What's on your Daily Viewing List? (5 Viewers)

[Matt Hough]

I streamed Royal Wedding in HD tonight from iTunes, and it looked fabulous. Color was rich, the image was sharp as could be, and the mono sound was solid.

Expect this to be released on Blu-ray in about three or four months, exactly the same timeline that happened last year when I bought the HD streaming version of Summer Stock and the disc version came along a few months later.

 

[Dave Moritz]

January 22nd, 2020

Rambo: Last Blood
4K UHD Blu-ray / Dolby Vision
Native 4K Resolution 2160p
Dolby Atmos 7.1.4

Enemy Of The State
HD Blu-ray (1080p) upconverted to 4K
LPCM 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit) upmixed to Auro 2D 7.1

Mary Poppins
Digital
Stereo

 

[Matt Hough]

Amazon obligingly delivered the Deanna Durbin musical I'll Be Yours yesterday (one day earlier than the original estimate), and I'll watch it today.

 

[Robin9]

Yesterday I watched the very good U. K. Blu-ray disc of The Man Between. I can't speak too highly of this disc as the picture and sound quality are superb and the "extras" are unusually good. There is an interview with Claire Bloom who has a good memory and some excellent insights plus a perceptive documentary about Carol Reed. Additionally there is an audio only interview with James Mason which I might listen to today.

I'm undecided about what else I'll sample this evening. I have three discs on order, Count Three And Pray, Underwater and The Heroes Of Telemark but I'm not expecting any of them today.

 

[JohnRice]

I watched Killer Inside, the limited NetFlix docuseries about the late Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez. Being a football fan, I'd followed this to some degree, but still was completely unaware of a major aspect of the story. The series makes a major issue of that one aspect, but I wonder how much of a motivating factor it actually was. Certainly CTU was possibly the biggest factor. Still, it's fascinating how someone can (be accused of) brazenly murdering three people and leaving a fourth for dead, and doing it all very carelessly, before there is even a suspicion.

I also watched the first season of Atypical, which was recommended to me by an HTFer. It's an interesting show.

 

[bujaki]

Two futuristic films on the Criterion channel:
Westworld 1973. Sci-fi thriller Kept me awake. Brynner played a one-note robot. This is a template for Jurassic Park with an amusement park going terribly wrong.
No Blade of Grass 1970. Lovingly shot images of a ravaged earth which could have been shot today instead of 50 years ago. And we still don't learn. Oh well, that's why we live in the best of all possible worlds.

 

[JohnRice]

Westworld 1973. Sci-fi thriller Kept me awake. Brynner played a one-note robot. This is a template for Jurassic Park with an amusement park going terribly wrong.

You hadn't seen it before? Have you seen the TV series?

 

[bujaki]

You hadn't seen it before? Have you seen the TV series?

No, first time viewing. I have both seasons of the TV series in 4K, but have yet to watch as well. My daughter and her husband really liked both seasons.

 

[JohnRice]

No, first time viewing. I have both seasons of the TV series in 4K, but have yet to watch as well. My daughter and her husband really liked both seasons.

I've only seen the first season of the series, but I thought it was mind blowing.

 

[Mike Frezon]

My mother-in-law is visiting again.

She, Peg and I watched:

 

[Matt Hough]

Life has a way of interrupting even the most carefully laid out plans, so hopefully, I can get to I'll Be Yours today since it didn't happen yesterday.

 

[bujaki]

Z.P.G. (Zero Population Growth) (Criterion Channel) 1972. Another dystopian story where people are meted capital punishment if they bear children. Oliver Reed and Geraldine Chaplin are the hapless parents.
The Terminal Man (Criterion Channel) 1974. A Michael Crichton story directed by Mike Hodges. Starring the always interesting George Segal and Joan Hackett. An interesting mixture of medical sci-fi, crime thriller.
The Court Jester (Criterion Channel) 1955. Excellent transfer of the enjoyable Danny Kaye romp. Gorgeous leading ladies Glynis Johns and Angela Lansbury help immeasurably.
Race Street (TCM app) 1948. Noirish film about a protection racket muzzling in into a numbers organization. George Raft fights back. There's a femme fatale. Nice shadowy effects highlight the noir aspects. RKO produced this one.
The Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight (TCM app) 1971. Dated, letterboxed transfer of a movie that works in parts. Early De Niro role that shows his knack for comedy.

 

[Matt Hough]

I'll Be Yours was generally entertaining. The Universal DVD-R is a very mediocre transfer: gray black levels and lots of interlacing artifacts.

