What Blu-Ray did you watch last night?

[Ed Gordon]

Here we are at Stardate -298502.73 pondering the significance of Sci-Fi with dates that have come and gone. It's been 23 years since we should have had a base on the moon, and ships capable of reaching Jupiter.

[Graham Ritchie]

Hi Brian

Regarding "Soylent Green" being set in the year 2022, add "Blade Runner" to the list, photos taken below are from a previous blu-ray screening

[Brian Fretwell]

Last night Soylent Green, which I saw in the Camberwell ABC cinema in 1973. I was now shocked to see that it was set in 2022, now two years ago.Thankfully the greenhouse effect has not got us to that state yet. However we do seem to be trying to get "assisted dying" but not as shown in that film. Edward G Robinson's 101st and last film.

[Steve Klare]

Tonight? Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

-kind of an old standby of ours when picking what to watch gets to be too involved! When I was dating my wife and found out she'd never intentionally seen Star Trek of any flavor before, this is what I chose as an introduction.

For our son it is different: for a very long time he thought James T. Kirk only looked like Chris Pine, but that's just the way it was when he was growing up.

Just for the record: I checked Wikipedia after I rolled the screen up and turned everything off: Humpback Whale populations worldwide fell to 5,000 by the 1960s, but have rebounded to about 135,000, are still growing and the species is actually not considered endangered anymore. It's almost certainly an exaggeration to claim Bill Shatner and Leonard Nimoy saved this species, but then again maybe they helped a little.

[Douglas Meltzer]

I'll be seeing Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga soon, so I watched the prequel's sequel!



Fury Road is one amazing film.

[Graham Ritchie]

Last night the remake "Flight Of The Phoenix" 2004, which in itself is very good. I remember screening the 35mm back in 2005, the only thing better than projecting the blu-ray watched last night, would be finding a 35mm print, now that would be nice

Tonight things were a bit different with some old DVDs bought new around 20 years ago from the US. It was interesting to see if after all those years if they would still play. Well they did no problems at all as shown below. One would be over twenty years since I last watched it and that was Super Speedway, this one was very impressive both visually and sound Dolby Digital 5:1. If you can find a copy of this title grab it.

Highly recommend this title as well




Image produced a number of very interesting DVDs titles back in the late 1990s One being this one called "Our Daily Bread" One title I watched tonight was Power and the Land if people think life is hard today they should watch this, an interesting fact covered in this film that during the 1930s 90% of farms in the US did not have electricity, it was a hard life.


Lastly and I must return the blu-ray and "Flight Of The Phoenix" 2004 with Johnny Cash with this brilliant opening number.

[Ed Gordon]

RE: The Fall of the Roman Empire

I have this in my collection, but I don't think I have watched it in one sitting since I first saw it. I found these comments on IMDB:

There is something flawed about this film that I can't quite put my finger on. It does not reach the heights of other 50s and 60s epics such as The Ten Commandments or Ben-Hur. Still, it is a dramatic and at times moving film. It does convey the gravity (some might say tragedy) of the Empire's fall and the pax romana that never was.

"The Fall of the Roman Empire" was the nail in its genre's coffin. Ponderous, expensive, it bombed and put the swords'n'sandals epic in a coma for a good 34 years, until the arrival of "Gladiator", with which it shares quite a few story similarities. But where Ridley Scott's film is lean and mean, Anthony Mann's is slow, stately and overly in love with its production design.

The inspiration and source material for GLADIATOR in case you hadn't noticed. This particular historical romp coming very late in the epic cycle in the 60's was a masterpiece of script, direction and set construction. You may have thought the Colosseum in GLADIATOR was impressive - digitised though it was, but compare it to the jaw-dropping scenes in Commodus' Rome - and they BUILT those! Ridley Scott used LESS than 50 people in his Colosseum scenes - every ONE of the thousands of Roman citizens you see, are there! To film this today with the same realism would cost $600-800,000 perhaps one billion plus!

Other scenes, such as the funeral of Aurelius are simply spinal-tap if you have the slightest understanding of what you are seeing. Most people didn't - leaving the theater (even in the 60's) feeling they'd just sat through a history seminar rather than an entertaining movie.

I wonder if it could be edited down to something less ponderous? The cinematography and acting are spectacular.

[Brian Fretwell]

I started but not finished watching "The Fall of the Roman Empire" "Digitally remastered" edition from Anchor Bay. I found it cropped to 2.35:1 from the original Ultra Panovision and too contracty for my liking, compared remembering the 70mm version I had seen in NFT3 some years ago. At 173 minutes I found it too long for one sitting, though I believe the Lone Wlf Super 8 version was longer than that.

[Brian Fretwell]

I wonder if Angela Lansbury is the only person to appear in a Poirot film then go on to star as another Chritie detective, Miss Marple, in another (The Mirror Cracked)?

[Graham Ritchie]

Watched two, one being Friday night "Death On The Nile" 1978 Saturday night "Jungle Cruise".

