OT: Movies You Have Seen Lately

Geckomlis · #1 September 16th, 2004, 08:46 PM

Just saw the Shogun TV miniseries on DVD. A little grainy for a few seconds here and there, but overall a decent transfer if nothing spectacular. One of the few cases that a story is one of my favorite books and one of my favorite miniseries.

gregebowman · #2 September 20th, 2004, 12:29 PM

Went and saw Sky Captain And The World of Tomorrow and Resident Evil: Apocalypse this weekend. You HAVE to see Sky Captain. It is a great movie, and most reviews I read compared it to Raiders of the Lost Ark. It does have that kind of feel to it. And what's really amazing is that all of the backgrounds and most of the environments you see on teh screen are all computer generated. The only distracting thing for me is that the actors's faces looked kind of faded sometimes, like something you'd see in a black & white film that's been colorized. Just something I noticed and kind of bugged me, but didn't really distract from enjoying this film. The only really annoying thing in the film is Gwyneth Paltrow's acting. Most of it was wooden and forced, as if she's saying I'm just doing this for a paycheck. It wouldn't be so sad, but you know she's an Oscar winner, and expect better from her.

Resident Evil was ok, and kind of expounded on the events in the first movie. Won't give out any spoilers, but you find out why she was awoken from her "coma" at the end of the film, and why the city looked like a war zone. It's an ok film, but not up to the quality of Sky Captain.

narf poit chez BOOM · #3 September 20th, 2004, 09:06 PM

That kinda black&white look is intentional, according to something I read in the newspaper.

dogscoff · #4 September 21st, 2004, 07:26 AM

Last night I finally got a chance to watch "Shaun of the Dead" on DVD. I tell you, it's one of the funniest films I have ever seen- it's good as a horror flick as well, but mainly it's a comedy . It's described as a rom-zom-com on the box, and I can't think of a better description myself. Some of the DVD extras are excellent as well.

It might not be widely available outside the UK, but if you have access to a multi-rigion DVD player and internet shopping anything is possible...

Randallw · #5 September 21st, 2004, 07:36 AM

I just received a DVD player, and it has a button to choose between NTSC and PAL. I know these are different TV types. Does my DVD player have a Multi-Region function?.

gregebowman · #6 September 21st, 2004, 10:05 AM

Quote:

Randallw said:
I just received a DVD player, and it has a button to choose between NTSC and PAL. I know these are different TV types. Does my DVD player have a Multi-Region function?.

If I'm not mistaken, PAL is how the Europeans view their television signals. Not really sure of the difference between the two, but I don't think it has anything to do with a multi-region viewer. I know back about 7 years ago when I first got my Playstation, you could either buy an adapter or buy a multi-region machine to play the Japanese games. I haven't really checked since I got a PS2. There may be something similar out there for those who have one that will let you play dvd's from the different regions.

Randallw · #7 September 22nd, 2004, 05:51 AM

Quote:

I know back about 7 years ago when I first got my Playstation, you could either buy an adapter or buy a multi-region machine to play the Japanese games.

While I was in Europe a few years ago our housesitter stuck something in my playstation (without asking) that he said would let me use games from anywhere. I've never used it though. I played Wipeout2097 twice when i got back, finished it and gave my games to someone for christmas.

capnq · #8 September 21st, 2004, 01:10 PM

Quote:

I just received a DVD player, and it has a button to choose between NTSC and PAL.

Maybe they just designed one unit for sale in both the US and Europe.

dogscoff · #9 September 21st, 2004, 01:20 PM

NTSC and PAL are just two different display outputs. It doesn't necessarily mean your machine is multi-region, but it doens't mean it isn't either.

A lot of DVD players are multi-region these days, and a lot of those that aren't can be made multi-region very easily. Sometimes it requires a little hardware work (opening it up and doing some light modding, or maybe flicking a switch or something) and sometimes it is as easy as getting a "secret" key-sequence off the internet to access a hidden menu or type in a special code.

Do some research on the internet for your own particular model of DVD player. Just go to google and type in the exact model of your DVD player and the words "region hack", for example http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&i...07+region+hack

David E. Gervais · #10 September 21st, 2004, 08:31 AM

Quote:

gregebowman said:
..The only really annoying thing in the film is Gwyneth Paltrow's acting. Most of it was wooden and forced, as if she's saying I'm just doing this for a paycheck. It wouldn't be so sad, but you know she's an Oscar winner, and expect better from her.

You just witnessed the difference between an 'Actor' and a 'Reactor' Gwyneth is a 'people person' she works well with people to interact with. Acting in front of a blue or green screen for the whole movie takes an actor with great imagination. One of these days 'Hollywood' is going to realise that it takes a whole lot of acting talent to act and react to nothing but a blue screen. No matter how good the director is, it's still a reflection of the actors imagination. I think that the actors in big SPFX movies are always underrated. I also think that 'Big Movie Sets' are fast becomming a thing of the past. So the actors better get good at acting in a blue room becase they won't have the splendor of a grand set design to lean on and draw inspiration. Yes indeed, you can see the difference when you place an 'unimaginative' actor into a FX movie.

Anyway, nuf said, Cheers!