Author: dtm666

I ramble about things.

Review #860 – Gauntlet Legends (Nintendo 64)

Do yourself a favor and don’t shoot the 64-bit food in this Gauntlet Legends port on Nintendo 64.

For the longtime visitors and viewers of this stuff – my condolences – you may recall that the 500th and 600th reviews focused on Gauntlet games of this ilk, which makes one wonder what #900 is going to be if this is shunted out of that prestigious spot.

A Note On Kayfabe Commentaries’ Best Of KC Vault Youtube Page

Source: https://www.youtube.com/c/KCVault

Our regularly scheduled program has been postponed to tomorrow afternoon due to last minute editorial changes. Sorry.
In lieu of that, I do want to plug one thing and it’s not my thing; I have nothing to do with it nor am I associated with this in any way, but Kayfabe Commentaries has a Youtube channel called BEST OF THE KC VAULT, where they will upload some of their DVD releases from their catalogue for a limited time sampling that people can watch for free and if they want to check out the rest of their stuff, they can subscribe to the Kayfabe Commentary streaming vault, which I think has their entire library of shoot interviews. I’ve sampled some of their stuff in the past; some folks will put up clips on Youtube, I know I was gifted a couple of the Guest Booker shows converted to MP3 format, which made for a great podcast listen for those long trips.
But I only found out about the channel a short while ago and folks, there is not a product of the shoot variety that I could recommend more than the Kayfabe Commentary stuff. Sean Oliver, the man behind that machine, comes across as animated, personable, and also smart. The kind of host who makes the whole thing feel like a conversation between old friends, even thought it’s not really the case, save for some repeat guests. The Cornette stuff on there is pure fucking gold, the YouShoot with Dixie Carter and Scott Halll were a highlight, and they had the Kevin Nash Guest Booker – Guest Booker being a thing where a booker would be given an alternate scenario – in this case, what if Hall and Nash stayed with WWF in 96 – and how would they book that? And Guest Booker was always fascinating to me because you got to see the minds of wrestling at work, brainstorming this alternate scenario while also giving insights into their booking philosophies as well as some tales from behind the scenes.
I always dug Sean Oliver’s stuff, I somewhat regret not picking up a DVD or two along the way when they were available; most of my exposure to his work was on Youtube; via clips uploaded by unofficial sources, we shall call them. I did buy the audio versions of his two wrestling books; KAYFABE and the BUSINESS OF KAYFABE. Both great reads, great listens too; Sean did a good job with the audio books and they helped me out during a time when I needed the help. I’m glad that there’s a way to sample his stuff and also an easy way to access this stuff with his streaming service, which I might make a point to one of these days subscribe to.
But yeah, BEST OF THE KC VAULT, if you want a cycling sampler of the DVDs he’s produced over the years, I’ve provided a link above and I would highly recommend it. And if you dig it, join the streaming service he has up, send him a couple bucks, and check out stuff that isn’t just variations of one dude asking how big Batista’s dick is… because I know that’s all some people know him as and god knows he’d rather forget that… but he’s making as an author of fiction, so at least he’s keeping busy these days.
Anyway, that was my poor attempt at a plug.

AEW Dynamite (May 4th, 2022): Does Anyone Actually Care About Ring Of Honor?

Yeah, it’s one of those shows. I think I’m going to use this banner for AEW programming that I actually didn’t care for. It was bound to happen, sooner or later, I suppose.
So this was a rather uneventful Dynamite show with a rare heel promo from Hangman Page, a couple Owen qualifiers, and another Blackpool Combat Clubberin’ on display being the highlights of sorts… and then there was that main event, which was such a “just there” match that even the normally hot AEW crowd was like, “What the fuck?”
Further musings after the break…

Continue reading “AEW Dynamite (May 4th, 2022): Does Anyone Actually Care About Ring Of Honor?”

Ramblemania 38

Well…

As has been the case for the past couple years, Wrestlemania has been split into a two-night affair and as before, I will be covering both nights under a single post. This is the format that we’re going to follow going forward if they continue like this. Not only that, but because this year’s Wrestlemania – not counting the pre-shows – was a collective EIGHT FUCKING HOURS, I’ve made the decision to watch these shows chunks at a time. And how long did it take for me to finally watch this stuff?

