xyzzy
@xyzzy@lemm.ee
- Comment on The Guyver: 4K release coming from Unearthed Films 1 week ago:
You’re welcome, everyone. I just recently bought the Blu-ray releases, so this was bound to happen.
- Comment on Michael Caine sends fans into hysterics after posting an impressive stack of DVDs & Blu-rays of his film career 1 week ago:
I guess I’ll never know exactly how histrionic the fans were over this extremely mundane photo since I’ll never bother signing in to Twitter ever again
- Comment on Today's charity shop haul. 2 weeks ago:
It was much less popular at the time and has remained that way, except as a cult film. The marketing was partially to blame with the initial reception, but I think people just don’t like Jim Carrey as a (non-cartoony) villain.
- Comment on Disc market share for week ending in 2024-04-20: The Cerritos Lower Decks make their way to 2nd place! 2 weeks ago:
It seems like it just varies based on new releases.
- Comment on Arrow Video hypes The Last Starfighter, The Man from U.N.C.L.E 4Ks 2 weeks ago:
Fun fact: The director of The Last Starfighter, Nick Castle, played Michael Myers in the Halloween movies and also co-wrote Escape From New York.
- Comment on What are the most expensive VHS tapes of all time? 3 weeks ago:
It’s asking price. The author apparently went to eBay, sorted by price descending, and then wrote an article as if people were actually paying that much.
- Comment on Target Reducing Physical Media In 2025 - Dark Horizons 3 weeks ago:
I don’t think Target cares if you subscribe to a streaming service, my guy.
- Comment on Is Killers of the Flower Moon not coming to Blu-ray after all? 4 weeks ago:
I could see Criterion picking this up like they did with The Irishman.
- Comment on Paramount's slate of upcoming films includes Star Trek, Transformers, Ninja Turtles, Smurfs, Bee Gees & more 4 weeks ago:
UNTITLED STAR TREK ORIGIN STORY
Director: Toby Haynes
Writer: Seth Grahame-Smith
Producer: J.J. Abrams
This project is an origin story that takes place decades before the original 2009 Star Trek film.
I mean I guess
- Comment on Imprint Asia June 2024 releases 5 weeks ago:
I saw their previous releases, which were more interesting to me as a whole than this set, so I ended up picking it up with those since shipping is so costly.
- Hero (2002)
- The Sea Is Watching (2002), Akira Kurosawa’s final film, and the first time on Blu-ray
- Lost in the Stars (2023), Chinese murder mystery described by some as “Hitchcockian”; it was a blockbuster in China
- Comment on Imprint Asia June 2024 releases 5 weeks ago:
Wish they were putting out Hero in 4K instead of another Blu-ray release. No doubt the transfer will be better for this one, but not sure it’s worth a same-format double dip.
- Comment on Film preservationist Robert Harris defends controversial James Cameron 4K restorations of Aliens, The Abyss and True Lies 1 month ago:
I just watched the True Lies 4K. There were 2-3 shots where I noticed an in-your-face AI sharpening effect, mostly near the middle of the movie when they were doing close-ups in outdoor light. Those shots just looked bad (like someone used a Photoshop blurring filter followed by sharpening filter on the faces too many times). That said, those were relatively brief and otherwise the film looked great.
And that was while actively looking for it. I doubt most people will even notice those shots, to be honest.
It was a bit strange to see absolutely no film grain, though.
- Comment on The Prisoner Blu-Ray of Cult Classic Sci-Fi Series Coming From Imprint Television 1 month ago:
I have the previous A&E release from 2009, which is very good, but I’m glad everyone who missed out on that (now long OOP) set will have the chance to buy this great series. It’s tempting, but I can’t quite justify an upgrade unless it were to 4K.
- Comment on Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire star Carrie Coon has over 10,000 Blu-rays 1 month ago:
Based on the clip, her husband really has 10,000 Blu-rays and she’d probably be just fine with streaming.
Also it annoys me that people don’t make the distinction between DVD and Blu-ray (she did; the article didn’t).
Nice shout out to DVD Beaver, though (which is exempt from the remark above since it’s a legacy name!).
- Comment on The DVD Biz Has Circled the Drain For Years. In 2024, It Goes Down the Tubes 2 months ago:
tl;dr Because of DVD rentals going away, total DVD sales will decline by around 16%.
That impacts exactly zero buyers or the companies that produce any of the movies I buy, so… 🤷🏻
- Comment on [deleted] 2 months ago:
Who is Lana Del Ray
- Comment on ‘Game of Thrones’ Bosses Confirm Film Trilogy Ending Got Blocked; AT&T Execs Asked Them to Shoot Vertically So Episodes Could Fit on Phones 2 months ago:
Executives are the worst
As the WSJ reports: “Benioff and Weiss, who have been friends since grad school, weren’t crazy about HBO’s then-owners, AT&T, whose executives once asked whether ‘Game of Thrones’ could be shot vertically so it would fit on your phone. The company also openly discussed the idea of snackable mini-episodes of the series.”
- Comment on Linda Hamilton says she wouldn't star in a 'Terminator' reboot: 'It's been done to death' 2 months ago:
There are lots of places you can go with the concept, but only so many places you can go if you constrain yourselves to continuing that particular story.
