A weird double bill:
The Lone Ranger
followed by
The Rocky Horror Picture Show 35th Anniversary BD...

Not a joke, saw these 2 this weekend as well, both on Saturday. Also got caught up in this crazy ass series. Knocked out both seasons. Now resorting to 3 and 4 via Amazon Prime streaming to keep the fix up. Bates is gangsta.

HA! As I was watching them - considering the weird diversity - I actually thought for a brief moment "well, I bet no one else just watched these two on the same day".
Which was...SATURDAY!!!

Jack "Spider Baby" Hill directs a low budget character study that takes place in the stock car racing environment in late 60's central California.
I have no interest whatsoever in racing, but found this to be a surprisingly engrossing affair. Hill did an amazing job on an extremely meager Corman budget. Great work by all the actors too including a satisfyingly nuanced performance from Sid Haig (with an almost full head of hair) and a young Ellen Burstyn (under the name Ellen MacRae). An enjoyable blind buy from the Arrow sale that now makes me wish I'd grabbed Spider Baby at the same time.

48 Hours

Trading Places.

Mallrats

The Green Hornet

Been wanting to see the original Island Of The Fishmen for years now. And I still do. While the new Corman footage is well shot and conceptually makes sense, tonally it is clearly not of a piece with the rest of the film. And in this case, I think I would enjoy the pure Saturday Matinee fantasy version of the material more. Bach sure is lovely, but man-oh-man she makes Meagan Fox look like Helen Hayes.



"Fall Of The House Of Usher" from


What a difference 12 years makes. Very disappointed when I first saw this on the original DVD. Between knowing more what not to expect, as well as the serious up-tick in presentation combined with the films themes which have much more resonance for me now, all made for a highly satisfying ~90 minutes in the dark.

On the Waterfront Criterion. "I coulda been a contenda"

Veronica mars Apparently it helped to have seen the original series. Didn't know what was going on so i agve up

Memphis belle been wanting this on BR since BR was invented

Some of the bonus Puppetoons from


The craftsmanship on display in this set is staggering. Gorgeous technicolor imagery and fun, brief narratives that don't overstay their welcome. Great set, just a little disappointing that the shorts in the main feature don't look quite as brilliant or sharp as the restored ones in the extras.

Hobbit 3D

Cold Comes the Night

Prometheus

3 Days to Kill

Not a lot of action or Amber Heard either

Early, impressive Sidney Lumet. A little over wrought at the very end, but a fascinating character study. I can see how this must have felt like a hammer hit to the side of the head at the time of it's initial release. The B&W image is exceptional, frequently displaying a strong sense of dimensionality.



Classic Ford. The German disc defaulted immediately to the English menu. It's clear that Fox conceived this as a one-size-fits-all worldwide release. I suppose you could read the delay in it coming out in the US is a chance that it's getting put out by Criterion instead, but I'd bet it's more like Fox just knows there's little chance a general release would ever move even 3,000 units. Why bother.
Fortunately anyone that does want it can get it relatively inexpensively (it's an all regions disc) and it's a pronounced upgrade in both audio and video. Very happy to have it even if it doesn't contain the alternate cut.

The Desolation of Smaug 3D. Seem a bit drawn out so far but never read the Hobbit book. Anticipating the 3rd one.

Minority Report

Timecop
Bloodsport

Jack Reacher

Godzilla vs King Ghidora.

Sweetwater

Other than Betty Draper going topless for one scene I don't remember much

More screenshots from Sweetwater.

http://www.doblu.com/2014/01/01/swee...lu-ray-review/