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.

Battlestar Galactica - The Original Series

I'm not talking about the new fangled reimagining of Battlestar Galactica from a few years ago where Starbuck was a woman, Commander Cain was a lesbian and the ending was almost as bad as the finale to Lost.

I'm talking about the original show from the70's, the show I loved as a child ever since I first saw the cut down version of the pilot at the cinema and I love it still despite the fact it's a show that's very much of it's time with over the top and somewhat camp acting and honestly at times some very weak writing.

For the better part of the last week I've been rewatching the show on Blu-ray and it's been a lot of fun, the show looks and sounds better in High Definition, it's a shame no real restoration work was done on the episodes but overall it's an improvement on the DVD release from several years ago.

I know some people don't like this show or think it hasn't aged well for me this is the concentrated essence of my childhood, a much simpler and less cynical time and the show reflects that.

Rewatching the original version of Battlestar Galactica, is a little like catching up with old friends you haven't seen in years, sure they might not have aged well but it's still nice to see them now and again.

Grudge Match

So one day I'm browsing Blu-rays killing some time and I see a movie called Grudge Match, now I'd never heard of the movie but a boxing movie starring Robert De Niro and Sylvester Stallone is going to get my attention, this is after all the actors who played Rocky Balboa Jake LaMotta in the ring together.

Well I watched the movie and I have to say I was disappointed, it covered some of the same territory as the final Rocky movie but frankly I found the movie to be pretty dull and an overall disappointment.

Reading about the movie online afterwards I discovered the movie was supposed to be a comedy which was a shock to me, it certainly wasn't funny.

Ultimately Grudge Match was a waste of a decent idea that was played for laughs and couldn't even manage that, definitely one to avoid.

WTF ?

I'm fairly recently divorced and much happier for it which is something I once thought I'd never say, the reasons for my divorce are fairly simple, someone other than me cheated - A Lot !

Life goes on but twice in the last few days I've gotten phone calls from two women ( I assume it's two different women ) I don't know looking for another woman I've never heard from that apparently has the same phone number as me, they have been pleasant enough and when I tell them I don't know the person they are looking for they have thanked me for my time and hung up so there's no drama there.

Now the person who cheated had a bunch of online aliases and maybe this is all coincidental and has nothing to do with her but maybe it's her past nipping at her heels ?

Fright Night 2: The New Blood

Fright Night 2: The New Blood is a curious beast, it's a sequel in name only to the 2011 remake of Fright Night.

Essentially this move is a reboot of the series, now Charley Brewster, Evil Ed and Amy ( Charlie's girlfriend ) are in Romania as part of a student exchange program, here they meet Professor Gerri Dandridge who teaches Romanian culture and history who as Charley soon discovers is a vampire but not just any vampire she is in fact Elizabeth Báthory .

With the help of Peter Vincent the star of the Ghost Hunters style web-series Fright Night they must defeat Dandridge before she can complete a ritual that will allow her to have all the powers of a vampire but none of their weaknesses.

As far as movies go Fright Night 2: The New Blood is a bad one, the director breaks out every flashy trick his relatively low budget could afford but that just becomes irritating instead of clever after a while and the performances in the movie are uniformly bad.

This is a movie that's best avoided.

No Internet Blues.

It would seem I've been fooling myself, I'm one of those people who likes to believe they aren't totally dependant on modern technology, I don't have a smartphone of any type because I don't actually need one and I've been telling that to people for what seems like and probably has been years.

I have my toys, games consoles, big TV, home theatre equipment and of course the computer I'm typing this blog entry on.

Well today I had no internet access for around seven hours and it drove me crazy, it's not like I didn't have things I could or should do to occupy my time but I seemed to spend a lot of that time seeing if my internet connection was working again.

I guess I may not feel the need to be on the cutting edge when it comes to my toys but apparently not having internet access can just about drive me crazy, my bills were all paid and it's not as though I actually needed to do anything else online, I suppose I just wanted what I didn't have at the time.....except for a smartphone, I still have no need for one of those.