Latest DVD Purchases

ganon578 · Post by **ganon578** » Mon Apr 11, 2016 5:51 pm

Well, after buying the Star Wars prequel trilogy not too long ago, I've been teaching my kids the ways of the Force by having movie nights. I haven't watched Episodes I-III in a long while, and I had completely forgotten how 'talky' they can get.

The action pieces are fantastic, and the set pieces are memorable and pretty darn cool, but maaaan, these movies griiiiiind to a halt at times. The kids loved the slapstick humor of Jar Jar *shudders* and they were entranced anytime cool things were happening on screen. My son got immensely bored whenever a random group of people started babbling about all the politics. Had to keep them going with snacks and talking and making jokes in the dead space.

We watched Attack of the Clones last night (previously we went through IV, V, I) and it dawned on me how much Prequel-Lucas likes to introduce amazing characters and kill them off shortly after their first appearance. Darth Maul - dead. Jango Fett - dead. Soon to be Grievous - dead. Yet, Senator Binks hangs around for 3 films.

Also, this time around I didn't mind so much the whiny, teenage Anakin. After reviewing Luke's teenage years in A New Hope and seeing Kylo Ren in The Force Awakens, this just runs in the family. Somehow I remember Anakin being really annoying, and I wasn't so bothered with him this time. I also thought his monologue after his escapades at the Tusken Raider camp was well done. I don't think people give Hayden Christensen enough credit.

Anyways, off to Revenge of the Sith soon, then to Return of the Jedi. The kids seem to really be enjoying the whole thing.

Skyquake87 · Post by **Skyquake87** » Mon Apr 11, 2016 6:43 pm

I has boughted ...

1984 with John 'War Doctor' Hurt (1984, see what they did there)

One of my favouritist books of all time, I've always wanted to see Hurt adaption (which in my head is the proper one). Visually, it looks the part. Grim, run down with the population ground in to submissiveness and tattling on each other, whilst powerful organisations keep them fed with lies and a pointless war to keep them in place. Reminded me of so much of what I liked about the book (the destruction of language being my favourite), and yes, obvious parallels to modern times and how much Orwell got right etc etc ad nauseam. Hurt is great and Burton just glowers with kindly menace throughout - but its Gregor 'Rab C Nesbitt' Fisher whose a revelation - he's fantastic! Its a shame he's not done more straight roles on telly / film. I did find, that as good as was, perhaps didn't quite sell the paranoia so well. Difficult, admittedly, as most of this stuff in the book is down to a lot internal thoughts, but it skips a bit too quickly to all the nasty business in Room 101.

Ex-Machina (2015)

I watched Chappie on rental a week before this, and found that had some interesting things to say about sentient A.I, but it quickly got drowned out by Die Antwoord and lots of shooting. This, on the other hand, was ace. A properly uneasy feeling film throughout, its so well nuanced and executed. Weird beardy computer fella whips up computer lady person called Ava and submits a lonely ginger to doing a sort of Turing test on the pair of them. Queue lots of sticky psychological moments where you're not quite sure who's in the right and who's in the wrong. By the end, its not hard to agree with the outcome. Brilliant stuff. Loved the noodly, fuzzy score too.

Brendocon 2.0 · Post by **Brendocon 2.0** » Mon Apr 11, 2016 7:03 pm

Chappie was bobbins, that is the correct assessment. Ex Machina is ace, this is also the correct assessment. Rewards rewatches well, too, as it triggers a shift in the viewer identification character.

Tetsuro · Post by **Tetsuro** » Mon Apr 11, 2016 7:41 pm

Skyquake87 wrote:obvious parallels to modern times and how much Orwell got right etc etc ad nauseam

That got me wondering, are any of the adaptations of "Brave New World" any good?

Notabot · Post by **Notabot** » Tue Apr 12, 2016 3:21 pm

ganon578 wrote:Well, after buying the Star Wars prequel trilogy not too long ago, I've been teaching my kids the ways of the Force by having movie nights. I haven't watched Episodes I-III in a long while, and I had completely forgotten how 'talky' they can get.

We've been doing the same after acquiring copies from family members with duplicates. Have to say, I'm glad we got them for free. I hadn't seen the prequels for a long time, and had forgotten about some of the really awful stuff in them. We just finished Revenge of the Sith, and it is by far the best of the three, but still has some terrible moments.

