What Are You Watching?

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#79195

Discuss your current viewing here.

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  • #79086

    I discovered Rick and Morty is on HBO max and thought I’d give it a shot: it’s now one of my top 5 television comedies of all time.

    The writing is so fucking good! I can’t believe it was there all those years and I wrote it off as the “in thing” so never bothered to check it out. I was expecting Family Guy style humor but it’s much closer to early Simpsons (with gore and fart jokes tossed in).

    I ended up buying season 5 on Prime (I never purchase shows) since it isn’t available on HBO yet….one episode left.

    Also just started West World, so far it’s pretty good.

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  • #79190

    The first episode of the new GamesMaster is on YouTube and it’s surprisingly okay.  It’s not taking itself seriously at all and feels like it captures the spirit of the original series quite well.

     

  • #79194

    Yeah we discussed it a bit in the gaming thread. I think it’s a great reboot, it captures the spirit of the original but with updates and modernisations where necessary.

  • #79220

    So I finished Cowboy Bebop… Here’s the big picture:

    Yes, it’s flawed but its heart is very much in the right place. What makes it work is the very good main cast and their very good chemestry between them, particulary between Spike and Jet… yeah Cho’s age is a bit distracting at times, but he really really got into the character so I’ll give him a pass. Shakir is perfect as Jet… Faye is a bit more all over the place but it works.

    The rather big issue with the show comes from, IIRC, the new material in the form of all the side plot concerning Julia and Vicious… the actors are fine, but it’s just a bad idea for several reasons: it’s unnecessary, it takes away from the mystery and it breaks the pace of the show, plus it makes the show longer than it should be.

    The second issue for me was some of the visual aspect of the show… it looks a bit weird here and there. I wish they would’ve made more of an effort in making the show feel more sci-fi by better integrating more futuristic elements in the world… at times it just feels too modern day and pedestrian and its kind of distracting.

    But it’s a very solid effort, and specially, you can feel it’s not a cash grab, it really is passion project, wich helps a lot in giving them more leeway. That said, I can understand why a lot of people won’t like it, although I think the low scores are a bit exagerated, it’s not as bad as that, but I couldn’t say it’s great either.

    IF they get a second season, I hope they’ll focus A LOT more on the main trio and their bounty hunter adventures, because that’s really when the show shines the most as they get to interact between them the most.

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  • #79299

    Red Notice

    A total, total dud.  Avoid.

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  • #79302

    I saw the new Disney Animated movie, Encanto, which was great. Super charming, lovely animation, and decent songs (listening to them again on the soundtrack album now).

    It seems to have flown under the radar a bit, the cinema employee checking vaccine certs had never even heard of it until today, and I haven’t seen much advertising for it.

    It’ll be on D+ Christmas Eve, well worth checking out then.

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  • #79316

    Red Notice

    A total, total dud. Avoid.

    Well, there’s Gal Gadot in a bathing suit, so…

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  • #79511

    I finally got around to watching the first five episodes of the current season (S9) of The Blacklist.

    I have to admit, it was pretty good. It feels like a weight has been lifted with Liz gone and her trying to learn Red’s secrets. That constantly repeating cycle really wore the show down and became quite tedious.

    The dynamic has changed as Dembe, now an FBI agent, is kind taking Liz’s role. He has his foot in both worlds but because he knows Red’s deepest secrets, there isn’t that annoying dance of trying to get him to reveal something about his past.

    With Liz dead, the mystery of Red is now irrelevant. She drove that train and with her gone, it really doesn’t matter anymore. I mean, they could reveal it now but it has lost its impact because Liz is not there to hear it.

    Also with Liz gone and not sucking up the screen time, the ready of cast is getting more development.

    Losing Liz is probably the best thing to happen to the show.

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  • #79519

    So did they ever reveal who Red actually is/his connection to Liz before killing her? I still reckon he is her mother post sex change.

  • #79522

    I watched the new Mortal Kombat movie. It’s a great shit-but-good B-movie that knows exactly what it’s doing and does it well. I enjoyed it a lot.

  • #79560

    So did they ever reveal who Red actually is/his connection to Liz before killing her? I still reckon he is her mother post sex change.

    No, they didn’t. Liz died never learning the truth.

    They really leaned into hinting that Red was her mother toward the end of last season but never confirmed it.

  • #79568

    Wait, so they’ve been stringing everyone along for a fuckin decade and they didn’t even bother revealing it? Laaaaaaaaaame…

  • #79616

    Wait, so they’ve been stringing everyone along for a fuckin decade and they didn’t even bother revealing it? Laaaaaaaaaame…

    I figure when the show is canceled, they will reveal the truth on the series finale. Unfortunately, I don’t think it will matter at that point.

  • #79637

    Well no, it won’t… it was important because of the Liz character… I mean, I guess it will matter to whoever (viewers, not characters) still cares at that point, but still… they should’ve wrapped that whole thing.

  • #79662

    Finished Foundation. I really enjoyed it. Some of the stuff on Terminus was a bit pointless but I loved the scale of it all. Lee Pace is amazing to watch. I’d love if this kicked off some hard sci shows.

