Essays

When I have a bit of time in the near future I'm going to start posting some theological essays that I've written over the course of my MA.  I'm going to edit them from the versions submitted.  I will check again for typos and abbreviate them slightly to make them a bit more accessible.  These are of course not published essays so I highly recommend that no one mines them for information for their own work.  But perhaps some people will be interested in the topics.

L

CEX online. Great Job!

A small update to my earlier post about buying films online:

In the earlier post I noted that I've had mixed success ordering from the CEX website, but this week I saw that they had Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! Season 1 on DVD for £5.  I couldn't resist giving it a go - this is not an easy disc to find and I love Tim and Eric's masterpiece.  Amazon were offering it for just under £10 excluding postage.  So I ordered the DVD on Wednesday evening from CEX with the standard £2.50 postage.  They sent a confirmation email Thursday morning (before 10am) that it had been shipped.  It arrived Friday morning.  Wow.  I watched a bunch of episodes today, the disc is perfect.  CEX win!  If you are an amazon or play devotee, I suggest always checking the CEX site just in case you can find it cheaper and get it faster.

Hooray!

L

my little blu-ray collection

Left to right:  Dune, Confessions, Alien Anthology, Jurassic Park Trilogy, Mad MAx 2, Bridge on the River Kwai, Sherlock (BBC) series 1 and 2, Inception, Fifth Element, Scott Pilgrim, Dark City, Watchmen (dir. cut), Double Indemnity, Midnight in Paris, Manhattan, The Fall, Speed Racer, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, North by Northwest, Zodiac, Terminator 2, Gladiator, Casino Royale, 8 1/2 (criterion), Seven Samurai (criterion).

I reserve blu-ray buying for films that long for optimum image quality.  I've been mostly very impressed so far - Terminator 2 was a bit of a let down, as were Alien 3 and Resurrection, Dune is reasonable but I'm not even sure if I like the film.  Alien is probably the standout. Speed Racer is nice as well, and it only cost about £1.50.


L

Dissertation

Today I begin serious work on my MA dissertation. Its only a cool 15000 words, so no major headaches I hope.  I will be looking at the Theological Interpretation of Scripture (TIS) movement, which is being spearheaded by the likes of Kevin Vanhoozer and Stephen Fowl.  I'll try and detail some of my findings on the blog.

L

A note on DVD and blu-ray regions.

You might have noticed that on the back of your DVD cases they say 'Region 2' if you live in the UK. For Blu-rays they might say Region B for UK.  Due to licensing and publishing complexities around the world we still have to suffer the fact that many films are locked to a certain 'region' thus rendering them incompatible with a dvd or blu-ray player from another country.  This is surely no big deal, because you can get everything you want in the UK right?  NEIN!

So you want to watch Dark City (1990's cult sci fi noir) on blu-ray?  Well the UK region B is out of print and will set you back too many coins.  But its still available for under $10 in the US on a region A locked blu- ray.  Or you want that elusive Marx Brothers collection that sells for up to £100 in the UK, but the USA boxset can be picked up for $18 on Amazon.com.  Or what about those masterful Criterion collection dvds and blu-rays that are region locked for North America.  This is a real pain in the  rumpus.

Solutions?

For DVD's you can go and buy a multi-region dvd player for £30-40 off amazon.  Before you do that, google search region hacks for your current dvd player. Many existing dvd players have simple combination codes that can be punched on the remote, unlocking the region lock on the dvd player.  Its straight forward and involves no tampering with the hardware.  A world of American dvds is now available to you!

