Ash Ketchum

BECKY SHARP (1935) was the first full color Technicolor feature made by Hollywood, so it has some historical importance. You need to see the restored print that TCM has showed and not the grainy p.d. copies circulating on sets like the one Mr. Peepers is watching. It's based on Thackeray's "Vanity Fair."

BobO'Link

I woke up very early and flipped on the TV to find Abbott and Costello's Jack and the Beanstalk was just starting (TCM). As I'm somewhat of a sucker for A&C it looks like it's my first title on the Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge in spite of not counting for the Historical Appreciation Challenge. They're following that one with The Giant Behemoth and it's tempting to watch it too, but I have a DVD of it so Ancient Aliens will be next to get back to the original plans.

With all the talk of watching Time Travel films for the overlap day it's "Leap Day Challenge" deja vu.

NoirFan

I'm starting off with a fantasy comedy, Blithe Spirit. Typically sparkling Noel Coward stuff, although I've never seen the Blu-ray before. That Lean/Coward box is a true joy.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

I watched Vanity Fair earlier in the challenge and while that wasn't great, I was able to follow it. I do recall some glimpses of similarities, now that I think about it but overall wasn't that impressed.

BobO'Link

I have 2 episodes of Ancient Aliens under my belt and so far, it's quite entertaining. More pseudoscience than you can shake a stick at with a preponderance to blame *any* unexplained event, drawing, or artifact on alien visitation. The segment with the theory of how the Great Pyramid at Giza could have been a giant microwave power transmitter is priceless!

It's actually one of the better History Channel "documentaries" I've seen recently with very good production values. It doesn't suffer from the "repeat half the prior segment when coming back from a commercial break" syndrome so common with their more recent programming. It's interesting to see these mysteries in spite of the "jump to alien visitation" leaps of logic/conclusions presented.

shadokitty

I started last night with two episodes of The Time Tunnel, Rendevous with Yesterday, and One Way to the Moon. Tonight I plan to finish disc 1 side A with End of the World, and on tv there is Lost in Space tonight. May also watch a Gamera movie and something from one of my MC sci fi 50 movie packs.

LickTheABCs

I started with John Carter. Maybe it was my really low expectations, but I really enjoyed it.

terrycloth

i saw this a week or so ago and I did too. there as def alot of issues i had with it but i enjoyed it prolly because of how much of a bad rep this movie got i as expecting straight to syfy bad.

im off to a slow start first movie i put in i fell asleep half way thru and have no desire to return it was that bad (alien armageddon) gonna watch event horizon and real steel after the yankees get done.

orlmac

I followed my tradition and began with an early silent film, 1903's Fairyland: A Kingdom of Fairies by Georges Melies. I remain amazed by what he did in the early days of cinema compared to some of the other directors. I keep a copy of The Films of Georges Melies (aired on TCM HD) just to take care of early sci-fi and fantasy movies on the checklist.

shadokitty

Updated my signature with the latest challenge.

LJG765

You learn something new everyday. If I run across it, I'll try to give a watch. I see that Billie Burke is in it, so it'd be worth viewing just to see her. I have to say period pieces like that don't really interest me though.

BobO'Link

I've not yet seen this one but, based solely on trailers, don't have high expectations. One of my concerns is I've yet to read a review from or talk to anyone who's seen the film where the they were either familiar with or had actually read the novel on which the film is based. I know most film adaptations fall short to fans of the original works so I have a bit of trepidation as Burroughs' Barsoom series is one of my all time favorites. And the trailers were all somewhat underwhelming. The ones I've seen all have that "overly CGI summer action film with no substance" look about them.

NoirFan

Is that Chris Sarandon (with mustache) shaking Bill Murray's hand at 1:19:25 in Ghostbusters?

LJG765

Watched Witches of Oz early this morning, like I mentioned earlier. It was pretty good. Kept my attention throughout the film and it was almost 3 hours long, so that's pretty good. Really, my major complaint is that they did a wonderful job on most costumes and actors, but wasted their money on a lot of special effects that looked bad rather than a few that looked really good. Like their flying monkeys looked really fake and their sizing issues with showing two characters was really bad.

Saw Battle Royale this afternoon and enjoyed it but probably won't ever watch it again. Way too bloody for me. One arterial spray is too many in my opinion and this had a few. It seemed fairly accurate to the book with some changes that I'm not sure why they made, but isn't that true with so many book to movies?

Watched a short silent film, Jack and Beanstalk-it's always fun to watch those and try to imagine how they set up a scene for the first time as they were still experimenting with the process. First time I've seen a fairy involved with the story, but it's always cool how they can get the story across without words.

