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What are you watching now?

Jade Jaguar

Regular
We have several threads on various TV shows, and movies, but I thought a thread for DVDs we have watched recently would be interesting... hopefully with a bit more of a review than in the "listening to" thread. I'll start it off...

WHV finally did something exactly right, even superb! I'm sure everyone here knows at least some of the various glitches in the B5 DVD release. They released the first season of the Kung Fu TV series in letterbox, cutting off a lot of the 4x3 frame. Also I hate the way they have released Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. They are slapped together in rather poor order, with a few true "Golden Age" cartoons mixed with a few from the 50s, often in no particular order.

Well, they just came out with Popeye the Sailor, 1933-1938. It is magnificent! They did new restorations of the original Fleischer Studios cartoons, and new transfers, which have the original intro cards, nothing edited out, and aren't cropped around the outside edges. They look wonderful. But, that is just the beginning. They put them on the discs in chronoligical order, by original release dates! This adds much to the enjoyment, and understanding of the series. You can see how the characters, and animation changed, and evolved, over time. Many of the cartoons have audio commentaries by animation experts. They put 15 cartoons on each disc, and filled each out with short docs on the studio, artists, and characters. They also included several rare silent era cartoons by the Fleischer Bros. on each disc. Also, two of the three color Popeye two-reelers are included.

This is intended to be followed by a second release, in Nov., that will complete the Fleischer Studios Popeyes. I sure wish WHV would give the same treatment to the rest of the Fleischer catalog, and to their own catalog of cartoons! Okay, just one complaint... the four disc holder has two discs overlapping the other two, so you must remove one disc to get to another. And, one hub prong was broken, but the disc played.

So, comment on this if you like, and/or post something good you have seen on DVD lately. In a couple of weeks, I will receive the movie "Performance,"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066214/, and in the end of October, O, Lucky Man. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070464/ These are both great films of the late 60s, early 70's, that WHV has been dragging their heels on releasing, but are finally coming out.
 
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The last really interesting thing I saw on DVD was a Japanese flick from a few years ago called Battle Royale. It's basically a bunch of teenagers who are on an island for three days forced to kill each other until one is left. The movie is really cool- like Highlander meets Lord of the Flies. The DVD itself suffers from really awful English translation in the subtitles though.
 
Just watched True Romance (again) and saw Kiss Kiss Bang Bang with Robert Downey Jnr. It was great, brilliantly funny and well worth sticking on your Netflicks or whatever,,,

Currently trying to track down Star Trek 2 on the cheap...
 
I've recently watched ..

*Brazil - a completely freaky movie. Oddly, I didn't much enjoy watching it at all. But I was blown away by it when it was over nevertheless. Quite an odd experience, that - watching a movie, thinking that it was kind of sucking all the way to the end, bored out of my skull .. roll credits, and go .. "WOAW!"

*The Wizard of Ozz - catching up on cultural phenomena that have been lost on me. Some will remain lost on me ...

*The Twilight Zone, um to the middle of the second season.

*Babylon 5, for the first time properly from DVD.
 
Yea, they tried to sell the USA an "edited" version which completely edits out the real ending. :angry:

Thankfully, I've never known anyone to actually have seen it and not the other. :LOL:

Yes, it's a nice ending. :)
 
Yea, they tried to sell the USA an "edited" version which completely edits out the real ending. :angry:

Thankfully, I've never known anyone to actually have seen it and not the other. :LOL:

Yes, it's a nice ending. :)

Terry Gilliam had such a struggle to get Brazil released, that there is a book written about it. He "previewed" it, repeatedly, to a USC film class. Some film critics saw it there, and gave it the LA Film Critics' "Best Picture of the Year Award. THis, and a few other tricks, finally shamed the studio into releasing it with the ending Gilliam wanted. Check "trivia" for Brazil on the IMDb for lots of interesting info! I think the short version, with the happy Hollywood ending, has only been shown on TV.
 
