguishing them from the likes of Cabin Fever and Frailty. The extras seem to be pretty close to their Criterion dvd counterparts, save for conspicuously missing commentary tracks.
I suppose that this bodes well for some of the "marquee" titles leaving Criterion, like Grand Illusion; there's a reasonably good chance we'll see Blu-Rays after all, and possibly with most of their original supplements. It's not radically different from Disney's release of The Rock, which carried over all of the Criterion extras. The question that remains is if there's somebody out there who is willing to make new covers to put in the BD sleeves so we can pretend they're still part of the collection?
---
Finally, I don't know about you guys, but I'm pretty sure that the pill Jack tried to swallow was totally a Velociraptor egg, thus proving my theory that they don't call it Dinosaur Island for no reason!
* Hint, I could just show Bronson and A Serious Man on Saturday, so hedge those bets, folks...
---
I know, I know; The House of the Devil. I so promised a review shortly after the disc arrived, and then... life happened. It has a nasty habit of doing that, and my plans to set aside 95 minutes for a movie I've been assured I'm going to dig the hell out of have kinda been put on the back burner. But soon, I promise. Like, on the other side of a paper due on Thursday.
By then, A Serious Man should also be here (it would already be here, but UPS has a curious policy of sometimes leaving packages and sometimes leaving notice for "signature confirmation") and I'd like to see Bronson soon. If you'd like to play a fun game, put bets down on how many of them I actually see between now and "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer" on Saturday*.
Oh, and Black Dynamite comes out next week on DVD and Blu-satility-Ray-Disc.
---
To follow up a smidge on that "Criterion Out of Print" business, I noticed that next week brings two Blu-Ray releases from Lionsgate of former Spine Numbers: Contempt and Ran. They're being released under the Studio Canal banner, which I suppose is a fancy way of distinguishing them from the likes of Cabin Fever and Frailty. The extras seem to be pretty close to their Criterion dvd counterparts, save for conspicuously missing commentary tracks.
I suppose that this bodes well for some of the "marquee" titles leaving Criterion, like Grand Illusion; there's a reasonably good chance we'll see Blu-Rays after all, and possibly with most of their original supplements. It's not radically different from Disney's release of The Rock, which carried over all of the Criterion extras. The question that remains is if there's somebody out there who is willing to make new covers to put in the BD sleeves so we can pretend they're still part of the collection?
---
Finally, I don't know about you guys, but I'm pretty sure that the pill Jack tried to swallow was totally a Velociraptor egg, thus proving my theory that they don't call it Dinosaur Island for no reason!
* Hint, I could just show Bronson and A Serious Man on Saturday, so hedge those bets, folks...
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
I Sure Hope We Watch Blood Simple Tomorrow...
Ack! Double plus ungood correction time from the Cap'n: Okay, so previously reported on the Blogorium - The Simpsons Season 20 featured the switch to HD and was in widescreen. Subsequently followed up by a correction (based on watching disc 1) that the episodes were NOT in fact widescreen, with an assertion I must have mistaken season Twenty for Twenty One.
Final Correction, based on all the available evidence: About ten episodes into season Twenty, The Simpsons switches from good ol' 1.33:1 to 1.78:1, complete with the new HD opening (one of several variations). The episode, in case historians lose track of every other record in the Universe save for the Blogorium, is "Take My Life, Please", in which Homer discovers that he actually DID win his Senior Class election. I am not going back to double check disc one, because every site but IMDB officially recognizes this to be the shift in screen size. If I'm wrong again, then you can blame it on bad internet writing. There will be no third correction!!!!
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I have a theme. Three films, each related in one way or the other to the phrase "one bourbon, one scotch, one beer". Saturday the 30th sounds like a good day to me; how about you?
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The following observation is not intended to critique the quality of Avatar as a film or my own disinterest in seeing James Cameron's new blockbuster. What I'm curious about is whether the continued success of the film (it was once again number one, and the drop off in ticket sales is really negligible from week to week) is the result of new audience members going in to see it for the first time based on word of mouth, or just the collective work of nerds angry that Titanic, Cameron's "chick flick" is the number one movie of all time in making megabucks. Just something I was thinking about...
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Finally:
MacGruber!!!!!!
Final Correction, based on all the available evidence: About ten episodes into season Twenty, The Simpsons switches from good ol' 1.33:1 to 1.78:1, complete with the new HD opening (one of several variations). The episode, in case historians lose track of every other record in the Universe save for the Blogorium, is "Take My Life, Please", in which Homer discovers that he actually DID win his Senior Class election. I am not going back to double check disc one, because every site but IMDB officially recognizes this to be the shift in screen size. If I'm wrong again, then you can blame it on bad internet writing. There will be no third correction!!!!
---
I have a theme. Three films, each related in one way or the other to the phrase "one bourbon, one scotch, one beer". Saturday the 30th sounds like a good day to me; how about you?
---
The following observation is not intended to critique the quality of Avatar as a film or my own disinterest in seeing James Cameron's new blockbuster. What I'm curious about is whether the continued success of the film (it was once again number one, and the drop off in ticket sales is really negligible from week to week) is the result of new audience members going in to see it for the first time based on word of mouth, or just the collective work of nerds angry that Titanic, Cameron's "chick flick" is the number one movie of all time in making megabucks. Just something I was thinking about...
---
Finally:
MacGruber!!!!!!
Saturday, January 16, 2010
USA Up All Night Marathon Also a Consideration!
The Cap'n needs your assistance, dear readers. You see, I'd really like to have one more movie marathon before school devours every moment of my free time and the Blogorium becomes a weekly referendum on the films of Joel and Ethan Coen (which is so much more likely than you'd even imagine). The problem is, I don't know what kind of movie night to have.
Normal marathons around here are themed, and for anyone who's arrived here for the first time, they go thusly:
April - Bad Movie Night(s), which occurs in the vicinity of the Cap'n's birthday. The so-bad-they're-good movies are hand selected by the Cap'n, and gifts are made of comparable quality to you, the attendee.
July - Summer Fest, which is a celebration of Horror Comedies. The atmosphere is based on a more participatory relationship to the horror films, and the quality bar is set much lower.
October - Horror Fest, the grandaddy of them all. Horror Fest is a showcase of the good, the bad, and the obscure of horror films which run from dusk til dawn.
More ambiguous about timing - Doctor Who Night, MST3K Night, Exploitation-o-Rama Double Features.
The catch is that I don't really want to do any of those in January. I'd like to try something different, like a "Best of 2009" weekend or something of that nature. On the other hand, I don't want to sacrifice the atmosphere of fun associated with other "theme" nights, and the phrase "best" is often subjective and connotes lofty expectations. So not quite what I'm looking for, you dig?
Therefore, I'd like to turn it over to you folks. What would bring you over to the Apartment That Dripped Blood for an evening that you wouldn't already show up for? What films would you like to see the Cap'n show for an audience unprepared for the experience. Okay, other than Teenage Mother (again).
Would VHS night be up your alley? A collection of films not available on DVD or fancy schmancy Blu-Ray? Believe it or not, they're out there. I have a few, and not just Terrorvision. Hankering for Italian Revenge Films, or Japanese Film Noir? Famous Oscar losers? Unnecessary Sequels? What about Bollywood versions of American films? I'm game, because I'd like to do something that would be fun for you folks and is outside of the normal realm of the Cap'n.
So give me some options in the comments section, and I'll put together a poll to vote on. The best suggestion will become a new "theme" night on the last weekend of January. For sure.
* one caveat: I'd really rather not do "Porn Parodies of Famous Films". Porn marathons NEVER end well.
Normal marathons around here are themed, and for anyone who's arrived here for the first time, they go thusly:
April - Bad Movie Night(s), which occurs in the vicinity of the Cap'n's birthday. The so-bad-they're-good movies are hand selected by the Cap'n, and gifts are made of comparable quality to you, the attendee.
July - Summer Fest, which is a celebration of Horror Comedies. The atmosphere is based on a more participatory relationship to the horror films, and the quality bar is set much lower.
October - Horror Fest, the grandaddy of them all. Horror Fest is a showcase of the good, the bad, and the obscure of horror films which run from dusk til dawn.
More ambiguous about timing - Doctor Who Night, MST3K Night, Exploitation-o-Rama Double Features.
The catch is that I don't really want to do any of those in January. I'd like to try something different, like a "Best of 2009" weekend or something of that nature. On the other hand, I don't want to sacrifice the atmosphere of fun associated with other "theme" nights, and the phrase "best" is often subjective and connotes lofty expectations. So not quite what I'm looking for, you dig?
Therefore, I'd like to turn it over to you folks. What would bring you over to the Apartment That Dripped Blood for an evening that you wouldn't already show up for? What films would you like to see the Cap'n show for an audience unprepared for the experience. Okay, other than Teenage Mother (again).
Would VHS night be up your alley? A collection of films not available on DVD or fancy schmancy Blu-Ray? Believe it or not, they're out there. I have a few, and not just Terrorvision. Hankering for Italian Revenge Films, or Japanese Film Noir? Famous Oscar losers? Unnecessary Sequels? What about Bollywood versions of American films? I'm game, because I'd like to do something that would be fun for you folks and is outside of the normal realm of the Cap'n.
So give me some options in the comments section, and I'll put together a poll to vote on. The best suggestion will become a new "theme" night on the last weekend of January. For sure.
* one caveat: I'd really rather not do "Porn Parodies of Famous Films". Porn marathons NEVER end well.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Blogorium Review: Big Fan
People don't tend to think of sports fanatics to be the same, in any way, to comic book fans or science fiction fanatics or hardcore gamers. In fact, anything grouped together under the umbrella term "geek" is meant to suggest an unhealthy obsession with something. While there is one critical difference between the average "geek" and the average "sports nut", people who come to Big Fan based on Patton Oswalt will nevertheless see a lot of themselves in the film.
The biggest difference between a fanatic of sports and the "typical" geek is that the objects of their obsession are flesh and blood. Teams are comprised of real players who perform every week during the season, and don't have the luxury of saying "well, I'm not really Batman. That's just a character in a film." More importantly, this plants the sports fanatic's heroes and villains in the same world they occupy, particularly if you live in a city with a football, baseball, basketball, or hockey team. Despite the rarefied air they breath, the sports fanatic always has a better chance of running into the cornerback for their favorite football team than the geek will of meeting Green Lantern.
And that's exactly what happens to Paul Aufiero (Patton Oswalt) one night. Paul is a huge NY Giants fan; he spends his days composing carefully worded diatribes to call into radio sports shows with that night. Paul and Sal (Kevin Corrigan) tailgate every home game, talk the scores, the schedule, and what needs to happen to make the playoffs. He idolizes Quantrell Bishop (Johnathan Hamm), a defensive... well, I'm not sure. He sounds like a pass rusher, but I missed Bishop's actual position. When Paul from Staten Island is on the air, his love for the Giants reigns supreme, even against the disembodied voice of Phil from Philadelphia (Michael Rapaport).
