Atlantis (Season 5)

I've finally given up on owning Stargate Atlantis on Blu-ray and can't be arsed with the "fans choice" release so ordered the fifth season from Amazon for a grand total of £15.65 which comes under the import tax threshold.
It'll take a week or two to get here but now I've finished my Chuck marathon I can go onto LOST or Smallville, loving me Blu-ray:)

Stagecoach (Criterion Blu-ray)

Fantastic news that the classic John Wayne/John Ford western masterpiece Stagecoach is hitting DVD and Blu-ray in an all new remastered Criterion edition later this year (May 25th).
Features include...

• New, restored high-definition digital transfer.
• Audio commentary by noted western authority Jim Kitses
• New video interview with filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich
• New video essay by writer Tag Gallagher

The only downside is that Criterion region lock their Blu-ray releases so I've no idea when a Region B edition will be offered our market. While my PC can handle multiregion discs I rarely do prefer using a standalone player and no player yet has impressed me enough let alone be hackable to replace the PS3 .

RIP Phil Harris

Phil Harris the skipper of the Cornelia Maria featured in the Discovery Channels "Deadliest Catch" died today after suffering a stroke while off loading his boat during the filming of the latest season of the show.

One of the great characters brought to our television screens thanks to this show and condolences to his two sons who sailed with him and the family he left behind.

Vancouver Sun LA Times

New Krypton

I'm not a regular comic reader but a good review over on ScifiDig prompted me to place an order for the first volume of New Krypton, it helps that Smallville is still going strong so I am receptive to Superman stuff:)

I have Smallville season8 on Blu-ray to watch or at least to start watching in the next week or so, mind you my Lost season5 Blu-ray came through the letter box the other day, so little time.

LOST Season 5 Blu-ray

Bargain time once again, Amazon UK has the fifth season Blu-ray listed for £20.97 which proves once again a little patience is always rewarded:)
It's a good thing I haven't got SKY, wouldn't have the time to watch all these boxsets I've been buying recently.

Sarah Conner Chronicles

Well the second season of the show had to many flaws for me to rush and buy the Blu-ray to go with the first season I already owned and the UK price of over £40 is taking the piss.
However Amazon in the US are selling the second season Blu for $24.99 and with p&p to the UK it comes to a very appealing £20.30 which is a bargain in anyones book:)
I have ordered it and the price (p&p not included) will come under the customs limit and negate the rip off Post Office handling charges.

Tromeo and Juliet

The classic version of the movie from Troma studios is getting a Blu-ray release at the end of March.
I love this retelling of the ultimate doomed love story with it's extreme violence, sex and nudity and all round Troma goodness:)

Never resist a bargain.

I've been holding back on a lot of Blu-ray purchases simply due to the price but I've splashed the cash on a few DVD boxsets this last week.
The Sweeney and Sapphire&Steel full series boxsets and the Third Rock from the Sun series boxset are now sitting on the shelf and all three together cost less than a lot of single season Blu-ray TV boxsets!

I finally got around to watching Star Trek:The Motion Picture (part of the Blu-ray boxset that was reduced in price before xmas) and I have to admit that for the most part it was a genuinely better picture than the DVD, it may not have a had a full restoration but at times the image was very nice. I loved the commentary track, it was one of the best I've heard in recent times being done by the Michael & Denise Okuda and Judith & Garfield Reese-Stevens.

Assessment

I had my annual work assessment the other day.
It went pretty good, no problems with my attendance nor performance in the warehouse and further training with fork lifts and administration are an option this year.

I finished watching both Supernatural (s4) and the first season of True Blood on Blu-ray, enjoyed them both immensely and now going to jump feet first into the Star Trek movies boxsets this weekend.

On a Gatecast note we finally managed to record the first show of the year after a week of trying, edit it this weekend and get back onto the thursday posting schedule, pay the cast a visit and let us know what you think:)

Work and other ups and downs.

So the first day back at work and it was cold this morning, lots of ice on the car but the roads were ok so got there in one piece. We did however have a gas leak from the boilers so no one could work in in or around the warehouse for a few hours, boy did it drag.
Well I'm back home now and for the first time in over 19 years I do not have subscription television, bugger all on the normal "free" channels but I've got a ton of movies and shows on disk to watch and thankfully the US schedules are going to pick up and my O2 broadband is so far so good.

