11 posts tagged “dvd”

I managed to get NZ$20 credit thanks to the Real Groovy loyalty card, meaning that I paid a grand total of NZ$10 for these two purchases today:

   I already had the first Casino Royale set, but it lacks a director’s commentary and many of the features one would expect for the NZ$35 I originally paid. I refused to buy the collector’s edition originally because I felt Sony would be getting my money twice. But for NZ$5, why not? Well worth it for all the extra stuff, deleted scenes and fascinating documentaries about the connections Ian Fleming had with the Bahamas (which many Bondphiles would not even know).
   There is even a documentary about the 50-year journey of the novel to this version of the movie, and clips from the first James Bond (with Barry Nelson) and the first time Casino Royale hit the big screen (in 1967, with David Niven—and we do get clips of Barbara Bouchet, Jacqueline Bisset, etc., too).
   Given how basic the Quantum of Solace DVD set is, my bet is that Sony will do this again.
   Secondly, this CD was on special anyway (NZ$5), and it has a few John Barry tracks, plus one Chet Baker one. It’s not the special album that Barry and Baker put together for this film, but considering that was never released in New Zealand, it’s the next best thing. A bit “1990s” in some respects (the Moby track in particular), but it has been ages since I treated myself to some music.

There will be a third series of Ashes to Ashes, the BBC has confirmed, and with Philip Glenister—putting to rest once and for all that an English tabloid’s published “facts” to the contrary earlier this year were total bollocks. For now, I will say that I predict that the DVD of this second series will have very good sales.

There is next to nothing online about The Paradise Club, one of my favourite TV series. It starred Leslie Grantham and the late Don Henderson as brothers whose mother was a gangland boss. Henderson, as Father Frank Kane, convinces little brother Danny (Grantham) to go straight. Murray Smith created the series. If I remember correctly, it was the first commissioned series on the BBC.
   In New Zealand, it wasn’t helped by being on a Friday night back in the days when I was a uni student who was otherwise occupied.
   I found one episode today on YouTube which guest-starred Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden, ‘Rock and Roll Roulette’, but that’s it. There’s not even a DVD release.

These politicians sure do stick together: the Governor of California endorsing the former Mayor of Carmel.

Yay! Arrived today, ahead of the July 1 delivery date Amazon predicted. It still took longer than the British order, but considering I ordered it 12 days ago, it seems the delivery times have come back to normal (the last season I ordered took over four weeks). I will be confirming my theory of whether the script quality is inversely correlated to the size of Peter Lupus’s sideburns.

Funny how your memory plays tricks. In 1984, I watched the pilot for Dempsey and Makepeace and thought it was fab. Over dinner, now that my DVD of series one has arrived (as predicted—sooner than the Amazon US order that was placed earlier), I have to say the première episode, written by Ranald Graham, has more holes and cheese moments in the plot than I remembered.
   It was also pretty obvious where London was masquerading as New York: my, how Docklands has changed.
   It was in desperate need of good direction which series producer Tony Wharmby failed to give.
   Graham has written some duffers in his time—the Sweeney! movie had the right amount of action but it made as much sense as Ian Macaskill reading the weather (did anyone understand him?)—and D&M’s first outing was so weak it was a surprise that a series was green-lighted.
   At a guess, British viewers on LWT were mourning the demise of The Professionals and with no real competition, the series was indeed green-lighted for three seasons.
   No wonder the Brandons said they could not understand the plot, in an earlier video I posted here. And they were in it.
   Audiences did deserve better, after the higher production values of The Professionals.
   I still have a few of the 1985–6 episodes on video cassette, which were better than the pilot. Let’s hope it gets better. I have not seen these first series ones since 1984; then the politically correct camp intervened and got Dempsey and Makepeace pulled for TV violence (yet The ‘A’-Team continued). It only re-emerged in New Zealand in 1990 at a later hour—five years after the original UK airing of the second and third series. TVNZ would have been fuming over lost ad revenue.
   A few bonuses on the DVD: an interview with Michael Brandon and Glynis Barber, and commentary over the first two episodes by them. The pilot was shown with the bumps inserted. Missing were subtitles.
   I would have watched more but Life on Mars was starting.

Note to Vox: an auto-save feature, please, considering Maxthon crashed just as I finished the original and superior version of this post. Dammit, I really, really hate retyping. Here’s the short, short version.

