A convention of any kind related to Laserdisc would probably sit better in some sort of convention for dead and obscure media formats. Mix it all up a bit and bring enthusiasts together across all areas. A few examples off the top of my head would be Laserdisc, reel collectors and preservationists e.g. 8mm/16mm/35mm and perhaps the odd 70mm and IMAX lunatic, MiniDisc, AHD, VHD, DVHS, CED and on and on and on.
If you were really lucky, maybe involve Philips, Pioneer, Sony, Panasonic et al in some way. Unfortunately Leonard Nimoy popped his clogs a while back so your keynote speaker is gone. Although Jason Alexander may be available. :D
In contrast I couldn't envisage a handful of weirdos gathering at a holiday camp to tickle each others lungs over some silver discs. It just doesn't compute. A cross-format festival of all things obscure in the world of physical media has more potential. You've got options as well for folks to peddle their wares. Kitsch vinyl, cassette and Bandcamp sellers. Maybe some Discogs sellers could grab a table as well as LDDB sellers and on and on.
You could call it The Big Convention Uniting Niche Things Symposium. :thumbup:
Dawson City: Frozen Time is another superb title from the Kino Lorber stable, and another that took me by surprise. Another blind stumbleview. It's essentially a 2 hour documentary with next to zero commentary; text on the screen unfolds the story. It tells of Dawson City, a town up in the Yukon and the incredible discovery in 1978 of a swimming pool buried under an ice hockey rink that was filled up with silent movies back in 1929.
What I enjoyed most about this film was the detail to the back story. How and why 533 silent films ended up being buried in a swimming pool for half a century, but also the history of Dawson City, right from day zero. I learned a lot about Dawson's poignancy around the Klondike gold rush. The devastating fires and loss of life. The way a city swelled with prospectors, but once the big corporations took over and ravaged the lands, a City of 9000 or so nosedived to under 1000 almost immediately.
One of the more harrowing facts I learned from this film (with regards cinema) is that it is thought that over 75% of all of the silent films ever made are now lost forever. A mix of variables are at play here, from the danger of nitrate film and it's handling and storage, down to the perception back then that these films had a shelf life and once they had run their course they were simply disposed of. It's incredible to try and comprehend how film makers and distributors saw these works as disposable, yet when we look back today all we can see is that they were destroying history.
2 hours flew by relatively swiftly. A couple of sections I felt dragged a little longer than they perhaps should have. There appeared to be more dwelling on the founding of Dawson than the discovery and preservation of the lost reels. I'd have preferred if this section was given more time, however given the story behind how the reels ended up where they did is of great importance then it is essential to tell the complete back story so I can see why the film ventured this path. I'm keen to learn more about silent films and perhaps watch a few more off of the back of this film. It's an era of cinema that I've explored very little of aside from the obvious candidates, Metropolis, A Trip To The Moon and so on.
I'd urge anyone who enjoys film to watch this documentary. It's a good one.
SIDE NOTE: If you are a baseball fan (and who isn't? :thumbup: ) you may appreciate the footage of the 1919 World Series that was found in the swimming pool.
I have never in my life heard of the film My Name Is Pecos , I thought it was perhaps a documentary about the guy that invented Old El Paso dinner kits or something. Excuse my utter ignorance. :oops:
What we have here is a half decent spaghetti Western that, while not in the moody, ultra serious tone of Clint Eastwood's most famous turns and nowhere near the level of gung-ho, balls out utter lunacy of the brilliant Santana films, My Name Is Pecos lands somewhere between. Which is perhaps why it's been overlooked since it's release way back in 1966.
The film is fairly unforgiving and is presented in such a way that you don't ever feel like you bond with or care about the cast. From the very start the film doesn't mess about. It opens abruptly. It's an urgent, angry and unforgiving film. Pecos is one super pissed off bloke. He arrives in town to get revenge on the man who killed his family but ends up helping many others out too. There's no messing about here. No flim-flam. My Name Is Pecos has an objective and it gets there with the least fuss possible.
My Name Is Pecos is rather violent too. Not in a slick, outlandish way (and most definitely nowhere near Santana-level ultraviolence), it's more straightforward. More blunt. More cold and bleak. In this film if you happen to be stood in the way of a rifle or revolver and a trigger is pull then that's just too bad. In fact, I cannot remember the last time I watched a film where around 90% of the cast is killed. Rambo (2008) perhaps?
