What're you watching?

Topic

What movies and TV shows are you watching?

Replies

Jennifer’s Body, for the first time since it came out on DVD a decade ago. I was mixed on it back then, but it’s great.

Been catching up on Brooklyn Nine Nine and in the episode where Gina shows up again there’s an establishing shot of her new place, and not only is it actually in Dublin, you can see my old office in it.

I started watching ‘Yellowstone’ and I’m not up to date so avoiding spoilers.
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It’s a modern western but the sort that’s also a gangster story; territory disputes, corruption, dynastic feuds and occasional violence.
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So it’s The Godfather in a stetson. And I know that Sheridan is a bit of a one trick pony but it’s a good trick and I’m not surprised it’s been renewed for a third season.

paul f wrote:

Jennifer’s Body, for the first time since it came out on DVD a decade ago. I was mixed on it back then, but it’s great.

I think it’s a good idea and mostly handled well, but I do think it needed trimming down a bit and should focus more sharply on Seyfried’s character. Jennifer is the flashy role but it’s not her story.
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I could also lose almost everything about the band. They’re a catalyst, they don’t need any depth.
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But it deserved to find a bigger audience.

Anyone watching Treadstone? It’s not like groundbreaking or anything, but I do like the Bourne-verse, so it’s cool to re-visit once in a while.

Doctor Sleep: Good Stephen King adaptation, and a decent horror story, with a great Rebecca Ferguson villain performance (which will make a good low-effort Halloween costume).

All of The Shining stuff weighs it down though, and it’s much better when it’s doing its own thing. Most of the callbacks to the Kubrick movie feel off, as this is tonally completely different. It’s a similar thing to Ready Player One last year, where it just comes across as odd fan fiction.

The worst part is the early scenes, recreating parts of the original movie. Once it gets past that, it’s a much more enjoyable movie.

I watched Widows last night.

Well, I fell asleep half way through and am debating a rewatch.

Did people here like it?

One of the best movies of last year.

I liked Widows. Didn’t love it, but it’s good.

The thing that diminishes WATCHMEN the movie from WATCHMEN the graphic novel is that it never touches upon the Island scenes or any of the non-superhero characters as important pieces of the story. Obviously, the island is the inspiration for Lindeloff’s LOST television series because it really encapsulates how messed up the world would be if any one person had the will and power to take it upon himself to save it. Ozymandias not only kills millions in New York in his plan, but he also kills the only other people in the world – except Dr Manhattan – who have anything that could equal him. He assembled the greatest minds and artists in the world to make what amounts to a science fiction B-movie (albiet one that is at a Kubrickian level of obsession) and then murders them all when it is finished.

On top of that, you have the detectives who are actually officially investigating the murder of Edward Blake, the psychiatrist who assesses Rorschach and the other New Yorkers who are the eventual victims of Veidt’s scheme. Their stories are the strong counterpoint to the actions of the heroes that show how absurd and abominable real superheroes and extraordinary powers would be, but without them, the story just seems to be another dark superhero adventure. Primarily because it looks cool and the heroes “kick ass.” It ends up making the opposite point of the original material.

In a similar vein, I saw GLASS all the way through finally, and it was much better than the reviews had indicated. It goes for a slightly different point in that heroes are scary, but taking a risk and having faith in yourself is naturally very scary when the world people have made values security, reliability and comfort above the extraordinary.

