Signs of life?

You @ suck.

More signs?

http://blog.moviefone.com/2010/12/03/bond-23-sam-mendes/

I agree with the writer of the post in that I have my doubts about Sam Mendes. In theory, the action in Bond movies is primarily handled by the second unit, so it makes sense to have a director with more "dramatic" experience handle the main unit. Trouble is, it has never worked. Micheal Apted certainly seemed like an interesting choice to direct The World Is Not Enough, but despite Vic Armstrong handling the action sequences like he had on previous films, the actions scenes in that film are lame at best. The whole movie is poorly paced. The same thing could be said to a lesser extent with Roger Spotiswoode on Tomorrow Never Dies. There really does need to be a strong hand at the helm to guide everything, including the second unit. They are better served by a director who can handle both actors and action, like Martin Campbell. Frankly, if they give Campbell the directing gig for life, I would be perfectly happy.

Well, a new Bond flick would be welcomed, even if it comes with warts and other blemishes. Still, I agree with your assessment. One can only hope.

Well, not only do I have that to hope for, but now you have me itching for the remaining Blu-Rays as well. I am definitely in a Bond frame of mind.

I have developed a full-blown rash waiting for the remaining Bonds on Blu. It is not pretty.

Did you at least pick up the bastard stepchild? It has a decent transfer, and I think that I mentioned that it has one of my favorite featurettes of all time. Irvin Kirshner really lays in to all of the problems that he had making the film -- no sanitized MGM making-of on that disc!

I picked up Never Say Never Again some time ago. I enjoyed the film, including the featurette. I agree that the transfer is well done. The only ugly bit I found was at the beginning, during the credits, but that is forgivable.

Incidentally, I picked up Frozen, although I have yet to watch. If all goes to plan, that will be this evening's viewing. I had to order Triangle through Amazon as I couldn't find it locally. It wasn't that big of a deal as I also had to order Ghostbusters: The Video Game for PS3 for Seajunior. I also placed an order for Divertimenti -- a Blu-ray audio disc that I believe includes a hybrid SACD as well. I will let you know how that turns out.

Next on my list are the Dead movies on Blu-ray. I believe you can pick up all six now, though, to be honest, I have never seen any of the films past Day of the Dead.

I have all of the Dead movies on Blu now, excepting Night which has yet to get a U.S. release, and Survival. I still have not seen the latter.

I rewatched Triangle on Blu, and loved it again. It really all comes together at the end -- you will see what I mean.



The thing to remember about the opening sequence of NSNA is that the titles were done optically, like all older films, and that really degrades the picture quality. Since the credits appear spread out throughout the entire sequence, the whole sequence was probably sent through an optical printer. That means that even the negative for the film would actually contain a second (or worse) generation version of the camera negatives for that scene.

I think that I have harped on that before, but that is a "problem" that you have to accept with older titles. The same thing holds true for lap dissovles and "hard" subtitles (ones that are burned into the negative, rather than added by the player.) A movie where it is really noticeable is The Dirty Dozen. All of the subtitled German dialogue is on the original negative, and any time titles (or dissolves) appear the picture gets conspicuously softer than the rest of the film. It is not a defect with the transfer, but inherent in the negative and any prints.

I wish that disc reviewers would get that right. It is very common to read a review of an older film where the reviewer complains that the titles are softer than the rest of the film. Of course they are!

I recall you explaining the title sequence to Never Say Never Again, which is why I said the quality was forgivable. I realize that there is little that can be done.

Night of the Living Dead is available as an import, as can be seen here: Link. Are you worried that it's region locked? How are Land of the Dead and Diary of the Dead?

I am fine waiting for a U.S. release of Night. Has to happen sooner or later.

Land looks pretty good -- it was Romero's biggest budget for any of the Dead movies, so it looks slicker. Dairy is what it is, since it was shot on video -- most of it on HD video cameras, mind you, so it is definitely an upgrade from the DVD, but it is not exactly demo material.

Snyder's remake is a particularly good looking disc. It looks heavily processed, but that is because the film itself was heavily processed.

Funny that you should mention Snyder. That is the only remake that I like. The rest were atrocious.

