What Blu-Ray did you watch last night?

[Brian Fretwell]

Jumanji, Welcome to the Jungle. I'd seen this on TV a few times but as the HD box attached to my projector packed up not on the big screen, so when I saw the disc fr £2 second hand I had to get it. woth it for the scenery alone. (I am NOT talking about Karen Gillan)!!!

[Mike Newell]

Avatar The Way of Water and Indiana Jones Dial of Destiny. Avatar was faultless and brilliant despite long running time. Indiana Jones was fine but CGI effects were definitely a bit dodgy at the start. Reminded me of Polar Express.

[Steve Klare]

We found out something kind of astounding about our son the other night: twenty-one years old, he had never seen a James Bond movie! What makes this disturbing is being the son of a film collector, he's been pretty generously exposed to culture beyond his own century: he knows who Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin were and if you say to him "Moses supposes his toeses are roses" he's likely to answer "-but Moses supposes erroneously!".

-so despite the years sending this kid to college, we had an obvious gap in his education to fix!

The solution came with my Blu-ray of You Only Live Twice. This is actually a very special movie to me. It just may be the first big-screen movie I ever saw, and is absolutely the earliest one I remember. I was five years old, enjoying that last summer of sweet freedom before I was sentenced to Kindergarten! (I made parole the following June...) We were renting a cottage next to a lake in way-upstate New York and there was a drive-in theater down the road. The car was Mom's one year-old 1966 Mustang coupe. I remember the speaker hanging in Dad's window, the astronaut being stranded out in space, and particularly the helicopter with the big magnet dropping that Toyota sedan full of bad-guys in the water. (James Bond's...interludes with multiple gorgeous women wouldn't make a strong impression until Junior High: a five year old just isn't...equipped to process these ideas!)

It's all about showmanship, so I needed to set the scene for my kid. I told him the story of when I first saw the movie. I got the drive-in speaker and set it up in front of the screen. I often lead with some film-based shorts, and in this case I went with the Pathé Pic, Auto Cine on Super-8:

Auto Cine (1967)

-about Rome's brand new drive-in theater. It was a nice choice because this just happens to be the same summer we went to see You Only Live Twice at the Starlite drive-in six time zones away, and by a happy coincidence there is also a '66 Mustang coupe in attendance.

While 007 was romping in the Murphy bed with that spectacular young woman, I said "Can you imagine how my parents felt seeing this with two young kids in the car?" -as a young adult, he understands this completely because he sometimes has to sit through...intense scenes with his Mom and Dad there! (Opposite, yet Equal!).

We on the other hand enjoy these moments: good for a lecherous smile at least!

On reflection, five decades later: I'd say You Only Live Twice was mostly a movie for Dad! (In my own way, I enjoyed it too!)

So now our kid has at long last seen a Bond film. Now don't get me wrong here: this educational process is an ongoing thing! For example he's pretty firm on just who Bing Crosby was, but we still have a way to go on Bob Hope.

(We'll keep at it!)

[Ed Gordon]

That's true Ed I have "Witness" on blu-ray, overall I think to that its a better film than "The Mosquito Coast". I don't think it did well on its cinema release. Harrison Ford character came across as a person totally absorb in himself to the cost of his family. I have never read the book, but understand he was even worse in the novel.

Your comment about Ford's character being "a person totally absorb in himself to the cost of his family" may be the reason the film did not do to well. I only watched it once, and the only thing that stayed with me was a dislike of Harrison Ford's character (Han Solo can't ever be a bad character!). Another factor may be that Paul Schrader wrote the script. His style worked well in Taxi Driver, but did not work in Mosquito Coast.

Siskel & Ebert agreed with us on Witness:

Maurice Jarre did the score for both films. His Witness score is a highlight of this scene of the barn building:

[Graham Ritchie]

That's true Ed I have "Witness" on blu-ray, overall I think to that its a better film than "The Mosquito Coast". I don't think it did well on its cinema release. Harrison Ford character came across as a person totally absorb in himself to the cost of his family. I have never read the book, but understand he was even worse in the novel.

[Ed Gordon]

Graham, Witness is available on Bluray. You can find copies of it on Ebay for about $15 (US). Witness is one of those movies you can re-watch often. Mosquito Coast was ok, but not in the same league as Witness.

