If anyone is a fan of kaiju movies. This might be a good weekend to watch them, as the kaiju convention G Fest is this weekend. May watch kaiju myself this weekend.

I had never seen more than a handful of Star Trek episodes before watching the Blu-rays, and perhaps it's only as noticeable because they're in HD, but what's with all of the glittery eyeshadow and eyeliner on the men? It's like I'm watching a Poison video!

I just might finish off my checklist this weekend.

Some other fantasy/sci-fi French movies:

District B13 (Banlieue 13) (2004)
The Return of James Battle (Atomik Circus - Le retour de James Bataille) (2004)
Fantastic Planet (La planète sauvage) (1973)
Time Masters (Les maîtres du temps) (1982)
Light Years (Gandahar) (1988)
Belphégor - Le fantôme du Louvre (2001)
Renaissance (2006)
The City of Lost Children (1995)
Amélie (2001)

Currently bringing out my inner 10-year-old with another space adventure serial, Jason of Star Command with the incomparable Sig Haig, whose birthday is today.



And I've got a promotional Fandango code to see "Ted" for free my local theater won't accept. I thought I'd give it away in here since it qualifies as Fantasy. Shoot me a PM if interested.

It's taken.

I fell behind a bit today. The computer my my brother-in-law uses to run his sign business died and I spent most of the day getting his new one setup, running a network cable from the ancilary system (he'd only had the "play" computer connected to the router), introducing him to DropBox for sharing sign files with his other sign shop buddies, chasing down a PCIe Serial Port card (for his plotter), making sure he understood everything and that it all worked OK, basically a day's work...

I *finally* watched another "good" film on the "Sci-Fi Classics" set. They Came from Beyond Space surprised when the opening credits rolled and I see Amicus listed on the screen! That got my attention. I'd never heard of the film before and found it to be a fairly good entry from Amicus. Not great, but definitely worth watching and somewhat a breath of fresh air after the past 8 or 9 clunkers from that set. It's another I'd like to see receive a good release.

Watching How to Train Your Dragon. I'm kind of enjoying it. It's a lot different than what I thought it would be from seeing the previews. I think they based Toothless on a cat, though! I didn't understand why it was on so many lists, but I think it earned it.

well the director's did Lilo and Stitch, and Toothless has a lot of the same characteristics of a cat ... and Stitch when you think about it.

Who would win this battle of pockmarked intergalactic warriors?

Hmm, didn't know that. I really didn't do much research on this one. I had paged through the book and wondered how it was going to translate and just didn't feel drawn to it with the previews but I'm glad I finally watched it. I think I would've been more inclined to view it if I had known the director was the same as Lilo & Stitch. Stitch is one of my favorite Disney characters.

Just finished with Brazil (the long version). I have to say it's not exactly my cup of tea. I thought I might enjoy it, but I just couldn't get into it. I see the commentary the director is trying to make, but it just didn't grab my attention like I was hoping. Glad I watched it as now I can say I have, but probably not going to get a rewatch from me.

I did enjoy Mother-Katherine Helmond. I've always enjoyed watching her and she really pulled off her part well. And her shoe hats.

Thanks for the reminder about the DEFA Sci-Fi Collection. I read a review when it first came out, but had totally forgotten about it.

It's kind of amazing that these movies received a US release at all. An improved transfer would be nice, but it doesn't seem likely. Of course, who knows-there have been quite a few surprising blu-ray releases lately.

I'm watching Harry Potter 4, which has a bunch of French characters

"I fart in your general direction!"

"Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!"

I watched Eegah this morning for the first time. I just don't see all the negative reviews towards the film. It's certainly not Hamlet but it's not as bad as many other films I've watched this year and I'd absolutely rank it higher than Plan 9. It was quite a fun romp and a fairly typical "B" "teen horror/sci-fi" film of the 50s/60s, actually better than others in that category. As I'd not really read much about it before I was surprised to see a young Richard Kiel playing Eegah. I also kept trying to place Arch Hall Jr. but couldn't. I kept thinking one of the "beach movies" but a search on his body of work (only 6 films total) came up dry for anything I've seen him in so it must be one of those cases of "looks like someone else".

