January 29, 2007

Larry Sanders - Not Just The Best....

TVShowsOnDVD points to a New York Times interview with Garry Shandling about the next Larry Sanders DVD set. The vibe from Shandling is that its his final word on the subject of "The Larry Sanders Show". Wha-huh??? You (and when I say 'you', I mean 'they who put out the DVDs' because I know it's not all just up to Shandling) only have one full season and a best-of compilation out already. You can't be calling it quits yet!

The upside is the set will have 23 episodes culled from all six seasons, a documentary, some featurettes, deleted scenes, interviews, all that jazz. And there's no reason to think that the studios won't put out more DVD sets if they think there's money/demand for them. But the fact that this might be it for the foreseeable future? Arrrrghhh!

Posted by Greg at 1:15 PM
Posted to DVD | Television

November 16, 2006

Adudathuda

A quick look at the top of my Netflix queue right now would give you plenty of evidence that I have, indeed, gone completely bats**t. In slots 4-10 I have:

BATTLEFIELD EARTH
PLANET OF THE APES (2001)
BATMAN & ROBIN
GODZILLA (1998)
CATWOMAN
ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO*

*I actually don't think this one will be quite as bad as the others but it had to be included for reasons that will be revealed in a few seconds...

Have I finally lost it? Gone completely over the bend? Decided on comitting the cinematic equivalent of hari kari?

Nope.

I have, however, discovered DVD podBLAST.

podblastlogov1.jpg

Created & maintained by the filmmaking collective Adudathuda, this podcast series has the five-man panel ripping these films a new one. Irreverent, spontaneous, and laugh-out-loud funny. Instead of turning those unwanted gift DVDs into coasters, give them a spin with DVD podBLAST and get some enjoyment out of them!

Posted by Greg at 4:27 PM
Posted to DVD

October 2, 2006

Star Trek - Funkified!

In the spirit of Star Trek: Remastered, here is an unused commercial for the season DVD releases of the original series.

And if the new effects aren't exactly floating your boat, check out Daren Dochterman's STAR TREK: ENHANCED site for a much more ambitious (and for me, satisfying) attempt to update The Original Series' special effects.

Posted by Greg at 7:21 PM
Posted to DVD | Television | YouTube

September 20, 2005

Sick Today

Rare occasion; I'm home today. Splitting headache and uncertain stomach kept me from going to work. I used to opportunity of picking up Reglin at the pharmacy for the rotten egg burps I developed to run by Best Buy so I can some home and completely veg.

Picked up BSG Season 1 and the Queen + Paul Rodgers live album. I've had a post about Queen percolating for a while now; I'll try and put it on the front burner.

It rained last night and today. It doesn't rain enough down here; rain adds character to a location. Plus the air always feels cleaner the day after a rain and you can actually see the San Gabriel mountains. Good stuff.

Back to bed now....

Posted by Greg at 1:33 PM
Posted to DVD | Scrambled Bits | Swag

September 15, 2005

Scrambled Bits

  • The Digital Bits has a review of the US version of the BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (2004) Season 1 DVD set coming out on Tuesday.

    • Posted by Greg at 8:32 AM
    Posted to DVD | Scrambled Bits | Spotlight / Plug

    September 12, 2005

    Scrambled Bits

  • Michael Brown resigned.

  • APOD for 9/8 - IC 1396 in Cepheus.

  • Big blackout in downtown LA right now. I'm here at work twiddling my thumbs because, even though we aren't directly affected, the servers that our web-based work application runs off of is. So no application means no work. (2:15 pm)

  • Power to the server should be back within the hour. Just enough time for me to bust ass and cram about 4 hours of work into 90 minutes. (3:40 pm)

  • Today's "stockbrokers gone wild" story comes complete with dwarf-tossing. Click here for a picture of said dwarf.

  • Retro-tech: wooden computer/monitor/keyboard/mouse and wooden iPod.

  • Back up! (3:52 pm)

  • Word to the wise for those picking up LOST on DVD at Best Buy: don't settle for what is in the large display stands. If you're looking for sets that have the extra BB disc bound in them, go back to the TV ON DVD section and check there. I went after work today and saw that the displays had been picked clean, but swung by the other section and snagged one of two 'stuffed' copies. No big deal if I hadn't gotten it; I's have still bought the set. But free swag is free swag, you know?

    • Posted by Greg at 3:53 PM
    Posted to DVD | News | Science | Scrambled Bits | Swag

    September 4, 2005

    Scrambled Katrina Bits

  • Read (and hear) New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin rip the government a new one on a radio call-in show Thursday night after he reaches a boiling point about the lack of adequate assistance given to his city.

  • And also in the "just when you thought it couldn't get worse" category, here's an interview on NBC's MEET THE PRESS with Jefferson Parrish president Aaron Broussard that really hits home just how f**ked-up the Federal response to this whole disaster has been.

  • Courtesy of the Astronomy Picture of the Day, Katrina from space.

  • What about The Saints?

  • Because you just knew someone was going to say it, here's the first "Katrina was God's punishment on New Orleans for tolerating gays" story I've seen so far.

