BobO'Link

It *is* clever and cute but I'm not a fan of non-standard packaging for DVD/BR product.

I didn't realize how large it was until I got it home. I did a store pickup and they quickly pulled it out of the bag for me to verify it was correct and put it back in. I was running errands so didn't take it out of the bag until I got home. It's huge - thicker and larger than a plastic VHS case with only 4 discs inside. Everything, including the poster, would have fit in a standard multi-disc Viva case.

Based on what I've read about the show that case is in keeping with the overall 80s vibe its claimed to have. It looks like a typical rental VHS (just a bit larger) right down to store markings and labels with fake shelf wear on the slip case. So, yeah... it's "cute" but the typical one-trick-pony with such packaging. My grandkids didn't pick up on the VHS nostalgia bit at all as they've never even seen a VHS tape or machine.

BobO'Link

You're *really* going to be impressed with the Jonny Quest BR. I'm seriously considering watching it again before the challenge is over. I couldn't wait and watched the whose series last month - within a week of it arriving.
Was this the 1982 movie with Kurt Russell (why they did a prequel in 2011 and then called it The Thing is mystifying)? It's been a while since I've seen either of those and I have this recollection of both having a wolf in the opening scene.

I resisted watching the 1982 remake for several years as I love the original and have a built-in bias against remakes as most aren't worth the time. When I finally watched it I was surprised that it's quite good. Different in a good way. I still prefer the original although the 1982 movie is one of a handful of remakes I consider to be worth watching.

BobO'Link

I finished last night with the "Director's cut" of Supergirl. It's by no means a "great" movie and really just passable but I enjoy it anyway. Part of that is having been a fan of Superman and Supergirl since I was a kid.

They got the mythology of the character wrong, my biggest gripe, but it's generally OK and fits with what the Salkind's did with the Superman movies. It's more Superman III than Superman: The Movie, which is unfortunate. It was intended to start a new franchise but the poor box office killed that idea.

BobO'Link

I watched the "International Edition" cut of Supergirl this morning and listened to the commentary. I normally don't do that but for some reason that was the default audio track so I listened while the opening credits were rolling and just kept it for the rest of the movie. It was interesting.

I followed that with a first time viewing of Ikarie XB 1, a Czech film from 1963 that I've only heard about and have wanted to see for several years. I splurged on the new BR release (it's region free!). It's a very impressive film. It follows a 40 member crew of a interstellar spacecraft on their journey to Alpha Centauri in search of life. It deals with the everyday, ho-hum, aspects of such a journey and delivers some excitement with an encounter with a derelict craft, an odd illness, and more. There's even social commentary. If you enjoy foreign SF films you should give it a shot.

davidh777

LJG765

I'm hoping so! I'm also eager to see if there are any "new" episodes that never aired on Boomerang or CN where I watched the majority of them.

It was the 1982 movie. Part of why I picked it was because Russell was in it and it was a Carpenter film, so it'd check off a couple of check marks in the list. I usually watch Escape from New York but wanted to skip it this year. It wasn't bad. Like I mentioned, I'm not a horror fan at all. I don't mind cheesy horror or old horror (Like Vincent Price's House of Wax) but hate jump scares, over-the-top bloody gore/murder porn/violent horror films. Hitchcock's The Birds was one of the first I watched that I actually enjoyed. But anyway, The Thing had a few gooey moments but I appreciate the suspense of not knowing who was infected. I have not watched the original and didn't realize until I started reading about it that there was an original. It does sound like the '82 version actually stuck closer to the short story they are both based on than the original.

I have to admit, I'm probably going to buy this literally because it's $5 bucks. Season 2 is $10 and there's a 20% coupon for Target right now that I can use, so think I"m going to grab both of them this afternoon. I did read a review last night about S. 1 that said that the first disc had unskippable ads at the beginning but not the 2nd disc. Not sure if they fixed it for S. 2, but here's hoping. I did enjoy S.1 enough that I do want to have access to it since I'm not a Netflix subscriber. I'm with you, though, that it's really stupid not to be able to skip them.