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  • #79664

    Yeah Foundation was pretty good, albeit with some weird pacing, although I suppose it was more due to the nature of the story and the timelines rather than incopetence. Don’t know the books at all, but it was intriguing enough that I hope it gets a 2nd season. It’s no The Expanse, but good enough I suppose…

  • #79700

    I saw House of Gucci, which is a strange film. It’s mostly a very traditional “rise-and-fall” movie, but with an absolutely deranged Jared Leto performance, where he feels like he’s playing a Wario/Waluigi-style OTT caricature.

    The odd thing is that it works for me, and he’s the most enjoyable aspect of the entire movie, despite feeling like he’s from a completely different universe. The Adam Driver and Lady Gaga stuff is fine, but after a while it gets into standard marriage/crime-type stuff that’s been done to death. Leto’s doing something no-one has done before, because someone would have stopped them from doing it.

    There’s also the odd aspect that Ridley Scott feels completely uninterested in the whole assassination aspect of the story, which would usually be the hook. It’s mostly an afterthought here, coming in close to the end and then skipping forward a few years to say and then they were found guilty and went to prison, with absolutely no exploration of what happened in between.

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  • #79705

    The Last Duel: I really liked this movie. Ridley Scotts inane comments about “kids and their smartphones” aside, I have a hard time seeing how this movie flopped as bad as it did. It is well done, well acted, well written, with great costumes, sets and locations. What’s not to like?

    Sure, there are some minor issues with pacing, having the movie served up as different versions of the same events one after the other might not work for everyone, and it does drag on for a bit.

    One of the most captivating movies I’ve seen all year, although nowhere near the top (Dune, Pig, The Green Knight)…

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  • #79723

    The Last Duel: I really liked this movie. Ridley Scotts inane comments about “kids and their smartphones” aside, I have a hard time seeing how this movie flopped as bad as it did. It is well done, well acted, well written, with great costumes, sets and locations. What’s not to like?

    Sure, there are some minor issues with pacing, having the movie served up as different versions of the same events one after the other might not work for everyone, and it does drag on for a bit.

    One of the most captivating movies I’ve seen all year, although nowhere near the top (Dune, Pig, The Green Knight)…

    I don’t think the studio advertised well or pushed it much. I only saw a few commercials for it. I barely saw any talk about it online. What ads I did see just didn’t grab me.

    I honestly think it flew under everyone’s radar. It could also be that with people venturing out to theaters again, they are looking for more escapist fun, not a serious period drama.

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  • #79727

    I don’t think the studio advertised well or pushed it much. I only saw a few commercials for it. I barely saw any talk about it online. What ads I did see just didn’t grab me. I honestly think it flew under everyone’s radar. It could also be that with people venturing out to theaters again, they are looking for more escapist fun, not a serious period drama.

    I’ve seen a fair bit of ads for it but almost exclusively on the internet, youtube trailers and such. (Not that surprising seeing as all I do is hang around on the internet.)

    I do think you’re right though, in both respects.

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  • #79728

    I’ve seen a fair bit of ads for it but almost exclusively on the internet, youtube trailers and such.

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  • #79766

    I’ve seen a fair bit of ads for it but almost exclusively on the internet, youtube trailers and such.

    The sweater turtleneck Team Zissou Klaus Daimler (Willem Dafoe) in The life  aquatic | Spotern

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  • #79777

    I’ve seen a fair bit of ads for it but almost exclusively on the internet, youtube trailers and such.

    The sweater turtleneck Team Zissou Klaus Daimler (Willem Dafoe) in The life  aquatic | Spotern

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  • #79786

    For non-Americans, The Last Duel is now on Disney+: https://www.disneyplus.com/en-gb/movies/the-last-duel/45hE0MfqpDER

    Probably Ridley Scott’s second-best film ever, after Alien.

  • #79830

    For non-Americans, The Last Duel is now on Disney+:

    Great, that means I can watch it on my phone.

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  • #79859

    For non-Americans, The Last Duel is now on Disney+:

    Great, that means I can watch it on my phone.

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  • #79862

    Great, that means I can watch it on my phone.

    Ridley is too genteel, Dave; I’m giving Martin Scorsese your home address!

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  • #79904

    Watched the irish film Grabbers during the night. Good fun, but not quite reaching the absolute absurdity and joy of Extra Ordinary. Lots and lots of references to other monster movies throughout. Not parodies of them, just references, like a throwaway line here or there. Recommend!

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  • #80120

    Saw Ron’s Gone Wrong. It was more fun than I expected, and a perfect way to cap off a shit day at home. It’s 20th Century Animation and it didn’t exactly pull on the heartstrings the way Pixar movies do. But still, some good laughs and some solid social media satire at its core. Recommend!

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  • #80123

    Saw Ron’s Gone Wrong. It was more fun than I expected, and a perfect way to cap off a shit day at home. It’s 20th Century Animation and it didn’t exactly pull on the heartstrings the way Pixar movies do. But still, some good laughs and some solid social media satire at its core. Recommend!

    Yeah, we watched that one with the kids and enjoyed it. Better than average for that kind of thing.

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  • #80172

    I watched The Last Duel tonight.

    While it took a little while to get going I ended up finding it very engaging – it has a good script that plays with the modern relevance of the story as well as some interesting period details, it has interesting and nuanced characters with decent performances from the leads, and being Ridley Scott it obviously looks great.

    While it’s 2.5 hours long I can’t say for sure what I’d cut from it without losing something.

