ChainsawAsh

Tobar said:

Castle in the Sky (1986)

Definitely liked this more than Valley of the Wind.

I love Castle in the Sky.  Sadly, everyone I've ever recommended it to has said they hated it.

Maybe it's the dub?  I've only watched it subtitled...

I don't care how anyone tries to spin it.  To me, Deckard is not, never has been, and never will be a replicant.  I just close my eyes, stick my fingers in my ears and go "LALALALALA" when the unicorn scene pops up.

Oh, so this is why I never click on Off-Topic threads whose titles don't make sense to me...

---

Oh, and sorry for leaving you other liberal atheists out to dry in the Politics thread - I just can't stand politics in general, so that's another thread I stay the hell away from.

Besides, I'm more of a social libertarian/economic liberal pantheist than a liberal atheist at this stage in my life...

amatar, check your private messages.

Walder Frey in my Doctor Who?!  EVERYBODY GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HIM!!!

I love Attack the Block.  Probably one of my favorite films from 2011.

Reserving judgment until I see her intro episode.

But I will say that she's pretty much exactly how I pictured Lucie Miller in the Eighth Doctor audios (except for that sweater).

captainsolo said:

I honestly think it improves on the original film's story to such a degree that the entire meaning changes.

 

That's why I have such a problem with it.

A major theme of the film - one of the reasons I love it so much - is that the replicants, the individuals who are not human, turn out to be much more human than Deckard, the human whose job it is to hunt them down.  (That's part of why I like the "I'm sorry, Sebastian" line - it humanizes Roy a bit, which is part of the point of the movie.)

This also makes the Tyrell Corp.'s slogan more relevant and chilling - "More human than human."  It's true - Batty, an artificially-created being, is more human than Deckard, a human.

But all of that gets thrown out the window if Deckard's a replicant, too.  It destroys one of the core themes of the film, one of the themes I latched onto so strongly.

I can't stand XBMC's interface.  It forces you to organize things the way it thinks you should, which really pisses me off when it comes to movie and TV series.  If it had the level of customization that iTunes has, where you can tell it exactly how you want it sorted, that would be great - but no, you have to use the "scene" sorting with XBMC.  So I'll never use it until that's fixed.

Besides, HTPCs aren't very portable, which is a big part of why I like both the Seagate and WDTV.  You just unplug it, grab the cables, and take it and your hard drive with you to your buddy's place, no hassles whatsoever.

Ah, see, I thought the Sherlock Moriarty was much, much better - and more appropriate for the style of the series - than John Simm's Master was.

What about forced/default subtitles?  Does it recognize those flags and turn those sub tracks on automatically, or would I have to turn it on myself like I do with the Seagate?

My reading of it was always that Gaff let Rachel and Deckard escape, but left that there to tell Deckard that the idea that he could have a life with her is just a fantasy - either Rachel has a built-in four-year lifespan like the others, or some other blade runner will eventually catch up with them and end their "fantasy."

Hell yeah!  Sherlock is simply amazing.  I'm particularly happy with what they did with Moriarty - I was wary of his characterization in Series 1, but after Series 2 I wouldn't have had him any other way.

"People have died!" "That's what people DO!"

Newest episode of Fringe (4x15 "A Short Story About Love").

Finally the question of "Is Peter already home, or is he somewhere else?" is answered - and it's the exact answer I expected.  So I'm happy with that.  And it looks like the state of Peter and Olivia's relationship is settled (for now, at least), too.  So I'm happy with that, too.

I felt like the case-of-the-week was very good - some are calling it truncated, but I for one was glad I was able to make up my own mind about the disfigured man's motives rather than have it all spelled out for me in the end.

I also love seeing showrunners tackle directing - you can really tell that Wyman put a lot of thought into how he shot the episode, particularly with the little asides to Lincoln's face throughout the episode.  I've been there, my friend, and yes, I know it sucks.  He's portraying the friendzoned part of a love triangle quite well.

