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She TV (1994)
Can't say as I remember much about this show, but...
There was a great mock advert for the Ford Bronco using footage from the OJ Simpson slow-speed chase. The lyrics to the jingle they came up with are half-remembered and most likely wrong but posted here in case someone can correct them or point me to video of the advert...
Bronco!
The new Ford Brocno, the truck we know you'll love.
Try the new Bronco, it fits you like a glove!
Bronco!
The new Ford Brocno, it's a show stopper -
grabs the attention of every passing chopper!
Bronco!
The new Ford Brocno, for work or play or sport -
when you drive a Bronco, you get a police escort!
Bronco!
The Green Berets (1968)
Yeah, yeah, yeah all the 'goodthinkers' hate this movie because it was pro-Vietnam...
I have no issue with this being a movie in support of the US effort in Vietnam. It's too bad it's just not that good a movie - largely because John Wayne tried to graft a typical 'rollicking' John Wayne adventure replete with 'colorful' characters that like Chekov's gun don't really get used once the story gets "going" but neglected the actual task of... storytelling.
First part of the movie consists of assembling the stock characters - I mean troops. Each is supposed to have a special talent essential for the mission - there's even a 'scrounger'. When we finally get to 'nam we get the local color in the form of 'Hamchuk' and his dog. The dog is the only character, once introduced, to get used again. Alas, it's for bringing up the feels.
Now, I haven't seen this in a while but I bet there was a knock down, drag out bar fight in this somewhere - you can't get your Rollicking Content Certificate without one. What there wasn't much of - at least till the third act - was actual Special Forces being special. I mean, come the f*** on, two thirds of the movie is spent setting up and defending their jungle tree-house - I mean base.
They finally show a Special Forces 'trick' in the way they evacuate some dude by shooting a loop of rope up to a plane dragging a hook. Then they ruin it with some other dude - the token Black Guy - getting splatted against a cartoon mat of bamboo spikes. Wile E Coyote died a little inside on account of that.
Real people had to suffer from that government and the war that put that government into power. No need to suffer sitting through this lackluster motion picture...
The Twilight Zone: The Rip Van Winkle Caper (1961)
On the off chance you're in a position to try this at home...
Here's a short list of things to consider...
1 - find out what the statute of limitations is on the crime of ruffieing an entire train and robbing it of the gold its transporting.
2 - also find out the statute of limitations for boofing that sleeping beauty in the club car - you know you're going to want to...
3 - set your suspended animation machine for maybe a year or two after said limit
4 - ask yourself - do you really need glass on the top of your suspended animation machine?
5 - look up at the ceiling whilst pondering
6 - ask yourself if a motor vehicle would be operable in the time you plan to wake. A motor vehicle that needs oil, gas, coolant and air-filled tyres that's been sitting in a hot desert cave?
7 - pack hand trucks - with solid tyres - for everybody and an extra for just in case
8 - on second thought pack some mountain bikes - why schlep all that gold when you can pack a bar each, cycle to the nearest town and get yourself a chrome-plated hover-truck from The Future
9 - pack plenty of bottled water - I think Apollonaris was one of the brands you could get in 1961.
10 - on the off-chance some nimrod finds a way to manufacture gold... steal some silver and/or platinum and if you see some gemstones, you might as well load up on them. Vintage currency should have a market in the future. Even that American-made transistor radio that sleeping beauty was listening to could fetch a boodle on eBay nowadays if you think to take out the batteries... What you've never heard of eBay Mister 1961? Oh right...
If everything you swiped is now worthless, don't lose heart. You'll still clean up once people find out YOU INVENTED A WORKING SUSPENDED ANIMATION MACHINE.
What? They have those now? Ahh crap. Oh, just write a book about your exploits and go on the holographic talk show and interstellar-lecture circuit.
La jetée (1962)
There is a line from Citizen Kane...
"One day, back in 1896, I was crossing over to Jersey on the ferry, and as we pulled out, there was another ferry pulling in, and on it there was a girl waiting to get off. A white dress she had on. She was carrying a white parasol. I only saw her for one second. She didn't see me at all, but I'll bet a month hasn't gone by since that I haven't thought of that girl."
