Three Days of the Condor
Boy, what is it with you people? You think not getting caught in a lie is the same thing as telling the truth?
Three Days of the Condor
Directed by Sidney Pollack and also starring Faye Dunnaway as the love interest this is a nicely paced, complex, spy thriller.
In fact perhaps a bit top complex as I had trouble keeping up in a couple of places (that could have been the wine though), everybody seemed to be working both sides and it was tricky to remember who you could trust or who was a bad guy. This was obviously intentional on the director and screenwriters part.
The “basic” plot is Joe Turner (Robert Redford) is a low level CIA operative, a reader, who basically trawls through magazines and books from around the world to see if there are any hidden messages or plots similar to actual spy missions (this is before the Internet, these days he could probably have just set up a google alert and put his feet up).
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Blu-ray and DVD Sets – A Worrying Trend
Blue-Ray & DVD Set
I have to admit since moving to Japan I haven’t bought many DVDs. I left a collection in the hundreds back in England where DVDs are comparatively cheap with sites like play.com and regular sales in HMV etc.
But in Japan at ¥4000 a pop they’re just too expensive.
I’ve not yet managed to find the equivalent of play yet, and sales of anything are small and infrequent here.
But occasionally a film comes along that I definitely want to add to my collection, and this year it was Spike Jonze’s Where The Wild Things Are.
I was eagerly waiting for the DVD release and then, to my huge disappointment, I found Warner Bros. Japan have released it as a Blu-Ray/DVD combo set ONLY! They have separate versions but they’re for Rental only.
What the?
This is just a bizarre idea to me. I cannot see who this benefits least of all Warner Bros sales department.
The way I see it there are 3 scenarios.
- I have a Blu-ray player so I buy the combo set.
I now have a DVD I don’t want or need.
I know I’ll give it to my friend who doesn’t have a blu-ray.
Warner lose a potential sale. - I have a DVD player but no Blu-Ray.
I buy the combo set and give the unneeded Blu-Ray to my brother.
Warner lose a potential sale. - Third and my case scenario. I don’t want to spend ￥4000 on a combo set so I won’t buy it at all.
Warner lose a previously guaranteed sale.
This seems to be a lose/lose situation for Warner and their customers.
I also worryingly saw District 9 (a great movie I was considering buying –
not now ) and Sherlock Holmes are also released in combo sets only (both unfortunately on Warner Japan ).
This seems to be only in Japan as far as I can tell, Europe and America have separate releases.
Can anyone explain the logic behind Warner’s decision here?
3D Movies are a Scam by Movie Companies and Cinemas
Let me start by saying I like 3D movies.
I remember as a kid when they showed Fort Ti (1953) in 1982 on ITV with free 3D glasses from the TV Times, the first film shown in 3D on British TV.
I even had a couple of 3D comics and Captain Eo at Universal Studios was great.
3D Cinema Audience
But I guess I was one of the few people who saw Avatar and thought nice tech demo but why is it 4 hours long? Anyway that’s a different post. The point today is I went and paid the extra ￥400 ($4) for the loan of the glasses as it was the event that was Avatar.
Last weekend I went to see Toy Story 3D and this is where the scam started to reveal itself.
Yet again I had to pay extra for the loan of the glasses. Two things bugged me about this.
1) Do I have to pay this everytime I see a 3D movie?
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Blog Ranking – Show Some Love
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