comment #1

Walter Sobchak says ...

Totalitarian countries always throw the most impressive opening ceremonies. I kept waiting for the Hindenburg and Graf Zeppelin to appear overhead.

Oh yeah, and Bernie Mac died. Bummer.

comment #2

lazespud says ...

Wow. The opening ceremonies were "nice"? I found them stunning. Really, truly amazing.

Have fun watching Mad Men; that is one great show. Apparently AMC is set to make a series based on Coppolla's The Conversation, equally mixed between Harry Caul performing different recording jobs and trying to figure out if he's being recorded himself. Could suck, but if it has any of the period jones that Mad Men has, it could be truly brilliant. My only concern is that it would be best served with lots of gritty outdoor shooting; which is much more expensive to make accurately "period", so it might have a bigger hill to climb than Man Men...

comment #3

Mgmax says ...

I already saw the opening ceremonies for the Olympics, it was called Curse of the Golden Flower.

comment #4

Walter Sobchak says ...

Love Mad Men, but why does it have to be on AMC, the worst network EVER.

Besides the fact that they show chopped up, pan and scan, edited for TV twenty years ago movies, they have the worst picture quality on television. Anyone else notice that? They're not only not HD, they aren't even as good as regular non-HD.

When I watch Mad Men it looks like I'm viewing it on a 15 year old VHS tape.

Not only that, imagine the awesome nakedness we'd get if it were on one of the pay channels.

comment #5

C-PhreekII says ...

The Olympics ceased being something I cared about in 1992 with the "Dream Team." As a former track runner, I was disgusted with the crass overt commercialization and abandonment of amateur sports celebration the Games had been (for the most part) when this went down.

To me what was admirable about the games in my youth was that they championed contests that mostly have no professional counterpoint so it truly came down to performance of the athlete and their shot at glory with no expectation of monetary reward for most.

comment #6

C-PhreekII says ...

Walter - Amen to that, brother. I fucking can't stand AMC for all the reasons you named plus their selection of said butchered and horribly transfered films is hardly "classic." I love how their ad campaigns have embraced their shitty quality by going for some sort of mid-60's kitch with the monochrome multi-pane thing.

There really is something wrong with their transmission because I watched all of the first season of Mad Men using On Demand and the quality was much better than the episodes now running. That said, the show still looks better than the movies.

Another reason we should all take a moment to, again, praise the fantastic team that runs TCM. Their selection and quality is so great that just last night I was switching channels while chatting with a friend and stumbled across a half-hour letterbox screening of MARLOWE with the sublime James Garner. Made me let out an exasperated "Ah, fuck!" (was Garner marathon, The Americanization of Emily ran earlier).

comment #7

corey3rd says ...

the Olympics pretty much changed after '76 since Montreal is probably still paying for it today. They needed the sponsorship to survive. Although China shows what happens when they have all that Walmart money to burn. You'll never see another transformation of this level.

It was interesting how they skipped over a major chunk of chinese history. No tribute to the Gang of Four? Not even any Mao love? But I want the LED screen that rolled out on the field. Time to play mega-Wii

comment #8

Mgmax says ...

AMC has actually dropped what its initials stand for. No classics here!

Several years ago, old movie buffs used to call it the "Audie Murphy Channel" for all the B westerns it showed....

comment #9

JHRussell says ...

The opening ceremonies were repetitive - put a couple thousand people on the field at one time, in synch...pretty amazing the first time (the drum deal) but less interesting each successive time...the giant in-floor TV screen was neat the first time, but it dragged on and on and on...kind of like: we paid for this absurd piece of technology, we need to use it...

Did anybody else have an audio glitch going on? I could not adjust my TV volume to be able to hear Costas, et al, without blowing myself out on the sound from the ceremony?

comment #10

Geoff says ...

Walter is right about AMC. It's the worst looking channel.

Time Warner has MAD MEN on demand in HD though.

comment #11

Pelham123 says ...

Let me second (or third) what Walter wrote about AMC. What an abomination that network transformed itself into. I didn't catch "Marlowe" on TMC last night, but I certainly would have loved to. That's a pretty darn good Chandler adaptation which also features, of all things, a Bruce Lee cameo. Is "Marlowe" on DVD? I haven't seen it around. CBS used to run it alot years ago when they had a movie night.

comment #12

ROTC says ...

Here in Los Angeles, you can watch Mad Men in HD for free through Time Warner Cable's On Demand service. So while AMC programming in general isn't available in HD, Mad Men is - although you have to be willing to wait until the day after the initial broadast (Monday) to see new episodes.

comment #13

BurmaShave says ...

The Opening Ceremonies were extraordinary, Zhang Yimou did a fantastic job. That sad, these commentaries on the games are more soul-crushing than usual, and the ceremonies are already being ruined by clips from them being replayed ad nauseum to that Explosions in the Sky song from THE KINGDOM. And sure smog is unpleasant, but I'm not going to lecture them- you live in Los Angeles, now imagine it 4 times bigger.

comment #14

Pelham123 says ...

Mgmax, my father used to LOVE Audie Murphy. Now, my Dad would watch any western on TV, good, bad or horrd, but an Audie Murphy western really got him going. So, I grew up seeing a lot of Audie Murphy movies. I guess TMC, if anywhere, is one of the few places to spot his movies anymore. Murphy's real life is quite a tale as well.

comment #15

Movie Watcher says ...

