Is it just me, or does http://www.dvdfriend.us actually look decent?
A few weeks ago, a guy at work gave it a face lift. He sent a screen shot of the work he did. I finally partially applied it this week. It doesn't exactly match what he came up with, but its close. I have to adjust some things as I go.
The LOGIN button is now fixed to say LOGIN even when you're already logged in. I need a LOGOUT image to fix that.
I recreated the functionality to assign the images. The admin tool uses Amazon Web Services to seek images. Its pretty easy to set them up now.
I've been working on the prices here and there, but haven't focused on it. Most days I come home and collapse on the couch instead of working on the site. Now that the site looks decent, maybe it'll keep me motivated. The pricing engine is built, and Amazon parsing is setup. I'm working on the pages that will put all that other code to use.
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Another Highlander Travesty - Psych
Psych is a funny show on USA. It's definitely a lightweight, but it consistently makes me laugh.
It superficially offended me this week.
I wasn't offended by the "This blows with a capital c", line. Nor was I offended by the many jokes focused on grown men hanging out at the monkey bars. No, my skin is thicker than that.
In principle, I wasn't offended by the Christopher Lambert impression. But, truth be told, I was offended (superficially) by what he said in the voice of Lambert: "There can only be one".
There can only be one? How can you pay homage to a movie such as Highlander and screw up the fundamental line that defines 90% of the plot?
I spent a good amount of time documenting my thoughts on the Highlander legacy. Then, just a few days later by great coincidence the same movie is commented on by Psych. They couldn't take a few minutes to either lookup the line or watch the movie? No one involved with the shoot recognized the line was wrong?
Obviously, the line is "There can be only one". Not, "There can only be one".
Fortunately, Psych is just a TV show that provides mindless entertainment. Now that I've documented by brief lasting offence, I can move on.
It superficially offended me this week.
I wasn't offended by the "This blows with a capital c", line. Nor was I offended by the many jokes focused on grown men hanging out at the monkey bars. No, my skin is thicker than that.
In principle, I wasn't offended by the Christopher Lambert impression. But, truth be told, I was offended (superficially) by what he said in the voice of Lambert: "There can only be one".
There can only be one? How can you pay homage to a movie such as Highlander and screw up the fundamental line that defines 90% of the plot?
I spent a good amount of time documenting my thoughts on the Highlander legacy. Then, just a few days later by great coincidence the same movie is commented on by Psych. They couldn't take a few minutes to either lookup the line or watch the movie? No one involved with the shoot recognized the line was wrong?
Obviously, the line is "There can be only one". Not, "There can only be one".
Fortunately, Psych is just a TV show that provides mindless entertainment. Now that I've documented by brief lasting offence, I can move on.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Highlander : The Dissapointment
Highlander
"...A man's decapitated body, lying on the floor, next to its own severed head. A head, which at this time, has no name."
"I know his name".
... Insert Queen Music here... "Here we are, born to be kings. We're the princes of the universe. Fighting to survive in a war with the darkest powers."
etc.
I've always been a fan of Highlander. I remember seeing the commercials for the first movie, when I was 14, and knowing that I absolutely had to see it. I don't think I ever made it to the theater. Actually, I have no idea when or where I saw it first, but it has since maintained its position in the upper echolons of my list of favorite movies. In Talladega Nights, Ricky Bobby stated that it won an oscar for being the best movie ever made. That might be an exaggeration, but Highlander is a solid, memorable action movie.
It's greatness is in its simplicy: the world is populated by a bunch of immortals. The immortals do battle through the centuries, eliminating each other until only one remains. The only way to eliminate an immortal is to cut off his head. Each time you kill an immortal, you absorb his power, which is the sum of all the power of the immortals he killed previously. With a story like that, how can you go wrong?
Highlander was a complete story that focused on the two immortals that would become the last two: The Kurgan, and Connor MacLeod. (Connor is known as "The Highlander", because he is from the highlands of Scotland). They crossed paths over the centuries, and never in a friendly way. Connor is the good guy, and the Kurgan is the bad guy. We witness the full backstory on Connor, but nothing on the Kurgan. Sean Connery spends a couple sentences telling us who he is, but that's it. They didn't bother filming his back story.
