DVD Logging
Aug. 27th, 2008 10:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckAuntie Mame - I'd seen a bit out of the middle of this movie, years ago, while I was visiting my father (I think). I was amused by the repeated utter silliness, but I was also put off by the servant characters. The Irish woman was a little less obviously a stereotype to me until I thought about it and realized that she had no existence apart from being loyal to the boy (whose name I can't remember). Ito, the Japanese servant, was more obviously (to me) off. His accent was played for laughs, and he also had no existence beyond being a loyal servant. During the lean times of the Depression, neither of them wanted to be paid.
I find watching a movie like this interesting as I try to pick up what bits of each performance come from the stage as opposed to film acting traditions. There were definitely bits that felt like they'd fit better on the stage because of how broadly they were played. I also kept expecting musical numbers even though this isn't a musical.
Batman Beyond 2.8-2.13 - Wow. I'm way, way behind on DVD logging. I don't remember specifics of this DVD at all. I know I enjoyed it. I'm sure there were fights with lots of stunts and creepy bad guys. I seem to recall romantic angst, too.
Condor Hero 21-26 - I like the opening credit and closing credit music. It kind of makes me regret that there aren't episode breaks so that I can listen to it a few more times per DVD. Then again, I might get sick of it. Does anybody know the names of the songs? My searches run aground on varied transliteration systems and the fact that I'm not quite sure which version of Condor Hero I'm watching. (This all makes me feel stupid, just not stupid enough not to ask questions.)
Given the title, I'm fairly sure that the subtitles are wrong in using 'vulture' for the magical, intelligent-acting, ugly, giant bird that keeps turning up. Really, doesn't a condor seem a lot more likely? Or is that just my imagination?
Is this poisoning plot ever going to get resolved? I've lost track of how many days our hero has left to live, and I'm starting to think that the story has, too. Then there's the limb loss. That actually reminded me that (a) I'm watching a melodrama and (b) I'm not watching a melodrama made by the formula I'm used to. Limb loss is usually too irrevocable for what I'm used to. Of course, this story seems to have an end in sight. That makes a difference.
I'm impressed by certain characters' ability to fight spectacularly while carrying a heavily swaddled 'baby.' You'd think a 5-10 pound bundle (there's got to be a board in there, too, or the kid would flop a bit more) would throw off their balance more, especially since it has to be protected. Also, wasn't there supposed to be a twin? I seem to have missed what happened to the second baby. (There was a scene of huge drama involving labor in a burning building and thinking that, when the baby was born, they could finally move. Except the labor wasn't over because there was another child on the way out.)
Equalizer 1.1 - I'd never seen an episode, so I thought it was worth trying. We watched the first, and Scott told me that I'd now seen pretty much every episode because there wasn't any story arc. I decided that I wouldn't find more of the same very interesting. If there were a lot of on-going characters or some sort of arc, yes, but without that, I'd get bored very rapidly.
Mountain Top Bluegrass: Classic Hymns - I think there were only one or two songs on here that I enjoyed. Most of them seemed...tepid. Several of them had nature footage as the video, peaceful, panoramic wilderness, sometimes with happy, unhurried people wandering through. I was hoping for more energy but ended up skipping forward through several of the songs. I'd listen to thirty seconds and decide not to waste my time.
Night Court 1.1-1.7 - I'd forgotten that the first season had a slightly different cast. I've only seen scattered episodes from throughout the run, so I think I just didn't register it when I watched years ago. Scott and I put this in our Netflix queue out of nostalgia. We used to watch reruns of it together regularly. I like this public defender. I wish she'd been around longer.
Still funny after all these years. I was afraid it wouldn't be.
Prince of Tennis season 2 DVD 3 - I probably won't get more of this for a while and not just because this is all the library has (I could always get it from Netflix). I found myself not paying attention and not really caring that I'd missed events on the screen. I don't think it's that this DVD was lower quality than previous ones. I suspect that I just don't have the mental energy to give to this right now, not when I don't care all that much.
Remington Steele 1.1-1.4 - I think I'd actually not seen the pilot episode before. There was nothing in it that seemed familiar, and I seem to recall that I'd always kind of wondered how 'Steele' stepped into the role for the first time.
The show's definitely dated, but it's still funny. I did blink a few times as I realized how much money they must be making per case to maintain their lifestyles and meet expenses. I don't think that occurred to me when I watched the show as a teenager. I also noticed the see-saw between 'Steele' being quite competent and being an utter moron. As a teenager, I came down heavily on the utter moron side, but the pilot contains evidence against that.
Rosemary & Thyme 3.1-3.3 - I'm only occasionally interested in mystery shows. They're often too grim and violent for me. This one, I like because I like the two main characters. It's also not overly grim and gritty.
The main characters are middle aged women, both single (one divorced, the other never married), who have a business together restoring gardens. I find the gardening details restful and occasionally fascinating and like having female characters who aren't all about finding and keeping a man.
The mysteries aren't particularly hard work. Each episode has a corpse or three and a new cast of characters. It's a BBC production, so there're a lot of English gardens but after the first season, there are episodes set in other parts of Europe, too.
