Latest DVD Purchases

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Fri Jun 14, 2013 5:43 pm

Cliffjumper wrote:

Sunshine: good if not great up until the point they lob a random God-bothering nutcase into the mix... how exactly did he get onboard Icarus II? Still the best thing Danny Boyle's ever done, though.

Yeah, it's just baffling. That got such good "Return of "Serious" SF!" style reviews at the time, and I remember going to see it with my entire family with us all hugely excited, only to come out looking puzzled, confused and more than a little disapointed. My Uncle even called it the worst film he'd seen since the Battlestar Galactica pilot got released theatrically over here thirty years earlier. The lucky sod, he must have avoided a lot of bad films...

As for myself: I finally saw X-Men: First Class, great fun and probably better than all four previous movies (yes, including the sainted Singer's efforts). Managed to walk the line between having a serious subtext and being a big silly romp perfectly, and rattled along at an impressive pace. It was also the first of the films to actually feel like a team film as well.

The bad points were mainly niggles (Xavier has a very British accent throughout, presumably because Patrick Stewart was British despite him doing a mid-Atlantic accent in the originals. Magneto's accent was all over the place as well, he goes from being equally very British to full on American). And Kevin Bacon in a decent film people actually went to see! When was the last time that happened?

I'm actually quite up for Days of Future Past now, even if it is looking a bit of a cluster**** (is there any need to try and explain away X-Men 3? First Class did perfectly well by just ignoring it and Wolverine).

HeavyArms · Post by **HeavyArms** » Sat Jun 15, 2013 10:12 am

Earlier today I got Dollhouse season 2 and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters. Mainly because I like Joss Whedon, Eliza Dushku and Jeremy Renner.

HeavyArms · Post by **HeavyArms** » Sat Jun 22, 2013 6:11 am

Haven season 3 and Mobile Suit Gundam: Unicorn volume 6.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Tue Jun 25, 2013 8:03 pm

Working through the second Hitchcock blu ray set I've had for a while (Strangers on a Train and North By Nort-West are still brilliant, I want to be Carry Grant now) and have seen Dial M For Murder for the first time.

A nice tense little film (though I do feel sorry for anyone who saw it in 3D as a bunch of people talking for an hour hardly lends itself well to the format) with some great performances. Even if Grace Kelley's English accent was distracting ("I lost my haaaaaaandbarg Maaaaaark!"). I'm not sure why they didn't change the setting to the States really, they had numbers on the phone as letters for exchanges in the US didn't they? Still, as you'd expect from a UK director it all felt authentically British, all the little phrases were exactly right, not something Hollywood normally manages.

The real surprise though was how much it was Columbo: The Movie, even down to John Williams' (not that one) seemingly dumb cop going "Just one more thing..." as he's on his way out the door. Hell, Ray Millard even wound up in a Columbo episode later on....

ganon578 · Post by **ganon578** » Tue Jun 25, 2013 8:09 pm

The other week I upgraded two of my movies to Bluray:

Batman Begins & The Dark Knight. Picked them up used for $5 each.

HeavyArms · Post by **HeavyArms** » Sat Jun 29, 2013 11:27 am

The other day I picked up The Last Stand, Arnold Schwarzenegger's first main acting role since leaving the Governator job last year.
The Pineapple Express, I bought this as a warm up for Seth Rogen's new movie 'This Is The End' that's come out recently.
And Lego Batman 2: DC Superheroes the movie (added the last bit so people wouldn't get it mixed with the game of the same name), adds some new scenes to better explain the story, also comes with a Lego minifig.

HeavyArms · Post by **HeavyArms** » Sat Jul 06, 2013 8:15 am

On Friday, while I was looking for the blu ray of Superman: Unbound, which I couldn't find, I bought This Is 40, a Judd Apatow comedy that stars Paul Rudd, Judd's wife and two daughters, and is kind of a sequel to Knocked Up.
And Flight, a Denzel Washington movie that may have been inspired by that passenger plane landing the harbour in America a few years ago that I forgotten the name of.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Sat Jul 06, 2013 1:29 pm

The Man Who Haunted Himself on Blu Ray, can I handle two Roger Moore's?

Also, To Catch A Thief. Which is a bit of an odd sounding one as every single review I've seen starts in a slightly overly defensive way along the lines of "It's not especially good Hitchcock but...". Be interesting to see how well it does or doesn't actually stand up. I also ordered his version of the 39 Steps, you know, the one that doesn't have Jesus in it.

Skyquake87 · Post by **Skyquake87** » Sat Jul 06, 2013 8:10 pm

Well, being the connoisseur of fine films that I am, i have bought Wild Target (silly Brit film with Bill Nighy as a hitman sent to kill Emily Blunt whom has a change of heart. Moderate hijinks abound, with the ginger fella from Harry Potter and Rupert Everett) and also...

