Turns out - "Caprica" is pretty damn good.

More like $20 for an hour-and-a-half (and commentary). Way overpriced.

Just keep in mind that "Nickelodeon" is a love letter of sorts to the early days of film making, and that the folks who appreciate that era are probably its intended target audience. Not a requirement, but it helps!

Before they can release Metropolis, they have to clean up and integrate the previously missing footage (I read that it's in pretty rough shape) into the footage that Kino already restored. It doesn't sound like the new footage is going to come anywhere close to matching the amazing quality of what's on the Kino DVD. …

Modern Times was certainly Chaplin's last truly great film (except maybe Limelight, which is really more of a drama). And it may be the first of his to explore grand social criticism, as you mention above, raindog.

Good one!

Fair enough - the acting at times is pretty creaky (especially Evil Maria), but as a whole I still think it's pretty awesome. Now that they've found a (beat-up) print of the full-length original release, you'll have even more to dislike!

WGN and KPLR
I for one would like to also thank whoever programmed WGN Chicago (and to a lesser extent KPLR in St. Louis) in the 70's and early 80's. It was probably due to a "they're cheap and we have nothing else to show" motivation, but they broadcast a lot of great 1930's & 1940's movies at night and especially…

SPOILER ALERT**

Raindog - agreed with "Nosferatu". But I'm curious to hear why you single out "Modern Times". I'm a huge Chaplin fan, and love "Modern Times", but I'm wondering why you rank it above "The Gold Rush" and "City Lights".

"Wizard of Oz" is really a one-of-a-kind film (and not one that I like very much), so I agree that it probably wasn't all that influential (maybe aside from the eye-popping technicolor). "42nd Street" is a better candidate. I've never seen it, but I've read that "Golddiggers of 1933" was even more popular than "42nd…

What is it that makes you feel "Metropolis" is a bad film?

Anyone have problems with the picture quality of TCM on digital cable? In the midwest, TCM has been really poor for years - both with Insight and Comcast. I'm assuming that my cable company compresses the bandwidth, because there's a lot of "digital wash" in the great B&W cinematography in many of these old films. …

Jonathan Goldstein wrote a hilarious story (and narrated it for an episode of "This American Life") of an insecure schlub who ends up dating Lois Lane after she breaks up with Superman - and he then gets recruited as Superman's sidekick. Classic.

Oh, and a second vote for "The Stars My Destination". Why they haven't made a movie of that yet is baffles me. Then again, if they had, it would probably have been botched.

Not a new writer by any means, and I haven't read any of it in years, but Larry Niven wrote a fair amount of "if this technology existed, what would it do to society?" type of stuff. He wrote about "wireheads" (if I recall correctly) - a technology that plugged directly into the pleasure center of the brain to such…

Is "I Got You, Babe" available as a digital download?

What I find most interesting about the white Album is how they delivered such a number of styles/tributes on the thing. As a kid, I was convinced that it was the Beatles' way of saying, "We can play anything!" (kinda like they did back in the Hamburg days).

Who let the Marketing Guys in the room?

"Row, row, row your boat…gently down the stream."