The packaging, on the other hand...I'm a sucker for unique ones. I'm also a little more flexible space wise because I have some unique storage for my TV on DVD/BR collection. It's a little more flexible than what I use for my movies height wise. It is annoying that they couldn't make it look like the VHS tape without sizing it to fit most DVD storage units. They were more concerned about looks than practicalities.

shadokitty

BobO'Link

I'd say it's unlikely as there are only 26 episodes. I was 9 when it first aired, in Prime Time, and practically devastated when it didn't return for a 2nd season. At least it went to Saturday rotation and stayed there for many years. I've seen it so much I practically have it memorized but still like to watch it at least once a year. When I got the DVDs I watched them through 4 times before putting it away.
My preference for horror is "classic" (i.e. pre ~1970) horror movies. I have no use for gore/murder/violent/slasher/toture-porn or any of the variants. I don't mind "jump scares" if they're done well - Alien comes to mind for that one as it's more like a classic horror/monster movie with updated effects. While it does have a bit of gore it's not over-the-top like many others.

I've read that about Carpenter's version but have never read the short story. I saw the original as a kid on a late night "horror host" program. It kind of stuck with me.

I complained about the promo bit on another thread here and was told a possible method to get around them. Essentially - put the 2nd disc in, let it load, swap to the 1st disc. The menu should load with no promos first. I've not yet tried it but will before long. If it works I'll likely order S2 (the store here doesn't have any in stock) with a few other things before that sale expires later tonight.

BobO'Link

It'd work for me. I think Middle Earth would be a very interesting place... at least as long as Sauron's minions weren't after me.

LJG765

Sounds like a good dream to me unless you were stuck with the Orcs.

Please let me know if it works! I went ahead and bought S1 and S2. For $5 for S1 and $8.00 (20% off $10) for S2, with another 5% off for using my Target CC. I also had a $5 gift card. Was hard to say no to buying them, especially since now I can watch S2 anytime rather than relying on someone with Netflix.

BobO'Link

It works! Here's what you do:

Insert disc *two* first. Let the menu come up. EJECT disc two and insert disc *one*. When it starts it'll come up to a "Resume: Yes/No" option very quickly. Select "Yes" and you'll be at the menu. This process takes ~30 seconds to complete from inserting disc two until you can select an episode on disc one.

LJG765

Awesome, thanks!

numbercrunch

Watched the new Severin blu ray release of the Soviet film VIY (1967). Fascinating stuff.

BobO'Link

Last night I finally watched my new BR of Fahrenheit 451 (1966). It's a really good adaptation of the novel and a long time favorite.

Then I cracked open a 7 movie Godzilla set I picked up last year but didn't get to. I started those with Godzilla 2000 (1999) which was far better than what I was expecting. It has fairly good visual effects and an interesting "alien monster" creation.

After that one I watched Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla which was also better than I was expecting.

I'm now a bit more excited about the rest of the movies in that set. Generally I'm not much of a fan of the later Godzilla movies and have felt they were mostly dumbed down kid movies. I may have to change my opinion if the rest are like those first two.

shadokitty

BobO'Link

Continuing the Godzilla set with Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000) which was lots of fun. A new enemy for Godzilla and a last second "let's leave it open for a possible sequel" scene.

I'm about to start Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001) which I'm now expecting to be quite good (it also has a rather high IMDB score of 7.2 - quite respectable for a Godzilla flic). I also like Mothra.

Other than the first two the rest are in Japanese with English subs. The first two were dubbed in English with no alternate audio track - bummer. I'd rather have the original language and subs. Oh well... they looked very good. All are in OAR, which is another bonus, and have excellent transfers.