Oh actually no, the last film I saw that had this high a body count was Double Target (watched on April 21st, 2021). That said though Double Target had a cast of about 650 billion and every single one of them is wiped out in about 5 seconds of the film starting. My Name Is Pecos has a miniscule cast. For reference though (and because this took me bloody ages to make) here's a previous comparison (in deaths per minute) I made between the body counts of Rambo: First Blood and Double Target. Please look forward to it!
My Name Is Pecos opens really strong but I felt tended to lull a little in the mid-section and became almost processional as it depicted the tussle between Kleine (the villain) and Pecos. That said, the film finishes on a superb high with a fantastic climax scene to wrap things up. I had read somewhere that a segment of the film was edited from A Few Dollars More but I wasn't sure where (it's been a while since I've seen it).
I had a bit of a hard time rooting for Pecos though. I think the problem stems around the fact that he's dressed more like a junior minister on a fact-finding mission rather than a chiseled, bitter gunslinger. There were also a couple of moments of comedy that I felt were unnecessary and took the edge away during key scenes. One scene in particular in the saloon I felt was totally ruined by this. The jokes, although few, I felt were not warranted and the film would have been far better off without them.
With regards sound and image there is little to fault here. You get a choice of Italian and English audio tracks. I prefer to watch films in their native tongue and was not disappointed with the clear and nicely-eq'ed Italian mono track. No problems here at all. The English subtitles had a couple of spelling and grammar issues. I'm that pedantic that when I dump my discs to NAS I go through the subtitles with a spell check (yes, really). Picture quality it has to be said is absolutely astounding here. Considering the age of the film you get a razor sharp image here with fine natural grain that does not become problematic during darker scenes at all. You get proper aspect ratio too and some luscious colours to boot. As far as sound and image go I think this presentation is pretty much faultless.
My Name Is Pecos did spawn a sequel Pecos Cleans Up that was released the following year in 1967. I would be keen to see this film to round off the set. Jeff has them both on his subscription service if you are interested. You can also get My Name Is Pecos as part of the Arrow Vengeance Trails box set (which looks like a stellar buy incidentally).
As far as spaghetti westerns go, I don't think this one ranks up there with the best of them. It does have it's moments though and for those alone I would say this is well worth a watch. Get it in the best quality possible though as the HD restoration is a treat. :thumbup:
I think that regardless of what you may think of the film, the story behind it and getting the thing finished and out on Blu Ray is pretty incredible and is worth of more than one doff of anyone's Easter bonnet.
So long story short, the folks at Vinegar Syndrome found a bunch of 35mm film in their archives that turned out to be a film shot in 1984 called New York Ninja. Great, scan it, restore it, chuck it on a Blu Ray. So what?
Not so fast.
The video was found intact but unedited, and to make matters worse the sound and the script are lost. :wtf:
In a rather gargantuan twist, Vinegar Syndrome have gone and finished the film complete with a brand new score by a band called Voyager. On top of that, a new script was written (a lipreader was not used, instead a script was written that tried to roughly match the mouth movents of the actors) along with a new English language dub track featuring a stellar cast of Don "The Dragon" Wilson, Michael Berryman, Linnea Quigley and Cynthia Rothrock!
Don't know about you but I think this kind of work deserves supporting to the moon and back. Genuinely wonderful to see this kind of thing being done I feel. Only thing I'd have liked to see is for director John Liu to have had some kind of oversight in the editing of the film. It's not clear if he was involved at any stage, perhaps it will become clearer in any bonus features of commentary track(s) on the disc.
More tat, plus some stuff I had to collect from my work as I left it there just as lockdown commenced. Thought to show it here in case anyone is remotely interested. :lolno:
First up is Years Of Lead. This is the USA box set, the limited edition one with the excellent book included. If you have a player with a mod chip or another way to switch regions then you can watch Savage Three uncut in Region A. A must have set for any 1970's Italian crime film fans!
A new phono preamp to go with my new turntable. The old setup I had wasn't really working out, especially with the new cartridge and stylus. This Musical Fidelity V90-LPS preamp does both MC and MM and has a great sound signature too. That's about the extent of my audiophile verbal diarrhoea. Oh and it's black, not silver.