    • Posted by Greg at 7:31 PM
    Posted to DVD | News | Science | Scrambled Bits | Television

    Scrambled TV Bits

  • THE SHIELD Season 4 is coming to DVD on December 27th. TV Shows to DVD has the info here. The 27th??? You couldn't have moved it up a week so I could get/give it for Christmas?!?!?!?

  • Although it's got a whole bunch of series spoilers, here's a list of 10 reasons to watch THE WIRE, to use as ammo for the fight in getting new viewers to this incredible show.

    • Posted by Greg at 5:32 PM
    Posted to DVD | Television

    August 30, 2005

    Scrambled Bits

  • Nice to see that Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president that Pat Robertson wanted "taken out" so badly, finally showed his evil ways by... offering food and gas to victims of Hurricane Katrina.

  • Here's the Wikipedia entry on Hurricane Katrina.

  • Here's a nice review of the LOST: SEASON 1 DVD and the show as a whole.

  • It's truly mind-numbing for me to think that there are people who would actually belive there is a debate going on between the theory of evolution and the "theory" of intelligent design. It's the same mental giants that push intelligent design in schools that are now suing the University of California system for refusing to recognize high school science courses that use textbooks incorporating intelligent design.

    Their argument is that there is a double standard at work since there are courses to teach the viewpoints and beliefs of Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism. Of course, they're failing to notice that those courses are RELIGIOUS courses, and not BIOLOGY. The Religious Right is quick to bully people into getting things their way, and even quicker to pull some persecution card when people don't automatically bend over for them.

    • Posted by Greg at 9:28 PM
    Posted to DVD | News | Scrambled Bits | Television

    June 12, 2005

    Netflix

    Been a good time for movies lately; both in the theaters and on home video.

    The latter is due entirely to my taking the plunge and signing up for Netflix. I'm sorry I didn't do this sooner. My two biggest complaints about renting movies is the dependency on the selection at the local Hollywood Video (which fluctuates from decent to barren) and my innate inability to turn things in on time.

    What Netflix does is lets you pick selections from a reported 40,000-title catalog online. Then they mail you a certain number of discs at a time in clever double-sided evelope pouches which also have the return envelope in them. You take as long as you want to watch them, no fees. When you send them back in the postage-paid envelopes, they send more. All this for a flat monthly fee based on the number of discs you want at a time.

    The added bonus for us apartment dwellers is that the envelopes are small enough to fit into mailboxes, avoiding the added hassle that comes with picking up packages from the mail closet.

    Forty-thousand titles basically means that if it's on DVD, you can get it. Movies, documentaries, music videos, TV boxed sets (they send you the discs separately). There might be a wait on some discs, but out of my 130+ queue of discs, only 2 have any type of wait on them.

    I've got the 3 for $18 option and it rocks. It might even be better than TiVO (my next techno-toy), because that depends on what you want being broadcast first for the machine to record it. I'm starting to go back and track down movies that have been on my "To See" list, and Netflix is making that a piece of cake.

    Posted by Greg at 12:53 AM
    Posted to DVD | Movies | Television

    March 5, 2005

    DVD Swag

    Febraury was an awesome month for TV-on-DVD for me.

    There was the aforementioned DEADWOOD Season One and THE SHIELD Season Three, which alone would have been great. But when I went up to Matt's a few weeks back, I was exposed to THE WIRE and HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET.

    I only watched the first episode of HOMICIDE, but I've got it on my list of "to get" discs. I'd have watched more, but I was too busy watching THE WIRE Season One. Holy crap, is that a good show. It's nice to 'find' a show that good, on par with discovering FIREFLY. It shows the entire process of a case being made and brought against Baltimore druglord Avon Barksdale from both sides: cop and criminal. Set up as a novel for TV, it works on a different level than THE SHIELD, which is more balls-out adrenaline push in each episode. THE WIRE builds slowly but solidly; tortoise to THE SHIELD's hare.

    DEADWOOD Season Two starts tomorrow night, so I need to finish watching it before then (I still need to see the last couple of episodes). THE SHIELD Season Four starts on the 15th. LOST is on new-episode hiatus until mid-April, so I've got time to catch up with the few eps I still have on tape to watch. BATTLESTAR is still good. I've gone from only really watching THE SHIELD to having a nice TV rotation.

    Getting back to the DVD aspect for a minute, the HBO DVDs (despite the excellent quality of the shows) are horrendously overpriced. 12 episodes of DEADWOOD? ~$80 at Best Buy. 15 episodes of THE SHIELD? ~$35 at Best Buy. It's OK if the show is THE SOPRANOS which will keep on going and going. But for a show like THE WIRE, which is still waiting to get picked up for its final two seasons, that high of a price point is keeping people from impulse trying it. Plus, for the packaging on Season One, they put all the great reviews on the INSIDE of the packaging, instead of outside where an interested consumer might be able to ... oh ... READ them.

    *sigh*

    Posted by Greg at 11:03 PM
    Posted to DVD | Swag | Television

    January 17, 2005

    Scrambled Bits

  • Picked up and watched the DAREDEVIL: DIRECTOR'S CUT disc. It's still a flawed movie, but a huge improvement over the theatrical release (click here for changes). Instead of just having some extra footage dumped back into the earlier version, this one takes out some of the additions for the theatrical (the Garner love scene, the confessionals) and gives us more of everything else. My advice is to pick this up to watch, and have the theatrical version of the cool extra features.

