April 12, 2009
Pinocchio Blu-ray
April 1, 2009
Why ?!
I love dvds, as do we all. Crystal clear widescreen picture, commentaries, behind the scenes featurettes ; everything that a real movie fan could want. I remember exactly when I got started with the whole dvd world. April 4th, 2000. It was an RCA dvd player (which still works.) Of course, I had to get a dvd to go with it. So, I picked one of my favourite movies ; the first Highlander film. The director's cut, of course. It was (and still is) great. It has a commentary by the director and the producer. Not the best commentary I've ever heard, but definately fun to listen to. There is also production photos, but I've never really cared for stuff like that. Oh, and there was a trailer for the movie. Where was I ?.....oh, right. The dvd player. When I got the dvd player, it came with a form that you could filled out and send in to get five free movies. The ones offered with the player I bought were....Get Shorty, Analyze This, The Mask, Jackyl, and Fools Rush In. Except for Mask and Analyze, not too much worth watching more than once.
But onto the main reason for this post......
You buy a dvd of a movie that you really love and have been wanting for a while. Now, either the dvd has little or no features, but you're happy because you like the movie alot. Then, a little while later, you hear about a new special edition of that same movie and, because you're a huge fan of the movie, you buy that edition because it has a commentary and maybe a behind the scenes featurette. A few years later, maybe more maybe less, goes by and you hear that the movie is coming to blu-ray. Great ! You think that your favourite movie is going to have just amazing picture and sound quality as well as commentaries, featurettes, games, etc. So, when the blu-ray comes out, you go out and buy it. But when you're looking at the box, you see that the blu-ray is not the special collector's edition that you had before, but is, in fact, pretty much barebones with only a trailer as an extra.
Excuse me ? I spent 20 some odd dollars on your movie, then another 20 or so dollars for the special edition, then around, maybe, 30 dollars for the blu-ray. But the blu-ray doesn't have any of the features that you love. It may or may not have new, blu-ray exclusive features, but you're so mad that that doesn't count. The regular dvd you have is loaded with features, and maybe only a single disc release. Blu-ray has a far greater amount of storage space so, if a normal, lowly dvd have a ton of features, why can't the blu-ray at least include all the normal dvd's extras ? Doesn't make much sense to me.
First Review - Adventures Of Robin Hood
For my first article, I'd like to talk about a somewhat good dvd set. It's called Adventures Of Robin Hood : The Complete First Season. AORH is a show that aired from 1955 to 1960. You're all familiar with the story of Robin Hood, so I won't bore you with that. What I will do is just talk about the set its self. The set comes from the budget dvd house, Mill Creek Entertainment. I don't have too much experience with this company, but they seem alright. The show is black and white, as was typical of the period, and is originally from england. Each disc of the 3 disc set is packed with episodes, so the quality is somewhat hit or miss. But don't get me wrong. The episodes, for the most part, are totally watchable. Though, if you're a little hard of hearing, you'll probably have to turn the sound up a bit, as it tends to fall on the soft side.
The sources that Mill Creek used to make the set are from all over the place. So, some episodes are almost perfect, while others are a bit fuzzy....but still watchable. A bit of fun to note : on several of the episodes, Mill Creek put some of the sponsor commercial spots that the american tv stations would tack on to the episodes to sell different products such as Wildroot Creme, an old hair care product. (that is still available, by the way) I love old commercials like this. They're really fun to watch. That's why I like retrojunk.com so much.
Later seasons of the show, you'll see a lot of great guest stars come in. Patrick Troughton (Doctor Who number 2) and Donald Pleasence (Doctor Loomis - Halloween, Ernst Stavro Blofeld - You Only Live Twice (James Bond movie.)
All in all, this is a great show to pop into the dvd player on a rainy day and you need some cheering up. Sure, most of it is really corny and hammy and doesn't seem that much better than a really bad high school play, but it's a really fun show. If you like Robin Hood movies/stories and are also a fan of old tv shows, this is one of the best "bad" shows you could hope to find. The sets of this show shouldn't be all that hard to find. You'll, in fact, probably find them in the 5 dollar bin at Walmart. That's where I got mine. I did see the first season set at Best Buy, but is was something like 12 dollars. Definately try to find it in the 5 dollar bin if you can.