Dune

A very flawed movie I've always had a soft spot for is David Lynch's Dune and a while back I picked it up on Blu-ray.

Visually it's an improvement on the previous DVD releases but that's kind of a mixed blessing, I've always thought some of the visual effects in Dune were substandard even when the film was first released but now on Blu-ray you can really see just how bad or should I say dated they are.

Dune on Blu-ray isn't a must own title for most people but I'm glad I have it, I wonder if it's too much to hope that the extended version might one day get a Blu-ray release as well.

Being Human series 3

I really enjoyed the first two series of Being Human when I watched them so I was looking forward to seeing the final series featuring all of the original cast but honestly I thought the first few episodes were kind of weak.

Things did improve once a previous villain returned to the show and it felt more like the series I had enjoyed before, well until I got to the series final episode, it was pretty obvious what was going to happen but everything was too drawn out and well to be frank boring.

Series 3 had some good episodes but it also had more than a few duds, I have the series 4 Blu-rays but I'm not sure I'm in much of a hurry to see them, I know some of the cast wanted to move on to other things and cast changes nearly always hurt a show but this series was just dull for about half of it's 8 episode run.

Hopefully things will pick up in series 4, I also have season 1 of the US version of Being Human, once I've had the time to watch it I think it will be interesting to compare the two.

Blood: The Last Vampire

I had been interested in seeing the live action version of Blood: The Last Vampire for a while now, it started out well but it wasn't long before it all went horribly wrong.

My advice, avoid this stinker and re-watch the anime instead.

Spider-Man: The Birth of Venom

There was a time when I was a massive Spider-Man fan, I used to buy all the comics, watch the cartoons, if there was a Spider-Man story I had to experience it.

I clearly remember all the stories that introduced Venom, a character I've never liked all that much back then and my dislike for the character remains to this day so I've never really understood why Venom became such a popular character.

Re-reading the collected version of the origin of Venom has done nothing to make me appreciate the character more, in fact all it did was remind me how much I didn't like Todd McFarlane's artwork at the time, while it was certainly stylised it didn't care for the way he drew a lot of the main characters, thankfully that improved over time.

It was interesting re-reading the introduction of a major marvel character, it's a pity it wasn't for the most part enjoyable.

Wolverine

No not the upcoming movie but a collected version of the comic mini-series from the 80's that new film draws heavily upon.

It's a decent read but I didn't think it was as good as I remembered but then the last time I read that story was back when it was originally published.

It will be interesting to see how much material from this story is actually used in the new movie.

Game of Thrones - Season 2

Well now I'm all caught up on Game of Thrones, I enjoyed the second season more than the first and I now have a greater sense of the show actually building towards something.

For my money Peter Dinklage and Charles Dance are by far the stand out actors in this series and the show is worth watching just for their performances alone.

I'm looking forward to picking up the season 3 Blu-ray boxset when it's released.

Game of Thrones - Season 1

Sometimes there is a TV show or movie that comes along and it would seem that if anyone was destined to love it, it would be me and sometimes that for whatever reason just doesn't happen, for me Game of Thrones is one of those shows.

Now I'm not saying I dislike the show, it's fine but I just really don't get what all the fuss is about, I enjoy stories with political machinations, treachery and a bit of war just to top it all off and Game of Thrones has all of that.

Last year I watched the first five episodes of the first season of the show and I just lost interest, I didn't really feel anything so I stopped watching, it was only the anticipation of various friends of mine for season 3 that motivated me to start watching the show again.

I have to say things started to improve in the latter half of the season but I still don't consider Game of Thrones to be this amazing fantasy epic there is no denying it's potential to develop into something amazing but for me it's just not there yet.

I'm planning on cracking open the shrink wrap on season sometime over the next couple of days, I'm hoping thing continue to improve and the show evolves into the amazing fantasy epic I wanted it to be.

The Death of a Friend

I am sad to announce the death of a beloved friend and faithful companion of the last few years, yes my extremely hard working Playstation 3 has finally given up the ghost.

I can't really complain I guess, it has certainly worked extremely hard as a Blu-ray player and games console, now I need to decide if I want to purchase another one or just wait until the release of the next generation Playstation console.

This has prompted me to get a dedicated Blu-ray player which was something I had been meaning to do for some time anyway but at the moment I have a bunch of partly completed or unplayed Playstation games that now I don't have a working console I really want to play.

I could slum it and play games on my X-Box 360 but it's just not the same.

Captain America: The New Deal

I'm not a huge Captain America fan, I like the character but I've never felt any compulsion to collect the comics, I might pick up a storyline here or there and I did enjoy the recent movie based on the character, I've just never felt any compulsion to collect or regularly read Captain America comics.

The New Deal was originally part of a relaunch of the character that took place after the September 11 terrorist attacks and it deals with terrorism and not hatched by some returning super villain who will be once again defeated by our all conquering hero.

The first issue mostly takes place at Ground Zero and is an extremely compelling read, the remaining five issues aren't bad as such but they feel rather contrived and some of the events that take place seem rather unlikely.

I think The New Deal is a story I'll need to re-read at some point as I'm really struggling to form an opinion about it, I rather liked the artwork featured in the book but I just can't decide if I liked the story or not, if nothing else it's given me something to think about and that's something.

Skyfall

I watched Skyfall again last night, I was entertained by the movie when I first saw it in the theatre but I can't say I was impressed and I certainly couldn't understand why everyone else was raving about it, upon viewing it a second time I found I liked it a lot more but I still wouldn't call it a classic Bond film.

One thing I will say it that it was one of the best looking films in the series and the Blu-ray looked fantastic, I hope the producers of the series can maintain the excellent visual quality on display in the film.

There were things I liked about the movie such as the new Moneypenny and the fact that this movie had a little more sense of fun to it but there were also things I didn't like such as the new Q, the replacing of Judi Dench as M and the fairly ordinary revenge plot.

It's not that I thought Skyfall was bad, I guess I just didn't think it felt like a Bond film ( don't get me started on Quantum of Solace ), now with Skyfall it seems like the rebooting of the franchise has been completed and maybe we can get back to some classic 007 style action once again.

Clerks

If ever there was a movie that didn't need a Blu-ray release it's Clerks, Kevin Smith himself said so right there on the disc but sure enough it's now been released in HD and it's the best looking print of the movie I've ever seen but really that's not saying much.

The Blu-ray edition of the movie is packed with extra material including a feature length documentary about the making of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back ( yeah I know I'm thinking exactly the same thing ).

Clerks on Blu-ray isn't the crystal clear high definition experience some people will foolishly be hoping for because of the format but it is a fun independent film that is packed to the point of bursting with special features and on top of that pretty damn cheap and all of that makes the movie well worth picking up once again.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Last night I watched the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie on Blu-ray, I hadn't seen the movie in ages, I always think of all three of the live action movies in this franchise as being pretty weak completely forgetting the first film is actually pretty good but after the first film the quality in the series quickly foes from bad to worse.

Now I'm not by any means saying this film is a classic but it is cheesy fun and you can't have pizza ( well I guess you could but who would want to ) without cheese.

The Blu-ray is a no frills affair and the picture and sound quality is pretty good considering the age of the film but then I got all three of the live action films for a mere $10 so I really can't complain.

A fun little story, I saw Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles during it's original theatrical run and that's where I met the woman I would eventually marry, now 20 plus years later I've seen it on Blu-ray for the first time and I'm in the process of divorcing her - life can throw you some funny little quirks sometimes.