ChainsawAsh

EyeShotFirst said:

RedFive said:

Plus, I was pleasantly surprised by the work of David Yates, who really put his own mark on the movie, which I didn't expect for part 7 of a 7 part series. 

Actually, each Potter film is pretty different in style and look.

Also, Yates has directed every installment since #5.  So he's done 4 Potter movies (3 if you count the two Deathly Hallowses as a single film), more than any other Potter director.  (Interestingly, his films are all my favorites, despite the fact that 5 and 6 change a lot from the books.)

I also quite enjoyed HP7.5, but I don't think I can separate part 1 from part 2 and judge them on their own merits.  I'm definitely cutting them together as a single film when part 2 comes out on DVD/Blu-Ray.  (Not cutting anything out either, but I don't mind a 4.5-hour long movie - the "uncut" version of Das Boot is my favorite and it's 4 and a half hours long, too.)

Anyway, most recent movie I've seen:

Cowboys & Aliens

The first hour of it was absolutely magnificent, with great performances, great direction, and a compelling story long before the aliens arrive.  In fact, I'd absolutely love to have seen just the Cowboys side of this flick, without any of the Aliens.

Ford's Dolarhyde and Craig's Lonergan are initially set up as antagonist and protagonist (respectively), but Craig's character has enough dark shades so as to be potentially as dangerous as Dolarhyde, if not more so.  One of the best moments in the film comes when Lonergan is chained to a wagon together with Paul Dano's Percy (Dolarhyde's son) - as the aliens begin to attack, Lonergan asks Percy to give him his hand.

"Why?" asks Percy.

"I can get us out of here," responds Lonergan.

Warily, Percy raises his shackled hand to Lonergan ... who promptly breaks his wrist in order to get the shackle off.

At this point I should mention that the supporting cast - from Dano to Sam Rockwell to Keith Carradine - are all fantastic, especially Dano and Rockwell.  Olivia Wilde isn't particularly revelatory - if you liked her in her past work, you'll like her here.

Now here we run into my problem with the movie - the last half hour.

The beginning 10 minutes of the film is essentially The Bourne Identity plus A Fistful of Dollars.  Then the Bourne aspect gradually fades as District 9 and Aliens get thrown into the mix.

All of this is great, very enjoyable, and I loved almost every minute of it.

Then for the last half hour it turns into Independece Day on horseback in the desert.

Which is fine if you weren't expecting the moral ambiguity of the two leads to continue to be the driving force of the movie ... but it doesn't.  In fact, their shades of gray almost entirely evaporate by the time the final battle starts.  Both Dolarhyde and Lonergan are essentailly heroes at this point, and they don't really do anything that could be considered morally reprehensible for the last act of the film.

That's not quite what I was expecting.  It felt like the studio got the original script, liked the first 2/3 of it, then said, "Well, we're giving you a bunch of money to do this, so make them good guys by the end."  This idea may be supported by the fact that there are, like, 6 writers credited on the film.

So in the end, I found it very enjoyable, but all the complexity and nuance just vanishes in the last half hour.

7/10.

Could you PM me where to find that version, raphael?  Sounds like it's exactly what I'm looking for.

Ziggy Stardust said:

I've been watching Torchwood: Miracle Day as well. It's been pretty fun, mainly because of the concept.

I'm enjoying it quite a bit so far.  Looking forward to tonight's episode.

That reminds me, I missed last night's episode...

(forgive me, I've been gone a while, and haven't read through this whole thread, so if this has been brought up already I apologize)

Anyone that's ever said this to me has been watching Blu-Rays on a TV with a refresh rate of 120 or 240Hz enabled.  Sometimes it's called "smooth motion" or something similar.

This essentially "adds" fake frames in between the real frames, which creates very unnatural, "fake"-looking motion.

The solution is simple - turn off the 120/240Hz setting.  If at all possible (i.e., if your player and HDTV support it), play your Blu-Rays at true 24fps (24Hz), as that's how they were shot.  If not, standard 60Hz or 50Hz (depending on where you are) will look just fine, especially since that's what SDTV's are, so you're probably used to that refresh rate already.

YOU ALL STILL HAVE ZOIDBERG!

RedFive said:

Know'm say'n!?  Dude I love Trailer Park Boys.  I watched the whole run in a months time last year and have probably seen every episode at least three times by now.  It's so hard to explain to someone how a show like that can be so great, but it's true.

As for Cory and Trevorless last season, here's why they weren't in it.  They have their reasons, I guess, but if you ask me they shoulda just sucked it up and stuck with it for another year.

Yeah, I've read that article.  I kinda side with Michael in this situation, though, and frankly I'm surprised they stuck it out for as long as they did, if their story of how they were treated is true.

The boys did a Reddit video AMA (short for "Ask Me Anything") a few days ago, it's interesting stuff (well, when the questions are interesting anyway).  John Paul Tremblay (Julian) looks like he wants to strangle everybody that submitted the questions, though.  Part 1; Part 2

And glad to see another TPB fan around here!

Yep, NW Indiana.  Along the South Shore line, which is how I get to Chicago every day.

doubleofive said:

ChainsawAsh said:

I try not to Internet too much while I'm here, as it's all "monitored,"

Except for the sites that are usually monitored everywhere else. ;-)

Ha!  Yeah, NSFW doesn't really have any meaning here.

