Re: Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge 10 - Discussion Thread
 

Watched Heavy Metal and it was not quite as good as I remember it being watching it late at night on HBO back in the 80s.

Re: Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge 10 - Discussion Thread
 

^ you kind of had to be stoned or drunk to really enjoy Heavy Metal ;)

I'm gonna include 'Eagle Eye' - until someone tells me otherwise.

Re: Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge 10 - Discussion Thread
 

The villain in Eagle Eye is (spoiler-protected for anyone who hasn't seen it) It totally counts.

Re: Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge 10 - Discussion Thread
 

Watched "Close Encounters..." for the 2nd time in my life. I liked it a *bit* better than I remember upon the first viewing (when it originally came out) but I still think it's vastly over rated. I actually enjoyed the Darkman trilogy more and found it to not be as bad as reviews indicate. I maintain that Spielberg should not be allowed to either write or direct SF films as the only "good" one of his SF films I've ever seen is "Minority Report". That one was good enough to actually suprise me.

No, I do not like "E.T." (bad kiddie SF), "War of the Worlds" (although it wasn't as bad as I feared), "A.I." (probably would have been *much* better had Kubrick lived to complete it properly... under Spielberg it was just another bad Pinocchio rip off), "Jurassic Park" (laughed most of the way through that one - but it's based on a Crichton story... almost as bad a SF "writer" as Spielberg IMHO), *any* of the JP sequels, are there others? If so I've not seen them that I recall and now avoid any film from Spielberg that has a SF tag.

Sorry... didn't mean to go off on a "I hate Spielberg SF" rant but watching "Close Encounters" again pulled it out... I'm glad I only paid $3 for my copy. Yes, I own it and many of the titles I "dissed" above simply because there are certain titles (like 'em or not) that belong in any self-respecting collection.

Re: Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge 10 - Discussion Thread
 

Riverworld (2003). Whoopsie.

Actually, when I bought this DVD, I thought it was a mini-series from Sci-Fi channel. I remember seeing promos back in 2003 when I actually watched a commercial here and there (that just sounds ridiculous now!)

When I saw the running time as 90 minutes, I assumed it was a stand-alone Sci-Fi Channel movie, but little did I know that basically this was a pilot for a new TV series. Unfortunately that means it wasn't really a stand-alone movie.

Just giving others a heads up if they were considering this. What a disappointment.

Re: Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge 10 - Discussion Thread
 

I just watched my R2 disc of Jerry Springer: The Opera, which really needs to be released in the US. Acts 2 and 3 are set in the afterlife after Jerry is shot, with Jerry hosting conflict resolution between Adam and Eve and Jesus and the Devil. I'm pretty sure it counts.

Re: Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge 10 - Discussion Thread
 

LOL! :) My reaction as well. I picked it up because it was cheap ($3), the ads looked OK, and I'd read the novels upon which it was based. I wondered just how they'd condense the 5 book series into a 3 hr. mini-series... After watching, I know. They didn't! The "movie" is only the very first of the first novel mashed together with parts of the second (so they could include the riverboat early on) and, as you said, doesn't truly work "stand-alone" for that very reason. Had it been picked up it *might* have fleshed out some and turned out fairly well. I doubt I'll ever watch it again.

Re: Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge 10 - Discussion Thread
 

That's the beauty of failed pilots. You get all the satisfaction of watching a tv series that gets canceled on a cliff hanger, all packed into 90 minutes.

I like The Norliss Tapes. It's basically an early 70s version of the X-Files except there's only one guy and he's a writer. I had just as much excitement watching it as a normal episode of X-Files except at the end of the movie, something happens and got me excited for the next episode that never came out.

Re: Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge 10 - Discussion Thread
 

that's interesting, that's a disc I wouldn't have thought to have watched for this challenge - the commentary track on the disc is also quite enlightening. I saw this when it played here in DC, at the Studio Theatre in 2008 and it was by far the most insane, hysterical, best thing the Studio has performed.

Re: Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge 10 - Discussion Thread
 

Mythological characters fall under the fantasy rubric, and a sung-through musical that depicts Jesus and the Devil singing epithets at each other definitely counts as fantasy for me. I'm also thinking about watching my copy of the film version of Peter Brook's production of The Mahabharata, which, due to its 6-hour running time, ought to count as 3 units.
I wanted to go see that, but I just wasn't able to fit it into my schedule. I don't get into town to see theater as much as I would like. I also missed their production of Urinetown, which I would have loved to have seen.

Re: Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge 10 - Discussion Thread
 

I forgot to see that you're over the river in Reston, as far as I know Jerry Springer: The Opera only professional theatrical productions was in DC and the one-off Carnegie Hall show in NYC - I know that alot of New Yorkers who didn't get tix to the Carnegie Hall performance were coming down South on Amtrak to see the Studios production - which did not disappoint. If you're into theatre, the DC metro area is second to NYC theatre's scene - I'm planning on checking out One Man Lord of the Rings over at the Woolly Mammoth as my third Wild Card for this challenge - that or Capital Fringe Fest' Carrie Potter at the Half Blood Prom (for the record my 2nd wild card was the stage Broadway version of Mary Poppins which I saw last night at the Kennedy Center - the animated animal part of the movie were actually dancing statues)

Re: Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge 10 - Discussion Thread
 

I'm loving the heck out of my Godzilla marathon, but it's been slow going for me this month. Working lots of overtime, and it's the busy season, so no DVD viewing at work. Most days I barely get one or two films in.

