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New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

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Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

The bad guys won. I hate it when the bad guys win.

I see what you did there.


Blue Valentine:

What "American Beauty" was to mid-life crises, "Blue Valentine" is to marriage. Very good movie. There were cute moments, tough moments, and everything in between. Definitely recommend it.

Side note: the MPAA/movie conflict: some of the sex scenes could have been subdued and would not have taken anything away from the movie. But it was really nothing deserving of the initial NC-17 rating. Personal note: Requiem For A Dream's infamous Jennifer Connelly sex scene was necessary in that context/storyline, since it did add to the story, disturbing as it was.
 
Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

I just saw that the 6 disc blu-ray version of Star Wars comes out in September. I might upgrade my regular dvd versions for that. My only wish is that each movie let me watch both the enhanced and the original theatre releases.

It seems impossible now to get the originals unless its a used VHS copy. Some of the enhancements were stupid and annoy me in ep. 4-6.
 
Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

I just saw that the 6 disc blu-ray version of Star Wars comes out in September. I might upgrade my regular dvd versions for that. My only wish is that each movie let me watch both the enhanced and the original theatre releases.

It seems impossible now to get the originals unless its a used VHS copy. Some of the enhancements were stupid and annoy me in ep. 4-6.

The blu-ray discs will be the altered versions and not the originals. Back in the day, I was able to purchase the original trilogy in their original form, but the altered versions came with them, too. (I refuse to call them "enhanced" as that's not what happened to them, they were merely altered.)

In truth, the one thing done in Empire that I could have approved of would be the attempt to make Cloud City appear brighter with the windows and such, but it was crudely done. The set looks very artificial now, the digital painting of the effects are just too badly done.
 
Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

I just saw that the 6 disc blu-ray version of Star Wars comes out in September. I might upgrade my regular dvd versions for that. My only wish is that each movie let me watch both the enhanced and the original theatre releases.

It seems impossible now to get the originals unless its a used VHS copy. Some of the enhancements were stupid and annoy me in ep. 4-6.

Han shot first!!!!
 
Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

Watched Salt on Netflix yesterday. Pretty entertaining. Your standard spy plot stuff.
 
Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

I was surprised I liked Salt as much as a I did.

I saw Limitless at a $3 theater...ya know it wasnt horrible but if they would have maybe spent a bit more time on the script it could have been quite good.

Also, buddy dragged me to a matinée of Priest (he didnt want to go alone and he paid) and yeah...it was pretty laughable. Best part of that experience was playing old school Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at the theater...SHELL SHOCK!! :D
 
Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

The blu-ray discs will be the altered versions and not the originals. Back in the day, I was able to purchase the original trilogy in their original form, but the altered versions came with them, too. (I refuse to call them "enhanced" as that's not what happened to them, they were merely altered.)

In truth, the one thing done in Empire that I could have approved of would be the attempt to make Cloud City appear brighter with the windows and such, but it was crudely done. The set looks very artificial now, the digital painting of the effects are just too badly done.

The stuff they CGI-ed in just jars so much with the original look that it looks awful. And it really only emphasizes how much better the old ones looked even with miniatures and less advanced effects than the CGI ones of the prequels that just look phony and lifeless.
 
Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

The stuff they CGI-ed in just jars so much with the original look that it looks awful. And it really only emphasizes how much better the old ones looked even with miniatures and less advanced effects than the CGI ones of the prequels that just look phony and lifeless.
Meh. As impressive as some of the miniature work was there were also plenty that haven't held up half as well. There's also a lot of the cgi they put in that hasn't even held up since then.
 
Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

I was surprised I liked Salt as much as I did.

Just watched this, and ditto. It actually had some substance to it (as to how the direction of the movie went). I was ready for the female version of "Crank" and ended up getting a bit more than I expected.
 
Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

Meh. As impressive as some of the miniature work was there were also plenty that haven't held up half as well. There's also a lot of the cgi they put in that hasn't even held up since then.

True, but the miniature work at least looked real, there was texture and realism to what you were seeing. It wasn't a cartoon. The added CGI crap makes everything look like a video game and has no heart to it. Hell I will take any of the lightsaber battles in the original series over the ballet dances in the prequels.

A couple years ago tPOV posted the Red Letter Media review of the prequels and it nailed it. For those who never saw it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZmQgxrI It is in 7 parts but worth the watch.
 
Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

True, but the miniature work at least looked real, there was texture and realism to what you were seeing. It wasn't a cartoon. The added CGI crap makes everything look like a video game and has no heart to it. Hell I will take any of the lightsaber battles in the original series over the ballet dances in the prequels.

A couple years ago tPOV posted the Red Letter Media review of the prequels and it nailed it. For those who never saw it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZmQgxrI It is in 7 parts but worth the watch.

I've watched those a few times now. They still make me laugh. :)
 
Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

True, but the miniature work at least looked real, there was texture and realism to what you were seeing. It wasn't a cartoon. The added CGI crap makes everything look like a video game and has no heart to it. Hell I will take any of the lightsaber battles in the original series over the ballet dances in the prequels.
Pretty much the same reasoning behind Star Trek using physical models over cgi up to Voyager.

Real versus non-real are personal preference. Like the Hoth sequence with the AT-AT's, I don't think I ever not noticed that it was miniature work. No matter how good it is, complicated movement like that always has the slightly jerky motion of stop motion. I think the reason they do work well is that the way they were cut was only a small part of the action. You didn't have any battles like the prequels were long sequences actions didn't cut away. There was a small action like veering lazily to the left and then the scene would cut right away. If they had been more like other stop motion pictures where you spent a lot of time watching some monster move about and destroy a city, there's no way it would have worked as well.
A couple years ago tPOV posted the Red Letter Media review of the prequels and it nailed it. For those who never saw it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZmQgxrI It is in 7 parts but worth the watch.
Oh the prequels did have a lot of problems with the story. They tried to cover far too many characters. In some ways it was more of a documentary without commentary. Instead of the epic story of the rise and fall of Anakin that it's supposed to be, we get a forbidden love story with an unlikeable heroine.
 
Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

When I was ten I could point out all the models and stuff, it was dated then. They werent why I was watching though, I was watching to see the characters. That was where the depth was. You could ignore that when Obiwon was fighting Vader in A New Hope when he held the lightsaber at an angle you could see it was just a piece of plastic because the lightsaber wasnt the important part of the scene, what Vader and Kenobi said was.

The reason I posted the Red Letter Media deal was that in one of the parts he discusses why he hated the redone versions of the originals. He talks about how the cheap effects and models gave those movies humanity. People got dirty, things looked broken or halfassed, because that is what the world is really like. All the added stuff made things look sterilized and unreal.
 
Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

People got dirty, things looked broken or halfassed, because that is what the world is really like. All the added stuff made things look sterilized and unreal.

This was one of the best parts of the one indisputably good SW movie, the very first. Most space operas before it had everything in gleaming titanium, while it had sets that looked like a crappy podunk Missouri town -- even in the midst of galactic empire there was filth, boredom, and humanity's most singular marker: the Endless Sea of the Great Unwashed. Usually sci-fi reserves that for dystopias, but there it was just the way things have always been and will always be.
 
Re: New/Rented Movies: Bring Back Laserdiscs!

<strike>Did Red Letter Media ever do a review of episode III?</strike>

Nevermind. I have some youtube watching to do this week.
 
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