Watching It Came from Beneath the Sea right now. It's my first Harryhausen film, I believe. So far so good. Just started so not too much to say about it right now.

All 3 movies were first watches for me. So far I haven't had any duds, even though the Oz one was a blind buy as I tend to buy any with that theme.

shadokitty

Tonight on my local channel I watched an episode of Lost In Space, Curse of Cousin Smith, which had Dr. Smith's cousin in it.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

I finished the first season of Ancient Aliens and 2 episodes of the next season and I've had my fill. I might watch an episode now and then but I'm changing up the rest of my night to time travel films. Starting off with Timequest and following it up with Time After Time.

Ancient Aliens started going off the deep end even more with the second season. Apparently the old gods like Zeus are clearly fictional but centaurs and Medusa are hybrids created by aliens.

Tomorrow I'm shooting for an Alien marathon. Planning on starting off with Prometheus and then pulling out the Alien blu-ray set and watching director cuts.

BobO'Link

Many of my favorite Sci-Fi/Fantasy films are those on which Harryhausen worked. I'd have to pick Earth vs. the Flying Saucers and Jason and the Argonauts as his best. Both have very good stories and the stop motion work on them is amazing.

orlmac

Watched TRON (the original) and Conan the Barbarian (the 2011 version). Both were very good, I imagine TRON must have been incredible for it's time. I really enjoyed Conan also, makes me wish I hadn't skipped it at the theater. As always, Rose McGowan did an incredible job.

BobO'Link

I only have the first season and believe it's enough. After those 6 episodes I just couldn't see where they could go without becoming very repetitive or doing even more grasping at straws than they'd already done. From what you indicate it appears that they took the Egyptian glyphs to heart and extended them to the Greeks as well, eh? I thought they did some long jumping to asertain the Egyptian glyps depict a hybrid being created.

I got several good laughs at the conclusions and comments made in each segment, frequently wondering just how those leaps of faith were made. Everything seemed to be pretty much a case of "Here's something we can't explain/do ourselves so it *must* have been done/influenced by aliens". Of course these guys seem to be making a pretty good living jumping to conclusions so maybe they are on to something after all...

But... it *was* an entertaining season even if there was no true science or proof behind any of the assertions.

Did you notice how the hair of the magazine publisher seemed to become more and more wild during some episodes?

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

His hair got noticably blacker in the next season. His tan always bothered me. You can barely make out the untanned circle around his eyes, plus since he can't really grow a beard, all the skin you see through it is untanned.

BobO'Link

By way of disclaimer: I was in my early 30s when this film came out and had worked in TV production for many years. I was also a "gamer" and had learned computer programming by the time Tron came out. I knew how the film effects were done as we employed many of the same techniques as the film industry. My age, profession, and computing hobby all have major bearing on how I originally viewed this film.

That said...

Actually, Tron was somewhat of a bore unless you were an 8-14 year old video game playing male. The box office was not very good. When it came out I felt it to be a typical Disney film of the time containing many of the "standard" Disney cliches (it even had a Tinker Bell variant). Disney was in a major slump during the late 70s/early 80s and it shows in this production. The film has a marginal story/script with only passable acting. The effects, while highly touted, looked somewhat sub-par even for its day, this in spite of the computer generated nature. This was 5 years after Star Wars but looked like it was done 5 years *before*. The highly touted "inside a computer" premis felt somewhat cliche when it came out and reminded me of many of the "hippie" films of the late 60s. Basically a film that looked and sounded like outsiders attempting to be insiders (pun intended in the case of Tron) and coming out poorer for the attempt. Everyone I knew under the age of 18 pretty much thought Tron was the greatest film in the history of Science Fiction. Those over 18 pretty much knew better.

So... I'm glad you enjoyed the film. It's achieved a somewhat cult status over the years. I still don't understand the attraction.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

You're not alone on that. I remember seeing it as a kid and while it looked neat, it didn't take long for that to wear off and the boring plot to come out. It wasn't until just a few years ago before I could watch it from start to finish.

SterlingBen

I might have missed it but Formats dumped from the checklist?

LickTheABCs

If anyone in this thread happens to invent a time machine, I won't ask you to kill Hitler or anything, all I ask is that you go back to earlier tonight around 9 o'clock and slap me before I watch The Darkest Hour. Much appreciated.

terrycloth

got off to a bad start last night qwith a stinker but knocked out some good first time views.

Real Steak which i thought was alot better then i thought based on the trailer
King Kong PJ's version which iv seen a few times now i love this film one of the few films i can put on randomly and 3 hrs gone from my day

then i got invited to the drive in and sa Abraham Lincoln and Prometheus