LJG765

This week is my family's annual week up at the lake so I haven't been able to get many watches in. We're settling down for the night pretty early so I think I'm going to go put in Faust. The back cover claims it is up there with Metropolis which I really enjoy. I won't lie, I try to like silent films, but the longer ones do tend to lose my interest. Metropolis is one of the few that more than meet expectations so it'll take a lot for me to enjoy something as much as I enjoy that one.

The challenge is about half over. How are your challenges going?

brainee

Just watched I Am Mother (which I held off from on Netflix until the challenge) ... nice to see Netflix bucking the reputation of making good series but crap movie originals.

I watched Happy Death 2U a few days ago. Despite the marketing making it look like a slasher horror, it's very much a sci-fi movie (more so than the first one). It also plays more at being an outright comedy than the first movie.

brainee

You must be thinking about the late 60s and early/mid 70s Godzilla movies (which mostly were silly kid movies). But they had several reboots which went back to a more serious tone and I enjoyed quite a bit. There was a run of movies between The Return of Godzilla and Godzilla vs Destroyah from 1984 to 1995. And sounds like you're seeing the next series (from Godzilla 2000 and Godzilla: Final Wars). Final Wars gets crapped on a bit since much of it doesn't feel like a Godzilla movie, but I liked it. I was into director Ryuhei Kitamura's other movies (like Versus and Azumi) and I loved the joke Final Wars made at American Godzilla's expense.

Has anyone seen Shin Godzilla? I saw it earlier in the year and is a whole new reboot and retelling of Godzilla's origin. It goes in some pretty weird directions, but I appreciate that you have to shake up the formula.

shadokitty

BobO'Link

You're correct about the Godzilla "kid era" movies. The early 70s was about when I stopped watching them as they'd devolved to the point of Saturday Morning Cartoon level. I'm OK with that for a cartoon but not a Godzilla movie. They just got too silly and I just wrote off the entire franchise at that point. I almost didn't purchase that set because of that but it was very cheap (I paid $14) and had good reviews. I'm glad I made the purchase as they've been uniformly good.

So far all are from 2000 and later: Godzilla 2000 (1999), Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000), Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001), and Godzilla against Mechagodzilla (2002).

The last 3 in that set are: Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003), Godzilla: Final Wars (2004), and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993). Seems odd to have an early 90s movies on a 2000's Godzilla set. So, yeah, it's the 2000 series of movies.

I also discovered after watching that one is out of production/date order. Godzilla against Mechagodzilla (2002) is on the disc with Godzilla 2000 (1999) while the 2000 and 2001 movies share a disc. If I'd realized that I'd have juggled the viewing order. I really don't know if it truly matters though...

SterlingBen

Just watched Space Station 76, I think I liked it?

Weird that a movie that came out so recently has no HD release, only DVD. Perhaps to go with the ascetic?

BobO'Link

Went on a slight tangent last night. Wasn't in a mood for reading subs so put the Godzilla movies on the back burner and pulled out my new BR of Conan the Barbarian (1982) and Conan the Destroyer (1984), a couple of old favorites, cheesy though they are.

They look pretty good on Blu - can't say a significant improvement over the DVDs but a noticeable improvement no less. I can't say the same about the 5.1 remixed audio. Those are horrible with the typical over-loud music and aural effects with voices far too low in the mix. Again, the original audio track(s) were not provided. Bummer. I was forced to watch with subs anyway just to know what was being said without waking everyone whenever music or sound effects hit.

It's been quite a while since I last watched these and I'd forgotten how "svelte" Schwarzenegger was back then (on... he's never really been svelte but in comparison to some later work he's much slimmer).

shadokitty

LJG765

I get that. I'm having trouble getting into the mood myself. I am enjoying staring at the lake and not being online as much this week. I've read 2 1/2 books, actual books! One more day and I'll be back home with more time to watch but until then, enjoying spending time with my nieces.

I just saw an article on the Picard series, talking about Trek. I am interested to see what they focus on. I like Patrick Stewart as an actor in general but grew up on him as Picard so it will be nice to see him in that roll.