TV/Movies Megathread

[Ideologue]

So Mill Creek is releasing blu-ray versions of the eight Showa Era Gamera films, and for a pittance--$30 all told, less than four bucks per picture (or about $4.30, if you don't count Gamera: Super Monster as a movie, which you well should not).

The first issue is that it's two discs for all eight, but given that they're dual-layer BDs, and the two-film disc of the first two Heisei Gameras (Guardian of the Universe and Attack of the Legion) both look just fine, this probably isn't a big deal.

The second and huge issue is they have foregone the old Sandy Frank dub tracks.  Which is a kaiju-sized exercise in missing the point.

I'm not against subtitles by nature, but we are not exactly talking about High and fucking Low here; Toshiro Mifune does not play Kenny and it isn't Tatsuya Nakadai and Shimura Takashi in those rubber suits.  There is no acting involved in these movies that demands one experience it in the original Japanese.

Worse, half of the charm is the--let's say--"not conventionally good" dubbing done for overseas consumption.  Remember the Southern accents of planet Terra from Gamera vs. Guiron?  Or the preposterously stentorian voices of both Zigra and his lovely mindwiped assistant?  The little girl who just wants a damned Coke?  Of course you do.

And, most importantly, these are kids movies.  They are movies for children.  You know what four year olds don't really enjoy?  Subtitles.

[katmai]

I fucking hate dubbed movies and you are horrible for liking them.

[Ideologue]

Dubbed kaiju movies are better.

Anyway, one of the big draws of buying them would be the prospect of showing them to my kids, were I to have any.  I loved these fucking things when I was little--I must've rented each Godzilla and Gamera VHS at my local video store a dozen times.  The only Christmas gift I remember from my childhood other than an SNES (because it was awesome) and a pencil set (because it was unconscionably lame) was a copy of what I believed at the time was the one Gamera movie they didn't have, Vs. Guiron.  (Now I know there were two more, and Super Monster.)  It's hard to say if I would've given a shit if I'd have had to read.

I still have my MST3K episodes on my hard drive and Destroy All Planets (Gamera vs. Viras) on DVD (and oh man, is that the kaiju movie to rule them all in terms of its boundless, wonderfully idiotic imagination), so it's not like I couldn't enjoy them whenever I wished.  But I think it's a huge misjudgment on their part, by focusing solely on the "cineaste" market (to the extent adults who buy Gamera films are cineastes).

Also FYI, seems to me that there's a fair chance that Toho might release a full Godzilla collection in HD sometime this year.  They're bringing out Vs. Gigan, Smog Monster, and even Sea Monster (possibly the worst Showa-era Godzilla movie not featuring Minya) in individual releases, and there are Japanese BDs of the whole damned series.  As lukewarm as I am on the Heisei Godzillas, I know I'd be in the market for that; it'd get more mileage than my James Bond collection.

(Fwiw, they're issuing discs with the option to select the dubbed English track.  You fascist.)

[Eddie Teach]

and a pencil set (because it was unconscionably lame)

I remember having a set of little plastic rectangles with wild west scenes etched into them. The kind you put a sheet of paper over and rub your pencil over it to see the picture. Not the worst gift ever, but your pencil set reminded me of it.

[Ed Anger]

I fucking hate dubbed movies and you are horrible for liking them.

I like fullscreen movies.

[Grey Fox]

Slapshot is much better movie in dubbed French than it's original English.

[CountDeMoney]

I fucking hate dubbed movies and you are horrible for liking them.

I like fullscreen movies.

That's just as faggy.  Punch in the nutsack for you.

[Admiral Yi]

Slapshot is much better movie in dubbed French than it's original English.

How do you feel about dubbed commercials?  That tripped me out when I was in Montreal.

[Queequeg]

I fucking hate dubbed movies and you are horrible for liking them.

I like fullscreen movies.

That's just as faggy.  Punch in the nutsack for you.

Why don't you compose a list of things that are faggy/hipster?

[CountDeMoney]

I already have one, it's my Spellus List.  Population: you.

[garbon]

I fucking hate dubbed movies and you are horrible for liking them.

I like fullscreen movies.

I laugh now when I look back at how resistant I was to widescreen. Now I despise fullscreen.

[Queequeg]

It's kind of great that both The Americans and Hannibal have managed to iron out almost all of the flaws in their first seasons.  I can't decide which is the better show, even if I think I like Hannibal more.

[Josquius]

I'm not liking The Americans as much this series as last.

Shameless- Am I weird in not noticing that Lip's girlfriend was oriental until someone explicitly pointed it out in the last episode? Maybe I've been in Japan too long.

[Admiral Yi]

FYI Squeeze, oriental is now consider un-PC.  Asian is the PC term.

[Queequeg]

I can't keep track of my nicknames. Am I Squeeze?