Plus, I'm "having" to watch each film multiple times, with Japanese and English version, and commentaries. Depending on how many of those alternates are left on the remaining 20 films, I probably won't meet my goal to watch them all. But on the bright side, the overtime is paying for my Criterion addiction.

Re: Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge 10 - Discussion Thread
 

That's how I'm feeling about Blade Runner: 5 different versions of the film, 4 commentary tracks, a making-of doc that's longer than the actual film, yikes! After this challenge it will be a LONG time before I watch this movie again.

Re: Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge 10 - Discussion Thread
 

I haven't been thrilled with AMG's genre classifications on a couple titles I've looked up. So I've gone instead with IMDb or gut.

Re: Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge 10 - Discussion Thread
 

I had a blast watching the 5 versions last July, maybe I'll get to those supplements next July. Are they decent?

Saw Inception in the theater today, and highly recommend it.

Re: Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge 10 - Discussion Thread
 

For me, I love commentaries, but I have to listen to them in a reasonable amount of time after I watched the movie/show (within a month or so), otherwise is is a bit out of my brain and I end up listening to some of the dialog of the movie/show instead of the commentary itself. Fortunately I have a commentary going somewhere in my house pretty much all the time I am there, so I can fit those in at any time.

As for different versions of movies (like Blade Runner or Dawn of the Dead, for example) it is incredibly hard for me to watch the same movie again within 6 months or so unless it is vastly different. The only exception I can think of is the first time I watched Superman II: The Donnor Cut and the Alan Smithee version of Dune.

Re: Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge 10 - Discussion Thread
 

If in doubt I use both AMG and IMDB since the rules allow either to show the proper genre. Some titles show up in the desired genre on one but not the other.

Examples:
"The Rocky Horror Picture Show"
- IMDB: Comedy, Musical
- AMG: Comedy, Horror, Musical, Science Fiction.

"The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini"
- IMDB: Comedy, Horror, Musical
- AMG: Fantasy, Comedy

Since AMG classified them as "OK" that's what I went with. Had it been the other way I'd have used IMDB. Basically if IMDB doesn't show a title I might consider to be SF or Fantasy as such I look it up at AMG.

Re: Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge 10 - Discussion Thread
 

Totally agree on the first part, I'm the same way. Maybe even less time actually, like a few days or a week, as I have a short/bad memory and feel like a film has to be "in my brain" before a commentary can supplement my knowledge/enjoyment of it. I can probably make exceptions with films I've seen dozens of times, but in practice I'm not sure if I ever have.

On your second point, I'm the opposite. I think of alternate cuts the same way as I think of commentaries actually, and feel like they're only "useful" to me if I watch them back-to-back or really close together.

Re: Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge 10 - Discussion Thread
 

The writers commentary and the work print commentary were fascinating. Scott's commentary was interesting too but I fell asleep during the technical one. The documentary is a must see as are the featurettes on PKD.

Re: Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge 10 - Discussion Thread
 

One benefit to being unemployed is that I am cleaning up on this challenge, simply because I slip DVDs into the computer while I send out my chain of utterly useless resumes and cover letters.

Re: Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge 10 - Discussion Thread
 

Okay, I've had a blast so far. My first challenge. Although, Prison Break is waiting in the wings for me.

Halfway through Predator and I can't believe how bad an actor Arnold is, it's been a looong time since I've seen him in anything non-Terminator (which he's perfect for, given his overall wooden delivery) and how we ever believed (not that we did) that he could play All-American boys in any of his films is beyond me. His conceit that he actually could is...well, I suppose it was just ego-driven and his great desire to be American.

Re: Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge 10 - Discussion Thread
 

This is my first challenge as well. I've intended to do others but typically forgot. For a change, I remembered this one.

I mentioned "the challenge" at work and got the same type stares and reactions I get when I mention I read comics.:lol: One co-worker commented "That's 3 movies a day! How do you get the time? Why would you want to do that?". He had no clue (an "outdoorsman" who's not a liker, much less lover, of movies in general) and could not comprehend that it's only finding/making time for a month. He just couldn't wrap his head around me stating that I typically average 3-4 hours a day of movies/TV anyway so it's not that hard to add another hour or two most days for a special challenge like this. Plus it's fun when it's a genre you truly love even if some of the films are stinkers! Actually the stinkers are more fun at times than the "great" ones. :)

I initially thought I'd watch more SF TV than I have so far (none to date) but have been suprised at the amount of SF/Fantasy titles in my unopened pile. I'm using this as an excuse to finally open some of those "double-dips" and titles I've put off opening/watching for one reason or another. To date I've only watched a half dozen or so unopened titles in my collection and those were for the "list" challenge.

Anyway... I'm having a blast with this!

Re: Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge 10 - Discussion Thread
 

:(

Re: Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge 10 - Discussion Thread
 

I should not have posted that; I had just gotten one too many "Thank you but we picked someone else" e-mails that pushed me right over the edge. I have a working spouse who is loving and supportive (example of his awesomeness--he gave me his $50 B&N gift card that he received as a bonus for good work on a proposal so that I could get in on the current sale), and I'm sure something good will happen soon.

I just watched The Hidden with Jack Sholder's commentary for the first time; wow, he did not like Michael Nouri much. I don't think I've heard such an honest, even tactless, commentary in a while.

Re: Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge 10 - Discussion Thread
 

Positive thoughts from Herndon coming your way. And I'll have to (re?)listen to that commentary, The Hidden is one of my favorite guilty pleasures. The sequel is fairly awful unfortunately. Weren't they planning a remake at one point?