The movie ends with the final duel between the final immortals. Who do you think won? (My money is on the good guy.) It was a nice neat package. All of the immortals were dead except for won. Connor won the prize.
Oh, one more thing. I was just writing the END GAME section and realized I didn't mention the HOLY GROUND part. Immortals can't fight on holy ground. Why not? I don't know. It's just a rule. Don't question the rules. Which religions does this rule apply to? What makes it holy ground?
No room for a sequel, right?
Highlander 2
Wrong.
The first Highlander movie didn't bother to explain where the immortals come from, or why they do what they do. In fact, I think there's a line in the prologue that states that no one knows, but i'm not sure. Maybe that was the TV show. The lack of this knowledge is part of its mystique. It didn't need an explanation. Immortals cut off each other's heads until only one is left; that's the important part.
Anyhoo, someone got it in their head that Highlander needed a sequel. Even worse, that someone was able to convince a studio, and the studio went ahead and gave it a green light. Big mistake.
Several decades elapsed between the story lines of Highlander and Highlander 2. In that time, everything changed. Connor MacLeod is now an old man. The earth is in a constant state of dark due to a giant shield that has been constructed around the planet. Connor used his knowledge from The Prize to help construct it. The movie has a completely different feel from it. It went from a modern day action movie, to a futuristic crappy sci-fi movie. Some genius even found a way to bring Sean Connery's character back to life just so that they could kill him a few scenes later.
Oh yea, did I mention the aliens? Yes, I said it. Aliens. It turns out all of the immortals are from another planet. They were deposited on earth for the purpose of the game. As soon as more aliens arrived, it was like a reset. Connor became young again, and went about his business of chopping off heads. There was a new bad guy in this, I think, but I don't remember his name. I won't lose sleep over it.
This movie is a disaster of biblical proportions. They completely butchered the story. They took all that was cool about the first movie, and spat on it. Shame on them. Really. Shame on them.
Highlander 2 was recut at least once. There was definitely a "renegade version", and possibly a director's cut, though they may both actually be the same cut. The renegade version was better than the original, but that's like saying NSync is better than the Backstreet Boys. They both still suck.
But, in its defense, I must say that it might've been a pretty good movie if it wasn't a Highlander movie. It might've been a good sci-fi movie if they didn't try to force it into the Highlander mythos. It could've been a movie about a shield around the planet, and maybe some non-immortal aliens. I don't know. It could've been less than hideous. But it wasn't.
Highlander 3 : The Final Dimension (or, sometimes The Sorcerer)
The smartest thing about H3 is that it completely disregarded H2 like it never happened. Aliens? What Aliens? What shield? What in the name of god are you talking about?
The best part is that they didn't acknowledge H2 in any way whatsoever. It just never happened. Excellent.
Then they pushed it too far and overlooked some things about the first movie too. Here's the basic idea: A few hundred years ago, Connor crossed paths with a few immortals inside a mountain. The mountain collapsed trapping the bad guy immortals. Fortunately, Connor got away.
A few hundred years later, Connor fought the Kurgan and won the prize. He then had a baby boy with the chic from the first movie. She got hit by a car and died. Then the immortals in the mountain broke out, and the game was back on. "Did you really think you were the last one?" "Well sure. I won the prize. I remember it clearly."
That's where it went wrong. Its as if the fact that they were buried in a mountain fooled the poweres of the universe that granted the prize. "Our bad, we didn't see him". It was dumb.
The movie, though, isn't a complete failure. It's bad, but not horrendous. The queen music was gone which allowed for an interesting new soundtrack that I really like.
