Pitch Black

[IBBoard]

Me and my fiancee wandered in to Manchester yesterday and dropped in to Music Zone's clearance sale. They had DVDs from £2.97 and we ended up spending just short of £50 in the end

Anywho, we picked up Pitch Black because we'd seen Chronicles of Riddick over Christmas. I remember when it first came out I thought it might be interesting (I had a vague knowledge that the Pitch Black computer game was interesting sci-fi) but then I saw it was Vin Diesel and thought "oh, probably won't be that great". Turns out Vin Diesel is actually quite good.

I'm not sure about Pitch Black. I liked the story line and the idea (didn't realise that was where 'Pitch Black' came from - I thought it was his homeworld that was dark) and having watched Riddick I thought his eyes were naturally like that, but Chronicles of Riddick just seemed to have a better story line and more of a conclusion. Pitch Black almost seemed like "Riddick: The Introduction (it isn't quite a full film)"

Still, it's the special edition, so I've got some interesting extras to watch too

[TGSC]

I quite enjoyed it as a fairly low-key sci-fi action film, it's not a huge explodey film, but then again, I think it was early on in Vin Diesel's career. I've not any more than the first 10mins of CoR yet, so I can't really comment.

In other film related business, I have some hmv vouchers to spend, I'm looking at getting 3 DVDs for £18, seeing as hmv.co.uk has to ship to the same address as my billing address, which is over in Bolton, and Stadium Arcadium is £14 in the shop compared to £11 on the website. Has anyone got any suggestions off the 3for£18 list I should get? I'm looking at the 3 disc special edition Memento, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and possibly Dr Strangelove or One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, but I'm open to suggestions

[IBBoard]

I'll check the list out later, but I think the people at Kerrang might give you a good list of suggestions (as long as you ignore some of the crazier people). Simguinus might have some ideas, though, next time he's around

[edit] Looking at the list I have the following comments:

Mr and Mrs Smith was good, mainly action-ish with a little bit of romance, but nothing terrible from what I remember, just 'married spy couple' romance (including trying to kill each other)
Corpse Bride was a little random when we rented it, but I'd probably watch it again.
Batman Begins was good when I watched it on the plane to Colorado - darker, grittier and more Gothic Gotham than before. I saw Fantastic Four on the plane as well. Good movie, but more just an excuse to use some cartoon super heroes, I think.
Robots was great with Robin Williams, but it wouldn't be a 'you' DVD, possibly more a 'you and the missus' DVD
Oceans 12 was reasonable as a sequel, although the plot line didn't work as well as the original. You might already have it, though, and I take it you've got Pulp Fiction.
They've got Minority Report in there, which I must get at some point. If you're feeling really culty, they've got 1984. If it's the one that I watched that we taped off the TV when it was on, it was quite good.

Well, that's the first 10 pages covered! There's a couple of others that I've watched with Abi and liked, but they're probably not the type you'd want to buy

[TGSC]

Looking at the list I have the following comments:

Mr and Mrs Smith was good, mainly action-ish with a little bit of romance, but nothing terrible from what I remember, just 'married spy couple' romance (including trying to kill each other)

Yeah, was on at the union, not particularly interested in watching it again

Corpse Bride was a little random when we rented it, but I'd probably watch it again.

Didn't even bother going to watch it at the union

Batman Begins was good when I watched it on the plane to Colorado - darker, grittier and more Gothic Gotham than before. I saw Fantastic Four on the plane as well. Good movie, but more just an excuse to use some cartoon super heroes, I think.

Batman Begins is great, although I'm not sure what version it is with extras and stuff, I'll have a look at it. Tought Fantastic Four was a bit crap and lacking in any kind of story/characterisation, the point was with Marvel superheroes were they were almost cursed with powers, F4 never really appealed, even watching Marvel action hour as a kid.

Robots was great with Robin Williams, but it wouldn't be a 'you' DVD, possibly more a 'you and the missus' DVD

Hmm

Oceans 12 was reasonable as a sequel, although the plot line didn't work as well as the original. You might already have it, though, and

I quite liked Oceans 11, I thought 12 was a bit contrived in places, Julia Roberts' character pretending to be Julia Roberts? Please!

