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Profile of Carl Berry

Carl Berry

Site Reviewer

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Vital Statistics

Age Group Old enough to have seen Star Wars in its first week of release and driven home!
Video Likes 16x9 enhancement, quality transfers and more of the older titles.
Video Dislikes Flipper disks and snapper cases.
Audio Likes Crisp, clean sound tracks with no distortion. I prefer DD5.1 but DTS is my passion. George Lucas was right, 50% of the enjoyment in movies is in the sound!
Audio Dislikes Mono sound tracks and movies where there has been no attempt to at least clean up the sound.
Favourite DVDs The Thing, Terminator 2 - Ultimate Edition, Gettysburg (Region 1), Aliens, Dark City, Fight Club, Day Of The Jackal, Das Boot (Region 4).
Least Favourite DVDs So far none, I don't tend to buy what I don't like.
Most Eagerly Awaited DVDs Evil Dead 1/2/3 (gimme a little sugar baby, Bruce Campbell rulez OK!), anything by John Carpenter, Tron, Romper Stomper (2 disc edition with DTS please!), anything by Fellini, Kurosawa, Huston, et al

Opinions About Specific Movies and their DVDs

Titanic Nice sets, the ship sunk well, acting was mediocre, but a waste of money really. Preferred "A Night to Remember" with Kenneth Moore. Don't really go in for period pieces much. Saw it once, that was enough
The Matrix Excellent special effects, one drawback - it has Keanu Reeves in it. The most wooden actor (apart from Kevin Costner) in movies today. Plot was good, but I still preferred Dark City.
Terminator 2 The rerelease rulez! Still as good a movie today as it was when it was originally released.
Star Wars One of my top ten movies of all time. Leave your maturity at the door and enjoy!
Godzilla I laughed when I saw this movie. The first 20 minutes were stupid, after that it really went downhill. The effects were lame, the plot thin but I love B-Grade movies, they are what make classics just that, classic. Without the Godzillas of this world, there would be no King Kongs (original version please).
Independence Day Too much ra-ra American b******, but otherwise a good SF movie for its day. One thing that really irks is that all aliens will be able to interface with a Mac and be vulnerable to computer viruses.... yer right..

Equipment

DVD Player Sony NS-305 , using RGB output
Display Loewe Xelos (81cm) . Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio Decoder Rotel RSP-976 . Calibrated with Video Essentials.
Amplification Rotel RB 985 MkII
Speakers JBL TLX16s Front Speakers, Polk Audio LS fx di/bipole Rear Speakers, Polk Audio CS350-LS Centre Speaker, M&KV-75 Subwoofer

Top 10 DVDs

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1. Patton: Special Edition (1970)
Possibly the best war movie of all time
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2. The Dish (2000)
Lightweight, but thoroughly enjoyable movie
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3. Walking with Dinosaurs (1999)
The best documentary series I've ever seen.
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4. Das Boot: The Director's Cut (1997)
A masterpiece of suspense and the futility of war.
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5. The Thing: Collector's Edition (1982)
For me the best SF movie remake of all time.
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6. Stickmen (2000)
Probably the best NZ movie i've seen, period. Funny, topical, great music and stylish all on a tiny budget!

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