  • HUMAN TARGET is canned as of #21. FALLEN ANGEL is in serious danger of following suit after issue #20. Two critically acclaimed books that nobody reads. I'd love to see FA continue, but I'm not holding my breath. Which is too bad because it's one of the best books Peter David has written in his career (which is having a nice little comic resurgance of its own with FA, MADROX, and his return to a little title called THE INCREDIBLE HULK!).

  • Here's a nice retrospective article on IDENTITY CRISIS from Newsarama.

  • Bought Green Day's AMERICAN IDIOT off iTunes yesterday. Not bad -- growing on me. A couple of their songs are over the 7-minute mark, but only one is a complete song; the others are really two songs bridged together. Catchy tho...

  • Go here to see a promo for season 4 of THE SHIELD. March can't come fast enough....

    • Posted by Greg at 4:25 PM
    Posted to Comics | DVD | Music | Scrambled Bits | Television

    January 16, 2005

    TOUR OF DUTY

    Speaking of TV, I picked up the second season of TOUR OF DUTY on DVD a few weeks ago. As I'm sure I've said here before, this was one of my favorite TV shows growing up. It came at a time when we as a country were starting to open up about what had actually gone on in Vietnam (PLATOON had come out a year or two before this). Between this and getting those B&W magazine reprints of Marvel's THE 'NAM at the BX on base, I was getting at least somewhat of an idea of what had gone on.

    In addition to that, there was all the great 60's music in it. I can track back my appreciation for a whole bunch of songs directly to TOUR OF DUTY. Having PAINT IT BLACK playing over the opening credits was pure genius (of course, Kubrick had used it over the closing credits in FULL METAL JACKET the year before, but at least they swiped from the best). But TV shows were made differently back then. When they bought the license to use a song, it only covered inital broadcasting of that song. Whereas nowadays, producers will buy additional licenses for both broadcast AND home video use, thus ensuring that the song can be used when a show makes its way to DVD.

    No such luck with TOUR OF DUTY. Originally a mixture of source music and original score, there isn't a period song anywhere in the DVD releases. In their place is an instrumental rendition of something sounding just shy of HOLD ON, I'M COMING, GIMME SOME LOVIN, or BORN TO BE WILD. Even when the song was actually mentioned in the story, no such luck. One of the second season episodes had a chopper jock shot down in the jungle and he used the sound system he had installed in his chopper to play REACH OUT (I'LL BE THERE) by The Four Tops to help rescuers find him. After they get to him, he says something to the effect of "Ain't the Tops grand?" Well, I wouldn't know, because I didn't get to hear them!

    Does this totally negate any reason to watch this show? No. It's PLATOON-lite for late 80's network TV, but it's still entertaining (especially the first season). Just don't buy it thinking the music is put back in, because it isn't.

    Posted by Greg at 8:31 PM
    Posted to DVD | Music | Television

    November 29, 2004

    What The Hell I've Been Up To...

    Just got back from a 6-day excursion up to Fairfield for Thanksgiving with Linda, Dad, and Matt. It was a nice little recharge to the system; being up there and totally out of my usual routine. I checked in on my usual sites, but obviously didn't post anything here. I thought about, but then figured I'd wait til I got back here (plus their old-style keyboard would start bugging me after I used it for more than minimal typing).

    So now I'm going to shotgun through some things that've happened since my last post:

  • U2's HOW TO DISMANTLE AN ATOMIC BOMB: picked this up through iTunes on Monday night (11/22) -- my first iTune album purchase. I enjoyed it on the first listen, and it's growing on me with each subsequent. It really straddle's the line between sounding like pre-ACHTUNG BABY and post-ALL THAT YOU CAN'T LEAVE BEHIND. I don't think it will end up being my favorite U2 album, but its a really strong effort that I'm enjoying the hell out of right now. Click here to see the Roliing Stone review.

  • LOST -- My new favorite show. Or more accurately, my new favorite NETWORK show. My top three are:
  • 1. THE SHIELD
  • 2. DEADWOOD
  • 3. LOST

  • The 6-minute preview of the Extended Edition RETURN OF THE KING dvd is up. It'll be moot in a couple of week's when you can just go and buy the discs themselves, but feel free to check it out here and commence drooling.

  • Little DVD sidenote -- in the Sacramento airport tonight, I passed a little kiosk that looked like a newsstand, until upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a little CD/DVD shop. With the prevalence now of laptops and other devices that will let you watch DVDs on the move, I guess it makes sense to offers those in addition to the standard books/magazines/newspapers. Another small step in the gradual shift, I guess....

  • Saw a couple of movies over the break:

  • MAN ON FIRE: Predictable but well-executed. Definately worth a rental.
  • LOCK, STOCK, AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS: Good. A little tough to decipher the occasional word or two, but all in all a cool little caper comedy-of-errors. Worth getting on DVD at a bargin.
  • THE INCREDIBLES: The title says it all. The best FF/James Bond movie ever. So good on so many levels.

    • Posted by Greg at 11:33 PM
    Posted to DVD | Movies | Music | Scrambled Bits

    September 23, 2004

    Scrambled Bits

  • Why is it that the people who usually crow the loudest about of righteous they are turn out to be the biggest shitheels? Case in point, check out this little bon mot from Jimmy Swaggart:
    I've never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry. And I'm going to be blunt and plain: If one ever looks at me like that, I'm going to kill him and tell God he died.

    Real love-thy-neighbor example-setting right there, ass!

    Click here for Jimmy trying to weasel his way out of this and a few not-so-highlights from his past.

  • Money's really been tight, so it was buy the trilogy or buy comics and go see SHAUN OF THE DEAD (and possibly SKY CAPTAIN or COLLATERAL) this weekend. I thought I'd cave and get the Trilogy. But no, I didn't. However, I nearly did... until I realized I could rent them and get my fix for about 1/4 of the price. Not an ideal solution, mind you, but it's an imperfect world...screws fall out all the time.

    OK, so I gave into the Dark Side. But not completely. There is still good in me. I only rented the trilogy. So I can watch them this weekend and get my fix and hold off until Christmas or such to pick them up and see the 4th disc, which I got a preview of when A&E ran an edited version of the "Empire of Dreams" documentary.

    • Posted by Greg at 10:29 PM
    Posted to DVD | Movies | News | Scrambled Bits

    September 7, 2004

    Clerks X

    I picked up CLERKS X today, the 3-disc 10th anniversary release of Kevin Smith's CLERKS.

    It's got the theatrical cut, plus an extended Sundance cut, plus two commentaries (one brand-new and also available as video), a 90+ minute documentary on the whole CLERKS experience, plus tons of other stuff. You can check out a rundown of the features here, but as with all the View Askew special editions, it's stuffed to the gills with any cool thing you could imagine about the film. Say what you will about the guy, he knows how to put together a DVD.

    I used to be a huge Smith fan, and I still like CLERKS and CHASING AMY. I thought parts of DOGMA were brilliant (Carlin as a cardinal? Rufus the 13th Apostle?), but as a whole it didn't come together as well as it could have. MALLRATS was harmless, and J&SBSB less so. The fact that he's completely dropped the ball on his Marvel commitments irks me to no end and kinda sours him on me at times (plus I still think he comes off as kind of a dick on the DD documentary), but all in all I wish him good luck cuz he's living the fanboy dream. And CLERKS is where he first put it on the line.

    I haven't seen JERSEY GIRL yet, but I'll get around to it.

    Posted by Greg at 9:59 PM
    Posted to DVD | Spotlight / Plug

    February 10, 2004

    Scrambled Bits

  • According to Newsarama via VARIETY magazine, X-MEN director Bryan Singer and Dan Harris & Mike Dougherty will be writing a year's worth of stories for ULTIMATE X-MEN. Presumably after David Mack's run and Brian K. Vaughn's 6-issue stint. This would be the trio's first ever work in comics.

  • The 1997 special editions of the original SW trilogy are coming to DVD on September 21st in a 4-disc set comparable to the INDIANA JONES TRILOGY released last year (1 movie per disc and a bonus disc). Spokespeople have already said don't bother asking for the original theatrical releases, saying the 97 versions are the ones Lucas always intended to make.

    *cough*bullshit*cough*

    No word on if these will include anything new from the 97 versions. Check out Dvdfile.com for more details.

  • Want to make your own South Park character? Check out South Park Studio and choose from a variety of different clothing, facial, body, and other combinations.

    There is a way to save the image if you have an image-editing program (like Photoshop or Paint). When you have it like you want it, press ALT-PRINT SCRN and it was make a copy of the entire screen as big as whatever resolution you have your monitor at (800x600, 1024x780). Then create a new document in paint or whatever at that size, and paste your image in. Then you can fiddle with it or size it as needed!

  • SuperHero Hype! has posted excerpts from a VARIETY article with Christopher Nolan. The more I hear about this, the more pumped I'm getting!

  • Back in mid-December, I posted that Julius Schwartz, legendary DC Comics editor and architect of what we now call "The Silver Age", was hospitalized. He passed away at 2:30 am Sunday morning. You can read Harlan Ellison's obituary for 'Julie' here.

    • Posted by Greg at 7:57 AM
    Posted to Comics | DVD | Movies | News | Scrambled Bits

    February 7, 2004

    SPORTS NIGHT

    For two seasons on ABC, viewers were treated to a funny, intelligent, and more often than not thought-provoking look behind the scenes of a third-place cable sports news show. It was hailed as one of the best new shows ot the season, won Emmy awards, and treated its audience with respect.

    So of course it got cancelled.

    But lovers of quality TV everywhere can rejoice, as the entire two-season series is available on DVD for under 45 bucks on Amazon. There aren't any extras to speak of, but getting that much dramedy for that little money is one of the best deals on the shelves right now.

    Of the two Aaron Sorkin-produced shows (SN & THE WEST WING), SN is my favorite. They both have excellent casts and the rapid-fire "walk & talk" Sorkin dialogue that everyone knows about. But with TWW you know what you're getting. Drama first and foremost. Some laughs here and there, but drama. SN catches you more off-guard by starting with the funny, then spinning a 180 on a dime into dramatics, then back to the funny. Any they've got the cast to do it.

    Geniune chemistry is a blessing when it happens, and as noticable as a 50' neon sign when it's missing. Shows live and die by the chemistry of the casts. Shows like FIREFLY or THE SHIELD or SN may be filled with people you've never heard of before or had forgotten about, but once you see them on screen you realize they're a perfect fit. You want to see what happens to them.

    Then there's the writing. One of the Sorkin hallmarks (aside from the walk/talk) is taking a random piece of information which at first seems totally out of left field, and finding a way to make it absolutely pertinent to the episode as a whole. Case in point, guest star William H. Macy is doing a walk/talk with a passel of studio execs who want him to take over running SN from Robert Guillaume. Macy starts with this speech about Philo T. Farnsworth, who made glass tubes for the guy who physically invented the television. By the end of the speech, he's made his position very clear and also told them in no uncertain terms what horro would befall them if they try and take the show away from Robert. It's in the beginning of the second season and is one of my favorite moments of the series.

    There are certain projects that are like golden tickets to an actor/director/writer/etc. No matter what kind of career you've had, having something to do with one of these shows makes up for it.

    Example:

    "(insert name here) can't act his way out of a paper bag! The guy's a no-talent hack!"

    "Maybe so, but he was on (insert show here)."

    "Well, maybe I'm being a little hasty..."

    SN is one of those shows. Something everyone involved in can look back on and say they were a part of some great television.

    Posted by Greg at 12:02 AM
    Posted to DVD | Reviews | Spotlight / Plug | Television

    January 17, 2004

    FIREFLY

    I got the complete FIREFLY DVD set for Christmas this year and already finished all 14 episodes. I've been meaning to post on here about them, but held off because I wasn't sure if I had the words to talk about what I like about it. But the longer I wait, the farther away I get from my inital thoughts I wanted to capture. So here goes.

    I love this show.

    ("Boy, THAT was worth the wait," you say.)

    See, I type 'love' and it just comes out like regular old 'love', not the giddy-feeling, technicolor entertainment-fulfillment "LOVE" that I feel for it. The show deserves more than just a "It rocked!" and the like.

    I don't watch much television or movies anymore. I don't have TiVO and am too lazy to really sit down and find something to watch on TV. I used to be a TV junkie, but I passed some point years ago where my default mode of vegging/entertainment/whatever was TV watching. Most of it was crap anyway. Which is why when I DO find something I like, I latch onto it pretty tight. Right now there's only one series on now like that: THE SHIELD (which gets another post later). FIREFLY, had it remained on the air, would have been the other one.


    Science fiction TV or movies work best when paired with another genre or concept. For example: horror (ALIEN), war drama (ALIENS), naval fiction (STAR TREK), Cold War paranoia (INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, among others), and many more. One of the reasons STAR TREK II was so damn good is Nick Meyers carried Roddenberry's idea of "Horatio Hornblower in space" to it's logical conclusion. Everyone calls FIREFLY a sci-fi/western, but it's really the other way around.

    Change Serenity to a riverboat and you could do essentially the same show as a period piece. A lot of the speech patterns, Mal's in particular, carry the cadence and manner of an older American twang. The costuming takes more than a few cues from post-Civil War attire. The lack of aliens really lets Whedon and company focus on the humans, which leaves them no end of story material. The social landscape mirrors Reconstruction-era America in numerous ways. It's a refreshing and smart blend of the old with the new.

    I like entertainment with intelligence. I like things that don't treat me like I'm stupid. I like stories with characters. Not stereotypes or cardboard cutouts, but CHARACTERS. I need something I can hook my emotions on for an hour or half-hour. FIREFLY does this right from the start.

    (And any comments about how I can enjoy mindless superhero comics will be met with an answer of "I don't mind turning off the brain every now and then for a little fun". I am human. I contain contradictions. But for the most part, I like my entertainment to show some effort for my attention.)

    Almost every great show needs at least a season or two to really hits its stride; FIREFLY does it in its first two or three EPISODES. The plots don't take the easy way out. Each one of the main characters does something that makes you rethink who they are. They are human. They contain contradictions. The cast has palpable on-screen chemistry. The dialogue is well-crafted and uniformly excellent. The special effects look great. The entire show is such an experience it sucks you in and doesn't let go.

    There's a good possibility of a Whedon-written FIREFLY feature movie. He's written the script so far, and things are slowly moving forward. The entire cast has expressed VERY strong desire to come back. Nathan Fillion (who plays Mal) said he'd "cancel dialysis to be in the movie". Hopefully there will be more adventures of the Serenity crew in the not-so-near future.

    If you haven't already, go out and buy the DVD collection. If for some ungodly reason you don't like it, you need to seek psychiatric help first, and pass the set on to someone else second. FIREFLY is one of those shows that comes along once in a very long while that make you sit up and take notice at how damn good television CAN be, and how rare that it actually IS.

    There's an online-only article in AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER about FIREFLY. It focuses on the more technical side of the show, but it's a solid read nonetheless.

    Posted by Greg at 12:56 AM
    Posted to DVD | Reviews | Spotlight / Plug | Television

    December 22, 2003

    Scrambled Bits

  • Linda and I went to see RETURN OF THE KING Saturday at the Burbank AMC 16 with Josh & Dina, followed by dinner. A good time was had by all.

