Finally got around to seeing this one . . .



. . . wasn't as good as I kept hearing about, but still not too bad.

earlier today: the great mouse detective, cav.

My first sighting of HANGAR 18 was on holiday Clearwater Tampa Bay, Florida, Feb 1981, Sheraton hotel and saw the tv spot trailer during the morning on one of those RCA tv's.

Terminal Velocity - Fun movie. At first I thought I hadn't seen it before, especially on laserdisc, but at the end of the movie I could clearly remember having seen it.

Watched Godzilla 3D last night,

sold it today, horrible movie

These Blockbuster movies just don't do it anymore for me these days

I almost walked out of the cinema when seeing Godzilla 2014. It was clearly took more inspiration from Cloverfield than it did any of the Godzilla films (though it did take quite a few story elements from Godzilla 1998) and on top of that it was just dull dull dull.


I've always meant to see that, I've always loved Mulcahy's visual style.

Watched this amazingly awkward action flick . . .



. . . might try to get Lou Ferrigno's autograph on that this weekend

Some of the imagery, especially during the hallucination sequences, were pretty cool.

You kidding this, one not on Laserdisc?

I watched Endangered Species on TNT MGM classic films most nights during the late 90's on cable tv.

At least youtube has it. The opening of the gentle wind blowing in the distant background reminds me of some sound effect of Logan's Run, or Wargames.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTMtfS74yZA

Most recent watch list (Blu-ray's in Bold):


Boyhood - Intersting movie that was shot over the course of 12 years. Unique in watching the actors grow up and grow old. Recommend a watch.

Magic Mike - My significant other claims that this may have been the best movie she's ever seen. I thought it was pretty mediocre at best. Can't imagine what the cause of our varying opinions may be.

Fury - This was a great movie. I would highly recommend it to anybody. Probably one of Brad Pitt's best performances in many years.

Lucy - Relatively short but entertaining action flick. Definitely worth a rental.

The Interview - So rented this to see what all the "hoopla" was about. Well, it's a pretty aweful movie. Other than a few semi-funny cameos it was pretty boring. I would skip.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Extended Edition) - If you are a Lord of the Rings fan, this is a must see. I liked the small additions they put into the EE vs the theatrical cut. The movie is quite different than the book (even more so than LotR was) but it is still an entertaining adventure. Highly recommend.

Angels and Demons - Very enjoyable Tom Hanks movie. I enjoyed much more than the first in the series.

Labyrinth - Went to see this at a local theater showing. Awesome 80's Jim Henson vibe.

Nightcrawler - Weird movie. I didn't enjoy it so much as you just absolutely come to hate the protagonist.

The Grand Budapest Hotel - Rewatched this gem. Highly recommended especially if you like Wes Anderson movies.

Clash of the Titans - Big budget action and adventure. Mindless fun.

Malificent - Fairly good remake of the original.

Birdman - I wasn't so impressed. The media and critics hyped this one up a little too much. I thought it was "ok".

Wrath of the Titans - Same as the first.

John Wick- It's been awhile since Reeves has made a good movie. I thought this was enjoyable.

Hercules - More mindless fun.

Tron Legacy - This is the movie you need to demo your home theater capabilities.

Interstellar - This was really great. Highly recommend it to anybody who has not seen yet. It has a great 2001: A Space Odyssey vibe.

Dracula Untold - So so take on the classic Dracula tail.

Foxcatcher - Pretty weird movie. Worth a watch.

Whiplash - Excellent, highly recommended.

Starship Troopers (1997) [71716] - Big budget late 90's fun.

Dick Tracy (1990) [1066 AS] - A lot of big name actors in this stylized action movie.

The Theory of Everything - Interesting biopic on Steven Hawking. Focused on his early life, not physics.

Exodus: Gods and Kings - I really like Ridely Scott films, this was "ok" at best.

Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) [LV 1376-WS] - We did a wonderful 3 day viewing of the classic Indiana Jones Trilogy. Yes, I am going to ignore the 4th one! Such a great 80's classic that defined cinima of that decade. If there is somebody out there who actually has not seen these movies go rent them. They are wonderful.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) [LV 1643-2WS] - see above.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) [LV 31859-2L] - see above.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies - If you are a Tolken fan then this is a must see. The Hobbit trilogy is no where near as good as the Lord of the Rings, but still is fun watch.

The Imitation Game - Excellent movie. Highly recommend this historical drama especially if you are a World War 2 buff.

Mr. Turner - Interesting period peice about the famous painter. Worth a watch.

Dumb & Dumber (1994) [ID3952LI] - Not as funny as it's hyped up to be. IMHO.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 - Really not my cup of tea. If you liked the previous Huger Games movies you'll want to see it, but I am personally not a fan.

Into the Woods - Not a huge fan of musicals and did not really like this one either. Also, even though Johnny Depp gets top billing, he is in the movie for about 5 minutes.

Mad Max (1979) [ID2594OR] - The classic that started it all. Would recommend a viewing.

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) [13346] - Even better than the first in my opinion.

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) [13345] - Last of the original trilogy. I recommend watching all 3 back to back.

A Walk Among the Tombstones - Entertaing drama about killers, drugs, and kidnappers.

The Immigrant - Rather good period peice. Would recommend a watch.

Leviathan - I didn't really enjoy this movie. I don't mind foreign films but I just found it boring.

Spy Hard (1996) [8289 AS] - Not one of Leslie Nelson's best, but still worth a one time watch... maybe.

Inherent Vice - Too drawn out and boring. Didn't like it too much.

Billy Crystal: A Comic's Line (1984) [LV2329] - Short pseudo-stand-up comedy. If you are a Billy Crystal fan, then I would recommend it.

Red Army - Excellent documentary on the Russian ice hockey program. Highly recommend a watch.

Went and saw Jurassic World. I didn't expect it to be as good as the original, and it wasn't, but it was definitely better than TLW and III, and an enjoyable film overall. Lots of nice homages to the first film too.

Not seen very much of anything over the last few weeks as i have been moving house.

But I have been to the cinema couple of times.

So I have seen The Labyrinth (1986) at the Cameo Cinema.

Which was awesome.

Also Jurassic World at the Vue.

Which was pants.

First time seeing that Chris Pratt bloke, no idea why anyone would think he would make a decent Indiana Jones.

Watching several TV series with a movie thrown in here and there.

ST Enterprise - I bought the complete Blu-Ray set from the UK. Love this show.

Babylon 5 - first time viewing on DVD. PQ sucks. Super grainy, quality seems to vary from scene to scene, I swear some look like VHS. Good show, I am enjoying even though....

ST DS9 - Netflix

Recently got The Sopranos and The Wire - complete Blu-Ray series, they're next. Never seen a single episode of either.

I'm a little late on watching it, but I got to around to watching Looper the other night. I really liked it, nice to see not everything has to be a remake or sequel.

Wow, that's a lot of series all at once. Babylon 5 is one of my favorites, it gets a lot better after the first season and becomes amazing in season 4. I'm also a star trek fan. I liked Enterprise, it's sad it was cancelled. DS9 is pretty good as well (TNG is my favorite). I recently did a full watching of TOS on laserdisc.

I have ST TOS on bluray. I watch an episode every month with the new special effects. What an awesome transfer they did. Plan on getting TNG on bluray too. Heard it's phenomenal.

40th anniversary, JAWS region 2 DVD.

Quint: Y'all know me. Know how I earn a livin'. I'll catch this bird for you, but it ain't gonna be easy. Bad fish. Not like going down the pond chasin' bluegills and tommycods. This shark, swallow you whole. Little shakin', little tenderizin', an' down you go. And we gotta do it quick, that'll bring back your tourists, put all your businesses on a payin' basis. But it's not gonna be pleasant. I value my neck a lot more than three thousand bucks, chief. I'll find him for three, but I'll catch him, and kill him, for ten. But you've gotta make up your minds. If you want to stay alive, then ante up. If you want to play it cheap, be on welfare the whole winter. I don't want no volunteers, I don't want no mates, there's just too many captains on this island. $10,000 for me by myself. For that you get the head, the tail, the whole damn thing.

