Shallow DVD movie review-the JBL-a/d/s sound

[SEAWOLF97]

As for the category of epics that are really love stories, I rank Doctor Zhivago over all others, El Cid included.

Dr Zhivago: helps greatly to know the basic Russion history of the times, 1st saw it as kid, was lost on the events around the love sory, still liked it gtratly though

Mark

interesting story re: Dr. Z

'Doctor Zhivago' had secret publisher: The CIA


http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...o-cia/7418261/

[SEAWOLF97]

.
I'd give it just a half point below what I remember as the best Formula 1 movie .. Grand Prix. trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Chbqa-u8c4c

revision

So after writing this , I checked out Grand Prix. It didn't hold up as well as remembered. RUSH (which got a second viewing before returning) was better in every aspect , which isn't surprising when comparing a 1966 movie to a 2013. There was only a little CGI in the latter film (weather, crashes) and it wasn't obvious.

GP was rather quaint with non-air effects cars , little safety gear , not too much commercialism , etc. Eva Marie Saint was in it tho and that was a nice bonus. Also contained Graham Hill, Phil Hill , Dan Gurney , Bondurant and many others ... The extras on disk #2 contained a nice feature on Brands Hatch and showed the Ford GT-40 camera car.

So since I was impressed with RUSH , thot I'd see what else Ron Howard directed and decided to give Apollo 13 a try. (I knew nothing of the Moon landing or Apollo 13 incident until long after the facts) .... it turned out to be rather pedestrian , I could predict scenes.

Would only rate it at 6 of 10 , whereas RUSH would make a 9 of 10 , so it seems Ron is getting better as he progresses.

so this month I've been picking up $1 DVD's for when the library runs out of interesting ones...

so future reviews can include:

Gran Turismo
Manchurian Candidate (Sinatra)
Harrod Experiment
Australia
Star Wars 3
Sahara
the social network
On the Beach (loved the book)
Family of Spies
Airforce One/In the Line of Fire
Romeo & Juliet (DeCaprio version)

[SEAWOLF97]

Eva Marie Saint was in it tho and that was a nice bonus.

OKAY , we all remember her from NxNW

I picked up a BluRay old chestnut from La bibliotechia that had a leading lady just as memorable as EMS. And had a scene reminiscent of CG being chased by the bi-plane. Any guess ?

Daneila Bianchi . Still can't get it ?

From Russia with Love

great transfer and sound , I think they even found the original titles. Extras were limited to a couple of interviews with Ian Fleming.

We all know the story , it holds up pretty well. Sure, there are some detail flubs , but this is before there was a big budget to work with. Don't recall any scene in the flick that actually matches this publicity photo

a fun watch

[SEAWOLF97]

.
While picking up my holds at the library, I noticed that there is a shelf for BluRay movies only. (there are lots & lots for standard DVD's)

So I grabbed Goldfinger & HELP! ..... the Beatles flick is a 2007 remaster with good extras. Beautiful transfer/color/sound. Acting/Story ? silly, but a real nostalgia trip. Very sharp image.

I really enjoyed the extras section about the restoration process. Those guys were fixing individual dirt spots on EVERY frame. The spotter was saying that he could put in a long day and fix maybe 2 minutes in that day. Color was rebalanced/calibrated/coded to maintain from scene to scene. Looks like the movie was shot yesterday.

007 is next up, but have been watching the last season of "Hawaii 5-O" . The casting had gone to pot by then , with only JL from the original cast. Stories getting even more derivative than earlier. Series was getting tired and ready to be put out of it's misery.

[SEAWOLF97]

.
this morning , I scanned the library for BluRays and put these on hold :

Being There
The Big Lebowski
El Dorado
High Noon
Little Big Man
North by Northwest
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
Thunderball
3 Days of the Condor
L.A. Confidential
Apocalypse Now
Marathon Man
Top Gear 20
Sherlock Season Three

I've seen most of these already, but on BD the extras are usually better , and I'm a guy who does watch the extras .... these are going to come flooding it , so gotta watch what I have and get my current checkouts back , so

Viewed "Goldfinger" today. have seen it many times , but was still enjoyable and the presentation was first rate all around ...

[SEAWOLF97]

.
is still out there jamming with "The Abiders"

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment...s-at-festival/

"There were bowling pins, bathrobes, white Russians, and even The Dude himself.

Jeff Bridges and his band performed Friday at Lebowski Fest, but Joel and Ethan Coen's 1998 campy crime comedy "The Big Lebowski" was still the night's biggest star."

[SEAWOLF97]

.
that I'm going through a movie every night.

2 days ago ... Eldorado http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061619/?ref_=nv_sr_1
John Wayne standard stuff , lots of budget and name actors surrounding him couldn't
save this semi-schlock. BluRay transfer couldn't save this one either. 4 of 10 on rating scale.

last night ...HIGH NOON http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044706/?ref_=nv_sr_1
Gary Cooper , low budget black & white , just surrounding character actors , but a whole different experience from ED above

Good story,high tension , GC was great in lead role which is probably why this is such a classic. Good bonus's/interviews included. BluRay was no better than standard DVD in this case.

