captainsolo

Present!

Okay, taken for what it is, NSNA isn't that bad-especially considering the nightmare that was the making of process. Poor Kersh barely got the film cobbled together and out into theaters, which is how I honestly think this RB sequel went down as well. The extras on the latest NSNA release go into this and Kersh himself explained how much of a mess it was.

But it is a godawful film for a Bond fan, and really terrible as a movie. It's tired, uninspired, looks like a made for TV film, and the only bright spots are the few fleeting moments of Connery getting to go off script. Great actors portraying the villains who are just wasted. The script was hacked to pieces and put through numerous drafts by different teams of writers and it really shows. The effects are laughable. Kim Basinger is atrocious. You know it's bad when a crammed in ill-fitting Rowan Atkinson actually is interesting.

High points: an older more reflective Connery, an acerbic Q,  Bond driving a Bentley, the brief slow piano motif, the game of Domination, the psychotic Largo, Blofeld is revealed to be Max Von Sydow, and the smile Connery seems to have throughout the whole film.

Low points: everything else.

zombie84 said:

It was the best Bond film in the 80s and better than anything that had been done since the mid-70s IMO.

captainsolo raised both eyebrows and said:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Granted they each have their own personalities and faults, but NSNA better than an classic EoN Bond film? Never! I'll admit I still enjoy A View to a Kill primarily because of childhood, but even that is better than this lame duck! And what about the positively smouldering Timothy Dalton in the brilliant The Living Daylights? NSNA is so dull, tepid, and bad that it makes the  year's official film Octopussy look like a masterwork in action/adventure film.

And in no way is a lame Connery a match for Roger Moore in his 70's era prime. Safari suit battle!

NSNA is like the prequels in that it was truly one of the most disappointing films of all time. Connery comes back to Bond again for this muck? The film would have been better if it had been rewritten and released as Shrublands: James Bond 007 Masseur.

Cue the awful NSNA title song. I get disgusted with myself every time this comes back on the end credits because I know that I have watched this stupid movie again and lost more time I won't be getting back.

You know, NSNA gets to me so badly that I realized despite all of the criticism Thunderball has gotten over the years, it's a very subliminal movie. There's a lot of depth in there that isn't immediately apparent. And NSNA makes you achingly yearn to be watching Thunderball.

But if you like it, then...you like it. (Shrugs.) But in no way, shape or form is it better than any of the official films from the 80's and prior.

Now back to Robocop 2. ;)

The second half is beyond very incorrect, yes. If they had actually had adapted The Clansman  upon which the film is based, this could have been avoided. However the notion that this is a bad film is ludicrous. It is the foundation of both feature narrative filmmaking and the industry itself. Watching Birth of a Nation is like watching the movies discover their identity.

A Fistful of Dollars

As much as I adore Kurosawa, as much as I love Yojimbo and think it is a great film-this is better.

It isn't a copy, rip-off, plagiarism...it is a remake that the Italian studio did not get the proper authorization to make.

But god, the atmosphere! This was the big spark that forever changed the Western and took it out of tired cliche. You can feel the ambiance of the arid desert landscape in your bones. The little details just are incredible and make this extremely limited production actually breathe in front of you.

It is incredible to see Sergio Leone so completely in control of his style at this stage in his career.

I've seen this countless times and it is a fast, swift, grainy, dirty, vibrant little masterwork. The 35mm print from MGM is stunning to see firsthand. The new Blu-ray looks okay via reviews, but I want to import the Italian one someday.

Classic in every sense-the Morricone score, Eastwood's first turn as the "nameless" poncho wearer, the villains, the cinematography, the landscape, the taut storyline, the one liners...just phenomenal. The magic lies in it's almost serial-like feel.

4 iron plated balls out of 4 ponchos.

Certainly examine the roots of SW in myths/fables/classic adventure literature and classic film serials. Then look at the development of Lucas in the film industry and as a filmmaker. These are very important to the development and overall appeal of the film.

I remember doing my thesis and it was a film thesis specifically for my degree. The idea that you must be critical whilst referencing sources and writing in essence a research paper is the stupidest and most inane thing ever devised. The two parts contradict each other completely. If your paper starts to look different to what you originally envisioned, don't worry. In the end, you can't really go into much that shows deep thought. That would contradict the research. Your final result will be rather homogenized unfortunately. But this is coming from the guy whose thesis included 7+ pages on how James Bond's sexual appetite defined his humanity and failings.

Just remember to have fun with it. Break it apart into sections to work on and then work on connecting the sections together into a cohesive "saga".

All of the SW sabers can fluctuate a bit depending on which transfer you look at.