I always think of Highlander 3 and Batman 2 being similar in the suck-to-good ratios. In batman 2, I like the catwoman parts. I didn't like the penguin parts. In Highlander 3, I liked the Connor/sword parts, and I didn't like the Mario Van Peebles part. If they got rid of Mario Van Peebles and most of the plot, then there wouldn't be much of a movie left, but what was left would've been pretty good. There's a good scene where Connor's sowrd gets broken. It actually is kind of sad as far as the Highlander universe is concerned. It's THE sword. You don't break the sword! He went back to the old country to fix it. Good stuff. I c an't remember much else that I specifically liked, but I remember there being a bunch of segments that didn't want to make me kill myself, which was much better than 2.
In short, Highlander 3 is watchable, with some better parts, but its still a failure overall.
Highlander : The TV Show
A Highlander TV show came on the air in 1992. Connor was in the opening episodes, but only to provide the introduction to a new character, Duncan McLeod. They're cousins. Duncan is another mmortal of the MacLeod clan, a few generations younger than Connor.
I didn't watch it when it aired. I recently watched a few episodes on DVD, but couldn't get into it. The production quality was terrible, and the stories were week. Acting, apparently, wasn't a prerequisite.
Somewhere along the way, the TV show introduced "The Watchers". The Watchers are mortals that are aware of the immortals. They monitor the game, but don't interfere. They keep tabs on everything.
As far as I can tell, the TV show disregards all of the movies.
Highlander 4 : End Game
Yea baby! This is the one right here. The year is 2000, and at long last, an excellent Highlander movie is created. I'm not being sarcastic. I love this movie. They did a great job. I like this as much as I liked the first one. It's not flawless, but neither is the first one.
Endgame is along the lines of the tv show more than the other movies. Duncan is a lead character. Connor is pretty signficant too, but this is basically the passing of the baton. They have to combine forces in order to defeat Kane. Kane murdered Connor's mother, so they have history. It's bitter sweet without the sweet.
Kane had a gang of immortals. They're the new young and hip immortals to usher in a new age of highlander. They attack Connor, and a great fight ensues. Duncan can kick ass in ways that Connor couldn't, and so can the bad guys. The Watchers finally stop watching, and engage, which gets Duncan out of a pinch.
Meanwhile, Connor has gone into hiding. He's tucked away at the Sanctuary, where by his own will he is sedated to pass through the years without fighting every 2 minutes. Its good for Connor because he's depressed, and its good for the folks that run the Sanctuary, because they must assure that there are always at least two live immortals. Kane finds out about this and invades the Sanctuary. He kills everyone except for Connor, because he wants to torment Connor for the rest of his life. This dude can hold a grudge.
The DVD had a great commentary. The movie was made for a small budget. They kept talking about the things they wanted to do, but couldn't due to time and money contraints. It's too bad about the time contraints. If they didn't have the budget, they should have at least been able to take their time with it. They also talked about the minor adjustments theyre made between the theatrical and DVD releases. For example, there was a scene where Connor and Duncan were fighting as one. The effect for that was cheesy, so they toned it down.
I sense that the people making the movie were very aware of the mythos and the fans. The fact that there are immortals everywhere is unbelievable enough. We don't need any sorcery or silly effects on top of it. Keep it simple. I remember in the commercial (or trailer) someone actually got cut in half then came back together because, obviously, they're immortal and need a way to deal with that. I'm pretty sure that got cut, which is good.
There's another scene in Endgame that I liked a lot, but it wasn't there the last time I watched it. I don't know which version its in, but if its not in the final version, it should be. There's an asian bad guy who turns out to have some honor. He realizes that Kane's about to kill him, and there's no chance he can defend himself. So, instead of surrendering his power to Kane, he sticks his sword into the wall, then runs into it decapitating himself. Awesome.
Highlander 5 - The Dissapointment
At last, we get to the point of my ramblings.
For years, there's been talk of Highlander 5 : The Source. This sounds like another attempt to explain the who and why of the game. H2 attempted it, and everyone involved is going to hell.
At least every few months, I jump online and search for 2 things: Highlander 5 and Mortal Kombat 3. Its a ritual. There is stuff to be found on H5, but not much. Production notes indicated when it finished shooting. In March, we learned the movie would be released in September 2007. It is now September 2007.