I should really be wearing a balaclava for this next one. I decided to upgrade my turntable to something that could do a bit more, and also didn't have a hard wired phono cable and could also capture audio directly. I managed to stumble upon an awesome deal for a Sony PS-HX500 from Jeff. It was graded as 'Acceptable' and literally the only thing wrong with it was a very small (about 3cm) crack on the side of the dust cover. It's otherwise immaculate. Massively discounted because of that and well worth the gamble as you can always return it to Jeff. Anywhere else and I wouldn't have bothered.
This thing is quite the upgrade from my previous turntable and preamp. It really does sound superb, though for me it's the ability to record straight to DSD and then dump the files on my NAS and DAP. I can also stream the DSD files, 'full fat', from NAS to phone using Neutron Player. Sony's software is a little iffy, and there's no Linux version which is a shame (anyone know of a DSD recorder for Linux?) but the results are superb, especially when listened to with capable headphones. The supplied cartridge and stylus are alright I suppose. I'll mount the Ortofon OM2 Red soon, just need to get some micro needle nose pliers to remove the wiring as it's very fragile and quite tightly secured. Really pleased with it overall, and it was a massive bargain to boot.
Oh, one other thing. I did test the RPM speeds for 33.3 and 45's. It's about 1 rpm over on both speeds. I'll pick up an insulated micro screwdriver soon enough to adjust the speed issue. It's not a huge problem and very easily adjusted.
For anyone interested, here's some vinyl I captured to test it out. It's being played back on my phone. Though I've since tested it on my DAP but haven't figured out how to take screenshots from it yet (direct screenshots).
The Keep Soundtrack (Record Store Day 2021 Vinyl):
Also got some more 3D discs. Guardians Of The Galaxy 1 and 2 and also Gods of Egypt. Plus a VHS from my work, The Marseilles Connection. More 1970's Italian Crime action!
More Blu's (dunno why Gods Of Egypt is there again, it's not that good!). The uncut version of Enter The Ninja from Germany (the disc is from Germany, it's not the title of the film and it's not about Angela Merkel fighting Franco Nero and Sho Kusogi though what a great film that could be!?). Also Jurassic World 3D.
Three copies of another one of the greatest films ever made, Speed Driver. I also have an original 1980 lobby poster that was found in a closed down cinema in Palermo. Needs a custom frame though. Only thing to make it perfect would be having it signed by Fabio Testi and Senta Berger. I can dream... :( Side note: I actually got the Japanese VHS of Speed Driver about 3 or 4 years ago, direct from a private seller in the UK. I saw it for sale only once in Japan about a year prior and the shop wanted ¥30,000 for it. I've never seen it for sale (at least in my own research, ymmv) since buying it. I've always wondered as well if this ever made it to Laserdisc. Apparently it did, according to the only mention of it I've seen on the Internet on an IMDB user review of the film. If anyone ever spots this for sale on LD, please do let me know.
I'm going to make a hybrid version of the VHS releases. The Japanese VHS has the English dub track and hard Japanese subtitles, but the picture is rather washed out. The Italian original VHS has the original Italian audio track and a far better picture. Due to the age of the tape, the audio has started to degrade a little so will need a remaster in Ozone or similar. The French release is in black and white for me as I can't play SECAM tapes. I think it's in original AR though, I'll need to check it again. Audio I think is a French dub with no subtitles.
I've captured the Italian and Japanese VHS tapes and will edit them in Flowblade and maybe make an MKV container. I can't find any English subtitles anywhere as the film is very rare, obscure and hasn't had a release outside of VHS.
An original 1981 7" single of Dangerous Strangers by Deborah Van Valkenberg (from the excellent film King Of The Mountain). This is a rarity and I found it for sale in Sweden about 2 years ago. One to record to DSD asap.
Two ultra rare VHS titles. The Embassy UK release (big box) of The Avenger, aka Nasty Hero. Also the original 1981 VTC big box release of Lee Majors hyperfilm The Last Chase. Both titles are ultra rare and took an age to find, especially The Avenger. The only other copy I've seen for sale on VHS (outside the USA) is a Hebrew big box edition for sale in Israel. Delighted to have it and I've already captured both tapes to digital.
Last up, one probably more for UK and Ireland folks who may have heard of the excellent adult comic Viz. It's a staple read every month and has been going for over 40 years. One of the spin offs that has come from the comic/magazine is the Profanisaurus. It's a section of the magazine with staff and reader submitted definitions to compile a dictionary of rude words, phrases and so on. It's most definitely NOT for children to read and definitely NOT safe for work! I've included a couple of samples below for you. :thumbup:
Waited a good while for the price to drop on this set and it finally went a Euro or so away from it's ATL price. This is the Germany-only Terence Hill and Bud Spencer 20 disc Blu Ray box set.