Hellraiser! I've always wanted to see this. I really enjoyed it, but was surprised by how little the Cenobites actually feature in it. Cracking special effects too, especially the dude in the house effectively growing himself back together from his victims. Sigh. I miss proper old-school physical special effects. CGI is so...boring.

Ooh, also not something I bought, but I saw a cracking little British film on BBC2 the other weekend called 'Skeletons'. It's this marvellously quirky low budget film about two psychic exorcists whom exorsize the skeletons from peoples closets. Features nobody famous, but loads of folk whom you'll find yourself going "oh!its him from thingy..!"

HeavyArms · Post by **HeavyArms** » Sat Jul 13, 2013 8:41 am

Ordered Superman: Unbound blu-ray from JB Hifi last weekend and I liked that Stana Katic and Molly Quinn are both from Castle.

Also, bought from JB Hifi in store: WWE Best Of WCW Nitro Volume 2 and Zero Dark Thirty.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Sun Jul 14, 2013 8:17 am

Here's an odd little story... Inspired by me getting the film on blu ray my mother decided to rebuy 12 Monkeys on DVD, as her previous copy was a very early DVD where the movie wasn't in widescreen but that slightly odd aspect ratio some turn of the century discs had where it's a widescreen picture (with the bars on the top and bottom) but in a 4:3 frame (with, if you've got a widescreen telly, the bars on the side, effectively you're watching a box within a box).

So she brought the newish DVD in the same packaging as the blu ray, with the postcards and the 100 years of Universal branding. But, despite the picture on the blu ray being fine, the DVD is just a repackaging of the one she owned before, squashed picture and all. Which has royally pissed her off. So unless you're planning to watch on a TV made before 2000 I really wouldn't bother with the UK DVD of the film.

Oddly both DVD and blu ray have the same aspect ratio on the back of the case, but the former has "anomorphic" before it, I guess that's the technical term for the squashing? If not, that's got to be a trades description breech surely?

Summerhayes · Post by **Summerhayes** » Sun Jul 14, 2013 8:22 pm

Skyquake87 wrote:. Cracking special effects too, especially the dude in the house effectively growing himself back together from his victims. Sigh. I miss proper old-school physical special effects. CGI is so...boring.

Couldn't agree more on that. Bought and watched Gremlins the other day as girlfriend had never seen it, and I said how if it was made today Gizmo would be charmless CG.

Fun little film. I love how it flows like a kid's film but has moments of ridiculous darkness.

HeavyArms · Post by **HeavyArms** » Sat Jul 20, 2013 7:36 am

Grabbed Jason Statham's Parker and Naruto Shippuden Collection 13.

HeavyArms · Post by **HeavyArms** » Sat Jul 27, 2013 12:19 pm

WWE Presents: Best Of War Games and the steelbook edition of A Good Day to Die Hard, although I hear this is the worst of the series.

HeavyArms · Post by **HeavyArms** » Sat Aug 03, 2013 5:52 am

Bullet To The Head, starring Sylvester Stallone, Sarah Shahi and Jason Mamoa; And WWE Best Of In Your House.

Skyquake87 · Post by **Skyquake87** » Sat Aug 03, 2013 6:07 am

Grosse Point Blank , Clerks (Special 'X' edition) both for the whopping sum of £2.38. The Complete My So-Called Life

Auntie Slag · Post by **Auntie Slag** » Sat Aug 03, 2013 11:11 am

Ah, Grosse Point Blank is an excellent movie soundtrack CD too. Just below TF:TM and slightly above The Lost Boys for me

Cyberstrike nTo · Post by **Cyberstrike nTo** » Sat Aug 03, 2013 10:03 pm

Been watching some of the ITV female British Detective shows on Amazon Instant Video

Prime Suspect A damn good series overall if overly grim and dark and way too serious and slow at times. Mirren was brilliant throughout.

Murder in Suburbia This might have worked better if the creator and/or the other writers made Ash and Scribbs little more different than just their hair color and cloths and settled on a tone.

Above Suspicion from the creator of Prime Suspect and that was a very, dark, grim, and dead serious and this show is even more dark, grim and dead serious. The second series was one of the disturbing cop series I ever seen. Kelly Reilly has very hauntingly frightening and at the same time stunningly beautiful eyes.

I might try The Commander and/or Blue Murder later on.

Currently I'm watching the orginal The Twilight Zone.

HeavyArms · Post by **HeavyArms** » Sat Aug 10, 2013 6:46 am

WWE ECW Unreleased Volume 2 and Oblivion starring Tom Cruise.

angloconvoy · Post by **angloconvoy** » Sat Aug 10, 2013 8:47 am

I (almost) never actually buy DVD or Blu-ray now. Over here it's the equivalent of about a dollar to rent a movie for a week, or 50 dolars to buy one. Even a "sale" dvd usually costs $15-$30 dollars. Factor in space concerns and rental just makes way more sense. The nice thing is that I've managed to watch somewhere in the region of 100 movies so far this year.
If you haven't seen it yet, The Grey is worth a watch.