The story was successfully completed with the original movie, but T2 took the concept and competently spun it on its head while continuing the story. After you’ve done that, what’s left to do? Apparently only retreads of the first two movies.
Put another way, the series is oriented around Man vs. Technology (and more broadly, Man vs. Fate) and can’t break from that or it becomes unrecognizable, unless you want to see John Connor consumed by inner conflict, or trying to survive nuclear winter, or organizing his fellow humans to protest harsh robot prison conditions, or I guess ghosts show up for some reason?
The only way thatI can think of that you could flip it on its head again is by personifying Skynet as a humanoid robot who has a chance to work harmoniously with humans, but fate tragically works against it and the humans are mean to it and Skynet decides they all need to be wiped out.
Or the resistance reaches Skynet and John Connor spends an hour in rigorous philosophical debate about the nature of man and machine, a la My Dinner With Andre. Which… look, I’m gonna be honest, I would totally watch that, but it would piss everyone off. 😂
- Comment on Invincible: Season 2 Part 2 - Official Trailer (2024) Steven Yeun, J.K. Simmons 2 months ago:
Conveniently split so that the back half airs after they started showing ads
- Comment on Amazon Prime Video Ad Tier Sparks Class Action Lawsuit From Subscribers 2 months ago:
The value proposition of Prime Video for me as an existing customer is so low at this point that it’s not worth the extra $36/year to watch their shows ad-free. I’ve watched everything I’m interested in and the shows I liked have all ended, with one heavily qualified exception (Rings of Power). I’d cancel it entirely like I did with Netflix and “Max” if the shipping benefit didn’t make it so worthwhile to me. Maybe I’ll just delete the app from my media player and move on with my life.
- Comment on Kumail Nanjiani Reveals He Went to Counseling Over ‘Eternals’ Bad Reviews: “I Do Have Trauma” 3 months ago:
He should really take a page from Michael Caine when he talked about Jaws 4.
I have never seen it but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built and it is terrific.
- Comment on A Very Brief Analysis: The Phantom Menace 3 months ago:
I think the best analysis of this movie I’ve seen was the Plinkett review. I never really processed prior to that that the movie has no protagonist.
- Comment on ‘Blade Runner’ Star Rutger Hauer Took Exception to His Character Roy Batty Being Labeled a Villain 3 months ago:
Roy is the protagonist in his own man vs. society story. Society is the real villain in Blade Runner.
- Comment on 10 Essential Films From 1974 3 months ago:
Zardoz. No, seriously! From Jonathan Rosenbaum’s 1985 reappraisal:
Probably John Boorman’s most underrated film—an impossibly ambitious and pretentious but also highly inventive, provocative, and visually striking SF adventure with metaphysical trimmings (1974). Set in a postapocalyptic society in 2293, it stars Sean Connery as a warrior and noble savage with dawning awareness; interestingly enough, the plot in many ways resembles that of Boorman’s best film, Point Blank.
It’s such a strange movie, and it doesn’t quite succeed, but the leap it attempts is admirable. The surreality is the main reason I find it so memorable. It’s definitely not like the other films on the list.
- Comment on ‘Homecoming,’ ‘Daredevil,’ and ‘Kidding’: Long Takes Are Taking Over TV, But Some Should Be Shorter 3 months ago:
Yeah, those action scenes work because they don’t let up or give the audience a chance to breathe. It brings you into the scene. When a shot cuts it creates a small amount of immersive distance, just like when a scene changes it creates a large amount of distance. They’re also just technically impressive when it comes to the choreography.
- Comment on ‘Rick and Morty’ Season 8 Coming in 2025, Anime Series Reveals New Footage 3 months ago:
After like episode one or two I could no longer tell the difference between the old voices. Either whatever very subtle differences existed were ironed out by then, or I just stopped noticing them. The replacement voice actors are very, very good.
- Comment on Emmys Sink To Another Historically Low Audience, Down 27% From 2022 3 months ago:
Once upon a time these awards shows weren’t televised. I wouldn’t mind if they went back to that, personally.
- Comment on David Lynch’s Dune is returning to theaters in February for 40th anniversary 3 months ago:
I like the new Dune movie, but I love this one. I don’t hold any particularly deep reverence for the novel (so the differences don’t bother me), and I just like to bask in the overt weirdness of the entire affair. I can see why Lynch wanted to do it in the first place. Shame it didn’t turn out how he would’ve liked.
- Comment on She-Hulk star says there’s no hope for season 2 3 months ago:
$25 million per episode is just banana pants bonkers for a TV show, regardless of the franchise. I don’t know how they calculate LTV, but most users are going to be on the $10 ad supported plan. That means the show would have to draw over 2 million households and get them to subscribe for a year to break even.
No wonder streaming services are losing money hand over fist.
- Comment on Top Gun 3 takes flight as Tom Cruise plans a ton more movies 3 months ago:
No one can escape time forever. The guy is 61. He’s got maybe five more years or so of action movies in him before he starts taking more drama roles or roles in action movies with increasingly obvious stunt men.
Look at Harrison Ford, who’s 81 now. His last role that could plausibly be called an action role was probably Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. He mostly closed the door on action roles in the 2000s, when he was in his 60s, and since then has either had drama or comedy roles or non-action roles in action movies with younger people doing the heavy lifting.
Note at that age I consider an action role to be one that requires the actor to run on camera.