Quint: Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief. We was comin' back from the island of Tinian to Leyte... just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in twelve minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about a half an hour. Tiger. Thirteen footer. You know, you know that when you're in the water, chief? You tell by lookin' from the dorsal to the tail. Well, we didn't know. 'Cause our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent, huh. They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, chief. The sharks come cruisin'. So we formed ourselves into tight groups. You know it's... kinda like 'ol squares in battle like uh, you see on a calendar, like the battle of Waterloo. And the idea was, the shark goes to the nearest man and then he'd start poundin' and hollerin' and screamin' and sometimes the shark would go away. Sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark, he looks right into you. Right into your eyes. You know the thing about a shark, he's got... lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eye. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be livin'. Until he bites ya and those black eyes roll over white. And then, ah then you hear that terrible high pitch screamin' and the ocean turns red and spite of all the poundin' and the hollerin' they all come in and rip you to pieces. Y'know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men! I don't know how many sharks, maybe a thousand! I don't know how many men, they averaged six an hour. On Thursday mornin' chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player, Bosun's Mate. I thought he was asleep, reached over to wake him up. Bobbed up and down in the water, just like a kinda top. Up ended. Well... he'd been bitten in half below the waist. Noon the fifth day, Mr. Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura saw us, he swung in low and he saw us. He's a young pilot, a lot younger than Mr. Hooper, anyway he saw us and come in low. And three hours later a big fat PBY comes down and start to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened? Waitin' for my turn. I'll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went in the water, three hundred and sixteen men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb.

Good evening Guys & Girls,

Thursday evening June 18th went to a ''Showcase Cinema'' with a friend to watch Jurassic World around 2 1/2 hrs long.

I am glad I went along as there were some good moments overall.

It will be interesting to test out the Blu-Ray disc at home, to view and hear the surround sound experience.
The homage of the original movie was a nice touch........I thought a little cheesy but that's a personal comment, so please do not be put off by this.

The showcase itself had great seats, all leather and fully recline-able, a great layout and seating approach.

Kind Regards to all

I've been watching at least a few LD movies every week it seems like. I'm relatively new to the format, so I still have a pretty good backlog of films I'd like to see on it. Today's presentation was Stargate (1994), yesterday's was Speed (1994), and Monday's was The Hunt for Red October (1990). Speed was kind of a let down compared to how I remembered liking it as a kid. The other two are very good.

It's interesting how many 3-side movies mislabel the last side as CLV when it's really CAV.

A Czech science fiction comedy from the seventies called Tomorrow I'll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea (1977)

I originally saw this in at a science fiction convention in 1991, it was shown because the guest of honour was the author, and I assumed it just wouldn't be available in the UK. I eventually learned that there'd been a Czech DVD (with English subtitles) but no other release. I couldn't find anyone selling it, of course. But a few years ago a Czech woman joined my technician team, and I asked her to see if she could pick up a copy for me the next time she went home on holiday; fortunately she could.

Basically, it's a time travel story whose plot is a bit difficult to describe. Fortunately I wrote a summary for an SF site a while ago:

I really can't go into much more detail without spoiling things - you can see some of the plot twists coming, others aren't so obvious. It looks a bit dated now, and I suspect the budget was tiny, but it's still good fun if you can get past that, and I must have watched it two or three times since I got it.

But the good news - it turns out to be on Youtube with English subtitles.

https://youtu.be/tVBPNfKfgNo

If you like this sort of story it's well worth a look. Warning - you get a couple of minutes of scene setting before the titles, and it looks like some sort of travelogue for the first half-minute or so. Don't be put off. Also, the English of the subtitles isn't always wonderful.