tv and film

Battlestar Galactica S3, Lost S5 and Planet Earth

I bought the DVD box set of Battlestar Galactica season 3 last week, and watched all episodes in a few days. Watching all episodes in just a few days says a lot about how great and addictive this series is. Like many others say, this is the best science fiction series of the 2000s. I got the DVD’s of the third season for € 30 which is acceptable, at it’s release it was more like € 40 if I’m correct. If the final fourth season is more expensive than € 30 though I don’t think I’ll wait until it will be cheaper, because I want to see it as soon as possible. What’s disappointing is that the complete box set of the entire series on Blu-ray can be pre-ordered for € 150 on Play.com, which is ridiculously expensive considering that Play.com is often cheaper than internet stores in the Netherlands. Not that I intend to buy that in the near future anyway, because I’ve already got it on DVD anyway.

Currently I’m watching Lost season 5 on the Dutch TV. Unlike in the USA and probably other countries, in the Netherlands they started broadcasting just two weeks ago. A double episode is broadcasted on Friday nights starting at 22:25, apparently the late start and unfortunate scheduling had to do with falling ratings. The Dutch broadcaster tempts their audience to start their Bittorrent clients with their furstrating late start. I didn’t give in to downloading the HDTV (even more reason for me because I don’t receive HDTV) rips through Bittorrent because I don’t want to steal but reward the creators and broadcasters, but the Dutch broadcaster isn’t helping their own case.

Reruns of the nature documentary series Planet Earth are being broadcast as well on Dutch TV at this moment, and I seized the opportunity to watch because I hadn’t seen this series yet. To be honest I don’t see much nature documentaries, but this is probably the best ever. I’ve never seen such spectacular images in all my life, this is a must-see for everyone.

Seen: Star Trek

Yesterday I watched the new Star Trek film in the cinema, which I thought was quite good. It’s good to see that Star Trek was revived succesfully with this film after the cancellation of Star Trek: Enterprise, also in perspective of the wider shortage of good science fiction at this moment since the Battlestar Galactica re-imagining was finished, as well. However I wonder, or doubt, if a new Star Trek television series would be successful. I’d welcome a more innovative kind of science fiction series, following the example of the Battlestar Galactica re-imagining.

Because I was so anxious to watch Star Trek I decided to see it in the cinema, but once again I experienced how unattractive that is. I live in a relatively (for the densely populated Netherlands) remote place, so it takes quite some traveling to get to  a cinema. Too much time is spent on watching advertising before the film starts, the break is too long and unnecessary for me, and a ticket costs € 8,30. I can go the DVD rental store which lies closer in my vicinity and rent maybe eight movies for a week for the price of that ticket. And while Star Trek was a success, I think Hollywood produces too much air-headed junk. That’s why I intend to visit a cinema which shows independent films some time in the future.

Films seen in April 2009

This week I didn’t have much to do, so I went to the DVD rental shop and found seven DVD’s worth watching. If you rent seven, you pay the cheapest fee per DVD, but it was a bit difficult to watch all seven within one week, the period you are allowed to rent them. I also watched a film on TV, and one movie was rented a few weeks ago. This is probably all for now, because I won’t have time during the rest of April.

All were good, but There Will Be Blood was my favorite. After that come Babel and Das Leben der Anderen. I really couldn’t stand seeing Nicolas Cage with an ugly mustache in the film World Trade Center.

I appreciate The Lives of Others so much because it shows it shows how the protagonist, who is convinced that he is doing the right thing to defend the greatness of the DDR, changes his beliefs. One of my favorite scenes of this film happens at the start of the film when he is lecturing some students about the behavior of the enemies of the state. When one student dares to question what he says, he immediatly places a mark near the student’s name on a list. Later in the film my second favorite scene occurs when he’s standing in an elevator together with a child. The child asks him in it’s innocence if he works for the Stasi and tells him that his father told him the Stasi are bad people who lock others up. The protagonist is tempted to ask for the name of his father, but in the middle in his sentence he doubts, and asks for the name of the child’s ball instead. The child is confused and tells him balls have no names. Thoughout the film the protagonist loses his tunnel vision when he witnesses how the DDR damages the lives of it’s citizens. It shows the protagonist capacity for self-criticism, his ability to change his convictions. In that aspect I could see similarity between myself and the protagonist, and identify myself with him.

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