    My thoughts on the movie? It rocked. Absolutely 100% rocked my ass to the core. And I don't think I'm ready (even at this point having seen it twice already) to talk about it objectively. Maybe after the Extended Version's been out for a while I can sit back and pontificate about it. The theater crowd was good; it's always nice to have them clap/hoot/holler at things. That's one of the reasons to get out and see movies like this on the big screen; the audience participation/collective experience is something you don't get at home.

    Although at home, you can pause the movie and go to the bathroom whenever you like. Which for a film this long, could come in handy. I like Scott Kurtz's PVP "review" which had Skull say the movie was so good there was no good spot to go pee at.

    Bottom line, it brilliantly capped off a movie trilogy that just set the standard for how to do movie trilogies. Go and see it multiple times.

    On a related note, here's a neat Peter Jackson interview and links to all the AIN'T IT COOL NEWS posts on LORD OF THE RINGS since 1997. It's a nice little treat to look back on it all now with 20/20 hindsight and see people get all worked up over some rumor that you KNOW isn't going to happen. There's tons of stuff...

  • The LA Comic Book & Science Fiction Convention was fun. I got to touch base with a friend I hadn't seen in almost 7 years (a lot of that going around here, lately). Joss Whedon and company had a FIREFLY-themed Q&A session that made me even more anxious to see the series. Click here for a rundown on what was talked about. Information on getting complete DVD sets of the BATMAN and SUPERMAN animated series was obtained and filed away for future reference (i.e., when I get the cash). I got to park on the street and saved 6 bucks. Trust me, that'll come in handy. All in all, a successful trip.

    • Posted by Greg at 8:48 AM
    Posted to DVD | Interviews | Movies | Scrambled Bits

    December 11, 2003

    There's No Such Thing As A "Comic Book" Movie

    The following is from Peter Bracke's review on DVDFile.com for the Daredevil DVD.

    Daredevil just may be the ultimate comic book movie. Now, before you assault me with a torrent of hate mail ("What about Spider-Man?" "What about Batman?" "What about Superman?"), bear me out. Just like horror movies, or chick flicks, or musicals, there are certain "rules" a comic book movie must abide by in order to earn the label. Daredevil is tireless in its adherence to the genre, from the kid-gets-superpowers prologue, to the introduction of the hot chick sidekick and the dastardly evildoer, to the moment of redemption before the big climax. Does this pleasurable rigidity make Daredevil a good movie? Not really. But for what it is, in my opinion it is a better example of the genre than even mega-grossing Spider-Man. In light of this flick's good-but-not-great reception at the box office, I'm surprised more comic book fans didn't hold this one more near and dear to their hearts.

    Since even casual comic fans already know the Daredevil story, let's skip the plot recap and get right down to the quick pro quo. Every comic book movie has to have the required elements, most of which are, of course, ludicrous. Let's start with the hero, by which every comic book adaptation lives and dies. Here we get Ben Affleck in a crimson leather getup that I'm sure would make him very popular at any L.A. gay bar. Oddly, he shouldn't have any real superpowers despite his "accident." We're supposed to believe he gets blinded by chemical waste as a child (glad it didn't disfigure that smirking Affleck mug a whit), which then heightens his remaining four senses to such an extent that he can suddenly defy the laws of gravity, develop super-muscles and see everything via his radar-vision. More troubling is his penchant for wanton vigilantism, which turns him into a spandex-clad version of Charles Bronsan in Death Wish. Such thorny issues are ones the script laudably explores if never quite fully resolves. But hey, it is just a comic book movie, right?

    It's a fairly positive review for a movie that didn't seem to earn many, and this is nothing against Peter, but it's here because it has a lot of what I seem to find in every review of a superhero movie. To them all, I say this:

    There is no such thing as a comic book movie.

    There are movies that are based on a certain comic book property. But calling DAREDEVIL a 'comic book' movie is like calling LORD OF THE RINGS a 'book' movie. "But LOTR is a fantasy adventure movie," you say, because prose is a medium, not a genre. And yet everybody feels perfectly fine labeling DD or X2 or HULK as 'comic book' movies instead of the more accurate 'supehero' movies. ROAD TO PERDITION was a 'comic book' movie, but NOBODY bothers to mention that since nobody wears a costume, and it won an Oscar, so obviously it's above 'comic books', right?

    Back to Peter's review for a second. It's fairly accurate, if you do a global replace of 'comic book' for 'superhero'. As any regular GRUMPUS.COM reader knows, comics are not just men in tights hitting each other. Comic books (or sequential art, whichever you prefer) are a medium of storytelling, just as valid as film, prose, or radio. The fact that a huge majority of comics published tell superhero stories does not mean that all comics are superhero comics, any more than saying all movies are action movies because that's what all the blockbusters are.

    Comics are just juxtaposed pictoral or other images in a deliberate sequence intended to convey information or evoke an emotional response (thank you Scott McCloud for coming up with that definition). And they work very well. Everybody has read nonfiction comics if they've been on an airplane (safety instructions) or assembled anything (step-by-step instructions. Cathedrals and their stained-glass windows where each 'panel' shows a different period in the life of Christ. These helped impart the story to a congregation almost totally illiterate.