Although "Jungle Cruise" was alright, the one I enjoyed the most was "Death On The Nile" with a running time of around 2hrs 20minutes. It held my attention right to the end. What a brilliant cast, great locations in Egypt, an outstanding "who done it story", excellent blu-ray transfer as with the sound, you really simply can't ask for more.

"Death On The Nile" 1978 is a must have blu-ray, it makes for a great nights entertainment, as such I highly recommend getting this one.

PS....Included in the special features is a interview with Angela Lansbury, it sounds both her and the rest of the cast had a enjoyable time making it and all got on well with each other. One thing I do like about the script, is the addition of light humor in the film, especially between Bette Davis and her maid played by Maggie Smith who are great at witty comments bouncing between each other.

[Osi Osgood]

Oh, BTW, I own a wonderful low fade super 8 print of the extra extra long trailer for "Papilion" It's almost a mini documentary.

[Osi Osgood]

We watched what I still think is the best giant monster film in decades, "Cloverfield", and the only film I have ever liked where a handheld camera is more than just a cheap gimmick.

[Ed Gordon]

...

Now, speaking as somebody who was a little kid in the 1960s, and loved Pop Tarts and had a Schwinn Stingray bicycle, this movie is utterly hysterical! Still the same, my son (-born in THIS century) loved it too! Much the same as when he was about 10 and I got a box of Pop-Tarts so he could experience a little of my own childhood, my wife and I needed to explain a couple of things, but he would have liked it anyway!

I will deduct a few points for them showing a sound film on an obviously silent Keystone R8 projector, but then again give most of them back for it being there at all! (This will be a candidate for "Projectors in Movies" someday for sure!)

-so maybe I cheated here, just a little, by putting a tale of streaming on the Blu-Ray thread, but I have a feeling when the disk for this one becomes available, it will find a place on our shelves!

Anyone who was a kid in the 60's will enjoy this movie. It will be interesting to see how it plays for those not born in the 20th century. The cast of the movie where certainly having fun making the movie.

Don't worry about posting a review of a streaming program on "the Blu-Ray thread". You will find reviews of TV shows, DVD's, Blu-Ray's and UHD's and films here.

[Steve Klare]

We got it in our heads to "watch a movie" last night and the rules were "something new". This means we streamed it. Usually my VP gets its input signal from a disk player on the shelf underneath the two Super-8 machines, but our streaming services usually plug into a flat screen TV about 15 feet in the wrong direction behind my projector cart, so step one was change some connections around and run a long (and temporary) HDMI cable across the floor.

The movie itself is Unfrosted: Jerry Seinfeld's history of the development of the Pop Tart! This is based on a true story, including the rivalry of Post and Kellogg, two competing cereal companies both based in Battle Creek, Michigan, so close together they can look out their windows and see the other guy's building, The story is they kept track of each other's sales by counting how many boxcars were leaving each other's warehouses.
.

As I said, this is based on a true story: loosely based...creatively based. -the kind of creativity that comes from the writers being really, really stoned! It's true, Kellogg and Post were trying to be the first to market a toaster pastry and Kellogg won, but that's where the truth and this movie part company. This is a huge mash-up of early-1960s American culture including everything from the Space Program and the Cuban Missile Crisis to the Schwinn Stingray bicycle, all drawn into the origin story of the Pop Tart! (Somehow I doubt the real story would play nearly as well!)

It has an ensemble cast including a lot of tier-one standup comedians. Bill Burr is unrecognizable as John F. Kennedy (The Boston accent works, but they added a LOT of hair!).

Now, speaking as somebody who was a little kid in the 1960s, and loved Pop Tarts and had a Schwinn Stingray bicycle, this movie is utterly hysterical! Still the same, my son (-born in THIS century) loved it too! Much the same as when he was about 10 and I got a box of Pop-Tarts so he could experience a little of my own childhood, my wife and I needed to explain a couple of things, but he would have liked it anyway!

I will deduct a few points for them showing a sound film on an obviously silent Keystone R8 projector, but then again give most of them back for it being there at all! (This will be a candidate for "Projectors in Movies" someday for sure!)

-so maybe I cheated here, just a little, by putting a tale of streaming on the Blu-Ray thread, but I have a feeling when the disk for this one becomes available, it will find a place on our shelves!

[Graham Ritchie]

Last night it was the turn of the 1973 film "Papillon" I don't know if Steve McQueen received a Academy Award for his acting skills, if not he should have. With a running time of 2hrs and 30minutes both picture and sound DTS 5:1 is excellent. I cant think of any other actor past or present than Steve McQueen that could have done this film with such conviction.

A side note also starring is this film you might not pick up on is actor Bill Mumy from the Lost In Space TV series.

"Papillon" 1973 in my book is a classic film that you will never see the likes of again, highly recommend this blu-ray, projected last night using the Epson, below screen shots were taken last night.




Bill Mumy on the left below photo