I've been waiting for some of these classics to hit the
Kung Fu HD channel, since getting this service on
Cablevision. This made sense as
James Dolan, who was (is?) owner of Cablevision at the time was apparently
involved in the Miramax aquisition of a fraction of the Shaw library a few years ago. Miramax eventually gave way to
The Wienstein Company and a number of
Shaw Bros. classics have been released on their
Dragon Dynasty label. A number of movies on Kung Fu HD (and a few other
Voom HD channels) still sport the Miramax logo, which again made me wonder when they'd get to some
Chang Cheh goodness.
Now.
Tired of whatever was on
CNN (last night), I flipped channels to Kung Fu HD. The info bar said I was watching
Seven Samurai, but I clearly wasn't.* I was watching
The Water Margin, an early seventies epic directed by Chang Cheh. Odd thing about this was that, it isn't among the Dragon Dynasty releases.
Image Entertainment put it out. Hmm. Wonder what's going on here?
The picture quality was quite good, but HD cable isn't as good as Blu-Ray for the most part. I compared the picture to the Image DVD and found the cable version to be a significant enough improvement.
According to the
TV listings (which may or may not be accurate),* We'll see more Shaw pics on Thursday, Sept. 4th;
Shaolin HandlockShaolin Abbot (dunno if I've seen this one, but
Lo Lieh is
Pai Mei again and something unfortunate is gonna happen to Fung Sai Yuk/Fong Si Yu).
Kung Fu VengenceThe aforementioned Water Margin (aka Seven Blows Of The Dragon) and hopefully more to come.
I don't know if my DVR can take this (assuming there
is more to come). I might have some difficulty in erasing some of this content, especially as none of it has been even announced for Blu-Ray, yet (that I know of)
(I can't seem to link to a specific day, so after a while it'll be just the current 4 day cycle after a few days)
*there's some incompetence at Cablevision that causes either the wrong programing, the wrong info, or both. It doesn't happen all the time, but it does happen often.
Labels: Awesome, HDTV, kung fu, movies, nostalgia, Shaw Bros., tv, youtube and other video
Probably the granddaddy of genre film, influencing everything from kung fu movies to space opera sci-fi to urban crime dramas. I like a good western. Not just the "Spaghetti" ones, but some
John Wayne stuff and others, as well.
Aside from the
Leone films (
Once Upon A Time In The West in particular), a favorite would be
El Dorado with Wayne,
Robert Mitchum and
James Caan. This movie is about as badass as anything made by
John Woo in the eighties, or so that's how I remember it. It's been a while since viewing it, though I did watch
Rio Bravo, a similar, earlier film also directed by
Howard Hawks, for the first time a year or so ago.
Vera Cruz was a film that played on one of the Hi-Def channels several months ago that I dug a lot as well. While there weren't any outright profanity, or obvious bleeding, I was surprised at how rough it seemed for the time it was made (mid-fifties). Also had a very cool cast including
Ceasar Romero, Charles Bronson, Earnest Borgnine, and Jack Elam. The leads were good too.
Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster.Anyway, I'd watched a small bunch of westerns in the last week or so;
Take A Hard Ride pits the cast of
Three The Hard Way (Jim Brown, Fred Williamson, and Jim Kelly) against the awesome
Lee Van Cleef. It's a spaghetti western, but as it's been said by everyone else who's written about it, it doesn't feel like one. This is mostly attributed to the score by
Jerry Goldsmith, and the mostly black cast, but I think it's mainly the fact that the cast use their own voices that makes this feel so American. Spaghetti westerns often sound like kung fu movies (I'm sure the same voices were often used). The Goldsmith score,
Hal Needham's second unit direction and stunt co-ordination and the story's relatively down to earth characters don't hurt either. The one drawback is that Jim Kelly portrays a mute, so you don't get to hear his trademark "Oooooyyyy!" while he's whippin' up on some ass. Also his jogging while everybody's on horseback got really silly at one point. Other than that, I recommend it. A fun, action packed movie. Better than this trailer makes it appear...
Open Range - Got this cheap on DVD.
Robert Duvall is great and so is
Kevin Costner as the Badass who tries very hard not to be. I liked it. But even though I didn't need this movie to be longer than it was, I kinda wanted to know a little bit more about the bad guy. Why? Well, there came a point when it became really obvious that he was fuckin' with the wrong people, and yet he just wouldn't let up. This happens occasionally in genre stories, and when it does, I actually want to know why. Otherwise, it taxes my (often generous) suspension of disbelief.
Still, I liked it. I'll have to check out
Dances With Wolves one day.
3:10 To Yuma - I got this on Blu-Ray. Some of the gunfights scared the cat outta the room, whereas in Open Range, they merely alarmed him somewhat. I hadn't seen the original, but I knew it was a remake. When I read in the credits that it was based on a story by
Elmore Leonard, I was surprised as I assumed the original must've been really old. Holy crap!
