BobO'Link

That's the one. That's very interesting that what I thought was "after market" colorization is truly the way Méliès colored it himself. That throws a whole 'nother wrinkle into the mix and explains *why* it looks appropriate for the material and time. I still don't care for the newly commissioned music but that's easily fixed if a version doesn't exist with the original score.

**EDIT**
I checked out the link - man that steel-book is expensive! BUT there's a "normal" release which contains the colorized version, the BW version I also watched (it's produced by Russell Merritt with audio consisting of a troupe of actors voicing the various characters as performed in the U.S. in 1903, with piano music by Frederick Hodges), and a BW version with an orchestral score by Robert Israel with the original English narration written by Méliès. So... even the one with the actors is authentic! Looks like this is the one to own. Unfortunately, the color version has only the "AIR" soundtrack. It truly needs the option to select any of the 4 available tracks, especially since the BW version has the 3 "good" ones. I never knew there were so many versions of this classic.
I was unaware that film was based on a OGN (for you legalists - comic mini-series). I may have to see if my LCS can get a copy...

shadokitty

I own the 93 version, Body Snatchers, but didn't care for it. Make I'll give it another chance, after seeing the original.

Just finished the episode of Ancient Aliens about time travel. It was an interesting theory that I had heard of before.

I actually did watch ID, but only because it was on AMC, and I was killing time before the fireworks.

BobO'Link

Just keep in mind that it's *still* a lesser film. Better than Invasion but not nearly as good as either Invasion of the Body Snatchers films.

Dimension X

I stumbled onto a copy (with a "Soon to be a Motion Picture" blurb on the cover) in a thrift store soon after I'd seen the movie. That's how I found out.

BobO'Link

Viewings yesterday were somewhat of a mixed bag. I started with the previously mentioned versions of Le voyage dans la lune (A Trip to the Moon). If you've not seen the color version I urge you to look it up and give it a viewing. I strongly suggest turning off the sound or playing a alternate track as the one by AIR does not fit the film.

I then watched a film I've wanted to see for years, Fritz Lang's Frau im Mond (Woman in the Moon) (1929). Wow! What a great film! The amount of accurate depiction of space travel and processes is astounding. It's occasionally a bit plodding but that is mainly due to watching real processes of space travel. He used a hangar to assemble the rocket, moved it to the launch pad via a huge mover (and at the proper speed), accounted for the lack of gravity in space, and more. The space ship is a *staged* rocket and is painted black on one side so it can be turned towards the sun to heat the ship if necessary. At times it was almost like watching a NASA launch as many of the processes were identical. There were only a couple of instances where I felt it fell apart. The first was controlling the rocket from a prone position which was too far from the controls to take into account the gravity effect of lift-off (although *that* was discussed ). You'd have thought they'd go "Hey! If they can't really move in the bed/hammock how will they reach the controls a couple of feet away?" Then there was the breathable atmosphere on the moon as well as availability of water (on the dark side, of course). But those are only a couple of rather small complaints as the rest of the film more than makes up for these inaccuracies. The version I watched is a *long* film at 169 minutes but doesn't really feel that long. I understand there's a 200 minute version out there - I'd like to see it. I watched this one via Amazon Prime streaming but will be purchasing a copy for my library.

Another good one yesterday was Die Farbe (The Color Out of Space) (2010). It took a while to get going and I felt the wraparound story detracted a little, basically unnecessary, but overall it was very well done. I *almost* saved it for the Horror challenge but decided otherwise (mainly to use it as a checklist item). It's another I've been on-the-fence about that will be purchased after this viewing.

Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid (1948) was a fun little trifle that I may eventually purchase but there are no "good" DVD copies of this one. I believe there's a BR version that's good.

Destination Inner Space (1966) felt more like a made-for-tv movie, although it is not. It's a mash up of sorts of The Creature from the Black Lagoon and It! The Terror from Beyond Space. I really wanted to see more of the alien craft and more creatures being hatched but I'm guessing budgetary reasons kept that from happening. It's actually not bad for a "B" SF throwaway type film. I just need to decide if it needs a home with me... Were it a 50s film it'd probably be a no-brainer but by the mid 60s I tend to taper off on these as they just don't have the "magic" of those from the 50s, even the bad ones.

**EDIT**
I forgot to add that one of the leads in Destination Inner Space is Mike Roads, aka Race Bannon in Jonny Quest.

LJG765

Sounds like people are watching some good flicks! There are certainly some that I hadn't planned on watching that are now in my list!

I watched It Came From Beneath the Sea last night. Really a fun watch. Lave Harryhausen's creature here. Quiet morning here so may watch a MST3K movie I've been thinking about.

KaBluie

I did as a Double Feature with Mars Attacks!

lisadoris

I watched Independence Day on the 4th...annual tradition.

