Saturday, April 30, 2011

He'll Save Everyone of Us



This afternoon I sat down and watched the 80s Flash Gordon movie on Blu-ray, I've had the disc for a while, I picked it up in a two for the price of one sale but I kind of assumed it wouldn't look all that great in High Definition.

Well it seems I was wrong, it looks fantastic for a movie of it's age and it's audio mix was pretty impressive as well, obviously some restoration work has been done for this version of the movie as it's the cleanest print I've seen but there wasn't any detail loss that I noticed caused by using excessive Digital Noise Reduction on the picture, there were a few scenes where some of the actors looked a bit odd but I think that was because of excessive makeup rather than excessive DNR.

It was a little disappointing to see the commentaries that were done for some of the DVD releases weren't included on the Blu-ray so this isn't the definitive release but I doubt much more can be done with the movie in terms of picture and sound quality so if you are just interested in the movie and not extras then the current Blu-ray is the version to get.


Friday, April 29, 2011

Things then make ne go Hmmm

Apparently there is a royal wedding tonight and personally I couldn't care less, don't get me wrong I have nothing against the couple in question but it seems to me a lot on money is being wasted on this event and I imagine that it's mostly if not entirely publicly funded, I hope the unemployed, the sick and the homeless in the UK all feel better about themselves and their situations tonight, it just seems to me that all the money could be put to much better use.

Australia's Prime Minister is attending, the same Prime Minister who doesn't believe in marriage and is Republican, so she doesn't support the Monarchy or support marriage which begs the question Why is she there ?, a lot of people will no doubt say that Australia should be represented at such an event and I guess as a matter of international relations we should be but perhaps we should have sent the Deputy Prime Minister or the Governor General instead, at least that wouldn't seem quite as hypocritical.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

They're Here: The Poltergeist Trilogy on Blu-ray



I guess it must be nearly a couple of months ago that I picked up, Poltergeist on Blu-ray, it's one of those movies I seem to see every three or four years on TV, I did buy the 25th Anniversary Edition when it was released on DVD, I have to admit that for some time I was hesitant about getting the movie on Blu-ray, for whatever reason I was convinced the movie would probably look pretty bad in High Definition but was I ever wrong, it looked great, sure a couple of the special effects sequences looked a bit dated but overall I was pretty impressed.

As much as I've always enjoyed Poltergeist I can only remember renting the sequels once ( on VHS ) so if you pressed me for details I honestly couldn't have told you much about them, well yesterday I saw a Poltergeist Blu-ray double pack on sale containing both sequels and on the spur of the moment I picked it up and I spent a lazy few hours watching them today.

To my surprise I rather enjoyed Poltergeist 2: The Other Side, I sort of remembered the priest when I saw him onscreen and I thought it was a decent sequel to Poltergeist, I thought it continued and expanded the story nicely, sure the ending was a little cheesy but I can forgive  that.

Poltergeist 3 however sucked, I guess they tired to do something a little different with this sequel but honestly if they couldn't get back all of the original cast they probably shouldn't have bothered, add to that a story that made little sense and you have a pretty bad movie, maybe with a better writer / director this movie could have been salvaged, it did contain a couple of interesting ideas but nothing much was done with them and I found that frustrating.

I can't be sure but I don't imagine any restoration work was done on the Poltergeist sequels so keeping that in mind they both looked and sounded great on Blu-ray but as it's been proven many times before a great looking movie isn't the same as a great movie.

Given the chance I'd recommend picking up Poltergeist and Poltergeist 2 but I wouldn't bother with the third film unless it was dirt cheap.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Star Trek: The Motion Picture



After being mildly disappointed with the quality of two of the three movies in the Star Trek Motion Picture Trilogy Blu-ray boxset I had decided that I probably wouldn't bother picking up any of the other Star Trek movies on Blu-ray until they received the proper restoration they deserved, well that still hasn't happened but I did pick up the two Blu-ray boxsets ( Classic Cast and Next Generation ) pretty cheaply online ( well I call 70% off pretty cheap ).