Simple, but because of the GOUT they look very faint when not watching on an old CRT. Most every transfer I've ever seen has them look slightly different in some way.

Why do you do that to yourself? ;) I gave up on Sonic many years ago, only to pull out the Genesis every once in a while for a few more hours of defeat.

I needed some wars in space. So I picked a Star Wars at random-the Technidisc transfer.

I love the colors on this transfer. I know they're not always accurate and that in some scenes they fluctuate, but they sure look nice to my eyes. And no DVNR rearing it's ugly head.

Plus I got to break in my 16:9 monitor. :)

4 saturated balls out of 4 DVNR-less womp rats

Been catching up with Top Gear Series 18.

Best.

Show.

In.

History.

Of.

Time.

I gave it a try because it was only $2. Despite my initial reaction to the animation style, it works for what it is. Though it does play to children more than other series. (In that the plots can be really obvious.) The Dracula direct-to-video movie has some great little moments, and the idea of a vampire Joker going nuts in a bloodbank is inspired!

I make more film lists than ever necessary. Used to do this in boring classes to keep awake. (Quick, name every Hitchcock film in chronological order by release year! by writing you'll look like you're actually paying attention!)

So because I have a few minutes...and I like to make lists for no apparent reason...here's my DVD list. All of these are on the shelf now and I'm not going in any particular order. It's long.

Scott-Blade Runner 5 Disc UCE Briefcase, original DVD release, The Duellists, Kingdom of Heaven Director's Cut 4 disc.

Batman Film Anthology, Batman Begins SE, Batman: The Movie, Batman TAS S1-4, Mask of the Phantasm, Mystery of the Batwoman, Batman Beyond S1-3, Return of the Joker Uncut, The Batman S1, The Batman Versus Dracula.

Speed Racer Volumes 1-5, SR: The Movie.

The Pink Panther Film Collection (Black box set), Return of the Pink Panther, Curse of the Pink Panther.

James Bond Ultimate Edition sets 1-4, OHMSS SE, LALD SE, TSWLM THX edition, Die Another Day SE, Never Say Never Again CE, Casino Royale '67 with slightly edited TV version of CR.

Kubrick-Warner Director's Series Box set, Killer's Kiss, The Killing, Paths of Glory, Spartacus Criterion, Lolita, Dr. Strangelove SE, Barry Lyndon

Hitchcock-Masterpiece Collection, Notorious Criterion, To Catch a Thief, North by Northwest 50th, Mill Creek 4 disc set of British era.

Peckinpah-Ride the High Country, Major Dundee Extended, The Wild Bunch, The Ballad of Cable Hogue, Straw Dogs, The Getaway, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia.

Leone-Dollars Trilogy in both standard DVD and individual SEs, Once upon a Time in the West, Duck You Sucker!, Once Upon a Time in America.

Truffaut-The 400 Blows, Small Change.

Lean-The Bridge on the River Kwai CE in clamshell box, Lawrence of Arabia Limited in linen covered clamshell, Doctor Zhivago, Ryan's Daughter.

Scorsese-Who's The Knocking at My Door?, Mean Streets, Taxi Driver CE, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, After Hours, Goodfellas, Bringing Out the Dead, Gangs of New York (had to get for a class once, ashamed to own this crap.), Scorsese MGM box (Boxcar Bertha/New York, New York/the Last Waltz/Raging Bull SE).

Bogart-Collection box (Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, Big Sleep, Key Largo), Maltese Falcon 3 disc, Casablanca SE, Treasure of the Sierra Madre SE, Dark Passage, To Have and Have Not, In a Lonely Place.

Welles-Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil 2 disc w/memo.

Coppola-The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration DVD set in steelbook packaging, Apocalypse Now: The Complete Dossier, The Conversation.

Lumet-The Hill, The Anderson Tapes, Murder on the Orient Express, Dog Day Afternoon SE, Network SE, Prince of the City, Family Business.

Spielberg-Duel, Jaws 35th with book, Empire of the Sun, Minority Report SE.

Wilder-Double Indemnity, Sunset Blvd., Stalag 17 CE, The Apartment, Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.

Raiders/Temple/Last Crusade on new DVDs with bonus features and foil slipcovers+the bonus disc from the 03 box.

Die Hard Trilogy-6 disc silver box set, Live Free or die Hard unrated.

Lethal Weapon 1-3 Director's Cut and 4.

Rush Hour 1 & 2.

Mad Max SE and The Road Warrior

The Matrix and Reloaded

Jack Ryan-Hunt for Red October SCE, Patriot Games SCE, Clear and Present Danger SCE, Sum of All Fears SCE.