Blu-Ray is another beast.  If you want a multi-region blu-ray player your looking at £180-200.  Ouch. Unlike DVD players, most blu-ray players don't have region free hacks.  I bought a philips blu-ray player for about £60 and found this to be the case. I could unlock it for DVD but not for blu-ray.  This is really annoying as there are a number of region A blu-rays that for absurd reasons we haven't got in the UK.  As well as the aforementioned criterion discs, take for example Woody Allen's midnight in Paris - a recent film with gorgeous cinematography. DVD only release in the UK.  This is absurd.  What can one do?  Well - here's what I did - I got a cheap (under £40) blu-ray player made by technika from my brother in law.  He bought it in tescos a couple of years ago.  This Technika BRSS10 isn't made anymore - they were quickly stopped (I wonder why) but you can find them on ebay pretty cheap.  Why advocate a crappy and cheap blu-ray player?  Well it turns out that this model has a blu-ray region hack!  Not only can you unlock the dvd, you can punch in a code and change the blu-ray region as often as you like.  This must have been a shoddy factory procedure without sufficient steps taken to protect the player from hacks, but it shows that sometimes it can be done with cheap units.  I now have a nice selection of Region A blurays that play fine on my player (midnight in paris looks amazing).  The downside is that this player has started to play up a little bit recently, however, if it packed up I would try and track another one down as its so much cheaper than a big brand multi region player.  Here's the hack:

Switch on open tray press "set-up" on remote enter 9113 An additional configure menu will come up on the left hand side of the screen that allows you to change the dvd region to any or region free. Below that it lets you set the Bluray region to A, B or C.

L.

Buying films part 2 - Online

Hark! I return to the topic of purchasing films.  This time I fix my gaze on the world of online shopping and offer some thoughts.

At this point in history the high street is increasingly obsolete with respect to media like films and music.  The reality is big online suppliers like amazon and play can offer pretty much everything that has ever been committed to disc and they can do it at the lowest possible price by cutting out the middle man.  The convenience of ordering something to your door, with an assortment of postage options, helpful browsing and search tools, and low prices makes online shopping an attractive option.  But is it without its problems? I'll have a look at the main places that I will consider getting films from online and remark on their strengths and weaknesses.

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon is frankly enormous (and many people have ethical objections to them - I'm not clued up enough to really know, but I imagine they are monsters like most other big businesses).  With the exception of out of print titles, you can get pretty much anything through amazon.  If you can think of it, you will be able to get it either from amazon or from a third party seller who sells through amazon marketplace.  I buy the majority of my films from amazon marketplace sellers - typically good communication, products as described and prompt delivery.  Look for the seller's feedback rating - if they are a big seller (thousands of sales) look for a number over 97% positive - you can never guarantee that everyone will have total success but more do than not.  If it is a seller with minimal experience, i.e. a handful of sales and a rating lower than 100% you would probably do well to avoid them or at least investigate their feedback a bit further.  Zoverstocks are a particularly popular marketplace seller who usually have the lowest price.  Amazon is by far the best place to get blu-ray that I am aware of - I recently picked up Inception blu-ray and dvd combo brand new for £6.00, and a used mint-condition scott pilgrim vs the world blu ray for about £2 plus the standard £1.26 postage.  Great.  On a couple of occasions I've had issues with marketplace sellers who have emailed a few days after the purchase to say they don't actually have the item in stock - this is annoying but I've never lost my money or had to pursue claims.  If you want out of print items you might not find the best price on Amazon, but its worth looking - typically out of print stuff is used and you do see a reasonable price once in a while (Third Man criterion collection blu-ray for £79 last week - I didn't buy it because its still way too much for one film).  Another benefit of amazon is if you have an account you can also order from other international amazon stores.  I have done this successfully with amazon.com (america) and amazon.ca (canada) - I haven't tried the others.  Don't bother getting it sent to you though - Amazon.ca's estimated shipping time on a blu-ray was 30-40 weeks!!  However, if you have relatives or friends in those countries, you can use their address as a shipping address and then pay standard domestic shipping rates.  Then ask them nicely and they might post it to you in the UK as a gift so you avoid custom's charges.  Its definitely worth looking at Amazon.ca because Canada has a unique range of lovely blu-ray steelbooks.  Amazon.com is also the best place to get Criterion blu-ray and dvd.  But remember - you need a multi region blu-ray/dvd player (more on this later).