20 Blu Ray discs (all with reversible covers, loaded with extras etc) and over 2000 minutes of goodness including Who Finds A Friend Finds A Treasure!
About 4 of the discs have no English audio track or subtitles, but that's fine as subtitles are available for them so it's straight disc dump to NAS and a visit to Opensubs for those. This box set is great quality and will sit nicely next to the Bud Spencer Jumbo XXL 14 disc Blu box set. That set contains the star prize of Watch Out We're Mad! but also none of the other 13 films are in this 20 film box set, so there is no crossovers or double dips! :thumbup:
Picked up a small stack of used Blu's recently. A mix of 2D and 3D. In the pile there is Infra Man, I did come across it when watching The Oily Maniac a good while back now. Never got round to watching it but I will now. Then there's Lucky Number Slevin. I last saw this film at the cinema when it was first released and can't wait to see it again. It really is an excellent film and I think at the time it appeared in cinemas from absolutely nowhere and became a fairly modest hit. There's some conflicting views about which Blu is best, supposedly both the USA and UK releases have their strengths. I just want to see the film again for now and worry about the best release another day.
Next in the pile is The Amazing Spider-Man 3D. I got it cheap to go with the sequel, sure I may as well. Then there's Monsters University 3D and Monster House 3D. I haven't seen either of these before but hopefully they will be fun to watch. Just like Lucky Number Slevin, the last time I saw Prometheus was in 3D at the cinema when it was first released. I quite enjoyed it, I know many don't think it's that great a film but it would be a boring world if we all liked the same things. Time to watch Prometheus again soon... in 3D.
Last up is an oddity. No, The Polar Express isn't an oddity, it's a reasonably entertaining festive yarn from Robert Zemeckis. It's the 3D release that is odd here. This release is presented in anaglyphic red/cyan 3D and comes with 4 pairs of 3D glasses packed in with the disc as well as a lovely lenticular 3D slip cover! Maybe you have seen this particular release before? I certainly haven't and I'm curious as to how well the anaglyphic presentation will work. I think it's an interesting find and I'm keen to learn more.
Next up are 3 brand new Blu's, one of which I ordered to watch yesterday on Halloween but sadly these only turned up today. First is The Exorcist, the film I wanted to watch yesterday. This release is nice because although it's missing the third disc from the 40th Anniversary set, it costs about a quarter of the price. I wanted this for the original Theatrical Version from 1973, even though it's still been tampered with by Warner Bros in a couple of places. I wish they'd left the original WB logo in there on the header for example. I do actually own the now long OOP R1 DVD but I have no idea where my copy of it is. I bought it on release from the USA and to date that edition is still the only way to get the proper original print untouched (in the highest quality, the benchmark being DVD in this example over say VHS or Laserdisc et al). I'd love to the the original R1 DVD again but it probably costs a fortune now. My mislaying the disc is probably going to prove a costly mistake.
There's also Wreck-It Ralph 3D. Never caught this one in the third dimension, though the standard version was quite entertaining. I think it bodes well for a 3D presentation.
Last up in the new pile is the 1972 Donald Pleasance hyperfilm Death Line! This is one super obscure little horror feature, again I wanted to watch it as a double feature yesterday along with The Exorcist but it arrived a day late. This is one obscure feature and it's been lovingly restored from the original 35mm negative by Network! You also get a lovely untouched poster art print on the reverse of the sleeve along with a foreword by the team that found the negatives and restored them. There's a lovely booklet inside too that is packed with information and heaps of images sourced from a private collection of one of the film makers and seen for the first time along with marketing plans and newspaper clippings.
Network also brought out the Goodnight Sweetheart box set completely uncut (I think it's safe to coin this collection as uncut now because any future release will likely be censored, current TV broadcast repeats of it already are). They also did a wonderful job with the release of Wilt. I think that Network might be a boutique label (even though it seems to be in bed with ITV Studios so does it qualify as boutique?) that is overlooked, and a bit of a 'hidden gem' with a treasure trove of good content. To wonder so far off the track (excuse the pun) with titles like Wilt and Death Line (and The Piglet Files!) to name just a couple, shows they will really go to great lengths to not only trawl the archives, but to restore them carefully and lovingly. The Death Line restoration is simply stunning, especially considering the condition it was in.