But Paul is also a loser: he's somewhere between late thirties and mid forties, lives at home with his mother in a tiny room crammed with memorabilia. He works in a parking garage, has one friend, and as best as one can tell, no prospects whatsoever. His brother is a lawyer and his sister a dental assistant, and he chides them (and his mother) for bothering him about his arrested development. For Paul, the Giants are everything. There is no life worth living beyond that. I can imagine some of you can replace the word "Giants" for something "geekier" and see the parallel.
Everything changes when Paul and Sal see Bishop and his entourage at a gas station. Starstruck, they follow him to Manhattan and into a strip club. So disconnected with reality, they have no idea how to approach Quantrell, and when a chance bathroom encounter and a drink offer amount to nothing, the twosome decide to take the direct approach. Bishop and his boys are amused, to say the least, that two disheveled losers would walk up to their VIP booth, but things go well until Paul lets slip that they followed him. For that, Bishop savagely beats Paul, leaving him in the hospital for three days.
Big Fan is a character study of a man so devoted to his team that he, despite lingering head trauma, refuses to cooperate with the police investigation. Aufiero feels guilty for making Bishop angry, and blames himself for the Giants subsequent losses as their star defensive player is suspended. This would be akin, I suppose, to having a favorite actor or artist attack you, and as you recover the show or comic goes downhill, much to fandom's chagrin. I cannot quite find the accurate corollary, which is why Big Fan had to be about athletes.
I won't say too much more, because the mental breakdown Paul suffers as a result of his guilt mixed with family pressure to sue Bishop and talk radio antagonizing from Phil in Philadelphia is where the movie gets most interesting. The third act of the film moves forward in a logical, albeit disturbing fashion, but then makes a sudden turn which is both uplifting and pathetic. It all depends on where you're sitting on the matter.
Patton Oswalt is fantastic as Paul Aufiero. He embodies the "man child" in a way that's never cheap or condescending; Paul doesn't believe that he's the sad man of the story, even when he lashes out in cruel ways at his mother and siblings. His desperation for the incident to just go away is the portrait of a fan in denial, and Oswalt sells every beat with conviction. People will be rightfully surprised to see him play it straight, and it's a pity more people won't see this film due to limited availability.
Writer / Director Robert Siegel takes a very naturalistic approach to the film, in a manner akin to Aronofsky's The Wrestler (which Siegel wrote). Using RED, a new digital camera that approximates the human eye's ability to pick up low light, Siegel makes the most of the film's low budget to achieve versimilitude. Take a shot, for example, where Paul and Sal are driving through Manhattan, neon lights reflecting off of the windshield, but both men are perfectly visible reacting to the display.
Despite the "no frills" independent film aesthetic, Big Fan looks great in HD. For some reason, the film is only being released on DVD, but I still recommend you check it out. I could continue hurling superlatives as Oswalt, but it's better if you just see the film yourselves. Even if you don't know the first thing about football, I promise that many readers of this blog will recognizes themselves - and a lot of themselves they don't want to be - in Paul Aufiero, the Big Fan.
The biggest difference between a fanatic of sports and the "typical" geek is that the objects of their obsession are flesh and blood. Teams are comprised of real players who perform every week during the season, and don't have the luxury of saying "well, I'm not really Batman. That's just a character in a film." More importantly, this plants the sports fanatic's heroes and villains in the same world they occupy, particularly if you live in a city with a football, baseball, basketball, or hockey team. Despite the rarefied air they breath, the sports fanatic always has a better chance of running into the cornerback for their favorite football team than the geek will of meeting Green Lantern.
And that's exactly what happens to Paul Aufiero (Patton Oswalt) one night. Paul is a huge NY Giants fan; he spends his days composing carefully worded diatribes to call into radio sports shows with that night. Paul and Sal (Kevin Corrigan) tailgate every home game, talk the scores, the schedule, and what needs to happen to make the playoffs. He idolizes Quantrell Bishop (Johnathan Hamm), a defensive... well, I'm not sure. He sounds like a pass rusher, but I missed Bishop's actual position. When Paul from Staten Island is on the air, his love for the Giants reigns supreme, even against the disembodied voice of Phil from Philadelphia (Michael Rapaport).
But Paul is also a loser: he's somewhere between late thirties and mid forties, lives at home with his mother in a tiny room crammed with memorabilia. He works in a parking garage, has one friend, and as best as one can tell, no prospects whatsoever. His brother is a lawyer and his sister a dental assistant, and he chides them (and his mother) for bothering him about his arrested development. For Paul, the Giants are everything. There is no life worth living beyond that. I can imagine some of you can replace the word "Giants" for something "geekier" and see the parallel.
Everything changes when Paul and Sal see Bishop and his entourage at a gas station. Starstruck, they follow him to Manhattan and into a strip club. So disconnected with reality, they have no idea how to approach Quantrell, and when a chance bathroom encounter and a drink offer amount to nothing, the twosome decide to take the direct approach. Bishop and his boys are amused, to say the least, that two disheveled losers would walk up to their VIP booth, but things go well until Paul lets slip that they followed him. For that, Bishop savagely beats Paul, leaving him in the hospital for three days.
Big Fan is a character study of a man so devoted to his team that he, despite lingering head trauma, refuses to cooperate with the police investigation. Aufiero feels guilty for making Bishop angry, and blames himself for the Giants subsequent losses as their star defensive player is suspended. This would be akin, I suppose, to having a favorite actor or artist attack you, and as you recover the show or comic goes downhill, much to fandom's chagrin. I cannot quite find the accurate corollary, which is why Big Fan had to be about athletes.
I won't say too much more, because the mental breakdown Paul suffers as a result of his guilt mixed with family pressure to sue Bishop and talk radio antagonizing from Phil in Philadelphia is where the movie gets most interesting. The third act of the film moves forward in a logical, albeit disturbing fashion, but then makes a sudden turn which is both uplifting and pathetic. It all depends on where you're sitting on the matter.
Patton Oswalt is fantastic as Paul Aufiero. He embodies the "man child" in a way that's never cheap or condescending; Paul doesn't believe that he's the sad man of the story, even when he lashes out in cruel ways at his mother and siblings. His desperation for the incident to just go away is the portrait of a fan in denial, and Oswalt sells every beat with conviction. People will be rightfully surprised to see him play it straight, and it's a pity more people won't see this film due to limited availability.
Writer / Director Robert Siegel takes a very naturalistic approach to the film, in a manner akin to Aronofsky's The Wrestler (which Siegel wrote). Using RED, a new digital camera that approximates the human eye's ability to pick up low light, Siegel makes the most of the film's low budget to achieve versimilitude. Take a shot, for example, where Paul and Sal are driving through Manhattan, neon lights reflecting off of the windshield, but both men are perfectly visible reacting to the display.
Despite the "no frills" independent film aesthetic, Big Fan looks great in HD. For some reason, the film is only being released on DVD, but I still recommend you check it out. I could continue hurling superlatives as Oswalt, but it's better if you just see the film yourselves. Even if you don't know the first thing about football, I promise that many readers of this blog will recognizes themselves - and a lot of themselves they don't want to be - in Paul Aufiero, the Big Fan.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
All About Warners!
Good evening, reader-inos!
Let's begin by looking at the trailer for a non-horror remake, one that Warner Brothers appears to have sunk quite a bit of money into, Clash of the Titans.
I've seen the original; it was a semi-regular fixture for a tape we didn't have at home, and I remember having watched it several times as a youth and being generally entertained with it. The stop motion on Medusa and the Kraken was pretty cool, and the movie seemed dumb but entertaining.
The remake, on the other hand, really raises the question "This is what you wanted to make? Why bother calling it Clash of the Titans"? See for yourself.
Maybe it's the 80% yelling and fighting footage. Maybe it's the hilariously matched metal-to-footage combo. Maybe it's the scorpion. Somehow, the only thing I could do with that trailer was laugh. It's like Warner Brothers decided to take the original film and "turn it up to 11" in every possible way, and the end result is embarrassing for everyone involved.
Oh, and that tagline.... "Titans. Will. Clash." That's pretty clever, especially when followed by the title of the movie.
The best part is that you could make the argument that this is any movie other than a remake of Clash of the Titans and win. Avoid making nostalgic geeks angry and just call it something else, because to be honest, it probably is.
---
Since I gave Warner Brothers so much grief over Clash of the Titans, let me make it up to them by suggesting all of you go pick up North By Northwest on Blu Ray. Before I laud the disc, allow me to remind you that nobody is paying me to do this (or anything else on this blog, although I am not opposed to being paid to write), so the solicitation is a genuine one based on watching parts of the movie earlier today.
Unlike Near Dark, which it turns out many of you have not seen, I feel more comfortable in presuming most of you have seen Alfred Hitchcock's North By Northwest. If you haven't, go rent it now. While I hesitate to ever choose one favorite Hitchcock film over another, I've probably seen North By Northwest as many times as Psycho and Vertigo, and maybe more times than Notorious, Lifeboat, and Rear Window. And that's still leaving out several other faves.
The Blu Ray for this movie was impressive. I put it on after the Near Dark Blu Ray (which is no slouch itself, to my surprise) and immediately felt validated in my purchase. After watching the opening again, I skipped around to the "crop duster" scene, and the clarity is a little astounding. While The Wizard of Oz has twenty years on it, North By Northwest looks pretty new for a fifty year old movie. If this is indicative of the way Hitchcock is going to look in High Definition, sign me up.
The big question here is how Universal answers the gauntlet Warners dropped with this disc. Warner Brothers has a handful of well known Hitchcock movies - Strangers on a Train, Dial M for Murder, The Wrong Man - but Universal has the "big guns" - Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window, The Birds, and Rope. If I'm not mistaken, North By Northwest is the first salvo fired in the HD Hitch battle, and if we're lucky that means the rest will come soon and just as striking.
---
Finally, I was pleasantly surprised at how well this works. It's from a Russian troupe and gives you a glimpse of The Matrix as a Charlie Chaplin short. I've seen most (if not all) of Chaplin's films, and this doesn't stray too far.
Honestly I was expecting not to like this. The only things that don't really work are the "laugh" track and the structure of the boxing gag. Chaplin would actually be the one doing the kicking, but I understand what they're trying to do. It's more impressive than I had hoped.
Let's begin by looking at the trailer for a non-horror remake, one that Warner Brothers appears to have sunk quite a bit of money into, Clash of the Titans.
I've seen the original; it was a semi-regular fixture for a tape we didn't have at home, and I remember having watched it several times as a youth and being generally entertained with it. The stop motion on Medusa and the Kraken was pretty cool, and the movie seemed dumb but entertaining.
The remake, on the other hand, really raises the question "This is what you wanted to make? Why bother calling it Clash of the Titans"? See for yourself.
Maybe it's the 80% yelling and fighting footage. Maybe it's the hilariously matched metal-to-footage combo. Maybe it's the scorpion. Somehow, the only thing I could do with that trailer was laugh. It's like Warner Brothers decided to take the original film and "turn it up to 11" in every possible way, and the end result is embarrassing for everyone involved.
Oh, and that tagline.... "Titans. Will. Clash." That's pretty clever, especially when followed by the title of the movie.
The best part is that you could make the argument that this is any movie other than a remake of Clash of the Titans and win. Avoid making nostalgic geeks angry and just call it something else, because to be honest, it probably is.