Play.com/ HMV.com

These two sites are very similar in price and content - its worth checking both as sometimes one has a better price than the other.  Until recently they both had a standard free shipping on products (quite slow though - sometimes 1-2 weeks.  I believe play have now added extra shipping options.  Both of these are big warehouse suppliers like amazon.  Play also has its version of amazon marketplace called playtrade - I tried this once at Christmas to get the STar Wars sage on blu-ray.  A guy was offering it for £40.  It turned out he offered it for £40 for about 40 people and it also turned out he didn't have 40 copies of it - weird scam.  A lot of ranty complaints from buyers later and a ranty email to play and I got my money back from the guy.  It was an odd experience, but I decided to avoid playtrade as it was such a poor first experience.  I think amazon is generally better than both play and hmv if you are looking for something specific or more eccentric.  IF you are after mainstream and box sets then check these sites because they are always running a so-called 'sale'  (its not really a sale, its just a marketing ploy)  nevertheless you can get mainstream tat pretty cheap.  Honestly I rarely buy from these places but they are safe and useful.  Having said that play.com are flogging their own steelbook blu-rays that no one else has, so I pre-ordered their special steelbook of The Raid (brilliant film) due out in september.  If you like glossy steelbooks do check play out.  I also found the Japanese film 'confessions' on blu ray over at hmv.com for under £10 with free delivery - at the time this was cheaper than amazon and play.  I don't think these sites are particularly good for blu-ray - amazon is better because of the marketplace.  By all means check these sites out but don't be sucked into their large banners screaming 'sale ends midnight' etc.. They always have some kind of sale on and most of the products don't vary in price that much.  My one regret is that play.com were selling the 8 disc Marx brothers box set for a while for £7.99.  Yes that is an outrageously good price.  I deliberated buying it for ages, and thought I'd get it some other time as it would likely remain cheap.  It didn't.   Needless to say its now over £17 on play and amazon.  Rubbish!  You can't always predict these things, but after a while you start to get a sense of what something is worth when you've seen it appear on enough websites for a while. 

Zavvi.com/ thehut.com

These sites are basically the same and I think under the same umbrella.  Some of you will remember when Zavvi briefly took over the failed Virgin megastores in our high streets.  There was a short stint of their oppressive green logo facing off against HMV before they also folded.  Now they exist on the internet as an fantastic example of the powers of darkness.  If you google search something like problem with zavvi or the hut you will find unending accounts of people being ripped off by these sites.  The two major recurring complaints are 1) damaged goods (i.e broken cases, boxes that look like they've been kicked to your front door (think the beginning of Ace Venture Pet Detective)).  And 2) Items not in stock and a slew of misleading emails.  I attempted to buy from Zavvi once, and never again.  I was fell prey to problem 2.  I tried to order Watchmen 2 disc directors cut on blu-ray.  This was in their sale for about £7.50 which is a pretty good price for a blu-ray that I suspect might disappear in time (as did the ultimate cut).  The directors cut is a better, longer film and has much nicer box art than the single disc edition - so I thought I'd give it a shot.  Smooth transaction - great.  No shipping confirmation for days, and days, and days.  Eventually (9 days I think) I get an e-mail saying that zavvi were delayed on dispatches because they were moving into a bigger warehouse and that the blu-ray was awaiting stock picking.  Not great.  A couple more days pass and I get another automated email saying it hadn't been dispatched because they were having problems with their supplier.  After googling and learning about the travesty that is zavvi and how so many other people have been fobbed off with the same automated emails I wrote a ranty message to zavvi basically demanding a quick resolution or my money back.  I don't mind being given a reason and having to wait, but being given two contradictory reasons for the problem is an open announcement that they are lying in at least one of those messages.  I cancelled the sale and days later got a personal e-mail from zavvi offering a pseudo-apology that i had had a disappointing experience with them. Urgh.  They have a reputation for advertising things - especially in their 'sales' and just not having them in stock.  This seems so clearly absurd.  How can they possibly function without having a web team that updates website info as and when items sell out?  Avoid.