Sword Stained with Royal Blood 6-15 - I liked episodes 6-10 quite a bit but ended up confused by 11-15 because I watched them in small bits. Ten to twenty minutes at a time is not enough for me to keep track of characters and plots. I had a week gap in the middle and found myself quite thoroughly lost.
The princess character is annoying me because she doesn't seem that bright. I think that's an artifact of the fact that she's supposed to be conflicted and angsting about the guy she's fallen for rebelling against her father and the belief that the guy will hate her or use her if he finds out who she really is.
Several of the subplots have confused me because they don't get very much time. That leaves me unsure of how important they are, and some of them I can't quite connect to the main story. The dying baby one is a good example. It gives the parents and their students a reason to wander in and disrupt things repeatedly, but I can't figure out if it's meant to be more than an excuse for complications. Mrs. An and her estranged husband (whose rank I can't actually remember) are another good example. There's something going on, but I can't tell if it's complication for complication, a bow to a bigger story in the original canon or something that will matter a lot later in the series.
The Third: The Girl with the Blue Eye 5-8 - I'd forgotten about the voiceover. It's still irritating. I think we're still in the introductory phase. Episode eight introduced a new character who I think is going to be important. She might only be briefly important, but she might also stick around.
There's been more about the Third and their politics and powers. I'm still not entirely clear on the history of the setting, but I get the impression that it's meant to be revealed gradually. (I also have a fear that I looked away at the wrong moment and missed something important. This seems to be the sort of series that has single lines that mean something later.)
I'm still not sure how enthusiastic I am about the series. I don't dislike it, but I also don't feel an urge to rush to see the rest.
I find watching a movie like this interesting as I try to pick up what bits of each performance come from the stage as opposed to film acting traditions. There were definitely bits that felt like they'd fit better on the stage because of how broadly they were played. I also kept expecting musical numbers even though this isn't a musical.
Batman Beyond 2.8-2.13 - Wow. I'm way, way behind on DVD logging. I don't remember specifics of this DVD at all. I know I enjoyed it. I'm sure there were fights with lots of stunts and creepy bad guys. I seem to recall romantic angst, too.
Condor Hero 21-26 - I like the opening credit and closing credit music. It kind of makes me regret that there aren't episode breaks so that I can listen to it a few more times per DVD. Then again, I might get sick of it. Does anybody know the names of the songs? My searches run aground on varied transliteration systems and the fact that I'm not quite sure which version of Condor Hero I'm watching. (This all makes me feel stupid, just not stupid enough not to ask questions.)
Given the title, I'm fairly sure that the subtitles are wrong in using 'vulture' for the magical, intelligent-acting, ugly, giant bird that keeps turning up. Really, doesn't a condor seem a lot more likely? Or is that just my imagination?
Is this poisoning plot ever going to get resolved? I've lost track of how many days our hero has left to live, and I'm starting to think that the story has, too. Then there's the limb loss. That actually reminded me that (a) I'm watching a melodrama and (b) I'm not watching a melodrama made by the formula I'm used to. Limb loss is usually too irrevocable for what I'm used to. Of course, this story seems to have an end in sight. That makes a difference.
I'm impressed by certain characters' ability to fight spectacularly while carrying a heavily swaddled 'baby.' You'd think a 5-10 pound bundle (there's got to be a board in there, too, or the kid would flop a bit more) would throw off their balance more, especially since it has to be protected. Also, wasn't there supposed to be a twin? I seem to have missed what happened to the second baby. (There was a scene of huge drama involving labor in a burning building and thinking that, when the baby was born, they could finally move. Except the labor wasn't over because there was another child on the way out.)
Equalizer 1.1 - I'd never seen an episode, so I thought it was worth trying. We watched the first, and Scott told me that I'd now seen pretty much every episode because there wasn't any story arc. I decided that I wouldn't find more of the same very interesting. If there were a lot of on-going characters or some sort of arc, yes, but without that, I'd get bored very rapidly.
Mountain Top Bluegrass: Classic Hymns - I think there were only one or two songs on here that I enjoyed. Most of them seemed...tepid. Several of them had nature footage as the video, peaceful, panoramic wilderness, sometimes with happy, unhurried people wandering through. I was hoping for more energy but ended up skipping forward through several of the songs. I'd listen to thirty seconds and decide not to waste my time.
Night Court 1.1-1.7 - I'd forgotten that the first season had a slightly different cast. I've only seen scattered episodes from throughout the run, so I think I just didn't register it when I watched years ago. Scott and I put this in our Netflix queue out of nostalgia. We used to watch reruns of it together regularly. I like this public defender. I wish she'd been around longer.
Still funny after all these years. I was afraid it wouldn't be.
Prince of Tennis season 2 DVD 3 - I probably won't get more of this for a while and not just because this is all the library has (I could always get it from Netflix). I found myself not paying attention and not really caring that I'd missed events on the screen. I don't think it's that this DVD was lower quality than previous ones. I suspect that I just don't have the mental energy to give to this right now, not when I don't care all that much.
Remington Steele 1.1-1.4 - I think I'd actually not seen the pilot episode before. There was nothing in it that seemed familiar, and I seem to recall that I'd always kind of wondered how 'Steele' stepped into the role for the first time.