This is a movie about that girl.
Or rather... one man's thoughts of his 'girl on the ferry' - spotted as a boy whilst visiting the jetty at Orly Airport - and how it was burned into his memory long after the world he - and she - lived in was destroyed in a nuclear holocaust... how he carried a mental image of her though his days in an underground prison camp and how his captors exploited that memory in their efforts to send a man through time in the hopes of finding a way to preserve mankind.
I saw what I thought was the tail end of this a few years ago and even without a full understanding of the plot, the film - basically a slide-show with narration - managed to haunt my memory like some half-glimpsed figure.
Recently, I was able to find it on YouTube - it was well worth the effort to download and watch and I will purchase at the next opportunity.
The Man in the White Suit (1951)
A classic example of Socialist thinking.
Suppose you invent a fiber that's both stain resistant and virtually indestructible? Would not such a thing be useful or would you worry about the people presumably thrown out of work once everyone has 'enough' clothing?
Such is the dilemma posited by this film about a chemist who invents such a fabric to the dismay of factory worker and owner alike and it's a classic example of typical Socialist thinking. You see... it's a zero sum game and for every winner there's a loser. and for every scientific benefit there are suffering workers to think of. Never mind that such a fabric might prove more useful as a material in the aerospace industry - it's so stain resistant you can't put a dye to it - than for clothing.
Glass and carbon fibers are pretty durable as fabrics but you hardly see them on the runways of Paris, New York and Milan. Unless everyone wants to spend the rest of their lives looking like the 'magic pimp' in Blondie's 'Rapture' video you can be sure 'traditional' fabrics that can take a dye would still find a buyer.
Even so, the idea that in a world that then had maybe two billion people is going to run out of clothing customers seems a tad optimistic and when you consider there are now over six billion one can see how British industry would've benefited from having a monopoly on never-say-dye clothing - especially since China is the clothier to the world now.
As a film it's as good or bad as any other... - on second thought, I sort of lost track of it for a while when the angry mob went hunting of the poor fellow - as an idea it's a pretty small minded affair.But then Socialists weren't know for great thinking.
As for the spoiler, the stuff falls apart in the end to everyone's relief.
However our hero thinks he may be onto a solution...
and as they say in the chemical industry, if you're not part of the solution you're part of the precipitate...
Network (1976)
Network does not work
If you were only to see the scene where news anchor Howard Beale does his 'mad as hell' speech, you'd think this was a gripping well-made indictment of the television industry...
It isn't.
It's more a disorganized grabastic load of pig crap that looks more like some cloistered monk's supposition of what television is than the real thing - and I'd been looking forward to finally seeing this.
You get a few good scenes - Beale's announcement that he's planning to off himself on air works.
The contract negotiations with the Ecumenical Liberation Army is hit or miss - spoiled by the stupid name that shrieks 'writer's clever idea'.
The revamped news broadcast they build around him face-plants hard. Stingie-ouchie hard.
Admittedly this was before the golden era of info-mercials, Video News Releases and the endless line of entertainment quasi-news & gossip shows - you'll note that they all stick fairly closely to the man-behind-a-desk format that Network thinks is in its dying days - but even in the 1970s no television director in their right mind would think that a dark stage with three floodlit spots showing Beal, some Psychic and whatever the other act was is going to fly with audiences on a nightly basis - especially a live studio audience.
It just looks bad. This movie wants to eat it's cake of comic satire and have it's Important Message too and fails on both counts. This is one of those few films that might benefit from being remade.
* UPDATE - 11 May, 2010 *
When writing this review back in 2008 I had yet to discover the epic lulz that is Glenn Beck - who was in the process of moving to the Fox Network. Even if you don't subscribe to his philosophy, one would have to agree that The Prophecy is essentially complete - and with decent art direct no less.
Image of an Assassination: A New Look at the Zapruder Film (1998)
Excellent if flawed digital rendition of a historic film.
