Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Star Trek Season 3 is a chore. Some poor episodes and "Spock's Brain" started it all...

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

It's the weakest of the three, no denying that. But it also features some of my favorite episodes: "The Enterprise Incident," "Day of the Dove," "The Tholian Web," "Whom Gods Destroy" and "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" are all A-level in my book. "Spectre of the Gun" and "The Savage Curtain" are lesser quality episodes I still find enjoyable. And even though I keep forgetting that I like it, "Turnabout Intruder" is a better finale than I think is generally recognized.

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Off-topic, but I see a few of you are using ICheckMovies lists for your theme. If you'd care to "friend" me over there, here's my page.

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Really need to check out Chuck someday. Always imagined that I'll love it, but have never seen it cheap enough while in a buying mood.
:) Have only watched a few seasons so far, but if my plan holds up, it will only be about half BBC. Loved me some Jeeves & Wooster, but then moved on to Mr. Show.

Tempted by State of Play in Amazon's current BBC sale, but will probably wait until its a bit cheaper.

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I snagged the pilot free from iTunes, but still haven't gotten around to watching it.

My wife and I were introduced to Wodehouse's comedic duo through the Classic Tales Podcast a few years ago, and then learned of the BBC show. We caught the re-issued complete series box during one of Barnes & Noble's 50% off and gorged on it. Loved it so much we re-watched the show in its entirety in January for the TV on DVD* Challenge. Great stuff, but that last season really stretches things.

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Up to L with my Comedy movies and watching Loaded Weapon. I forgot how funny this was, as good as any spoof movie save Airplane.

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

That cameo by [that guy that starred as a cop in that prolific movie series] on the beach just killed me. I can laugh now just remembering it.

Also, I know it's heresy but I wasn't all that entertained by Airplane! I could easily tell why it's held in high esteem, but it just kinda fell flat for me. Some sharp dialog and some amusing gags, but it just felt like the narrative was just a pretext for stringing together the assorted sketches that made up each scene. Maybe if I had seen it with an audience I would have enjoyed it more; my wife showed it to me on DVD a couple years ago and it was just us. And she stopped laughing aloud when she became self-conscious that she was laughing alone.

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

That was awesome. This has tons of funny cameos like the one with the star's brothers who has tiger's blood and Adonis DNA.

Airplane will always have a place in my heart because of all the great quotes and the Robert Stack fight scene with all those airport activists, my brother and I used to rewind that part over and over and laugh our fool heads off.

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I'm 2 away from finishing another list but hit a mini-series, Heimat.

Only 14.5 hours to go.

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

To fully appreciate "Airplane" you need to have seen "Zero Hour" from 1957. "Airplane" is a spoof of that earlier film, going so far as to lift entire sections of dialoge. After seeing both, "Airplane" is to "Zero Hour" as "Young Frankenstein" is to "Frankenstein"/"Bride of Frankenstein", but not so much a classic as YF. Even so, I had much the same reaction as you upon the first viewing. It felt like a sketch show skit that went on way too long. Now, years later, I have a better appreciation for it but it still feels overly long. I first saw it with an audience and felt like I was the only one not rolling in the floor with laughter. Not that I didn't find it funny, just not as hilarious as every one else in the theater.

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Back in the days before DVDs (and before kids for me), I watched a lot of PBS, and Jeeves and Wooster was one of my favorites (Jeremy Brett's Holmes was another). It always amused me years later to hear people say, "What, House is BRITISH?"

If you get a chance, I think the Chuck pilot is a good representation of the show as a whole. It's an action-espionage-comedy, and someone in one of the older threads I've been digging up called it a modern version of Get Smart, which I'd say is accurate except I never saw that original series, just the Anne Hathaway remake.