CEX (uk.webuy.com)

You might have seen CEX (computer exchange I think?) on your high street.  It is like a well organised cash convertors that deals exclusively in film, video games and tech (ipods etc). The stores have that distinct smell of stolen goods/ front for illegal activity about them, but to the best of my knowledge they are better than your average dodgy retailer -they've existed since the 80s I think and expanded, finding their way into the grotty part of most high streets.  I'm familiar with Brighton and Watford's stores and they are always busy, so must be doing something right.  The stores have never struck me as being particularly worthwhile, but the website is almost great!  The success of CEX is that you can search or browse and they will tell you if they have the item in stock and in which store.  Punch in blade runner for example and it will tell me that they have the dvd in camden, ashford, etc...  They also seem to have a central supply which offers most of what they have for online purchase.  The selection is much more random than amazon as it depends on whatever tat people have exchanged in their stores for drug money, but it is worth looking.  I've ordered things twice from the website - and here's where it goes a bit rubbish. Having failed to buy watchmen from amazon and zavvi I finally found it on CEX site for about £8.  The purchase was smooth because....they take PAYPAL - brilliant.  However, they charge £2.50 delivery on a film (compare this with amazon's £1.26 standard on marketplace sellers).  The dispatch happened within 12 hours of purchase - with an email notifying me - nice.  The blu-ray arrived after a few days.  I thought at £2.50 it was too slow - should have been first class really.  I open it and to my dismay they've sent the wrong version - they've sent the two disc standard edition (not the directors cut).  ARGH!  This is my third attempt to buy this film online! Whhhyy!  However, I open up the case to find the directors cut disc plus second disc inside in as new condition.  What the heck is going on?  So I got the right film in the wrong box!  I was pretty irritated at this as I really like the artwork for the directors cut box, and this kills any resale value.  Nevertheless, by this point I had stopped caring enough and didn't send it back.  I didn't fancy the complication of trying to explain to some poor CEX worker that I wanted those discs but a different box that they probably didn't have.  I gave up and watched the deranged near-masterpiece that is watchmen director's cut (the owl ship sex scene is still horribly awkward, and some of the violence unnecessary but the film is unlike anything else).  My second attempt to buy from CEX was for the now out of print 2004 Marx Brothers collection (green box with their later films).  The region 2 version of this box set goes for obscene prices on ebay and amazon (£50-100), so when I saw it on the CEX site for £8 I dove in and bought it immediately.  I knew something was up when I didn't get the prompt dispatch email as I had with watchmen.  In fact about 5 days passed and I finally got the 'I'm afraid we don't seem to have this in stock' e-mail.  Really? It seems awfully like someone caught on to the fact that this box set was worth a whole lot more money than they were selling it for and subsequently cancelled my sale.  This happened to me on ebay with the same marx brothers box set - a guy selling it only to email me and say 'I went to get it to send it to you, only to realise my sister had given it to my brother in law and I didn't know'. But this was the only thing he had listed on ebay!  What person lists something for sale on ebay that they don't actually have, and haven't bothered to check prior to listing! Sneaks.  It seems plausible that some one hastily lists something, not realising its potential value as an out of print or rare item, and then decides to cancel the purchase because they know they could sell it for more.  I might just be unlucky with the Marx brothers, but I like my theory.  If someone does this there's pretty much nothing you can do. I was disappointed with CEX as I was hoping they might become a regular place to order from.  I'm prepared to try again if I see a good purchase on there as they have been great with payments through paypal and refunding me for the marx brothers cock up.  Fingers crossed...

I've run out of steam - I still have to talk about ebay, but it will have to wait.