Oh, and a fun fact from the booklet. Christopher Lee only agreed to appear in the film (and I quote) "...if I don't have to wear any teeth".
...and finally. It only took about 68 years to arrive in the mail. The postal service said it was lost and that I had no hope of receiving said goods. But today, lo and behold a DVD edition of Lee Majors exospheric ultramovie The Last Chase finally arrived. It will sit very nicely on my shelf next to the 1981 VTC original big box gold VHS edition! The major difference here is that the DVD presents the film in it's original aspect ration and from a new scan. The VHS releases were all 4:3, including the CED too. It never appeared on Laserdisc to the best of my knowledge.
The best part of this whole deal is that this disc isn't faulty. When Code Red initially released the DVD they recalled all the copies due to a mastering issue that messed the audio sync up apparently. A corrected disc was released but not many copies made it out to the wild (as far as I am aware). This is a correct disc from what I've seen by scanning through it. The DVD release is long OOP and is considered very rare. It doesn't come up for sale often and prices vary wildly. The most extreme price I've seen was just shy of CA$900 but usually it goes for around $100-$200.
I still hope that a Blu Ray may be in the works. I hope... :thumbup:
A day late but I watched Death Line yesterday and it certainly took me by surprise. It wasn't what I was expecting it to be at all. Granted this was released in 1972 but I think this film was way ahead of it's time. Take stock when/if you watch Death Line that It would be a few years as yet before the likes of Deodato, Lenzi and company would really set the benchmark for a cannibal film. Even more strikingly it would be two more years before Tobe Hooper would unleash The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to an unsuspecting audience.
Death Line doesn't go for the jugular (excuse pun) as such. It doesn't rely on shock and schlock to get the job done. It's beauty is in both it's simplicity (in both the story and it's actual production) and it's, albeit preposterous, feasibility . What do I mean by the latter? Death Line tells the story of random people going missing on the London Underground lines, more specifically in this case around Holburn and Russell Square at the start of the 1970's. One evening a member of high society goes missing and, once reported to the police, the grisly investigation begins.
At times the film appears to focus on socio-political issues and the class divide that was a hot topic at the time. Thrown in to the underbelly of this is, rather eclectically, the subject of cannibalism. Never the twain shall meet and all that! The 'feasibility' of the latter stems from way back when the London Underground was first being constructed. Men, women and children all worked deep underground to build the tunnels. There would often be cave-in's and accidents. The thought at the time is that nothing could be done to save anyone from a cave-in or other serious accident, and so those caught up in such tragedies were literally just left to die. Death Line takes those truths and plays on it by suggesting some survived for generations by eating each other, and thus the legacy of our character in the film, simply known as 'The Man', was born. It's all preposterous of course, but the play on feasibility is a nice touch. I think the way 'The Man' was set up, and the environment he lives in may well have been something I think Tobe Hooper could well have taken some influence from.
I'd like to re-emphasise a prior point I made about the film. In that it doesn't really rely on shock and schlock. I percieve that to be true. It really doesn't. And as also aforementioned, Death Line has this beautiful simplicity about it. After the stark, but oddly very hummable opening theme, there is absolutely zero soundtrack. Moments of peril, or perhaps lighter interludes are all enhanced with sparse techno bleeps or short interludes. I think the lack of soundtrack really enhances the film and takes it away from so easily tipping over the edge in to trash cinema. The use of sound in this film works so well and is deeply impressive. On the UK/Ireland Blu Ray from Network that I watched, there is a magnificent audio track on the disc. One scene in particular has one of the lead characters walking from one side of the screen to another, across wooden sleepers and gravel, down a flight of stairs and across to a station platform. The use of sound here is extremely effective and impressive, especially with the added bonus of no soundtrack washing away all of the atmosphere. The sense of dread, anxiety and terror is heightened greatly.
Network have done a miraculous job with the picture quality to and have gone to great lengths to detail the scanning and restoration process on the inside sleeve of the Blu Ray. This is a scan from the original 35mm camera negative and the end results are absolutely astounding. Everything looks spot on, from the aspect ratio to the colours to the lovely fine grain that hasn't been scrubbed and messed around with. The opening titles in particular look so crisp and clean you could eat your dinner off of them. It's a spectacular job done here and bravo to the team behind the restoration process.