All in all, it was an average-to-slightly-above-average episode.  Didn't reach the heights of "One Night in October" (still reigning as my all-time favorite Fringe episode, where it's been since it aired) or "White Tulip," but it wasn't bad, either.

4 balls out of 5.

The "father" line is, in fact, one of the (again, few) problems I have with the Final Cut.  I do, however, like Roy apologizing to J.F. - I think it fits well with the emotional state we see him in during the next shot, in the elevator.

I also still have a problem with the fundamental concept behind the unicorn scene, but that's because I refuse to see Deckard as a replicant.  I feel like that undermines the whole film.

It seems to me, with BTTF, that they scanned the o-neg, color graded it to get relatively close to the original color timing, then proceeded to DNR the hell out of it...

Here's what I looked for in my media player:

- Can play MKV, MP4, and AVI/DIVX/XVID files
- Can output Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 audio
- Can downconvert DTS 5.1 to 2.0 stereo (when not using a 5.1 setup) - WDTV couldn't do this at the time I bought my Seagate, now it can
- Can read media as it's organized on the hard drive instead of just throwing everything in an alphabetical list (murder on TV show files)
- Can output 480i composite/component, 480p/720p/1080i component/HDMI, and 1080p HDMI (as a bonus, it can output 576i/p and 720p50/1080i50/1080p50, though I can't really use that except on one friend's projector - nice for watching Doctor Who, though)
- Can handle (and easily switch between) multiple audio and subtitle tracks

...And that's pretty much it.  So the WDTV and Seagate players both do pretty much exactly what I want it to do.

Things that mine can't do that I wish it could:

- Play a forced and/or default subtitle track without me having to turn it on

So, for me, except for that last annoyance, the WDTV or Seagate players are just fine.

What added benefit is there to the Popcorn Hour or Playon!HD Mini?  What's better about the menus, and what other/better features than the above do they have?  Can they do Dolby TrueHD/DTS-HD?  7.1 output?

Not trying to say "mine's better," I'm genuinely curious because my Seagate's getting a little old and I'd like to replace it in the next year or so, and I want to know if it's worth it to get something more expensive and why it is.

doubleofive said:

Why are movies not colored anymore, even movies that originally had color?

If you're going back to the original camera negative (o-neg) for your source (which has the most detail), you immediately lose all the color timing.  To preserve the original color timing, you need the final interpositive print that was used to make the dupe negative that release prints were struck from.  Problem there is dupe grain due to the fact that it's a couple generations away from the o-neg.

So, to get the low-grain, super-sharp look that the average consumer expects from HD material, you can either scan the IP and DNR the hell out of it, or you can scan the o-neg and color grade it again from scratch.

If I paid for it, and the studio got a cut of the money I paid for (i.e. I bought it new, not used), then I'm gonna do whatever the fuck I want with it.  They got my money, so whether I still have the disc or not isn't any of their damn business.

And I'm certainly not making any profit by selling them - I'm still losing a decent chunk of change (if I get 50% of what I paid for it back, that's way above average), and that money's not being taken away from the studios at all.  They still got their percentage from me.

If there's legal ramifications to that, they can charge me or sue me, but they can be damn sure I'll fight it until I win or can't fight anymore.

I have a Seagate FreeAgent Theater Plus, though I think they're called GoFlex Theaters or something like that now.  My buddy has a WDTV Live.

I like his better overall, except for one factor - the Seagate will continue on to the next video when it reaches the end of the one you're watching, which is great for marathoning TV shows; the WDTV goes back to the menu screen at the end of each file.

But the WDTV does have less issues with certain files, and I'll often have to remux MKV files for my Seagate using mkvtoolnix - 99% of the time, the video and/or main audio tracks don't have their default flags set to "yes" or "default," in which case the video and/or audio won't play.  Unfortunately, it also doesn't recognize default or forced subtitle tracks, so for some things I have to remember to turn the subtitles on (usually I'll just burn the forced subs into the video when I rip it in Handbrake in the first place, though).

timdiggerm said:

I am so glad to see Blade Runner explained. I haven't seen any version, and the confusion was not helping. Looks like I need to see the special version of Aliens... and I guess I know how to approach Alien3 now.