I’m with @KandorLives on Widows. I liked it but it could’ve been much better, I think it’s weighed down by Viola Davis’s character being almost solely defined by her grief. She’s the main protagonist but doesn’t get much room to breathe.
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Two recent watches:
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Dead of Night – Nice, eerie British horror anthology film from 1945. It was one of the first British horror movies made after the WWII era ban on horror films. There’s a frame story of a man arriving at a hotel where he’s dreamt of all the guests, and after he reveals this to them they all start sharing stories of their own encounters of the paranormal. Most of the stories are really cool and present a more grounded take on the supernatural, such that you could imagine yourself having a similar encounter one day. Then there’s a comic relief story in the middle about two golfers, one of whom dies and becomes a ghost only to come back and haunt his friend for cheating, that is just terrible and almost ruins the movie.
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But the last story about a ventriloquist dummy with a mind of its own (the first story of its kind?) gets things back on track, and then the denouement of the frame story ends in a glorious freakout on the level of the last minutes of The Shining or Suspiria. There are some brilliant images in that sequence. Two that stand out are party guests in demon makeup (I wonder if the black lips inspired the demonic faces glimpsed in Twin Peaks?) swarming a man and a boy in horrifying ventriloquist dummy makeup slowly getting up and advancing on the same unlucky man.
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Watching it, I was struck by how many of the paranormal experiences could have had a basis in quantum science, particularly its view of time as happening all at once. Then I read that the movie inspired an alternative model of the universe to the Big Bang theory. I doubt the filmmakers were thinking of physics as they made this but it’s cool how well some of the stories work under that view.
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Thief – I watched this with my parents after trying to convince them to watch it for the last two years. Neither of them like James Caan (I don’t really either) but both of them had to agree that he puts in a great performance here. An ex-con turned safecracker, Caan’s Frank is barely holding it together as he desperately tries to make up for the 11 years he lost inside by amassing enough money to live his dream life.
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This is a neo-noir classic with a brutally nihilistic take on modern society, capitalism, and the prison industrial complex, but even more than that, it’s one of the most strikingly and distinctively shot films in history. Michael Mann uses the color blue and reflective surfaces like rain-slick roads and the curved hoods of muscle cars to evoke an almost fractal view of the city, where everything reflects a bit of everything else and no one can wrench themselves free. Also, the Tangerine Dream score is probably one of the best of the 80s. One of my absolute favorite movies.
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Robert Prosky is great as the villain, using his kind face and Santa Claus bearing to mask a surprising amount of evil, and I wouldn’t be surprised if his nice guy veneer influenced the casting of Albert Brooks as the bad guy in Drive (it’s not like Thief, and Mann’s work in general, didn’t influence that movie in other ways).

paul f wrote:

I like Soderbergh usually, but I thought The Laundromat was a confused mess. There’s a few decent scenes, but not many.

Yeah, I felt the same. Bit of a shame; the story deserves more recognition. I think the mistake is really in the very first step; they should’ve just done the whole thing without Close’s character’s story. Just have the narrators and let them tell some of the more outrageous stories. Have fun with that; get rid of the sob story.

Oh, I also watched Once Upon a Deadpool with the kid. (Havdn’t seen the sequel in any form before that, anyway). It was a lot of fun, I thought.

I watched the Hellboy reboot……

Much better than I expected it to be.

It’s a good movie ruined by really horrible dialogue. Like cringeworthy dialogue, one of the worst examples I’ve seen in the modern era.

However there was a lot of positives. I thought it looked great, especially Hellboy himself and in particular the visions of his future.
A lot of the monsters were well done, Baba Yaga was great.

It was poorly written but the story and the actually getting from A to Z worked well, basically because the writer was able to lean on so much source material – so there’s a lot happening and as result it really zips along.

I found it a more entertaining watch than a lot of superhero movies, mostly because of the look of it.

But, yeah, the dialogue is stinking.

Well worth a watch on the whole.

I went to the premier of Two Heads Creek tonight

Its genuinely funny and ridiculous. A friend of mine is in it and I had some drinks with the director tonight, who’s really hopeful for UK distribution.

It’s basically a horror-comedy about how the UK views Australia so it should be up the alley to some posters here…

Anonymous wrote:

The thing that diminishes WATCHMEN the movie from WATCHMEN the graphic novel is that it never touches upon the Island scenes or any of the non-superhero characters as important pieces of the story.

Also that it skipped over the bit with the owls, which is everyone’s favourite part of the series.

Official Secrets: Good story, and good central performance by Knightley as GCHQ whistleblower Katharine Gun. Due to the real life events though, it’s a bit anti-climactic, and some of the supporting performances are a bit too hammy. Still a decent movie though.

There’s also maybe three too many scenes in which characters tell Knightley how brave she is and that she did the right thing. It’s true, but they seem to think if they go five minutes without stating it we’ll forget.

His Dark Materials: an OK start, but as a fan of the books I thought this handled some aspects a little bit strangely, and I’m not sure what someone who hasn’t read the books would make of it.