Death Line isn't particularly long, weighing in at a nippy 88 minutes. There is a little bit of a lull about 2/3's of the way through because you are finding yourself waiting for a pay off that comes just a little bit later on than it perhaps should have done. When it does come though the climax is frenetic and impressive. This is buoyed by strong leads and an equally strong supporting cast. I particularly enjoyed the 'Slater and Hoskins' (reference there for UK/Ireland folks and OFAH fans) style of policing delivered by Donald Pleasance and Norman Rossington. Christopher Lee makes more of a cameo appearance here as an MI5 officer and does well with the albeit short part that he plays. However it is the roles portrayed by the late Hugh Armstrong (The Man) and Sharon Gurney (Patricia Wilson) that are particularly impressive. Armstrong, who sadly passed in 2016 (and whom the disc is dedicated to) appears in an interview on the Blu Ray and mentions that his script for the entire film consisted of just one line, "Mind the doors!". He said that everything else he does in the film was improvised, mostly in one take, bagged and sent to edit. When you look back at the performance he gave I think you can only stand up and applaud because he is utterly tremendous as 'The Man' and in my very humble opinion I think would have a given a few of the Hollywood elite a run for their money at the annual Academy backslapping fiestas during awards season.
Sharon Gurney was excellent too, particularly in the latter half of the film. It pains me to want to put comparisons in but I couldn't help but feel there was a lot of Marilyn Burns's character in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre found here within Gurney's portrayal of Patricia Wilson. To use the word again it's the simplicity with which the role is delivered to the screen that works so well. Gurney doesn't revel in shock and scream queen territory, she plays a woman genuinely terrified of what is happening to her. She doesn't need to give a Z-Grade shriek of terror direct to camera and faint. She delivers terror with what she doesn't say and with how she reacts . I thought she was absolutely brilliant in Death Line. It's a shame that she appeared to disappear off the face of the Earth (in relation to acting) a few years later. I think she would have gone a very long way indeed.
Director Gary Sherman, for whom Death Line was his directorial debut (he would go on to make Dead and Buried and more notably Poltergeist III), has done a stellar job with this film in my opinion. The whole package is really well put together. It looks great and is lit beautifully. Make up and effects are absolutely first class and I think would probably even give some productions made today a run for their money. The film flows really well and kudos in particular should be given to the editing. One scene in particular that transitions from a tea bag to a rat stood out for me. Scene framing and general camerawork is superb too. It just feels like the whole film has been constructed so well. It's quite brilliant.
I had a look around to see what the critics response to Death Line was way back in 1972 (the USA would not get to see Death Line until 1973, where it was re-titled, rather inexplicably, as Raw Meat). Death Line commands quite the praise, and rightly so. Here's some snippets:
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called the film "a good debut, but it’s undermined by several vast improbabilities in the script and by the painfully inept performance of one of its leads, David Ladd."
Robin Wood of The Village Voice praised the film, writing that it "vies with Night of the Living Dead (1968) for the most horrible horror film ever. It is, I think, decidedly the better film: more powerfully structured, more complex, and more humanly involved. Its horrors are not gratuitous; it is an essential part of its achievement to create, in the underground world, the most terrible conditions in which human life can continue to exist and remain recognizably human. [It] is strong without being schematic; one can't talk of allegory in the strict sense, but the action consistently carries resonances beyond its literal meaning."
Ramsey Campbell, in a review cut from The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, but reprinted later, calls Death Line "an unusually bleak and harrowing horror film...very little in the film offers the audience any relief from the plight of the Man...The violence would be intolerable if it were not for the tragic dimensions of the film, but Hugh Armstrong's performance is one of the greatest and most moving in horror films."
I think those three critical examples are all pretty much spot on (especially the comment about the horror not being gratuitious which is why it's so effective, that's so true with Death Line). I'm not so sure about the Night Of The Living Dead comparison, however in the USA the film was marketed (again, utterly bafflingly) as a zombie film so I can see why such a comparison might be being made there.
I've already mentioned about the Network Blu Ray in the 'stuff you clutter your home with' thread but it's worth briefly reiterating that the package as a whole is exemplary. Especially the lovely full colour (sorry 'color' :lol:) booklet that is literally packed to bursting with heaps of great information about the film. I do love a good booklet in a Blu Ray release, especially if I've enjoyed the film. You get to learn and see so much more. The theatrical trailer is also included on this disc. I think it was marketed all wrong, which may answer why the film wasn't that popular in the UK and the USA. However the film was a cult hit in France and the Netherlands where it performed really strongly. Oh, one final aside I'd like to mention is that it was charming to see the BBFC 'X' card at the start of the film. A nice little touch and I think it adds nicely to the overall presentation of the film.