---
Since I gave Warner Brothers so much grief over Clash of the Titans, let me make it up to them by suggesting all of you go pick up North By Northwest on Blu Ray. Before I laud the disc, allow me to remind you that nobody is paying me to do this (or anything else on this blog, although I am not opposed to being paid to write), so the solicitation is a genuine one based on watching parts of the movie earlier today.
Unlike Near Dark, which it turns out many of you have not seen, I feel more comfortable in presuming most of you have seen Alfred Hitchcock's North By Northwest. If you haven't, go rent it now. While I hesitate to ever choose one favorite Hitchcock film over another, I've probably seen North By Northwest as many times as Psycho and Vertigo, and maybe more times than Notorious, Lifeboat, and Rear Window. And that's still leaving out several other faves.
The Blu Ray for this movie was impressive. I put it on after the Near Dark Blu Ray (which is no slouch itself, to my surprise) and immediately felt validated in my purchase. After watching the opening again, I skipped around to the "crop duster" scene, and the clarity is a little astounding. While The Wizard of Oz has twenty years on it, North By Northwest looks pretty new for a fifty year old movie. If this is indicative of the way Hitchcock is going to look in High Definition, sign me up.
The big question here is how Universal answers the gauntlet Warners dropped with this disc. Warner Brothers has a handful of well known Hitchcock movies - Strangers on a Train, Dial M for Murder, The Wrong Man - but Universal has the "big guns" - Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window, The Birds, and Rope. If I'm not mistaken, North By Northwest is the first salvo fired in the HD Hitch battle, and if we're lucky that means the rest will come soon and just as striking.
---
Finally, I was pleasantly surprised at how well this works. It's from a Russian troupe and gives you a glimpse of The Matrix as a Charlie Chaplin short. I've seen most (if not all) of Chaplin's films, and this doesn't stray too far.
Honestly I was expecting not to like this. The only things that don't really work are the "laugh" track and the structure of the boxing gag. Chaplin would actually be the one doing the kicking, but I understand what they're trying to do. It's more impressive than I had hoped.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Just the other day, I discovered that the iPod generation is finally working in unison with the cinephile generation. While I was reading a review of Wrong Turn 2 (out of curiosity), there was a tidbit in the extras about the director recording a commentary track that Fox left out. However, Dread Central made the commentary track available as an mp3 to anyone who wanted to download it. Slap it on your iPod, cue up the movie, and enjoy.
I must admit that I'm intrigued by this concept. It's not only one out there either: director Tim Sullivan (2001 Maniacs) has actually been recording mp3 commentary tracks with members of the cast and crews of Fright Night, Child's Play, and Nightwing. Since director Tom Holland wasn't asked to add his thoughts to the Child's Play 20th anniversary, Sullivan sat down with him and made another track for fans to listen to. Fright Night has two tracks, each with different participants, which is two more than the dvd has!
To be fair, this isn't exactly new: Kevin Smith had the botched iPod commentary for Clerks 2 that didn't come out in time to watch in theatres (but is on the dvd), and I suppose you could make the argument that Riff Tracks is essentially doing the same thing. I would argue that Riff Tracks (the Mike Nelson / Kevin Murphy / Bill Corbett MST3k spin-off) serves a different function since you're paying for an mp3 of people making fun of well known movies (like The Dark Knight, Star Wars, or Harry Potter).
Why I find this more interesting than the "record your own video commentary" that's on Warner Brothers Blu-Rays is that the portability factor isn't there. I have plenty of friends who have laptops or iPods that don't have fancy tvs or internet-linked Playstation 3's. While the downloadable commentary may not seem that practical in comparison to ones on the actual disc, it is an interesting way for directors, writers, actors, and effects crew members to subvert a cheap-o studio looking to pump out the disc quickly.
Let me know if you see any more of these floating around. This movement could be a fun way of bridging what the fans want and what the manufacturers deliver.
---
I don't actually have much to say about Chris Rock wanting to make another Pootie Tang film except YES.
---
Finally, since I was talking about Gremlins a few days ago, this amused the Cap'n:
I must admit that I'm intrigued by this concept. It's not only one out there either: director Tim Sullivan (2001 Maniacs) has actually been recording mp3 commentary tracks with members of the cast and crews of Fright Night, Child's Play, and Nightwing. Since director Tom Holland wasn't asked to add his thoughts to the Child's Play 20th anniversary, Sullivan sat down with him and made another track for fans to listen to. Fright Night has two tracks, each with different participants, which is two more than the dvd has!
To be fair, this isn't exactly new: Kevin Smith had the botched iPod commentary for Clerks 2 that didn't come out in time to watch in theatres (but is on the dvd), and I suppose you could make the argument that Riff Tracks is essentially doing the same thing. I would argue that Riff Tracks (the Mike Nelson / Kevin Murphy / Bill Corbett MST3k spin-off) serves a different function since you're paying for an mp3 of people making fun of well known movies (like The Dark Knight, Star Wars, or Harry Potter).
Why I find this more interesting than the "record your own video commentary" that's on Warner Brothers Blu-Rays is that the portability factor isn't there. I have plenty of friends who have laptops or iPods that don't have fancy tvs or internet-linked Playstation 3's. While the downloadable commentary may not seem that practical in comparison to ones on the actual disc, it is an interesting way for directors, writers, actors, and effects crew members to subvert a cheap-o studio looking to pump out the disc quickly.
Let me know if you see any more of these floating around. This movement could be a fun way of bridging what the fans want and what the manufacturers deliver.
---
I don't actually have much to say about Chris Rock wanting to make another Pootie Tang film except YES.
---
Finally, since I was talking about Gremlins a few days ago, this amused the Cap'n:
Monday, October 5, 2009
Nostalgia Time!
I forgot to mention this in Saturday, but it turns out that Best Buy isn't alone in the "exclusive" Blu Ray release department*. Target fired back by releasing Gremlins all on their lonesome, and boy howdy was the Cap'n pleased to see that.
Gremlins and Gremlins 2: The New Batch sit happily alongside Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, The Goonies, The Monster Squad, and Tron as "movies that made young Cap'n very happy." Still, it's been some time since I watched Gremlins, and despite having the dvd special edition, I'd never listened to the cast commentary.
I was quite surprised to discover that Back to the Future and Gremlins have something else in common; something I'd never noticed before. Both movies were shot on the Universal backlot (confirmed by the commentary), and the downtown in Gremlins is the same town square from Back to the Future. See for yourself:
There's the clock tower, just off to the right. When you see Zach Galligan running to his job at the bank, you can see him run past the diner and the movie theatre from 1955, although it's been dressed somewhere in between the 1955 and 1985 of BTTF. Crazy!
For comparison's sake, the closest corollary photo I could find:
It's been redressed a bit, but I'm almost positive they're one in the same.
One of the other things I'd honestly given thought to that comes up in the cast commentary (featuring director Joe Dante, Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Dick Miller, and Howie Mandel - voice of Gizmo) is just how illogical the third Mogwai rule is. Technically, it's always "after midnight" somewhere, so how do you ever know when to feed a Mogwai?
Anyway, if you're wondering, Gremlins is pretty spiffy on Blu Ray, and the picture holds up surprisingly well for the 1980s. The prologue with Hoyt Axton is a bit grainy, but even in the shop you can see more of the trinkets for sale than I'd ever noticed. The gremlins themselves look great, especially Stripe, and I'm looking forward to seeing the more colorful New Batch hit high def. Well worth picking up.
---
Tomorrow brings Trick r Treat and Anvil! The Story of Anvil, two movies I've been waiting to see for a while now. Quite exciting.
* at one point, they were merely duking it out by adding extra discs or content, but then Best Buy dropped Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead a month early, and then Children of the Corn. Now Target's hitting back with their own exclusive releases, which means we'll get more varied product faster. That's fine with me.
Gremlins and Gremlins 2: The New Batch sit happily alongside Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, The Goonies, The Monster Squad, and Tron as "movies that made young Cap'n very happy." Still, it's been some time since I watched Gremlins, and despite having the dvd special edition, I'd never listened to the cast commentary.
I was quite surprised to discover that Back to the Future and Gremlins have something else in common; something I'd never noticed before. Both movies were shot on the Universal backlot (confirmed by the commentary), and the downtown in Gremlins is the same town square from Back to the Future. See for yourself:
There's the clock tower, just off to the right. When you see Zach Galligan running to his job at the bank, you can see him run past the diner and the movie theatre from 1955, although it's been dressed somewhere in between the 1955 and 1985 of BTTF. Crazy!For comparison's sake, the closest corollary photo I could find:
It's been redressed a bit, but I'm almost positive they're one in the same.One of the other things I'd honestly given thought to that comes up in the cast commentary (featuring director Joe Dante, Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Dick Miller, and Howie Mandel - voice of Gizmo) is just how illogical the third Mogwai rule is. Technically, it's always "after midnight" somewhere, so how do you ever know when to feed a Mogwai?
Anyway, if you're wondering, Gremlins is pretty spiffy on Blu Ray, and the picture holds up surprisingly well for the 1980s. The prologue with Hoyt Axton is a bit grainy, but even in the shop you can see more of the trinkets for sale than I'd ever noticed. The gremlins themselves look great, especially Stripe, and I'm looking forward to seeing the more colorful New Batch hit high def. Well worth picking up.
---
Tomorrow brings Trick r Treat and Anvil! The Story of Anvil, two movies I've been waiting to see for a while now. Quite exciting.
* at one point, they were merely duking it out by adding extra discs or content, but then Best Buy dropped Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead a month early, and then Children of the Corn. Now Target's hitting back with their own exclusive releases, which means we'll get more varied product faster. That's fine with me.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz!
Finally, the Cap'n has come back to talk about something worthwhile! Oh sure, dissecting a two-and-a-half minute advertisement for a movie I'm not going to watch anyway was fun, but now it's time to stop the childishness and talk about something you might actually care about.
Yes, dear reader(s), I speak of The Wizard of Oz on Blu-Freaking-Ray High Definition!
Even a day later, after dousing my eyes in red and green Krueger-ness, I'm still boggled by how wonderful it looks. Even the sepia toned beginning and (spoiler!) ending are as impressive as those new-fangled movies you keep buying.
Well, not you, Mr. Not-Going-to-Adopt-Blu-Ray-for-Price-and/or-Personal-Reasons, but certainly for everyone who asks me "why bother mastering old movies for HD? they always look like crap, right?"
Wrong. If Casablanca didn't prove them wrong, if The Third Man didn't wear them down, The Seventh Seal didn't hush them good, and The Adventures of Robin Hood didn't shoot that argument right into the gutter, Oz will. The Wizard of Oz makes The Adventures of Robin Hood look like a warm-up for High Def.
I guess this isn't going to mean anything to you if you aren't already inclined to watch The Wizard of Oz, but the Cap'n is. Beneath my horror loving exterior, I can be a down right softie, and while I wasn't even planning on watching the whole movie before reporting, I couldn't turn it off.
The Wizard of Oz is designed in such a way that you very easily fall into the story without losing interest: the opening section in Kansas dispenses with all the necessary foreshadowing and character introduction quickly, split right down the middle with "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", and before you know it, you're hanging on to see this bland middle-America turn technicolor trip-out.
