My wife is obsessed with dolls. It began with our daughter when she was young. We’d buy her baby dolls, Monster High Dolls, My Little Pony Dolls, etc. and so forth, and yes we bought her lots of Barbie dolls. My wife always enjoyed playing dolls with our daughter (whereas I always tended to make them fight each other) and the obsession grew out of that.
My wife also enjoys sewing. She used to sew for herself and then when our daughter was born she’s make all sorts of cute dresses for her. But my daughter no longer likes dresses. She’s more of a cargo pants and sweatshirt girl these days. So, the wife started sewing for the dolls. At first, it was just a few dresses for fun and then it turned into something else.
She makes all sorts of amazing outfits for the Barbie dolls, then poses them and takes some really cool photos. She got herself an Instagram account and posts the best ones there. Apparently, there is a whole doll world on Instagram (called Dollstagram naturally) where fans create stories, and swap ideas and whatnot. It is all beyond me, but she loves it and I think that is awesome.
Naturally, we went to see the Barbie movie in the theaters. I gotta admit, I really enjoyed it. The film is clever and funny and it has something to say beyond “you should buy more dolls.” Some of its messaging is a little on the nose and that monologue everyone is talking about felt a little too preachy to my ears (though admittedly it is all true), but mostly it is quite good.
It came out on Blu-ray today in a variety of formats and versions and it is absolutely my Pick of the Week.
Also, out this week that looks interesting:
The Last Voyage of the Demeter: Bram Stoker’s Dracula has been adapted, remade, and reimaged a million times. What this film does is it takes one tiny part of the story (Dracula’s voyage from Carpathia to England) and makes an entire movie of it. Results are mixed.
Haunted Mansion: A Disneyland ride is turned into a kid-friendly, star-studded, and somewhat enjoyable movie.
Todd Browning’s Sideshow Shockers: The Criterion Channel is releasing three early films from Dracula (1931) director Tood Browning. The films are The Mystic (1925), The Unknown (1927), and Freaks (1932). I’ve only seen Freaks but it’s terrific.
The Way We Were (50th Anniversary Edition): Robert Redford and Barbara Streisand star in this Sydney Pollack-directed drama about two people in love who are driven apart by their political convictions.
The Walking Dead Complete Collection: This show should have been right up my alley. I love zombies. I’ve read (some of) the comics. I enjoyed the first season but found the second one a dreadful bore and couldn’t make it through the first half of the third season. I’m surprised it was so successful and launched so many spin-offs. Obviously, some folks love it and now you can have the entire series.
The Desperate Hours: Humphrey Bogart stars in this terrific crime flick as a desperate convict on the lam who hides out inside a house owned by Frederic March.
The Wicker Man: Best Buy recently announced that they will no longer be selling movies of any sort in their stores or online. With this package, they are going out with a bang. This classic horror film is being exclusively sold by Best Buy in a new 4K edition chocked full of extras.
themidnightcafe.org 
At 13:49–13:50 in the movie there appears to be an audio mastering error for the Blu-ray (and maybe the DVD and 4K UHD as well). The “said that” in Barbie’s line “I don’t know why I just said that” is muffled, both in Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (audio 1) and Dolby Digital 5.1 (audio 2). It’s this way on both our Blu-ray players and my PC Laewo Blu-ray player. I didn’t notice that with any other line in the movie. I don’t remember how it sounded in the theater.
Or it could be that Margot Robbie kind of flubbed her enunciation.
Love the movie, too. Saw it twice in the theater and bought the Blu-ray on Day 1. If I ever get a 4K UHD player I’d be tempted to double-dip for the 4K disc because the colors are psychedelic. 😵💫
Interesting. I don’t remember how the line sounded in the theater either. I haven’t bought the Blu-ray yet, but I’m sure it is coming.
I’ve been on the fence about 4K players. I mean they look great I’m just not sure I want to spent the money and then have to think about upgrading all my old movies. But it really is likely the last physical media we’ll ever get as I feel like everything is going to move to streaming within a few years and physical media will be only for weird collectors like me. Or course, I don’t really know anything.
From what I have read the Panasonic DP-UB820-K is the one under $509 to get unless you want to pay twice the price for its higher model, which is more solidly built and apparently a little quieter. Best Buy matches Amazon prices, which are about $424; Best Buy fluctuates between that and $499. Best Buy’s geek squad warranty seems better for the money than Amazon‘s optional extended warranty. The Panasonics can do all the HDR formats, whereas the Sony ones don’t. I think Sony plays SACD if you need that, but the Panasonics can play FLAC files. Reviews say the upscaling of the Panasonic player for standard DVDs and Blu-rays is awesome on a 4K TV.
I meant $500 not $509.
Thanks. All of that is totally out of my price range right now. There is a website that will crack the region codes on them for you so that you can buy disks from Europe and whatever. I’ve been wanting to do that forever so I figure if I ever get around to that I’ll upgrade to 4K as well.
I like the idea of the better picture quality and they really do look amazing when I browse the store showrooms, but I also know that I have no problem watching some bootlegged VHS copy of obscure Italian horror on Mega or whatever. So maybe picture quality just isn’t that big of a dealt to me. Or that’s what I tell myself when I look at those price tags.