I have spent most of the day watching the olympics. Have to switch between 3 channels, there is too much on at one time! The cycling race showed that great Beijing sky. The SMOG IS BAD! As someone who grew up in LA (San Fernando Valley) I know a little about smog. I thought LA was terrible. Who the hell thought this was a good idea? I can't compete with all the events. Plus the 12 hour time difference, I know the outcome of the events before they are on. I'll watch the basketball and track events, but that's about it. Too bad about the american killed there yesterday. One nut, even the Chinese government couldn't stop that.

Bernie Mac RIP. You will be missed.

comment #16

Sax says ...

Just for the record, vis-a-vis the smog in Beijing ... The Chinese have totally shut down all major industry for the last month to create the (highly inadequate) illusion of clear skies. They used the excuse of Olympic security to spend billions beefing up their surveillance technology (much of it bought from us), and now their most prominent dissident has fled the country and is declaring any dissent hopeless. No one talks about this, probably because the Chinese can kick our ass any time they want and own our economoy lock stock and barrel anyway.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.

comment #17

BurmaShave says ...

Let's not forget firing water cannons into clouds. That's some James Bond shit.

comment #18

redmond says ...

Mad Men on AMC does look horrendous. Fortunately, Comcast also has them in HD On Demand the very next day (Every single episode including the first season.) Wish I would've known that before I rented it on standard DVD. Oh well, live and learn.

Congrats on finally getting a chance to watch it, Jeff. Light years more interesting than the Olympics which, seriously, who is watching them? Hey, our economy's in the shitter, but goddamn can we pole vault! Whoopee!

comment #19

Mgmax says ...

It wasn't anything against Murphy per se, it had more to do with showing the same damn things over and over again.

comment #20

Walter Sobchak says ...

There was a time when it seemed like every time I flipped past AMC they were showing "The Big River", or, more specifically, the scene when Robert Mitchum and Marilyn Monroe are struggling to ride a raft down a roaring river, (with really bad, in-studio, rear-projection)

comment #21

C-PhreekII says ...

RE: Mad Men On Demand bad news, I'm pretty sure tomorrow is the very last day for Season One, so you might want to get cracking on your marathon before it disappears.

Also, again this year they aren't making every episode available. They have 202 up, but not 201.

comment #22

Pelham123 says ...

Mgmax, I didn't think you were talking Audie Murphy down, not at all, it just reminded me of those Saturday afternoons watching his many movies. On Saturday afternoons In South Florida, if it wasn't Audie Murphy it was The Bowery Boys, Charlie Chan or the Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) series.
Ha! Now that you mention it Walter, it did seem like AMC had "The Big River" on a permanent loop. The scene you noted is probably all I've ever seen of that movie.

comment #23

btwnproductions says ...

RIVER OF NO RETURN, that is.

comment #24

bmcintire says ...

Just finished watching season one of MAD MEN on Blu-Ray last night. An excellent series, and I was able to buy it from Amazon for a nickel less than the standard-def DVD was priced.
The behind the-scenes stuff was relatively interesting, but certainly nothing special.

comment #25

EOTW says ...

Count me in as a fan of MM, but I am glad it isn't on HBO. It's niceto see a show that is mostly devoid of too much language, sex and violence. Yes, THE WIRE was the greatest, but everyhting on HBO and SHOWTIME seems so overdone with the this and the that. BTW, MM creator Matt weiner has echoed these same views. He has said that since HBO passed on the show, now working within the confines of broadcast TV, he finds it creatively challenging to play within boundaries for a change. Nice to hear that from a old school guy. Guess this means we won't see Don suffocating Campbell to death anytime soon!!!

comment #26

BurmaShave says ...

There is no such thing as too much language, sex and violence.

comment #27

NotImpressedYet says ...

EOTW wrote: "Guess this means we won't see Don suffocating Campbell to death anytime soon!!!"

Ha! That's fucking hilarious and actually a really good point about it being on basic cable. It has to work harder for it, and ends up being a little more special as a result.

And in Chicago AMC has its own "HD" channel on Comcast, but the image is so compressed that standard DVD's look better by comparison. I watched season one on blu ray, and to go from that to this is horrible. The blu ray is stunning, and proof that the format isn't just for big special effect spectacles.

comment #28

dixiedugan says ...

The opening ceremony was great, though all that syncronized stuff got a little eye boggling after awhile. Athens was much better. Barcelona had the best lighting of the torch evah baby.

I miss the old AMC. I had a few of their docs I transferred to dvd recently, the one on AIP (terrific!), Reel Models, and I think I still have a couple on the Hollywood Fashion Machine. I'd give anything to have the one on the guy that did the movie posters.

comment #29

moviemaniac2002 says ...

So many topics bouncing around here....

AMC - agree- total basic cable abortion. I'll
watch "Shootout" on Sunday mornings and that's it...(for surreal vision, you can't beat the sight of
Guber and Bart standing amongst the ComicCon
costumed fans....)

The Olympic murder.....there's a terrifying Global truth for all of us....For all of their Orwellian
control and power. the Chinese couldn't stop a
single loon.

Oh..and Mad Men? Rented a few of the DVDs.
Wildly overrated and overpraised....But I suppose it's a shining light on AMC compared to the round-the-clock butchering of already tired 80's and 90's
movies.

comment #30

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comment #31

Poteki123 says ...

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