There's not much more to say about Death Line other than it's strongly recommended. I'm delighted for it to take up a slot in my all-time favourite films pile. I hope I've not built it up to much if you do decide to watch it. One little word of advice I'd like to throw in though is you're probably better off not eating during the film. Stay away particularly from marshmallows or any jelly sweets (sorry, candy... :problem:) with liquid in them that burst when you chew them. Just saying... :lol:
There does appear to be one World Series film on LD: 1986 (a classic! (if you're not from Boston)). Seems they tried it once and the sales didn't convince them to try it again.
The best World Series since 1969. #LFGM :clap: :thumbup:
I would love that 1986 Laserdisc. It's been on my wishlist forever. I have a couple of NPB discs though, those are great. Inject as much baseball in to my soul as possible. I'll watch it all!
Ken Burn's Baseball is an incredible piece of work by the way. I watched that all on PBS in HD via their streaming service a while back. It's brilliant even if you don't like baseball so much.
Does anyone know if there are any Knicks Laserdiscs? I'd love some 80's Ewing era stuff. God bless the Knicks for getting a good start this season too by the way.
Side note; anyone but the cheating Astro's tonight please. I shall be banging my trashcan for the Braves tonight from across the Atlantic! Braves representing the NL East hooray!
I'd love all the gear they are using. That bass line, for example, written on cutting edge equipment in 1982 (though recording started on the album in August 1981) is absolutely biblical. Genius. :clap:
Some of the slower numbers on Sweat reminded me a little of Imagination (there's a great Live Laserdisc by them that I luckily have in my collection). Also, I dug a bit further in to You Are In My System and the cover version that Robert Palmer did.
Apparently he heard the song in 1983 at an exclusive 'private' night club in Paris called l'Elysées Matignon (Julien may know more about it? My knowledge of French nightlife extends to Club Rex and that's about it). He apparently ran to the nearest plane, flew home and recorded the song within 24 hours and slapped it on to his album Pride, which he'd just finished but hadn't gone to pressing plants. Apparently he got David Frank from The System to play on the cover version too!
It turned out to be the only successful song on his album and it wasn't even his song! :crazy:
Side note: I had a look at David Frank's career to date. He must be worth trillions. A few artists or songs you may hopefully have heard of... :crazy:
Steve Winwood - Higher Love (and basically his discography) Christina Aguilera Mtume - Juicy Fruit (so THAT's why the drums sound so good on that song!) Chaka Khan - I Feel For You (never heard of it! :lol: ) Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack Billy Idol Phil Collins Westlife :sick: Eric Clapton Junior Coming To America soundtrack Scritti Politti
...and the list goes on. No wonder The System music sounds so good when you can hear the influence on some of the songs he worked on later in his career.
Reminds me a bit of Cathy Dennis. She did alright with D-MOB and some of her solo stuff but soon faded away.
.......then she went and wrote Kylie Minogue's mega hit Can't Get You Out Of My Head, and Britney Spears' Toxic, to name just two songs. :crazy:
Yes, for the handsome sum of just ¥550,000, you could have the opportunity to own this must have, unlisted on LDDB, 30 disc box set all about road planning!
Gasp! at the luxurious paper used to communicate your audacious plans in the simply sumptuous accompanying tomes. Drink in all the exclusive hints and tips that the world of road planning has to offer over 30 action-packed Laserdiscs. Allow your mind and your eyeballs to glaze over in a trance that even Doris Stokes would have trouble deciphering if it were genuine over hours and HOURS of incredible road planning footage!
It's got road markings, tips on mixing better concrete, explicit blueprint footage from the deepest archives of the Diet building and much much more!
It's all here and ready for you in this delightful 30 disc box set! You'll love this box set or your money back. I guarantee it.
But wait! There's more! Call now and we'll double the offer! Well, not really but I had you going for a minute I suppose. Don't delay, hurry and grab your wallet and order NOW! Call 1-800-ROADPLANNING today and you too can enjoy the searing explicit footage that only the steamy world of road planning can bring to you, and in the comfort of your own home!