I saw a trailer, or a clip, a few months back. It didn't look good. The bad guy was the hunchback of Notre Dame. I can't imagine that will justify itself. There's no sign of Connor in this one; it's all Duncan.
Anyway, last night I did my periodic search for Highlander 5 and learned that it will be airing on the sci fi channel at 9pm on Saturday September 15th. I don't know if you've ever watched SCI FI on a Saturday night at 9pm, but its 90% crap. I happen to like it because I like crappy SCI FI movies, but that doesn't make them any less crappy.
I didn't expect H5 to get a theatrical release, but direct to tv? Really? Is it that bad?
Maybe not. Maybe this is the rare 9pm Saturday movie that turns out to be pretty good. Maybe its a gem. Maybe its the movie that made all the other crap worth watching. But, on the other hand, maybe not. Maybe, like most 9pm Saturday night movies, its crap.
I eagerly await 9/15/2007 to find out.
Conclusion
Highlander 1 is Excellent.
Highlander 2 dishonors Highlander 1. It's horrific.
Highlander 3, in a stroke of genius disregards H2. It also disregards the important parts of H1. Its bad, but not too bad.
Highlander 4 disregards all previous movies, but is excellent in its won rite.
Highlander 5 is going straight to tv. God help us.
"...A man's decapitated body, lying on the floor, next to its own severed head. A head, which at this time, has no name."
"I know his name".
... Insert Queen Music here... "Here we are, born to be kings. We're the princes of the universe. Fighting to survive in a war with the darkest powers."
etc.
I've always been a fan of Highlander. I remember seeing the commercials for the first movie, when I was 14, and knowing that I absolutely had to see it. I don't think I ever made it to the theater. Actually, I have no idea when or where I saw it first, but it has since maintained its position in the upper echolons of my list of favorite movies. In Talladega Nights, Ricky Bobby stated that it won an oscar for being the best movie ever made. That might be an exaggeration, but Highlander is a solid, memorable action movie.
It's greatness is in its simplicy: the world is populated by a bunch of immortals. The immortals do battle through the centuries, eliminating each other until only one remains. The only way to eliminate an immortal is to cut off his head. Each time you kill an immortal, you absorb his power, which is the sum of all the power of the immortals he killed previously. With a story like that, how can you go wrong?
Highlander was a complete story that focused on the two immortals that would become the last two: The Kurgan, and Connor MacLeod. (Connor is known as "The Highlander", because he is from the highlands of Scotland). They crossed paths over the centuries, and never in a friendly way. Connor is the good guy, and the Kurgan is the bad guy. We witness the full backstory on Connor, but nothing on the Kurgan. Sean Connery spends a couple sentences telling us who he is, but that's it. They didn't bother filming his back story.
The movie ends with the final duel between the final immortals. Who do you think won? (My money is on the good guy.) It was a nice neat package. All of the immortals were dead except for won. Connor won the prize.
Oh, one more thing. I was just writing the END GAME section and realized I didn't mention the HOLY GROUND part. Immortals can't fight on holy ground. Why not? I don't know. It's just a rule. Don't question the rules. Which religions does this rule apply to? What makes it holy ground?
No room for a sequel, right?
Highlander 2
Wrong.
The first Highlander movie didn't bother to explain where the immortals come from, or why they do what they do. In fact, I think there's a line in the prologue that states that no one knows, but i'm not sure. Maybe that was the TV show. The lack of this knowledge is part of its mystique. It didn't need an explanation. Immortals cut off each other's heads until only one is left; that's the important part.
Anyhoo, someone got it in their head that Highlander needed a sequel. Even worse, that someone was able to convince a studio, and the studio went ahead and gave it a green light. Big mistake.