After I watched the two eps I'd bought for the challenge, I caved and figured I'd buy another straight from my phone. But iTunes said I needed to do it over wifi or on my home computer. What the heck? I don't have a network where I'm staying so I started the download when we were at dinner last night. Social event so we were there over two hours, and I STILL had to pause the download at 500 of 600 MB finished. I'm sure this coffee shop didn't gave a great connection, but still! Another speed bump in the digital revolution. And now I have to finish the download before I get home or it'll be a wasted $2. The only place I know I'm going with a connection will be the airport tomorrow, and that'd be cutting it really close. :(

Last, I hate to admit that Airplane! is on my "What, you haven't seen _______?" list. :(

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

^darn it, sorry for the bad formatting, which I can't fix from my phone. My text was supposed to start with "if you get a chance...". I'll fix when I get on a real computer. -ohbfrank-

EDIT: Fixed

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I'm on track to finish Volume 5 of Futurama by the end of tonight, which means I will have finished the entirety of Futurama during the challenge, as well as Seasons 1-3 and Season 9 of The Simpsons. The rest of the month will be a race to finish off as many seasons of The Simpsons on DVD as I can.

---

I'm really glad I chose to do this as my challenge. The Simpsons and Futurama are easily two of my favorite shows of all time and it's great to see how they've changed over the years.

Futurama in particular never ceases to amaze me; tons of laughs, really great characters, tremendous voice acting, and a lot of emotion. The other thing about Futurama is that it has the greatest sense of continuity; I can't think of any other show that has planned things out so meticulously and almost always avoids continuity errors. In revisiting the old episodes (which, admittedly, I do quite frequently) I'm reminded how much I enjoyed it during its original run and how much it sucked when it got canceled. Bender's Big Score was great, but the other movies were hit-and-miss, although all worthwhile viewings. The new series demonstrates that the show thrives in the 30-minute format and has some of the best episodes the series has to offer; I can't imagine never having seen these new episodes.

And it's great seeing the earlier seasons of The Simpsons too. It's a shame that the quality took a dip later on (for what it's worth, I forgive Ken Keeler for "The Principal And The Pauper" because of his excellent work on Futurama, particularly "Godfellas"), but there are still some good episodes despite the overall "meh" of the later seasons. I do think, however, that the more recent seasons have shown a real return to form, particularly the outstanding Season 21. Before the Challenge is over I think I might try and watch the Tracy Ullman Shorts as well, but might leave that as time-filler toward the end.

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

In both quality of the episodes and quality of the DVD packaging.

I just finished watching Night Watch, which was the second to last movie of the current list I'm on. Now to crank out the last 3 hours of Heimat. It's not bad but it's been a marathon and I just had to throw something else in to get a break from Germany.

At this rate, I might be able to add another list to my challenge. Cahiers du cinéma 100 movies, of which I have only 16 remaining.

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Big surprise, but it looks like the coffee shop was the culprit: the last 100 MB took less than 10 minutes at the airport. All set with another episode for the flight!

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

There's something going on here. For a Warner title, I don't think Chuck is ever as aggressively priced as Smallville, Supernatural, Fringe, etc. Something to do with the creative group maybe or someone not on the home-media front.

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Dancer In The Dark - The only way I can explain away some of the amateurish acting is that there's an uncut version which has a subplot involving small alien parasites that enter the hosts brain and eats away at it.

That's the only way I can explain away the fact that they sometimes act retarded and sometimes act normal/realistic. Half the time the parasite is asleep, which explains why the character acts like a normal human. Not everyone has it and you can also be in the middle of a scene and tell that it's just starting to wake up in one of the characters.

Just when I think that I could be wrong, there's a scene where someone reinforces my opinion.

I didn't plan on writing any reviews but I really didn't care for the movie. I realize she's going blind but that doesn't explain away her lack of hearing, unless we look towards the parasite angle.

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Just streamed Kick-Ass, which I wanted to see when it came out last year but didn't. Every bit as violent and crude as advertised. Easy to understand why it would be off-putting for a lot of viewers. Naturally, as a DVD Talker I was at home with it. My wife was pleasantly surprised; she agreed to watch it just to mollify me but wound up enjoying it probably more than I did.