Today I watched Star Trek: The Motion Picture on Blu-ray, to say that Paramount's treatment of this Trek movie in particular has been a comedy of errors is probably an understatement, the version that has been released on Blu-ray is the original theatrical version of the movie, a version I hadn't seen since the movie was in the cinemas in the 70's ( I do have a rip of it on DVD that came from Laser disc but I just never got around to watching it ).

Watching this version of the movie was a strange experience after being used to the extended version of the film that was released on VHS and then the Director's Edition that was later released on DVD, it seemed that there were scenes that were either missing or had been trimmed  and of course this was in fact the case as this was the original edit of the movie, I'm not sure why Paramount were unable to release the Extended Edition on Blu-ray but I think it would have been preferable and the story is a little clearer in that version.

In a perfect world the Director's Edition would've been the version released on Blu-ray but at the time is was being prepared Paramount was to short sighted to commission any of the new special effects in high definition meaning that all those effects sequences would need to be redone again for that version to be released in High definition, so of the three possible versions the Blu-ray release contains the most inferior version at least from a story telling perspective.

There have been a lot of complaints about the Star Trek movies on Blu-ray, I think based on what I've seen so far they have been a little over-stated, Star Trek: The Motion Picture for the most part looks great, especially for a movie of it's age but there are several moments during the movie ( mostly towards the end where the Enterprise crew discover the Voyager probe ) where the is an obvious loss of picture detail due to the excessive use of digital noise reduction in an attempt to remove film grain.

For what it is the theatrical version of Star Trek: The Motion Picture ( mostly ) looks and sounds good, I've never really appreciated the detail in the models used in the film before so that was an impressive aspect of this release but this is a flawed release of an inferior version of the movie and while I did enjoy seeing most of the movie in far greater detail than I ever had before I still came away feeling slightly disappointed.

I suspect the hardcore Star Trek fans have already bought this disc, for the rest I'd advise waiting until you can pick it up cheap.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Elizabeth Sladen - Rest In Peace.



I read earlier today that Elizabeth Sladen has died.

I'm not the type of person who tends to get upset when actors die but this one was a shock, anyone who knows me knows that I'm a huge Doctor Who fan and that Sarah Jane Smith was my favorite companion, I feel like part of my childhood just died.

The stars may shine brighter tonight, but it'll be a little colder back here on Earth.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Darkon



Good Lord people it's only a game.

Now I have to admit I've played my fair share of Dungeons and Dragons games in the past and if the opportunity arose I'd probably be interested in playing the game again but for some reason I've always found people who are into Live Action Role Playing ( LARPing ) slightly odd, I mean who wants to dress up in costume and pretend they are orcs ?

Well as it turns out plenty of people like to dress up and live fantasy lives ( no not that sort of fantasy, get your mind out of the gutter ) and Darkon is about some of those people and two in particular.

I haven't as yet listened to the commentaries on the DVD but I'm guessing that the documentary presents a fairly balanced portrayal of the LARPing hobby and while I guess I understand its appeal to some people it's certainly not for me.

The movie does seem to suggest that most people who enjoy LARPing and I guess role playing in general as people who are at least a little unhappy with themselves and the lives they lead, the films two main subjects certainly fit into that category, over the course of the documentary the viewer sees them become obsessed with the game, their place within it and the conflict and stress it can inflict on relationships.

If the players could just remember it's only a game I think they'd enjoy their hobby even more but then that wouldn't have made for a very interesting movie.

It must be said that some of the players had very nice costumes.


Sunday, April 17, 2011

The Reinactors



Recently I re watched a documentary called Confessions of a Superhero, basically it was the story of four somewhat damaged individuals who hoped they would be discovered by some movie producer by dressing up as a movie characters and taking photos with tourists in Hollywood.

