Laserdisc Rot

This post was originally posted on my old, now defunct blog, on May 17, 2019. I have done some editing to it but, for the most part, is the same post. A father lay dying and gave his son, a woodcutter, the family ancestral ax. The father made the woodcutter promise that he would always use the ax in his trade. During the next season, the ax blade, old as it was, snapped in half on a stubborn tree. Being a dutiful son, the woodcutter had it replaced by the best metalsmith. During the next season, the wooden handle began to fall apart from age. Being a dutiful son, the woodcutter had it replaced by the best woodworker. During the next season, admiring the new blade and new handle, the woodcutter wondered if in dutifully executing his promise to his father, he had inadvertently broken the same promise. Is it the same ax? Just like the Ship of Theseus , the question of fidelity of identity lingers. Is the intent enough to call it the same ax when the sum of the whole have all been repl...

Alright alright, I know this isn't going to be as bold a stance as defending the 1993 Super Mario Bros.  movie , but I still feel it's a defense that needs to be made. I saw at least one person talk about the show as having little to no cultural impact and that made something in me snap. This article didn't take much new research for me as I had previously toyed with making a whole podcast based around the cultural footprint that television shows left on comic characters and vice versa. The most obvious example is the character Harley Quinn - originally created for the 1992 Batman: The Animated Series , Harley Quinn quickly jumped onto the comic sheets and has been a fan mainstay. Since then, she's become a major character in the comics and in movies. I mainly shelved the podcast because I asked myself "do we really need another white dude talking with false confidence about a niche topic?" I said no, saved your RSS feed the psychic damage, but still had mater...

Welcome back to the followup on this month's 10 Movies 10 Decades . I was pretty excited to knock out this month's selection so the project is done! I'll do quick reviews of each one in the order I saw them, chronologically. First was Within Our Gates (1920), which was a really good film! I'm still getting my feet wet in experiencing silent movies but this one had a lot going on. At first I was overwhelmed by all the different story lines, trying to keep them straight. Once I actually stopped  doing that I was able to just let the experience wash over me. It truly became a time capsule of the era showing something we don't normally see in silent films - Black folk with any amount of agency. Some were villains, some were heroes. There was a moral spectrum on display here and it was wonderful! Here's a film I look forward to revisiting. Murder in Harlem  (1935) is actually much the same, which is no surprise as Oscar Micheaux directed both. This time a talkie, Mur...

Well, it's time. I've been pushing this off too long. It is time to defend the 1993 film Super Mario Bros. , directed by married team Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton. Buckle up because this is going to be a ride. Bob Hoskins as Mario looking kind of incredulous. In order for this defense to work we have to come to one agreement: if you have any baggage of this film not being like the video game, you must release that. It is the first step to allowing yourself to enjoy this film. If you cannot get over that, I will bear you no grudge. I cannot get over how historically inaccurate the 1998 film,  Ever After,  is. I just can't. I've tried it and it's something outside of my power. So if you just can't get over that this movie is nothing like the video game franchise then I wish you well and hope the upcoming Illumination Mario flick with Chris Pratt is for you. However, if you're willing to at least consider that agreement, you might enjoy it. It's like the...