Similarly, although I really thought it would take longer, the Munchkin sequence is over and Dorothy has the Ruby slippers and is following the Yellow Brick Road. The pacing isn't breakneck, but you've met the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion (with a song apiece) in short order, and they're a poppy field away from the Emerald City.
I gave a cursory thought to doing some homework, only to realize "I'm halfway through the movie already" and decided to just finish it off. I"m still not sure how it is the last fifty minutes go by faster than the first, but there goes the Wizard, floating off in his balloon and Glinda the good witch was back to tell Dorothy she could go home all along.
One digression: I don't know how I always forget this, but The Wizard (and the movie) certainly does a disservice to the Lion, Scarecrow, and Tin Man (and the kids at home) by not imparting the "you had a heart/brains/courage all along" speech. Instead, he suggests that what's more important that Hearts, Brains, and Courage are the trinkets that make them clear to others (a diploma, a medal, and a heart clock). I'm serious!
To be fair, it makes the Futurama spoof even funnier, because I could almost hear the Wizard say "You don't need courage when you've got... a GUN!" to the Cowardly Lion. I guess that I want to believe the movie is less superficial in that one regard, so I conveniently forget it and replace it with a trope from every other kids' book.
But enough about the movie. If you like it (as I do) then you want to know how it holds up to that ten year old dvd you've got, or that... uh, three year old(?) two-or-three disc set you have.
The answer is: pretty damn well. There are clips from the oldest of the versions (seen in any extra featuring the voice of Angela Lansbury), and the difference is astounding. Even the fancy re-mastered newer dvd doesn't sport the clarity and depth of picture quality this Blu Ray does. The poppy field is an excellent example, both before and after the snow fall. I was rather surprised how easy it was to tell one flower apart from the other, even when staring at hundreds of like-colored plants. The evil forest that Dorothy and company tread through is more ominous, and for some reason, an especially cheesy shot of flying monkeys dazzles.
I don't mean to be rude to The Adventures of Robin Hood, but The Wizard of Oz really blows it out of the water when it comes to seeing early color films in High Definition. I've seen newer movies with robust color palettes that don't sparkle like Oz does. If this is what Warners is planning on doing with all their catalog titles, count me in. I expect that Oz and the in-production-at-the-same-time Gone with the Wind are their way of announcing "old movies can look great too!"
And they're right. This wasn't the first time I've sat down with Oz and stuck around until the end, and having seen it like I did yesterday, it won't be the last time either. For a 7o year-old movie, you'd hardly be able to tell...
---
While this isn't Oz related, I thought I'd share that 1986's Labyrinth looks pretty damned good in its own right on Blu Ray. I haven't seen The Dark Crystal yet, but I expect similar results.
Yes, dear reader(s), I speak of The Wizard of Oz on Blu-Freaking-Ray High Definition!
Even a day later, after dousing my eyes in red and green Krueger-ness, I'm still boggled by how wonderful it looks. Even the sepia toned beginning and (spoiler!) ending are as impressive as those new-fangled movies you keep buying.
Well, not you, Mr. Not-Going-to-Adopt-Blu-Ray-for-Price-and/or-Personal-Reasons, but certainly for everyone who asks me "why bother mastering old movies for HD? they always look like crap, right?"
Wrong. If Casablanca didn't prove them wrong, if The Third Man didn't wear them down, The Seventh Seal didn't hush them good, and The Adventures of Robin Hood didn't shoot that argument right into the gutter, Oz will. The Wizard of Oz makes The Adventures of Robin Hood look like a warm-up for High Def.
I guess this isn't going to mean anything to you if you aren't already inclined to watch The Wizard of Oz, but the Cap'n is. Beneath my horror loving exterior, I can be a down right softie, and while I wasn't even planning on watching the whole movie before reporting, I couldn't turn it off.
The Wizard of Oz is designed in such a way that you very easily fall into the story without losing interest: the opening section in Kansas dispenses with all the necessary foreshadowing and character introduction quickly, split right down the middle with "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", and before you know it, you're hanging on to see this bland middle-America turn technicolor trip-out.
Similarly, although I really thought it would take longer, the Munchkin sequence is over and Dorothy has the Ruby slippers and is following the Yellow Brick Road. The pacing isn't breakneck, but you've met the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion (with a song apiece) in short order, and they're a poppy field away from the Emerald City.
I gave a cursory thought to doing some homework, only to realize "I'm halfway through the movie already" and decided to just finish it off. I"m still not sure how it is the last fifty minutes go by faster than the first, but there goes the Wizard, floating off in his balloon and Glinda the good witch was back to tell Dorothy she could go home all along.
One digression: I don't know how I always forget this, but The Wizard (and the movie) certainly does a disservice to the Lion, Scarecrow, and Tin Man (and the kids at home) by not imparting the "you had a heart/brains/courage all along" speech. Instead, he suggests that what's more important that Hearts, Brains, and Courage are the trinkets that make them clear to others (a diploma, a medal, and a heart clock). I'm serious!
To be fair, it makes the Futurama spoof even funnier, because I could almost hear the Wizard say "You don't need courage when you've got... a GUN!" to the Cowardly Lion. I guess that I want to believe the movie is less superficial in that one regard, so I conveniently forget it and replace it with a trope from every other kids' book.
But enough about the movie. If you like it (as I do) then you want to know how it holds up to that ten year old dvd you've got, or that... uh, three year old(?) two-or-three disc set you have.
The answer is: pretty damn well. There are clips from the oldest of the versions (seen in any extra featuring the voice of Angela Lansbury), and the difference is astounding. Even the fancy re-mastered newer dvd doesn't sport the clarity and depth of picture quality this Blu Ray does. The poppy field is an excellent example, both before and after the snow fall. I was rather surprised how easy it was to tell one flower apart from the other, even when staring at hundreds of like-colored plants. The evil forest that Dorothy and company tread through is more ominous, and for some reason, an especially cheesy shot of flying monkeys dazzles.
I don't mean to be rude to The Adventures of Robin Hood, but The Wizard of Oz really blows it out of the water when it comes to seeing early color films in High Definition. I've seen newer movies with robust color palettes that don't sparkle like Oz does. If this is what Warners is planning on doing with all their catalog titles, count me in. I expect that Oz and the in-production-at-the-same-time Gone with the Wind are their way of announcing "old movies can look great too!"
And they're right. This wasn't the first time I've sat down with Oz and stuck around until the end, and having seen it like I did yesterday, it won't be the last time either. For a 7o year-old movie, you'd hardly be able to tell...
---
While this isn't Oz related, I thought I'd share that 1986's Labyrinth looks pretty damned good in its own right on Blu Ray. I haven't seen The Dark Crystal yet, but I expect similar results.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Ah... excellent.
Since I ended up grabbing a copy of Predator 2 on Blu-Ray (the price was right, for once), it got the Cap'n thinking about the one thing on this disc I enjoy as much as Predator 2: the Gary Busey interviews which are, at best, tangentially related to the actual plot.
While searching for a specific piece, I stumbled across this "best of" clip, which covers all of the bases of Busey's particular brand of crazy. Which is a good crazy. I think.
Skip to around the 2:15 mark to see something really special, which is perhaps the most in-depth "background detail" you're ever likely to see. Not only did Gary Busey clearly make all of this shit up in his head, but I doubt anybody else in this movie has any idea why the Predator showed up in Predator 2 other than to kill people. If they did know, then something went horribly awry in translating that to audiences.
I'm not putting this up to mock Gary Busey, although it is kind of astonishing in how serious and bizarre his theories about the Predator are. I put it up because for sheer entertainment value, you may never see a better "making of" interview than Gary Busey explaining Quantum Gravity theory in a movie where nothing he's talking about ever appears in the film. At all.
---
Today was a strange day for BD releases. For example, the following movies came out: Crank: High Voltage, Freddy vs Jason, The New World, Creepshow, Over the Top, The Postman, Friday, Sphere, Catwoman, The Quick and the Dead, and Requiem for a Dream.
Yeah... I don't even know where to start. I'm quite keen on Requiem for a Dream, and know from a Playstation Store download that Creepshow looks pretty good for an almost-thirty-year-old movie. The Postman and Over the Top were too expensive for the caliber movie they represent (I'm sorry, but I'm not paying $24.99 when Tango & Cash was $15 when it came out), and I'm not watching Catwoman. It's not a possibility.
But I guess most of you are gearing up for midnight sales of The Beatles boxed sets. If one of you would be kind of enough to bring them over here, I will in turn share an actually released cd quality version of "Move Your Dead Bones".
In fact, I'm listening to it right now.
While searching for a specific piece, I stumbled across this "best of" clip, which covers all of the bases of Busey's particular brand of crazy. Which is a good crazy. I think.
Skip to around the 2:15 mark to see something really special, which is perhaps the most in-depth "background detail" you're ever likely to see. Not only did Gary Busey clearly make all of this shit up in his head, but I doubt anybody else in this movie has any idea why the Predator showed up in Predator 2 other than to kill people. If they did know, then something went horribly awry in translating that to audiences.
I'm not putting this up to mock Gary Busey, although it is kind of astonishing in how serious and bizarre his theories about the Predator are. I put it up because for sheer entertainment value, you may never see a better "making of" interview than Gary Busey explaining Quantum Gravity theory in a movie where nothing he's talking about ever appears in the film. At all.
---
Today was a strange day for BD releases. For example, the following movies came out: Crank: High Voltage, Freddy vs Jason, The New World, Creepshow, Over the Top, The Postman, Friday, Sphere, Catwoman, The Quick and the Dead, and Requiem for a Dream.
Yeah... I don't even know where to start. I'm quite keen on Requiem for a Dream, and know from a Playstation Store download that Creepshow looks pretty good for an almost-thirty-year-old movie. The Postman and Over the Top were too expensive for the caliber movie they represent (I'm sorry, but I'm not paying $24.99 when Tango & Cash was $15 when it came out), and I'm not watching Catwoman. It's not a possibility.
But I guess most of you are gearing up for midnight sales of The Beatles boxed sets. If one of you would be kind of enough to bring them over here, I will in turn share an actually released cd quality version of "Move Your Dead Bones".
In fact, I'm listening to it right now.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
True to my word...
I was not kidding. Here are (at least) 100 movies I expected to see remastered in High Definition before Clive Barker's Lord of Illusions*.
note: this is not a "better than" or "movies that should be", it merely reflects movies I expected to see announced for Blu Ray or showing in High Definition somewhere before they got around to Lord of Illusions.