I watched Frozen last night. I found it a little slow at first, but I thought the actors came into their own about 20 minutes in (right as they were taking their last chair ride). Overall, it was a decet flick, and I like that Green chose to keep the movie a thriller. For example, in one of the featurettes, he talks about the wolf attack scene that was shot just in case. Like he, I am glad that scene was never included. This was a not a movie about gore. It was about the three folks being hurled into a horryifying proposition. The best part of the film was watching the actors interact. Some of their subtle body language was awesome, especially when you later learn what the actors were envisioning for their characters (e.g., Kevin Zegers as Dan envisioned that he might break up with Parker later that day).

Good recommendation. I am looking forward to Triangle, but that will take some time to arrive. I had to import from the US, so I went with the cheap shipping option to keep costs down.

The characters and their interactions were one of the best parts about Frozen. In modern horror films, most of the characters are simple cannon fodder, but if you are going to lock just three characters into close proximity with each other, you need to develop them better to keep the audience interested. The basic scenario forced Green to do a better job with characterization, since the characters are the only thing that keep the movie moving while they are confined to the lift.

Interesting that you mentioned the wolf attack. Green points out in the extras that it was always scripted to happen off-screen, and he and the producers were willing to fight to keep it that way. The attack that they did film was primarily as insurance if they had problems selling the film in foreign markets (many of which like their horror bloody.) I thought that the scene ended up being one of the most memorable moments in any horror film from the past decade.


I have not seen the remake of Day of the Dead, but I actually liked the remake of Night that was directed by Tom Savini back in the Nineties. It nicely inverted the basic character dynamic of the original by making Barbara (played by former stuntwoman Patricia Tallman, who I rather like) into a determined survivor instead of a catatonic wreck. They also improved one element by having her blow away the Harry Cooper character -- that was more cathartic than just letting the zombies kill the prick.

Well, you generally have good taste when it comes to movies, so you're fondness for the remake of Night is excused.

I bought Piranha a while back and was going to watch it last night, but did not have the time. I went to see a theatre performance of 39 Steps and it ran longer than I expected. I may get to Piranha sometime next week.

I did, however, have time to play with my power cords to see if I could notice a difference like I swore I could a year or two ago. There might be something there, but I now highly doubt it. The stock cords sound just as good. I have never paid an extreme amount of money for a cord, so I don't feel too bad about the situation. While I couldn't hear a difference, I certainly feel and can see a difference. Thick, snake-like cords look cool. And, because I've only picked up ones with well-constructed ends, they do plug in easier and hold snug better than stock cords. The way I see it: esoteric cords, including power cords, interconnects and fancy speaker wire are jewlery for your audio components. They look cool and if you dig bling, there is a certain value. However, so long as the cords are well constructed and of adequate gauge, I think it is difficult, if not impossible, to notice or measure any appreciable difference between a well-built, modestly priced cable(s) and a more expensive one(s).

I still keep going back-and-forth a bit on cables, but currently (/rimshot) that is about where I stand. I never did do any experimentation with power cords, but they are definitely the ones about which I am the most skeptical.

I suppose the real test would be to get my hands on some really expensive stuff (like the multi-thousand dollar cables), but I can't see that happening.

So far, I am happy with my Blue Jeans speaker cables. Someday, I may experiment with different cords, but for now they are more than adequate. Bigger fish to fry.

I won't go out of my way to do the testing, but if someone offered me expensive cables for testing, I'd give it a go just for kicks. Otherwise, I just don't feel that it's worth the time or money.

I do want to try out the RGPCs someday. But again, it is not a priority. Home theatre seating is probably my first priority -- even ahead of a turntable!

I wouldn't mind exit financing of $500 million.

I would settle for a fraction of that! Better yet, just give me the money and let me make a new Bond film. I guarantee that I can do better than the last one.

Having never directed or produced a film, I wouldn't feel comfortable making that claim myself, but it'd certainly be a hell of an experience to give it a go!

I have not either, but I am reasonably confidant that I could have made a more coherent car chase at the beginning, even if I had to operate the camera myself!

How about you operate the camera and I'll operate the car?!!!

Well, in that case we will need to get Hongy to provide one.