It looks good and Dafne Keen is very good in it, but it isn’t yet great for me. I’ll stick with it for now though.

See I established some time back my memory of the books is, by now, really, really hazy – I know I liked and enjoyed them a lot but that’s about it so I’m just going with it.

Definitely got the ‘hold on, is that?’ factor covered in the casting.

I thought it was a bit odd to infodump so much of the “world-building” stuff in the introductory captions rather than explain it and show it to us as part of the story.

It’s been a while since I read the books but I felt like you learned about a lot of this stuff more gradually there, with more intrigue – whereas this first hour told us a lot of stuff upfront and then spent the rest of its time trying to be mysterious and not really being very clear about anything.

But yeah, great cast and the show looks good, even if it would be nice for the daemons to be more consistently present. I guess they’re a costly effect though.

Several people I follow on Twitter had been piling on Ricky Gervais recently and I never really got why there was a backlash to his work, and why it’s so heated. As a result I was reminded of his Netflix special (Humanity) and watched that yesterday.

I recall enjoying the one of his earlier specials I watched (Politics, maybe?) – I didn’t enjoy this as much but it still offered a few LOL moments. He does spend a lot of time on the subject of people being offended and explaining why they’re taking things the wrong way and/or why they don’t matter.

Andrew wrote:

Several people I follow on Twitter had been piling on Ricky Gervais recently and I never really got why there was a backlash to his work, and why it’s so heated.

It’s because he spends most of his time punching down and then gets off on a holier-than-thou “oh, are you offended?” schtick, while term-searching his own name on Twitter.

It’s less that people are offended by Gervais and more that they’re wondering why such a talentless shit is popular.

It’s hard for me to hate Gervais because he clearly prefers puppy dogs to people.

Frankly, humans are shit and puppies are great.

Yeah, but he just says stupid shit to the puppies, then claims they’re offended and yells that God isn’t real. And when they yawn, he starts going on about how rich he is.

I’m not a Gervais fan, but I think he’s a very good writer.
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He has a very narrow acting range and his stand-up routines are like fingernails on a blackboard to me, but he’s a good writer.
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Puppies can’t write, but are better in every other way though.

I watched the first few episodes of Treadstone yesterday. the combat scenes were good. The story is ok. I like the broken character played by the guy from SGU and Sense8. Interested in how his wife fits in. Petra is also worth watching, both young and old. I put it on the DVR to catch the rest.

I watched Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse again yesterday. That is such a fun movie with killer visuals and a great soundtrack. I love that it looks nothing like any of the other CGI animated movies. I’m glad it got the Oscar as it deserved it.

I went to my local multiplex for a screening of a surprise film, which turned out to be Le Mans ’66 (that would be Ford v Ferrari to everyone who isn’t in Europe), making it the first film that I’ve ever seen twice before its general release. I didn’t mind though and quite enjoyed watching it again. In fact, I don’t think that my overall opinion of it has changed much at all. Even though the second trailer is a bit of a dud, this film isn’t.

Martin Smith wrote:

Andrew wrote:

Several people I follow on Twitter had been piling on Ricky Gervais recently and I never really got why there was a backlash to his work, and why it’s so heated.

It’s because he spends most of his time punching down and then gets off on a holier-than-thou “oh, are you offended?” schtick.

People always say that but it’s not in this special, and most of his online presence is either mocking himself, his girlfriend, big-game hunters, or promoting animal charities.

Had a 3 movie night on Saturday.
Hadn’t done that in a while (3 movies I’ve never seen before).
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Shazam
I did enjoy this. I wasn’t expecting much, but did appreciate the light-hearted tone.
Don’t think they could have done it any other way.
Mark Strong was a good choice for the villian, and just for a proper actor in the cast.
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Bad Times at the El Royale
I prefer to come here with positive thoughts as I did enjoy it.
But let me guess, if anyone critiqued it was;
– too long (2 hr. 20 minutes)
– pacing (editing?) led directly to feeling too long (towards the end)
– Drew Goddard is not Tarantino
All legitimate concerns, but as I type I’m stuck on last point “is not Tarantino”
I stick by that comment, but maybe shouldn’t be the one to bring it up.
Goddard did a good job, though.
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Us
Enjoyed this, and we might be watching director Jordan Peele becoming the master before our eyes.
(have friends that believe that, and they know more than me on the subject.
Seems like a vacuum waiting to be filled).
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However, there was something unnecessary (story-wise) towards the end.
Didn’t need it, only made me say “huh?”, and better to pretend it didn’t happen.
But when you bring it up maybe Get Out could also have some story points brought up.
Not trying to be a jerk, but he seems to be getting an easy path to the top.
I did enjoy it (like I said)

