Porco Rosso ( Blu-ray )

I know most fans of Hayao Miyazaki's movies will probably disagree with me but I think Porco Rosso is probably my favourite Miyazaki film.

I find that while most of Miyazaki's films are based on enchanting ideas they tend to be a little too long and things seem to drag a little in the middle of some of his films, Porco Rosso doesn't seem to do that, it's 94 minute running time seems to be perfect, it introduces the characters and story and then things move on at a decent pace until the end, things don't seem to be rushed at all and there is no checking to see what the time is or how long them movie has left because the viewer finds themselves wading through a slow bit.

As for the story itself, a cursed World War 1 fighter pilot who fights sky pirates and hides out in Milan while his plane is being repaired and then hate to fight a duel over the fate of a girl, there is of course more to it than that but you get the idea, this is pure light hearted adventure.

On Blu-ray the animation looks truly stunning and the sound is at least to my somewhat deaf ears crystal clear, Porco Rosso looked nice on DVD but it is stunning on Blu-ray.

Most of Miyazaki's movies are clever and engaging but I don't know that I would consider them all to be essential parts of any movie collector's library however Porco Rosso is definitely worth purchasing.

It's Almost Done.

I've been quiet of late, the last week or thereabouts has seen me occupied by lawyers and such and well I haven't really wanted to say anything just in case I jinxed anything.

Last week my ex wife pretty much blindsided me by making an almost perfectly reasonable settlement offer, a couple of minor tweaks later and it seems that both parties are reasonably happy and I guess more importantly no one got screwed over, we should be signing papers soon and then we can both get on with life.

Wish me luck.

What ever happened to quality control ?

I'm a fan of movies and to a lesser extent TV, when a story is told well it can transport you away from your trouble for a time although strangely enough this seems to often take the form of enjoying someone else's problems instead.

If there is something I've derived joy from in the past I tend to end up buying it and I also tend to want the best version of that TV show / Movie available so I often trodden the upgrade path from VHS to DVD and now Blu-ray and there are some titles I own more than one copy of in each format because it was rereleased with some new special feature that I felt I needed.

Recently the original version of Battlestar Galactica was released on Blu-ray in the United States which is one of those titles I own multiple version of in multiple formats and I bought the UK Blu-ray release last year.

Apparently the American Blu-ray release of Battlestar Galactica has footage missing from one of the episodes, the publishers of that series are aware of the problem and will be releasing replacement discs for their customers so I guess things will be made right in the end but this sort of thing just drives me crazy, was it not possible to have someone watch the master discs and check for errors ?, surely this would be cheaper than having to print and ship who knows how many replacement discs to disgruntled customers, I nearly ordered this set myself but I think I'll be waiting for some time now until ( hopefully ) the old stock has been sold.

It wouldn't be so bad except this sort of thing seems to be common place these days and it seems to be happening more commonly with expensive boxsets and I ought to know because it's happened to me with all of my more expensive purchases recently.

Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery apparently has audio sync issues, I've only watched the pilot so far and that was fine but apparently it's especially noticeable on the Fire Walk with Me disc.

Batman: The Complete Television Series had missing footage on 2 discs, replacement discs have been issued for those who request them online.

Halloween: The Complete Collection Limited Deluxe Edition and Halloween Complete Collection both feature audio sync issues on the Halloween 4 disc and a replacement disc has been issued although it may take several requests to Anchor Bay before they actually ship them.

It was rare that you ever heard of this sort of thing happening on DVD and yet it seems to be becoming reasonably common on Blu-ray and none of the sets I've mentioned are cheap, I would imagine that most people are like me and when you are paying reasonably big money for some of these sets you expect that some care was taken in producing the content.

I really want the upcoming Lost in Space Blu-ray boxset but I'm afraid they are going to screw that one up as well.

Maleficent

Maleficent wasn't a movie I was particularly interested in seeing, after all it was based on Sleeping Beauty which is of course a classic and much beloved Disney animated film, well much beloved by other people as I never really cared for it myself.

Like Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent was produced by Disney and it seemed to be targeting the young adult audience which I sadly do not belong to and assuming that it was safe I think to also assume Disney wouldn't be taking any risk with the film and they didn't really.

So here's the thing, I was entertained by the movie, it was nothing special but it was a reasonable way to spend an evening, I doubt I'd want to see it again but I would recommend it to friends with older children.

I don't know that Maleficent is worth owning but it is worth a watch, maybe catch it on TV if you can or borrow a copy off a friend with young adult children.