That's bad enough.

I mean they cut the whole ENDING? :confused: Why stick to the story so closely just to blow it, big-time, with the edited ending.

I had heard people were outraged (fans of his) but good for Gilllian figuring out how to shame them, as you say, into releasing it properly. :)
 
The Fisher King makes a nice follow up to Brazil. He eventually got the ending in Brazil he wanted, but used up a lot of Hollywood credit.
 
think it is the best thing Robin Williams ever did

Considering his putried films, that's really not much of a compliment :)

Things I'm currently watching:

- finally picked up season 1 of original Trek on DVD. Already had 2, don't know if I'll bother with 3. The episodes with the text commentary are fun.

- using Netflix's new feature where you can download and watch movies to check out a couple of Showtime shows:
- Dead Like Me, a series about a teenage girl who is killed and becomes a grim reaper. Watched one episode so far, found it boring, but the concept has potential, so I'll give it some more time.
- Masters of Horror series, a set of 1 hour mini-films directed by various horror directors. So far watched John Landis' (meh) and the one by that Asian director who did May. His MoH film also starts the same girl from May, and I liked it, but then I love May so that wasn't surprising.

Seriously people, check out May. It's so great.

I also just finished watching Lost. Too bad I couldn't join in the fun with you guys, but I'll be there for season 4. Maybe I'll dig up the Lost thread at some point and read your guys' speculations. Lord knows I have some of my own...
 
TV Shows: currently going through Stargate SG-1 DVD's. Just ordered seasons 7 and 8

Movies: Had a british gangster marathon yesterday, watched Snatch, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Get Carter, Sexy Beast and The Krays
 
I've been watching Ken Burns' The War, on PBS. It is rather good, just what I expect from Burns. He has dug up a lot of footage that I don't think has been seen before, at least not by many. It does cover significant strategy, battles, etc., but focuses more on the personal effects, personal accounts, of the people who lived the times. It's beautiful, and horrible at times, in HD.

Also, I just watched the DVD of Performance, a movie that was rarely seen, due to WB not letting anyone show it, until the DVD came out a couple of months ago. Some say it is the best British gangster film ever made. Perhaps, but it is much more than that. The opening has so much skillful quick-cutting, that you almost become dizzy watching it. It was Mick Jagger's first acting role, and surely his best, but he isn't seen until later in the film. The other acting is very good too. But, the main thing is the unusual style, that proved to be very influential. Check it out on Netflix, rent it, wherever. I just saw it, and I'm ready to see it again...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066214/
 
I'm gonna probably just end up renting that War doc on DVD.

Last night I watched an old-timey flick called Laura, a straight-up murder mystery, with pre-horror Vincent Price.

I rented American Gothic from the library. Haven't started watching, though.
 
Laura is a fine, classic film noir, well worth watching.

I'm a real John Waters fan, and like Pecker a lot too. It's certainly not as out there as Pink Flamingos, but quite enjoyable.
 
Not now, but today as I was getting ready to go out, I noticed something different coming onto the channel of Turner Classic Movies. A movie starring Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine. It's called "Sleuth".

I caught the first part of it and it hit me early on that the American movie "Deathtrap" starring Michael Caine and Christopher Reeves.

Interesting. It's not exactly the same plot, for example the younger character (Caine in the British version, Reeves in the American version) is a writer in the American version, and is a businessowner in the British version.

I had no idea the American movie was a remake of a classic (and what looks like a very good and fun) film.

So I recorded it before I left. I hope I get time this week to finish it, I wonder what kind of an ending it has. :D

Anyway, I'm such an old movie junkie, and I'll watch whatever has Olivier in it, I was happily surprised today. :)
 
I've seen a trailer for a remake of the original Sleuth, with Caine as the old guy this time.


As y'all know if you've been following my other thread, I've been watching "Farscape." Also I'm taking my mom through Buffy. So I have to juggle my fictional universes now and then, but it's all to the good.
 

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