Yeah I also enjoyed Us but agree it’s was a bit patchy plot wise

On the plus side it felt original but the script had a ‘making it up as he goes’ feel to it

I liked Us too but mostly for the performances.

I think Get Out is a better film.

Im watching the Kominsky Method.

I’m torn because I’m enjoying Alan Arkin and Michael Douglass and there’s some good lines but it’s still Chuck Lorre. I hate Chuck Lorre hence the conflict. THERES EVEN A SCENE WHERE THE ACTING STUDENTS ACT OUT TWO AND A HALF MEN AND EVERYONE LAUGHS.

Anonymous wrote:

I liked Us too but mostly for the performances.

And the visuals, and the ideas. Execution where plot and script are concerned wasn’t always flawless, but the ideas/motifs, the visuals and the performances all stuck with me.

Anonymous wrote:

Im watching the Kominsky Method.

Yeah, I am tempted to dive into this, but I am not a fan of Lorre either. I will probably take a look when I’ve run out of everything else.

The core imagery of the others and the symbol of the scissors is great but, without delving into spoilers (because it’s a movie that really should not be spoiled) I didn’t love the reveals in the last 30 minutes or so.

It’s fine, it works, but it’s not my favourite part of the film. The set-up is stronger than the denouement.

The latest episode of Titans.

It’s largely either sleep or pat attention dependent on what’s happening but universally the music is great. One episode ended with James Brown’s The Payback and this one had Pump it Up by Elvis Costello and Radiohead.

Also, I am in love with Minka Kelly (don’t tell her).

The Superboy episode was really good and probably the standout of the series. This one was pretty good.

Evidently the ones not about the villains are good.

Anonymous wrote:

this one had Pump it Up by Elvis Costello and Radiohead.

I didn’t realize Costello and Radiohead had collaborated on that song!!
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Wondering if I should go see Terminator Dark Fate or Joker tonight. Or stay home.

Go see Dark Fate. If you like T1 and T2, you will enjoy it. It has Sarah Connor(the OG) and Arnie plus Mackenzie Davis is a pleasure to watch. The Terminator is a cipher but I like how they upgraded him.

I am leaning towards Terminator. Joker seems too much like an edgy Taxi Driver rip off. Are there any friendly characters in Joker or is it one of those movies where everybody is either a psychopath or an asshole?

Joker is not a very ‘friendly’ movie in general.

Go and see Terminator.

I loved Joker but sounds like you’re not in the mood for it, Arjan. Go with Terminator.

Re: Us. Really liked it but the Hands Across America motif still has me scratching my head (not a spoiler, it’s set up in the very first scene). I mean I kind of get it but it feels like a stretch. Maybe I’m missing something. I also felt the humor and crowd-pleasing aspects deflated some of the tension. In Get Out, the comedic relief was contained to Lil Rel Howery’s character. I had an issue with one or two of his scenes but overall he felt like he belonged in the movie, whereas some of the comedy in Us made the movie feel unbalanced. Midsommar works in its humor seamlessly, and is for my money funnier, but it’s also a very different kind of movie.

Still, the thrills in Us are effective and it has some haunting, disturbing images and ideas which are the main boxes a horror movie has to tick. Even its crowd-pleasing elements maybe unbalance the horror a bit, those moments still work really well on their own. All in all, Us is still one of the best movies of 2019 (the year’s been picking up after a dreadful first half).

Peele makes very good movies, he’s clearer director than he is a writer though. He gets his point across, broadly, but some of the details are bit fuzzy.

Well that was a movie…

Arnie was great though.

njerry wrote:

Tim wrote:

this one had Pump it Up by Elvis Costello and Radiohead.

