Agents of SHIELD Season 1 Blu-ray

Well it took some time, it took a real long time but I finally finished the first season of Agents of SHIELD.

Like many people I saw the first couple of episodes of the show and thought it sucked so I stopped watching, other people I knew however kept watching and they assured me the show got better and that I should give it another try and sure enough that episode would also be terrible and I'd stop watching again, this process would repeat itself over several months and eventually I got through the 6 or 7 really bad episodes that started the series off and the show seemed to quickly improve.

Over the last couple of week I've watched the remaining 15 or so episodes and enjoyed them, it's impressive how much the show has improved during it's first season, for me at least it's not essential viewing but it is enjoyable viewing and I believe the season 2 Blu-ray set is being released soon and I now find myself curious as to where the show will go from here.

For anyone who hasn't seen season 1 the first several episodes are pretty bad but it gets better.

The Poltergeist Trilogy

Over the last week I've rewatched The Poltergeist Trilogy on Blu-ray, my memory of the films was that I enjoyed the first film, the second was ok and the third was a cheap and nasty piece of crap.

I still really enjoy the original Poltergeist, it's an entertaining film that has a well told story and for the time is technically well executed.

Poltergeist 2 is a decent movie until it reaches its climax and then it just seems like the people making the movie just didn't know how to end it so they threw some special effects at it and hoped no-one noticed it didn't make any sense.

Poltergeist 3 wasn't in fact a cheap and nasty movie, sure it only had half the budget of Poltergeist 2 but it was made for only a little less than the budget of the original film, I suppose it was because the movie featured so little location shooting and was largely studio bound ( or that's how it seems anyway ), one of the things that really hurt the film was the score Joe Renzetti, it is a genuine shame the producers couldn't get Jerry Goldsmith to return to score the third film.

I wouldn't go so far as to say Poltergeist 3 was a bad movie but it's not as bad as I thought I remembered it being but I also didn't think Poltergeist 2 was as good as I remembered either, Poltergeist however is lots of fun.

Robocop ( 2014 )

I remember when I heard that there was to be a remake of Robocop, I was a huge fan of the original film but I thought OK this could be really good or it'll really stink.

Time passes as time often does and the remake is finished and I saw it in the cinema with one other person, that was it, there was two of us in the cinema and this was during the movie's opening week so I assumed the movie was really bad even before it had started.

The end credits roll and I walked out of the cinema and I didn't hate the movie but I wasn't impressed either, honestly I thought it could have been much worse, later the movie was released on Blu-ray and I picked it up on sale being obsessive when it come to movies and such, even though I didn't love the movie I still wanted to own it just so I could say I had all the movies, I eventually rewatched the Blu-ray and I thought it was better than I remembered, nothing special but better than I remembered the movie being when I saw it at the cinema.

Today I happened to see the movie again and I found myself thinking it was actually a pretty decent movie, of course it doesn't measure up to the original movie but it's a decent reasonably entertaining movie.

It only took me three viewings to come to the conclusion the remake of Robocop is actually a decent movie.

Finders Keepers

I used to be an avid reader of Stephen King's book, as soon as he released something new I had have it as soon as possible but at some point something changed and there were three or four books in a row I didn't really enjoy all that much, they weren't awful but they weren't really fun so like when all things stop being enjoyable I stopped reading them.

Years passed by and many a new Stephen King novel came and went and I found no real desire to read any of them, I would occasionally think I should pick up some new book of his out of curiosity but it just never happened, well until recently anyway.

I was talking to a friend of mine sometime ago about the television mini-series based on The Stand, personally I didn't care for it but think afterwards it might be fun to revisit the book at some point or maybe some of King's other books I had enjoyed but for some reason or another I just never got around to it, finally I decided I would go pick up a copy of The Stand but no bookshop I visited had a copy in stock and few of them had much of King's earlier work in stock either, what they did all have was copies of the recently released Finders Keepers so I took a chance and bought that instead.

Finders Keepers wasn't exactly what I expected but I found I rather enjoyed it, at times the book referred to events that had happened to characters previously and after doing a bit of research online I found that it was the second book in a series but all the information the reader need to know was contained in the book so there wasn't any risk of not understanding what was going on, I guess what surprised me a little was that there were only minimal elements of the supernatural in the story ( although I suspect that is going to change in book three ) but instead Finders Keepers was a well written thriller and having completed it I was more than happy to purchase the first book in the series Mr Mercedes which I am currently reading and also enjoying it immensely.

I don't know what it was about those few Stephen King books I read that I didn't like now, I can tell you that Gerald's Game and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon were tow of them, maybe I just didn't enjoy the subject matter, I guess it really doesn't matter now but I can say Finders Keepers was well worth the read and Mr Mercedes is shaping up to be the same, the plus side of all of this is even though I am somewhat behind the times there are a whole bunch of Stephen King books out there I haven't read and I'd like to think at least some if not all of them will be pretty damn good reading.

