Last movie seen — Page 38

Saw Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein last night.  Twas a hoot and a lot of fun.

May watch Alien tonight since it's Halloween and all.  If so it will be in the dark with the sound turned way up, to maximise the creepy factor.  ;)  Might also see Arsenic and Old Lace, because Cary Grant + Peter Lorre = win.

Saw Alien last night. The scares definitely come from a psychological factor, and definitely has a lot of twitch moments. I even have dreams about the film now and then.

lol, I had nightmares about Alien before I ever saw it.  Just the idea of the thing coming out of a person freaked me out enough that it got to the point where I finally said to hell with it and just watched the damn movie already, so I could stop having bad dreams.  I don't usually watch movies of that kind, but found myself strangely drawn to it nonetheless--despite the one bloody scene, most of the fright is very psychological and minimalistic, which can be quite a lot more effective.

I also have the Intrada soundtrack release containing the complete score as composed by Jerry Goldsmith.  It's rather a shame the way the music was treated, because it could have been an even better film if they hadn't cut it apart and downplayed it so badly.

I've only seen the first two films in the series, but have no interest in the others due to reports of lack of quality and the way the ending of Aliens is completely trashed.

I'll insist to the day I die that Alien 3, especially in its 2003 "Assembly" Cut form, is a far better film than everyone gives it credit for.

To me, Alien 3 is to the first two as Return of the Jedi is to SW and ESB - flawed, nowhere near as good, but not terrible.

Alien Resurrection is a steaming pile of shit, though.  It depresses me to think that Joss Whedon had a hand in writing it.

It even depresses Joss Whedon that he had a hand in writing it, from what I've heard.  I don't know any of the specifics, but apparently he's disavowed association with it because the way it was filmed bears no resemblance to what he imagined while writing it.  Still, it sounds like it's far from being his best work, to put it mildly.  (His best work being Firefly, to me.)

About a year ago I tried making a new sound mix for Alien that re-incorporated Jerry Goldsmith's music, trimmed as needed to fit changes in the edit after the scoring.  In some places it sounded great, but in some scenes I just could not get it to work, because the wrong music couldn't be eliminated from the rest of the mix without severely compromising the overall sound.  It would have been a pretty rough mix anyway, more for the interest factor than claiming to be a viable alternative track, but eventually I just deleted it in frustration.  Still, I might try again some time, if I can muster the patience and motivation.

Perhaps the Blu-Ray mix has better separation and would be easier to work with?

I know how much of a bitch it is to eliminate one specific element from a finished mix, so it probably wouldn't be much easier.

I know the Blu-Ray has the isolated score from the 20th Anniversary DVD, and I'm pretty sure it also includes a new isolated score.  Not sure what the difference between the two is, though.

I've sort of been wondering whether the 70mm version (said to be present on the Bluray as a 4.1 ac3) might make for a better source, speculating on the possibility that the music might be mixed into the left and right front channels only, as opposed to the 2003 mix which contains music in every channel.  It would be great if that were true, because then I could at least isolate the dialogue in those instances, while letting the sound effects be silenced for the sake of music replacements if need be, but I have no idea if that's really case.

Didn't end up seeing the movie after all, since the girlfriend wasn't in the right mood for it, but watched the episode of Buffy where everyone loses their voices ('Hush').  Pretty cool, and sufficiently creepy for Halloween, lol.

Good choice - I watched "Hush" and the Halloween costume episode back-to-back, then the premiere of The Walking Dead (which was pretty damned fantastic, if you ask me).

The Haunting and Cat People. (the originals)

Two great horror films that show nothing.

And Simone Simon is smoking hot.

Next weekend my brother and I and our wives are doing a "I hate remakes" marathon.

Watching my favorite horror flick, Black Xmas, and my sister-in-laws favorite, The Wicker Man, and then their attrocius remakes.

Nic Cage says :

THERE'S NO REMAKE!

I was too busy to watch a Halloween film (I was trying to make a roast dinner while distributing sweets to swarms of children).

I did get to see the Psychoville Halloween special though and The Hands Of The Ripper plus Doctor Jekyll And Sister Hyde arrived today for a late seasonal double bill.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

Loved it.

Scott Pilgrim was funny as hell.  So over the top awesome, and the use of Legend of Zelda music was win of the best sort.

Gonna watch Toy Story 3 today, since it just came out.

Poltergeist III. >:-(

There's no way in Hell that that third-rate Freddy Kruger is the Beast from the first movie; no @#$%ing way.

hairy_hen said:

Gonna watch Toy Story 3 today, since it just came out.

I want to watch this again so badly, but I'm putting it off 'cause I don't want to cry like a baby for the last 20 minutes again ...

^LOTR as well.