Amazon Prime Movies

10.24.2013

Thanks to getting an Amazon Prime account years ago to take advantage of their 2-day free shipping (even though it costs $79/year), I've taken to watching some of the free streaming movies they offer with said account. Most of the movies they offer are movies I already have if they've been released in the past 5 years (at least the movies I would want to watch).

But, they have both some older movies and quirky movies that I either passed on buying, or just aren't worth buying. Last night, I enjoyed a handful of the latter by delving into late 70's/early 80's bad sci-fi. I don't think I watched more than a half-hour of any given movie.

First in my queue was Starflight One (1983) with Lee Majors and Hal Linden, with a plot about a hypersonic passenger jet that's supposed to be sub-orbital, but something goes wrong. After half an hour, the jet still hadn't taken off. With some fast forwarding, it seems there was a problem with an Autralia-launched rocket that caused problems Starflight One. Based on the angle Lee Majors was wearing his pilot's hat, I'm pretty sure he had the skill to safely land Starflight One at some point in the movie.

Next up was Starcrash (1978), which was not the movie I thought it was (my childhood memories of movie titles and scenes has gotten garbled). This one starred people nobody has ever heard of, along with David Hasselhoff. This is a Roger Corman movie, so it's appallingly low-budget bad. I only lasted 10 minutes into this one. The plot revolves around a space-woman-pilot-ne'er-do-well who wears less and less as the movie goes on. It's still rated PG, so she only gets down to her space-bikini and thigh high boots.

Lastly was Damnation Alley (1977) with George Peppard, Jan-Michael Vincent, and Paul Winfield. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie in 1977 at the theater, where I didn't think I was allowed to say "damnation". Of the 3 movies of the night, this one has aged the best as I found it almost watchable! I forgot the beginning of the movie, before the nuclear apocalypse hits. The worse part of the movie was Peppard's faux-Southern accent, at least I think it was supposed to be Southern. Bad special effects can be given a little leeway over time. Bad acting/accents... not so much.

I had hoped to watch Soylent Green. Amazon shows it as a Prime available movie, but when I went to watch it I got a message to "sign up now". I've never seen the movie, so I thought it was about time to give it a shot. I'll have to try again later.

It's going to be a little bit before I try again, though. There's only so much 70's acting and special effects a person can take at one time.

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See Tango Locked Up in Daylight

07.23.2013

It's been a slow new release DVD month. Traditionally this is when I go back and pick up movies I passed on when they first came out, or I find some weird theme of oldies that I used to have on VHS that I realize I suddenly can't live without. Thankfully, Amazon Streaming video and Netflix have taken care of most of that. Still, I do manage to get on my kicks.

The other day I was watching Kurt Russell in Soldier via Amazon (although I've got a DVD not 4 feet from where I was streaming the video). I like Kurt Russell as an action star, especially in Big Trouble in Little China, but that's not relevant. Thanks to my browsing habits, the internet thinks I like Sylvester Stallone. That's ok, I do like him. The internet is always trying to get me to watch Stallone movies. I've been seeing more ads for Expendables 2 since it's now available via streaming. I remembered reading how Kurt Russell was offered a part (in either Expendables 1 or 2) but he turned it down as he "was not looking for ensemble roles". I guess old Kurt doesn't realize his demographic anymore?

The above line of thought took me to Kurt Russell and Sylvester Stallone in Tango & Cash. I remember the first half of the movie was pretty good, but that's about it. Hmmm, after looking it seems I didn't have that in my DVD collection, and for the price to rent a streaming version I would do just as well to buy the silly thing. So I went ot Amazon and bought it, which gave Amazon the opportunity to suggest other Stallone movies that I may have enjoyed in the past but would currently rather buy than rent. Damn you for knowing me so well, Amazon!

When it was over, I had 4 Stallone DVDs from the late 80's to early 2000's on the way. One of them, Eye See You, I have no idea about. It was one I long ago put on my "skip it now, look at it later" list. 11 years later, I'm finally taking care of that.

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Dark Angel Comes In Peace

02.06.2013

One of my favorite movies from the Working in the Video Store era was I Come in Peace, a Dolph Lundgren Sci Fi Action epic! Fine, maybe not epic, but for the time (released in 1990) it was pretty good. While surfing the Amazon I came across the above movie, but it was no longer "I Come in Peace", it was now "Dark Angel".

Tuesday is my normal Stack of DVDs from Amazon day, and I Come in Peace/Dark Angel was part of the booty. Looking at the box art (shown on the left side of the above graphic) I quickly decided I didn't like it. After years of seeing the VHS box art it was just wrong. Not to mention I was never going to accept "Dark Angel" as the title. I decided to replace the cover insert with what I was used to.

From here I went to the internet and tried to use my powers for good. I went online and found a picture of the original "I Come in Peace" box. Next I found the standard size for the cover inserts (10.75" x 7.25" if you're curious). I then wave my Paint Shop Pro wand and did some resizing to make sure something appropriate appears on the front, back , and spine of the box. Next was printing and inserting, and wham bam thank you internet the crappy Dark Angel box is now the 1990 I Come in Peace box that I can recognize sitting on a shelf.

Next will come watching the movie and see how it's fared over the past 14+ years since I last watched it. I'm approaching this like the Flash Gordon movie - good memories and not expecting a lot. Here's the trailer, which is nothing like I remember (except maybe for the CDs of death):

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The Megaforce Thumb

09.16.2012

Today was the grand viewing of Megaforce on sweet, sweet DVD by myself and my good close personal friend, Charles Jr. Charles Jr had not had the pleasure of viewing Megaforce before today, except perhaps an errant partial veiwing here and there on the YouTube. He was not as fortunate as I, to have seen this during its theatrical release in 1982 with my Mother.

At the ripe age of thirteen-ish, I remember walking out of the theater with Mom and telling her of this movie's $20 million budget, and then saying "$19 million must buy a lot of donuts for catering." If I knew then how bad this movie was, I could only imagine how bad it would be 30 years alter.

It hasn't gotten any better.

As bad as it was, it was cheesy, 80's bad. Jerry and I still watched it all the way through. I've yet to finish watching Ghost Rider 2 (that's how mad Ghost Rider 2 is!).

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Wide Eyed & Flared Nostrils

11.01.2011

Last week was movie week at Gina's. I spent 4 out of 7 nites watching movies on her big screen tv. I've got to admit her picture is better than mine. Best Christmas present I ever got her as far as I'm concerned.

Last week the Jurassic Park trilogy was released on Blu Ray. I had only seen the first movie, so I asked Gina if she would like to watch them with me to which she obliged. I was sure to keep in mind while watching that these were the movies which revolutionized CGI, but that some of it might seem kind of dated almost 20 years later. Effects wise it wasn't too bad. Story and acting wise, I found the first two movies a little slow.

In the first two movies, directed by Steven Spielberg, there seem to be lots of shots of people standing wide eyed, either gaping at how a dinosaur exists, or terrified that they're about to get eaten. Maybe it's being dumbed down to the effects all of these years later, but the awe of waiting for a monster to appear just made things (for me) drag. The third movie had more action, or maybe just fewer wide eyes. I liked all the movies, but it will be a while before I watch one again.

Finally, the movie I wanted to watch at Gina's to take advantage of the 3D-ness of her set up: the new Captain America movie. I was wanting to watch this one at the theater but kept putting it off. Although the 3D version probably wasn't worth the extra money, we haven't watched anything in 3D at Gina's save for some demo videos since getting the tv at Christmas. So what the heck, maybe a shield would fly out and hit me.

And one did. Made me jump and everything.

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