It should be noted that since this was taken off the camera original, this version of the Zapruder film is three frames short of the 486 known to exist. Life Magazine claims that they had damaged three of the frames beyond repair when taking images off this for publication. Given that there were at three first generation copies available, it seems odd that MPI opted not to use them.
Also missing are the few test frames Zapruder took of some of his employees before setting out for his spot on Dealey Plaza. You'll have to search YouTube to find those but they are out there.
Those reservations aside, this is an excellent DVD product and should prove very useful for those interested in the JFK assassination. There's enough detail to see not only the moment where the second bullet deforms Governor Connelly's suit as it emerges from his chest but you can also see Kennedy's head move slightly forward just as the upper right front or his head explodes - making it reasonably plausible that Oswald could've acted alone.
One should note that JFK's head does not move "back and to the left" as described in Oliver Stones film but is thrown sideways to the left along with his upper torso. Indeed his head doesn't actually move much when you factor in the motion of his upper torso. One can make out the moment when all neurological function ceases.
Another detail of note is the reaction of the two Secret Service agents in the front seat. The driver looks back a couple of times before the both of them duck down after the fatal shot. Some conspiracy sites interpret this as the car coming to a violent stop during the shooting even though the limousine can clearly be seen to be moving at all times.
Included in this DVD is an interview with Abraham Zapruder mere minutes after the shooting and the 1975 'premiere' of the Zapruder film on Geraldo Rivera's Good Night America show as well as a talk show interview with the man from Life Magazine in charge of securing the film rights from Zapruder.
The Good Night America segment splices the Zupruder film into a sequence of other films to form a sort of narrative. Too bad there isn't a DVD or CD-ROM out there that weaves all of the available assassination footage into a high-quality cross-referencable media product.
* Note to the reviewer above * I don't believe the film was ever aired on Dallas TV. Zapruder himself was interviewed and the station seems to have made arrangements to process the film but nothing on the DVD says it was actually aired. Zaprurder did show the film to members of the press in order to bid out its usage rights with Life magazine securing all of them.
Zapruder Film of Kennedy Assassination (1970)
One of the best, if unintended, examples of combat photography ever.
While the historic significance of this film is beyond critique, one should also give Herr Zapruder credit for his brilliant cinematography.
First off he picked one of the best spots to get his shot. Given that he suffered from vertigo one should also credit his willingness to sacrifice his own personal well-being in the service of Art. While he wasn't able to get fully above the Stemmoms Freeway sign, one can only do so much with the set one is given.
Second of note is his directorial decision to cut when he realised he'd filmed the motorcade too soon. This meant that virtually all of the assassination would be covered in the 30 second allotment covered by the spring wound camera drive mechanism.
The fact that he was able to keep rolling as all Hell broke loose in Dealey Plaza even has he himself was reacting to the events should've gotten him a press photography award.
It should be noted that Oswald was almost 3x as far away from Zapruder than any proposed second gunman - he was practically right on top of the so-called Grassy Knoll area and within steps of any plausible sniper lair. One would expect that upon hearing an unsuppressed gunshot from right behind and under him, Zapruder would've whipped around to get a shot. That he didn't should say something about the veracity of 'second gunman' claims.
At any rate you can tell that the fatal bullet came from behind by a slight forward head movement in the same moment JFK loses the piano lessons - and I was using footage available at a pro-conspiracy site.
Titanic (1943)
Das Love Boot
It's amazing how easily this film - with an anti-capitalist message straight out of a Michael Moore 'documentary' - could pass for some of the virulent anti-American agit-prop currently being churned out with little regard for profitability or market demand by 'liberal' Hollywood in the run-up to the 2008 US presidential elections.
In this film the stock of the White Star Line is being devalued by the board of directors at the behest of J Bruce Ismay with the idea that the stock price will go back up when the Titanic completes her maiden voyage in record time. This plan is somehow being thwarted by John Jacob Astor who hopes to cause White Star Line prices to drop so low that he can buy the company out from under Ismay.
How this would work I'm a little hazy on but the whole scheme would be moot as the White Star Line was a wholly owned subsidiary of the International Merchantile Marine Conglomerate set up by Wall Street financier JP Morgan and wasn't a public company anymore.
