viewing for week
Not going to get anything else finished this week(about to start Prince Valiant in a few) so...
(1) of course, was The Banquet, which I already posted about. (2) is the Audrey Hepburn/Fred Astaire musical, Funny Face, which was fun, but not the best musical I've seen, or the best Audrey movie I've seen(off the top of my head, I'm not sure I've seen any other Astaire movies) It's probably not going to stay in my collection, but was a fun diversion for a couple of hours.
Also watched the last 2 seasons of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys(3-4) completing a rather lengthy binge. The series as a whole held up much better than I expected, I was expecting it to still be good enough with a hefty dose of nostalgia to give it a boost, but it was extremely addictive and I'm sad it's over. The stories I remembered really liking were just as good or better than I remwmbered, and with one exception, I liked the parts I remembered not liking more than I did the first time. The exception was Serena's storyline, a character and story that existed because Sorbo got a girl and butchered Herc's canon, and mission and resulted in a hefty dose of character assassination for Deinera so they could replace Serena with her as Herc's "true love." The original story, at least, was quasi-retconned which made it acceptable, but towards the end of the series it was like Sam Sorbo couldn't get any other work or something, so they brought her back. Morrigan was a much better love interest. She was part Ares and part Herc, and much more suitable for him, as instead of trying to replace Deinera, she complemented Herc in a way neither Serena or Deinera did, and was more a case of moving on than replacing. The final season, which was only 8 episodes because that's all Sorbo would agree to(he and Michael Hurst went from guys in their early/mid thirties to guys in their early forties during the course of the series) was a lot less inhibited in some regards than other seasons because they didn't have to worry about scaring off the audience. This resulted in some fun stories we really couldn't have gotten otherwise for fear of scaring off the audience by not lightening up on mythology, but most importantly, it let them actually tackle one greek myth, Oedipus, without cleaning it up for modern sensibilities, which I have to give them some respect for. Serena aside, the series helf up really well. Now to get Xena, and have them put the You Hercules series on DVD.
And finally, I watched (5) part two of the Korean series, Emperor of the Sea, a rather lengthy(51 episodes, each slightly over an hour) Korean series about Jang Bogo, a slave/soldier/merchant/pirate-suppressor during Korea's Shilla dynasty. The series is supposedly highly fictionalized(I don't know much about the real man), but is extremely good, and I'll likely have a LOT to say about it when I've finished the series(I've seen 34 of 51 episodes) Between this and Damo, I'm on the verge of thinking Korean period dramas are just about the best thing ever.
Next up is Prince Valiant: The Complete Collection: Vol 1, the Death Note movie, and one of the two Korean period movies, Chunhyang and Blood Rain(or both)
Current DVD backlog unit count: 62(it just had a fairly hefty infusion of movies)
(1) of course, was The Banquet, which I already posted about. (2) is the Audrey Hepburn/Fred Astaire musical, Funny Face, which was fun, but not the best musical I've seen, or the best Audrey movie I've seen(off the top of my head, I'm not sure I've seen any other Astaire movies) It's probably not going to stay in my collection, but was a fun diversion for a couple of hours.
Also watched the last 2 seasons of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys(3-4) completing a rather lengthy binge. The series as a whole held up much better than I expected, I was expecting it to still be good enough with a hefty dose of nostalgia to give it a boost, but it was extremely addictive and I'm sad it's over. The stories I remembered really liking were just as good or better than I remwmbered, and with one exception, I liked the parts I remembered not liking more than I did the first time. The exception was Serena's storyline, a character and story that existed because Sorbo got a girl and butchered Herc's canon, and mission and resulted in a hefty dose of character assassination for Deinera so they could replace Serena with her as Herc's "true love." The original story, at least, was quasi-retconned which made it acceptable, but towards the end of the series it was like Sam Sorbo couldn't get any other work or something, so they brought her back. Morrigan was a much better love interest. She was part Ares and part Herc, and much more suitable for him, as instead of trying to replace Deinera, she complemented Herc in a way neither Serena or Deinera did, and was more a case of moving on than replacing. The final season, which was only 8 episodes because that's all Sorbo would agree to(he and Michael Hurst went from guys in their early/mid thirties to guys in their early forties during the course of the series) was a lot less inhibited in some regards than other seasons because they didn't have to worry about scaring off the audience. This resulted in some fun stories we really couldn't have gotten otherwise for fear of scaring off the audience by not lightening up on mythology, but most importantly, it let them actually tackle one greek myth, Oedipus, without cleaning it up for modern sensibilities, which I have to give them some respect for. Serena aside, the series helf up really well. Now to get Xena, and have them put the You Hercules series on DVD.
And finally, I watched (5) part two of the Korean series, Emperor of the Sea, a rather lengthy(51 episodes, each slightly over an hour) Korean series about Jang Bogo, a slave/soldier/merchant/pirate-suppressor during Korea's Shilla dynasty. The series is supposedly highly fictionalized(I don't know much about the real man), but is extremely good, and I'll likely have a LOT to say about it when I've finished the series(I've seen 34 of 51 episodes) Between this and Damo, I'm on the verge of thinking Korean period dramas are just about the best thing ever.
Next up is Prince Valiant: The Complete Collection: Vol 1, the Death Note movie, and one of the two Korean period movies, Chunhyang and Blood Rain(or both)
Current DVD backlog unit count: 62(it just had a fairly hefty infusion of movies)