Oh god, it wasn’t a fever dream.
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I missed that one.
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Oh boy, Rowan Atkinson in a dramatic role:
We have the DVD with all four TV movies. First one was really good.
Rowan Atkinson is one of the best comedians I’ve ever seen, and has the timing to do a dramatic role justice. There aren’t any elements of humor in the show, which is probably just as well – I don’t think it would work given Atkinson’s style. It does work with, say, Hugh Laurie in House because he’s less of a physical comedian.
Nice to see Atkinson as the good guy. His comic characters are mostly people I wouldn’t want to be around (except perhaps for Inspector Fowler in The Thin Blue Line).
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What about Nigel Smallfawcett?
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Nah, looks like a prat.
Gad, I haven’t seen that movie in decades; maybe since it came out.
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So I saw a rumor on Instagram that they’re planning on axing Luke Cage. Of all the Marvel TV franchises, I thought this was one of the top three (Jones, Daredevil being the others)? Granted, I hadn’t been following S.H.I.E.L.D. since season one…
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Oh they already did… I mean, the way the seasons run, they tend to not leave major hanging storylines at least, but I was real interested to see where they headed now that Luke essentially owned the club that had been in the Dillard family for so long, implicating him in the above board and the underground business. So disappointment all around. I have no idea how good or bad the ratings were for season 2, but I enjoyed it:
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I’ve heard rumors that it might get picked up by Disney’s upcoming streaming service, but it’s unconfirmed.
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With Disney ramping up their online service, the Netflix shows are going to have a harder and harder time passing their production milestones, especially because they don’t seem to have as tight a control on the quality. A few of the series have been great, a few have been fun but uneven, and then there’s a stinkeroo of a fist.
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Ugh… really? I hate this whole each company having it’s own streaming service bullshit. It’s becoming worse than over priced cable, which gave you literally no options for just getting the channels you wanted. Who knew that breaking the cable monopoly was going to make things worse.
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The only original Betty Boop cartoon in color. Not really prime Fleischer Studios (imagine throwing over Cab Calloway for Rudy Vallee!) but it still has its charms, with some of the best looking two-strip color I’ve ever seen. Wonder how a public domain cartoon could be found in such high quality.
One of Méliès’ last films. Allegedly some of the more fantastical/tricksy elements were edited out, such as a giant pumpkin race. Very stagey, but nice to look at with elaborate 2-dimensional sets, some actual location shooting, lovely fairy costumes, and hideous mutant lizards.
Surely I’ve saved the best for last. From the 1977 softcore musical. This is Sy Richardson’s screen debut as Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother singing “Grab It.” He’s a bad man…
(Note: All nudity has been most thoroughly pixelated.)
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[ Raises hand ]
Okay, “Knew it would happen” is probably more accurately deemed “pessimistically assumed it would happen.”
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You’re speaking my pessimistic language today!
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As usual, it doesn’t have to be this way, of course.
The CBC (don’t know about other networks) has most of their TV programmung programming available for streaming, either with ads, or you can pay a subscription to get rid of the ads.
It’s sensible, but yeah, I don’t think most decision-makers are working from a place of “sensible”.
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Film preservationists. Libraries. And, alas, funding. If something goes out of copyright, the negatives can’t scurry out of a private film vault on their own. And it’s always nice if the telecine operators know what they’re doing.
I’m glad to see a relatively clean copy somewhere. Too often public domain films look like vhs copies of worn out prints. It’s equally important that it be accurate, but I can’t really attest to that.
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That cartoon is absolutely beautifully drawn.
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Yeah, my point was that public domain works so rarely get that attention, since there’s not much profit in it, usually.
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Sonny Bono warns us of the evils of marijuana. Far out…
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Look, a happy bunny story is coming to Netflix real soon! Who doesn’t love huggable, cuddly bunnies!
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