Never mind that the White Star Line had long abandoned speed for comfort in its shipbuilding policy and that the Titanic could never hope to win the Blue Riband.
This is Socialist (of the Nationalist kind) propaganda so a little suspension of disbelief is to expected from the Lumpen Proletariat and the film gets it's point across effectively with an agreeable amount of plot intricacy with a jewel theft and hints of a previous romance on the part of the German Petersen and a female passenger thrown into the mix. Some snippets of steerage life are shown with a remarkable scene involving a rather sensual Gypsy dancer - hey weren't the Nazis trying to wipe them out too?
The special effects were reasonably decent and thanks to German war policy the filmmakers had their pick of idled German ocean liners using the ill-fated Cap Arcona - whose sinking a couple years later would kill over three times as many people as died on Titanic. A minor sop to historical accuracy is noted in that there was a ship sighted near the Titanic that failed to answer the Titanic's distress rockets - otherwise this film shows only minimal regard for true events.
There is a little bit of the Nazi affection for schmaltz in the scene where the wireless operator frees his canary as the ship is about to make her final plunge but this is otherwise a reasonably well made piece in the service of its central idea - that Capitalist greed and not a hunk of ice was what doomed the Titanic.
Something not lost on the East German government, which found this Nazi film in full 'agreeance' with their agenda. I can just imagine this being remade in Hollywood with a Muslim (or Venezuelan) as the heroic First Officer. Or Al Gore would appear on the iceberg claiming it was all the fault of global warming caused by Big Coal
Le grand blond avec une chaussure noire (1972)
To make disparaging comparisons between this and the Hollywood remake would seem obvious
But there's a reason why "obvious" gets to be so... well obvious.
Despite the fact that the print I saw of this had colour so mucky I would've been better off watching on a black and white TV set and that it was the dubbed version and not the original French version it is still better by far than the Hollywood remake in the 1980s.
First off the director of this has a sense of timing which goes a long way. Scenes like the opening interrogation using a lie detector move fast and with a Spartan minimum of activity.
More importantly is the fantastic art direction and the score by Zamfir (master of the pan flute). The hero's apartment could've easily graced the pages of Progressive Architecture. Especially his bathroom - no really. Only 'The Prisoner' made better use of art direction.
Even the dubbed dialog retains a level of precision with lines like "I didn't see you behind me" "Ah, but I'm already ahead of you...". They could've gotten a better voice-over for Maurice, but at least the sound effect for the guns was an inspired choice.
Some things like the bagpipe-as-a-snake scene don't work so well (at least outside of France) but they're a minor annoyance. Most of the comedy set pieces are inspired genius worthy of Chaplin, Keaton or (Harold) Lloyd.
By all means see this movie - and make sure to see it before you subject yourself to the American remake.
Amityville II: The Possession (1982)
In this movie you're pretty much left rooting for the house.
A Dino DeLaurentis production - which I think is Italian for Golan-Globus...
This is VERY loosely based on the DeFeo murders that preceded the Lutz's time at 112 Ocean. Never mind that the cars look like 1982 models and "Sonny" Montelli is getting demonic suggestions from his Walkman (a product that came out 6 years after the murders). The DeFeos spent about 9 years at 112 Ocean but in this movie the house is determined to get rid of them before they can even unpack. I don't blame it one bit as this is one nasty hateful family.
Burt Young does his Guido-ey finest Joey Buttafouco impression as the family patriarch - whopping the junior Montellis with feckless abandon - with a little goading on the part of Ultimate Evil. Diane Franklin as Trish Montelli seems to be utterly clueless when Sonny moves in for a little Ronkonkoma-badonkadonk. We know Sonny is "possessed" but what to explain her willingness to roll over for his Amityville Hillbilly games? As Mike and the 'bots would say "Dumb as a bag of hammers".
Well actually they said, "Jodi? Ultimate Evil? Chief? McCloud!"
