Netflix finally rolled out their video on demand service a week or so back, and so far I’m impressed. You have to download a player (really a plug in for windows media player) and they have a varied selection of titles you can watch “now” (“now” being a relative term, based on network traffic and demand ““ some movies take a few minutes to queue up). The quality is good enough ““it’s not HD, but besides occasional pixilation if there’s a quick and drastic change in light level, it looks better than TV and close to DVD quality if the source is good.
There are some drawbacks ““ the primary one being that if you have a video card with TV-out the player will not display a picture (unlike the AOL TV service, which I was able to watch on my big TV). The second drawback is some films offered are not using the latest, remastered source material and are in pan-and-scan (2010 was cropped dramatically, much to the film’s determent). And, of course, Firefox and other browsers are not supported (nor is OS X).
I decided to indulge some nostalgia, and so I dipped into some “˜80s flicks offered through the service, one I had never seen. Here are some quick thoughts:
Superman III – The Quest for Richard Donner
This is the only Superman film offered through the streaming service, which confuses me. Why not offer, oh, I don’t know ““ a GOOD Superman film, like the first two? It had been a long time since I saw this one ““ 24 years, to be precise (“We had to walk ten miles in the snow in our stocking feet back then to see a flick! These kids don’t know how good they got it, with their streamin’ media and fancy gadgets! And get offa my lawn!”)
It has not aged well. I know you are not supposed to speak ill of the dead, but man, Richard Pryor is just horrible in this film, dreadfully unfunny in a movie that is supposed to be a “super-comedy.” When Ned Beatty in one scene in Superman II is funnier than your entire performance, you’re off your game, man.
Robert Vaughn plays Lex Luthor ““ Oh, no, he’s some other bad guy, cause Hackman wasn’t desperate for a paycheck (at least, he wasn’t during the making of this particular film). Robert, after seeing this film, I now know why you are doing lawyer ads. And I say that as a Robert Vaughn fan. Open Channel D and get a better agent.
The Superman/Clark Kent fight is cool. Annette O’Toole is hot. That’s about all I could recommend here.
This, and Superman IV, is the reason I will never buy the Ultimate Superman DVD box set. Sorry, but nothing would make me pay money for these two flicks again (Heck, I STILL want a refund for The Quest for Peace).
Here’s the trailer:
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Real Genius
Never saw this one when it came out, and never caught it over the subsequent decades (“Where’s my walker?”). There are people who ADORE this movie, and it does have that quirky “˜80s irreverence that lots of people like ““ people, apparently, besides me.
It was good, not great. Val Kilmer showed he could do comedy with this (and Top Secret), a skill that he later leveraged to great effect in The Saint. The plot involves student scientists developing a super laser (code named the Alan Parsons Project) that they somehow never realize may, someday, be used as a weapon by The Man (these are idealistic geniuses, who never think to ask where the money for their scholarships and high-tech gear is coming from).
It also involves a super-genius 15 year old who finds out there is more to life than work (like, playing pranks on the Bullies who teased him, or making out with 19 year olds) and the EPA guy from Ghostbusters.
Oh, and a popcorn-filled house at the end, as Everybody Wants to Rule the World blast on the film’s soundtrack.
Meh.
Here’s the trailer:
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Heavy Metal
Good Lord. If aliens intercepted this movie, transmitted into space a la Contact, they would think we are sex-crazed gore fiends who loved listening to Sammy Hagar while watching naked women flying alien birds wielding swords. How would they respond? Would any part of the Earth not be scorched?
Actually, now that I think about it, the description above exactly describes pre-teen males in the early 80s, so maybe they would be justified in going all Genesis Effect on our collective asses.
Well, a third of the movie is good.
Trailer:
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2010: The Year Peter Hyams Does Everything
Ah. THIS is more like it. I have a special place in my heart for 2010. Yes, it does over explain things (it spells things out so much you expect subtitles). Yes, it has none of the artistic or, dare I say it, mythic aspects of Kubrick’s original 2001. Yes, Bob Balaban is in it. Despite all those flaws, it still works for me.
When it came out, I was reading the Making of 2001 book ““ repeatedly ““ and expending a tremendous amount of mental energy trying to figure out What It All Meant and how it Related to Me. Teenage boys are apt to do this type of thing regarding SF, especially if they have very little chances of dating. So, I saw this movie as the Ultimate Answer to 2001’s Ultimate Question, and saw it multiple times. Read the Arthur C. Clarke book, twice. Heck, I even bought the Star Frontiers 2010 role playing module, for the blueprints of the Leonov.
Again, see “little chance of dating,” above.
While it is far from perfect, I still like it, and consider it a guilty pleasure to watch, oh, about every ten years or so. So, I’ll see it again in, oh, 2017.
Not 2010, of course ““ too obvious.
No trailer, but here’s the “airbreaking” scene.
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Doctor Who: The Leisure Hive
OK, the thing about Netflix, if you don’t know: like Amazon, members can assign ratings to titles the site has available. Whovians (or Moonies, or Tardies, or whatever they are called) apparently make up a large percentage of the Netflix user base, because almost all the Doctor Who DVDs are ranked at almost (or over) 4 stars. To give some perspective, Gone With the Wind is currently ranked at four stars.
Gone with the Wind. Doctor Who. One of these things is not like the other”¦.
The Leisure Hive is one of Tom Baker’s Doctor stories, and features the co-star of Empty Nest trying to sell him an Isuzu”¦ Oh, no, sorry, it features a space spa that is Not What it Appears to Be. It is, well, subpar even for Who standards, though when I first watched this on public television in the 80s I was, of course, transfixed.
The whole thing is on Youtube, if you want to watch… Here’s part one.
[youtube]r0TKFPuQrJU[/youtube]
Time tends to make people lose that sense of wonder they had when they were young. Or makes them more discriminating regarding the true quality of what they encounter. I think in this case it’s probably the latter.
Or maybe “these cases” ““ Ah, the 80s”¦
More ridiculously late movie reviews coming soon!