Several decades elapsed between the story lines of Highlander and Highlander 2. In that time, everything changed. Connor MacLeod is now an old man. The earth is in a constant state of dark due to a giant shield that has been constructed around the planet. Connor used his knowledge from The Prize to help construct it. The movie has a completely different feel from it. It went from a modern day action movie, to a futuristic crappy sci-fi movie. Some genius even found a way to bring Sean Connery's character back to life just so that they could kill him a few scenes later.
Oh yea, did I mention the aliens? Yes, I said it. Aliens. It turns out all of the immortals are from another planet. They were deposited on earth for the purpose of the game. As soon as more aliens arrived, it was like a reset. Connor became young again, and went about his business of chopping off heads. There was a new bad guy in this, I think, but I don't remember his name. I won't lose sleep over it.
This movie is a disaster of biblical proportions. They completely butchered the story. They took all that was cool about the first movie, and spat on it. Shame on them. Really. Shame on them.
Highlander 2 was recut at least once. There was definitely a "renegade version", and possibly a director's cut, though they may both actually be the same cut. The renegade version was better than the original, but that's like saying NSync is better than the Backstreet Boys. They both still suck.
But, in its defense, I must say that it might've been a pretty good movie if it wasn't a Highlander movie. It might've been a good sci-fi movie if they didn't try to force it into the Highlander mythos. It could've been a movie about a shield around the planet, and maybe some non-immortal aliens. I don't know. It could've been less than hideous. But it wasn't.
Highlander 3 : The Final Dimension (or, sometimes The Sorcerer)
The smartest thing about H3 is that it completely disregarded H2 like it never happened. Aliens? What Aliens? What shield? What in the name of god are you talking about?
The best part is that they didn't acknowledge H2 in any way whatsoever. It just never happened. Excellent.
Then they pushed it too far and overlooked some things about the first movie too. Here's the basic idea: A few hundred years ago, Connor crossed paths with a few immortals inside a mountain. The mountain collapsed trapping the bad guy immortals. Fortunately, Connor got away.
A few hundred years later, Connor fought the Kurgan and won the prize. He then had a baby boy with the chic from the first movie. She got hit by a car and died. Then the immortals in the mountain broke out, and the game was back on. "Did you really think you were the last one?" "Well sure. I won the prize. I remember it clearly."
That's where it went wrong. Its as if the fact that they were buried in a mountain fooled the poweres of the universe that granted the prize. "Our bad, we didn't see him". It was dumb.
The movie, though, isn't a complete failure. It's bad, but not horrendous. The queen music was gone which allowed for an interesting new soundtrack that I really like.
I always think of Highlander 3 and Batman 2 being similar in the suck-to-good ratios. In batman 2, I like the catwoman parts. I didn't like the penguin parts. In Highlander 3, I liked the Connor/sword parts, and I didn't like the Mario Van Peebles part. If they got rid of Mario Van Peebles and most of the plot, then there wouldn't be much of a movie left, but what was left would've been pretty good. There's a good scene where Connor's sowrd gets broken. It actually is kind of sad as far as the Highlander universe is concerned. It's THE sword. You don't break the sword! He went back to the old country to fix it. Good stuff. I c an't remember much else that I specifically liked, but I remember there being a bunch of segments that didn't want to make me kill myself, which was much better than 2.
In short, Highlander 3 is watchable, with some better parts, but its still a failure overall.
Highlander : The TV Show
A Highlander TV show came on the air in 1992. Connor was in the opening episodes, but only to provide the introduction to a new character, Duncan McLeod. They're cousins. Duncan is another mmortal of the MacLeod clan, a few generations younger than Connor.
I didn't watch it when it aired. I recently watched a few episodes on DVD, but couldn't get into it. The production quality was terrible, and the stories were week. Acting, apparently, wasn't a prerequisite.
Somewhere along the way, the TV show introduced "The Watchers". The Watchers are mortals that are aware of the immortals. They monitor the game, but don't interfere. They keep tabs on everything.
As far as I can tell, the TV show disregards all of the movies.
Highlander 4 : End Game
Yea baby! This is the one right here. The year is 2000, and at long last, an excellent Highlander movie is created. I'm not being sarcastic. I love this movie. They did a great job. I like this as much as I liked the first one. It's not flawless, but neither is the first one.