[Graham Ritchie]

After listening to the excellent soundtrack on LP by Maurice Jarre the other day, I was thinking I should once again watch the movie, so I did, now the only thing I have to navigate is the Spanish menu to get the Ingles soundtrack this is where learning at school another language would have come in handy. I have bought blu-ray titles from not just Spain, but from Italy, France and Germany all Region "B" blu-ray the same as Australia and NZ.

I have to add that I have been happy with the blu-ray quality from those countries, no complaints. Anyway back to the movie, this was the second film Harrison Ford did for Peter Weir. The one before was "Witness". Hopefully one day both films will be given the full restoration works, as I think they deserve it.

Anyway a couple of previous screen shots thrown in from the Spanish release, one thing that would be really nice is finding good color 35mm prints of both titles, now that would be something.

[Graham Ritchie]

Watched the blu-ray of "Spitfire" projected using the Epson two nights ago. For anyone interested in aircraft this is outstanding documentary, highly recommend it.

[Graham Ritchie]

This one from "Imprint" the picture quality is very good, as with the special effects. A good nights entertainment projected using the Epson. I had never seen this movie before, but as I was watching, some of it reminded me of 2001.

[Steve Klare]

Saturday Night: Amadeus

I love this movie, watch it maybe once a year.

I walked away with it with a different point of view this time: kind of a new appreciation for electric light! Watching Mozart walk around the apartment with a candelabra trying to do demanding visual work like writing music, of course I know better, but I kept getting this nagging feeling: "Maybe if you were smarter with money, you could pay the power bill!".

-Modern Problems!

Movies like this are actually healthy for we modern people to appreciate what we have: the poor man was laying there dying in a room without central heat, no ambulance, no emergency room, no blood tests, no antibiotics, no x-rays and prime time for some "doctor" to show up and "cure" him by opening a vein and taking some blood. (There's an opinion that healthcare was so terrible back then that people who were too poor to afford a doctor were often better off.)

Life is still far from perfect, but it has to be better than this! (I mean: did you see that...mental healthcare facility?)

[Graham Ritchie]

Yes Brian

I know that feeling what happend to all those years , When I was down at the heritage park a while back, when a group of kids came through. One youngster said to me, you have got a lot of old stuff here, I later thought mmmmm was I included in that old stuff comment.

Watched this one tonight...brilliant.

[Brian Fretwell]

For me Supergirl. I was shocked when I saw it was released in 1984 - forty years ago!!!

[Graham Ritchie]

I agree Steve "The Railway Man" is excellent, I watched it a while back

Saturday night it was "The Guns Of Navarone" 1961 blu-ray, always a favorite of mine to watch every so often.

Sunday night, just finished, the 2003 Directors Cut blu-ray of "Alien" 1979 introduced by the man himself Ridley Scott.

I did throw in a DVD as well I think that was the Friday one, starring Hardy Kruger of "The One That Got Away" the transfer to dvd going by the screen image looked pretty good.

All projected using the Epson

[Steve Carter]

It was time once again to watch this one on blu-ray last night using the Epson VP.

We watched the Railway Man the other day on blu-ray upscaled to 4k, a beautiful film, well acted, a film of forgiveness and redemption. Some of the brutal scenes of relentless beatings are hard on the eyes and ears, those brave men are likes we will never see again and I hope and pray that we will never have to put young men through the psychical and mental torture of war. Schools should run films like this, so that our up and coming politicians of the future generations do not make the same mistakes of history, and please stop trying to rewrite history these atrocities did happen keep the memory of these brave men alive, because of them we live in freedom God bless them each and every one.

[Graham Ritchie]

Tonight being Saturday it was time to watch the 60th Anniversary Edition of "To Kill A Mockingbird" its hard to imagine this film was made in 1962 regarding the B/W picture quality, its a absolutely stunning transfer to blu-ray, plus the DTS HD Surround 5:1 is amazing and gives Elmer Bernstien score the full benefit.

There are heaps of extras as well, this is one blu-ray that should be on your shopping list, highly recommend getting this one. Its also been released in 4K so if you have the means for 4K projection then this movie is a must.