Thursday, November 19, 2015

further disc adventures

hi there

the apparent widespread rejection of the optical disc, look you see, continues to baffle me somewhat. whereas i am quite aware of how much "easier" all this streaming business is, legal or otherwise, i don't get how it has devalued films to the point which it has, and nor do i understand why exactly people have been so keen to give up choice.

what is it, regular readers might be asking at this stage, that Pound Land has sold me for £1 this week? well, two things so far, as it happens (yes, £1 each) but i hold out hope that the other three shall follow.



yes indeed, or if you like yipee-kai-yay (or whatever), that's the first two of them Die Hard films. on blu ray. brand new and sealed. for £1 each. the first was one i picked up on Monday, i think, and the 2nd was on the shelves today. fingers crossed that the third, or if you like With A Vengeance, is on the shelf soon, for that was my all time favourite of them.

granted they are not new films (the first film is closer to its 30th anniversary than any of us who saw it on its original release may care to admit), but really? 2 disc blu ray special editions of massive films going for £1 each? wow. sure, i have a fancy 8 disc DVD box set of the first four films, but thanks to Pound Land, for £2 my Die Hard blu ray collection has gone from 0% to 40% this week.

oddly, as much as i love the third one, it's hard to say anything other than the first was the best of the lot. it is brilliant. weirdly, whilst it's still pretty good, the second one that i now have here was my least favourite. it's very pedestrian, and the only scenes of interest really were when him who played Death in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey does some fancy kung fu naked, and that bit where him off of Ghostbusters gets punched in the face off of a lass.



i know i've said this before, but it makes little sense that so many are going for "streaming" instead of owning discs. why would you do that? i once heard Net Flix (or if you are in New Zealand Nit Flux) being described as being "a huge fridge full of food, none of which is anything you want to eat". these services give the illusion of choice, but in reality all they offer are the cheapest titles they could licence. i quite like discs - other than the extra features and better quality, having them means i can watch whatever i want whenever i feel like it, and that is not dependant on if it was cheap for someone to licence.

but still, no complaints from me if it means that i can get classic movies like these two to watch for £1 a pop. i suspect the model is not sustainable, but let me collect them whilst i can.

right, let me prepare to return to Pound Land tomorrow, on the off chance that i will find number 3 on the shelf. and yes, i will most certainly be getting 4 & 5. 4 was brilliant, for it featured a helicopter getting a car catapulted at it, and 5, for all of its faults, was fun.



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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