Purchase Diary 2011 – April

House M.D.: Season 6


01 Apr – €24.26 (£19.60) @ Amazon.co.uk

The Switch


01 Apr – €9.45 (£6.94) @ Amazon.co.uk

Rambo


08 Apr – €7.86 ($10.99) @ Amazon.com

Supernatural: Season 5


08 Apr – €11.68 ($26.49) @ Amazon.com (partially with gift certificate)

These three are series from my childhood that were made in former East Germany:

Spuk im Hochhaus (Spook in the Apartment Building)


11 Apr – €12.95 @ Amazon.de

In 1782 two innkeepers made their guests drunk and robbed them. When they killed a constable they were cursed to re-appear 200 years later and have to make seven good deeds to amend for their sins. They re-awake in an apartment building and cause havoc while trying to help.

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Purchase Diary 2011 – January

Back to the Future 1 – 3


11 Jan – €24.01 (£17.99) @ Amazon.co.uk

Mad Men: Season 1 – 3


18 Jan – €32.46 (£24.79) @ Amazon.co.uk

Dexter: Season 3


20 Jan – €17.28 (£12.89) @ Amazon.co.uk

Dune


20 Jan – €12.99 @ Media Markt

Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door


20 Jan – €9.99 @ Media Markt

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DVD Statistics 2010

2010 End Statistics:

New Purchase Items: 131 (141 in 2009)
New Movies: 93 (thereof Blu-ray: 36)
New TV Seasons: 54 (thereof Blu-ray: 7)
New TV Specials: 17
New Special Interest: 1 (thereof Blu-ray: 1)

Money Spent: 1,586.10€ (1,869.30€ in 2009)
Money Spent on Movies: 684.18€
Money Spent on TV Seasons: 813.53€
Money Spent on TV Specials: 78.41€
Money Spent on Special Interest: 9.98€

Avg Spent: 12.11€ (13.26€ in 2009)
Avg Spent on Movies: 7.36€
Avg Spent on TV Seasons: 15.07€
Avg Spent on TV Specials: 4.61€
Avg Spent on Special Interest: 9.98€

Runtime: 45,592m (31d 15h 52m)
Runtime Movies: 10,647m (7d 9h 27m)
Runtime TV Seasons: 33,491m (23d 5h 11m)
Runtime TV Specials: 1,349m (22h 29m)
Runtime Special Interest: 105m (1h 45m)

Cheapest Item: Superman: Vol. 1 (1.00€)

Most Expensive Item: Torchwood: The Complete Series (42.99€)

First Item: How I Met Your Mother: Season 3 (0.00€)

Last Item: V for Vendetta (9.99€)


Purchase by Locality:
United States: 17
Canada: 6
United Kingdom: 80
Germany: 28

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Movie Watchings 2010 – April

Deutsche Version | March

April, 6th

Director: David S. Ward

John Goodman … Ralph Hampton Gainesworth Jones
Peter O’Toole … Sir Cedric Charles Willingham
John Hurt … Lord Percival Graves
Camille Coduri … Miranda Green
Richard Griffiths … Duncan Phipps
Leslie Phillips … Gordon Halliwell

Synopsis: After the entire Royal Family has been wiped out, England needs a new king and they find him – in America. Ralph is not what one would call born to be a representative of a nation but he has to do since there’s no one else – or is there? The parliament could decide to end the Windham line and re-establish the Stuarts as the royal line again. And Lord Graves – the next in line – does everything in his might to make this happen.

My Opinion: After watching so many Doctor Who episodes I wanted to watch the movie where I saw Jackie Tyler (Camille Coduri) for the first time again.
It’s not that good a movie but I still enjoy it very much mainly because it’s true what Cedric says in the end: Ralph is a good and decent man and he does what is right.
This movie has many funny scenes and still manages to not really mock the British monarchy.