    Once you accept that comics are messengers, and not the message themselves, then you have to look at them in a different light. Now you open yourself up to a whole new medium of information (entertaining or otherwise). Comics can tell just as many types of stories as film or television. Now, some genres are better represented in one medium than another. Comics do superhero stories very well for a number of reasons; one being comics have an unlimited budget. It costs just as much to have two people talk as it does to have an entire universe ripped asunder or massive armies engulfed in war. Comics may not be able to approximate the visceral impact of the first twenty minutes of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, but that doesn't mean comics can't tell moving war stories, or crime, or romance, or anything else.

    Neil Gaiman had a wonderful quote about comics which basically asked why people can look at a painting and call it art, then read a book and call it art, but automatically dismiss something that combines those two mediums as utter crap. Which is what people do. This isn't to say that all comics are pieces of art, because they aren't. Comics, as a medium, as just as many clunkers as any other. But there's also a lot of good, solid, or even great work in comics. And when people keep linking all comics to superheroes, then comics suffer as a result. And that pisses me off.

    Posted by Greg at 3:51 PM
    Posted to DVD | Movies | Reviews

    December 2, 2003

    JMS Update & Another Brush With BABYLON 5

    JMS sent out an email to update his mailing list peeps on what he's up to right at the moment. Here's what it said, in it's entirety:

    COMICS

    I was reading in another post that somebody was saying that they'd read that the Rising Stars matter with Top Cow had been resolved. Is this true?

    Yes. There were a number of conditions set before Top Cow in order to resolve this, and those conditions were met. So the final three scripts will be turned in by late January/early February, and the Rising Stars story will be complete.

    And also, is there anything else new for all us grateful fans? :)

    Well, lessee...the first issue of the Doc Strange mini is nearly done, and I've turned in the first issue of a new series for Marvel which will have to await a more formal word from them, I'm afraid, since PR is properly their venue on things like this, and the next Supreme Power comes out next week. Spidey 501 came out a few days ago (and the last page is kind of a goof from what I'd originally scripted...it's a long story, but it doesn't look like it should.)
    BABYLON 5/CRUSADE/Etc.
    On the B5 front, there has been something of rather substantial proportion that's finally gone from talk to money, such that I'm now working frantically to meet some deadlines, but there's nothing I can say about this until after January 15th, probably closer to the end of that month.

    The only thing I can say is that phase one of the new project is a go, hence the furious writing schedule at this end of things, which is why I've been silent until deciding to kick up some dust on the political discusion. I've been writing my little brains out.

    I know the immediate result of this will be speculation, but if we could keep that to a low roar on the nets to avoid precluding anything, that would be a wonderfulness. But trust me: I wouldn't go on about something in this way if it wasn't a significant development. Just trust me on this one for a bit and hold fire until further word.

    (Longtime followers of the various news groups know that an eep means that something significant has happened, but that I can't talk about it...the eep is just a way of saying, on the QT, that something has, indeed, happened and it's real, not just speculation or maybe-gonna-happens. So on that basis, you may consider this an eep.)

    And on the topic of fans for a moment...I'm happy to mention that we've included a thanks to Steve Grimm (Lurker's Guide) and our resident moderator Jay Denebeim on the Season 5 DVD. Just a way of saying thanks for years of help and support.

    Oh, yeah...and next year you can expect two new DVD sets that a) include all of the TV movies in one package (with commentaries from me on "The Gathering" and "In the Beginning") and b) package all 13 of the Crusade episodes into one box.

    *******************

    On a related note, I finally tracked down the picture below this weekend:

    Yep, that's me and Stephen Furst (Vir, Flounder, or Dr. Axelrod ... depending on which you prefer). The picture was taken in May of 1998, while I was Editor-In-Chief of the PGCC Owl Newspaper. I'd been following B5 everyday on the first string of TNT reruns. To hype them and the then-new 5th season, TNT/WB put together a traveling B5 exhibit that stopped off in malls and such around the country. It was very cool to walk around, and meeting Stephen (who I'd interviewed earlier for the paper) was a real treat. Very positive and happy to sign anything people brought up, be it B5 or ANIMAL HOUSE-related stuff. VERY cool day.

    Posted by Greg at 1:57 PM
    Posted to Comics | DVD | Spotlight / Plug | Television

    November 24, 2003

    Soviet Revisionism In A Galaxy Far Far Away...

    Below is a listing of RUMORED changes George Lucas is making (or planning on making) to the original SW trilogy for when it is next re-released. THIS LIST IS NOT CONFIRMED AS OFFICIAL IN ANY CAPACITY!!! I copied it off of Ain't It Cool News and thought I'd post it here just to have my two cents with it. Althought THIS LIST IS NOT OFFICIAL, Lucas has be quoted as saying he is going to make more changes to the films in order to bring them in line with the prequels and his 'original vision' for them. The list appears in italics; my comments in roman.

    NOTES ABOUT ALL THREE FILMS: All of the 'problem shots' (due to visible matte lines or incorrect lightsaber rotoscoping or the like) are listed as being fixed. Also, Temura Morrison (played Jango Fett in CLONES) has been tapped to redo some of the stormtrooper dialogue, since they're all cloned from him, I guess.

