Category: movies

Back to the Future DVDs

Ashley Bischoff1 Comment

I had preordered the Back to the Future DVDs, and they arrived today. However, Julie made me aware that there was a framing problem in the original release (a second run, supposedly in February, would correct it). Sure enough, I checked DVDTalk and confirmed it:

Apparently there’s an issue with the widescreen framing for Back to The Future II & II. As with past problems Universal is making good on these discs by exchanging them. Send the 2 discs with your Name, Address, Phone, and the reason you’re returning it to: Back to the Future DVD Returns, PO Box 224468 Dallas, Texas 75260. Fixed Box sets are planned to be on store shelves by late February. ‘Props’ to the DVD Talkers who Identified the problems with the Back to the Future Box Set.

So, I’ll be sending back parts II and III out of my boxed-set for replacements.

Nemesis May Not be Last TNG Flick

Ashley Bischoff1 Comment

Though there had been rumors that Nemeis (trailer) might be the last Star Trek movie with the TNG cast, Sci-Fi news reports that there may be others after all:

Because of events that occur in the movie, “there is some degree of finality to it,” Berman said in an interview while promoting the movie. “But as to whether that means it’s the last film with this cast is yet to be decided. The next film could have this cast. It could have a combination of this cast and people from other casts or a combination of this cast and new people. We just haven’t decided yet.” […]

I still haven’t seen Bond yet (trailer), but Nemesis is the other movie that I’d really like to see this year.

Episode II on IMAX

Ashley Bischoff2 Comments

I went to see Star Wars Episode II on IMAX with some high school friends yesterday. I wish I could say that it was even better on The Big Screen, but it actually wasn’t.

For starters, several scenes were cut from the film, though most of them weren’t crucial to the film as a whole (such as the Anakin & Amidala meadow scene). As best as I Can recall, about four or five scenes were cut.

More than that, the super-large size of the screen made it hard to follow some of the action. Because of their size, many of the intricate lightsaber battles just resembled flashes of blue and red light. Battle scenes such as those were really more appropriate for the Medium Screen.

I will say that the level of detail was astounding. At that size and resolution, I could clearly see the makeup on Natalie Portman’s face (and Hayden Christensen’s face as well). The detail did make the film more enjoyable (though, unfortunately, not enjoyable enough to offset the not-made-for-IMAX sizing problems).

The detail also gave me new appreciation for the CG work on Yoda. Most of the time, the CG modeling held up well (though some CG lighting problems became evident during full-screen close-ups).

In all, I had a good time. However, it was more of a novelty than anything else. If you’re really in the mood for watching Episode II again, you're probably best off just buying the DVD.

Spider-Man

Ashley Bischoff2 Comments

I watched Spider-Man last night (for the first time) on DVD, loaned to me by Julie. It was good, but perhaps not as good as I was hoping. That's not to say that I didn’t like it, but it didn't contradict my rule of thumb that The best action movies are rated R ;).

The character development was good, and I’m pleased that Sam Raimi was able to stay true to the Spider-Man of the comics. I’m still not sure how I feel about the organic web-shooters, but I suppose they still make more sense than mechanical ones.

I had always heard that even though the CG sometimes looked a bit lame in the trailers, the CG-Spidey was believable in the context of the film. Well, it didn’t really work for me. To be fair, it was virtually seamless at serveral moments, but other sequences appeared to be obviously all-CG to me (CG Spidey, CG buildings, CG cars, and so on).

I think it was that the lighting on the CG objects wasn’t quite right in some scenes. For instance, while the Green Goblin is flying around on his craft at the expo, there were times were his costume remained a constant shade of green (instead of varying shades as the ambient lighting fluctuated).

In some ways, it reminded me of my reaction to X-Men. That too was rated PG-13, and it didn’t really have enough action to satisfy me. But, I realize that it must have been one of those “it’s just me” moments, because most of my friends really enjoyed it.

One more thing (spoilers follow). I wasn’t terribly impressed by the Method By Which the Bad Guy Dies in Spider-Man. It wasn’t some ingenius plan on the part of Spider-Man, nor cool martial arts on the part of Spider-Man. Rather, right when the villain’s attack-hoverpad is about to slice into Spidey, he simply moves out of the way and the spears slice into the Bad Guy instead. Bleh.

Seagal Sunday on TBS

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It looks like TBS is having a Steven Seagal marathon on Sunday with what they call “Seagal Sunday”. Starting at 11am CST, there’s Above the Law, Hard to Kill, On Deadly Ground, Marked for Death, and Out for Justice.

If you’re a fan of absurd action flicks, that may seem like a lot to program into your TiVo/VCR. But, many can be eliminated:

So, with one (or maybe two) movies worth watching, maybe it’s not much of a marathon ;). But, I’ll still look forward to Above the Law, at least (and On Deadly Ground isn’t bad either, if you haven’t seen it yet).