The Multimedia Chronicles

I was looking for a video review of a recently released Doctor Who Blu-ray boxset, as I suspected YouTube was littered with them, most of them well, they weren't horrible as such but they weren't interesting either.

As a result I stumbled across The Multimedia Chronicles which is a video podcast that pretty much covers all forms of media, basically it's a guy talking to camera about stuff he likes and he would seem to like a lot of the same things I do.

If you are a fan of comics, books, video games, movies and television shows it may be worth a look when you have a moment to spare but be warned there are an awful lot of episodes covering a lot of different subjects, more than any new viewer could reasonably hope to get through.

OK so when did that happen ?

Perhaps the more appropriate question might be OK so why did that happen ?

I've been pretty quiet on the blog front for a while now, life just gets busy sometimes but weirdly that's when my page views spiked, when I wasn't writing anything, perhaps the internet is trying to tell me something.

I don't usually check blog statistics but I got a notification of something that needed my attention and while I was attending to it I noticed an increase in viewing figures, not an Earth shattering increase but for a while there the numbers were higher than I ever would have expected to see.

No doubt it's all down to web-bots, web-bots and Space 1999 fans apparently.

Hawk the Slayer ( Blu-ray )

If I can say one thing in the defence of Hawk the Slayer it's that you can see the people are genuinely trying to make a good movie and sometimes despite a low budget and lack of production values cast and crew rally together to make a movie that is greater than the sum of it's parts, sadly in the case of Hawk the Slayer that didn't happen.

Most of the performances given by cast members were wooden to say the least with the exception of Jack Palance and I honestly don't know how to describe his work on the movie but I can truly say it was a unique performance and seldom have I seen anything ti rival it in modern cinema.

Hawk the Slayer has reputation for being a terrible movie but I don't think that is entirely fair, it's certainly not a good movie but it is strangely entertaining.

I have seen a couple of different DVD releases of the movie and I think it would be fair to say the new Blu-ray release is the best looking version I have seen, it seems like no restoration work has been done on the movie and in this case that adds to it's charm.

Hawk the Slayer isn't for everyone but I enjoy it, perhaps I enjoy it for the wrong reasons but it make me laugh.

Wyrmwood

So what do you get if you cross Mad Max with a low budget B-grade zombie movie ?, well I'm not entirely sure myself but Wyrmwood might be a good guess.

Wyrmwood is a low budget Australian horror / comedy or at least that's how I describe it that was filmed over a three year period and at least partially crowd funded through Indigogo and while the end result might not be densely plotted the movie is bat shit crazy and a lot of fun.

I never heard about Wyrmwood until after the movie was completed which is a shame because it's something I would have supported when they were fund raising, there are rumors of a sequel and if that goes ahead I'll be more than happy to put some money towards the production.

If you like guys in cars, zombies and disco tunes this just may be the movie for you.

Check it out !

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.

The Green Hornet

Being a fan of comics I try to eventually see all movies based on comics and at the rate they are being pumped out these days it sometime seems like that is easier said than done.

I'm not really a fan of The Green Hornet, I've seen some episodes of the TV show and read a few of  the comics, I guess I could claim to be familiar with the characters but not a fan or any kind of expert on them.

Last night I saw The Green Hornet movie and it was terrible, just terrible, such a wasted opportunity.

One to avoid unless you are a die hard Seth Rogan fan but even then you might want to think twice about watching it.

Plastic Galaxy: The Story of Star Wars Toys

I tend to be a sucker for these types of fan documentaries and I had been aware that Plastic Galaxy: The Story of Star Wars Toys was being produced and was looking forward to seeing it.

Plastic Galaxy: The Story of Star Wars Toys really only covers the toys that were produced by Kenner for the original movie trilogy with an extremely brief mention of some later toys so the documentary is hardly comprehensive and given it's short running time of around 70 minutes there's no way it could have been.

As a child growing up I had but sadly no longer have a lot of the original Star Wars action figures and I was looking forward to seeing some of those for nostalgic reasons but for me the thing that makes some of these fan documentaries so enjoyable is that they often interview at least one character that I find interesting or can somehow identify with and unfortunately this time that didn't happen.

Plastic Galaxy: The Story of Star Wars Toys is a decent reasonably entertaining if somewhat short documentary, there is certainly plenty of scope for a second film about Star Wars merchandising and if that film ever gets made I'd like to see a little more depth when discussing the subject.

Plastic Galaxy: The Story of Star Wars Toys is certainly worth watching but I don't know that it's worth owning unless you are truly passionate about collecting Star Wars toys.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind ( Blu-ray )

I consider myself to be a fan of Hayao Miyazaki's movies with the exception of this one, I find Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind to have a disjointed plot, the animation looks ( to me anyway ) primitive and badly aged in a way older works by Miyazaki aren't and it's environmental themes are overly heavy handed in the way they are delivered.

The Blu-ray itself delivers the expected crisp and colourful image as you would expect but on a repeat viewing I've confirmed that Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind still isn't for me.

Spirited Away ( Blu-ray )

I have no idea where Writer / Director Hayao Miyazaki gets his story ideas or his artistic vision but his retirement from feature length film making is a great loss indeed.