Trevor

Usually for me too, but the past 5 days have been a hazy blur of work, coughing and congestion, and bad sleep, with no television viewing.

Maybe some Smallville tonight.

MysterioMan007

I also watched Independence Day on the 4th. I don't really even enjoy the movie all that much anymore, but it's tradition.

shadokitty

I woke up in the middle of the night, since my boxer wanted me to take her out. When we came back in, I was wide awake, so I decided to work on the challenge. I looked for something on Hulu, and decided on the Hanna Barbera Godzilla. I just finished the Eartheater episode. I know it's not a 'good' cartoon, but it takes me back to my childhood.

coyoteblue

The movie I watched last night, Mutiny in Outer Space (1965), was a pretty good low budget effort and had an interesting tidbit. One of the actors was Harrold Lloyd Jr, whose short career consisted mostly of bit parts in an handful low budget features, with some tv work.

Monday I finally watched Magic of Spell (1988), the second Peach Child movie. I had high, perhaps, unreasonably high, expectations for the movie. I did enjoy it, even if it didn't quite live up to those expectations. Not every movie can be A Chinese Ghost Story (1987), especially a kid's movie. The level of action is good, though it might be considered too violent for western tastes.

Thinking about watching Mr. Vampire (1985) tonight or 2002 (2001), or maybe Genocide (1968). Unless I go in a completely opposite direction. I'll definitely be finishing off season four of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic tonight.

Ash Ketchum

Did MAGIC OF SPELL ever come out on DVD? I have a bootleg VHS, dubbed in Japanese, with no subs., and a Fortune Star VCD, in Mandarin with subs. I also have four other films featuring the star of MAGIC OF SPELL, Lin Hsiao Lan, a then-adolescent martial artist from, I believe, Taiwan. She's pretty damned good. The other films are: KUNG FU WONDER CHILD, MAGIC WARRIORS, A HEROIC FIGHT (the only one with a modern setting), and TWELVE ANIMALS (about how the animals of the Chinese zodiac first got together, all embodied by human beings).

coyoteblue

I've got the Fortune Star VCD. I did notice that Kung Fu Wonder Child and Magic Warriors along with Magic of Spell are on youtube.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

I disagree. I am both of those. I think you need to be a teen/young adult male to really enjoy it for the visuals that make up for the plot that's not much deeper than an episode from the original. And then they kept making more and more, longer and longer, with the plots still not getting more complex than an episode or two of the cartoon series.

I remember seeing that opening day and standing in line for it. They were even giving out posters. Everyone had been talking it up to be the next Star Wars. I didn't like it and put it slightly higher than the Transformer films.

And speaking of movies I find awful, I watched The Net 2.0 last night/this morning. The big tech showoff of the film was a Windows tablet, from about a decade ago when they were making tablets that ran the full version of XP. It was one of the giant ones too, and by giant, I'm talking about screen size. I'm guessing around 13".

BobO'Link

My two granddaughters spent the night last night and we watched Despicable Me 2 for the 20th(? - who knows... it's a lot) time at the 4yo's request. I thought it'd count but it doesn't have SF or Fantasy tags at either IMDB or Allmovie. Oh well... it's still a fun/funny film in spite of the extreme number of times I've seen it!

Because it was a bit later than I'd like to start a movie when they went to bed I finished the evening with several episodes of My Favorite Martian. It's one of those shows I wanted to watch during the original airings but the broadcast time conflicted with us going to church and I've only seen a few episodes over the intervening years. Overall I'm liking the series but every few episodes it tends to throw in a episode or two using standard sit-com tropes of the early 60s making just enough changes to work in Uncle Martin and his Martian abilities. In spite of that it's a fun series so I'll end up purchasing the next 2 seasons at some point.

Gobear

I stayed up all night and did an 80s sci-fi marathon. I finished Innerspace, still a fun movie with a young, hot Dennis Quaid, Blade Runner: The Final Cut, Back to the Future, and the 1984 version of 1984. I'm glad I bought the DVD when it was released in 2003 because it went OOP soon after and has not been re-released since. It's a terrific film with John Hurt and Richard Burton in the starring roles, along with Suzanna Hamilton as Julia. O'Brien was Burton's last film role, and his performance is so good that you have to regret how he frittered away his talent to alcohol and Liz for so many years.

Since Criterion has access to MGM's catalog titles, will they manage to sort out the rights issues that have kept this excellent film out of sight for more than a decade?

BobO'Link

Here I was feeling all good that, so far, no one's mentioned a title that piques my interest enough to look at a purchase then *you* have to go and post this!

