Re: 2001: A Space Odyssey

Alan Browne <alan.browne@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in
news:HnxJj.3400$_K.26400@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 

> I saw a BD v. of this classic at the store yesterday and
> resisted the urge to buy it.
> 

A wise choice, the film has not aged well, even if the 
restoration were perfect - which it isn't.  However, the blue 
laser version is significantly better on the screen than the 
letterboxed DVD version I own - even with the best upconversion.

> At home last night I played the standard DVD version on my
> BluRay player (Panasonic) to my plasma tv.  The player
> upconverts very nicely to 1080p. 
> 
> Fantastic.  And also discovered that the "ape" scene at the
> beginning was filmed indoors.  On the old television screen I
> would swear it was filmed outdoors.
> 
> With the DVD (non-HD mind you) you could actually see errors
> in the studio backdrop where painting (or cleaning) had been
> badly done!  (Not in all backgrounds but in one or two of
> them). 
> 
> Great movie, needless to say.
> 

Best seen in theater, in 1968, after a touch of one's 
hallucinogen du jour!

I've always wondered why there hasn't been a massive red state 
objection to this film, or perhaps I've just been unaware of it?  
The concept of man's moral decay beginning with the endowment of 
his intellect by a superior entity must have escaped what's left 
of theirs.  Add to that, man's subsequent endowment of a machine 
with intellect, yet it is equally vacant of morals; perhaps each 
in the likeness of his own creator, eh?  Thus spake Stanley 
Kubric, and thus recorded Arthur C. Clarke.

> Also at the store was a BD version of "The Fifth Element" a
> visual candy bar of a movie, and the price was pretty good. 
> But I remembered somebody somewhere posting that the first
> edition of the BD version was very poor technically and that
> it had been recalled.  So I asked the clerk to check.  Sure
> enough she found that the store would be receiving a new
> version with a different catalog number (and higher price)
> soon. I wondered aloud why the one in store had not been
> returned... (no reply). 
> 

Always best to check snidely with the "clerk" regarding store 
management policy, eh Mr. Whiplash?  ;-0)

> Anyway, few good movies to buy to date, and prices remain too
> high.  I rented "No Country..." (very good) but it was at an
> obscene price at the store... can wait.
> 
> Cheers,
> Alan.