Sonny Montelli does a good Menendez brothers impression as a solo act and proves that killing your family is like eating potato chips - you can't just stop at one - and if that last chip falls behind the counter (or makes a frantic bid for freedom) you will not rest till the little bugger gets... in... your... belly!
Well he's arrested and his lawyer tries the old "not guilty by reason of demonic possession" plea. Nice try Skippy, but this isn't Salem, Massachussetts so the kid is sent to the old Graybar Hotel for a stay. At least Martha Stewart left the bunk warm for him...
After a few plot convolutions, he's sent to hospital (I didn't know HMOs covered demonic possession) and allowed to escape, he ends up back at 112 Ocean (be it ever so evil...) where the family priest tries an exorcism on him.
He probably should've called on a Shinnecock Indian medicine man or two for backup because he's fighting on Ultimate Evil's home turf - and Ultimate Evil fights dirty. All things considered, he should've just let Satan have the boy instead of offering to sacrifice himself.
Insert your shopworn joke about Catholic priests and their love for their fellow man here...
The Amityville Horror (1979)
If there's one good thing to say about this film...
Is that Ron "Butch" DeFeo Jr will never ever ever in a million years make parole because of all the publicity the Amityville Horror krep has generated. I've seen the A&E interview with him a few months ago and I can only hope the prison he's locked up in screens this movie in heavy rotation just to taunt him.
Otherwise the movie doesn't have much going for it. According to stuff I've found online, Jay Anson did his book and subsequent screenplay from tape recordings (now sadly lost) made by the Lutz family after moving out as a sort of "debriefing" therapy. It would seem that he exaggerated what he was given for the book than exaggerated what he wrote in the book to make the screenplay. And still the movie is a tad on the dull side...
Right off, I could imagine a more effective movie being made by moving the camera through empty rooms in the house as the taped Lutz narrative rolls with flash-cuts to emphasize the various "hauntings" - which by the way really don't seem much like leave the house and move out of state hauntings. Just leave an open book of Frank Gehry architecture on the coffee table and the demonic spirits would look for better digs in the Hamptons - nothing scares a possessed house like the prospect of being Frank Gehry'd - and he's remodeled a Dutch Colonial.
Indeed the priest seems to be getting the worst of it - with Rod Steiger's JUST YELL IT REALLY LOUD method of acting, Jodi the pig was doing us a favor there. Given that the Lutzes had almost no contact with the priest during their stay at "La Casa Diablo" his tales of woe wouldn'tve figured much in their experience with the place. And you would think that a former Marine like George Lutz could've taken a little thing like a haunted house. I bet if R Lee Ermey had bought the place, Jodi the pig would be ham-steaks, pork chops and bacon by day 1 and 1/2. The movie would end in 5 minutes with R Lee's wife stacking the cupboards with cans of Jodi-spam.
Incedentally the house has a curious post-script to history. One of the families that lived there from the mid-80s to the mid-90s lost a son in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center - he worked in the South Tower - which in theory gave him enough warning to GET OUT!. They were the ones that replaced the "evil eye" windows with square ones. They had sold the place to put him through college too. A Beverly Hills 90210 cast member, Christine Belford lived in the place with her parents in the early 60s. She had to work alongside Tori Spelling which I suppose was punishment enough...
If you pay attention to the opening scene where Ron DeFeo is blasting his way through the house you will note that he fires first into what was the DeFeo's TV room (where he'd been watching a movie by himself), then into his parent's room before going upstairs to shoot twice into his own bedroom (he had the room with the "evil eye" windows).
It should also be noted the "face" part of the house in the movie is facing the wrong direction. The "evil eye" windows and enclosed porch are on the street side of 112 Ocean Ave and not the Amityville Creek side.
Obviously this is the result of having to use another location (Toms River, New Jersey because the Town of Amityville refused to let them film there). At any rate it photographs better to see the house from the river side. Incedentally they actually built a Dutch Colonial "slip-cover" over the house they used in the movie (which was an ordinary Colonial house) which got removed and put in storage between the production sessions of the first two sequels.