    Episode IV: A New Hope

    Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

    Episode VI: Return of the Jedi


    Posted by Greg at 10:22 PM
    Posted to DVD | Movies

    November 18, 2003

    Scaling The Tower

    Picked up TWO TOWERS: EXTENDED and DRAGONSLAYER at Best Buy today. I don't know if they're doing this at your local store (wherever you may be reading this at), but I didn't see a standee of any kind for the TT like I've seen for other movies. I walked in and immediately started scanning the horizon for the huge cardboard monolith that would house the DVDs. Kept scanning. No luck. Hmmmmm...

    This seemed strangely disconcerting. It would be one thing to see said standee completely bare, scoured like the Shire. But to have no indication that the TT had landed in this store??? Peculiar. I could see FELLOWSHIP sets all over the place, but there was a TT-sized gap inthe DVD rack where it should have been. No standee; none on the rack....my pulse quickened. Could it be that they hadn't received their shipment yet? Such an event had occured once previously, with the first season of THE SHIELD (although a different Best Buy).

    I next glanced a gent walking with a leather-esque DVD package. The FELLOWSHIP package was forest green; this new one a deep brown. A gnarled voice in the back of my brain whispered, "The preciousssssss....". He sauntered over to the checkout lane, confidence in his step. My neck craned starboard to see a woman garbed in retail attire sitting behind a table chocked-full of digital video wares. Men (and a few women) were huddled around her, speaking something, and receiving bounty identical to what mine eyes had just glimpsed. Clearly, this woman was in the know. A gap opened; I advanced. "I'll take one," I said, hoping that was the code to crack the Sphinx's riddle this day. She nodded, reached into some unseen hold, and produced the very copy of TT that sits on my mantle this very moment. The voice inside subsided, replaced with soft gurglings of joy.

    Then I went over to the D's, picked out DRAGONSLAYER, paid for it, and went home.

    Posted by Greg at 6:18 PM
    Posted to DVD | Movies | Swag

    November 3, 2003

    They Mostly Come At Night... Mostly

    ALIEN fans get the Red Ryder BB Gun of gifts this Christmas with the ALIEN QUADRILOGY; a nine-disc box set with lots of new features, documentaries, commentaries, etc to make you go ga-ga. Here's the full list (courtesy of DVDFile) and check out a set review-in-progress here.

    ALIEN

    ALIENS

    ALIEN 3

    ALIEN RESURRECTION

    Bonus Disc:

    I'd rank them (enjoyment-wise):

    Posted by Greg at 9:36 PM
    Posted to DVD | Movies | Spotlight / Plug

    October 16, 2003

    Latest Day of Wallet-Cleansing

    This doesn't really apply to me since I'm pretty broke, but if I had the scratch to blow all at once on this coming Tuesday (10/21/03), I could walk out of Best Buy with:

    There are a couple of days like this between now and Christmas, and one huge one afterwards. LORD OF THE RINGS: EXTENDED TWO TOWERS comes out on 11/18, X2 on 11/25, and THE ALIEN QUADRILOGY on 12/2. Post-holiday, 1/6 brings us both THE SHIELD SEASON 2 and BABYLON 5: SEASON 4 on DVD. Wow.

    And when I say broke, I mean aside from paltry pennies to buy mandatory comics. I'm an addict, OK? I CANNOT GO WITHOUT MY FIX!!!!

    Pity me, but love me.

    Posted by Greg at 4:19 PM
    Posted to DVD | Movies | Music | Swag | Television

    Burning... Wah-TAIR!!!

    DRAGONSLAYER is coming to DVD next week. A live-action Disney movie back when they did them well, and a highly overlooked gem of early 80's fantasy, this movie has hands-down one of the coolest dragons ever seen on screen. No Sean Connery-talking, misunderstood creature here. Only Galen Bradwarden stands between us and fiery death from above. Did I mention Galen is played by Peter MacNicol? Janosz Poha from GHOSTBUSTERS 2 and John Cage from ALLY McBEAL? This was his film debut, aided and abbetted by Sir Ralph Richardson, John Hallam as Tyrian, Sydney Bromley as Hodge (who uttered the unforgettable quote used above), and one pissed-off fire-spouting reptile. Definately worth checking out.

    Posted by Greg at 2:55 AM
    Posted to DVD | Spotlight / Plug

    October 14, 2003

    DVD Held Hostage By Music Money

    Like a particular song used in a TV show or movie? Don't count on it always being there.

    Just read this newsbit on SCIFI.COM about music changes on the DVD release of ROSWELL. Basically it costs too much to re-license some of the music used in the original broadcast (songs by DMB, Sarah McLachlan, Jewel, Santana, and more). It's too expensive up front, or doing so would make the sets prohibitively expensive.

    This isn't a new problem, but one that's grown more prevalent as TV shows are released on video/DVD. It used to be that when you bought the rights to a song, you got ALL the rights. Now, you have to buy separate rights for separate uses (original broadcast, home video release, etc.). I'm all for artists making money off their creations, but on the other hand this can take some of the fun out of things. Some examples are:

    Posted by Greg at 3:48 AM
    Posted to DVD | Movies | Music | Television