   Right: ordered. Amazon. Saturday. Mission: Impossible, fourth season. Still good. But Martin Landau has left because he asked for a pay rise and Paramount said no, and they kicked out Mrs Landau, Barbara Bain, as well.
   In came the other guy who auditioned for Spock but won, but even Leonard Nimoy, playing the new master of disguise, began getting itchy feet and buggered off to England to play a racing car driver who solves crimes.
   Spock’s called Paris—like Kramer, before we found out his first name was Cosmo, we never learn if this is his first or last name. In this season, the IMF was still combatting spies and undermining régimes in the good ol’ American way, before anti-Vietnam types scared the producers into forcing the good guys to combat local hoods and finks in the sixth and seventh season. (Capt Kirk played one in 1971, but Spock had gone by then.)
   You wondered why the IMF was even involved when the US Government could have sent in the Feds, Popeye Doyle or even Popeye.
   Script quality for Mission: Impossible is inversely correlated to the size of Peter Lupus’s sideburns. His sideburns are growing in 1969 when the fourth series began airing, so there was basically one more year tentatively before the rot really began setting in.
   Amazon UK. Sunday. Discussed before: Dempsey and Makepeace, first series. Script quality inversely correlated to how typically ’80s Glynis Barber’s hairstyle got. Plot summary: a New Yorker (Michael Brandon) and a South African (Glynis Barber, née van der Riet) are teamed up. ‘Will they? Won’t they’ in the stories—‘they did’ in real life. They spar off each other verbally to see if Michael will say, ‘Thomas the Tank Engine had a hard night’s shunting,’ or if Glynis would go relapse into an Afrikaaner accent.
   No, actually, they both play cops: Brandon’s character is from the NYPD and Barber’s is an English aristocrat sometimes in various states of undress during the series. (Like Diana Rigg on The Avengers, she could beat the s*** out of someone, but did so wearing less PVC.)
   Best scripts from Murray Smith (The Paradise Club—sinfully still not on DVD) and even Ronnie Blythe appears in one episode but as a very evil villain.
   Darn you, Google: I was checking for the name of the actor who played Ronnie Blythe when Maxthon crashed. I won’t be checking again.
   Bets are that despite having a longer distance to cover and having been ordered later, the British package will arrive earlier thanks to Royal Mail being more efficient than the USPS.

I decided how to spend the Amazon UK coupon. It costs more than the £9, but at least with the savings it’ll cost less than what it would to buy here. Hey, I haven’t seen this in 24 years! I give you the Brandons …

I was trying to find a version of ‘Life on Mars’ that I had heard on Groove FM here in Wellington, but stumbled across Rick Wakeman doing one on piano instead. (Wakeman played it on the Bowie album.) Very amazing.

A very amazing ending to Life on Mars. I liked it, as it confirmed some of my theories, but the decision Sam makes on top of the building was unexpected. Let’s just say that I wouldn’t have done so in his position, certainly not for someone whom I could not prove existed. You also do not abandon a parent: if they didn’t have the scene where Sam visits his Mum, I might have accepted it more. (I am intentionally vague for those who have not seen the episode yet. The DVD of series two is released Monday in the UK.)
   Despite these niggles, I enjoyed what Matthew Graham cooked up for us. It shows that the Brits still can do quality drama and that a network, if it wishes to create “event TV”, merely has to provide excellent writing, acting and direction.
   That means shows like Big Brother, Survivor and Fear Factor do nothing for a network’s loyalty and simply opens one up to competition from hobbyists on YouTube. Quality is where the battle is going to be if the networks wish to retain any relevance to society.
   Sadly, the short-term profit motive may put paid to that, all while the Emir of Qatar keeps pumping money in to al-Jazeera and reminds the west of what can be done. Sooner or later, someone with that much money might do his own network.
   That sounded pretty implausible 20 years ago before Rupert Murdoch launched Fox as the US’s fourth network.
   Now, how it all ties together with the spin-off, Ashes to Ashes, remains to be seen.
   Fans may be interested in today’s Life of Wylie blog entry, where co-creator and writer Matthew Graham talks about some of the behind-the-scenes thinking to the finalé. Don’t think too deeply about it all for now: it will do your head in.