Last movie seen — Page 173

Ponyo (2008)

I have had the theme stuck in my head all week, so I decided to give it another watch. Wonderful.

4 out 5 Balls.

A View to a Kill (1985)

A lot of people tend to badmouth this film, but I quite like it. Roger Moore was definitely too old to have been playing Bond at this point, although his age does set up a nice little side plot of him acting like a father figure to Tanya Roberts' character (until the shower scene at the end of the film ruins that plot thread)

I rather like Duran Duran's theme quite a lot too, I'd definitely have it up in my favourites with On Her Majesty's Secret Service and 'You Know my Name' from Casino Royale.

3 out of 5 balls

Licence to Kill (1989)

Again, people tend to bad mouth this film due for it's 'Miami Vice' influences and for taking a Darker approach, but I really like it. Timothy Dalton's bond almost seems like a precursor to Daniel Craig's Bond in a way, as well as staying more in line to the way Bond is depicted in the Books. I wish Dalton had stayed on to play Bond a couple more times, because I really like his Portrayal. I'm not fond of the score in Licence to Kill, Michael Kamen's score just doesn't seem 'right'.

4 out of 5 Balls.

One of the things that saddens me is that a theme that was used prominently throughout most of the original films, hasn't been used since Moonraker.

The theme is called '007'. It would be nice to hear it make a return in a new bond film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdWtGXaRepQ

Not to mention the JB Theme hasn't been used since 1969...nice thoughts on two of the lowest regarded entries. What really hurt both incidentally were budget cuts.

Kamen's score in places sounds like Die Hard or Lethal Weapon...oh wait he scored those too! ;)

Many have spoken about the spiders scene looking odd in IMAX. For me the titles were off in 35mm right off the bat because the title card actually blended into the sky.

The Aluminum Falcon said:

captainsolo said:

I still think the open matte Academy version is superior in many aspects.

Thank you! Agree 1000%. The extra headroom makes all the difference, adds to the creepiness. It also gels with the B&W style. The cropping of the Widescreen version is too distracting.

Thanks, but don't read/post in the aspect ratio thread on HTF. I expressed my love of this framing and posted comparisons and got quite a bit of backlash. I've never seen the film look better than a battered open matte 16mm print.  If Uni actually knew what they were doing, the BD would have both framings seamlessly included ala Touch of Evil. It really works better in many scenes compositionally speaking for the exploitation/TV nature by which it was produced. It should be an alternate but not replace the widescreen matte. (Whatever that is no one can decide either-1.85, 1.75 or even 1.66)

Tobar said:

Just got back from the Indy movie marathon. Twas fun and the time seemed to fly by.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Exact same "print" as the IMAX presentation. I kind of liked it better outside of IMAX actually.

Thanks for saying so. I thought it would look better in standard 4K.

Temple of Doom (1984)

The picture quality for this was nowhere near as nice as it was for Raiders. There was TERRIBLE aliasing all over every opening credit. As well as on the picture in general, I noticed it most around characters noses when they were against light backgrounds.

The Last Crusade (1989)

The aliasing was even worse on the opening credits for this one.

People have noticed this on review discs, caps etc. It's supposedly been there since theatrical release.

I was feeling a bit nostalgic and realized that I hadn't seen this cut in years and hadn't yet sat through my LD copy.

Blade Runner: The Director's Cut

Holy crap, at times I though it was a DVD. This is a stunning title for the format, with image that is FAR superior to the 1997 snapper DVD that I originally saw the film on. And the sound...clear with everything intact and very light use of the surround channel as was common for early Dolby Stereo.

The only problem is the side breaks. The disc is full CAV on four sides, but they placed the breaks VERY AWKWARDLY. There's a break right in the middle of Chew's lab, and Zhora runs away from Deck into a SIDE BREAK!

The only problem I find with the disc besides this, and they aren't quite as bad as they sound, is the inherent flaws of the DC which misses the violence from the International cut and the fact that I may just be more used to "I want more life father"nowadays. No hockey masked geisha tube dancers. :(

I checked against the 97 disc, the Criterion CLV of the international and the archival DVD. This bests the former two-lacking the flaws and sound remix of the DVD and the in comparison boosted slightly smeary color of the Criterion. (though having the CAV may be different) It also appears a bit more 1982-ish to me than the archival version.

Immortal classic. If you own a LD player, you need this disc. If you have an old CRT tv lying around...you should probably get this disc. If you are in any way nostalgic for the days of watching BR on video formats late at night with that classic analog fuzziness, you need this disc.

A better one has been had. Though what exactly are a bunch of street thug/children/hoodlum/jawas going to do with a Voight-Kampff machine??

Finally saw Black Dynamite (2009) the other night.

It was pretty much everything I wanted it to be. Michael Jai White is really a genius. Considering it was only shot in twenty days, he really nailed the blaxploitation genre.

5/5 M&Ms.

The Saragossa Manuscript

Really interesting Polish film about two soldiers on opposite sides of the war who find a manuscript written by the Spanish soldier's grandfather.

I swear Christopher Nolan must have seen this movie, because the second half of it essentially delves into stories within stories, detailing the history of some gypsies that the Spanish ancestor came across. I'd have to watch again to understand everything.

8/10

Bingowings said:

Dana Andrews said prunes gave him the .... 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlT6owR5Ytg&t=22s

I just came back from Raiders again...this time the regular 35mm version. 

It was radically different than the IMAX.  The sound mix was not as good (the music was softer and sounded thin/hollow) and the colors seemed to be heavily tinted yellow to the point where whites were not white anymore.  Plus, contrast was often soft/blurry....frankly it looked like I remember seeing "Crystal Skull" in the theater. 

This in stark contrast to the IMAX showing, which had rich, beautiful, realistic colors, gorgeous sharp, hard contrast- and beautiful, powerful, punchy audio that put the music first but also spread dialogue and effects to the front left and right- lots of ambiance. 

The IMAX also had the original PG rating card at the end, whereas the regular version had the modern PG card. 

Advantages of the new 35mm version: they didn't remove the grain.  Was nice to see grain in the movie.  Also, the establishing DC shot doesn't stick out like a sore thumb like it did on IMAX. 

And it was wonderful to see the reactions of the handful of others watching in the theater.  This was the last night that Raiders was being played.  The other people liked the shooting scene, the part where the fly climbs into Belloq's mouth, and the truck chase especially.  Also they loved when the Nazi's face melts off.  They sat through all of the end credits with me- very unusual for audiences today.  Afterwards they commented on how short they were..how if it were made today the credits would be a lot longer.Then they asked me if I saw the fly climb into Belloq's mouth...

In general, they were just happy to see it on the big screen again ("since I was 10", one guy joked).  It was kind of bittersweet that there were only about 5 people there in the theater considering what a great movie it is, but those people were all 30 and older.  It really made me happy to see them able to go back in time, even just for a couple hours, and relive a part of their childhood. I actually left after chatting briefly because they were just continuing to sit there and I felt like I should leave them alone...I felt like I was intruding on their childhood...that this movie belonged to their generation, not mine....

So overall I had a great time:)  But I do think they need to take care of those digitally manipulated yellow colors and the blurry images in the next release...