Frankenheimer: Manchurian Candidate SE, Ronin 2 disc.

Friedkin-The French Connection 2 disc CE, To Live and Die in L.A.

Shaft and Shaft's Big Score

Roger Corman & Vincent Price: house of Wax, Masque of the Red Death/Premature Burial, Tomb of Ligeia/Evening of Edgar Allan Poe, Theater of Blood.

Hammer: Horror of Dracula, Prince of Darkness, Has Risen form the Grave, Taste the Blood of, AD 1972, Satanic Rites of, Hound of the Baskervilles, Revenge of Frankenstein, Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell.

Holy Grail 3 disc and Life of Brian 2 disc

Dark City theatrical and Director's Cut.

Our Man Flint/In Like Flint box.

Fox noir pack: Black widow/Laura/Call Northside 777/Dangerous Crossing

Universal Horror: Dracula Classic Monsters 1999 gold DVD,  The Mummy: the Legacy Collection.

Silence of the Lambs CE, Hannibal SE, Red Dragon SE.

Bourne Identity Extended, Supremacy, Ultimatum 2 disc in steelbook.

Steve Martin-The Jerk SE, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, The Lonely Guy, Planes Trains and Automobiles SE, Bowfinger.

Capra-Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, It's a Wonderful Life 60th.

Star Wars- 04 WS silver box, AOTC.

Main shelf:

Nosferatu-Kino, The Circus-Chaplin Collection, I Am a Fugitive form a Chain Gang, All the King's Men, The Third Man-Criterion 2 disc, War of the Worlds '53 SE, Night of the Hunter, Invasion of the Body Snatchers '56, Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, Alfie, Bullitt SE, Crossplot

The Italian Job '69, Midnight Cowboy 2 disc CE, THX 1138 SE, Don't Look Now, The Seven-Ups, Chinatown, Clue, Hannah and Her Sisters, The Doors SE, The Last Boy Scout, Hard Boiled (Dragon Dynasty), Rhapsody in August, Bullet to Beijing, Fargo SE, Mission Impossible SE, The Phantom, The Saint, Sexy Beast, The Quiet American, The Italian Job '03, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, Match Point, The Constant Gardener, Seraphim Falls.

Teen Titans S1

Sherlock Holmes BBC 60's TV show w/Peter Cushing

Frasier S1

The Persuaders Vol. 1 & 2.

Music related:

A Hard Day's Night 2 disc

Nirvana: Live at Reading

R.E.M. Perfect Square, In View, When the Light is Mine.

The Who-Who's Better Who's Best, Amazing Journey 3 disc.

The color looks fine in the in-progress version. I remember being very surprised at how good the deleted bits originally looked, but then again I'm a person never bothered by deteriorated film elements-especially in older material. So the original footage doesn't look that bad to me, especially as it resembles more of the timing of the original Director's Cut.

Speaking of that, you might find it easier to work with the deleted footage and the older versions (Director's, Theatrical, International) for some shots/transtions so that the image blends more seamlessly.

Those dailies and outtakes from Dangerous Days and the featurettes are going to be a nightmare though. Really beat to hell so I don't see how you can really do much with them, especially since people will usually talk right over them in the interviews.

Got $40,000? The perfect new TV for Marion Crane...

http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/televisions/flat-panels/dolby-prm-4200-reference-monitor

I seriously need to update and customize my characters. Never really played rb3 online much...

Cross of Iron (1977)

A WWII film that makes you associate with the Germans. Somehow Sam Peckinpah held it together and came up with his last great film. Very good portrait of the day to day experience of soldiers on the Russian front, full of Sam's meditations on violence, and highly recommended. The ending was a bit weird and unexpected but I think it works...

The new Region B Blu-ray looks stunning. I always put off watching the film because of bad DVD transfers, but dang this thing was unbelievably good looking without sacrificing the composition.

3.5 balls out of 4.

Anybody who knows me, meets me or reads anything I write knows that I have one major obsession:

Film.

I never stop thinking about it. Ever. Unless I read a good book or listen to a great album.

My life's other obsession is James Bond.

I also have an obsession with a few directors, actors, writers, bands so that I study them like a history scholar.

This is probably the reason why I have a mini encyclopedia in my head when it comes to Kubrick and Hitchcock.

Oh, and the prequels squelched it for a while, but I think we all have a healthy Star Wars obsession...

twister111 said:

 

Jedi Temple34

 

We only wanted to discuss the possible merits of DTS! Possible at best! ;)

I could do this all day, here are a few:

Robert Mitchum as Phillip Marlowe in any Chandler adaptation circa late 40's to mid 1950's directed by either Nicholas Ray or Robert Aldrich.

