Newest movies this week.

bubba966 · « **on:** 5 Jan 2003, 01:18 am »

Well I'd been going through new disc withdrawal lately as unemployment doesn't leave much in the budget for new movies.

So I stopped at my local rental shop as I knew they were having a used disc sale. Everything was $4 or less. And for $4 why rent it when the rental is $3.75? Unfortunately there wasn't a whole lot left. Anything that was actually any good had already been sold. Which must really say something about Black Knight as they still had a half dozen copies sitting on the shelf. They probably can't give that one away...

Picked up an LD & 4 DVD's at that price. 5 movies for $20 is hard to beat. Especially when 2 of the DVD's weren't former rentals but employee owned discs.

The LD was a foreign movie called Ermo. Don't recall what it was about but that I'd considered renting it a couple years back.

The DVD's were
The Glass House This was supposed to be a thriller? Almost put me to sleep. At least Leelee was nice to look at...
Firestarter 2 Was a made for TV movie. Not bad. Coulda used a bit more of Dennis Hopper. Not sure why he wasn't hardly in it. Worth the $4 & the 3 hours though.
The Pool Only import DVD of the bunch. Suprised they didn't give me any hassle about it being a Region 2 PAL disc. Anyway it's some kind of cheesey horror movie. Looked like it could at least be amusing. And if it's not at least it was only $4...
The last one was a British comedy. Can't even remember the name. Not very interesting nor was it funny. A much better current gender/body switching movie is The Hot Chick.

And as I got a few $ at crimmus I also picked up Amelie (finally) and Dog Soldiers on a separate trip to BB.

Had to trade a couple older discs to my step-bro to get xXx. I'm rather unhappy with the presentation of xXx on DVD now that I've seen it myself. Looked absolutely wretched. Sounded alright once it was turned up 5dB higher than I normally listen to movies at. Hopefully the Superbit version won't be too far off.

bubba966 · « **Reply #1 on:** 10 Jan 2003, 09:46 pm »

Also picked up the Superbit Resident Evil this week. The DTS track is quite nice. But I'll have to do a little comparison to see if the video quality is any better than the standard release.

bob82274 · « **Reply #2 on:** 10 Jan 2003, 10:48 pm »

Picked up Austin Powers 1 and 3 today. Both were on sale at BB and I had 10% off too. So I've seen both a bunch as most of you have but I wanted them for the collection.

mgalusha · « **Reply #3 on:** 11 Jan 2003, 04:01 am »

Speaking of Austin Powers 3 (Goldmember), has anyone had any trouble with this disk? I picked up a copy while holiday shopping and tried to watch it last weekend it it kept freezing up. Of course we had guests over..

No scratches and it played fine in my PC. Took it back to BB and the new copy hangs in exactly the same spot.

I have a Pioneer DV-37 in the home cinema and it has been trouble free since purchase. (2 years ago?) It is the only disk that I've had any problems with.

A search on google turned up someone describing the problem exactly. It seems as if the DV-37 has trouble with this disk. Just curious if anyone else has experience problems.

Mike

bob82274 · « **Reply #4 on:** 11 Jan 2003, 05:18 am »

I am having a different problem with goldmember. However this was a human error. I was a dumass and accidently bought the Full Screen edition. Fortunatly I caught it before I opened it but it does mean that I have to go back to BB and exchange it.

bubba966 · « **Reply #5 on:** 11 Jan 2003, 05:28 am »

I don't have Goldmember yet, so I can't comment as to what my DV-333 or my DVL-91 does with it.

Interesting your DV-37 doesn't care for it. My experience with Pioneer's (DV-09, DVL-700, DVL-909, DVL-919, DVL-91, DV-333, DV-434, DV-440) has usually been pretty good. The newer the player has been, the better it does with problem discs. The only one I actually had a problem with was the DV-09 as it was the 129th player off the assembly line & it had really old firmware. It was having difficulties with The Matrix. And the newer the player the better the error correction has been, resulting in playing poorly pressed/dirty/damaged discs better.

I had a bad copy of Monkeybone. It froze the DV-09 up real quick (menu screen), the DVL-91 took longer to freeze up, and the DV-333 took the longest of the bunch as it was the newest player.

Based on that experience & others with damaged and defective discs makes me wonder why your DV-37 doesn't care for Goldmember as it's not that old.

jcoat007 · « **Reply #6 on:** 11 Jan 2003, 05:25 pm »

I have the DV 37 and Goldmember hangs on me. I have two other DVD players that play it with no problems.

bubba966 · « **Reply #7 on:** 11 Jan 2003, 08:20 pm »

Is there a specific place it's hanging on the DV-37? Like the layer change?

mgalusha · « **Reply #8 on:** 11 Jan 2003, 10:40 pm »

The first place it hangs is at 1:17 (I believe) into the film. No where near the layer change.