Deanna and Tom Drake make a handsome couple, just as he paired off so well with Judy Garland in St. Louis. He looks better in modern clothes rather than period clothes. Deanna's voice has that richness and luster that she gained in the last few years of her movie career as she matured. I much prefer her soprano to Jane Powell's or Kathryn Grayson's from this same period. Didn't I read somewhere that MGM tried to lure her back into show business by offering her Magnolia in their 1951 Show Boat?

 

[Keith Cobby]

Watched Olympus Has Fallen last night. First time i have projected and run it through my sound system, one of the best films to play loud. Today it's London Has Fallen.and then i will buy Angel. Hopefully the first two will be released on 4k this year.

 

[bujaki]

I'll Be Yours was generally entertaining. The Universal DVD-R is a very mediocre transfer: gray black levels and lots of interlacing artifacts.

Deanna and Tom Drake make a handsome couple, just as he paired off so well with Judy Garland in St. Louis. He looks better in modern clothes rather than period clothes. Deanna's voice has that richness and luster that she gained in the last few years of her movie career as she matured. I much prefer her soprano to Jane Powell's or Kathryn Grayson's from this same period. Didn't I read somewhere that MGM tried to lure her back into show business by offering her Magnolia in their 1951 Show Boat?

Oh, I wish they had succeeded in luring her back to play Magnolia! I agree that Durbin's voice is richer and not as vibrato laden as Powell's or, God forbid, as shrill as Grayson's. I find the '51 version intolerable save for Gardner; Durbin's presence would have helped immeasurably.

 

[bujaki]

Raton Pass (TCM app) 1951. From WB, Patricia Neal's last film for the studio, and what a role for her, even if she hated the movie. She plays a luscious, unscrupulous, ambitious woman who'll stop at nothing to own the largest ranch in the area. Dennis Morgan and Scott Forbes play two of her targets, and walking testosterone Steve Cochran plays, who else, the villain. Neal really makes this work; otherwise it would be a routine western.
Motherless Brooklyn (iTunes 4K UHD HDR) 2019. Amazingly good film from and starring Edward Norton. Screenplay, ambience, performances, music; just about everything works to keep one's interest going for about 2 1/2 hours.
The Cat from Outer Space (Disney+) 1978. Because my wife wanted to see the cute cat (well, so did I). Entertaining movie, cute cat.
The Mustang (Vudu 4K UHD HDR) 2019. Matthias Schoenaerts finely-tuned performance anchors this prison drama about the rehabilitation of a violent man's rehabilitation via a wild mustang program. Bruce Dern excels in a supporting role. This is a sleeper. Recommended.

 

[Robin9]

I'll Be Yours was generally entertaining. The Universal DVD-R is a very mediocre transfer: gray black levels and lots of interlacing artifacts.

Deanna and Tom Drake make a handsome couple, just as he paired off so well with Judy Garland in St. Louis. He looks better in modern clothes rather than period clothes. Deanna's voice has that richness and luster that she gained in the last few years of her movie career as she matured.

I'm very sorry to hear that the DVD-R is so poor. I admire Deanna Durbin a lot and I've always liked Tom Drake.

I love his supporting performance in Warlock, so unlike his role opposite Judy Garland.

 

[Matt Hough]

As it usually happens with me, once I watch a movie with a favorite performer, I'll immediately return to others featuring the same performer. Yesterday I watched Deanna Durbin in I"ll Be Yours, and tonight I pulled out Up in Central Park, another of her late career films I hadn't watched in awhile.

First, it's a shame it wasn't filmed in color. Old New York (on the Universal backlot) would have looked grand, and Durbin's costumes were very elaborate once she got to America. She didn't attempt any kind of Irish accent (a mistake), and much of the Broadway score was obviously gone, but it's still an enjoyable film (even if she didn't like making it).

Now, I watched this on VHS on my OLED, and the image was rock solid and quite pleasing (a great surprise to me), MUCH superior to the atrocity of I'll Be Yours from the previous evening even though tape has far fewer scan lines than DVD (but that DVD must have been sourced from an old tape master).

 

[Dave Moritz]

January 25th, 2020 Saturday

Star Trek: Beyond
4K UHD Blu-ray / HDR
Dolby Atmos 7.1.4

 

[Robin9]

I've been "brat-packing" in the last couple of days, not something I do very often. I watched St. Elmo's Fire and yesterday About Last Night. I've never really liked this film because the relationship between the two main characters has no real substance that the audience sees other than physical attraction. So all the angst following their separation rings false to me. I doubt I'll watch it again for at least five years, probably ten.