It is.And
so's he! I had no idea. Anyway, I mostly enjoyed this one, though I was a little confused by an odd change of heart at one point in the flick. Can't say anymore on that without giving shit away, so I won't. Though not a spaghetti western, the movie contains one of the genre's staples, identified by
David Walker in an article some years back, as "the evil homosexual in white". Charlie Prince isn't dressed completely in white, but fits the part otherwise.
I'll have to hunt down the original.
Sukiyaki Western Django - This is a
Takeshi Miike film, so this could be waaaay crazier than it is. It's not that crazy. A Japanese spaghetti western, with a mostly Japanese cast sounding out the English dialog. I thought watching it on a DVD that had no English subtitles was a bad idea, and it was, kinda, but I was fine. I did miss a bit of dialog, but I don't think it always mattered. I enjoyed it, and
Quentin Tarantino's small role (appearing twice) was interesting but a little confusing. And the segment which explains the origin of Bloody Benten almost seems to be making fun of
Kill Bill. It was fun, needlessly violent (which is neccessary), and not that crazy. I liked it.
The Proposition is a western from Australia. I haven't seen this one, yet. I've ordered the Blu-Ray and look forward to watching it.
Labels: DVD, HDTV, japanese, movies
Recently finished watching this anime sci-fi adaptation of
Alexandre Dumas' Count Of Monte Cristo. It's quite good. I haven't read the novel (though I have it), so I can't say how it stacks up to the original. Couldn't help but notice that with all the technology on display, there was almost no telecommunicating between the characters, which was probably a direct reflection of the original story, written in the 1800's.
The series is 24 episodes long and took me maybe about two weeks to watch (if that long) on my
PSP.Didn't care too much for the opening song, parts of the melody, as sung, sounded a little off to me. Other than that,
Gankutsuou was great. Well written, well performed and well animated (lone exception for the CGI).
Labels: Anime, Awesome, tv, youtube and other video
Amazon.com has a weekly Friday 5 feature (only good during the weekend); 5 album downloads (selected by Amazon) by different artists for $5.00 each. Last weekend,
Eric Clapton: Unplugged was one of the selections. I was gonna buy it, but I was on my way out, and didn't remember until Monday or Tuesday-ish when the sale was over.
This weekend the albums are;
Kanye West: Graduation *
Nirvana: NevermindDane Cook: Harmful If SwallowedArt Blakey And The Jazz Messengers: Moanin' (The Rudy Van Gelder Edition) and
Sufjan Stephens: Illinoise
Five dollars for an MP3 album approaches eMusic pricing, but for albums not usually found on eMusic (in this case except for Sufjan Stephens). For me, this kind of pricing inspires more impulse buying. I could've easily searched for Nirvana and Kanye albums and found them for free (once it occured to me I wanted them), with hardly any effort. In fact, I may still do that. They've got other records...
I bought the Nirvana and Kanye West selections, two artists not represented in my collection.
I always thought Nirvana was very good, but managed not to ever buy a CD of theirs. Also was turned off by the post Cobain adoration that came after his death (that sort of thing is happening with Heath Ledger now, but won't put me off The Dark Knight).
Kanye West is a guy who's mostly impressed me with live performances like the Grammy performance a few years ago of "Jesus Walks" with the Five Blind Boys Of Alabama
and of course his George Bush doesn't care about black people moment with Michael (I don't know this guy) Myers. One the greatest moments in TV history, even if I think he was being a little silly.
There's also a Paul Westerberg album, 49:00 made up of a single track that's 44 minutes long for 49 cents. Bought that too.
*There was a error on Graduation, where the Amazon downloader won't download the thirteenth track, Big Brother (says "track no longer available. Please contact Customer service."). Just noticed that, and emailed customer service. Let's see what happens...
2:17 PM - problem solved.
Labels: downloads, good deal, music, online retailers, youtube and other video
Kinda, sorta animated.
iTunes is offering free downloads (for a limited time, I think) of Watchmen #1, the original story and artwork animated from the panels (like those sixties
Marvel cartoons, but better) with music and a voiceover guy. I only watched a few minutes of it, but I thought it was well done and a great way to present comics on the web. I'd like to see more.
I had no problem with a single narrator rather than having every character voiced individually. I think it works artistically, and makes sense economically.
Unfortunately, like all iTunes videos (that I'm aware of), this only plays on
iPods and computers. Not
PSPs.Though once these
"motion comics" become available for sale, we go back to the problem of portable TV and video episodes being priced at $1.99 a piece. I still refuse to accept that, even as
Playstation.com is starting to make content available for the PSP and
PS3.Buuuuuuut, maybe this is different. It's not like
The Daily Show which one can watch practically for free on cable, or serialized shows which are cheaper as DVD sets (and are converted to MP4s easily enough). I might be tempted to try some exclusive content, but not for an extended run. I also won't be paying for more episodes of The Watchmen as I've read the series already and know how it ends (aside from being too expensive). I do look forward to the Movie, which looks great so far (trailer and website link below...)
Plus:
Alan Moore loves The Wire, not so crazy about 300.Watchmen movie websiteand the trailer:
Labels: Anticipay-yay-shun..., comics, downloads, movies, possibilities for creative expression, youtube and other video