    One of those films that demands a certain investment and level of attention but which I think repays it.

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  • #80176

    While it’s 2.5 hours long I can’t say for sure what I’d cut from it without losing something.

    Same.

    I was thinking it a bit gratuitous to have the rape scene in there twice. Is the movie really elevated by showing both his and her perspective on it? They didn’t differ by much, except for the grueling pain she went through being more obviosu in her truth. Would it suffice to show hers? Not sure.

  • #80182

    While it’s 2.5 hours long I can’t say for sure what I’d cut from it without losing something.

    Same.

    I was thinking it a bit gratuitous to have the rape scene in there twice. Is the movie really elevated by showing both his and her perspective on it? They didn’t differ by much, except for the grueling pain she went through being more obviosu in her truth. Would it suffice to show hers? Not sure.

    I actually thought there were some interesting subtle differences there – I thought it was clever the way the staging of it in his version mirrors the ‘playing hard to get’ game he had with the girl at the orgy, and Comer’s slightly different line readings (less forceful refusals in his version) and reactions (in terms of obvious distress and pain) between the two versions make quite a bit of difference in how it plays. It’s quite well done in that the script seems to be identical in both versions but the tone of the two scenes ends up feeling significantly different to me.

  • #80184

    While it’s 2.5 hours long I can’t say for sure what I’d cut from it without losing something.

    Same.

    I was thinking it a bit gratuitous to have the rape scene in there twice. Is the movie really elevated by showing both his and her perspective on it? They didn’t differ by much, except for the grueling pain she went through being more obviosu in her truth. Would it suffice to show hers? Not sure.

    I actually thought there were some interesting subtle differences there – I thought it was clever the way the staging of it in his version mirrors the ‘playing hard to get’ game he had with the girl at the orgy, and Comer’s slightly different line readings (less forceful refusals in his version) and reactions (in terms of obvious distress and pain) between the two versions make quite a bit of difference in how it plays. It’s quite well done in that the script seems to be identical in both versions but the tone of the two scenes ends up feeling significantly different to me.

    You’re absolutely right, I just think that the rape scene is a bit hard to watch… And not in the good way. (I guess I’m triggered?)

    But it kinda plays out like that in many scenes, with subtle differences. The kiss Le Gris gets from Marguerite on Carrouges’ behest was a nice touch for that.

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  • #80187

    Oh absolutely, it’s a hard watch both times but somehow even worse the second time when you know what’s coming. It justifies the approach, I think.

    And yes I loved some of the other differences, often quite subtle – the way Damon’s character sees himself compared to how everyone else sees him is very amusing at times.

    Plus Ben Affleck is clearly having fun with his character.

    The only thing I found a bit distracting about the movie was the accents. They were a bit all over the place, like they didn’t want to have American accents but also didn’t want British so ended up with this weird mid-Atlantic non-descript accent (reminiscent of Robin Hood Prince Of Thieves) but with an occasional French twang.

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  • #80189

    Oh absolutely, it’s a hard watch both times but somehow even worse the second time when you know what’s coming. It justifies the approach, I think.

    Yeah, I’m not saying it isn’t justified as such. It’s not like some other definitely gratuitous rape scenes that could’ve well been alluded to without having been shown on screen (looking at you, Game of Thrones). The scene is supposed to be hard to watch. I was just pondering what I would cut from it…

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  • #80192

    I guess for the conceit to work you really have to show the entire scene both times. By that point in the movie, an attentive audience is going to be very attuned to even minor differences in the two versions, and so any moments you lose from one you’d have to lose from the other.

    This means some of it is a little bit repetitive (like the way they initially trick her to gain entrance, which is basically the same in both versions) but if you didn’t show that the second time you’d be wondering about why you hadn’t seen it and what that meant.

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  • #80193

    an attentive audience

    Ridley Scott confirmed new alien movie: Alien: Phone bad : r/PhonesAreBad

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  • #80194

    Ha!

    It’s kind of funny listening to the full version of that Marc Maron/Ridley Scott podcast because in context those comments from Scott weren’t really about phones specifically as much as they were about how receptive Scott thought the younger part of the audience would be to some of the ideas in the film.

    He talks about younger viewers not being prepared to learn something unless it’s through a phone (or words to that effect), which is where the quote comes from. But he really seemed to be getting at how reductive and simplistic a lot of public discourse is these days (which obviously clashes with some of the complexities and ambiguities in this film), rather than him having a problem with people using phones specifically and blaming that for the film’s poor box office.

    The fact that this was then reported as “OMG Ridley Scott says Last Duel flopped because phones” kind of makes his point I think.

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  • #80196

    Nah, it was all Marvel’s fault.

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  • #80197

    Kevin Feiglinge

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  • #80243

    Wait, so they’ve been stringing everyone along for a fuckin decade and they didn’t even bother revealing it? Laaaaaaaaaame…

    Well, I took the viewpoint that it didn’t matter who he was, Red is a badass and James Spader crushes it being him. I skimmed through Season 8 and couldn’t wait for Season 9. In the premiere, she was nothing more than a plot point to get Red to work with the task force but somehow she became the writers darling. That actress thought she was the co star but she was acted off the stage in scenes with Spader and Lennix(Cooper). This show would have been a huge hit if she had just understand her role and followed Red around as they captured Blacklisters.