Let’s be real; the fact that you’ve had to wait until MAY to get my thoughts on this year’s Wrestlemania should be an indication that something was not on the level. It took me two weeks to watch EIGHT FUCKING HOURS of Wrestlemania 38. It begins… just as I said it would. Therefore, both nights are covered, as are the points where I’d pause the show to consume on another night… because Wrestlemania these days are too tedious to sit through on a single sitting, much less two.

Continue reading “Ramblemania 38”

Random Thoughts On The Motion Picture Director's Edition 4K Remaster Refurbished Edition On The Paramount Plus Thing.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture was released in 1979 in a relatively unfinished state, owing to the fact that a lot of special effects fell short of what director Robert Wise intended at the time. So a couple decades later, he had the opportunity to finish the film as he intended, which gave us the Director’s Edition, which featured some additional footage as well as a reworked sound mix and some additional visual effects created from CGI. The Director’s Edition of the Motion Picture is often considered the definitive version of that first Star Trek film, but was done entirely in standard definition and without any regard for potentially migrating this over to a higher resolution; hence why all these years we had the Blu-Rays releases featuring the original theatrical release, which I had not seen until that Blu-Ray release, because up until the point, all home video versions of The Motion Picture – barring the Director’s Edition in 2001 – was based on an extended TV cut that aired on ABC and featured additional footage; some of which eventually made it to the Director’s Cut.
And so after a couple more decades, which seems to be the appropriately timed interval for such endeavors, the team who developed the Director’s Edition got back together and this time, they had access to all the original film elements pulled from the Paramount Archives, they redid the opticals and CG effects to make them more consistent, and the end result, once again, is the most definitive take on The Motion Picture given the utmost care. Everything looks sharp, the new elements look better than they did before, it’s a much cleaner looking film, and quite frankly, if director Robert Wise was still around today – he passed away in 2005 – but if he were around to see this, I think he’d be pleased that the film he originally envisioned had finally come to fruition in the best possible way. Like, if you want the best version of The Motion Picture, this is it. And I’ve always preferred this cut over the original or the TV edit. The TV edit was the one I grew up on and there’re some cuts there I’d prefer over what ended up getting used, but this one feels like a nice balance and more refined.
Now make no mistake; at the end of the day, it’s still Star Trek: The Motion Picture and you either call it one of the greatest sci-fi epics ever made or one of the slowest. And as a movie, I think I like it more now than I did back in the day. Yes, the pacing can be glacial at times. Yes, the acting as a whole feels somewhat artificial and lifeless. There’s no joy to be had with this film and the few attempts at light humor feels contrived. But what this movie does is take you on a journey and is a visual feast. We get Klingons, we see their ship, their new bumpy heads, their weird hair that thankfully they ditched for Star Trek III and gave them the wigs instead. Get to see Vulcan, Earth, that starbase they’d recycle the model countless times and you realize all this time they had the thing hanging upside down. That two-minute overture with the Enterprise beauty shots that is either adored or ridiculed. And the latter half is nothing but weird visual effects, strange alien constructs… never before has a giant flying space dildo tickle the imagination as much as V’Ger did in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
See, the key word is picture; you look at the pictures and the visuals. That’s the selling point. The wonders of space. Jumping from the TV show to this… anyway, whether you like the movie or not and The Motion Picture has its moments, and this new Director’s Edition is the best version of the film you could watch.
And who knows? Maybe Shatner will get his wish and he can redo Star Trek V because that’s also a movie which could benefit from a Director’s Edition and honestly, I don’t know that’s never happened. Sure, it wasn’t the best film, it has flaws, but it’s the closest to feeling like part of the television show. There’s a central theme that is evaluated. There’s character moments. The ideas are there. The execution was lacking and it amazes me that there was never a desire on Paramount’s part to redo the film with new visuals. And honestly, I’d like to see that happen. In an age where we just got a brand-new version of Rocky IV that is a similar but different film from what we got back in ’86, the fact that we’ve yet to get some traction on a reworked Star Trek V confounds me. And… well, we’ll see in that regard.