I completely agree, though, that the parts they get right, they get really right. The light saber fights are pretty good overall (though Palpatine and Windu gets a bit corny). There are some very nice things happening visually, and there are some really great moments. But overall, I think they brought in more problems than greatness. Why did they specifically wipe C3-PO's memory, but not R2's? And why did R2 forget he could fly? And... oh, this has all been covered before.

I just saw Ex Machina the other week, and really liked it. I was expecting the standard BIG TWIST

SPOILER! (select to read)
I figured that either the developer or the guest were actually going to be the AI

and thought they played with that very deftly.

ganon578 · Post by **ganon578** » Tue Apr 12, 2016 6:14 pm

Notabot wrote:We've been doing the same after acquiring copies from family members with duplicates. Have to say, I'm glad we got them for free. I hadn't seen the prequels for a long time, and had forgotten about some of the really awful stuff in them. We just finished Revenge of the Sith, and it is by far the best of the three, but still has some terrible moments.

This though, is amazingly spot on (and quite hilarious):

Revenge of the Sith Honest Trailer

HeavyArms · Post by **HeavyArms** » Sat Apr 16, 2016 3:08 pm

Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Starring new comer Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and a special appearance by Mark Hamill.
I really enjoyed this movie and really liked Rey and BB-8.

Heinrad · Post by **Heinrad** » Sat Apr 23, 2016 11:08 pm

The Peanuts Movie: Collector's Edition. It popped up, unopened, in the used game store for ten bucks less than retail. I really wish I'd caught this in the theaters. The Snoopy vs The Red Baron sequences should really be seen on the big screen. And Kristin Chenowith(hope I'm spelling that right) plays a great poodle.

Auntie Slag · Post by **Auntie Slag** » Sun Apr 24, 2016 11:28 am

How do you think it compares with the old Peanuts cartoons? Not so much the TV series, but the rather feature length one-offs that were produced around the late 60's and 70's? Does it have the same um... honesty to it? And does Charlie Brown still sound like Charlie Brown?

I love Charlie Brown, Snoopy etc. The comic strips achieved so much with so little and I always found them an antidote to the bombastic, sell-out nature of Transformers.

And of course the music. I bought the Linus & Lucy theme from iTunes only recently, love all the music from those cartoons.

HeavyArms · Post by **HeavyArms** » Sat Apr 30, 2016 1:32 pm

Commando - Starring Arnold Schwazenegger. Sometimes you just some 80's Arnie action goodness.

Transformers: Robots In Disguise Season 1 (2015) - Kind of cheap , also includes a small shirt that I can't wear. Dammit.

Patapsco · Post by **Patapsco** » Sun May 01, 2016 5:02 pm

Not a purchase, but finally got round to watching Kingsman: The Secret Service and my god is that a great movie. Taron Egerton is going to be a star for years, everyone looks like they're having fun, Colin Firth is goddamn amazing. I'd probably chop about 10 minutes out of it to make it perfect, but it's a brilliant, brilliant film. One thing I thought is that it is so hyperviolent that it almost becomes... not violent? I have no idea if that's because I got desensitized to it or what but that was a little odd. It seemed like the violence was so over the top it became comical

Auntie Slag · Post by **Auntie Slag** » Mon May 02, 2016 2:40 pm

I picked up hot new 2007 release Balls of Fury. Its ok, I got it because I like the main guy, but really the film could have been miles better. Its no Dodgeball, but it did have a great line from the wizened old master to the protege before an important match: "Remember, you suck when you're nervous".

But the main reason I got it is because I absolutely fell in love with Hot Rod a few months ago. Balls of Fury, Transformers and Hot Rod all came out the same year.

Its very stupid, imperfect and immature and I love it.

Cyberstrike nTo · Post by **Cyberstrike nTo** » Mon May 02, 2016 5:40 pm

I just bought the Full House: The Complete Series mega box set, While I've bought TV shows on DVD and Blu-Ray but I've never bought a 32 disc set before.

HeavyArms · Post by **HeavyArms** » Sat May 07, 2016 5:20 pm

Conan the Barbarian Collection - Continuing on from last weeks 80's Arnie goodness.

Agents Of Shield season 1 - Discounted to tie in with the release of Captain America: Civil War, was also the same price or cheaper than the DVD version.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Sun May 08, 2016 9:50 am

The Big Sleep on blu ray!

I'd read the book a year or so ago, but shamefully never seen the film.

Good isn't it? And the more Bogart I watch properly (this is I think the third film I've properly engaged with rather than catching enough bits of African Queen on Sunday afternoon screenings over the years to have probably seen all of it) the more I'm impressed by not just his acting but his sheer presence. There's a charisma there very few of even the best actors have.