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  • #80268

    I don’t think it’s the actress’ fault. She worked with what the writers gave her. And it just so happens she was less charismatic than most everyone else on the show. Still, the writers did make a huge deal about her connection to Red from episode one until I don’t know when. That’s on them for failing to see it through or just ending it early on.

    I think I was fine with Liz up until they wrote Tom off the show. Then it all got really tedious. I gave up at the end of that season because the overarching mystery of that season, and the show in general, were just falling flat. Which, again, is the fault of the writers. It’s good to hear that the show is fun again now that Liz isn’t part of it, though.

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  • #80285

    Holidate starring Emma Roberts and some Aussie guy who was apparently Cobra Commander in GI Joe: Retaliation(?!). It’s fine as far romcom fluff goes. Some decent gags and characters.

    It doesn’t really seem to get its own central premise though. The “Holidate” is explained as just being a meaningless, disposable date to take to holiday events to feel like less of a loser and deflect questions about why you’re single, set-ups etc. So it doesn’t really work if you tell everyone that your holidate is that, which Sloane (Roberts) does, meaning she still gets harangued by her mother etc. Stretched out across a year of holidays, it doesn’t make much sense compared to if it had been, say, just Thanksgiving through New Year.

    Also, the film sets itself up to have a great subtle cameo moment when Sloane angrily saying that Ryan Gosling wouldn’t do his own shopping (it makes sense in context) and some guy is in shot behind her looking at ice creams and silently reacting with a dubious expression. If that had actually been Ryan Gosling, as I initially thought, just out of focus in the back of shot, that’d have been excellent. But it’s just some random extra.

  • #80300

    Watching some previous Cobra Kai on Netflix and getting ready for season 4 on Dec. 31st…

    Speaking of Netflix:

    You get the feeling they regret buying Millarworld for millions given that Jupiter Legacy flopped?

  • #80330

    Speaking of Netflix: You get the feeling they regret buying Millarworld for millions given that Jupiter Legacy flopped?

    Probably not, they’ve still got shitloads of MW properties to mine, and most of them are unconnected from each other, so one flop probably doesn’t matter that much in the grand scheme of things.

  • #80331

    For some reason Netflix added Executive Decision last week, and I remember enjoying it in a this is bad but fun sorta way when I saw it in the cinema… And it holds up pretty good. There are zero frills, very few gimmicks (the main one being that Stephen Segal is given high billing and dies like 25 minutes in). But it’s a good, tense actioner that derives much of its tension form the setup rather than big shootouts. And it is chock full of hey it’s that guy guys – Andreas Katsulas plays the muslim terrorist the plane hijackers want freed, the special forces team includes Miles Dyson from T2 and BD Wong, Ken Jennings plays a general… David Suchet, fuckin’ Poirot is the leader of the terrorists on the plane!

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  • #80342

    You get the feeling they regret buying Millarworld for millions given that Jupiter Legacy flopped?

    Somehow, I doubt they spent that much on it… I mean, it’s MW, not DC. Millar’s a good idea man, I’m sure they’ll get something worth out of it, even if it turns out to be a VERY loose adaptation, like Wanted for example.

  • #80346

    You get the feeling they regret buying Millarworld for millions given that Jupiter Legacy flopped?

    Somehow, I doubt they spent that much on it… I mean, it’s MW, not DC. Millar’s a good idea man, I’m sure they’ll get something worth out of it, even if it turns out to be a VERY loose adaptation, like Wanted for example.

    The deal came out to about $31M

    https://bamsmackpow.com/2019/06/16/mark-millar-sells-millarworld-empire-netflix-eight-figure-deal/

  • #80382

    The deal came out to about $31M

    Well there you go, that’s pocket change for Netflix…

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  • #80435

    Yup it’s a lot of money for Millar and his pals (he’s said a couple of the artists have semi retired on it) but it is change down the sofa for Netflix who spend $10m an episode on a big show. For context because big numbers can often be hard for us to fathom it is 0.8% of what Disney paid for Marvel.

    I agree with Dave that they bought a stable of ideas and just because one didn’t work doesn’t throw the whole deal in the bin. I liken it to something like Stephen King, a lot of his adaptations are poor and don’t do well and some are great and people carry on adapting even if the last one was a flop.

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  • #80440

    https://www.cbr.com/jupiters-legacy-lessons-to-learn-netflix/

    Ok 31M is small relatively speaking…

    Is MM single these days? 😂

    Ok…

    It is true that there are more ideas to glean, but it seems they thought they had the next big thing when they went for a live action Jupiter Legacy. It might have worked another time but now with all this Marvel and DC…

    Anyway, here is a link on what the show apparently should have been:

    https://www.cbr.com/super-crooks-jupiters-legacy-should-be-anime/amp/

    • This reply was modified 3 years ago by Al-x.
  • #80447

    It is true that there are more ideas to glean, but it seems they thought they had the next big thing when they went for a live action Jupiter Legacy. It might have worked another time but now with all this Marvel and DC…

    I think arguably these ‘dark’ superhero shows have a better opportunity to succeed when the mainstream stuff is thriving. It creates a situation where the audience is familiar with the standard tropes and conventions so that they can more easily be subverted.

    The Boys has been hugely popular, for example.