Touch of Evil
Fantasia
Citizen Kane
The African Queen
Dracula
Vertigo
Seven Samurai
Frankenstein
Psycho
The Bride of Frankenstein
The Ten Commandments
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Metropolis
La Strada
Rashomon
The Virgin Spring
The Empire Strikes Back
High Noon
Taxi Driver
Point Blank
O Brother Where Art Thou
Sullivan's Travels
The Gold Rush
Duck Soup
The City of Lost Children
The Virgin Spring
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Lolita
The Thing from Another World
Apocalypse Now
On the Waterfront
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Sunset Boulevard
Alice in Wonderland
Eraserhead
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Lawrence of Arabia
E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial
Soylent Green
Back to the Future
Ed Wood
Bringing Up Baby
Trainspotting
Jaws
Dead Man
A Hard Days Night
The Trial
Network
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Pulp Fiction
Blue Velvet
Insomnia
Toy Story
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Star Wars
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Some Like It Hot
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Tron
Rear Window
The Apartment
Spartacus
Modern Times
The Incredibles
A Fistful of Dollars
The Sound of Music
Escape from New York
The Maltese Falcon
Annie Hall
Ben-Hur
La Dolce Vita
Yojimbo
THX 1138
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Mary Poppins
Paths of Glory
M
Days of Heaven
Jules and Jim
The Night of the Hunter
Night of the Living Dead
Amelie
The Man Who Wasn't There
City Lights
8 1/2
Ran
Double Indemnity
Nosferatu
Schindler's List
Leon: The Professional
To Kill a Mockingbird
All About Eve
Singin' in the Rain
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Scarface
The Hustler
In Bruges
Hellbound: Hellraiser II
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
The Philadelphia Story
The Conversation
and for good measure, three I wasn't really expecting but would have surprised me less than Lord of Illusions:
The Toxic Avenger
Freaks
Plan 9 from Outer Space
* Nothing personal, Lord of Illusions.
note: this is not a "better than" or "movies that should be", it merely reflects movies I expected to see announced for Blu Ray or showing in High Definition somewhere before they got around to Lord of Illusions.
Touch of Evil
Fantasia
Citizen Kane
The African Queen
Dracula
Vertigo
Seven Samurai
Frankenstein
Psycho
The Bride of Frankenstein
The Ten Commandments
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Metropolis
La Strada
Rashomon
The Virgin Spring
The Empire Strikes Back
High Noon
Taxi Driver
Point Blank
O Brother Where Art Thou
Sullivan's Travels
The Gold Rush
Duck Soup
The City of Lost Children
The Virgin Spring
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Lolita
The Thing from Another World
Apocalypse Now
On the Waterfront
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Sunset Boulevard
Alice in Wonderland
Eraserhead
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Lawrence of Arabia
E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial
Soylent Green
Back to the Future
Ed Wood
Bringing Up Baby
Trainspotting
Jaws
Dead Man
A Hard Days Night
The Trial
Network
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Pulp Fiction
Blue Velvet
Insomnia
Toy Story
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Star Wars
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Some Like It Hot
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Tron
Rear Window
The Apartment
Spartacus
Modern Times
The Incredibles
A Fistful of Dollars
The Sound of Music
Escape from New York
The Maltese Falcon
Annie Hall
Ben-Hur
La Dolce Vita
Yojimbo
THX 1138
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Mary Poppins
Paths of Glory
M
Days of Heaven
Jules and Jim
The Night of the Hunter
Night of the Living Dead
Amelie
The Man Who Wasn't There
City Lights
8 1/2
Ran
Double Indemnity
Nosferatu
Schindler's List
Leon: The Professional
To Kill a Mockingbird
All About Eve
Singin' in the Rain
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Scarface
The Hustler
In Bruges
Hellbound: Hellraiser II
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
The Philadelphia Story
The Conversation
and for good measure, three I wasn't really expecting but would have surprised me less than Lord of Illusions:
The Toxic Avenger
Freaks
Plan 9 from Outer Space
* Nothing personal, Lord of Illusions.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Three movies in rapid succession
One of the things I've noticed about having HD-DVR is that you're suddenly inclined to record things you might not otherwise. It makes perfect sense to record David Cronenberg's Shivers since the dvd is very difficult to get ahold of. Hell, I could make an argument that recording eight hours of Freddy's Nightmares could come in handy in October. But then there are the "why not?" choices; the movies cluttering your List hoping you'll remember why you DVR'd them.
For example, tonight I watched one movie I taped on a whim and pieces of two others. One is just about the last movie I'd expect to see in High Definition, and the other was something I needed to be sure I wasn't ever going to finish watching. In short order, those three movies:
So you might think about it: Hot Rod
I both regret and am glad I didn't see Hot Rod when it came out. I'm glad because at the time I was getting a little tired of the suddenly popular "Digital Shorts" on SNL, something I erroneously blamed on Andy Samberg. Over the last two years, I've gotten over that disdain and come to really enjoy The Lonely Island for their particularly bent sense of humor.
The regret comes from the fact that Hot Rod came out two years too early, and nobody really seemed to get it. The movie is a little ahead of the curve in terms of where The Lonely Island were then versus where they are now. I think if you enjoy Laser Cats, then Hot Rod is right up your alley.
Hot Rod is the story of Rod Kimble, a would-be stuntman living with Frank (Ian McShane), his step-father and tormentor. When Frank suffers a heart attack, Rod decides to raise enough money to give him a heart transplant... so that Rod can "beat the shit" out of Frank.
I suppose you could say that Hot Rod is the Lonely Island's Baseketball, only funnier and considerably weirder. Rod keeps calling upon his "spirit animals" before stunts, which usually involves very badly inserted nature footage. There might also be the longest "rolling down a hill" joke I've ever seen.
For all the cliches and cliche mocking you'd expect from this kind of movie, there are small but amusing digressions made by writer Pam Brady (South Park) and director Akiva Schaffer (The Lonely Island). Samberg stars, but Jorma Taccone (the one not on a boat or the other guy who jizzed in his pants) Bill Hader, Danny McBride, Chris Parnell, Isla Fisher and Will Arnett have just as much credit to take for Hot Rod working.
Oh, and Ian McShane as the relentlessly bullying Frank, a character who at his weakest continues to call Rod a pussy. And yes, they have their throwdown. It's epic, and I wouldn't dream of spoiling it. It's almost as good as the answer to "who would win in a fight: a grilled cheese sandwich or a taco?"
---
So you're as confused as I was: Lord of Illusions in High Definition
I often joke about cheesy action movies inexplicably making their way to Blu Ray, but I was genuinely shocked to see Lord of Illusions playing on HBO HD. I can think of literally* a hundred movies I would expect to see get the High Definition bump before Lord of Illusions did, including Hellraiser II.
That being said, I recorded it, so I checked it out. Turns out that it looks pretty good for a movie nearing its fifteenth anniversary. There was a better sense of clarity in the cult compound at the beginning, and the gore holds up pretty well considering. I know many of you hate Lord of Illusions, and I can understand why; it's not a great movie, and the film is by and large the reason Clive Barker doesn't direct any more, but I enjoy it in a C-Movie kind of way. It's not good, but I can enjoy it.
Still, I've seen some random movies get cleaned up (ahem, The Postman), but why MGM/Fox decided Lord of Illusions merited the buffering is beyond me.
---
So you won't have to: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - The Beginning
I'm ashamed I wasted the fifteen minutes or whatever it was I spent on it. TCM: TB is the Shit Coffin of Massacre films, and I'm including Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III and Next Generation in that. It's that bad, with the same level of wasted "revelations."
Perhaps there could be a good "origin" story for the Texas cannibal family, but this ain't it. In short order, they quickly explain that a) Leatherface just finds the chainsaw (ala Jason just finding his hockey mask) and the reason that R. Lee Ermey is the Sheriff is just because he killed the actual Sheriff.
Now maybe it's just me, but I think it would be more interesting if that sick bastard actually ran for Sheriff and won, rather than just assuming the identity of the guy he blows away with a shotgun. It seems pretty clear that everyone in that "town" is his kin anyway, so it's not like he couldn't have run for Sheriff when the actual law leaves (see, the slaughterhouse goes out of business and the town dies) and handily won. That, to me, would be at least a more compelling reason than "he just kinda stumbles onto it."
I didn't give two shits about the whole "brothers going to Vietnam" hero subplot, or the Jordana Brewster / whoever the other girl is romantic interest, because if this is a prequel to the Massacre, none of them are going to live to tell anybody. They can't, or the remake doesn't happen. Shit, that's the prevailing logic that causes the family to movie to the Amusement Park in the actual TCM Part 2. As soon as you meet them they're dead meat, so why get invested in their pointless story? It's not like Platinum Dunes is working very hard to keep you watching anyway. Ugh.
---
Speaking of "what the hell", I'm DVR-ing Maniac Cop 2 and Badge of Silence: Maniac Cop 3 in not-high definition (what a shocker there). Maniac Cop 2 I can kind-of justify since it still has Bruce Campbell in the movie, but 3 there's no justification. Call it completist logic, I guess.
* I'm not misusing the word, and to prove it, tomorrow I'll name at least one hundred movies I thought would be in High Definition before Lord of Illusions.
For example, tonight I watched one movie I taped on a whim and pieces of two others. One is just about the last movie I'd expect to see in High Definition, and the other was something I needed to be sure I wasn't ever going to finish watching. In short order, those three movies:
So you might think about it: Hot Rod
I both regret and am glad I didn't see Hot Rod when it came out. I'm glad because at the time I was getting a little tired of the suddenly popular "Digital Shorts" on SNL, something I erroneously blamed on Andy Samberg. Over the last two years, I've gotten over that disdain and come to really enjoy The Lonely Island for their particularly bent sense of humor.
The regret comes from the fact that Hot Rod came out two years too early, and nobody really seemed to get it. The movie is a little ahead of the curve in terms of where The Lonely Island were then versus where they are now. I think if you enjoy Laser Cats, then Hot Rod is right up your alley.
Hot Rod is the story of Rod Kimble, a would-be stuntman living with Frank (Ian McShane), his step-father and tormentor. When Frank suffers a heart attack, Rod decides to raise enough money to give him a heart transplant... so that Rod can "beat the shit" out of Frank.
I suppose you could say that Hot Rod is the Lonely Island's Baseketball, only funnier and considerably weirder. Rod keeps calling upon his "spirit animals" before stunts, which usually involves very badly inserted nature footage. There might also be the longest "rolling down a hill" joke I've ever seen.
For all the cliches and cliche mocking you'd expect from this kind of movie, there are small but amusing digressions made by writer Pam Brady (South Park) and director Akiva Schaffer (The Lonely Island). Samberg stars, but Jorma Taccone (the one not on a boat or the other guy who jizzed in his pants) Bill Hader, Danny McBride, Chris Parnell, Isla Fisher and Will Arnett have just as much credit to take for Hot Rod working.
Oh, and Ian McShane as the relentlessly bullying Frank, a character who at his weakest continues to call Rod a pussy. And yes, they have their throwdown. It's epic, and I wouldn't dream of spoiling it. It's almost as good as the answer to "who would win in a fight: a grilled cheese sandwich or a taco?"
---
So you're as confused as I was: Lord of Illusions in High Definition
I often joke about cheesy action movies inexplicably making their way to Blu Ray, but I was genuinely shocked to see Lord of Illusions playing on HBO HD. I can think of literally* a hundred movies I would expect to see get the High Definition bump before Lord of Illusions did, including Hellraiser II.
That being said, I recorded it, so I checked it out. Turns out that it looks pretty good for a movie nearing its fifteenth anniversary. There was a better sense of clarity in the cult compound at the beginning, and the gore holds up pretty well considering. I know many of you hate Lord of Illusions, and I can understand why; it's not a great movie, and the film is by and large the reason Clive Barker doesn't direct any more, but I enjoy it in a C-Movie kind of way. It's not good, but I can enjoy it.
