Some good segues in my weed propelled bubble of fantasy TV and cinema today. I had already started a summer Star Wars tip with
Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace on May 4th in anticipation of the release of the new TV show
Obi - Wan Kenobi, resulting in my watching the film and TV materials in chronological order as opposed to the more popular, release order (original trilogy first followed by the prequel trilogy and associated anthology pieces). I began this morning with Eps 3 & 4 (Parts III & IV) of
Obi Wan before going onto watching Ron Howard's
Solo - a Star Wars Story in Bly - Ray 3D - the next film chronologically in my current Star Wars run and one I have only seen twice before over the past few years.
Fun and hijinx were had with the Star Wars film so, still in the mood but ready to change the flavour, morning ending I decided to indulge in a Saturday afternoon epic, and feeling in the mood for a historical piece, I decided to go back to basics and select the beautiful 1080p Blu - Ray of Mel Gibsons Braveheart. Here some screenshots.I do not know if they have done a UHD transfer yet.
It was only during the middle of the film that I remembered a film that I had forgotten had existed. I am big fan of streaming services and some of the brand new content, both theatrical and television pieces that they have and continue to come out with. Think of
The Boys. Think of
Ozark. Even if the business models of some of these services have had it they have provided the home cinema with some of the best content over the past 5 years. In the middle of all of this I found a new film by
David Mackenzie. that was doing the rounds on the festival circuits being promoted by Netflix as its next big IP, an unofficial sequel to
BraveHeart that chronicles the exploits of Robert the Bruce (Chris Pine). It also caught my eye on release as I had just fallen in love with Florence Pugh in
The Little Drummer Girl, one of the best dramas the BBC has made in decades and she had been cast as Pine's co star in this film -
Outlaw / King....
I am just giving it a second whirl, the first time I have watched it since its release in 2018 and while by the numbers its holding up pretty well 100 minutes in with 50 to go. Its not as epic as Braveheart, nor looks as good but the simplicity and functionalism of the production design gives the whole thing a nice clean vibe that trancends the shitty quality of the average 1080p Netflix / Amazon Prime stream (which is why I prefer to own films on Blu - Ray)
Sorry to include both TV and film comments but should this kind of thing continue it would get more streamlined.