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  • #80449

    Yup and truth be told Jupiter’s Legacy (the TV show) was just too slow. I suspect a lot of people found the opening episodes a bit of a slog as it did shoot to the top of the most watched shows on the day of release.

    Which suggests it’s less the subject matter and more the quality of the treatment.  There are hundreds of police shows on TV every year and some of them are great and do well and some of them aren’t and don’t.

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  • #80467

    Yeah Jupiter’s Legacy was an unfortunate case of “too little, too late”, I think… but hey, Super Crooks looks like a legit banger with potential to go very big, specially now after the success of Arcane, so they might make their money back on that one alone =P

  • #80476

    Saw the Resident Evil reboot at the cinema last night. It looked cheap as shit in places, everyone delivered their lines as though they were suffering from an emotionally imbalancing brain disease, and it was essentially a checklist of “you remember this from the first two games”. All that said though it nippped along at a decent pace and it was a fun, exceptionally stupid, romp.

  • #80501

    Finally got up to date with Succession. Still enjoying it a lot, although this third season has been a slight step down from the first two. It feels a bit stuck in a holding pattern. I hope the finale does something that will genuinely shake things up.

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  • #80589

    For non-Americans, The Last Duel is now on Disney+: https://www.disneyplus.com/en-gb/movies/the-last-duel/45hE0MfqpDER

    Probably Ridley Scott’s second-best film ever, after Alien.

    Which is weird, because Alien was actually Ridley Scott’s second-best film :-)

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  • #80599

    I saw The Matrix in cinemas a few days ago, which was a great experience. I’ve seen it a load of times, but never on the big screen before. One of my favourite-ever movies, and it still holds up great. I also finally saw the Resurrections trailer when they showed it before that, and am looking forward to seeing that.

    I saw the new West Side Story yesterday. It obviously owes a lot to the 1961 version, but I think this is the better movie. I like the original, but never fully connected with it. The changes made to the story mostly worked for me, and the performances were mostly fantastic. Ariana DeBose as Anita and Mike Faist as Riff are the best performances, but the only real weak point is Elgort as Tony, and even he’s not that bad, just not as good as everyone else.

    I’ll probably rewatch the original again in the next few days to see how it holds up after seeing this version, but I already want to rewatch the Spielberg movie.

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  • #80608

    I also saw the new Matrix trailer and am looking forward to it. At the time that #2 and #3 came out, the fans on forums were arguing whether the films properly addressed the whole free will thing. I hope that maybe this new movie will provide some satisfactory answers and some closure as well.

    I saw the Cobra Kai trailer too.
    No CK fans here? Shame.

    You’re all too young anyway, to have watched the original Karate Kid in the 80’s back in the day. Strange about this series: It started as an old character getting his life back together and teaching a high school kid how to defend himself. Now, 4 seasons later, the series has become a glorified gang war.

  • #80610

    You’re all too young anyway, to have watched the original Karate Kid in the 80’s back in the day.

    Yes, nobody on this young and happening forum was alive in the ’80s.

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  • #80611

    Wax on, wax off!

  • #80612

    You’re all too young anyway, to have watched the original Karate Kid in the 80’s back in the day.

    Yes, nobody on this young and happening forum was alive in the ’80s.

    😂

    Touché!

    You got me good there!

    Using my own material against me…

    😂

    • This reply was modified 3 years ago by Al-x.
  • #80613

    Wax on, wax off!

    Are you masturbating again?

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  • #80615

    I hope that maybe this new movie will provide some satisfactory answers and some closure as well.

    The already did that in the OG sequels.

  • #80619

    Nothing wrong with it! And you have to make sure the pipes are clear!

    Alas, I believe after 50 I am no longer in contention for the title of King.
    But previously? Slept perfectly every night, thank you.

    Some of us weren’t lucky enough to be invited to Miss McGill’s

    Edit: removed pic and made it a link. Forgot what’s been happening on the forum lately.

  • #80626

    So I went ahead and rewatched the entirety of Fringe before my HBOmax expires…

    I wish I could say I love it, but it has that annoying pre-10’s issue of writers just pulling random shit out of their sleeves, which makes for an ultimately messy story-line that just doesn’t hold up to any logical scrutiny… and it’s kind of a shame because the premise is great, the cast is great, the characters are really great, and the show tends to be great (if a bit too episodic and repetitive at times).

    I was hoping that stuff would make more sense when watching it as a whole, but nah… I mean, I suppose you can “explain” most things by reaaaally stretching out the narrative logic, but even then, the ending makes NO SENSE at all, for example.

    Still, in the end it’s probably not as bad as Lost, it’s just very poorly thought-through and perhaps a cautionnary tale about not chewing more than you can swallow. But I suppose that if you’re the type of person who can overlook the glaring narrative discrepancies and just focus on the smaller-scale stuff, it IS a wonderful show… just don’t think too much about it =P

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  • #80629

    Still, in the end it’s probably not as bad as Lost, it’s just very poorly thought-through and perhaps a cautionnary tale about not chewing more than you can swallow. But I suppose that if you’re the type of person who can overlook the glaring narrative discrepancies and just focus on the smaller-scale stuff, it IS a wonderful show… just don’t think too much about it =P

    One of the things I appreciated about FRINGE as compared to LOST is that they at least attempted to tie up loose ends in the final season, by (for instance) using weaponry that the Fringe unit attained in the first season to achieve their goals in the final season. It made it seem like this was all part of the plan from the beginning (whether or not that was actually the case), and I loved that JJ they made the effort to tie it all together to close the series out. I got the feeling that JJ Abrams and company learned from their mistakes in LOST and tried to be more cohesive and comprehensive with FRINGE.