The Toms River house was moved over by one lot when the owner opted to replace it with a bigger house to give to his daughter. It was painted blue and while it no longer has the third floor slipcover it still has a set of "evil eye" windows in the attic storey.
The Towering Inferno (1974)
Since just about every aspect of this film seems to have been covered...
It might be nice to have a look at the one true "star" in this movie - The Glass Tower itself....
Despite the incompetent electrical engineering, the Glass Tower is a remarkable design for a super-tall skyscraper when you consider that at the time this was conceived buildings were still of the bland square box variety - even the Sears Tower (the tallest of that era) was an assemblage of 9 square tubes - and this one is amazingly faceted gem and a complex one at that.
I can only think of a few building of the era like the Corning Tower in Albany and the IDS Centre in Minneapolis that even come close to the angularity of this tower. They were the tallest buildings of their cities by the way.
Using the scenic lifts for scale, one can see that the floor plates were a tad on the small side, especially when you take away the spaces for the stairwells, service conduits and elevators and whatever structural system is holding this up - and remember that this was going up in an earthquake zone.
At least this building was a mixed-use design with residential units above the 80th or so floor which reduces the need for lifts on the upper floors and there are wider floor plates in the office section but it's a safe bet that the tenant base would be small high-profile firms that can justify the high rents and not some insurance company or brokerage house needing an hectare or two of floor-plate. And that's not a bad thing.
However going cheap on the electrical grid is.
No... Really...
Computers were just starting to make their way down the food chain to the point where just about everyone with 10 grand to spare was getting a mini-frame. Having to do a system-reboot and restore on the old IMSAI-8080 because Jenny on 105 just HAD to go and plug in her hair-dryer AND electric toothbrush at the same time gets old quick...
Just tell Crocker Bank to suck it up and pop for the extra Romex. In the end nobody is going to care if you're a little over budget.
Now if your "Grand Opening" ceremony comes with a body-count...
Well you can kiss that "urban renewal contract" auf wiedersehen.
But it could be worse. You could be the owner of the Citicorp Centre in New York City the day the architect dropped by to tell you he made a "minor error" in the design calculations that means your prize-winning building could fall over in any blow stronger than a tropical storm.
And did we mention there's a "Cat 3" hurricane bearing down on the city?
Octopussy (1983)
OK I'm a sucker for films set (even partially) in the DDR
Roger Moore's James Bond has always seemed more a broadly drawn comic book character than a plausible human being and at first glance this film would seem to be more of the same but it does have its qualities - once you get past its schoolboy's snicker-provoking title.
As usual you get a pre-titles sequence that has nothing to do with the rest of the movie. This is the big gadget sequence so lets take a few minutes to savour it...
Bond is in an unnamed Central/South American country to sabotage some sort of weapons system test that happens to be next to a race track.
He's caught before his bomb can detonate and is taken off by soldiers but he escapes with the aid of his Latin female accomplice - and a mini-jet she'd kept in a horse carrier behind her truck - lucky the airport was next to the track.
Making his escape, he has to dodge some heat-seeking missiles which he uses to finish the job of sabotaging that test by flying through the hanger it was taking place in as soldiers try in vain to box him in by closing the hanger doors at both ends.
The closer is that, after all that, he runs out of fuel and has pull into a petrol station after landing on a highway across the border. Just his luck, they don't have S&H Green Stamps.
The actual movie involves a clever plot by a maverick Russian general to weaken NATO defences by causing what would look like a major nuclear "accident" at a US missile base. To this end he is making use of a jewelry smuggling ring based in India that in turn operates a traveling circus - as well as an obscure religious cult - as a cover for their activities.
One of the high points of this movie is in the beginning with the frantic death chase of one of Bond's fellow agents across the Berlin Wall - and I'm pretty sure, past my apartment. The agent is in a clown costume so everyone who enjoys seeing a circus clown get a knife in the back just got their money's worth in the first reel. The clown makes his final exit by - very literally - crashing a party at the British Consulate with a Fabergé egg rolling from his now cold clown hands.
As Dieter from Sprockets would say - Exquisite.