It's exactly where the rear bullet deflector pops up on the Shaguar when Cruise is driving. If I skip to the next chapter it will play for a few minutes and hang again.

I'm going to give it a try in a friends Pioneer later today and see how it fares. His is a combo LD/DVD player. Perhaps a DVL-91 but I won't swear to it. I will post the result tomorrow.

Mike

bubba966 · « **Reply #9 on:** 11 Jan 2003, 11:12 pm »

Mike, when you try it on your buddies DVD/LD player could you check the build date on it as well? Unless it's in a rack or something where it's a pain in the ass to see the rear. Actually it only matters much on the DVL-91 & DVL-919 as those are the only two US players that were built for more than a year or so.

You're making me very curious with this one. I'll have to try getting a hold of a copy shortly and see what results I get.

mgalusha · « **Reply #10 on:** 11 Jan 2003, 11:19 pm »

I'll look for the data bubba. The rack is accessible from the rear. Not sure exactly which player it is. I know it will play both sides of the LD without having to flip it and that it's one of the Elite models. I will know more in about an hour. Leaving the wives at home and going to a Mahler concert.

Mike

Edit - while on the subject bubba, do you have any info on 'adjusting' the regional coding on those LD/DVD players? The guy that owns it travels to Hong Kong quite a bit and would like to be able to pick up non region 1 coded discs.

bubba966 · « **Reply #11 on:** 11 Jan 2003, 11:52 pm »

Mike, if it's an Elite DVD/LD player it's either a DVL-90 or DVL-91.

Unfortunately the only "easy" modded DVL player was the DVL-909. Solder two points together with a wire and it's region selectable. Two more & the Macrovision is turned off.

But he can get a mod kit from here http://www.dvdupgrades.ch/cgi-bin/shop/list/DVDupgrades/Pioneer.html?id=ZwSTyE2F

They're one of the only respectable companies I could find that ship to the US.

mgalusha · « **Reply #12 on:** 12 Jan 2003, 08:16 pm »

Bubba,

Tried the disc last night and it played flawlessly.

Apparently only the DV-37's have trouble with it. When (if?) my SACD 1000 returns I will give it a try in that. I am pretty sure it woud work just fine but ya never know.

The player is a DVL-91 and the build date is September '99. Appreciate the link on the mod kit. I will pass it along.

Mike

bubba966 · « **Reply #13 on:** 13 Jan 2003, 08:25 am »

Mike,

Have you looked into getting the firmware updated in your DV-37? I believe Pioneer will update it for 3 years after purchase, after 3 years you've got to pay to have it done.

Thanks for checking on the build date of his DVL-91. I'm always looking to know more about the DVL line of LD players as they're some of the best made. I believe the build on my DVL-91 was March of 2000, which was almost at the end of line. One more thing I forgot to ask, if you remember, what'd the Pioneer logo look like on the faceplate on his 91?

Like this? (of course without the sound.vision.soul crap)

Or was it the older, straight logo?

Thanks,
Brian

bob82274 · « **Reply #14 on:** 24 Jan 2003, 05:41 pm »

Just picked up and watched The Bourne Identity. A really good movie in my opinion. I love watching spy/action movies where when the cars crash into one another they don't blow up like pintos. The only movie that is better than this one for realistic car chases is Ronin. There is only one explosion in the movie that I can think of and that one actually was useful (you'll understand if you watch the movie). Great cast with Matt Damon, Franka Potente (the chick from Run Lola Run), Chris Cooper, the lovely Julia Stiles, Brian Cox and Clive Owen (from the BMW films). A good one to have in the collection in my opinion.

JoshK · « **Reply #15 on:** 24 Jan 2003, 07:00 pm »

About a Boy give it 4.5 stars/5. Great movie, close enough to the book (loved the book) that it made it a worthy movie. I usually can't stand Hugh but he was pretty funny in it.

Harry P · « **Reply #16 on:** 7 Feb 2003, 09:37 pm »

Unfaithful was pretty good. Dianne Lane was incredibly sexy and did what I thought was a great acting job. Couldn't buy into Richard Gere's acting nearly as much. I thought Dianne stole the show.

JoshK · « **Reply #17 on:** 7 Feb 2003, 09:40 pm »

Agreed, it was a pretty good movie, had dumb moments but overall was worth the watch.