Also, as it turns out today is a really slow day, so I don't really care about browsing the 'net instead of working.  Plus, I missed you guys.  :-)

I'm totally gonna try my hand at restoring these this winter.  Don't know how well it'll turn out, but we'll see - I've been looking for an excuse to teach myself digital restoration, anyway.  (I'm leaning toward going into restoration instead of editing as a career at this point.)

I never said anything about another person being involved...

Trailer Park Boys.

Over the past couple months, I watched all 7 seasons, both specials, and the Countdown to Liquor Day movie (having seen the 2006[?] movie last year, but that's a separate continuity from everything else anyway).

It's now one of my favorite shows.  It's like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia crossed with The Office (or, really, any "mockumentary" style sitcom), just with more crime, swearing, and drugs.

Definitely missed Cory and Trevor in the last season, special, and movie.  Jacob and the rest of his family just irritated me the whole time.  But the season overall was a step up from season 6.

I do know several people that can't stand the show, but hey - one man's garbage is another manperson's good ungarbage.  Y'kno'me sayin'?

Okay, that's creepy.

xhonzi said:

I imagine there was a quality drop after 6, but I'm still looking forward to cathing up with it some day.

Season 6 is where the quality started to drop.  Season 7 is generally pretty "meh," but the ending is a perfect series finale, so that's where I draw the line.

8 and 9 are atrocious, and I don't care what anyone says.  The "new" mytharc was just ... ugh.  And the real series finale is basically a 2-hour clip show.

To be honest, I didn't even notice that Frink changed anything.

Answer: no one, but there is a lockable bathroom around the corner from me...

Bingowings said:

Get back on that wagon Ash!

Content migration for their new website (which, as it turns out, may not even happen anymore - can't really say any more about that without potentially getting fired/sued).  It's a pretty boring job, but it'll look awesome on my resume, and I get paid to have complete access to all of Playboy's websites anywhere I want, which is a nice perk.

I try not to Internet too much while I'm here, as it's all "monitored," so I've been getting back into reading lately.  I've so far finished A Game of Thrones, am about 1/5 of the way into A Clash of Kings, and about 1/2 of the way into American Gods.

Sucky part is, I still live in Indiana (Chicago rent is too expensive for a broke fucker like me), so I have to wake up at 5AM in order to be at work at 9 every day.  And I can't get home any earlier than 7:30PM.  I've been trying to maintain the same social life, but that ends up giving me about 3-4 hours of sleep per night, leading to me falling off the wagon (well, both wagons, really - I'm smoking and drinking caffeine again).

Ziggy Stardust said:

What happened to ChainsawAsh?

Still around, but I've got a job now (at Playboy, believe it or not) and have been insanely busy, so haven't had much time for Internetting or my personal fanedit-type projects (definitely still working on my two Doctor Who TV movie projects, but it's very slow going).

But the Playboy gig is a temp job, so I'll be unemployed again in a couple months and I'll be around more often.

So, um, yeah.  Episode 6 was awesome, and episode 7 (which you can watch on HBO Go now instead of waiting until next Sunday) is even better.

...But now I have to wait two weeks for episode 8, so I'm thinking I might say fuck it and pick up the first book.  I probably won't catch up before the end of the season anyway, but man, I need something for the withdrawal...

Wow, I'm shocked that anyone disliked The Rebel Flesh.  I thought it was absolutely fantastic.  It reminded me a lot of classic Who, and the Gangers are awesomely creepy.

I don't know what all of you naysayers are expecting from the show this season, but all I can say is that every one of my expectations has been exceeded by a wide margin (with the exception of the rather average Curse of the Black Spot).

Though I have to say, I'm getting a little irked at Moffat's reliance on story arcs.  Sure, RTD had them, but I can't recall anyone bitching about "filler" episodes during the Tennant years.  I mean, come on, Doctor Who has been "filler" for forty years!  Now we can't take a break from the main arc without people bitching about the show being boring and not giving us "answers" - it's like Lost fans all over again!

Rant over, sorry 'bout that.

And they tweaked things for the Blu-Ray, too (erasing cameras from mirrors and dudes standing by the side of the road that shouldn't have been there, and similar "fixes"), so that's not exactly a "reference release."

I absolutely loved Gaiman's episode.  I've already watched it 3 times through.  It's easily in my top 5 episodes of all time.

It's too bad that not everybody's digging what Moffat and Smith have done with the series.  Reading reactions here and at Gallifrey Base makes me feel like I'm the only one who strongly prefers this era to the RTD years.

WOO-HOO!

Matt, you keep using Blade Runner's Final Cut as an example of how you'd like to see the OOT restored.

Thing is, that's not a restoration of Blade Runner.  It's a special edition.  Things were changed - color timing was radically altered, new effects shots were created, existing effects shots were recomposited.

But the US theatrical, international theatrical, director's, and workprint cuts, included in very high quality 1080p in the same set as the Final Cut - those are restorations.  They present them with their original color timing and all original effects without any recompositing, and they look fantastic.  On top of that, they exist alongside the tweaked and polished Final Cut.  That's what I want out of an OT Blu-Ray set.

100% agreed.  I just can't watch The Mist in color anymore. The B&W just adds so much more atmosphere.