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  1. James David Walley

    A Few Words About A few words about...™ Buffalo Bill and the Indians... -- in Blu-ray

    Actually, that's not quite accurate. Reviews were pretty favorable. The problem is that Altman had had his falling out with di Laurentis before the film was released, and "Dino di Horrendous" opted to bury the film with a rush-release and very little advertising. It was, indeed, a "box office...
  2. James David Walley

    Les Misérables (2012)

    http://broadwayabridged.com/scripts/lesmismovie.html
  3. James David Walley

    The saddest movie I have ever seen

    Actually, Dancer... didn't leave me so much sad as filled with a burning desire to hunt down the director and beat him to death for making me sit through that. If my defense team showed the DVD in court, there's not a jury alive who would convict me. ;-)
  4. James David Walley

    Les Misérables (2012)

    Personally, I find complaints about a director "using close-up all the f***cking time ironic, coming from a critic USING CAPS ALL THE F***ING TIME.
  5. James David Walley

    Official 2013 Oscar Nominations Thread

    The general rule-of-thumb for handicapping the Best Picture race is to look for those films with nominations for both director and editing as well. Often, all five (in the old days) nominees qualified. This year, only three do: Lincoln, Life Of Pi, and Silver Linings Playbook.
  6. James David Walley

    A Few Words About A few words about...™ Driving Miss Daisy -- in Blu-ray

    This is the first time I've heard about either of these. Could you say more?
  7. James David Walley

    A Few Words About A few words about...™ Driving Miss Daisy -- in Blu-ray

    Personally, I preferred her performance in "Those Were The Happy Times.". ;-)
  8. James David Walley

    Les Misérables (2012)

    Actually, that's the way she meets her end in the original novel. Of course, Hugo's Éponine is a far different and less-sympathetic -- not to mention less-important -- character than portrayed in the musical. I haven't seen the film but, judging from the "blue revision" screenplay found on the...
  9. James David Walley

    Blu-ray Review Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate Blu-ray Review

    If you are moved by grand imagery and epic sweep, and value a film in part by how it immerses you in that time and place, I'd give it an 8. If you don't care about such things, and only want a solid plot and characters, probably only a 5. I only read the first few sentences of the essay in the...
  10. James David Walley

    Blu-ray Review Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate Blu-ray Review

    This strikes me as a rather odd opinion. Not only do I disagree about your "vacuous plot" comment, I really don't get the "set in roughly the same period." Aside from excellent imagery and one word in the title, I don't see much of a connection between the two. Historically, there's a huge...
  11. James David Walley

    Blu-ray Review Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate Blu-ray Review

    It sounds much like the shorter-by-over-an-hour general-release version that came out in early 1981. I saw that version, and it not only was seriously disjointed, but actually felt longer because of it. It was a revelation seeing the uncut version for the first time -- sure, it was long and...
  12. James David Walley

    Blu-ray Review Camelot Blu-ray Review

    +1,000,000 I had the fortune to see touring companies of the original Broadway production of both these musicals years before seeing the films. Or maybe that should be "misfortune," because that meant the films, MoLM in particular, came close to ruining my memory of the stage productions...
  13. James David Walley

    Picnic at Hanging Rock (Amazon direct)

    I see...it appears that the Amazon page for the Criterion is more a place to sign up to be notified if it ever gets made. Odd that there isn't a U.S. BD out yet from any source.
  14. James David Walley

    Picnic at Hanging Rock (Amazon direct)

    One of the frustrations of getting into Blu-Ray so late is discovering that discs I may want are already OOP. So it is with the Criterion Picnic at Hanging Rock, which is one of my favorite films, but which I only have on Criterion's non-anamorphic DVD. I see the Criterion Blu-Ray is not only...
  15. James David Walley

    Blu-ray Review HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: Days of Heaven

    At the risk of digging up a deceased thread, I'd point out that, back when I was in film school, Days of Heaven was one of my favorite films, and I watched it as often and as obsessively as many of my contemporaries did with a very-different work, released the previous year, that was set long...
  16. James David Walley

    A question about the "Pulp Fiction" Blu-Ray...