I looked up the film, read a few reviews, found a relatively inexpensive used copy of the OOP MGM release on Amazon, and placed a order. I almost went for the Amazon "exclusive" 2 film MOD but wasn't interested in the 2nd title in the set (Crime and Punishment - 2002) plus the aspect ratio isn't listed while the OOP one is anamorphic WS. It was only a couple of $$ more for the used pressed copy.

coyoteblue

Ended up watching one of the better Wisely movies tonight, The Legend of Wisely (1987). They definitely spent some money on this one, with location shooting in Egypt and Nepal. Joey Wang, as always, is a delight. Sam Hui was fine as Wisely; I don't have any particular favorites in that regard. In some Wisely movies, Wisely's presence basically amounts to an extended cameo, The Seventh Curse (1986), for instance.

The Wisely movies are a mixed bag, but this one, Bury Me High (1991) and The Cat (Lao Mao) (1992) are all solid. The Cat has a fight between a cat and a mastiff that has to be seen to be believed (the ending's pretty awesome too). Don't remember much about Bury Me High so I may slip that in Thursday night.

shadokitty

I didn't get much in until tonight, as I had an eye doctor appointment today, and we took the opportunity to run errands. I went to get new glasses, but was told, I also have pinkeye.

I just finished an interesting episode of Ancient Aliens, on H2 On Demand. It dealt with pyramids hidden all over the world.

I also signed up for the free trial of Showtime on Roku, which comes with the East and West Coast feeds, as well as a good On Demand library, with some interesting looking movies in the sci fi section.

LJG765

As a kid, I loved watching MST3K but my very favorite episode was always "The Magic Sword." About 1-2 years ago, they finally released it along with "The Mole People," Danger!! Death Ray" and "Alien From LA." I don't remember those at all, so I've decided to watch them. I started with "The Mole People" which was fun. I laughed several times at the film itself and the comments, though it seemed like a later episode with Mike rather than Joel, who's my favorite host. Today I started "The Magic Sword" but fell asleep. Just finished it. I still love it and has some great one liners. One of my favorite things is each time I watch one of these films, I get another of their jokes...some of them are so obscure but funny all the same once you figure it out!

If I stay awake tonight, I'll pop another in but hope to finish the last two in the next day or so.

Sounds like everyone is watching a lot of good films!

Gobear

Currently watching Escape from L.A.. I know many people disagree, but I love this sequel as much as I do the original. And is it just me, or is Kurt Russell doing a Clint Eastwood impression through the whole movie?

Ash Ketchum

I never saw ESCAPE FROM L.A., but back in 1981 everyone thought it was pretty funny that Russell played his Snake Plissken character in ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK with an Eastwood impression. Check out some of the reviews from then.

What I love about MST3K is the obscurity of some of those references and the fact that I might be one of a handful who gets them is even funnier. I remember when they did HORROR OF PARTY BEACH, there was a lab scene with two new male characters on hand and the MST3K guy goes, "Oh and Monty Hall and Bruno Hauptmann stopped by." And I just lost it. Now, most people in the audience at that time would have been old enough to have seen Monty Hall (host of "Let's Make a Deal") or at least heard of him, but it's a safe bet that of the few who would get the Hauptmann reference, an even smaller number would have had any idea what he looked like. And the fact that I knew what Hauptmann looked like and that the guy in the shot really did resemble him made the whole thing even funnier.

Sometimes those jokes just don't work, as in THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE, when an old guy with glasses follows the hero into a house, the MST3K guy goes, "Oh, and I brought FDR with me," and the guy just didn't look like FDR.

I loved THE MAGIC SWORD when I saw it as a kid and back home we all played games in the street based on that movie (we would often act out scenes from movies in our street games). When I saw it as an adult, I was impressed anew and wrote this review for IMDB:

shadokitty

I started today with the dubbed version of Godzilla Raids Again. While not near as good as the first movie, I still enjoy it.

Got a stomach flu today, so will probably get a lot in, as I don't feel like doing anything but watching tv today.

Dimension X

Yesterday, I finished the book I was reading, so I went ahead and read The Surrogates. There is supplemental text material at the end of each chapter (issue), in the form of news articles and the like, that gives more background (which, may or may not answer some of your questions). I thought the book was pretty good, but I only paid like a buck for it (but if you enjoyed the film, you'd probably like the book, too).

After reading the book, I wanted to see how the movie compared, and since I hadn't seen it recently, and didn't remember too much about it (only that I liked it enough to buy a used copy of the Blu-ray from Blockbuster for 99¢), I decided to watch it. They changed up a lot of stuff in it, but stayed basically with the comic book's overall story.

Count me as one of many. After watching Escape from New York this morning, I decided to subject myself to Escape from L.A., which I'd only seen once before. I will say I didn't dislike it anywhere near as much as I did the first time I saw it. Probably because I knew it wasn't any good going in (and I knew better than to compare it to the original), so I wasn't disappointed.