Archive for the ‘Video’ Category

Friday film night

Monday, November 24th, 2008

It was an animation spectacular for the Friday Film Night this time, with Kung Fu Panda and Futurama's third special Bender's Game lined up for viewing. First to be watched was Dreamworks Animation's Kung Fu Panda, which I saw at the cinema earlier this year. I have been getting in ...

Skip to the start of Columbo

Sunday, November 2nd, 2008

There's me whining like a schoolgirl about Columbo showing spoilers at the start of each episode on DVD when I have technology to rescue me! I feel foolish now for turning the sound down and trying to avoid looking at the screen, until the cut-to-black signals the start of ...

Goodbye, Mr Hand

Sunday, October 12th, 2008

I have reached the fourth series of Mission: Impossible now, and Leonard Nimoy has taken over the role of the man of many faces and sleight of hand. Martin Landau, as Rollin Hand, left the programme, going off to star in Space: 1999. I was hoping that when Jim Phelps ...

Sci-fi London Oktoberfest

Monday, October 6th, 2008

For the first time since its inception the London Sci-fi Film Festival held a second event this year, separate from its main film festival. Called Oktoberfest, it was a smaller event than the main film festival in May but with all the features expected of the festival. Although ...

Spoiling Columbo

Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008

When I picked up some Mission: Impossible series on DVD along with the box set of Columbo, I mentioned in passing my dislike of the snippets of the episode shown at the start of Mission: Impossible. Whilst the snippets don't really show spoiler information for the episode as such ...

Proposition bets

Saturday, September 13th, 2008

I have a keen interest in confidence tricks, with the social engineering and clever scams required to make them work. This interest led me to the book The Big Con, which is an enlightening read about the long cons of the early twentieth century, documented by a professor who ...

Clarifying Primer

Sunday, September 7th, 2008

I watched the excellent budget sci-fi film Primer again recently. By the way, although referring to it as 'budget' is accurate it can give the wrong impression, as the lack of budget isn't noticable. There are few special effects but the film doesn't need them, instead relying on ...

Disappointing DVD commentaries

Monday, September 1st, 2008

Despite the wealth of extras that often accompany a film's release on DVD I rarely watch many of them, only occasionally enjoying a behind-the-scenes feature or the out-takes, with the exception of the audio commentary, which I am generally quite keen to experience. I enjoy listening to the commentaries ...

In need of a detective

Sunday, August 24th, 2008

The packaging for the collected Columbo DVD box sets I bought recently leaves something to be desired. It looks like the individual series DVD box sets have merely had the internal cardboard sleeves repackaged in to a bigger external case. Not that there is anything wrong with this, ...

Classic TV bonanza

Tuesday, August 12th, 2008

I've managed to pick up some bargains on DVD recently. First, an internet shop had some series of Mission: Impossible on sale, and then I found the complete Columbo collected in to a single box set also on sale, making it as cheap as two individual series box sets. ...