A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

© 2014 Universal Pictures Home Entertainment   Greetings, Dear Reader. It’s early afternoon here in New Hometown, Florida, on Wednesday, June 23, 2021. Currently, the temperature is 86 ˚ F (30 ˚ C) under rainy conditions. With humidity at 63% and the wind blowing from the northwest at 6 MPH (12 KM/H), the feels-like factor is 91 ˚ F (33 ˚ C). Today we can expect scattered showers throughout the day and into the evening. The high will be 89 ˚ F (32 ˚ C); the low will be 72 ˚ F (22 ˚ C). My two Indy Blu-ray sets. 4K UHD set on the left, my original 2012 Blu-ray set on the right. Photo by the author. Well, after a delay of nearly two weeks, I finally received my Indiana Jones: 4-Movie Collection with the first four Indiana Jones films in 4K UHD Blu-rays late Monday evening. I pre-ordered it on March 16, and the original delivery window was for June 10 or 11, a few days after the five-disc set’s street release. But Paramount Home Media Distribution, ViacomCBS’ division in charge of ...

Promotional photo of Buena Vista Home Entertainment/Lucasfilm Ltd.'s 18-disc Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Blu-ray box set.  This is the region-free edition made for the UK/Europe but sold in the U.S. by Walmart. © 2020 Buena Vista Home Entertainment and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) Hi, there! Welcome to another edition of Bloggin' On, the more "personal" section of A Certain Point of View where I just chat about everyday topics and stuff that doesn't fall neatly into the categories that I usually write about ﹘ reviews, politics, or life in the time of COVID-19. It's a nice morning in my corner of Florida; as I write this, the temperature outside is 78℉ (25℃) under partly sunny skies. According to my computer's weather app, today's forecast calls for a high of 84℉ (29℃) under mostly cloudy skies. It's going to be a humid and maybe even rainy day at times (52% humidity and 60% chance of precipitation), but it doesn't look as if it is going to ...

Slipcover art from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker's Multi-Screen Edition Blu-ray. © 2019, 2020 Buena Vista Home Entertainment and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) Well, it's Sunday, March 29, 2020, and it's the last weekend of a tumultuous month unlike any other since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against America. Once again, the entire country is facing a danger that's posed not just to human lives, but to the values that many of us hold dear - civility, decency, moral courage, and a belief that we as a nation can unite despite partisan divisions and persevere in the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Unfortunately, unlike those dark and scary times after the Twin Towers fell and part of the Pentagon was scarred by the impact of an American Airlines Boeing 757 hijacked by Al Qaeda terrorists, when a mediocre Republican President named George W. Bush managed to rally the nation and prepared to strike back at our enemies, the ship of state is rudderless,. Most of...

A screenshot of my Blu-ray.com Collection page, as it appeared in December 2019 I've been collecting Blu-ray discs of movies and TV series I like since I purchased my first player and a high-definition TV in 2009. It's not a massive collection by any means; as of this writing, I have 276 feature film titles and 47 seasons' worth of television series in two Blu-ray formats (HD and 4K UHD). Considering that I have been purchasing Blu-rays for almost 11 years, I don't think that is an impressive haul, although it's not a pitifully small collection by any stretch of the imagination. I am also not very good with numbers, but I am extremely fascinated by collectors' statistics. So when I learned that my Blu-ray.com account's Collection page has a statistics function, I immediately checked it out to see if I could get a by-the-numbers breakdown of my Blu-ray collection. Happily, the answer was "Yes," and I discovered that Blu-ray.com can give you...

A screenshot of my Blu-ray.com Collection Page (A-C). Notice that It: Chapter Two is in the "Ordered" category. Hi, there, Constant Reader, and welcome to another edition of Bloggin' On, my blog-within-a-blog where I write stuff that doesn't fall neatly into the usual categories of reviews or socio-political commentary. It's Thursday, December 12, which for most of us means that Christmas is only 13 days away.  (Have you finished your holiday shopping yet? I have!) Here it's still morning in my little corner of Florida; it's almost nine o'clock as I sit here tap-tap-tapping away on my keyboard. Right now, it's also quite cloudy and cool; the current temperature is 67℉ (20℃) and the sky (at least from what I can see through my writing room's window) is a leaden shade of gray.  According to my PC's Weather app, the high temperature is expected to reach 77℉ (25℃), and it looks like a cold front might be passing through this weekend; it w...