Nightbreed: The Director's Cut

Double Feature

Not sure I liked making her a sympathetic villain



Not a big fan of Channing Tatum but I'll give him credit here, this movie had some laughs.

Still don't understand how he became a huge star.

Neither do I, but when you see what we do with people like Kim Kardashian it starts to make sense. He may have little talent but at least he's in movies. She has no discernable talent and people idolize her.

Game of Thrones Season 1 Disc 2
Game of Thrones Season 1 Disc 3

I think Channing Tatum needs to stick with comedies. Even his cameos in LEGO Movie and This is the End are great. But he can't do action movies or star in a leading role to safe his life. White House Down was a little tough to watch.

Probably good looks, predominantly. Though to be fair, I actually find him pretty funny in the JS movies. They're basically big jokes at his expense, and he plays along with them the whole way through.

Yup, today someone like Dustin Hoffman would never become a movie star.

Game of Thrones Season 1 Disc 4

But Dustin Hoffman can act. Not too many are raving over CT's acting chops



Looking for something mindless to put in for the wife that I could tolerate. Forgot all about the storyline of the dad dying of cancer. Still a little raw. She ended up in tears and I was pretty choked up too.

Up In The Air - great movie.

Rented both of these from Redbox. Hated Jersey Boys. Blended isn't too bad. Not surprised it got crapped on since most seem to hate Sandler comedies. But, it actually had some charm.

over the last week...


Irreverent comedy/drama about the inequities and injustices seemingly inherent to our legal system.
I remember the TV commercials of this when I was a kid. Pacino's righteous anger from the climactic scene made for electrifying 30 and 60 second spots. Unfortunately, the rest of the film is an unsteady mix of painfully forced irreverence with some broadly cartoonish characters (set to Grusin's bouncy lite jazz score) with what are now some unsophisticated & remedial observations about the legal process.
The climax, with Pacino bellowing the films signature line, still works well though.


Not quite as amazing as I remembered it, and the ending was startlingly abrupt- but any film with Roy Scheider in his prime is well worth a re-watch to me. And that one scene with Janet Margolin (think of a slightly more girl next door version of Isabelle Adjani) still makes my eyes pop out of my head.
Beautiful job on the transfer and encode.


I know a lot of sci-fi horror fans hold this in high regard, but I found it extremely disappointing. I think I had more fun with Incredible Melting Man and Lifeforce- both of which crib elements from the general story. I also agree with the film's original author in that Brian Donlevy, an actor I usually like, is poorly cast here in the title role.


One of my favorite films about male/female relationships- as well as a perfect snarky end-of-the-decade commentary on the 80's predominant theme of upwardly mobile, conspicuous consumption.
Directed with abundant flair and wit by DeVito. So many scenes just ring so true.
Played out a little on the long side for me this time, but it never fails to satisfy.
This time I was struck by just how subtle and excellent Turner's performance was. Can't remember if she was nominated for any awards, but she should have been.


Finished up the first season. It works much better when I limit my viewing to one 30 minute ep an evening. I started in on Season 2 and Art Carney's Archer has to rank up there with Bookworm as the most tedious villains yet.


After struggling to get through the first four eps months ago, I shotgunned the last 11 in two nights. Heartbreaking but necessary changes to the paradigm had me glued to the screen. Was reading threads from people watching it when it first aired and I don't really buy the criticisms or all the hate. I'm sure the once a week with commercials format has something to do with the antipathy. For me, while I hated to see some of the stuff that went down, the show almost never failed to provide me with a fully engulfing emotional experience. It remains a remarkably compelling show and I'm annoyed I have to wait another 10 months (when I'll finally have the down time) to see what happens next.

I have to agree that Adam West's Batman doesn't make for great binge viewing. The kitsch factor works far better in small doses.

That's kind of what I thought when I saw the movie way back when. There's only so much camp I can tolerate .

Well I'm chagrined now because I used to constantly stick up for the show. Last time I saw it was when they re-syndicated it in '89 here to take advantage of the movie hype. I remember coming away from some of those eps thinking there was no way this was as bad as I'd remembered it was and it was actually no more campy or unfaithful to the spirit of the comics of it's era as the Burton film was then. But the eps that I was basing this new insight on were all some of the stronger ones of the first season.
The show, when it's good, can be very entertaining and slyly funny.
But there was also a tendency early on to mind numbing repetition ("I don't know who he is behind that mask of his, but I know we need him now...").
And when it's bad- as it was for the Archer eps that I finished last night- it's execrable. I wanted to throw rotten vegetables at the screen it was so awful.

I'll be dialing this back to about one 30 minute ep a week now.

I think that ever since I've been out of single digits, this is how I've always ended up experiencing the show- initial excitement and enthusiasm that I get to see it again after all these years, followed by an early burnout and eventually just indifference.

anyway- back to our regular programing


Eps 1-8 over the last two nights.
Needed something rich to distract me from the withdrawal of no more Walking Dead for a while. And... Wow. Was that ever the right choice.
Spectacular performance by McConaughey and the dynamic conflict between the two lead characters made this insanely compelling. In terms of that aspect, which drove the show all the way through, I loved it. It played out authentically and provided a resolution that was organic and satisfying.
In terms of the central mystery/case though- while it was equally compelling all the way through, I was quite disappointed with how that wrapped up in retrospect. Specifically
Would still highly recommend it for the other qualities it offered, just a little disappointed in that, somewhat substantial, aspect.

In the 60's & 70's looks were not as important as they are today. Today you can be a subpar actor and still be in demand because of looks. Paul Giamatti & Michael Shannon could have been big movie stars in the 70's.

Begin Again. Nice little movie I just blindly added to the Netflix queue.

No need to watch it blind, here's the review:

http://www.doblu.com/2014/10/29/begin/

Of course, if you like John Carney's Begin Again...you'll love his earlier Once, which is the movie that got him the gig.

http://www.doblu.com/2014/05/07/once-blu-ray-review/

I will mention that Kiera Knightley has superb musical tastes. It makes her all the more cute.

Might have been the right combination of people and drinking but we found this very funny. B+