Still, I've seen some random movies get cleaned up (ahem, The Postman), but why MGM/Fox decided Lord of Illusions merited the buffering is beyond me.
---
So you won't have to: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - The Beginning
I'm ashamed I wasted the fifteen minutes or whatever it was I spent on it. TCM: TB is the Shit Coffin of Massacre films, and I'm including Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III and Next Generation in that. It's that bad, with the same level of wasted "revelations."
Perhaps there could be a good "origin" story for the Texas cannibal family, but this ain't it. In short order, they quickly explain that a) Leatherface just finds the chainsaw (ala Jason just finding his hockey mask) and the reason that R. Lee Ermey is the Sheriff is just because he killed the actual Sheriff.
Now maybe it's just me, but I think it would be more interesting if that sick bastard actually ran for Sheriff and won, rather than just assuming the identity of the guy he blows away with a shotgun. It seems pretty clear that everyone in that "town" is his kin anyway, so it's not like he couldn't have run for Sheriff when the actual law leaves (see, the slaughterhouse goes out of business and the town dies) and handily won. That, to me, would be at least a more compelling reason than "he just kinda stumbles onto it."
I didn't give two shits about the whole "brothers going to Vietnam" hero subplot, or the Jordana Brewster / whoever the other girl is romantic interest, because if this is a prequel to the Massacre, none of them are going to live to tell anybody. They can't, or the remake doesn't happen. Shit, that's the prevailing logic that causes the family to movie to the Amusement Park in the actual TCM Part 2. As soon as you meet them they're dead meat, so why get invested in their pointless story? It's not like Platinum Dunes is working very hard to keep you watching anyway. Ugh.
---
Speaking of "what the hell", I'm DVR-ing Maniac Cop 2 and Badge of Silence: Maniac Cop 3 in not-high definition (what a shocker there). Maniac Cop 2 I can kind-of justify since it still has Bruce Campbell in the movie, but 3 there's no justification. Call it completist logic, I guess.
* I'm not misusing the word, and to prove it, tomorrow I'll name at least one hundred movies I thought would be in High Definition before Lord of Illusions.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Multitasking and Democracy
Here at the Blogorium, I like to have several projects running at one time in various states of completion, so that writing about movies can stay varied and (for all of us) interesting.
At the moment I'm in the process of watching Jubilee, Derek Jarman's apocalypsterpiece, I'm working on write ups for Tyson and The Private Life of Henry VIII, and have been watching Inglorious Bastards again on Blu Ray. Additionally, I'm working on an Anthropology project about community based on the moviegoing experience as ritual. My field work is to compare the rules and etiquette observed along with the sense of catharsis and solidarity in different theatres.
In order to really get into this, my "research" will include seeing movies at The Carolina, Carousel, Grande, Brassfield, Dollar Theatre, and if I'm lucky, a Drive-In. I want to try seeing different movies in different atmospheres to get a good idea of the different rules of engagement for "joining" the audience in varying theatres. If you'd like to join, let me know.
The Cap'n also takes requests, so if there's something you want me to watch or write about, just let me know. I have plenty here to keep me busy, but please redirect my attention as needed.
---
Oh, in case anybody was wondering, the winners of Round One were Ghoulies 2 and Black Sheep, which you'll see again once I've narrowed down the field. Considering the amount of movies, I might have to cut down voting time in order to thin out the long list, or I could simply ask you to comment on which movies that you have no interest in seeing whatsoever.
The list, if we're going the more expedient route, consists of:
Horror Fest 1 -
The Alligator People, The Lost Boys, Feast, The Wicker Man, From Dusk Til Dawn, Friday
the 13th Part 4: The Final Chapter, Saw, Re-Animator, Night of the Living Dead (1990)
Horror Fest 2 -
Hostel Part II, Dead & Buried, Night of the Lepus, Hellraiser, 1408, From Beyond, Return to Horror High, The Descent, Planet Terror, The Call of Cthulu, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, Night of the Living Dead 3-D
Summer Fest 1 -
Texas
Horror Fest 3 -
In the Mouth of Madness, Dead Alive, Halloween, Faces of Death, Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn, The Ruins, The Mist, Blade Trinity, Blood Feast, Child’s Play 2, The Paul Lynde Halloween Special, Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, The Wicker Man (2006), The Orphanage
Summer Fest 2 -
Drag Me to Hell, Army of Darkness, Alien Apocalypse, Chopping Mall, Terrorvision, Friday the 13th Part 3, The Prowler, Student Bodies, Uncle Sam, Hillbillys in a Haunted House, Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus, Troll 2, Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, Creepshow, Shaun of the Dead
Let's go, people: trim some of the fat and make the voting more fun. I can see a lot of movies on there I'm not interested in seeing again. Just name the ones you want out in the comments, but choose wisely; if you choose something that shouldn't be cut, I may put it somewhere else in the weekend*.
By the way, if you're wondering about some movies I've penciled in as "likely":
Let the Right One In, Martyrs, The Stepfather, Trick R Treat, Child's Play, Matango, The Werewolf versus The Vampire Woman, An American Werewolf in London, Night of the Creeps, See No Evil, and Scream Blacula Scream.
Depending on what's playing, our field trips choices are between Zombieland and Lars Von Trier's Antichrist.
* I'm not saying that I bought Shark Attack 3: Megalodon, but I'd advise you against asking me to remove it. Or a certain Halloween Special.
At the moment I'm in the process of watching Jubilee, Derek Jarman's apocalypsterpiece, I'm working on write ups for Tyson and The Private Life of Henry VIII, and have been watching Inglorious Bastards again on Blu Ray. Additionally, I'm working on an Anthropology project about community based on the moviegoing experience as ritual. My field work is to compare the rules and etiquette observed along with the sense of catharsis and solidarity in different theatres.
In order to really get into this, my "research" will include seeing movies at The Carolina, Carousel, Grande, Brassfield, Dollar Theatre, and if I'm lucky, a Drive-In. I want to try seeing different movies in different atmospheres to get a good idea of the different rules of engagement for "joining" the audience in varying theatres. If you'd like to join, let me know.
The Cap'n also takes requests, so if there's something you want me to watch or write about, just let me know. I have plenty here to keep me busy, but please redirect my attention as needed.
---
Oh, in case anybody was wondering, the winners of Round One were Ghoulies 2 and Black Sheep, which you'll see again once I've narrowed down the field. Considering the amount of movies, I might have to cut down voting time in order to thin out the long list, or I could simply ask you to comment on which movies that you have no interest in seeing whatsoever.
The list, if we're going the more expedient route, consists of:
Horror Fest 1 -
The Alligator People, The Lost Boys, Feast, The Wicker Man, From Dusk Til Dawn, Friday
the 13th Part 4: The Final Chapter, Saw, Re-Animator, Night of the Living Dead (1990)
Horror Fest 2 -
Hostel Part II, Dead & Buried, Night of the Lepus, Hellraiser, 1408, From Beyond, Return to Horror High, The Descent, Planet Terror, The Call of Cthulu, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, Night of the Living Dead 3-D
Summer Fest 1 -
Horror Fest 3 -
In the Mouth of Madness, Dead Alive, Halloween, Faces of Death, Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn, The Ruins, The Mist, Blade Trinity, Blood Feast, Child’s Play 2, The Paul Lynde Halloween Special, Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, The Wicker Man (2006), The Orphanage
Summer Fest 2 -
Drag Me to Hell, Army of Darkness, Alien Apocalypse, Chopping Mall, Terrorvision, Friday the 13th Part 3, The Prowler, Student Bodies, Uncle Sam, Hillbillys in a Haunted House, Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus, Troll 2, Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, Creepshow, Shaun of the Dead
Let's go, people: trim some of the fat and make the voting more fun. I can see a lot of movies on there I'm not interested in seeing again. Just name the ones you want out in the comments, but choose wisely; if you choose something that shouldn't be cut, I may put it somewhere else in the weekend*.
By the way, if you're wondering about some movies I've penciled in as "likely":
Let the Right One In, Martyrs, The Stepfather, Trick R Treat, Child's Play, Matango, The Werewolf versus The Vampire Woman, An American Werewolf in London, Night of the Creeps, See No Evil, and Scream Blacula Scream.
Depending on what's playing, our field trips choices are between Zombieland and Lars Von Trier's Antichrist.
* I'm not saying that I bought Shark Attack 3: Megalodon, but I'd advise you against asking me to remove it. Or a certain Halloween Special.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
I'm just a mark for this crap.
editors note: Okay, lesson learned. Apparently when I thought I've posted something from the iPod, it doesn't always mean it has posted. Oops. Well, here's last night's post, a dispatch from out-of-townsville.
Many of you have commented to the Cap'n about his curious habit of purchasing cheesy action movies on Blu Ray. It started as a half-joke, brought about by the availability of movies like Commando and Predator in HD, but has slowly escalated to include the early films of Steven Seagal, Tango & Cash, and yes, Universal Soldier. I've also augmented this with other, more recent, cheese-tacular movies like Death Race and Punisher: War Zone. But then I had to take it just a step further.
Now I seem to own multiple films with wrestlers, and not like Roddy Piper in They Live (which I will totally buy on Blu Ray), but current or very recent WWE Superstars. Earlier tonight I left Cranpire trick me into thinking that by spending ten more dollars for Walking Tall and The Marine was somehow a better deal than just buying Walking Tall.
(To be fair, he was distracting me with a much more worthwhile one-two punch of cheesy action movies: Point Break and Road House, but guess who bought the wrong two-set?)
I should have seen this coming. Maybe it was the fact that I have every movie starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson I want (sorry, Southland Tales and The Game Plan*), or that I didn't hesitate to pick up See No Evil (starring Kane) or The Condemned (starring "Stone Cold" Steve Austin). But really, The Marine? Look, I already have 12 Rounds as a sort-of torture device for Barrett.
Admittedly, I was more interested in 12 Rounds because of the presence of auteur Renny Harlin, he who directed Deep Blue Sea, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Driven, Die Hard 2: Die Harder, Cliffhanger, The Covenant, Exorcist: The Beginning, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, and yes, Cutthroat Island**. That madman can make good ideas and bad bend to his own special brand of retarded, even if they star the charismatic-less John Cena.
On the other hand, now I have a copy of The Marine, a movie I have no intention of ever watching again. Ugh. I'd rather own Under Siege: Dark Territory and Navy Seals than watch The Marine once more.
So what am I missing, niche market? There are enough of you out there who know of something I must not have to fill in the gap. What other gems am I missing starring WWE superstars that you wouldn't watch but it makes sense for me to own? Or am I better off just counting down the days until The Postman hits Blu Ray.
That's right. The Postman. With Kevin Costner. And Tom Petty.
Or would you rather I wait for Over the Top? Oh wait, they come out the same day. Snap!
* Yes, that does mean I do have The Scorpion King, The Rundown, Walking Tall, Doom, and Race to Witch Mountain.
