Category: Movie / Television

032523 • Thrift Store Finds

Guderian: Creator of the Blitzkrieg is one of those books that, if I’m correct, came from a military book club. This means that I’d never see this again at a thrift unless I was very lucky, based on the fact that I have never seen it before, or I’d have it by now.

Vietnam: The Secret War • I have plenty of books on Vietnam, and was going to pass on this one, but upon opening it… well, it’s a worthy buy. I have to stop opening these books.

Aces Against Japan: The American Aces Speak • I really like books that have the actual stories from the people who lived them.

The Day the Red Baron Died • The arial battles of World War I are fascinating, as is the Baron.

300 • Troy: Director’s Cut • Alexander Revisited: The Final Cut • I have been eying this for a few weeks, and finally got someone to help me get it out of the display case, which is tough to do on a Saturday. I already have 300 on Blu-ray, and Troy on DVD, but this is the uncut Troy, and I get the Alexander movie tossed in as part of the deal. I don’t think Alexander will be a great movie, but I’ll at least take a look since this kind of epic doesn’t happen too often, especially lately. At only two dollars, this was a great deal!

I was going to get The Grey and Mad Men: Season 5 on Blu-ray as well, but they were missing discs. Boo! At least I have them on DVD.

They Just Don’t Die

One of the many, many reasons I’m not a fan of modern Star Wars, (with a few exceptions) is that the only Star Wars characters that died, yet came back, were Yoda, Ben Kenobi, and Anakin, as Force ghosts. There was a set rule, or reason that they could, and that was limited as they didn’t just come back as a character that could go on more adventures, they were there only to advise, and disappear. Because they had died. Because dying was something that was taken seriously by the writers.

But now, in the post-Lucas Star Wars era, killing a character is a cheap trick to get some drama into the script, because the writers have no idea how to write a good story. Here are all the characters I could think of that have died, yet came back: 

Palpatine – They couldn’t make a better bad guy, and Snoke didn’t work out, so…

Leia – Blown into the vacuum of space… nope! Just floats on back, she’s amazing!

Rey – How romantic. And odd that nobody ever used the Force in this way before.

Chewbacca – They’d never actually kill the Walking Carpet.

IG-11 – Blown up while in a river of molten lava. But he’s coming back somehow.

Poe – He… didn’t make it. Wait, there he is!

Ahsoka – Time travel. They use time travel in Star Wars now.

C-3PO – They’d never really kill Goldenrod.

Fennec Shand – Predictable, but it happened.

Han Solo – Force Ghost. This means that now, any non-Jedi can return as a Force Ghost.

Darth Maul – How? HOW? He was cut in half and fell into a bottomless pit!

Boba Fett – Why not, everybody else comes back.

Two characters in Kenobi take a lightsaber to the body… and they are fine.

Snoke – Wasn’t worth bringing back.

030423 • Thrift Store Finds

Finally landed a hockey jersey at a thrift! There is some yellowing on the “19” that is also ripping off, but I know where to get that fixed.

The Author of Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory mentioned in her intro that she had been contacted by many high-profile shows so that she could debate holocaust denyers, but she said “no” to all of these offers because just giving them a platform was giving their argument a level of merit that it didn’t deserve. In so many cases, this can be used to exclude views that need to be heard so that people can make good decisions on a topic, say, this candidate for president is the right choice, or not, but here, she’s right. Some things are proven fact, and this is one of them. Some things are not about “my truth” or a person’s “point of view”. It’s like debating someone who is of the view that Hitler was a nice guy. That is ridiculous, so don’t give them a forum for people who might be susceptible to such things.

She also details how this mentality began in World War I, when some scholars were in denial of Germany’s role in starting that war. There are all kinds of ways to look at how the war started, but Germany was no angel in it by any means. The Schleiffen plan, for example. That isn’t drawn up by military planners because they didn’t want to conquer their neighbors.

This is a link to Google Books so that you can give it a look for yourself.

I had to wait a week, but these two Blu-rays were still there, so I picked them up at half-off!

Predator Soundtrack

For years, this soundtrack is hard to find at a decent price. This copy was brand-new and remastered in 2012 even. I haven’t noticed any of these until recently, so a batch of them must have become available somehow. I haven’t paid this much for a cd in a very, very long time, but it’s worth it as the movie has one of the best soundtracks ever. When I watch this movie, I’m always sad that the soundtrack is always out of reach.

I did find the Predator 2 soundtrack earlier this year at a thrift store; that is a rare find. Most of the soundtracks that get to thrift stores are always the same, and nothing by way of classics like these.

Again, it really looks like a batch of these just came out at the same time, because I’ve looked multiple times over the years and it’s never within reach. This one was thirty bucks, and I had to get it because I’m not going to run across this remastered version at a thrift store, ever. And I’m not in the thrifts very much anymore, anyway.

This is one of the best movies of all time, with a perfect soundtrack. A sign that it is a perfect movie is that most movies in the genre try to copy it, and all of the sequels can’t equal it. I’m a fan of the first three, but the fourth was a real disappointment, and I am not going to watch the fifth, or any other sequel unless it is regarded by people I trust as a worthy sequel. I haven’t seen the last two Terminators, either, nor the Kenobi or Boba Fett shows for the same reason. Just tired of my favorite characters being treated badly by poor writers and show runners. It used to be that a sequel to any of the big franchises was so rare that one had to go see it; now, the norm is that whatever you like is going to be sub-standard, even offensive. It took a lot of disappointments for me to figure out that the new normal is to just let them come out, and after time goes by, if sources I know to have a good track record (Critical Drinker) with these things say it’s okay, then I’ll watch. I’m not wasting time and money on them anymore, I’d rather spend on hard-to-find soundtracks instead.

Also. The classical music genre is so deep that I am never without good music to listen to, familiar or new. A sub-genre of this is soundtracks, and my soundtrack collection is pretty good, but with even bad movies often having good soundtracks, it is another area to explore or collect that has a great track record for good music. I would be more into soundtracks (I have about thirty or forty) if they were generally cheaper and I wasn’t so occupied with regular classical. But it is a nice diversion.