Endgame is along the lines of the tv show more than the other movies. Duncan is a lead character. Connor is pretty signficant too, but this is basically the passing of the baton. They have to combine forces in order to defeat Kane. Kane murdered Connor's mother, so they have history. It's bitter sweet without the sweet.
Kane had a gang of immortals. They're the new young and hip immortals to usher in a new age of highlander. They attack Connor, and a great fight ensues. Duncan can kick ass in ways that Connor couldn't, and so can the bad guys. The Watchers finally stop watching, and engage, which gets Duncan out of a pinch.
Meanwhile, Connor has gone into hiding. He's tucked away at the Sanctuary, where by his own will he is sedated to pass through the years without fighting every 2 minutes. Its good for Connor because he's depressed, and its good for the folks that run the Sanctuary, because they must assure that there are always at least two live immortals. Kane finds out about this and invades the Sanctuary. He kills everyone except for Connor, because he wants to torment Connor for the rest of his life. This dude can hold a grudge.
The DVD had a great commentary. The movie was made for a small budget. They kept talking about the things they wanted to do, but couldn't due to time and money contraints. It's too bad about the time contraints. If they didn't have the budget, they should have at least been able to take their time with it. They also talked about the minor adjustments theyre made between the theatrical and DVD releases. For example, there was a scene where Connor and Duncan were fighting as one. The effect for that was cheesy, so they toned it down.
I sense that the people making the movie were very aware of the mythos and the fans. The fact that there are immortals everywhere is unbelievable enough. We don't need any sorcery or silly effects on top of it. Keep it simple. I remember in the commercial (or trailer) someone actually got cut in half then came back together because, obviously, they're immortal and need a way to deal with that. I'm pretty sure that got cut, which is good.
There's another scene in Endgame that I liked a lot, but it wasn't there the last time I watched it. I don't know which version its in, but if its not in the final version, it should be. There's an asian bad guy who turns out to have some honor. He realizes that Kane's about to kill him, and there's no chance he can defend himself. So, instead of surrendering his power to Kane, he sticks his sword into the wall, then runs into it decapitating himself. Awesome.
Highlander 5 - The Dissapointment
At last, we get to the point of my ramblings.
For years, there's been talk of Highlander 5 : The Source. This sounds like another attempt to explain the who and why of the game. H2 attempted it, and everyone involved is going to hell.
At least every few months, I jump online and search for 2 things: Highlander 5 and Mortal Kombat 3. Its a ritual. There is stuff to be found on H5, but not much. Production notes indicated when it finished shooting. In March, we learned the movie would be released in September 2007. It is now September 2007.
I saw a trailer, or a clip, a few months back. It didn't look good. The bad guy was the hunchback of Notre Dame. I can't imagine that will justify itself. There's no sign of Connor in this one; it's all Duncan.
Anyway, last night I did my periodic search for Highlander 5 and learned that it will be airing on the sci fi channel at 9pm on Saturday September 15th. I don't know if you've ever watched SCI FI on a Saturday night at 9pm, but its 90% crap. I happen to like it because I like crappy SCI FI movies, but that doesn't make them any less crappy.
I didn't expect H5 to get a theatrical release, but direct to tv? Really? Is it that bad?
Maybe not. Maybe this is the rare 9pm Saturday movie that turns out to be pretty good. Maybe its a gem. Maybe its the movie that made all the other crap worth watching. But, on the other hand, maybe not. Maybe, like most 9pm Saturday night movies, its crap.
I eagerly await 9/15/2007 to find out.
Conclusion
Highlander 1 is Excellent.
Highlander 2 dishonors Highlander 1. It's horrific.
Highlander 3, in a stroke of genius disregards H2. It also disregards the important parts of H1. Its bad, but not too bad.
Highlander 4 disregards all previous movies, but is excellent in its won rite.
Highlander 5 is going straight to tv. God help us.
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