One thing that surprised me was how much of the book was left intact, I'd assumed there would be some heavy reworking to comply with the Hayes code but most of the pornography related stuff is as in the book, they just don't flat out say what that dodgy bookshop is selling (the pornographer not being gay now helps remove a lot of stuff that's aged quite badly as an added bonus).

Even the more heavily reworked ending still left in the one idea I didn't expect to survive: That the killer isn't actually brought to proper justice. Something they seem to have tricked the censors about with some slight of hand by making the climax about another villain who does get their just deserts (in a fantastic way) and only mentioning who was responsible for the murder in a throwaway line of dialogue. Which winds up being a bit odd structurally and denies that actor a meatier role (and how the reveal is handled in the book is great), but was probably the best they could do under the constraints of the time.

I was also surprised how much more of a sexy dude Marlow is than in the books (where he's more down at heel and pretty much never gets the girl), I guess that's a side effect of Bogart but he can't seem to go anyway without women hitting on him. He can't even get in a cab without the driver being a flirty young woman (which seems unlikely for the 40's).

Oh, and I'd assumed there'd be a noir voiceover, so I was surprised at it not only being absent but that this means The Big Shutdown is more a homage to the book than the film as I'd thought as most of Nightbeat's narration is sending up passages from that (including of course the famous final speech that gives the book its title).

Brendocon 2.0 · Post by **Brendocon 2.0** » Sun May 08, 2016 11:47 am

Yeah, Sleep's a great example of how restrictions like The Code actually encourage creativity rather than stifling a story.

Of course there are plenty of examples of it being the other way round, but it's always nice to see somebody find a way to sneak everything through.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Fri May 13, 2016 4:10 pm

I was reminded by a random conversation this week that I'd meant to buy Police Squad about five years ago. So I did. Looking forward to seeing it again, I have fond memories of the channel 4(?) repeats that went out presumably around the time of the third film.

I should actually rewatch the films again as well, not seen them in years (despite having the DVD's in the pile for...about five years) and my memory is basically one big mish mash super film.

Heinrad · Post by **Heinrad** » Sat May 14, 2016 10:58 pm

@ Auntie Slag: I think it compares well with the specials. Mainly because Schulz' family was such a strong presence in making it. Yes, there are the more familiar sight gags from the rest of Blue Sky's bag of tricks, but they weren't terribly jarring. They managed to get the tone.

Today, many DVD's were bought. And a couple yesterday.

Das Boot: yes, I've bought it before, but this is the Blu-Ray Steelbook Edition.

Marvel Anime- Iron Man: I watched e first episode a while ago, and it interested me. I finally got around to getting it. I hope it's good.

I also discovered that F.Y.E. Has changed, which is why there's not one in the local mall anymore. Holy Crap, the music section was really pared down to make way for.... A lot of the same stuff I see at GameStop, really. Well, except for the lamps. I have got to get one of the Boondocks Saints lamps. It looks so neat. Anyway.....

Beast Wars- Complete Series 15th Anniversary Edition: Finally, the whole series on DVD. Gotta love used DVD sets.

Patlabor: The Movie: I watched this anime years ago, and was thrilled to find Hulu had it up..... and less than thrilled to find that they only had it subbed. Now I can watch it dubbed, mainly because the guy playing Ota was obviously having a good time in the battle scenes.

Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles: now I just need Love.Live.Alive on DVD, and until Harmony Gold gets their act together and does the Shadow Chronicles series, I'll have all of Robotech.

Deadpool: I'd have rather waited for the Director's Cut, but Wal-Mart had it so cheap......

Tetsuro · Post by **Tetsuro** » Sun May 15, 2016 12:51 pm

inflatable dalek wrote:I was reminded by a random conversation this week that I'd meant to buy Police Squad about five years ago. So I did. Looking forward to seeing it again, I have fond memories of the channel 4(?) repeats that went out presumably around the time of the third film.

I should actually rewatch the films again as well, not seen them in years (despite having the DVD's in the pile for...about five years) and my memory is basically one big mish mash super film.

A lot of the gags from the series get recycled in the first two movies, and not all of them are the best ones.

And since you're the type of person who cares about this stuff, it's good to remember that OJ Simpson isn't playing Nordberg in the series.

Cyberstrike nTo · Post by **Cyberstrike nTo** » Sun May 15, 2016 1:30 pm

Beastly DVD out $3 bin at Wal-Mart.