Topic: Eric's DVD watching.

[Touti]

There Jimmy, I fixed that by borrowing Seb's phpdvdprofiler image again.

[Touti]

About Terminator - The Sarah Connor chronicles.

I watched disc 4 of season 2 last week-end and I'm gonna watch the last one later this week.  I found the story a bit hard to follow from one episode to the next on disc 4.  I had the "Recap" on and even in the pre-episode clip that shows you what happend "Last time on....." there seemed to be things I had not seen before.

I'm just wondering, did they have to skip some episodes to bring closure to the series when the plug was pulled ?

[Tom]

I'm just wondering, did they have to skip some episodes to bring closure to the series when the plug was pulled ?

I didn't have the feeling. And as far as I know they only knew about the cancellation after they already shot all episodes (or at least after all episodes were written). The series finale was only supposed to be a season finale.

[Touti]

Maybe it's just my memory that is beginning to fail . 

[goodguy]

IIRC the only episode that got shifted around was 2x12 Alpine Fields.

If you refer to DVD (not Blu-ray), Disc 4 would be:
2x13 Earthlings Welcome Here
2x14 The Good Wound
2x15 Desert Cantos
2x16 Some Must Watch While Some Must Sleep

2x13 was the midseason finale and started the Sarah-centered "desert quest" episodes, which a lot of people (not me, though) didn't like. They are a bit more introspective even for TSCC standards, but I didn't find them especially hard to follow. 2x16 is a bit of a WTF episode, but you haven't seen that yet.

Achim and I did an TSCC S2 marathon a while ago and discussed the individual episodes quite a bit (spoilers!). Maybe you will find that interesting or even want to add your own comments.
http://www.dvdcollectorsonline.com/index.php/topic,5899.0.html

[Touti]

There's a few episodes in the series that rely on flashbacks more than others and there was almost a month between my watching of discs 3 and 4, my memory wasn't all fresh about it.

There's one episode in particular that got me confused more than others,

(click to show/hide)

it's the one where a bunch of people were killed in the explosion of a warehouse".  It sort of throws stuff at you that you have no idea where it comes from and later the flashbacks make things clear.  At the beginning of that episode I though I had missed something so I activated "recaps" and restarted the episode but then the recap showed a discussion between Riley and Jesse that I had not seen before either, that's why I thought maybe they were "forced" to skip some episodes.

[Achim]

Maybe get more sleep outside watching this?

Seriously though, some episodes have a challenging structure, but so do many good movies. Across episodes I often can't remember myself. However, at least outside the recaps, they often give you flashbacks which show stuff they actually hadn't shown before, it's just part of the structure.

[Touti]

I finished watching the 2nd season tonight.  I have to say when I started playback of the last disc I was disappointed to see there was only 3 episodes on it.

I didn't think it was possible after Wonderfalls but after watching Terminator:TSCC I dislike Fox more than before.  I haven't looked it up so I don't know why they pulled the plug on it (although I'm confident my educated gue$$ would be right on the $pot) but it's a real shame.   They stopped it right when it was getting really good.

[Touti]

Buillit



I have no idea what possessed me today but I actually felt like watching a movie from the late 60's or early 70's.  I don't know what it was competing with but it's no surprise to me that Bullit won the Oscar for best film editing.  As some of you know, I really dislike the dialogs in movies from that period and I was expecting Bullit to be the same but surprisingly it's the opposite.

The movie has many long scenes with nothing but the "normal" sounds, no dialog, no dramatic music, no scary sounds, just the sounds that you hear in real life.  This is particularly successful in the long car chase scene where you only hear the sounds of the cars.

There is also no unnecessary talking, people say what they have to say, no more, no less and when there's nothing that needs to be said they're just quiet and the viewer is allowed to enjoy it as if he/she was really present.  I actually felt more "involved" in that movie that with any of today's surround tricks that are supposed to make you feel like you're in the movie.

I really enjoyed Bullit and I give it a

(click to show/hide)

So tell me Jon..........I finally liked a 60-70'ish movie.......do you think there's still hope for me ?

[Kathy]

Not many actors affect me this way but when I see Steve McQueen I just want to jump his bones. 

Of course...that's what I'd have to do since he's dead! 

[addicted2dvd]

 

[Najemikon]

Eric, I'm in shock! But this is the sort of 70s movie I like. I think I can safely send you in the direction of The French Connection and The Yakuza.

The French Connection is also notable for it's use of sound. I think nerdy film term "diegetic" is apt at this point...

[Touti]

Funny, after posting last night I checked the Wikipedia page for "Bullint" and all the things that made me enjoy the movies are mentioned in the article.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullitt

Bullitt is probably best-remembered for its car chase scene through the streets of San Francisco, regarded as one of the most influential car chase sequences in movie history

That scene is really good, the part of it where the 2 cars go down the hills in San-Francisco's street is amazing with the camera on the back seat.  There was a few times when it gave me nausea just as if I had been in the car.

....and was nominated for Best Sound

That's not surprising but I find I see a little irony in the movie being highly praised (and rightly so) for its sound when what makes it so good is in fact the lack of it.  Bullit proves that sometimes there's no need to add sound to make a scene more dramatic.

Jon, I know "The French Connection" is a very good movie and if I'm not mistaking it's generally considered as one (if not THE) best movie of Gene Hackman but somehow I just never got to watching it.  Maybe that's something I should remedy. 

The Yakuza: I have never heard of it but will check it out.

[Najemikon]

Bullitt is probably best-remembered for its car chase scene through the streets of San Francisco, regarded as one of the most influential car chase sequences in movie history

That scene is really good, the part of it where the 2 cars go down the hills in San-Francisco's street is amazing with the camera on the back seat.  There was a few times when it gave me nausea just as if I had been in the car.

This is exactly why I recommended The French Connection. Both films are considered the pinnacle of car chases and I don't think anyone has quite decided which is best. Bullitt is more edited and led to very famous mistakes (when you see it again, watch out for the green car! ), whereas Gene Hackman isn't chasing a car, but a train. That's being picky though, just to make a difference between them, because they are both utterly superb. I think only Ronin and Bourne have come close since.

I just love McQueen's style... "you work your side of the street; I'll work mine."

The Yakuza has no car chases, sadly, but otherwise, I reviewed it recently for the alphathon: http://www.dvdcollectorsonline.com/index.php/topic,6515.msg119052.html#msg119052

I think I remember Achim saying he liked that movie too.

[Touti]

I don't feel like writing a review, I wouldn't know what to say, but last night I watched "There will be blood".  Jon I'm a bit surprised that you called this "The first proper american film in a long time", what did you find in it ?  I found it long and boring.