9 of 10 on rating scale. Only 2 quibbles that kept it from being a 10. Theme music was constant and tiring. Grace Kelly seemed really not cast very well.

[SEAWOLF97]

L.A. Confidential ... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119488/

wow, great flick. Everything was first rate. Sound, color, casting, acting , story. Out of the whole movie there was only 1 scene that I could quibble on , it was plot crucial ..but I couldn't get the motivations of the character. movie deserves an easy 9.5 of 10

TOP GEAR (20) successful formula never seems to change, the guys are quite funny , but some of it is getting stale, destroying gear that I would prize sometimes hurts. But I will be getting more seasons copies.

BEING THERE didn't live up to memories and did not get completed.

THUNDERBALL ? guess I've seen it too many times, BluRay did not improve it over the standard DVD

[SEAWOLF97]

This week I managed to view 4 of my all time top 5. They will all retain their positions.

North by NorthWest
Apocalypse Now Redux
Little Big man
3 Days of the Condor

If I was limited to only 4 films for the rest of my days ... these would surely be there. High Noon was a big fave too (but probably edged out by Lebowski, which is due in this week)

All were great transfers , color , sound, all first rate , but some benefited from BluRay more than others.

My HT is setup so well now, that I'm afraid to mess with anything.

Gotta love my public library system ..

[SEAWOLF97]

biked to library yesterday , holds waiting. While there I grabbed a DVD of an old movie that I'd seen in a cheapo theater in SD (near the ferry landing) in 1971. It didn't seem much understandable back then and I thought in 2014 maybe it would be

HOW I WON THE WAR - 1967 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061789/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

it's a Richard Lester film that shows John Lennon on the cover and plays upon his presence. He really has a minor role. It's a WW2 anti-war comedy. Chronicles a platoon with an inept officer building a cricket pitch behind enemy lines.

Each battle is tinted a different color: red, green,blue etc. As the soldiers are slowly killed off, they return - silent and colored head to foot the color of their fatal battle.

In the end, only the officer is left ... he wins the war by buying the last remaining bridge across the Rhine from a tired German officer , with a bad check

Even with subtitles on , the dialog was so thick that you just have to guess often.

Worth seeing ... once.

Also grabbed TOP GEAR 17. No variation on the standard formula (tho they did a nice tribute to the XKE). BUT there was a 3rd disk = TOP GEAR- USA. Who knew there was such a thing ?

Absolute copy of music , set , audience in the round , three presenters. They were humorless clones. 10 minutes was enough . In the vernacular , it was GROTTY.

[SEAWOLF97]

.
the reveal from season 2's cliffhanger was OK
#2 episode ... wedding best man was the weakest of the lot , I was starting to
worry that the series had "jumped the shark"
but then , an incredible finale that made up for the 2 weak eps.

Oh well, back to whatever season of TOP GEAR is next in line

Clarkson, while entertaining , just isn't SH.

the parts of the BBC that get exported sure do wax what on my local channels ..

[SEAWOLF97]

.
the sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086837/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

BREATHTAKING (ly) .... boring, stupid, inane , an insult to the classic 2001

rating 1 of 10 , lowest so far in this thread. Some of the serious dialog only produced laughter , the tension producing scenes ... ZZZZZZ's , computer graphics, a lower grade than the original TRON

sample dialog: "Whether we are based on carbon or silicon makes no fundamental difference. We should each be treated with appropriate respect."

"Someday, the children of the new sun will meet the children of the old. I think they will be our friends."

"You can tell your children of the day when everyone looked up and realized that they were only tenants of this world. We have been given a new lease and a warning from the landlord."

a waste of time.

[SEAWOLF97]

The Blob (1958)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051418/?ref_=nv_sr_2

about what you would expect from a 1958 low budget "horror" movie ... mono, but color was good, but still better than 2010, UNexpected leading man = Steve McQueen 4/10


V for Vendetta (2005)

this film is about 99% perfect. It's on my desert island DVD list. 11/10

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0434409/?ref_=nv_sr_1

[SEAWOLF97]

been viewing lots of TOP GEAR. Especially like the adventures in foreign
lands in budget cars. The crossing Africa & India & Vietnam & Italy were all very good.

Their theme music always sounded familiar. couldn't ever put my finger on it.
I now know. Do any of you know w/o looking it up ?

The "behind the scenes" extras were an eye opener. Crummy cramped offices,
show shot in an old hanger , most everything low budget , yet they make it look
much better than the reality.

I identify most with James May.

[SEAWOLF97]

Put on the DVD of TOP GEAR 15 a short time back , ended up doing 3 epps /day.

Jeremy in a Reliant Robin was slapstick, yes, but Brit TG slapstick ...I laughed more in that one show than I have in all the US sitcoms , combined , in all of 2014.

here's a You tube highlights (?) clip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQh56geU0X8

not shown in that vid , they make bets on THE STIG taking it around their test track ... disaster a' la Clarkson on the very first turn.

yesterday I picked up another $1 DVD ..Coen Bros. "A Serious Man" . reviews are good , never heard of it before ..should be interesting.