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    Ben
  • #80630

    Oh yeah for sure… in fact, there are no real mysteries left hanging by the time it ends (not that the series relied on long term mysteries anyways) and I’m pretty sure there are no loose ends either, in terms of plot points at least… 4th season is very weak because it’s repetitive and a bit boring, but the final 5th season is pretty self-contained and much stronger, plus they really do a good job of bringing into play a lot of elements from the whole series, like you said. It obviously also has a good emotional payoff for the characters.

    The issues with the show come in terms of the show’s internal logic in regards to all of the time-traveling and dimension-hopping to the point where none of it makes any sense. But like I said, if you can just take everyhting at face value, it’s a non-issue… but since the whole gimmick of the show are those time-travel and dimension-hopping things, it’s very disappointing that they didn’t give them more thought… most of it was solveable by a couple of tweaks here and there… but either it got too confusing for the writers’ room(s) or they just didn’t care about it, I don’t know.

    Once I finished, I spent a couple of hours trying to come up with a semi-rational explanation, trying to tie all the dots together, but the best I could do was “it was all part of the good Observer’s plan”, and sure, you can kind of shove a lot of issues under that umbrella, but not everything… :unsure:

  • #80638

    Super Crooks

    It didn’t feel right in japanese so flicked it over to english, and it lasted all of two minutes due to shitty subtitles.

  • #80643

    Super Crooks

    It didn’t feel right in japanese so flicked it over to english, and it lasted all of two minutes due to shitty subtitles.

    I haven’t gotten around to Super Crooks yet but I’m very apprehensive about it considering it’s 13 episodes. The original comic book series was 4 issues. That is a hell of a lot of padding though the anime is supposed to be a prequel and adaptation of the comic book.

    I have so much other stuff to watch that it will be some time before I get to it.

  • #80680

    The last great thing I watched was the Beatles: Get Back series. Of course I loved it, of course it’s too long for casual fans, but who I think would really get goodness out of it would be anyone in a band or wanting to be a songwriter. Watching the creative process unfold naturally was amazing, even if you have no interest in the Beatles.

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  • #80687

    Yeah i put Get Back on as a bit of background noise while i was reading, and i ended up glued to the whole thing. It’s fascinating to see songs that are so well known now, being created in almost real-time..

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  • #80690

    I also checked out some of Get Back. Their whole story of their lives and interactions are just as interesting as their music. Hopefully, this will get everyone to stop blaming Yoko who has been an easy target for decades.

    —————

    I have also been watching an old mid 90’s documentary on the rise of the personal computer industry called Triumph of the Nerds.

    Very informative on Gates, Jobs, the mistakes made in business by IBM and Apple…

    I wish they made a modern day follow up documentary picking up from the mid 90’s to now covering the Internet, Google, Amazon, smartphones, etc…

  • #80703

    I wish they made a modern day follow up documentary picking up from the mid 90’s to now covering the Internet, Google, Amazon, smartphones, etc…

    There’s a second documentary by the same host and producers called Nerds 2.0 that covers some of that, but it’s pre dotcom bust so it’s pretty outdated. That said the company they cover the most in it became Amazon…

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  • #80709

    Good Succession finale. Some great writing and performances.

    But I realise now that I’ve screwed myself over by watching all three seasons so far in the last couple of months, as it’s made me want to watch the start of season four tomorrow instead of in two years.

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  • #80729

    Wait that was the finale?? Huh… I thought there was one more episode… =/

  • #80733

    Just nine episodes this season I think.

  • #80739

    I haven’t gotten around to Super Crooks yet but I’m very apprehensive about it considering it’s 13 episodes. The original comic book series was 4 issues. That is a hell of a lot of padding though the anime is supposed to be a prequel and adaptation of the comic book.

    I read that Millar plotted a whole new story for the beginning of the series and the 4 issue mini makes up the last 4 or 5 episodes of the run. I haven’t watched it yet to assess if that works but that does seem preferable to padding out the comic plot to 13 episodes.

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  • #80750

    Currently watching the original non-musical version of Little Shop of Horrors on YouTube.

  • #80751

    Good Succession finale. Some great writing and performances.

    But I realise now that I’ve screwed myself over by watching all three seasons so far in the last couple of months, as it’s made me want to watch the start of season four tomorrow instead of in two years.

    Oh yeah, that was good.

    The “The Watch” podcast released an immediate reaction episode which as usual was very insightful (I miss a lot of stuff, particularly with this show since there’s so much rapid-fire dialogue), and there’s an interview episode with the show’s creator that came out overnight.

  • #80786

    The Succession finale was good. It needed it, but they pulled it off.

    Wow, I know exactly what Siobhan is thinking at the end (she got some help from me yelling at the screen!).

    Season 4 was greenlit after they saw the ratings for the first episode this season, but no idea on their timeframe. Have a feeling early 2023. Looking forward to it, and a proper rewatch prior as I just got into it in the last few months.

