Cinema Cycle - Kidnapped

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE REVIEWED: 11/06/2017

TITLE:. Kidnapped

FORMAT: Laserdisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 95 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 23 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 7888.1 miles

SYNOPSIS: A young Scotsman is kidnapped in order for his uncle to illegally inherit his estate.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: History as seen by the eyes of Disney.  Not what I expected.  

PROS AND CONS:  When I saw this come up on the Random Media Generator I sort of groaned.  Visions of Mary Poppins and The Absent Minded Professor came to mind.  

This was not the case however.  This is an adult film, designed for adult audiences.  While the story is rather simplistic as penned by Robert Louis Stevenson, the acting and dialog are mind blowing.  

This film is a homage to Scotland and the Scotish Highlands and the clans that dwelled there.  The actors all have their dialects and inflection down perfect to the point where, if you don’t pay attention you won't’ know what they are saying.  And don’t blink or you will miss a very young Peter O’Toole, before Laurence of Arabia.  

To read an overview of this project, check out this status posting.  

This film is a part of my LaserDisc Collection.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) entry for this film. 

This film was viewed while exercising on my recumbent cycle.  A summary of my time spent working out on my journey through movie-land can be found on Strava.com.

Cinema Cycle - Eve of Destruction

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE REVIEWED:

TITLE:. Eve of Destruction

FORMAT: Laserdisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 101 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 24.9 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 7865.1 miles

SYNOPSIS: A cloned cyborg goes rogue and starts killing all the people in the inventors past.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: Violence and sex combined into an interesting plot with poor production values.

PROS AND CONS:  This film sort of begs to be remade with better effects and detail.  The plot was actually interesting, in that you could not tell where it was going and it kept you guessing.  

However, there are glaring issues with reality and continuity in this film.  Top military leaders don’t have flowing locks that touch their collars and ears.  SR-71 Blackbirds (supersonic spy planes) don’t have seating for twelve.  You get the idea,  Good idea, bad execution.

That said, it was fun to see what happens when an attractive scientist imprints her cyborg double with her memories and then the cyborg goes haywire and starts killing all the folks that the scientist has in her repressed memories.  

To read an overview of this project, check out this status posting.  

This film is a part of my LaserDisc Collection.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) entry for this film. 

This film was viewed while exercising on my recumbent cycle.  A summary of my time spent working out on my journey through movie-land can be found on Strava.com.

Five Frames - 10/29/2017

Five Frames

Images Taken With A Palm Pilot Zire 71 PDA

These images and many many more can be found on my Flickr account.

Cinema Cycle - Twilight Man

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE REVIEWED: 10/27/2017

TITLE:. Twilight Man

FORMAT: Laserdisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 99 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 22.8 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 7840.2 miles

SYNOPSIS: A man is stalked by a malicious hacker.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: How little control we really have over our lives in modern society.

PROS AND CONS:  A real sleeper of a film.  I had never heard of or seen this film before.  Reading the liner notes it appeared interesting, since Dean Stockwell is usually a pleasure to watch.  

This film is dated, since it deals with computers and hacking back in the 1990s.  However, the film does not attempt to go all technical, but sticks to the basic concept of what happens when someone else manipulates YOUR data.  

The film has some flaws and a few scenes really don’t flow.  But if you ever wondered what happened to Tim Matheson (after Animal House), who does a really good job of acting here, and if you want to see a really creepy Dean Stockwell, check this film out.

To read an overview of this project, check out this status posting.  

This film is a part of my LaserDisc Collection.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) entry for this film. 

This film was viewed while exercising on my recumbent cycle.  A summary of my time spent working out on my journey through movie-land can be found on Strava.com.

Cinema Cycle - The Terror

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE REVIEWED: 10/27/2017

TITLE:. The Terror

FORMAT: VHS

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 80 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 23.6 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 7817.4 miles

SYNOPSIS: A Frenchy Lieutenant pursues the dead wife of a reclusive count.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: Basic film making in the 1950s.  There were blockbusters put out by major studios and then there were these low budget affairs produced for the drive-in movie crowd.

PROS AND CONS:  The plus is, that you get to see a very young Jack Nicholson and a very old Boris Karloff share a lot of screen time together.  

The minus is, this isn’t a well written film that is slow with very little plot.  One thing that is evident, is the large sound stage that they were able to convert into a gothic castle.  Which is probably the star of the film.  

This is one of the films that is in the public domain, so the quality and visual images are not the best.  What is probably most impressive is the box cover art for the series, which, while impressive, does not do the contents justice.

To read an overview of this project, check out this status posting.  

This film is a part of my LaserDisc Collection.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) entry for this film. 

This film was viewed while exercising on my recumbent cycle.  A summary of my time spent working out on my journey through movie-land can be found on Strava.com.

Cinema Cycle - Joan of Arc

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE REVIEWED: 10/25/2017

TITLE:. Joan of Arc

FORMAT: Laserdisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 100 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 23.3 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 7793.8 miles

SYNOPSIS: The life and death of Joan of Arc is documented.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: The French have the best looking martyrs.  A strange epic.

PROS AND CONS:  An interesting film, more so for all the wrong reasons.  It is meant to be an epic on par with Gone with the Wind, and was even directed by the same man, Victor Fleming.  

But this comes off almost as a documentary, with a lot of Ingrid Bergman giving loooong impassioned speeches.  And, we sort of know how this all ends.  

That said, the production scale here approaches epic in some scenes, especially with the lavish matte painted scenes.  

To read an overview of this project, check out this status posting.  

This film is a part of my LaserDisc Collection.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) entry for this film. 

This film was viewed while exercising on my recumbent cycle.  A summary of my time spent working out on my journey through movie-land can be found on Strava.com.

Cinema Cycle - Cosmos - Volume 6

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE REVIEWED: 10/20/2017

TITLE:. Cosmos - Volume 6

FORMAT: VHS

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 123 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 35.8 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 7770.5 miles

SYNOPSIS: (from Wikipedia)

10	"The Edge of Forever"	November 30, 1980
Beginning with the origins of the universe in the Big Bang, Sagan describes the formation of different types of galaxies and anomalies such as galactic collisions and quasars. The episode moves further into ideas about the structure of the Universe, such as different dimensions (in the imaginary Flatland and four-dimensional hypercubes), an infinite vs. a finite universe, and the idea of an oscillating Universe (similar to that in Hindu cosmology). The search into other ideas such as dark matter and the multiverse is shown, using tools such as the Very Large Array in New Mexico. Cosmos Update shows new information about the odd, irregular surfaces of galaxies and the Milky Way perhaps being a barred spiral galaxy.
11	"The Persistence of Memory"	December 7, 1980
The idea of intelligence is explored in the concepts of computers (using bits as their basic units of information), whales (in their songs and their disruptions by human activities), DNA, the human brain (the evolution of the brain stem, frontal lobes, neurons, cerebral hemispheres, and corpus callosum under the Triune Brain Model), and man-made structures for collective intelligence (cities, libraries, books, computers, and satellites). The episode ends with speculation on alien intelligence and the information conveyed on the Voyager Golden Record.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: Still one of the best documentaries ever made.  

PROS AND CONS:  (see ‘Concept In Relation To The Viewer’, above)

To read an overview of this project, check out this status posting.  

This film is a part of my LaserDisc Collection.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) entry for this film. 

This film was viewed while exercising on my recumbent cycle.  A summary of my time spent working out on my journey through movie-land can be found on Strava.com.