I was wondering what happened to those people and while surfing the net I discovered two of them were featured in another documentary called The Reinactors, I really wanted to see this movie and hopefully discover what happened to them, I was slightly disappointed to discover that this film was shot around the same time as Confessions of a Superhero so there is no real revelations as to what happened to them ( however an IMDB search shows that they haven't been discovered by Hollywood - yet ).

The Reinactors is less sympathetic toward it's subjects than Confessions of a Superhero and seems to be lacking in narrative at times as well, I guess it's not a bad movie but it is disappointing compared to Confessions of a Superhero, it doesn't mock it's subjects as much as Trekkies does but it does infer that it's cast of characters are a bunch of losers.

Of the two movies that basically cover the same subject Confessions of a Superhero is the better of the two but The Reinactors is worth a look as well, I'd like to see a where are they now type follow up to these movies, hopefully they discovered that happiness can found without money and fame.


Saturday, April 16, 2011

Time flies, hope I was having fun.

I honestly don't know where the last few days have gone, I have been doing some work for my grandfather and that has taken a decent chunk of time and as usual I've watched a few things and played a bit more of the original Assassin's Creed on X-Box 360 ( which strangely enough I think I actually like better than the second game in the series ) but at the moment the days seem to be passing by extremely quickly.

Over the last few days I've watched the first 5 episodes from the second season of Fringe and so far I'm really enjoying the show, what I've seen so far seems to me to be a major improvement in quality over most of the first season.

I've also watched a few classic Doctor Who DVDs lately which has been fun, well it's been fun for me, the wife isn't a fan, there have been a few releases recently and the upcoming months seem to have plenty more new Doctor Who DVDs on the way.

Today I watched Ghost In The Shell - Individual 11 which seems to be a re-edited version of the second season of Ghost In The Shell - Stand Alone Complex so that it works as a movie, a long movie but a movie, I only ever saw the first series and maybe the first two or three episodes of the second series, I know the show has been released as season box sets so it would be interesting to watch it at some point and see how much the story was changed.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Doctor Who Soundtracks

I'm sitting here listening one of the three Doctor Who soundtracks that arrived in the mail today ( Series 4: The Specials ), since Doctor Who has been back in production I've bought each one of Murry Gold's soundtrack albums for both Doctor Who and Torchwood, as a composer I find Murry Gold very uneven in terms of quality, some of his work is amazing and some if it in my opinion is pretty bland which is why I waited until Series 4: The Specials, Series 5 and Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol were on sale.

There's some great stuff on these albums but there is also a lot of elevator muzak, is that too harsh ? but for me apart from the stronger tracks it's all forgotten as soon as it's finished playing.

One of these days I'm going to make myself a compilation CD of the better music from these soundtrack albums.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

A Funny Thing Happened.......






Yesterday I found myself browsing the shelves of a used book store, I was determined I was going to buy something although I don't know why considering the amount of unread books I already have.

I was ready to leave when I spotted a novel crammed between two much larger books, I picked it up and flipped it over so that I could read the back cover, I must have had a puzzled look on my face because the owner of the store suddenly said that's exactly what I thought.

The Book in question was Fathom: The World Below by Kevin Andrew Murphy based on the comic series by the late Micheal Turner.

He went on to say he thought that Fathom was about scantily clad women and really had nothing much in the way of story going for it, I have to admit I thought pretty much the same thing, Micheal Turner may not have been the greatest comic writer out there but he sure was a talented artist.

I was amused enough by the idea of a Fathom novel ( the first book in a series apparently ) that I bought it and honestly I don't have high hopes for the book but who knows, it might contain some interesting ideas and I may well find myself hunting down the back issues of the comic.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

The State of TV.

For some time now I've been saying that I'd virtually abandoned broadcast television, the Australian networks ( and I imagine it's the same across the world ) just don't carry much in the way of programming that I'm actually interested in or it's so full of advertising that I don't bother turning it on, well I guess that's not true, I watch lost of DVDs and Blu-ray movies I just don't watch any broadcast content.

