Mystery of the Crystal Skulls

[Bryant Burnette 790]

Did anybody else watch this on SciFi?

Fairly entertaining hooey. Well made; I suspect a lot of folks will have watched it as a straightforward documentary.

I still think the best example of this type of filmmaking is The Curse of the Blair Witch, which also aired on SciFi. I always watch it in tandem with The Blair Witch Project, which is one of my favorite scary movies.

I hope this special will end up on the Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull DVD, just for completion's sake.

[JoeinAR 1,957]

I missed it but looked at the History Channels documentary instead

excerpt from Blair Witch screenplay.

F***

scream

F***

scream

running through woods

F***.

F***.

what the f*** is this.

more running through woods.

scream

F***

[Dole 20]

I found it kind of strange and boring. Strange in that it's Lester Holt who hosts (or at least used to host) the NBC Nightly News on weekends and when Brian Williams was on vacation. I mean if you're making a faux documentary about something crazy, you wouldn't send a reputable newsman, right? Boring in that there was a program on the History Channel tonight that seemed a bit more informative and better paced. Plus the History Channel program seemed to have Lucasfilm's blessing since it used the Lucasfilm logo at the end and featured music from the Indy trilogy throughout.

[Bryant Burnette 790]

I missed it but looked at the History Channels documentary instead

excerpt from Blair Witch screenplay.

F***

scream

F***

scream

running through woods

F***.

F***.

what the f*** is this.

more running through woods.

scream

F***

I've got an amusing story about that movie . . .

At a theatre I used to work at, our sound cabinets were slightly unreliable, and when you would turn up the sound monitor (to listen to the movie's sound in the projection booth) you would typically only get some of the sound. For example, you might get only the digital sound, or you might get only the stereo sound; rarely did you get both.

Anyways, Blair Witch had digital sound, but made very sparing use of it. I walked up into the booth one night, and whoever worked before me had obviously turned the sound monitor up and then forgotten to turn it back down. I was walking by the projector showing Blair Witch, when all of a sudden the loudest, most piercing scream I've ever heard came from the sound monitor . . . which was right beside me.

I jumped approximately thirty-seven feet into the air.

But then, I was already scared by that movie. It doesn't work for a lot of people, I know, but the combination of the convincingly authentic performances and camerawork with the fact that you never see anything just scares the bejesus out of me. If I'm watching that movie (which I try to do every year around Halloween), my mind starts conjuring up images of what the Blair Witch would look like, and I'm paranoid and disturbed for the rest of the day. It helps (or hurts) that I've always had a sort of instinctive dread of the wilderness. Along with The Exorcist, it's one of the very few movies that actually makes me physically tense while I'm watching it.

Back to the Mystery of the Crystal Skulls show, I was especially amused by the shameless plug for Battlestar Galactica. But that show needs all the help it can get, ratings-wise, so it's fine by me. (There was one for Stargate, too, although that one at least involved a crystal skull.)

I didn't know about the History Channel special. Looks like it's rerunning in a few days, though. Thanks, DVR!

[Ollie 1,375]

I agree with Dole.

My wife wanted to watch it. I think I dozed off for awhile and then decided to spend time at JWFAN to pass the evening while she watched it.

[Trent Hoyt 13]

I watched it. The stuff about the Mayan calendar was the most interesting as I had been recently discussing it with a coworker. I got bored by the second half though.

[Valentinice 20]

Was it just me or did the History Channel's Indiana jones documentary feature some previously unreleased music from "pankot palace trek" in one of the first segments?

It sounded like a different arrangement of Short Round's theme. Anyone else catch that?

[Ray Barnsbury 8]

Undoubtedly, that means the complete scores have been restored and are on their way to us!!!

[Valentinice 20]

Another quick update:

I finished watching the history channel dock - and noticed that on the "Temple of Doom" act break (about 45 min in) - there is definitely a large segment of "Underground Heroics" playing. Somewhere around there (and probably FSM), there is a complete version of ToD. God, how I hope this gets a deluxe release, or at least leaks in decent quality.

In the mean time, I think someone here should get a job at the History channel, and swipe any hard drives you can! (If you get caught, we'll all pitch in for the legal fees ).

[Ollie 1,375]

We watched the History Channel's Indiana Jones special last night. Much more interesting than that Sci-Fi Channel show.

[Valentinice 20]

OK- "Underground heroics" is playing at exactly 30 min. into the show. It is a clean sounding version, much better than any existing bootleg (not like History channel would use a bootleg anyway).

The end credits says "music courtesy of Lucasfilm Ltd."

[Ollie 1,375]

Yes, we know Lucasfilm has the music and it's probably what happened with the FSM podcast.