Watched a couple more movies from the Sci Fi Classics set yesterday. I watched Rayomnd Burr in Bride of the Gorilla, and then last night I watched a Gamera movie, Attack of the Monsters.

You should definitely seek out The Sadist - it's a grim, downbeat version of Badlands, shot by Vilmos Zsigmond and with a truly slimy, terrifying turn by Hall.

I love the color cinematography in EEGAH and the views of Palm Springs in 1962. You should know that Arch Hall Sr., the actor who plays the scientist with the pith helmet, was a pretty famous character in his own right. The movie, THE LAST TIME I SAW ARCHIE (1961), directed by Jack Webb and starring Robert Mitchum as Archie, was based on his wartime antics. (Hall sued.)

Watched How To Train Your Dragon a couple months ago for the first time and loved it.

I'm trying desperately to get through the last season of Voyager (good grief it's worse than I remember) and had a question. I think this came up a few years ago but I don't remember the answer: do superhero films a la "The Dark Knight Rises" count? I'd categorize films about a man dressing up as a bat and fighting crime as fantasy but neither imdb nor allmovies agrees with my assessment.

The last episode was pretty good though. It is kind of the finally on the Star Trek Universe.

Suggestions for next year's checklist: Add formats, drop based on a novel, add contagious disease genre

I watched *another* worthwhile film on that MC "Sci-Fi Classics" set. This time: Cosmos: War of the Planets, a Italian production done in the vein of 50s/60s "B" films. The worst part is the film was originally done in 1.85:1 AR but the copy on the set is FS and *badly* done FS. They simply parked the camera at the center of the frame so there's *lots* of half faces, and information being cropped off. In looking it up I was surprosed to see a MOD of the film is available from WB. I have issues with MOD (primarily the inflated prices) so it could be a very long time before I purchase a "better" copy of this one.

A couple of days ago I watched Warning from Space, a Japanese film from 1956. I found it interesting that a couple of ideas I'd always thought originated elsewhere actually appear to have come from this film.

1. The aliens look like starfish with a single eye. Looks like Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky may have "borrowed" this concept to create "Starro" who debuted in The Brave and the Bold #28, Feb/March 1960.


2. The twin circular restraint used in the beginning of Superman II in which General Zod, Ursa, and Non were held prior to banishment to the Phantom Zone.


Even the "tunnel" in the background is somewhat reminiscent of that used in The Time Tunnel. Could Irwin Allen have seen this film and gotten the inspiration for the tunnel construction?

Things that make you go hmmmmm....

Batman counts as part of the Comic Book Act of 2007.

Noted.

Speaking of the checklist, anyone close to finishing?

I'm 12 away. I think that's pretty good! Depending on what I watch tonight, I can probably check off another 2 or 3.

For next years, I know I'm a newbie at this, but I like the based on an author's work one. There are tons of eligible ones out there.

The ones I'm having more difficulties with are some of the actors. Lionel Atwill, Mara Corday, Marshall Thompson, Faith Domergue, Joey Wang, Maggie Cheung, Gloria Talbot, James Coburn, Ross Martin and Dick Miller. I know they are there because they are from older, classic movies and it's good to widen your horizons, but it's hard finding movies with them in, for me at least. Plus, when I do find them, they all tend to be B-type movies and I'm getting a little burned out on them.

I'm going on my own movies and ones that my library has. I have been able to find some of them online but not all of them (maybe I'm just looking in the wrong places.) I would keep some of the more well known actors, maybe Lionel Atwill, Gloria Talbot, Faith Domergue but switch out some of the others.

I am not even sure what James Coburn is in that would qualify for sci-fi/fantasy. Most of his credits at IMDB seem to be action/crime/mystery/westerns.

Saw Ted (2012) tonight - one of the funniest movies of the year for me so far.