In Memory Alone

Watched the third of the Stranger DVDs In Memory Alone, what this lacked in budget it nearly made up for in atmosphere, at times it reminded me a lot of Sapphire and Steel.

In Memory Alone is far from groundbreaking but it was a pleasant way to kill some time, I'm hoping to finish the rest of the series sometime soon.

The Outer Limits

While I've always considered myself to be more of a Twilight Zone fan I've always had a soft spot for The Outer Limits, over the last couple of nights I've finally made a start on the first season DVD boxset and of the six episodes I've watched so far I've enjoyed five of them.


As you would expect of a show it's age it at times looks very dated but so far at least the storytelling has been pretty solid and that's what matters, at least that's what matters to me.

It's nice to watch a show that didn't loose a third of it's running time to commercials leaving the producers with the time to tell a decent story, something we rarely see these days.

Catching Up

Well while Fiona has been away in the UK I've taken the opportunity to try and catch up on a few things, I've started and finished the second season of Eureka on DVD as well as the Doctor Who: Earth Story Boxset, add to that I'm also determined to finish watching Supernatural season 5 and Dollhouse season 2 over the next few days, both shows that managed to put me off them because of their horrible season opening episodes.

Movie wise I've watched Taken ( finally ) which I really enjoyed along with Gran Torino ( which I'd seen before ) and The Terminator, I was pretty impressed with The Terminator on Blu-ray actually, it looked far better than I expected it to, the only disappointment for me was the weak selection of extras that come on the disc, given it's sci-fi classic status isn't it about time there was a decent feature about the making of the movie commisioned by the distributors of the film.

Yo ho, yo ho, a bacherlor's life for me.

A few days ago ( well the 18th if you're really interested ) Fiona set of on a tour of France and the UK with a friend from work, she'll be gone for about a month, I'm planning to use the time to catch up on some reading and watch a bunch of foreign films ( Fiona hates watching subtitled movies ).

No doubt the trip will be a great experience for her and I'm kind of jealous that I couldn't go but that's life, it's something she's wanted to do for a while and now she's actually doing it.

I watched series 5 yesterday on Blu-ray and other than the weak final episode I thought it was pretty good, I like that the show could end and I'd be OK with that but at the same time they introduced an idea that could be picked up in series 5 if that ever eventually happens.


It has to be said they really lifted their game with special effects this series and actually made use of the anomalies for something other than just introducing a new monster to fight, both of those things were nice

I'd like to see the show continue but if this is the end then I'm OK with that.

Planet Hulk

Being a fan of comics I try to eventually see every movie adapted from various comic series, while Marvel may be winning in terms of live action movies DC are easily beating them when it comes to animated features.

Having said that I liked Planet Hulk enough that I'd like to read the comics it was based on since the movie felt rushed and I suspect the comics will be better paced when it comes to telling the story.

Worth a look if you get the chance.

The Good, The Bad and the oh so very Ugly

I've just finished watching The Good, the Bad and The Ugly on Blu-ray and I have to say it was pretty disappointing, while MGM chose not to restore the first two of the Dollars films for Blu-ray I'd heard a lot of complaints about The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, apparently they used extensive DNR to remove the film grain, I didn't notice it much, there were a few times when the picture looked a little soft or the actors were wearing heavy make up but not the usual plastic looking people that is associated with that kind of heavy processing.

What really killed the movie for me was the re-dubbed audio, I have the 2003 ( ? ) DVD edition where they restored scenes to the film that had been cut from the original US release and got Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach and another actor to dub the late Lee Van Cleef's dialog, on the DVD release you could tell the difference but in HD audio it's painful especially when Eli Wallach is speaking as it's obviously a much older actor even if it's the same one speaking the lines and the changes in voice throughout the film are very distracting.

I've been told the Italian Blu-ray release is unrestored but doesn't have an English soundtrack, I wonder how hard it would be to make a custom Blu-ray using the Italian Blu-ray with the English audio from the original unrestored DVD release, I think I feel a project brewing.

For what it's worth A Fistful of Dollars and A Few Dollars More looked and sounded fine for movies of their age.

Trekkies

I re watched Trekkies this afternoon, a lot of Star Trek fans seem to dislike the film because it portrays them in a negative light but honestly maybe they should have given some consideration to what they were doing and saying when they appeared on camera instead of complain that they look bad or stupid after the fact.

Having said that I think Trekkies is a weak documentary that is lacking in structure but despite my opinion it was obviously successful enough for the producers to make a sequel a few years later.

From what I can recall Trekkies 2 was a somewhat better movie but after the disappointment that was the first film I'm not sure I want to see it's sequel again, at least not any time soon.

Trekkies is the sort of movie I'd try and catch on TV or borrow from a friend but not worth spending your hard earned cash ( like I unfortunately did ) to see.

Hellboy 2: The Golden army

I have to admit I'm a fan of the Hellboy movies and as much as I enjoyed the first film I was kind of surprised when it 's sequel went into production.

One thing I enjoy about all of Director Guillermo del Toro's movies is the visual style he brings to them and Hellboy 2 is no exception.

A couple of weeks ago I picked up Hellboy 2 on Blu-ray at a sale and I have to say that I thought the movie looked fantastic, high definition hasn't often wowed me when I've watched a movie, sure it's a quality better picture ( and sound ) but for the most part I haven't been as impressed as a lot of other people seem to have been.

If like me you are a fan of the Hellboy movies and you have the ability to play Blu-ray movies then do yourself a favor and and buy this movie in high definition, I seriously doubt you'll be disappointed.

This is why I shop online.

My Lord of the Rings Extended Edition Blu-ray Boxset arrived in the mail from Amazon UK today, it cost ( including postage ) about half the Australian recommended retail price.

Australian retailers bitch and moan about people shopping online instead of spending their hard earned money with local retailers, I actually try to support local stores when it's practical to do so and if the price difference was only $5 - $10 I would've bought it locally but when I'm going to be charged twice the price someone from the UK is going to pay then forget it I'll buy it from there instead, I'm sick of being ripped off !

Summoned By Shadows / More Than A Messiah

Once upon a time back in the Black and White days of 1963 the BBC commissioned and odd little show about an alien who wondered through time and space, it was never intended to be a long running show but thanks in no small part to some other funny looking aliens who became unusually popular the show ran for 26 series ( seasons for US based readers ) before it was decided to give the show a rest.

During this time the wondering alien was played by seven actors, some proved to be more popular than others, one of those actors was fired for no good reason other than one of the management types at the BBC was a boring git who didn't like the show anyway and wished it would just go away.

Eventually the boring git did in fact get his way and the show was no longer produced ( for a while anyway ) but it's fans kept it's memory alive.

The actor who was unfairly fired ( the sixth to play the part ) went on to work with an independent production company to produce stories about an alien who wandered through time and space with a companion and they had all sorts of adventures.

Summoned by Shadows and More than a Messiah are the first two of six independent features starring Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant as The Stranger and Miss Brown, for the first three stories in this series it's hinted than The Stranger may in fact be The Doctor or at least some alternate version of the character, these were very low budget features but they managed to capture some of the spirit of the then defunct Doctor Who television series.

What these features lacked in budget and professionalism they made up for with heart, these were fans trying to keep the spirit of their favorite series alive, it's a shame that these films were made in the early 90's instead of now, with the advances in personal computer technology they could easily have achieved far superior special effects to what they were obviously struggling to create at the time, especially considering their low budget.

I had previously seen some of The Stranger videos before but I recently purchased them all on DVD and so far I have enjoyed seeing them again, it's an interesting look at what the Sixth Doctor could have been if the character was developed properly.