A Pleasant Surprise
Nov. 23rd, 2014 04:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
swehMy old TiVo 3 HD is beginning to play up. After 6 years it looks like the HDMI connector is failing; it seems to be a mechanical issue because if I touch the cable then I can affect the output (lose signal, or regain signal). By applying a lot of force I can temporarily fix it but a few days later it plays up again.
Since this is 6 years old and the state of the art has moved on (eg more receivers so can record more than 2 shows at once), I decided to upgrade rather than get this one fixed. I got a TiVo Roamio.
For other reasons I also signed up for a trial of Amazon Prime... which gave me access to a number of free movies on Amazon Instant, which the TiVo handles.
So, as a test, I watched Dredd. Surprisingly the audio channel caused the "HD Audio" light on my receiver to light up (something I've only seen before on BluRay disks). The video quality didn't start off too well; the opening "Lionsgate" animation was very pixelated. However afterwards I didn't really notice any pixelation (FWIW, a 50" Samsung TV
from 10ft away). I did note a few times where the video stream appeared to jump a few of frames. Not frequently but a few times (Verizon FIOS 75Mbit connection, definitely not bandwidth constrained at my end!) So, not perfect and not BluRay quality, but it's watchable.
I don't think Amazon Video On Demand will replace my buying of BluRay habit, but it's not bad.
However, that's not what this post was meant to be about!
After watching Dredd I then finally got around to watching the new Robocop BD that's been on my shelf for a few months.
So two movies that are remakes of older ones (Robocop 1987, Judge Dredd 1995).
Dredd... when the trailers for this came out I was not impressed. I had no desire to watch it. I'd read some of the 2000AD comics when younger, and the story line didn't grab me (mostly 'cos I don't like comic form of story telling), and the Stallone movie was just crap. But, hey, free. And I was actually impressed. I think there's a few parts where Karl Urban is struggling not to laugh his lines out, and the plot line didn't require a lot of brain power to follow, but it's definitely an improvement over the '95 version. And the SFX was really well done.
Robocop, on the other hand... I was a fan of the '87 movie. It's a great piece of satire ("6000 SUX" as the car model?) and I was worried that the new version might have played it too straight. But the trailers did intrigue me. I never got to see it in the theater and so got the BluRay. This version _is_ played straighter... but it still contains a lot of satire. Especially in the Novak segments (which had me laughing out loud). This version of the story plays close to the original in a number of major respects, but it focuses more on the struggle between man and machine. There's no real surprises because it sticks closely to the original (sometimes I found myself thinking "c'mon, break the programming already!") but it is well done.
Now the recent trend has been to create piss-take "comedy" versions of old movies or TV series. "Trampling over my childhood", as Tori says. But in this case we have two movies that treated the subject matter "properly". In one case (Dredd) it clearly surpases the older version (IMHO) and in the other it's just as good, and a worthy bringing up to date.
And I'm pleasantly surprised by this :-)
Since this is 6 years old and the state of the art has moved on (eg more receivers so can record more than 2 shows at once), I decided to upgrade rather than get this one fixed. I got a TiVo Roamio.
For other reasons I also signed up for a trial of Amazon Prime... which gave me access to a number of free movies on Amazon Instant, which the TiVo handles.
So, as a test, I watched Dredd. Surprisingly the audio channel caused the "HD Audio" light on my receiver to light up (something I've only seen before on BluRay disks). The video quality didn't start off too well; the opening "Lionsgate" animation was very pixelated. However afterwards I didn't really notice any pixelation (FWIW, a 50" Samsung TV
from 10ft away). I did note a few times where the video stream appeared to jump a few of frames. Not frequently but a few times (Verizon FIOS 75Mbit connection, definitely not bandwidth constrained at my end!) So, not perfect and not BluRay quality, but it's watchable.
I don't think Amazon Video On Demand will replace my buying of BluRay habit, but it's not bad.
However, that's not what this post was meant to be about!
After watching Dredd I then finally got around to watching the new Robocop BD that's been on my shelf for a few months.
So two movies that are remakes of older ones (Robocop 1987, Judge Dredd 1995).
Dredd... when the trailers for this came out I was not impressed. I had no desire to watch it. I'd read some of the 2000AD comics when younger, and the story line didn't grab me (mostly 'cos I don't like comic form of story telling), and the Stallone movie was just crap. But, hey, free. And I was actually impressed. I think there's a few parts where Karl Urban is struggling not to laugh his lines out, and the plot line didn't require a lot of brain power to follow, but it's definitely an improvement over the '95 version. And the SFX was really well done.
Robocop, on the other hand... I was a fan of the '87 movie. It's a great piece of satire ("6000 SUX" as the car model?) and I was worried that the new version might have played it too straight. But the trailers did intrigue me. I never got to see it in the theater and so got the BluRay. This version _is_ played straighter... but it still contains a lot of satire. Especially in the Novak segments (which had me laughing out loud). This version of the story plays close to the original in a number of major respects, but it focuses more on the struggle between man and machine. There's no real surprises because it sticks closely to the original (sometimes I found myself thinking "c'mon, break the programming already!") but it is well done.
Now the recent trend has been to create piss-take "comedy" versions of old movies or TV series. "Trampling over my childhood", as Tori says. But in this case we have two movies that treated the subject matter "properly". In one case (Dredd) it clearly surpases the older version (IMHO) and in the other it's just as good, and a worthy bringing up to date.
And I'm pleasantly surprised by this :-)