Miyazaki is a man with stunning skill as a film maker and Spirited Away is a great example of that, the movie starts and efficiently introduces it's main character and sets it's story in motion, it isn't burdened by excess exposition it simply tells the audience what it needs to know and does so in such a way that viewers of different ages can all understand what is going on and enjoy the adventure that is Spirited Away.

Spirited Away is a good spirited film, even the somewhat antagonistic characters aren't beyond redemption and unlike a lot of anime films it never becomes dark or violent.

What really impresses on the Blu-ray edition of the movie is the visuals, it the film looks simply stunning, this is a true achievement in the era of 3D computer animation that a traditionally animated movie that was made in 2001 remains one of the best looking animated movies I have ever seen.

If you haven't at least seen Spirited Away you are doing yourself a real disservice, if you are a collector of quality movies then it deserves to be in your collection and preferably on Blu-ray.

John Carpenter's Starman

I remember seeing John Carpenter's Starman back when I was in high school and at the time I don't think I really appreciated the movie, I hadn't yet become a fan of John Carpenter's films, in fact I don't think I had connected Carpenter to his movies yet although I had seen and enjoyed several of them by that point.

Starman was a movie I remember liking when I saw it but having seen it, it wasn't something I felt I needed to see again and when the movie was released in the rental market on VHS it seemed like everyone I knew had rented it and insisted on watching whenever I was around so to be honest I think I got pretty sick of the movie for a time although I did enjoy the short lived TV series that was based on the movie.

I tend to be somewhat of an obsessive completest so when I decided I needed to own all of John Carpenter's movies on DVD that of course included Starman, the Starman DVD sat around unwatched for ages before I decided to watch it and I found that I really enjoyed seeing the movie again something like 20 years later, while it's certainly not the type of film that I would usually expect from John Carpenter it's a well made movie and the performances from Karen Allen, Charles Martin Smith especially Jeff Bridges were all excellent.

Over the last few years I have been upgrading some of my favourite movies to Blu-ray and this has included all of John Carpenter's movies that are currently available in that format and a while ago I purchased the Blu-ray released in the USA and while some of the effects work looked a little dated overall I enjoyed watching the movie in HD, in Australia John Carpenter's Starman received a sub-standard release on Blu-ray, just the movie and none of the special features from earlier DVD release which is disappointing but I thought I give the disc a spin tonight just to check out the quality of the movie transfer and while I'm no expert on these things it seemed to be the same or similar quality as the US released Blu-ray so given the insane price the US released Staman Blu-ray seems to be selling for on Amazon if you have the ability to play discs from other regions it just might be worth buying the Australian released disc instead.

Is John Carpenter's Starman a classic movie ?, no it's not but it is damn fine movie and deserves a place in any collection.

Death Race Trilogy ( Blu-ray )

There are few things that annoy me more than poor quality remakes or sequels to movies but I have to admit I have a fondness for Paul W.S. Anderson's remake of Death Race 2000.

Like the original movie Death Race isn't by any means a great movie but it is fun in a B-Grade kind of way.

A couple of years ago I saw the direct to video production Death Race 2 and as you'd expect at the time I thought it wasn't great but I thought it was interesting that the second film was actually a prequel that only featured a couple of supporting actors from the original film, more recently I became aware that there was a third film which was also a direct to video production called Death Race 3:  Inferno or some times just Death Race: Inferno which was a sequel to Death Race 2 but a prequel to the original Death Race.

Sometimes I think I must be a glutton for punishment because I like to see every movie in a series eve if I expect them to be terrible especially given that the second and third Death Race movies were directed by Roel Reiné  who also directed the awful The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption.

Rewatching the first two films and seeing the third film for the first time I found I enjoyed them, there is a definite drop in quality between the first movie and it's sequels but they all work as big dumb fun and while I do enjoy a well written and thoughtfully made movie sometimes fast cars, pretty girls and lots of explosions can be fun as well.

*Sigh*

So the court thing was a waste of time and an expensive one at that, it's somewhat hard to have a conciliation conference when one party is just being difficult for the sake of it.

Looks like this is going to drag on into next year now and the only thing that will be achieved is that a couple of lawyers will get a little richer.

The Evil of Frankenstein ( Blu-ray )

Today I received a Blu-ray copy of Hammer Horror's The Evil of Frankenstein, for me this is a lesser Frankenstein film, the back story for The Evil of Frankenstein departs from what was established in the previous films in the series, today I guess we would be calling it a reboot rather than a sequel.

Peter Cushing stars once again as Baron Frankenstein and as usual gives an excellent performance but he is let down by a weak story and a poorly realised monster.

The Blu-ray of The Evil of Frankenstein is a bit of a mixed bag, while there is much more detail in the picture than there is in my DVD version of the movie, the picture is riddled with dirt and speckling in places which was disappointing to see, it's a shame some restoration work wasn't done on the movie, it's certainly watchable but as always it's a shame that little extra effort couldn't have been put into this release.