I take it you've got Pulp Fiction.

Of course!

EDIT: The first page (I presume you'd sorted by popularity) and you didn't even suggest the ususal suspects?! What's wrong with you
EDIT2: Or Apocalypse Now? Classics!

Also, you suggested Corpse Bride but not Edward Scissorhands? Forshame on your taste in Tim Burton Films

[IBBoard]

I sorted it by whatever your link sorted it by

Usual Suspects? Never seen it and don't have a clue about it - you know me and films.

Edward Scissorhands - didn't think about it. It's been absolutely ages since I've seen it, and I know it's cult, but other than that I can't remember much.

Apocalypse Now I've never seen.

Me and Abi just bought more stuff the other day - we're DVD junkies at the moment As well as the three Matrix's in a boxed set (just so I have them), the Blade trilogy and the first half of CSI Season 5 we got a three for £18:

Electra (may not be great, but Daredevil was quite good), Master and Commander (supposed to be fairly good and Abi hadn't seen it and wanted to) and Two Week's Notice (because Abi has a list of films she wants and that was one of them)

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is in there as well - Dogma was okay, not sure I'd like more of them but it's your kind of thing. I, Robot as well - good Asimov and not too bad for having Will Smith in it. Fifth Element? Chris Tucker was always annoying yet good in that as the TV presenter! AvP? 51st State? (strange to see Samuel L Jackson in a kilt, but a good film as far as I remember)

There's quite a few I'd like to get/see, mainly along the comic book lines. Things like Punisher and most of the Marvel comics might be interesting, and I'd like to get a copy of some semi-cult ones (not real cult, just ones that I like that're kinda strange/have older sci-fi backgrounds) like Minority Report and Chronicles of Riddick.

Back to the list (trying to get to page 15): Eternal Sunshine? Resevoir Dogs (if you've not already got it) Thomas Crown Affair? League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? Bowling for Columbine if you want distorted (yet semi-factual) anti-Bushism. Bourne Supremacy - think it was quite good, can't remember which of the series I've seen. Interview with a Vampire (got it recently to go with Queen of the Damned). Can't remember details, but Sin Eaters was okay when I watched it.

Or how about Zulu?

They've got the original Ocean's Eleven in there too, but I don't think it was as good.

[Simguinus]

The Usual Suspects is a flippin great film. Mainly because it sucks you in completely and tells you a story in little bits and pieces then turns everything you've heard for the whole film on its head and leaves you wondering if anything you've been told is true.

It also has an absolutely brilliant 'reveal' shot at the end.

Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back is funnyish. It doesn't work so well if you've never seen either Clerks or Mallrats. I think the best moment (which also conveniently sums up the film) is when Ben Affleck [as Holden McNeil] says "Don't get me wrong if I think this is the worst idea since Greedo shooting first. I mean, a Jay and Silent Bob movie? Who'd pay to see that?" (all turn and mug to the camera).

Strangelove is great.

Pitch Black was very early on in Diesel's career - first outing in fact. It also has Claudia Black of Farscape fame in it. I'm not really not sure about the link between PB and CoR. PB pretty well-established a sort of Red Dwarf-esque level of tech, which CoR totally did away with in the first five minutes. It's like they're two totally different universes and I'm not convinced that it was a good idea.

'pocalypse is over-rated and over-long. Especially if you get Redux.

[IBBoard]

Yeah, I noticed that Claudia Black was in it - she looked familiar and the voice sounded identical to Farscape, even though I always assumed half of the 'strange sound' was just some common Aussie-dubbing thing. You always seem to be able to tell Aussie Sci-Fi TV series, it's almost like they're got fractional lip-synch issues that you can't quite see because it's so minor

As for PB->CoR, I don't know whether it's just the DVD version (possibly was because I think it was before it hit the main menu) but they showed Riddick running and looking like a caveman with all his hair, but they also showed the Necromongers, but only for a minute in the intro. I think that's part of what threw me. Having watch CoR first I expected the story to revolve more around the Necromongers again, but they basically weren't in it.

I still think "Chronicles of Riddick: The Introduction to Riddick" would be a better title (the DVD cover does have "Chronicles of Riddick" in small letters above the title)