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Duly noted. I'll check it out and see what that does for my perception. Also, since you bring it up...I still haven't seen Young Frankenstein (though I adore Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein).

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Watched Summer School, what a great, underrated 80s comedy. Shows how fun the 80s were.

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I remember watching that one a lot as a kid. Fun movie.

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I just realized I watch a perfect movie for my 1930s/1980s challenge: Frances, a 1980s movie about a 1930s actress.

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Just watched the series finale of Homicide. I'll watch the movie tomorrow but it looks like I have to find another topic for the remainder of the challenge. Those seasons just flew by!

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I love that movie! As recently as February I was singing its praises; I included it in a blog post recommending an assortment of 80s comedies that could be streamed from Netflix.

I had a trading arrangement with a friend of mine; I'd lend him The Sopranos, he'd lend me Homicide. I've seen every episode of both shows, but my wife--like nearly all of humanity--didn't watch Homicide and I'd like to introduce her to it. (She's seen a few episodes here and there with me, but we've not really sat down with it.) I'm eager to revisit it, because it's been way too long. That Andre Braugher isn't in possession of five Emmy Awards for Frank Pembleton remains a blight on the entire TV industry.

As for me, we bought Sherlock Holmes, the 1955 TV show from Mill Creek a couple years ago and our set was faulty. When I contacted Mill Creek about it, they very kindly sent a replacement set, as well as a box set called "Best of TV Detectives." Anyway, I got to looking and it includes the unsold pilot for The Shadow ("The Case of the Cotton Kimono") and six episodes of Dick Tracy, so we popped those in tonight.

The Shadow had promise, but for my money was brought down by Tom Helmore as Lamont Cranston/The Shadow, who comes off as a guy wanting to be the poor man's Vincent Price. Plus, we never actually see The Shadow; only a flashing light and his voice. It may have been intended to be evocative and mysterious, but it just looks cheap and amateurish.

We watched "The Mole, Parts 1 & 2" from Dick Tracy and I was horribly disappointed to learn that Part 3 is not included! In fact, this assortment of six episodes is pretty sketchy all around. I haven't investigated further, but I suspect that something happened to the original masters that precludes the possibility of any more episodes being presented. A shame, because this may have been a show I'd have enjoyed.

By the end of that, my wife was asleep so I deferred the rest of Dick Tracy for another night and popped in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer with the commentary track by Tim Story. We'd caught much of the movie on FX earlier, so I didn't feel the need to re-watch the movie in its entirety. Story claims an awful lot of credit for developing and creating the story; I'm interested to hear the second commentary track and see how well his version jives with his collaborators. It's not a bad movie, necessarily, and his reasons for certain things make sense but this really should have been an outstanding comic book movie and it's not. It's a shame, too, because they got a lot of those two FF movies right but they're dismissed as "coulda beens."

Re: May 2011 Make-Your-Own Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I'd been wanting to see ZERO HOUR! since I first heard it was the inspiration for AIRPLANE! (which I saw and enjoyed in a theater when it came out). But it never came on TV! So, finally, about three years ago, I found it on DVD and bought it. I have to say, aside from the thrill of seeing so many classic bits from AIRPLANE! played straight, I was very impressed with the movie. Hollywood used to turn out so many well-crafted finely tuned second-half-of-the-bill genre films and this was just one of them, cast with solid pros who knew how to do this stuff and make it work.

One scene in particular really struck me. When Ted Stryker (Dana Andrews) first sits in the cockpit trying to master the unfamiliar controls, he has to rely on his estranged wife (Linda Darnell) as a co-pilot, with their stricken son on the plane. There was already incredible tension between the two because she was running away with their son, and he'd gotten on the plane to pursue them, and the tension pervades this entire scene. How do you work closely with your spouse on a life-or-death challenge in the middle of a horrendous marital spat? You really feel for both of them in this scene.