Posts Tagged ‘roku’

Watched Damnation Alley

Monday, June 1st, 2009

I was browsing through my Netflix Watch Instantly queue and couldn’t find anything I really felt like watching, so I decided to give Amazon’s Video on Demand service a try on my Roku.  The ordering process turned out to be totally painless.  I don’t recall connecting my Roku to my Amzon account, but I must have done so back when the service first came out.  I just browsed Amazon for a video I wanted to watch, paid for it, and then it appeared in the Amazon “My Library” menu on the Roku.

Unfortunately, the first movie I chose to watch was Ill Generation.  I suppose it’s an accomplishment to complete a full-length film on practically no budget, but in this case I had to wonder why they even bothered.  Granted I only gave it about 10 minutes, but I couldn’t handle anymore.  I only lost $3 on the deal.

Since it was still early I decided to give it another try and ordered a rental of Damnation Alley for $4.  I didn’t realize it at the time, but this movie has never been relesed on DVD, so the only way you could watch it until recently was on TV, VHS, or downloading the torrent, that is until it was added to Amazon just a week or so ago.  Again, after I paid for it, it instantly appeared on my Roku, and the quality was great.  I had forgotten how cheesy the movie was, but how can you not like a movie with killer armor-plated cockroaches?

Interestingly, I had always thought (or mis-remembered actually) that the Landmaster vehicle in Damnation Alley was the same vehicle as was in Ark II, the Saturday morning live-action show from the 70’s about a group of scientists traveling around a post-apocalyptic landscape.  Turns out the trucks were completely different, both made specifically for their shows.

And speaking of Ark II, I hadn’t noticed that the entire series of 15 episodes is available on DVD.  I’m going to go ahead and Netflix them.  Not sure if I’ll watch them right away, but will at least make copies and send them back.

They’ll go along great with my Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future DVDs that I haven’t gotten around to watching yet.

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Just Watched District B13

Monday, May 11th, 2009

I was going to watch The Day the Earth Caught Fire on DVD, but then my player froze up just a few minutes into it, so I started browsing the queue on my Roku for something else.

I decided on District B13, which I didn’t remember adding, but it turned out to be a good choice.  It’s not post-apocalyptic, but it could considered vaguely dystopian as it takes place in a near-future Paris where the most dangerous neighborhoods have been walled off, and the citizens inside left to fend for themselves.

The story is basically a re-telling of Escape from New York, with a goodly portion of Jackie Chan buddy-movie action thrown in.  It was written by Luc Besson (who you’ll remember from The Professional, Fifth Element, La Femme Nikita, The Transporter, etc.) A cop and a resident of B13 have to go in and disarm a nutron bomb before the timer expires and it explodes.  The two actors are a former stuntman and one of the guys who invented the sport of parkour (which then spawned freerunning) so it’s full of martial arts, great stunts, and major chases up, around and through the city.

Overall, it was really good.  The plot was full of holes, but that wasn’t the point; the action was good, and the interplay between the two main characters made for a very enjoyable movie.  I just did a quick search and was pleased to see that a sequel just came out in France so will probably be on Netflix later this year.

If you’ve got a Roku or some other way to watch Netflix streaming, and don’t mind sub-titles, this one is very worthwhile.

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