Even though I'm a huge film fan, I haven't been to the cinema lately. Last film I saw on the big(-ish) screen was Spider-Man 3. Most likely, the next one I'll see is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, as my wife refuses to miss those. There's a few flicks out now I'd like to go see: Pirates 3, Ratatouille, FF2, Live Free or Die Hard... but I'll probably end up catching them on DVD.Most of my movie watching is on DVD these days. Among the discs I've spun lately are the Flash Gordon serial, G-Men, At The Earth's Core, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, A Day At the Races, Devil's Den, Stan Lee Presents The Condor, Batman Begins, Sleepers West (again) and Mr. Moto's Gamble.
Last week was my birthday, so I went out to Hollywood Video and rented a few recent discs. Saw Brick (which I thought was great), Ghost Rider Extended Cut (which – God help me – I liked), Smokin' Aces (which was a lot of fun), and Bridge to Tarabithia (which wasn't at all what I expected, and made me cry, dammit).
There's a lot of great stuff coming out on DVD now and in the near future (MGM has rebooted the "Midnight Movies" line for Halloween! Huzzah!), but the discs I'm most anticipating are: Flash Gordon: Saviour of the Universe Edition, The Monster Squad 20th Anniversary Edition, From Beyond Unrated Director's Cut and Charlie Chan Vol. 3, which includes the last of the surviving Warner Oland Chan films, including The Black Camel, co-starring Bela Lugosi. I hope Fox continues on with the Sidney Toler Chan films – I know it's borderline heresy, but I personally find Toler's acerbic take on the character to be more fun than Oland's admittedly charming, but restrained interpretation of the role.
I've already pre-ordered The Monster Squad (due out later this month), Chan and Flash (both due in August), and I'm eager to finally get my hands on a good, properly framed copy of From Beyond, which, for my money, is the best of director Stuart Gordon's Lovecraft canon. (Can't say I'm digging that cover art, though...)
But, as much as I love DVD, I do wish that we could get out to the theater more and that the experience wasn't always such a pain in the ass...
2 comments:
Chris,
As much as I love movies, I find myself in a theater less and less. I used to go at least once a week when I was in my teens and 20's. Now it's a time and cost factor...
I did see Live Free or Die Hard on the big screen and am glad that I did.
I haven't been buying as many dvds either. Although I am going to scarf up 300 as soon as it's available.
I don't go to the theatre much either. Most of the ones around here are in pretty bad condition (one was even condemned) and full of people who apparently have no concept of etiquette.
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