Latest/recent DVD movies watched? Part 4

George Romero's Dawn Of The Dead

 

malcolm reynolds, great user name!

Just finished watching every Firefly episode (again!), and Serenity (also again!) Suprised how both held up so well years later (actually even better the third go-around for me).

"Two by two, hands of Blue...".

Shiny!

 

Red - Terrific comedy-actioner with Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren.

 

I liked all the who's litigating against whom angle. Seeing the end should glue that together for ya'. I thought I wouldn't like The Social Network going in but I enjoyed it. I'd watch it again sometime.

 

Barnes and Noble has a 3 for 1 Blu/DVD sale going on until midnight tonight....(on the website and until they close at the stores).

I picked up:

Merry Xmas Mr. Lawrence (Blu)
Jason and the Argonauts (Blu-my favorite Harryhausen film followed by "7th Voyage")
and "A Beautiful Mind" (Blu)

I've always liked Ron Howard's film--it's a very cleverly structured screenplay and well played out--which is surprising given that it's written by Akiva Goldsman who has also written his fair share of bad stuff ("Lost in Space" comes to mind although to his credit when he is working supervised by someone else he's a talented scribe). I'm not sure if Goldmans came up with the way to lick the difficulty in adapting the book it's based on (or if someone else came up with it) but it is a brilliant conceit that works well for the film and acts as a clever counterpoint to the main story WITHOUT giving away what is REALLY going on (I suspect he got his idea for it from "The Sixth Sense" which used a similiar structural device but with different results).

I liked it as well. I'm a fan of Sorkin's but his work is an acquired taste. The film is quite good but it does use a conceit that is cliched to hang the rest of the movie on (it works mind you but it simplifes a much more complex situation which, IMHO, works against the film).

 

I watched my BD of George Carlin's It's Bad For Ya last night. It was good for me.

 

Samurai I - Musashi Miyamoto

Director: Hiroshi Inagaki

Actors: Toshirô Mifune, Mariko Okada, Rentarô Mikuni, Kuroemon Onoe, Kaoru Yachigusa

 

Premonition
This is part of my DVD collection so I'd seen it before.
Not one of Sandra Bullock's best movies.

The Book of Eli
Excellent

Kick-A**
Average: the little girl's character was awesome, Nick Cage made we want to puke, as usual

 

Very impressive for a film that cost less than $500,000 to make!

 

Samurai II - Duel at Ichijoji Temple

Director: Hiroshi Inagaki

Actors: Toshirô Mifune, Mariko Okada, Koji Tsuruta, Kaoru Yachigusa, Michiyo Kogure

 

I watched Pleasantville on BD last evening.

 

20 Million Miles to Earth (1957) - 5/10 - fine Harryhausen effects combined with unintentional comedy gold, or should I say: "Fascinating... Horrible, but fascinating."
The Ascent (1977) - 9/10 - great Soviet war film by one of the most underrated female directors, Larisa Shepitko
Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990) - 6/10 - surprisingly good sequel after the wretched 2nd part
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) - 7/10 - visually great and some memorable quotes but not much else to justify it's cult status, plus I'm not a fan of these "cool" drug movies for hipsters

 

Four Weddings and a Funeral and Groundhog Day. I got a double dose of Andie MacDowell.

 

Samurai III - Duel at Ganryu Island

Director: Hiroshi Inagaki

Actors: Toshirô Mifune, Mariko Okada, Koji Tsuruta, Kaoru Yachigusa, Michiko Saga

 

I watched my BD of Groundhog Day.

 

The Odessa File

Good movie

 

I watched "The Pledge" last night. Hadn't seen it since it first came out like 10 years ago. Pretty good.

 

John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band Classic Albums

 

I like that one too. I had my DVD of it out in the last six months for a go. It's a really good looking DVD as DVD's go. It came out, From Warner Brudders, about the same time as So-knee's Super (fraud) Bit DVD's. It's one of the DVD's that turned me off of Super Fraud DVD's...Hmnnn, Warner can do this well for regular price.

 

The Most Terrible Time in My Life

Director: Kaizo Hayashi

Actors: Masatoshi Nagase, Shirô Sano, Kiyotaka Nanbara, Yang Haitin, Hou De Jian

 

Jailhouse Rock on Blu-ray

Looks good, better than some of the other B&W BRDs I own.
Hadn't seen it in a long, long time. The only scene I remembered was the famous jail set used for the title track.
And I only recognized one of the actors: Dean Jones. I'm used to Elvis movies with 2 or 3 people I know.

 

I watched Bad Boys (1983) on BD. Lionsgate gave this title a DNR job which reduced detail some. They did nothing about the colour that's faded a good bit. My consolation is that I got it cheap and don't own it on any other format.

 

Thought the actor who played Hunk Houghton looked somewhat familiar, Mickey Shaughnessy. I IMDB'd the movie and it turns out he was in From Here To Eternity which I watched recently.

Shocked to read that the lead actress, Judy Tyler, died in a car crash 3 1/2 months before the movie opened.

 

Fun Fact:
Phil Kaufman appears in Frank Zappa's concert movie, Baby Snakes.
He was Zappa's road manager at the time, and appears on stage performing a vocal trombone impression.

I haven't seen Grand Theft Parsons, I'm afraid.

 

Phil Kaufman is in the last ten seconds of Grand Theft Parsons in a bit part and he is interviewed for the special features. He was an adviser for the film. He loaned the jacket that he wore as Gram Parsons' manager to Johnny Knoxville to wear in the film. It has Sin City arcing across the back. This is on the U.K. DVD. The U.S. DVD is OOP and selling for inflated prices. I heard somebody here on the forum chatting about Grand Theft Parsons and ordered myself a copy.

I have a movie poster for Baby Snakes in my playroom, girlie-cave, but I've never seen the video. Maybe I'll snag a copy sometime.