As near as I can remember it's been about 5 weeks since I sat down and watched any content that provided by any of my local broadcasters and that was a tail end of a documentary, my wife and daughter watch a lot of reality TV and stupid sitcoms and as they are on I do suppose see tiny segments here and there but what I'm talking about is actually sitting down and watching a show on TV, the funny thing is until today I didn't realise what I was doing or not doing as the case may be.

In Australia program streaming over the Internet is fairly limited at the moment, I have watched a few things that way and while I'm not thrilled by the picture quality it works, I have no idea when I last rented anything but I have a feeling it was at least a couple of years ago, my wife and daughter rent a few movies here and there but even they seem to be losing interest in that, the Australian version of Netflix sucks or at least it did when I tried it so that's not really an option either.

You've probably guessed by now that I buy a LOT of DVDs and Blu-ray discs and compared to a lot of people that's true but it's nowhere as expensive as you might think and I can watch what I want when ever I want, some things I keep ( well most things actually ) and some I give away or sell on eBay, this is something that might not work for everyone but it really suits me and my viewing patterns.

I find it funny that it's taken me nearly 5 weeks to notice I'd stopped watching broadcast television and I tend to be a little behind the times so I'm sure there are many other people this applies to as well, I wonder how long it takes for the networks to notice people have stopped watching them ?

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Does whatever a spider can.



Well I've just finished watching the first season of the 60's Spider-Man animated series, I used to love that show as a kid and I was looking forward to seeing it again.


I really enjoyed the first half of the season, sure the animation is primitive by today's standards but the show was fun, well at least it was until I got to the second DVD where the format of the show changed along with the quality and style of the animation which was now cheaper and often ugly, the stories became weird fantasy based episodes that really had nothing to do with Spider-Man which was rather disappointing.

I bought all three seasons of this show but now I'm not at all confident that I'll enjoy the rest of the show if it continues in this rather bland fantasy direction.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Pilot Highlights

I consider myself t be a major science fiction, fantasy and horror fan but I was just voting in a poll on the SFX website where they were asking people to vote on 15 pilots and how interested they were in seeing them go to series, the poll included information on the creators, cast and the basic premise of the show, of those 15 potential series I thought just 2 of them sounded like something I might check out.

Honestly I was shocked and disappointed by how bad most of those potential series sounded, of course it's rather unlikely that all 15 shows will be commissioned, honestly it really does seem like the only TV shows worth watching are either made in the United Kingdom or produced for the American cable television networks these days.

While I think it will probably be terrible I'll have to check out an episode or two of the upcoming Wonder Woman TV series, everything I've heard about this show is bad but just like a car wreck on the side of the road even though you know it's going to be bad you still can't look away.


Here's a link to that SFX poll, check it out and see what you think of these potential series.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Hey... you wanna see something really scary?





The weather here is slowly turning to crap as what passed for summer this year disappears but the one good thing about all the wind and rain is that it's been a good excuse to ignore that lawns and watch some movies.

Two of the movies I've watched recently were Poltergeist and Twilight Zone: The Movie on Blu-ray, I have to admit I was a little unsure of how these movies would hold up in high definition being older movies but I have to say they both looked great especially when you consider their age.

I'm a big fan of the original Twilight Zone TV series but I've always had mixed feelings about the movie, basically I've always really liked two of the segments but thought the other two were only OK, given how much I enjoyed the movie when I watched it yesterday I wonder if I wasn't the right age to fully appreciate it until now especially "Kick the Can" .

I found it hard to believe the "Time Out" segment could be produced intact today with the racist character played by the late Vic Morrow and his many racist insults which is a shame, while I don't agree with the characters comments it did properly set him up as a bitter and unlikable man in a short amount of time.

I'm really glad I picked up Twilight Zone: The Movie and I think I appreciate it more now than I ever did previously, it's a shame they never produced more Twilight Zone movies.