Super 8

[John M. Whalen]

The new JJ Abrams movie Super 8 is out on DVD and BluRay. A group of school kids-- I guess Middle School, around 7 and 8th grade--- are making a movie on their parents Super 8 movie camera back in the seventies. They sneak out of their homes at midnight to film a scene at a train station and by just sheerest coincidence they witness the most collossal train derailment in the history of the state of Ohio. They capture it on film. The Air Force shows up and takes over and evacuates the town because there was something on that train that escaped and they want it back. Actually it's just one USAF Officer who seems to be running the entire USAF. Since this is a JJ Abrams movie and since its produced by Steven Speilberg naturally the story has to involve an extraterrestrial. This trumped piece of special effects nonsense was probably concocted when JJ and Steven had lunch and Steven said, "Hey, what if ET were big, ugly and dangerous?" And off they ran. The subplots involving the kids problems with their parents were strictly by the numbers, from "How to Plot a Movie 101. I don't know what the problem was but in nearly every nighttime scene there were blue streaks flaring across the screen whenever a light was in the picture. Was this a defect of the BluRay Disc I rented, or was it on the original film. Anyone else see this? Two Tharkian Thumbs Up Out of Four.

[Jaqhama]

Buy DVD.
We just found out a lot of Blue Ray discs are wonky because you have to upgrade your Blue Ray disc player software or monitor scren software.
So we're sticking with DVD from now on.
DVD's out number BR by a 100 to 1 here in Sydney.

Thanks for the 30 second review of Super 8, not that I had any intention of watching it. But at least now I have a couple of convincing reasons.

[John M. Whalen]

IF you aren't watching films on BluRay on a hi def TV you don't know what you're missing in terms of picture quality and sound. I was resistant at first too, because of my big collection of DVD's. But now that I've got one I wouldn't go back to regular DVD on a bet. Especially good are the remasters of old black and white films like King Kong and Treasure of the Sierra Madre. It's the closest thing to watching a film projection as TV will allow. There is so much more information on the disc. I'm not someone who buys the latest technological gadget just to be trendy. It has to be an improvement before I'll invest money in it. My spouse bought the bluray and I intended returning it until I hooked it up. A friend of mine informs me that the blue flares in Super 8 are intentional. JJ Abrams wanted to give it a "Speilberg" look. Go figure. To me it was just annoying.