    • This reply was modified 2 years, 12 months ago by Sean Robinson.
  • #80813

    I haven’t gotten around to Super Crooks yet but I’m very apprehensive about it considering it’s 13 episodes. The original comic book series was 4 issues. That is a hell of a lot of padding though the anime is supposed to be a prequel and adaptation of the comic book. I have so much other stuff to watch that it will be some time before I get to it.

    Episodes are 20 mins or so though, so it’s not that bad.

    I’m watching it… it’s pretty neat… great animation, cool music… the story is fine so far, but very very anime, if I didn’t know where it comes from, I would’ve assumed it was a random regular JP anime. I’m liking it… I keep switching between JP and ENG on the audio track, and yeah, the subs are VERY different to what they say in english… it’s weird, but common for anime, but it seems the subs are faithful to the JP dialogue. I dunno… :unsure:

  • #80818

    So yeah, finished Super Crooks… it was great, a very fun romp, completely self contained with some really superb animation and one of the best intros ever created. It’s very much worth a watch. It’s pretty crazy I haven’t seen more buzz around it, there’s hardly anything on youtube… but hey, no biggie, it’s a one season deal, so I guess it doesn’t matter, but I hope more people will watch it just because it’s good.

    Oh also: I finally felt represented in a SH story… Loved that 40 year old bald-headed bad-ass Gladiator =P

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  • #80820

    I know Netflix is always customised but it was impossible for me to find Supercrooks without typing into search, it wasn’t in new shows, anime shows, sci-fi and fantasy.

    They do have some strange ways though, on the Pilot TV podcast they question the dozens of shows that just get dropped with zero promotion and the response they got from a Netflix exec was they let things be found organically and via word of mouth. (Although this method seems primarily for shows they didn’t spend a huge amount of money on – the expensive ones always get the banner ad on the front page).

  • #80821

    Kinda what happened to Castlevania, to a point, although I do remember Castlevania getting a lot more publicity and hype, but not that much either. Shame, those two animes are really good, seems kind of a waste to not promote them a bit more.

  • #80827

    I mean there must be some logic behind it. Squid Game was actually one of those they just dumped out there but got publicity through word of mouth.

    I suspect they may feel certain genres like anime or the trashy dramas they put out but rarely publicise have an audience that will find them. In Supercrooks’ case though it would help if they put it in the anime category.

    Anyway I watched the first episode and it’s fun, definitely doesn’t suffer from the Jupiter’s Legacy issue of being ponderous, you get a full origin story in 20 minutes. There’s a typically over the top Millar moment in there mixing a bit of humour with the action.

    I have subs switched on by default on Netflix (noisy kids mean I miss dialogue otherwise) and yeah with an English dub and English subs they are quite different, the subs a bit more adult and less sanitised than the dub.

  • #80829

    I mean there must be some logic behind it. Squid Game was actually one of those they just dumped out there but got publicity through word of mouth.

    I suspect they may feel certain genres like anime or the trashy dramas they put out but rarely publicise have an audience that will find them. In Supercrooks’ case though it would help if they put it in the anime category.

    Anyway I watched the first episode and it’s fun, definitely doesn’t suffer from the Jupiter’s Legacy issue of being ponderous, you get a full origin story in 20 minutes. There’s a typically over the top Millar moment in there mixing a bit of humour with the action.

    I have subs switched on by default on Netflix (noisy kids mean I miss dialogue otherwise) and yeah with an English dub and English subs they are quite different, the subs a bit more adult and less sanitised than the dub.

    I assume Squid Game was promoted heavily in South Korea, but not in other places. (I obviously have no idea, since I don’t live there.)

  • #80830

    I have a little insight as my wife’s account is 90% Korean drama, on there it wasn’t pushed any more than the other hundreds of shows they had. I’m not quite sure what made it very quickly global other than that isn’t difficult to do nowadays via social media.

    In fact today her recommendations have all Korean shows bar one and she doesn’t have it, I have all English language shows and mine does have it under ‘trending’. It’s all a mystery that Netflix logic. 😂

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  • #80950

    I probably won’t be watching until it shows up on Netflix over here, but I was interested to see that It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia seems to be spending the entire back half (four episodes) of their current season in Ireland.

    Has anyone been watching it?

  • #80966

    I probably won’t be watching until it shows up on Netflix over here, but I was interested to see that It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia seems to be spending the entire back half (four episodes) of their current season in Ireland.

    Has anyone been watching it?

    It has been great as always.

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  • #80977

    I’ve not gotten to the Ireland episodes yet but the first four were sadly not that good, other than the one with the monkey and Dee’s acting class. That felt more like the classic years of the show, while the rest seemed really tired and forced.

  • #80980

    Well that’s not what the pub across the road from City Hall looks like, so minus points right from the start.

    • This reply was modified 2 years, 12 months ago by lorcan_nagle.
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  • #81028

    Well that’s not what the pub across the road from City Hall looks like, so minus points right from the start.

    Although that approach to geography in filming it shares with 99% of shows. They always go for what suits the best shots over reality.

    There’s an S4C cop show set in my home town and, even with something made by a Welsh crew, in any chase scene they’ll always turn a corner into a street that’s actually 5 miles away from the first one.

