Hello!

Gary Teetzel assures me that this page link will be old news to confirmed Godzilla fans, but that amateurs like myself might find it fun … I liked it, and I see that it has only been up for five days and only has 20,000 hits, so here ya go. It looks like somebody nabbed the entire ride on video… it’s called Godzilla The Ride. Are theme park ‘rides’ just wraparound movies now?  Imagine paying movie admission for a show that turns over twice an hour, even if the hydraulic seats shake you up and vents spew you with sulphuric Godzilla breath. A park ought to make $$ money $$ on something like that, ya think?

Laserdisc fans are still out there and still going strong, it seems — after last Saturday’s link to the Laserdisc Database, I got a loo-oong note from correspondent Spencer Draper, who told me about his own attempts to nail down the history of the laserdisc format, and the making of his personal 1400-disc collection. Spencer praises the quality of laserdisc picture and sound, and I’ll grant that DVD and BD have indeed altered some movies in ways I don’t like… I’ve kept the three unaltered Star Wars laserdiscs as well. I also won’t argue with the fact that buying old discs is now a bargain. It ought to be, when a laser trade-ins at record stores here in Los Angeles only net one five cents apiece. I don’t expect my own meager sampling of laserdiscs to grow in value.

The enterprising Mr. Draper has lined up some well-delivered podcasts, at his A Damn Fool Idealistic Crusade page — a commentary for a Bond film and a review for the newest CD of the score to The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. What I heard sounded pretty profession. Spencer asks if I’ll review the new Ultra HD of GBU, but the window of time on that one seems to be closing … Kino is great to CineSavant but didn’t offer screeners for that particular item. It makes sense — what potential buyer of GBU needs to read a review before plunking down his money?

With that thought about UHD discs in mind, I’m excited about Arrow’s upcoming disc of David Lynch’s Dune on Ultra HD. A couple of my kids have defected from the ’84 Dune fan club, but don’t worry because I stopped disinheriting offspring for those kind of offenses a long time ago. I mean, I showed it to them more than enough times when they were tykes, and they have free will, darn it. I still think the visual imagination of Lynch’s film is superb, along with the casting and the costumes… even if the story feels like a two- hour trailer for a ten- hour movie. And it ought to be a killer in Ultra HD. It’ll come with a second disc of new Blu-ray extras; it’s due out in August. The link is to the page for the identical U.K. release.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson