Showing posts with label Liam Neeson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Liam Neeson. Show all posts

Monday 6 May 2019

You Have To Watch This In HD


A friend of mine asked me to watch something on a new Hi Def video player many years back and he enthused about the fact that in the space sequences you could see that the backdrop was actually a black curtain. I told him I don't want to see a black curtain I wasnt to see a great film.

Another friend told me I had to see "Taken" in HD. I recorded it in normal resolution and watched it and thought, it's just a typical Liam Neeson film.

I have a DVD set of the original Addams Family and put it on and the transfer to DVD is not that great, like a crackly vinyl record for the eyes, but five minutes into the first episode you don't see the white screen noise you nee the excellent acting the hilarious story and the great characters.

I recently watched "Dr Strange" on oddity from the new Marvel Studios which was absolutely excellent and the special effects, particularly the folding buildings sequences (stolen from Christopher Nolan's "Inception" ?) are the sort of thing that would probably benefit from Hi Def but looked great in normal definition.

Since we switched to digital transmissions, most transmissions are fine in normal definition but sometimes they get it by digital drop out and pixelation (which I don't remember from analogue transmissions) but it my be like DAB against normal radio, mostly DAB is perfect but it can drop out, whereas normal radio you get interference and fading.

A year or two back we had another 3D TV push which dropped off , "Watch Football In 3D" they said, go to a real football match I said. There's no 3D sports broadcasts no although still a lot of films. Again it's something for those absolutely ridiculous disaster / horror movies (examples here)

Basically if a film or program is worth watching the quality of the media becomes secondary, yes it's great if you can see the best picture possible, but I'd rather have a great film on low res media than a bad film on hi res media.

So I have to share The Addams Family dancing to The Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop", what's not to like?

Enjoy your Bank Holiday Monday.

Thursday 13 December 2018

Lazy December


I've not done many posts this month and will probably not do many more. It might be because it's dark and cold, and I know at some point I've got to go out to work. For some reason I don't want to walk so this may be the first month that I don't hit my 340K target, although we are barely half way through the month.

Last night I wanted to go and see Bessie and The Zinc Buckets at Trillians, but wimped out because I was tired, and it was dark and cold and thought I'd probably end up catching a cold, and this morning I actually have one.

THe thing is concentrating on the negatives just drags you down further and I just found that Penetration are playing the Black Bull on the 23rd (Christmas Eve Eve) so that is something to look forward to and enjoy, and I will definitely get myself out for that,

Last night I stayed in the warm and listened to Jethro Tull's "Thick as a Brick" and watch "Jack Reacher: Never Go Back" with Tom Cruise which seems to be a perfect Liam Neeson vehicle.

And that reminds me of the amazing intro toe "Fargo" in Series two featuring Tull's "Locomotive Breath" , very dark, but wonderfully staged.

Enjoy your Thursday.


Friday 16 November 2018

Foggy Notions


Walking into work this morning it is very foggy. On the sixth floor you can't see the river, or across the river. With th efog I immediately thought of "Foggy Notion" by the Velvet Underground and was surprised to find the Super Deluxe sets shown below. One thing the Velvet Underground were not is Super Deluxe. They made music that almost anyone could play but they set a template for a million garage bands with songs of three chords or less that could be quiet or noisy but always worth listening to.

The Super Deluxe reminds of phone and broadband companies pushing their superfast and ultrafast services. If it's fast it's fast. that's all you need to know. Same with film and TV with UltraHD etc etc, it's irrelevant how good the picture is if the story is rubbish.

Someone told me I had to watch "Taken" in HD, I recorded it from Film4 and watched it and .... it was just another Liam Neeson film with Liam Neeson being Liam Neeson. I had another friend who told me when you watched a certain sci fi film in HD you could see the space backdrop was a black curtain! I don't want to see that, I want to enjoy the film.

I have the whole original Adams Family on DVD, the picture transfer is appalling but two minutes ito it you don't notice because the script and acting is razor sharp,

So, it's Friday, have a brilliant day.