** Which I will NOT own on Blu Ray, no matter how much Barrett tells me I will.
Many of you have commented to the Cap'n about his curious habit of purchasing cheesy action movies on Blu Ray. It started as a half-joke, brought about by the availability of movies like Commando and Predator in HD, but has slowly escalated to include the early films of Steven Seagal, Tango & Cash, and yes, Universal Soldier. I've also augmented this with other, more recent, cheese-tacular movies like Death Race and Punisher: War Zone. But then I had to take it just a step further.
Now I seem to own multiple films with wrestlers, and not like Roddy Piper in They Live (which I will totally buy on Blu Ray), but current or very recent WWE Superstars. Earlier tonight I left Cranpire trick me into thinking that by spending ten more dollars for Walking Tall and The Marine was somehow a better deal than just buying Walking Tall.
(To be fair, he was distracting me with a much more worthwhile one-two punch of cheesy action movies: Point Break and Road House, but guess who bought the wrong two-set?)
I should have seen this coming. Maybe it was the fact that I have every movie starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson I want (sorry, Southland Tales and The Game Plan*), or that I didn't hesitate to pick up See No Evil (starring Kane) or The Condemned (starring "Stone Cold" Steve Austin). But really, The Marine? Look, I already have 12 Rounds as a sort-of torture device for Barrett.
Admittedly, I was more interested in 12 Rounds because of the presence of auteur Renny Harlin, he who directed Deep Blue Sea, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Driven, Die Hard 2: Die Harder, Cliffhanger, The Covenant, Exorcist: The Beginning, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, and yes, Cutthroat Island**. That madman can make good ideas and bad bend to his own special brand of retarded, even if they star the charismatic-less John Cena.
On the other hand, now I have a copy of The Marine, a movie I have no intention of ever watching again. Ugh. I'd rather own Under Siege: Dark Territory and Navy Seals than watch The Marine once more.
So what am I missing, niche market? There are enough of you out there who know of something I must not have to fill in the gap. What other gems am I missing starring WWE superstars that you wouldn't watch but it makes sense for me to own? Or am I better off just counting down the days until The Postman hits Blu Ray.
That's right. The Postman. With Kevin Costner. And Tom Petty.
Or would you rather I wait for Over the Top? Oh wait, they come out the same day. Snap!
* Yes, that does mean I do have The Scorpion King, The Rundown, Walking Tall, Doom, and Race to Witch Mountain.
** Which I will NOT own on Blu Ray, no matter how much Barrett tells me I will.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Little Boxes on the hardwood, little boxes made of...
well, cardboard, I guess. For all the Cap'n knows, they could be ticky-tacky. If one takes the definition of ticky tacky ("shoddy material, as for the construction of standardized housing"), I suppose you could actually say they are made of ticky tacky. And most of them look the same.
That, as many of you can guess, is the problem. I'd love to tell you about all the movies I've watched since class ended and I moved in, but I honestly can't remember which box has what movie. I only just found the box with the Torchwood and Doctor Who blu-rays, and I think I learned how to use the DVR (we'll find out if Weeds is on it tomorrow), but On Demand doesn't work for some reason and Chiller (the all horror channel) also doesn't want to load. Cheesus crust!
Other than that, things are good. I was surprised to come back from an internet blackout to see that Ridley Scott is directing this Alien prequel thingamabob and that Spielberg is remaking Harvey. Both of these struck me as very odd and unnecessary, but the Cap'n has been wrong before.
---
I think before dipping into the "Vault", I mentioned that my days of used books and more were winding down. This is true; in fact, my last day of enjoying "McKayflix" will be Thursday, so if you have requests, now is the time to get them in. Trade credit is light but I can buy them on your behalf for a later date. Just let me know.
The split is one more out of "that's how it has to be" than "what either would prefer": I can't work the schedule they need and they don't have positions for seasonal employees. It's okay though, I'll still find ways to keep the filmic updates coming your way, and hopefully I should have a ton of material to sort through in the three weeks between the end of work and the beginning of school.
---
If I get this DVR thing working correctly, I might even start reviewing stuff I'd never use trade credit on, or check out, and definitely not buy. Having spent very little time perusing the twenty or so movie channels to record from, I couldn't give you specifics, but those lesser-tier HBO and Showtime channels are airing just about anything.
---
Finally, I saw this on Saturday night and thought it was cute:
That, as many of you can guess, is the problem. I'd love to tell you about all the movies I've watched since class ended and I moved in, but I honestly can't remember which box has what movie. I only just found the box with the Torchwood and Doctor Who blu-rays, and I think I learned how to use the DVR (we'll find out if Weeds is on it tomorrow), but On Demand doesn't work for some reason and Chiller (the all horror channel) also doesn't want to load. Cheesus crust!
Other than that, things are good. I was surprised to come back from an internet blackout to see that Ridley Scott is directing this Alien prequel thingamabob and that Spielberg is remaking Harvey. Both of these struck me as very odd and unnecessary, but the Cap'n has been wrong before.
---
I think before dipping into the "Vault", I mentioned that my days of used books and more were winding down. This is true; in fact, my last day of enjoying "McKayflix" will be Thursday, so if you have requests, now is the time to get them in. Trade credit is light but I can buy them on your behalf for a later date. Just let me know.
The split is one more out of "that's how it has to be" than "what either would prefer": I can't work the schedule they need and they don't have positions for seasonal employees. It's okay though, I'll still find ways to keep the filmic updates coming your way, and hopefully I should have a ton of material to sort through in the three weeks between the end of work and the beginning of school.
---
If I get this DVR thing working correctly, I might even start reviewing stuff I'd never use trade credit on, or check out, and definitely not buy. Having spent very little time perusing the twenty or so movie channels to record from, I couldn't give you specifics, but those lesser-tier HBO and Showtime channels are airing just about anything.
---
Finally, I saw this on Saturday night and thought it was cute:
Thursday, July 23, 2009
I wish I was at San Diego Dork Con
I'll keep this short, but every year when the Cap'n reads about the cool shenanigans SDCC attendees are privy to, I get a bit bummed. This year, with its Tron: Legacy's and its Avatar footage and its Trick 'R Treat and Inglorious Basterds screenings, I wish - just once - that I could go and be a part of that giant geeksplosion. You could make fun of me for the rest of my days and I wouldn't care. I'd even sit through the underwhelming junk, like Saw VI and Alice in Wonderland if it meant somebody was going to share the cool shit I just get to read about.
But I'm not there. I'm here packing, and reading about it like the rest of you. If you hadn't guessed yet, I don't think I care at all about Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. It sounds (and picture-wise) looks like Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd or Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, etc. At this point, the Tim Burton players suit up and play make believe for two hours while he indulges in visual flourishes that remind you of earlier, better work. For some, it's like crack. For me, it's getting a little worn around the edges.
I'm already bored by Dark Shadows, which is likely the next to follow Alice in Wonderland. Yee-ha. A show that, by design, took a long time to say and do nothing interesting. That's why the most interesting things I could rent, Dark Shadows-wise, were the "scariest moments" tapes, which weren't that scary because they lacked any context. Of course, when you have to plod through (literally) hours of context to see a vampire, ghost, or werewolf, you'll settle for 50 minutes of unrelated "spooky" moments. Imagine what a movie that'll make!
Alas, the Cap'n protest too much. I'd be happier if there was some hot Tron-on-bootleg footage action, or some Ghostbusters related news*, or more stuff like this pretty cool Book of Eli trailer from the Hughes Brothers. Admittedly, I'm a mark for post-apocalyptic stories of pretty much any persuasion, but it still looks like fun. Maybe we could get some confirmation from QT about that Grindhouse blu-ray that's been rumored. Or maybe something totally off the wall, like Sam Raimi directing a World of Warcraft movie...
Oh, right.
Anyway, maybe if I go to grad school on the west coast, perhaps the Cap'n could be reporting to you along with the other lame-o-matic bloggers who are no doubt updating with photos and crap. The difference is that I know the people reading this are not reading those other blogs, so the Cap'n could drop some new shit knowledge on you guys. Stay tuned...
* No, I haven't played any more of the game. Both the system and the game are in boxes...
But I'm not there. I'm here packing, and reading about it like the rest of you. If you hadn't guessed yet, I don't think I care at all about Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. It sounds (and picture-wise) looks like Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd or Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, etc. At this point, the Tim Burton players suit up and play make believe for two hours while he indulges in visual flourishes that remind you of earlier, better work. For some, it's like crack. For me, it's getting a little worn around the edges.
I'm already bored by Dark Shadows, which is likely the next to follow Alice in Wonderland. Yee-ha. A show that, by design, took a long time to say and do nothing interesting. That's why the most interesting things I could rent, Dark Shadows-wise, were the "scariest moments" tapes, which weren't that scary because they lacked any context. Of course, when you have to plod through (literally) hours of context to see a vampire, ghost, or werewolf, you'll settle for 50 minutes of unrelated "spooky" moments. Imagine what a movie that'll make!
Alas, the Cap'n protest too much. I'd be happier if there was some hot Tron-on-bootleg footage action, or some Ghostbusters related news*, or more stuff like this pretty cool Book of Eli trailer from the Hughes Brothers. Admittedly, I'm a mark for post-apocalyptic stories of pretty much any persuasion, but it still looks like fun. Maybe we could get some confirmation from QT about that Grindhouse blu-ray that's been rumored. Or maybe something totally off the wall, like Sam Raimi directing a World of Warcraft movie...
Oh, right.
Anyway, maybe if I go to grad school on the west coast, perhaps the Cap'n could be reporting to you along with the other lame-o-matic bloggers who are no doubt updating with photos and crap. The difference is that I know the people reading this are not reading those other blogs, so the Cap'n could drop some new shit knowledge on you guys. Stay tuned...
* No, I haven't played any more of the game. Both the system and the game are in boxes...
Saturday, July 18, 2009
It takes more than just spray paint.
Good News, Cranpire!
Now you can have a Tommy Wiseau double feature, and I know that's something you've been hankering for secretly. So secretly you've never told anyone, but in my imaginary land the Cap'n is all seeing.
---
Some quick HD-DVD feedback:
- Dune surprised me. Well, not the movie. I've seen the movie before, and it is what it is: enjoyable but it feels like big chunks are missing (which they are). The picture was better than I ever imagined it would be, particularly since that whole "80s film stock looks like shit so don't expect much" argument I foisted up for Ghostbusters. Why Dune could look this good and maybe Ghostbusters doesn't is a discussion for another time. Lynch's ridiculous eye to production design pays off big time with this HD-DVD, so I guess you'll have to come over and see for yourself.
- The Army of Darkness HD-DVD looks almost exactly like the version downloaded from the PS store, and that's not a bad thing. Plus, this one doesn't expire.
- If memory serves me correctly, Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind look as good or better than when I saw them at the Janus and the Carousel (respectively).
- The Deer Hunter looks good but not great. Pretty grainy but the three hours have more room to stretch out, so there's better detail.
- Haven't watched Seed of Chucky or Anchorman yet. Will get on that soon.
---
There's no forward momentum on Stab Lincoln, Civil War Zombies, or Raptor of Liberty yet. I've sketched out a rough idea for Raptor-in-Chief, which you could consider to be a cross between Jurassic Park and King Ralph.
If anyone would like to volunteer their services for some concept art, I'd be happy to share it with readers of the blogorium. The Cap'n has tried with little-to-no success in photo-shop-ing a proper "zombie Lincoln" picture, so any freelancers out there are welcome to give it a go.