Still no idea what to do with A:R, and I haven't seen it.

1. Yeah, I always recommend the Final Cut of Blade Runner to people who've never seen it.  I have my (very minor) problems with it, and some people *hate* the new color timing, but I still think it's the best available version, followed by the '92 Director's Cut.  But the Final Cut just flows better, since the editing was tightened up to accommodate the loss of narration.

2. You might have already seen the Special Edition version of Aliens - if I'm not mistaken, that's the only version that was on DVD until the Quadrilogy DVD set came out, which included the theatrical verision.  Not sure about VHS.

3. Definitely get the Blu-Ray version of the "Assembly Cut" of Alien³ if you can.  It feels like a completed film with the new ADR, whereas the DVD version of that cut has the on-set audio with subtitles and feels more like a workprint.  I wouldn't say the Assembly Cut makes it a good film, since it doesn't really address many people's basic issues with it, but I've always enjoyed Alien³ on some level, and the Assembly Cut does make it a better film.

4. Yeah, don't bother with Resurrection, it's garbage.

Alien

The "Director's Cut" of Alien isn't a true director's cut.  Ridley Scott's preferred cut is still the 1979 theatrical cut.  When Fox was getting ready to do the Quadrilogy box set, they wanted each movie to have two versions, so set about adding deleted scenes back into Alien.  They asked Scott if he'd like to do a new cut, and he agreed - not because he thought it was a good idea, but because he didn't want Fox to fuck it up.  So the "director's cut" of Alien is essentially a "what if?"-type alternate version.  It's even a minute shorter than the theatrical cut, because Scott didn't just add stuff in, he trimmed scenes to make the movie move by a bit quicker for modern audiences.

Aliens

Aliens, on the other hand, is different.  Fox thought that the cut James Cameron submitted to them was too long, and ordered that it be cut down to a specific length or shorter.  Since Cameron couldn't really say no, he went ahead and did it.  (I believe that when this happened, he wasn't done shooting the sentry gun scene yet, so that was one of the first scenes to go.)  That's the theatrical version.  The "Special Edition" of Aliens Cameron's preferred cut, essentially his Director's Cut.

Terminator 2

The story with Terminator 2 is basically the same as Aliens.

Alien³

Alien³, on the other hand, was fraught with problems from the beginning.  There were many script rewrites before and during production, and David Fincher was a new director at the time, so Fox could pretty much make him do whatever they wanted him to do.  As such, when time came to edit the movie, he got frustrated that he didn't get the footage he wanted.  After trying for a while, and getting a mostly-finished workprint done, Fox said that it was too long, and he said "fuck it" and washed his hands of the whole mess.

Fast-forward to Fox working on the Quadrilogy set.  They have the theatrical and alternate versions of Alien and Aliens, but only the theatrical cut of Alien³.  They asked Fincher if he wanted to recut it, but he said he couldn't make his preferred version without starting from scratch and re-shooting it.  So they took Fincher's last workprint and tried to essentially recreate it as best they could.  Some scenes never had ADR (dubbing) done, so they used the on-set audio and subtitled the dialogue that was hard to hear.  For the Blu-Ray set, they got Sigourney Weaver and Charles Dance to come in and ADR those scenes, so the audio is consistent throughout.  They also had to add in some new CGI to finish effects scenes that were never finished.

So neither version of Alien³ is a director's cut.  The "Assembly Cut" is the closest approximation, but it's not there.  Personally, I think the "Assembly Cut" is vastly superior to the theatrical cut, but there are those who disagree (and those who don't give a shit because they hate Alien³, though I quite like it, at least the "Assembly Cut").