Kubrick's Napoleon with Jack. I don't know why the idea of Nicholson as Napoleon just seemed so insanely right...kinda...or heck I'd see this whoever was in the lead.

And one of my own...

Let's get a coffee (AKA The Ultimate Guy Movie, AKA The Man Who Would Be King II): Michael Caine and Sean Connery get together and have a cup of coffee. Then they run into Peter O'Toole. Chaos ensues as they hit the town. Explosions, fights, murders, brawls, car chases, a bit of gratuitous sex and everything in between. Cameos by: David Bowie, Pete Townshend, Albert Finney, Kevin Spacey, Robert DeNiro, Harvey Keitel, Al Pacino, Chow Yun-fat, Roger Moore and many more.

I got to revisit Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia tonight.

1. It does not in any way, shape or form deserve it's terrible reputation.

2. Peckinpah makes a movie completely in Mexico with no interference.

3. Warren Oates essentially plays Peckinpah.

4. Candidate for possible best title ever.

5. Insanely dark, gritty and still completely artistic.

This is truly a great film. Powerful, and everything crap like Convoy and the forgettable The Getaway are not. The film pivots on one central single shot. Then it becomes The Treasure of the Sierra Madre from Hell.

4 Mexican balls out of 4 heads in a bag of ice covered in flies.

Darnit. Thrown on the lddb wishlist.

That would explain why they got the DVD 5.1 from the 6 track masters if indeed they did for Raiders.

Darn this can get confusing for trying to keep which film had which mix straight.

On Alien, you should be good with the ProLogic PCM. Just give the tracks a listen and see which sounds better, fuller, and more impacting by ear. I've found that these tracks can sound great even for modern 5.1 mixed films. I don't have a demodulator but I've gone back and forth with well mixed DVDs and come to the conclusion that sometimes I just like the clearer but less surround defined 2.0 matrixed PCM versus a well mixed lossy 5.1.

Agreed, good to see you back CA. I managed to shave off a year in college due to way, way, way too many AP courses in high school. (Don't do AP Biology! Ahhhh!!) Not that it really helped me any, save for making my debt less. ;)

I'm taking bits and pieces of the films I shot in school and am going to try and pull something out of the mess to learn Windows editing programs. Fun. There's nothing better than learning a new editing software on a demo. Again. Crap.

Plus a series of reviews that is kinda turning into more of a dissertation...I go to make one little blog post and it comes out several hours later, edited many times over as a part critical part radical film dissertation almost.

How's everybody doing in this regard? Hopefully better.

That said, I'm not. I've been doing training for an at-home call servicing opportunity and been jerked around for the past three months. Studied, lost sleep, paid money I didn't need to, got equipment and am just being thrown into a mess of stuff.

Just insane. On top of this it really looks like my mom is about to be fired from her job. (It's been this way for over a year, constant threat of being fired/let go.) What the heck happened to the job market to make things so unbelievably cutthroat and dire? I know the economy is beyond terrible, I know everything tanked but to have everything become so completely cutthroat and impartial is insane.

So I've started doing a whole other batch of job applications (my daily thing) while on the phone and chat with this stupid servicing company (who never answers anything). I'm even to the point of writing some more crazy last-ditch letters to places/people who I really admire in the hopes that I might get some kind of response. (not that I ever really do)

I am just done with this whole thing. I did the film school thing and got chewed up by it. I know unemployment is what happens when you get out, but at this point I'm still just drifting about alone in the ocean.

How does one actually enjoy any part of being unemployed? I'm going nuts being stuck in one place with nothing to do.

Hmmm...I'd say go for the PCM. Is it ProLogic encoded? That would bring it closer to the 70mm soundfield. This is the way 2001 sounds best in my rig. (LD 2.0 PCM in ProLogic versus DVD 5.1)

Thought about the LD, but the expense combined with the fact that this is a good 5.1 movie kept me from it.

Still watch that original snapper case DVD. The 5.1 sounds nice cranked up. (Same 384 kbp/s ac3 that would be on the LD)

SilverWook said:

I've tried the camcorder pointed at the wall thing before. Flickers like hell. ;)

After the lab ruined my short film, I actually had some good luck with a Panasonic P2 camera and B&W+Color 16mm footage projected off an elmo projector onto a screen. Getting the right angles was a pain though. I wouldn't recommend it though unless as a last resort.

Damn, that 8mm is stunning. I didn't ever think 8mm was even capable of anything like that.