    O.K., I'm watching this film, for the first time in many years, on my newly-purchased Blu-Ray. I read in the HTF review of the disc that So, the film begins, and I'm shocked by how bad the diner scene looks. No blacks at all -- the tonal range runs from white to medium-gray -- and a very...
  17. James David Walley

    A Few Words About While we wait for A few words about...™ Lawrence of Arabia -- in 4k/UHD Blu-ray

    Reminding me of the Mad magazine anthology released around that time: It's A World, World, World, World Mad.
  18. James David Walley

    A Few Words About A few words about...™ West Side Story -- in Blu-ray

    Quick question from someone new to the thread: At this point, I have no desire to put my money toward such a spectacular SNAFU by MGM, and will stick with the DVD. But, from reading upstream in this thread, I see mentioned that the Special Edition DVD (by which, I assume, you mean the two-disc...
  19. James David Walley

    A Few Words About While we wait for A few words about...™ Lawrence of Arabia -- in 4k/UHD Blu-ray

    #$@^%#(@!!! My daughter has a medical appointment that day at 6:00 P.M. (It was the only one available, and there's no way to reschedule it.) There's also no way that I can attend the early screenings and pick her up on time to get her there, and no way to get to one of the later screenings...
  20. James David Walley

    A Few Words About While we wait for A few words about...™ Lawrence of Arabia -- in 4k/UHD Blu-ray

    Isn't there something just wrong about a food discussion on Yom Kippur?
  21. James David Walley

    Which Blu-Rays are most improved over their DVD release?

    Thanks...I had all three of the bolded titles, but upgraded to the "second edition" DVDs on each. Is there much difference between them and the Blu-Rays?
  22. James David Walley

    A Few Words About A few words about...™ My Fair Lady -- in Blu-ray

    In 1980 (?), I made a big point of bringing my parents to L.A. to see the stage revival of Camelot, starring Richard Burton. (We'd all seen it in the early '60s, but either in the road-show production with some obscure actor playing Arthur, or in New York after Burton left the production.)...
  23. James David Walley

    Which Blu-Rays are most improved over their DVD release?

    Some of you may remember me from the early days of HTF. At the time, I was one of the "early adopters" of DVD, veteran of the DIVX War, etc., etc. Ironically enough, due to many reasons, I only picked up my first Blu-Ray player a few days ago. Now, I'm looking at replacing some of my...
  24. James David Walley

    A Few Words About While we wait for A few words about...™ Lawrence of Arabia -- in 4k/UHD Blu-ray

    As someone just dropping in on this thread, all I can say is "what I wouldn't give for a poster of that..."
  25. James David Walley

    Wizard of Oz in blu ray - Wire Removal ??

    Personally, I'm glad that those supervising the Blu-Ray version had the judgment to go with wire-removal, as they required a substantial suspension of disbelief. Why, without seeing those wires in earlier versions, I'd have been convinced that Bert Lahr was a real lion! :D
  26. James David Walley

    Netflix goes bat@#%@ insane, it's $16 a month now if you want to keep 1 DVD + streaming, $18 for 1 B

    As someone who has never bothered doing the NetFlix Dance, I need to ask: what constitutes a "fast enough Internet connection" to use it? I suspect that the phone company's DSL connection out here in the exurbs wouldn't cut it, particularly since Internet radio stations via Squeezebox Touch...
  27. James David Walley

    Netflix goes bat@#%@ insane, it's $16 a month now if you want to keep 1 DVD + streaming, $18 for 1 B

    Steve, I remember when Netflix first came out. You were so enthusiastic about it ("the Divx-killer") over at your own site that I found myself wondering if you were a part-owner of the company. :D The fact that they've managed to lose even you with this move speaks volumes to me.
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