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  • #81029

    Well that’s not what the pub across the road from City Hall looks like, so minus points right from the start.

    Although that approach to geography in filming it shares with 99% of shows. They always go for what suits the best shots over reality.

    There’s an S4C cop show set in my home town and, even with something made by a Welsh crew, in any chase scene they’ll always turn a corner into a street that’s actually 5 miles away from the first one.

    Oh yeah, I’m just taking the piss. My favourite example of weird Dublin geography is in Once, where the characters sit in a café in the George’s Street arcade, then walk to the far end of the arcade, walking out the entrance at that side – only to cut to them walking out the entrance beside the café they were sitting in…

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  • #81067

    Just Another Christmas
    This js a Brazilian comedy movie on Netflix. It’s got an English dub, but I watched the Brazilian sub. I’m not sure anyone at Netflix watched either, as it’s described as a time loop movie, which, erm, it isn’t.

    Instead, it’s a film about Jorge, a guy who was born on Christmas and grew to hate it, ignore it, until he gets married and has kids. Then it becomes a yearly torment of hassle and his wife’s annoying family. Until Jorge falls off the roof dressed as Santa and hits his head. Then it becomes a daily torment, as he finds himself skipping ahead to the next Christmas Eve every day, with no memory of the intervening year (and, in that time, no memory of Christmas Eve).

    Possibly not a particularly original concept – I saw a truly awful Australian film that did the same thing with a guy on his wedding anniversary a few months ago – but it really works.
    The film is properly funny (although in a broad slapstick way at times) but achieves more than that too. There are some really interesting concepts in here, such as Jorge coming to despise and almost being at war with his future self, as he sees his life fall apart around, telling himself this is not my beautiful house, this is not my beautiful wife. It’s an antagonistic dynamic that feels almost Jekyll and Hyde or like Dissociative Personality Disorder, as Jorge becomes almost two different people sharing the same life. There’s also distinct A Christmas Carol elements in the mix.

    It’s interesting that this and that Australian film I can’t be arsed to look up the name of hit some of the same plot points, but Just Another Christmas is more successful at every point. A lot of that is down to the cast, with the actors playing Jorge and his wife Laura being particularly strong and endearing.

    It is very distracting though how it straight up nicks that little musical sting from Back To The Future used whenever something important and time travelly happens.

    Anyway, that aside, I definitely recommend this.

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  • #81073

    I’m rewatching the 1961 West Side Story, which is making me appreciate the Spielberg movie even more. The songs are mostly great, but I constantly struggle to pay attention to the story parts, which are mostly dull. Tony Kushner does a very good job on making that stuff work in the remake.

    Obviously Spielberg had a massive budget for his version, but it’s hard to ignore how much more impressive the staging of the remake is. Even the more contained musical numbers, like “Gee, Officer Krupke” and “I Feel Pretty,” are done in a much more dynamic way. The 1961 movie has most of the actors in Krupke either standing around or sitting for most of the song; the remake, though contained to a small room, makes fantastic use of space.

    There’s some problems shared by both, like how boring Tony is, and the lack of songs in the last half-hour or so, and how interchangeable most of the supporting Jets are, but there’s very little that I prefer in the original to the remake.

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  • #81075

    Okay, I did rather enjoy the Ireland episodes of Its Always Sunny. I cracked at the delivery of the line “An authentic Irish…GET FUCKED!!”. I also marked out for none other than Colm Meaney turning up outta nowhere.

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  • #81143

    Last Train To Christmas is another surprisingly interesting time-shenanigans related Christmas movie, although perhaps ultimately a little unsatisfying. It’s a Sky original, which I’ve seen them advertise as part of the general Christmas promotion but not on its own, which (if they haven’t actually done) is possibly because it’s noy really a Christmas film, it’s a low-key horror film. There’s a definitr Black Mirror vibe (in a good way).

    So the premise is Michael Sheen is Tony Towers, a Stringfellow-esque nightclub owner in 1985, aboard the train from London to Nottingham with his new (younger) fiancé and meeting up with his brother and sister-in-law. Tony discovers that as he moves between carriages on the train, he’s moving up and down his timeline by decade. He starts to use this to improve his future before falling into changing his past and unintentionally unravelling his entire life.

    There is a lot to like here. Sheen anchors it well as Tony, a sleaze but ultimately a well-intentioned one, and the film revels in putting him in a variety of different period get-ups as he moves through time, from massive 80s mullet to tiny 80s shorts to David Geste-esque botox heavy old age. The production design was clearly having a ball.

    The cinematography is good at capturing the different decades too. 4:3 and letterboxing is used to show the different time periods, but it emulates the filming techniques and styles of the different decades really well, especially the earlier ones and the soft quality of 80s video, which manages to have a innate creepiness all of its own.

    There’s a good supporting cast too, with an unrecognisable Cary Elwes as Tony’s brother, a fun cameo for John Thompson. The only thing that really brought it down for me was the ending, which doesn’t really feel satisfactory.

    If you’re looking for a bit of nostalgia-tinged creepiness this week, you could do worse than this.

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  • #81682

    Finished the latest season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. It’s great that a show that’s been going this long can still deliver. I enjoyed this season a lot, there were lots of laughs and some excellent guest stars – Tracey Ullman has been a great addition to the cast.

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