Alien: Resurrection

Alien: Resurrection's alternate version is just your standard studio-made "extended cut," where they just plopped some deleted scenes back in.  I think they also recreated the original CGI opening shot of the movie, but I don't know for sure because I've only ever watched this abomination of a movie twice, and I've never seen the extended version.  I have no idea which version the director prefers, or if he was involved in the creation of the extended version or not.

Blade Runner

And finally, Blade Runner.  Erm...here we go.

Theatrical cut has bad Harrison Ford narration and a tacked-on happy ending, because the studio felt that audiences wouldn't understand the movie without the narration, and because they thought audiences wouldn't like such an ambiguous ending.  Said tacked-on ending includes outtake helicopter shots from The Shining, and generally has a radically different feel from the rest of the film.

In the early '90s, someone accidentally screened the workprint version (no happy ending and no narration except for at Batty's death; the last reel or two had temp music, too) instead of the theatrical cut.  People loved it, so that version started getting shown as the "Director's Cut" in theaters.

Seeing an opportunity, the studio asked Ridley Scott if he wanted to make a true director's cut.  He basically said he was too busy at the time, but gave them some notes on what he'd like changed.

So, the 1992(?) "Director's Cut" of Blade Runner is the US theatrical cut, minus any narration, minus the happy ending, plus a poor-quality version of Deckard's unicorn dream/vision (more a dream in this version since Deckard appears to be sleeping).

Scott was less than satisfied with this version, since none of the editing was changed after the narration was taken out and the unicorn scene wasn't quite right.

So, in the 2000's, when they were getting ready to do the Blu-Ray, Scott had time, and offered to create his own true Director's Cut.  The studio agreed, and "The Final Cut" was the result.

The Final Cut of Blade Runner features no narration; in the scenes that originally had narration, the editing is much closer to the workprint version, so there's not a bunch of pointless dead space; a few shots that were originally only in the workprint version (mainly outside the club where he finds Zhora); the properly-restored version of the unicorn vision (with Deckard being awake); no happy ending; re-done color timing throughout; and some continuity/effects fixes, such as the head of Zhora's stunt double going through the glass being replaced with the actual actress' head, the background behind Batty when you first see him replaced since it's a shot from later in the film (and Tyrell's hand on his shoulder is painted out), and - my personal favorite - the shot of the dove flying into the air at the end has been completely redone, because the original was clearly shot out in the parking lot when they realized they didn't have that shot - among other small changes like that (the wound on Deckard's cheek that appears before he gets it is erased in those shots, for instance).

So the Final Cut is Ridley Scott's true director's cut of Blade Runner, though the version billed as the "director's cut" is a close approximation.

Oh, and the International version of the theatrical cut had some particularly violent shots in it that were cut from the US theatrical version - these shots were not restored in the '92 director's cut, but were restored in the Final Cut.

So ... does that answer your questions?  Msycamore's movie-censorship.com link is a good resource for stuff like this.

Again, the Nostromo is a space semi truck that looks like it was made before any of the crew from Alien were born.  The Prometheus is an extremely heavily-funded scientific research vessel.  Of course it's going to have better technology.

Like 005 said, the Nostromo is probably older than the Prometheus, too.

dark_jedi said:

Well it is not a movie but I just finished watching the entire first season of Game of Thrones in just a few days, and DAMN was it great! but the 1 thing I just hate lol is why, oh why, did __________ have to die? he was by far the coolest character in the show.

 

I'm taking the name out because that's a pretty huge Season 1 spoiler ... but I'm reading the books right now, and all I'll say is that George R. R. Martin loves to kill his characters, even/especially important ones.  But it works out, since there's always a shitload more people you just haven't met yet (hell, I'm on book 5 now and I'm still running across newly-introduced major characters).

Season 2 starts April 1 - it's gonna be awesome.

Manhunter fucked up by deviating too much from the book.

Red Dragon fucked up by hiring a hack director and winking too much at Silence of the Lambs.

Both are deeply flawed adaptations of what I consider to be a far superior book to Silence, though the adaptation of that is pretty much flawless, which is why it's a better film than either of the RD adaptations.