The show's definitely dated, but it's still funny. I did blink a few times as I realized how much money they must be making per case to maintain their lifestyles and meet expenses. I don't think that occurred to me when I watched the show as a teenager. I also noticed the see-saw between 'Steele' being quite competent and being an utter moron. As a teenager, I came down heavily on the utter moron side, but the pilot contains evidence against that.
Rosemary & Thyme 3.1-3.3 - I'm only occasionally interested in mystery shows. They're often too grim and violent for me. This one, I like because I like the two main characters. It's also not overly grim and gritty.
The main characters are middle aged women, both single (one divorced, the other never married), who have a business together restoring gardens. I find the gardening details restful and occasionally fascinating and like having female characters who aren't all about finding and keeping a man.
The mysteries aren't particularly hard work. Each episode has a corpse or three and a new cast of characters. It's a BBC production, so there're a lot of English gardens but after the first season, there are episodes set in other parts of Europe, too.
Sword Stained with Royal Blood 6-15 - I liked episodes 6-10 quite a bit but ended up confused by 11-15 because I watched them in small bits. Ten to twenty minutes at a time is not enough for me to keep track of characters and plots. I had a week gap in the middle and found myself quite thoroughly lost.
The princess character is annoying me because she doesn't seem that bright. I think that's an artifact of the fact that she's supposed to be conflicted and angsting about the guy she's fallen for rebelling against her father and the belief that the guy will hate her or use her if he finds out who she really is.
Several of the subplots have confused me because they don't get very much time. That leaves me unsure of how important they are, and some of them I can't quite connect to the main story. The dying baby one is a good example. It gives the parents and their students a reason to wander in and disrupt things repeatedly, but I can't figure out if it's meant to be more than an excuse for complications. Mrs. An and her estranged husband (whose rank I can't actually remember) are another good example. There's something going on, but I can't tell if it's complication for complication, a bow to a bigger story in the original canon or something that will matter a lot later in the series.
The Third: The Girl with the Blue Eye 5-8 - I'd forgotten about the voiceover. It's still irritating. I think we're still in the introductory phase. Episode eight introduced a new character who I think is going to be important. She might only be briefly important, but she might also stick around.
There's been more about the Third and their politics and powers. I'm still not entirely clear on the history of the setting, but I get the impression that it's meant to be revealed gradually. (I also have a fear that I looked away at the wrong moment and missed something important. This seems to be the sort of series that has single lines that mean something later.)
I'm still not sure how enthusiastic I am about the series. I don't dislike it, but I also don't feel an urge to rush to see the rest.
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no subject
Date: 2008-08-27 02:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-27 03:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-27 03:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-27 03:17 pm (UTC)The sequel, Around the World with Auntie Mame continues to do so.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-27 04:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-27 04:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-27 03:03 pm (UTC)And I've never seen "Auntie Mame" the movie but loved the book... maybe I should give the movie a look-see.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-29 02:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-27 03:44 pm (UTC)As for Auntie Mame , I seem to recall that it was purportedly an autobiographical novel? (Exaggerated, but the author HAD lived with his aunt, etc.?)
no subject
Date: 2008-08-27 04:55 pm (UTC)RS: I often think of Steele as a smart kid in a candy store, who sometimes remembers not to eat too much. I didn't first watch it until a few years ago, but I noticed their lifestyle, too. But then, all their clients seem to be pretty rich.
SSWRB: The thing with the princess is that, in the original book, Chengzhi was only ever romantically interested in Qing Qing. The princess was in love with him, but he probably didn't even notice. Every other adaption, however, has changed it so that he sees Qing Qing as a sister, and is in love with the princess. This director started out planning to do the same, but then realized that he preferred the original romance, and went with Chengzhi/Qing Qing instead, but there are still some leftovers of the original intent. As far as the subplots go, I think it was originally meant to be longer, so some explanations got cut out.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-29 02:44 pm (UTC)I suppose that Remington Steele is all fantasy. I mean, even without the conspicuous wealth, it has to be. Adding money makes it more fantasy, more of a wouldn't living like this be neat story. I think that part of my current reaction to the lifestyle comes from years of watching things like GetBackers and Cowboy Bebop where the characters are never allowed to profit even when they get the job done. I keep expecting the comedy to involve snatching away rent, food, etc.
SSWRB: I had wondered which romance was going to last. As I watched, I could see that the relationship with Qing Qing (who the subtitles always call either 'Green' or 'Greeny' which is annoying) would be interpreted as subtextually slashy if she were male. I could also tell that, while she was interested, he hadn't noticed yet. When the princess appeared (she's referred to as 'Nine' in the subtitles), I could see the instant attraction/crush on both sides. I didn't read it as necessarily something that would endure. I think the actress playing Qing Qing also did a good job of showing just how unhappy the character was about that development.
My main feeling about the romance comes from the fact that the thing with the princess felt immature to me. It was instant, and the two characters know nothing about each other as people. The potential romance with Qing Qing has time to build and starts from friendship. It includes knowing each others flaws (yeah, the hero doesn't have many).