UFO. Gerry Angerson’s 1970 science fiction series about aliens who are quietly invading Earth, taking organs, and doing other nastiness. Great purple hair! I ordered the first 13 episodes, then ordered the other 13 the next day.
Lost Horizon. The story that gave us “Shangri La”. Some of the footage no longer exists, but the audio does. I understand they put stills in in place of the missing footage and let the audio play. Not perfect, but that’s all there is.
Titanic. Yeah, I know it’s crap; but I’ve liked the Titanic since I was a little kid. (I have A Night to Remember on VHS.) Anyway, it was only ten bucks.
I still have to wait until the end of the month for Little Big Man to be sent. Ooh, I’ve been waiting for that one for a long time!
Nice!..tax refund I’m guessing? (With ours we upgraded from a full size bed to a California King. Oh yeah!)
I confess, I actually like Titanic. The amount of detail and reproduction that went into that was pretty amazing. (I saw a travelling exhibit that let you get up close to some of the costumes and set design and it was really interesting.)
What I’d like to have in the mail? The new DVD release of Blue, White and Red by Kristoff Krislowski.
What IS in the mail? I’m waiting for a half price pair of Birkenstock shoes to come on the slow boat from Germany. (eBay win - did you know Birkenstock made regular shoes? I thought they only made “hippie” sandals until I saw a magazine ad recently.) The tightwad in me hates to pay so much for a pair of shoes ($150 list, $79 auction price), but the bad back in me says it’s probably about time I got something with better support. I was told 5-6 weeks, I think, for surface shipping – wow! That takes me back to the olden days when you had to wait 6-8 weeks for EVERYTHING! Terribly antsy as you might expect. They were a birthday present to myself and my birthday was a week and a half ago!
What was in the mail I didn’t know about? I received from Amazon a Playstation game ordered by someone else that was supposed to ship to someone else. (I had an actual order that I’d received the day before, and I guess because of a computer glitch my label printed twice and ended up on someone else’s order.) I emailed them about it and they said they’d send a label to return it. I was sort of bummed because I was hoping they’d say “oops! Our bad – just keep it.” so I could send it to my brother and look cool. Haha. Oh well. I’ll have to settle for honesty Karma points. Again.
Nope. I never get a tax refund. I had to pay about $1,500 this year. Stupid interest earnings!
What I’d like to be in the mail (DVD-wise) is Attack of the Mushroom People and The High and the Mighty. Unfortunately, they’ve never been released on DVD. I’d also like Space: 1999, but I only liked the first season. The Prisoner is too expensive. And one of these days I’d like to pick up Ken Burns’s The Civil War.
But I’ve got plenty of Monty P. and mod sci-fi coming to keep me entertained for a couple of weeks!
Johnny L.A. – have you seen UFO recently before you bought it? Because I bought the first couple of DVDs for a friend; when I saw them in the store I went apeshit and almost ran to the cash register. But after the opening (which is still one of the best unions of music and video ever created in the history of mankind) and the cool costumes, the true horror comes through: the show is stone cold deadly dull. But your mileage may vary…
Not that anyone asked, but in the mail for me, at least it will be soon as the first item is released: Robert E. Lee biography by Roy Blount, Jr. (my favorite writer) Castle in the Sky, the Studio Ghibli movie that I can finally own a legal Region 1 copy of! The Castle of Cagliostro, the Studio Ghibli movie that I loaned to a friend a couple of years ago and haven’t seen since! Switched-on Box Set, the complete collection of Wendy Carlos’ synthesized classical pieces.
I submitted an order to the History Book Club this week that’s due any day now.
Empire: How Spain Became a World Power 1492-1763 by Henry Kamen The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte and The Reign of Napoleon Bonaparte by Robert Asprey The Greatest Stories Never Told by Rick Beyer The Human Web: A Bird’s Eye View of Human History by J.R. McNeill And William H. McNeill The World’s Worst Warships by Antony Preston
Titanic isn’t crap, you just feel you have to say that because a few loud Titanic-haters have made you think that everybody hates Titanic except you. Truth is, most people who’ve seen it love it, but the few who didn’t are always the ones who speak up. Their loudness and persistance have made you think they’re in the majority. Don’t worry about it. Titanic has some flaws, but it’s a good movie, and a worthy addition to the “Epic” genre.
That said, even though I saw it 5 times in the theater, I don’t own the DVD. They released the original DVD a year after the movie was released on VHS, so I didn’t buy it then out of protest. Now I’m waiting for the Special Edition.
I also have Little Big Man on pre-order. I feared it would never be released on DVD, so I’m very very happy!
SolGrundy: No, I bought them based on memories of watching the series when I was a kid. I remember it being a little slow wometimes, but very cool.
Equipoise: Actually, Titanic is not a very good film. I saw it at the cinema once, and that was before the “Titanic Haters” became prevalent. The story is trite. The characters are unbelievable. Kate Winslet has obviously done no research on the era, as her portrayal of an early-20th Century woman – even one who is supposed to be "ahead of her time – is too anachronistic. Not quite as bad as Dana Delany in Tombstone, but right down there.
Still, the visual effects are cool. (Although anyone can make a full-sized ship look like a full-sized ship, it’s still nice to see.) I like the Celtic sound of the soundtrack (but I hate that song – something about a “heart going on”).
So the only reason I bought it is because it’s another Titanic film and it was cheap. If I really thought it was a good film, I would have bought the VHS when it came out and then the DVD. But YMMV.
Thanks for the review of Little Big Man. I wonder if they really cut anything out, or if it’s a miscommunication somewhere?
Heh – wish I’d’ve known you were a fan. It’s one of my all-time favorite movies and I own it, myself (though on VHS) and we could’ve watched it when you were over. And yes, they did indeed put stills in place of the missing footage. It’s a bit odd, but I guess it’s better than losing those parts entirely.
And no spankings, but I actually like the cheesy musical version, too. And if I’m being totally honest, I must confess that in some ways I actually like it better. <ducks>
I disagree with all that, but it’s not something I’m passionate enough to argue about. There are plenty of other people around who are more into Titanic than I am. I much preferred L.A. Confidential from that year and do think that A Night To Remember is the better Titanic film. Still, I had a grand old time seeing it, and even shed a few tears. It’s the kind of movie that the movies were made for. I’m glad it was made, even with the flaws.
