Metropolis ( Giorgio Moroder )

Today I received in the mail the so-called ultimate edition of Metropolis on Blu-ray, I love Metropolis and I already owned the restored version on Blu-ray but this new edition also included the version of the movie that was created by Giorgio Moroder in the 1980s.

I can remember renting the movie on VHS around 20 years ago and liking it but I never felt the need to see it again, I think in the United States the Giorgio Moroder may have been released as a stand alone disc and I always thought I might pick it up one day if I saw it on sale.

Masters of Cinema announced a new steelbook that also included their previous release as well as the Moroder edition and that sold it for me, everything I wanted in one very pretty case.

I watched the Moroder version this afternoon and it was fun, the 80s synth music and soft rock works for the rather abridged version of the film and while the audio was impressive I was disappointed to see that no real restoration work had been done on Giorgio Moroder's version of Metropolis and I suspect that a lot of the visuals could have been restored or failing that a better looking version of Moroder's film constructed using footage from the previously restored version of the original movie released by Masters of Cinema ( and Kino in the United States ).

This version of the movie is far from definitive but as far as what amounts to an 80 minute music video goes it's kinda fun, I seriously doubt I'll be watching it again any time soon but I can see myself watching it again one day.

Alcatraz

Some time ago I saw the Alcatraz Blu-ray boxset on sale, I guess you can't really call two discs a boxset but it contains all 13 episodes of the cancelled TV series, I was originally never going to bother watching the episodes as I knew the series ended without any kind of resolution but the discs were just so cheap I couldn't pass them up.

I watched the first 2 or 3 episodes and rather enjoyed them but got distracted by something else and that was the pattern I would follow, months later I would watch a few more episodes and enjoy them but then get distracted by something else, nearly 2 years later I've finally finished all 13 episodes.

Overall I enjoyed the show, of course it ended just when it was getting interesting but I thought it was fun, as the show just suddenly ends it makes for a disappointing viewing experience as there is no resolution to the story being told.

I liked Alcatraz but I can't say I'd recommend it unless you can find it really cheap and like me are curious about the show, with all the crap that seems to survive and even thrive on TV today it's a shame this show didn't at least run for a season or two.