Gruesome Son of a Bitch

I feel it in my fingers...

Funny, as usual. The movie still stinks. I'm a big enough Star Trek fan that I still like all the earlier movies in some way, like Nemesis or Final Frontier. I also like dumb popcorn entertainment, but not this.

So that's what he's been up to. It's certainly not been composing good music.

I thought Romulan Ale was illegal.

Blue Milk, Butterbeer and Belloq's family label, of course. But he never drinks when he flies.

What a cool set. I'm not buying it, but it's a wonderful package. The only score in here that I really desire to have on its own (currently) is Final Mission. I just read the liner notes for that episode and they're dead on balls accurate.

T2 has always had an annoying level of DNR. It's worse now on Blu-ray. I think it has something to do with Super 35 process, where the frame is chopped and blown up so the film grain is more apparent. Just seems like a phenomenal waste to go back through the whole movie and have to smooth it out, if that's what he feels is necessary.

I thought it was well known Cameron is a DNR freak.

Just back from this. It's completely amazing. Definitely lives up to the hype and it's worth traveling a great distance to experience. It's put me into a big Harry Potter mood. You can walk between the Wizarding World and Jurassic Park and hear rival blockbuster Williams franchise music dueling.

Home Alone, partly inspired by reading Macaulay Caulkin just turned 30. Ugh. Another magical entry in the Williams collection. It was just an unassuming little family holiday movie. Of course, it became and remains the highest-grossing live action comedy (source: CNN). And of course, John Williams just happened to compose the score. These are perennial favorites. I get chills just thinking of Mom Returns when Kevin runs down the stairs and looks out the front door, or the finale when Kevin waves to his neighbor as he is reunited with his family. This is like all-time classic stuff for me at this point. Some of the earliest Williams I was exposed to. I viewed this movie around the time I first viewed Star Wars. There was something connecting them, as well as Hook, Indiana Jones, Superman, Jurassic Park...what was it? Hmmm... And the quarter life crisis rages on.

You have chosen...wisely.

Can't narrow Jaws to anything less than the complete score and album.

On Batman killing, he may have killed more people on the mountain in Batman Begins, though before he is technically Batman. In Batman, he does intend to kill Joker, but ironically the Joker's actual death is an accident caused by Batman. Oops! I don't think he intended to kill his thug. He just happened to be in a struggle with the dude on top of a 50 million story cathedral with a big gap from the bell to the floor. He pretty much had to do it since he was hanging off the edge and the thug had beat his ass to a pulp. He may have killed a bunch of guys in Joker's factory, but Gordon says at the end that they've rounded up all of his men. So perhaps they all made a run for it, but were later apprehended. I'm kind of convinced that Batman doesn't kill or intend to kill the strongman in Returns. The dynamite just seems to be some kind of pathetic firecracker thing. When he knocks him into the ditch, you expect a big blast with body parts galore raining down around Batman, but you get this pathetic explosion. He DOES incinerate the devil guy who's torching storefronts in Gotham plaza. He probably should have used one of those little missile launcher things in the Batmobile to take him out.

Looks like I'll be reviewing Casino Royale Blu-ray this weekend.

Not really. Just Cuaron's nice comments about Williams from the soundtrack and rumor that they didn't get along via people allegedly on the inside/in the know.

It was ballsy to have Bruce Wayne get shot in the head. I remember thinking he would die and Robin would take over.

Damn, I was hoping for some music from Gilligan's Island.

I was paying attention to Williams conducting while they pranced around. The applause was distracting.

By the way, since a lot of people may be hearing this for the first time, the last minute or so of White Sands is a prime example of how Williams will compose brief snippets of music for his scores that, well, first of all, completely blow away entire scores of other composers. But it's a case like the Final Duel in Jedi or the part where the jeeps pull up to the visitor center in Journey to the Island where Williams comes up with some musical idea, something probably fleeting and otherwise never heard again in the rest of the score. Something so amazing on its own that you'd wish Williams would take that snippet and expand it as far as he could go. But he doesn't.

If we need anything by John Barry, it's the complete King Kong score.

Does anyone experience left channel cut-out at the end of Home Again?

The Sting song sucks. The other one, "How Can I Remember", is okay. And it IS a Williams song. Plus, it does play something of a vital a role in the movie as far as music goes. In fact, I'm programming it in my playlist now. Thanks for reminding me.

Many Spielberg DVDs are loaded, but the bonus materials are a lot of talking heads. Yes, you get some admittedly good documentaries with Spielberg reflecting on how he doesn't like Temple of Doom or Close Encounters anymore, sad as they may be. Those are actually real. In fact, when it's just him reflecting, I like it. And Williams' stuff is always good to watch. But all the Dreamworks materials--a lot of manufactured infomercials. The Star Wars DVDs had this problem as well. Jurassic Park has never gotten a proper "Special Edition" release. It demands it. I want to hear Sam Neil and Jeff Goldblum talk about how much more convincing they were interacting with CGI in their day.