Afterwards, I listened to this quite a few times:

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Movie Watchings 2010 – March

Deutsche Version | February | April

March, 11th

10 Things I Hate About You

Director: Gil Junger

Heath Ledger … Patrick Verona
Julia Stiles … Kat Stratford
Joseph Gordon-Levitt … Cameron James
Larisa Oleynik … Bianca Stratford
David Krumholtz … Michael
Andrew Keegan … Joey Donner
Larry Miller … Walter Stratford

Synopsis: Cameron has a strong crush on Bianca but he’s not the only contender for her attention. His opponent Joey is not only a model but also financially well equipped. To make matters worse Bianca is only allowed to go on a date if her older sister Kat has one, too. And Kat has no intentions to date in the near future and she’s also not the most uncomplicated person.
Cameron needs to find someone who isn’t afraid of the challenge and that’s were Patrick Verona comes into play.

My Opinion: It’s a nice, modern day adaption of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew and Heath (RIP) and Julia make a great couple. They have to because even though this is a movie about a triangle and a couple only the couple really works. Especially Cameron and Bianca pale in comparison, Cameron even more so than Bianca who has at least a few good scenes with her sister and the Prom scene.
But it’s still very watchable and has a cool soundtrack.

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Movie Watchings 2010 – February

Deutsche Version | January (Part 2) | March

February, 13th

Superman Returns

Director: Bryan Singer

Brandon Routh   …    Clark Kent / Superman
Kate Bosworth   …    Lois Lane
Kevin Spacey   …    Lex Luthor
James Marsden   …    Richard White
Parker Posey   …    Kitty Kowalski
Frank Langella   …    Perry White
Sam Huntington   …    Jimmy Olsen
Kal Penn    …    Stanford

Synopsis: Nobody has seen or heard from Superman in five years. In the meantime Lois Lane has become a mommy and she’s written the Pulitzer-winning article “Why the World Doesn’t Need Superman”. But now Clark is back from what is left of Krypton and he’s needed right now again: Lex Luthor has stolen Kryptionian crystals from the Fortress and wants to build a new continent – at the expense of that small island called North America.

My Opinion: It took me some time to really get used to that movie. Mainly because I was mad at Bryan Singer for abandoning the X-Men project which resulted in The Last Stand. But now with a few years distance, I like this movie.
Some elements are still very comic-like, like Lex’s behaviour at some points of the story but that is fully outweighed by the moments he’s truly evil.
I also like Brandon Routh’s portrayal of Clark/Superman. While Christopher Reeve’s Clark was a bit of a douchebag that I didn’t like very much, they chose to do it differently here. He’s just a nobody who lingers in the background and isn’t noticed by anybody but Jimmy. Lois couldn’t care less about him in any way – which makes it believable that she doesn’t see Superman in him. For me that works.
Speaking of realism (;) ): The one scene I didn’t buy was when Superman lifted that island out into space while he still had a piece of Kryptonite stuck in his side and was exposed to the other K in the island. If Lex can beat him up just because he’s around it, he should have never been able to lift that weight. So much for in-universe consistency

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Movie Watchings 2010 – January – Part 2

Deutsche Version | Januar (Part 1) | February

January, 16th

The Negotiator

Director: F. Gary Gray

Samuel L. Jackson … Lt. Danny Roman
Kevin Spacey … Lt. Chris Sabian
David Morse … Cmdr. Adam Beck
Ron Rifkin … Cmdr. Grant Frost
John Spencer … Chief Al Travis
J.T. Walsh … Insp. Terence Niebaum
Siobhan Fallon … Maggie
Paul Giamatti … Rudy Timmons

Synopsis: Danny Roman is a negotiator for hostage situations for the police and he’s one of the best there is. One day he gets framed for stealing money from the police pension fund and it looks like he’s going to prison for it. He sees no other choice than taking hostages himself, to force the issue and to find out what really happened and who was involved. His negotiator is Chris Sabian from the other side of the city and he’s also very good at what he does.

My Opinion: A fascinating thriller with an excellent cast. I’m not a big fan of thrillers but this is a movie I watch regularly. It’s very powerful and still has its funny moments – like the scene where we get introduced to Chris Sabian. I also like the selection of hostages and how they contribute to the case.
Spoiler (mark to read):
An interesting thing about these kinds of movies is that – despite them ending in a happy end – they don’t actually have a real happy end, because if you think it through he still will be charged of taking hostages, destroying a federal building and other stuff. Even if he gets only a slap on the hand, it’s unlikely that he’s ever going to work as a cop again.
But I think that falls in the category of Fridge Logic.

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