Happy New Year

Well the start of a new year which hopefully won't have the ups and downs of 2009, pretty sure global politics and war wise nothing much will change but day to day the economies should pick up yet huge state debts will mean little joy for the majority of the population.

Gawd that's depressing:)


Congrats to Patrick Stewart for his Knighthood, that title suits him down to the ground.

Battlestar Rhapsody

Seriously, how good was that:)
Speaking of which I'm gonna have to start on the full season boxset before I go back to work next week.

Prezzies

Well we are well into christmas afternoon and the yummy family dinner is settling down and to be honest if I hadn't got up from the comfy chair and gone on to the computer I would probably be napping right now:)
Santa bought me soaks and boxers so that's the basics done plus some stocking fillers (car care, dark chocolate) but the point of the holidays is giving and me dad liked his Homer Simpson talking bottle opener.

Holiday TV viewing started off with Sandra Bullock in While you were Sleeping, love that movie and Kiss Me Kate was playing during and after the dinner, again a sucker for a classic musical.
I'll record Dr Who in HD tonight since I am sure we'll have at least one "unexpected" visitor who will take a shine to the booze I bought for myself but no plans for tomorrow, well their is a family get together but show me face and then sneak out:)

Dexter

Well the latest season has been sitting on the hard drive awaiting my attention and I finally got around to watching the fourth season premiere, it's now 12.30am 23rd December and I've just finished episode 6!
Dexter isn't a show I like watching on a weekly basis since once I start I just don't want to stop and thankfully none of the podcasts I listen to do any spoiler level coverage so I can indulge without risk:)

The Intruder

One of the best William Shatner movies is now available in the public domain.
The Intruder (aka Shame) directed by Roger Corman tells the story of a racist instigator who visits a small town and leads a backlash against the integration of a school and an incident between a black lad and white girl soon after. Filmed in a real town and much of it with the townsfolk unaware of the real story of the movie it is a masterpiece of it's time but lost money and become Cormans one financial failure yet is rated by many as his best movie.

Internet Archive

Lord of the Rings (again)

After reading about the upcoming Blu I had a hankering for the trilogy again so watched each of the movies (1 per day) in HD (sourced from broadcasts) and enjoyed every single hour (I would say minute but even the theatricals are 3 hours).

They were if anything even better than I remembered, perhaps a couple of years gap since I last watched them showed how well they were holding up in terms of special effects and as for the rest that will forever stand the test of time.

3D Blu-ray

The Blu consortium have finally ratified the required specifications for incorporating 3D content on to the existing Blu-ray format. The encoding uses an extension to the existing H.264 codec but carries around a 50% overhead in terms of bandwidth requirement while maintaining backwards compatibility, glasses will be required.
Not surprisingly SONY have made sure the existing PS3 is an approved system, can you imagine a Blu-ray 3D format that was outside of the capabilities of the PS3, ahh global corporate politics:)

Personally I delighted to find the latest consumer electronic whizz bang offering to be of zero interest, I've been a very expensive early adopter of Nicam, Laserdisc, DVR's, HD DVD and Blu-ray so I'll sit back and laugh at the money spent to bring a cinema gimmick to the home.

CNET

Snowing

The first snow of the season, well it was only a brief flurry but hey maybe a white christmas:)

Lord Of The Rings

Finally we have confirmation of the long awaited Blu-ray release of the trilogy.
It's been scheduled for next April but alas it's only the theatrical versions of the 3 movies and yes there will be a latter bells and all release meaning they really are out to squeeze every penny out of the fan base.
Personally I love the trilogy and have them in HD on the PC but will not be buying them on Blu-ray until we get the extended cuts and all the extras associated with them, this is Blu-ray, there should be no compromises.

Woop

Finished my last shift of the year and thanks to a decision by the company to close half a day early on the 24th I got to go home at 10.45am today:)
Mind you it was still a miserable day but at least nothing like the bad weather the states are having to cope with.

A relaxing weekend and then some serious christmas shopping and put the decorations up perhaps Wednesday which is quite late in the month compared to previous years.