---
One of these days I'll get back to proper "critical essays", a tag sorely underused since the Cap'n jumped ship from DieSpace.
Wait. Is that domain taken? I wonder if it is, because if not, there's a great movie in there somewhere. Okay, a shitty movie, but a shitty movie I can turn into gold! And by that I don't just mean spraypainting dog crap gold, like I usually do. I mean actual alchemy involving feces and mystolen newly acquired Philosopher's Stone.
Please don't tell Hogwarts I "borrowed" it. Let's just keep this between ourselves, okay?
Now you can have a Tommy Wiseau double feature, and I know that's something you've been hankering for secretly. So secretly you've never told anyone, but in my imaginary land the Cap'n is all seeing.
---
Some quick HD-DVD feedback:
- Dune surprised me. Well, not the movie. I've seen the movie before, and it is what it is: enjoyable but it feels like big chunks are missing (which they are). The picture was better than I ever imagined it would be, particularly since that whole "80s film stock looks like shit so don't expect much" argument I foisted up for Ghostbusters. Why Dune could look this good and maybe Ghostbusters doesn't is a discussion for another time. Lynch's ridiculous eye to production design pays off big time with this HD-DVD, so I guess you'll have to come over and see for yourself.
- The Army of Darkness HD-DVD looks almost exactly like the version downloaded from the PS store, and that's not a bad thing. Plus, this one doesn't expire.
- If memory serves me correctly, Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind look as good or better than when I saw them at the Janus and the Carousel (respectively).
- The Deer Hunter looks good but not great. Pretty grainy but the three hours have more room to stretch out, so there's better detail.
- Haven't watched Seed of Chucky or Anchorman yet. Will get on that soon.
---
There's no forward momentum on Stab Lincoln, Civil War Zombies, or Raptor of Liberty yet. I've sketched out a rough idea for Raptor-in-Chief, which you could consider to be a cross between Jurassic Park and King Ralph.
If anyone would like to volunteer their services for some concept art, I'd be happy to share it with readers of the blogorium. The Cap'n has tried with little-to-no success in photo-shop-ing a proper "zombie Lincoln" picture, so any freelancers out there are welcome to give it a go.
---
One of these days I'll get back to proper "critical essays", a tag sorely underused since the Cap'n jumped ship from DieSpace.
Wait. Is that domain taken? I wonder if it is, because if not, there's a great movie in there somewhere. Okay, a shitty movie, but a shitty movie I can turn into gold! And by that I don't just mean spraypainting dog crap gold, like I usually do. I mean actual alchemy involving feces and my
Please don't tell Hogwarts I "borrowed" it. Let's just keep this between ourselves, okay?
Friday, July 17, 2009
Stream at Your Own Risk
Sometimes having Netflix with "streaming video" can be a gift and a curse. On the upside, it is a way to find movies you're never going to think to look for. Periodically Netflix will offer something that makes you say "neat. I had no idea that existed," and I'll add it to the instant queue, only to forget about it later.
The downside is that, periodically, they'll offer something like the 1992 remake of Night and the City. Regular readers will note that the original Night and the City, with Richard Widmark, Herbert Lom, and Gene Tierney, is one of my all time favorite film noirs. I had no idea anyone had tried to remake it, or why they'd bother, but sure enough, there it is.
Robert DeNiro is playing the Widmark role and Jessica Lange is the Gene Tierney substitute. I didn't stick around in IMDB long enough to find out who was the Herbert Lom "Kristo" role, but the remake does feature Eli Wallach. Instead of wrestling, Harry Fabian (DeNiro) schemes to get even with a boxing promoter, but I'm guessing it pans out the same way.
The Night and the City remake has "so-so" reviews, but curiosity demands that your Cap'n check it out. Odds are I'll regret the whole experience, but it does mean a new movie to file into the "So You Won't Have To" drawer. Look for the gory details some time in the next, uh, two or three months.
---
Speaking of "So You Won't Have To" or, should I say, "Because We All Need To", I'm moving forward on the threat to actually watch Street Fighter: The Somethingorother of Chun Li. The Cap'n let his "trash savant" title sit alone on the shelf for too long, and it's gathering dust in preparation for someone to take it. That can easily be corrected, so maybe I'll share the glory of Chris Klein's return to filmed entertainment before I move.
---
Off to check out Dune for potential herky-jerky motion issues. Don't get into any trouble, or I'll rescind my promise to never share the terrible, horrible secret from Summer Fest. You know what it is...
The downside is that, periodically, they'll offer something like the 1992 remake of Night and the City. Regular readers will note that the original Night and the City, with Richard Widmark, Herbert Lom, and Gene Tierney, is one of my all time favorite film noirs. I had no idea anyone had tried to remake it, or why they'd bother, but sure enough, there it is.
Robert DeNiro is playing the Widmark role and Jessica Lange is the Gene Tierney substitute. I didn't stick around in IMDB long enough to find out who was the Herbert Lom "Kristo" role, but the remake does feature Eli Wallach. Instead of wrestling, Harry Fabian (DeNiro) schemes to get even with a boxing promoter, but I'm guessing it pans out the same way.
The Night and the City remake has "so-so" reviews, but curiosity demands that your Cap'n check it out. Odds are I'll regret the whole experience, but it does mean a new movie to file into the "So You Won't Have To" drawer. Look for the gory details some time in the next, uh, two or three months.
---
Speaking of "So You Won't Have To" or, should I say, "Because We All Need To", I'm moving forward on the threat to actually watch Street Fighter: The Somethingorother of Chun Li. The Cap'n let his "trash savant" title sit alone on the shelf for too long, and it's gathering dust in preparation for someone to take it. That can easily be corrected, so maybe I'll share the glory of Chris Klein's return to filmed entertainment before I move.
---
Off to check out Dune for potential herky-jerky motion issues. Don't get into any trouble, or I'll rescind my promise to never share the terrible, horrible secret from Summer Fest. You know what it is...
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Updating the old "release list" allows the Cap'n to correct one erroneous statement from a few weeks ago: The Stepfather will in fact be on dvd, just not until two weeks after Stepfather II arrives. Sticklers must remember to be patient, lest ye ruin the chronology of pre-Lost/X-Files/Millenium Terry O'Quinn. But don't worry, that's what I'm here for; to keep you on track.
A cursory glance also reveals the following "Really? That's Going to Be on Blu-Ray?!" movies: The Postman, Ichi the Killer, Starman, Over the Top, The Quick and the Dead, Blue Thunder and Cutthroat Island.
On the other hand, you'll finally be able to say you own Torso, Stunt Rock, Anvil! The Story of Anvil, and Werewolf: The Complete Series on dvd before the end of the year. Who says a new format's not good for bringing you every single "cult" film or tv show left in the archives*?
Still no sign of that Troll 2 Blu-Ray though...
---
As of right now, the only HD-DVD disc to arrive is The Frighteners, which looked pretty nice. By watching it, I've been able to confirm a suspicion I had about the other discs and the player itself: there's an ever so slight "jerky" motion to the picture. The sound is pretty great and generally the image looks good, but when things get very busy on-screen (as the beginning of The Frighteners does) the image can kind of lag or jerk for just a hair of a second.
I'd need someone else to double check it, but I'm pretty sure this is not an isolated phenomenon. This may have something to do with the HD-DVD drive or the video encoding, I don't know. Truthfully, it's not really distracting, except perhaps on a subliminal level, telling you "this is a smidge off, hoss", until you shrug it off. It's something I've never noticed on Blu-Ray discs, but then again we're dealing in uncharted territory here.
---
Maybe the only good thing to come out of Shit Coffin was the BD-Live availability of a scene from Trick R Treat, which Warner Brothers has been sitting on (for no apparent reason) for almost two years. Everyone who sees it seems to love it, and as a sucker for anthology films anyway, I've been waiting patiently.
The clip involves Brian Cox as "grouchy old dude who probably hates Halloween" being terrorized by that little sack-headed kid you might have seen in the artwork. Once you get past the sack kid looking a little silly, things get quite violent. There's a better back and forth than I was expecting from the "non-believer gets scared" story, and the violence isn't nearly as one-sided as it normally is. If anything, the nine minutes I watched really got the Cap'n jonesing to see the whole thing in context, plus the other two stories alluded to in this here trailer:
Look for it to join Let the Right One In at Horror Fest in October, provided Warners ever picks a release date.
---
Off to fiddle around with some digital media and see if the game systems can see them. Then packing. I have to be out of this apartment by, let's say, next week. Ack.
* Except for Monsters. What must I do to get Monsters on dvd? Do I have to buy Friday the 13th: The Series? Poltergeist: The Series? Do I need to petition Freddy's Nightmares so I have to buy that too?
A cursory glance also reveals the following "Really? That's Going to Be on Blu-Ray?!" movies: The Postman, Ichi the Killer, Starman, Over the Top, The Quick and the Dead, Blue Thunder and Cutthroat Island.
On the other hand, you'll finally be able to say you own Torso, Stunt Rock, Anvil! The Story of Anvil, and Werewolf: The Complete Series on dvd before the end of the year. Who says a new format's not good for bringing you every single "cult" film or tv show left in the archives*?
Still no sign of that Troll 2 Blu-Ray though...
---
As of right now, the only HD-DVD disc to arrive is The Frighteners, which looked pretty nice. By watching it, I've been able to confirm a suspicion I had about the other discs and the player itself: there's an ever so slight "jerky" motion to the picture. The sound is pretty great and generally the image looks good, but when things get very busy on-screen (as the beginning of The Frighteners does) the image can kind of lag or jerk for just a hair of a second.
I'd need someone else to double check it, but I'm pretty sure this is not an isolated phenomenon. This may have something to do with the HD-DVD drive or the video encoding, I don't know. Truthfully, it's not really distracting, except perhaps on a subliminal level, telling you "this is a smidge off, hoss", until you shrug it off. It's something I've never noticed on Blu-Ray discs, but then again we're dealing in uncharted territory here.
---
Maybe the only good thing to come out of Shit Coffin was the BD-Live availability of a scene from Trick R Treat, which Warner Brothers has been sitting on (for no apparent reason) for almost two years. Everyone who sees it seems to love it, and as a sucker for anthology films anyway, I've been waiting patiently.
The clip involves Brian Cox as "grouchy old dude who probably hates Halloween" being terrorized by that little sack-headed kid you might have seen in the artwork. Once you get past the sack kid looking a little silly, things get quite violent. There's a better back and forth than I was expecting from the "non-believer gets scared" story, and the violence isn't nearly as one-sided as it normally is. If anything, the nine minutes I watched really got the Cap'n jonesing to see the whole thing in context, plus the other two stories alluded to in this here trailer:
Look for it to join Let the Right One In at Horror Fest in October, provided Warners ever picks a release date.
---
Off to fiddle around with some digital media and see if the game systems can see them. Then packing. I have to be out of this apartment by, let's say, next week. Ack.
* Except for Monsters. What must I do to get Monsters on dvd? Do I have to buy Friday the 13th: The Series? Poltergeist: The Series? Do I need to petition Freddy's Nightmares so I have to buy that too?
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