Side note: Julien, you can have the pleasure of adding all these to the LDDB. I think it's a learn English box set but I prefer to think of it as a Road Planning box set. :lol:
I’ll never know Japanese well enough to use this but I’d love to watch it. Thanks for posting.
I think it's possible we all of us want to watch it! 9000 hours of road planning training. Heaven!
Just a shame Julien is far too lazy to add all the discs to LDDB on the off chance someone buys them one day and adds them all to their collection page. :lol:
Growing up I wasn't ever really interested much in basketball. It was alright I suppose. You'd play a bit in P.E. at school and hear scraps of information from a friend of a friend who's dad came back from a business trip to America, happened to go to a game and maybe gave their children a Lakers jacket and a signed photo of Kareem Abdul-Jabaar or something that was then brought in to school to show off to the other children. Oh and I had a Lakers jacket at some point as a kid. It wasn't from America though. It was off the back of a lorry along with a tub of moody TAG's and Harry Vitton wallets (Harry was Louis's brother apparently). That was about it though.
In my school circles if you were going to follow any American sports it was American Football (aka "rugby for wimps") and Baseball (aka "silly boys rounders"). You randomly picked a couple of teams and that was it. For me it was the Giants, the Rams and the Mets. When EA's hockey games made their way to the Super Nintendo I would throw the Sabres and Leafs in to the mix. But basketball? Nah, not for me. I think it was around the time that White Men Can't Jump and NBA Jam became really popular, the basketball craze that followed was when I started to watch the game a bit more. Back then it was all about the Chicago Bulls and the Los Angeles Lakers. Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippin, Shaq and so on. For me though, I went back to the Big Apple for my NBA team of choice. And there was only one main dude with the 'tude that I thought was an utter legend. A man who was the real deal but amazingly never won an NBA Championship.
A defensive colossus in the NBA for the New York Knicks and Hall Of Fame inductee in 2008! That man was Patrick Ewing!!
If I was going to support an NBA team, it was going to be a team with a player who could not only score a swish but could also crush your head like a paper cup and shell your testicles like a couple of holiday peanuts!
Since the turn of the 1990's to today I've always followed the New York Knicks (even had tickets to see them once at the Garden but for one reason or another didn't get to go) and have been keen to learn a bit more about their history and some of their star players, titles and awards. It's great to have been given a pointer from a fellow LDDB member that a Knicks title exists on Laserdisc. Even better is a title that isn't just a clip show but a history of the team up until 1994. That's what you get with this 58 minute, 4:3 ratio, stereo documentary.
The documentary itself is somewhat briskly paced for it's 58 minutes considering it covers the history of the New York Knickerbockers from 1946 through to 1994. It's shot in one of the 'talking heads' styles that are popular today on many networks, not just sports coverage. The bonus here though is you get some great interview footage with some of the greatest players ever to have worn the blue and orange shirt, including the great man Mr. Ewing himself. I particularly enjoyed hearing from coaches and players like Red Holtzman, Willis Reed, Nat Clifton and the Maguire brothers and so on. There's some real greats interviewed here and it's really interesting to hear their stories. I also enjoyed hearing views of what it was like to play at the old Madison Square Garden and what it was like attending a basketball game back in the 1940's and 50's.
Archive footage featured throughout the documentary is a mix of colour and black and white and from both film and video sources. It's not just just tedious clips of past games though. You get a mix of broadcast material, behind the scenes moments and some great coaching videos during more high pressure moments in the team's history. Picture quality on this disc overall is remarkably good. I expected it to be much softer as it appears to be a video transfer, the same likely used for any VHS retail release that there may have been. Imaging is fairly crisp and sharp, especially the older film footage from the 1960's and 70's. Audio isn't anything stellar but is just a nice stereo track with decent separation and minimal noise, even on the oldest footage. Nothing to write home about in terms of audio, it's just what you'd expect from a quality broadcast.
I learned a lot about the history of the Knicks from watching this documentary. Heck, you've probably already seen it years ago on ESPN or something. The only thing I was slightly disappointed with is that the main man only appears for about 7 minutes towards the end. Of course back then he was only around midway through his career but I do wish he was featured just a little more in this documentary. Regardless, this is a great watch for any basketball fan keen to dig in to the history of a team and see some great archive footage. Well worth picking up if you can find a copy cheap. :thumbup:
Thanks list