The scenes in India are fairly hit or miss with a lot of rather clumsy joke scenes inter-mixed with his adventures there. One scene of elegance is when one of Octopussy's girls uses her sari to rappel down from James Bond's hotel balcony with the Fabergé egg he'd swiped in London. The only joke or gag that worked is when Bond staggers to a passing tour boat explaining "I'm with the economy tour".
Back in Germany the movie gets more-or-less serious again as the mad General's diabolical scheme plays out. Here the comic relief bits work much better and play well into the drama of a countdown. Best scene is the one where the Mercedes is sent flying nearly into the lap of some hapless DDR fisherman.
Not so good is when Bond dons clown attire to attempt to get to the bomb. He doesn't get a knife to the back and clowns are really only enjoyable on the screen when dying a slow excruciating death. But that's just me.
The film returns to India for the final showdown making the mistake of using a hot-air balloon to spearhead the attack. The fewer movies with hot-air balloons the better. There is some nice stunt-work involving Bond hitching a ride on the roof of an aeroplane to save the girl. What a man won't do to get a little Octopussy.
Overall this is not as well-polished as "For Your Eyes Only" and "The Spy Who Loved Me" but it is one of Roger Moore's better forays in the Bond series.
Star Wars (1977)
You can only see something for the first time once...
by all means If you've never seen this movie, see it on the Betamax or Selectivision CED or Laserdisc formats first because George Lucas' subsequent remixes are awful and will really will ruin the experience for you.
I'm fortunate enough to have the original Trilogy on Betamax cassette as well as having the modern DVD series. All I can say is Lucas got it right the first time. Every "new" sequence goes on too long and stops the story dead.
No...
Really...
Lucas tries to justify the "new" material as being "what he wanted but couldn't afford or get" in 1977. Well, Stephen Spielberg wanted a whole lot more shark in his "Jaws" movie but circumstances (his mechanical fish didn't work too great) prevented that and Jaws was all the better for it. Sometimes you have to let serendipity work for you.
The spectacular success of the 1977 print should be proof that you got it right the first time. At the least Lucas should've allowed us to chose between the original and remix since DVD technology allows such a choice.
In the meantime I'm going to have to get around to dubbing my Betamax tapes to DVD so I can keep them on a more permanent format.
And let me add - Han Solo shot first, dammit! <- that was the spoiler...
Superman (1978)
You'll believe a man could fly - as for the rest of the story...
By the time this movie had been released, the naive idealism that begat the original Caped Crusader had long been tossed asunder in the post-Vietnam/Watergate America with the idols of Church and Country duly smashed by the post-modern 1960's generation. One telling symbol of the sea-change in the culture is the scene where Clark Kent seeking a place to change out of his street clothes briefly contemplates one of those new-fangled kiosk pay-telephones before selecting a revolving door.
Details like that actually worked in this movie. Too bad major aspects of the plot don't work so well if you take a second to think about them. Like, for example the Army/Navy ballistic missile test that is key to Lex Luthor's real estate scheme.
In the middle of the Cold War the United State government gets the bright idea to launch not one but two FULLY ARMED NUCLEAR MISSILES as a "test". Because there's no way the Soviet Union could possibly misinterpret such an aggressive act. And because you really want to test a new weapons system with live warheads. Oh, and it's not like the Atmospheric Nuclear Test Ban treaty Kennedy signed in the early-60s wouldn't still be in effect.
Once you get over the wonder of what is the whole point of this you still have to wonder how Lex Luthor could've deduced that a chunk of Superman's home planet would have any measurable effect. The best I could come up with is that Superman's powers are a defence mechanism and the presence of Krytonite relaxes those defences. But the movie never mentions that.
Then one must wonder if Lex Luthor ever considered the massive economic depression that would've resulted in the loss of California its infrastructure and its 20 million tax-paying residents. Think the devastation of World War One, which ended Europe's primacy in the world.
Incidentally California wouldn'tve even fallen into the sea. To this date the San Andreas has about 30/35 metres of plate movement stored up.
And while we're nitpicking - can you really hold a 707 jetliner in the palm of one hand and not have the thing collapse around you?