I didn’t realize Costello and Radiohead had collaborated on that song!!
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You’re just a big meany

I don’t know, I’ve always found it very impressive that Thom Yorke worked on that record when he was only 10 years old.

Now I’m remembering how everyone is always so mean to me on this board.

Alita: Battle Angel – I watched this over two nights as I struggled to stay awake while watching it, which gives you a good idea of how much I enjoyed it.

It’s not that it’s boring, exactly – the effects are very good, the story is clear and easy to follow and it has some very likeable actors in it. It just all feels very flat and difficult to care about either way.

That’s partly because the ‘world-building’ feels so bland and generic – I know a lot of this is drawn from the comic, and that comic influenced a lot of other comics and movies that have come along in the meantime, but that doesn’t stop it feeling samey and over-familiar by this point.

The film is also really oddly paced – there’s no overall sense of climax but instead a series of mini-climaxes, as though you’re watching three 40-minute episodes of a TV show stitched together and pretending to be a movie. And that holds true for the end of the movie too – major parts of the main overarching plot (regarding the main villain and Alita’s past) are left completely unresolved, and it feels like you need to move on to the next episode to find out what happens.

Again, I know this is fairly true to the comic and covers several volumes of the book, but it needed reworking to make a more satisfying film.

On the plus side, the eyes weren’t as distracting as I expected – you get used to them after a while and the effects on Alita in general are pretty impressive. I just wish I cared about her story more.

Just saw that season three of The Toys That Made Us is out next Friday. I’ll look forward to the TMNT episode especially.

JoJo Rabbit was pretty good, although much fuzzier than you’d expect. And unlike Taika Waititi’s other work, its humor isn’t its strong suit. It’s amusing throughout but I think I only laughed out loud twice. The movie’s main strength is the emotional core of JoJo’s relationships with his mother (a very good Scarlett Johansson) and Elsa (the excellent Thomasin McKenzie, who should be Oscar-nominated for her work here just as she should’ve been for last year’s Leave No Trace).
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I will say that Taika Waititi’s role as JoJo’s imaginary friend version of Hitler is good for a few gags but could probably be excised completely and the movie wouldn’t lose anything, in fact it’d probably be sharper.

Pennyworth
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It’s not our world, it’s set in an Elseworld, middle 20th Century with various differences that become clearer over time.
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And it’s a bit overdone, rushes a long in places, takes time on things in others that might not need the space.
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It has some swearing, some blood, some sex that doesn’t quiet become sexy.
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The potential is there, it could become something interesting. I’ll stick with it a while longer.

I enjoyed Le Mans ’66/Ford v Ferrari, but it had problems. It was nice to see Bale having a lot of fun in a role, and Damon was decent.

The Caitriona Balfe wife character was almost exactly what you’d expect that character to be. She has one big scene, which didn’t work for me at all. In every other scene, she’s supportive and has a good relationship with Bale, but for one scene she’s acting wildly over the top and irrationally furious with him. It doesn’t fit at all, and I suspect they would have cut it if it wasn’t the only interesting thing she got to do in the film.

There’s also the ending:
All the arcs are resolved, the story is done… but I guess someone noticed that Bale’s character died in a fiery crash a few months later, so they probably should include that in the film. Not mentioning it would probably be weird, but it feels very tacked on, and ends the film on an odd note.

I subscribed to Starz to watch Channel Zero seasons 3 and 4 and also Deadly Class.

I noticed Pennyworth on there so I might give it a shot also, I’ve read a really good review of it in Starburst.

I’m really enjoying Deadly Class, first time in a while I’ve had to force myself to go to bed because of ‘just one more episode’

I went upstairs with a beer to watch episode 7 of Creepshow, my Friday night ritual for the past 6 weeks. Turns out there is no episode 7. Only 6 episodes in the season. This was my favourite show this year. Just good old fashioned fun and the length and variety of the episodes was perfect.

I’ve cancelled my Shudder subscription now though, I’ll do Starz for a couple of months, they have a lot of good content. Then I’ll cancel that as well until s2 of Castle Rock

Chris-S wrote:

I’m really enjoying Deadly Class, first time in a while I’ve had to force myself to go to bed because of ‘just one more episode’

Glad to hear it! I really liked it, too. I think it showed that Rick Remender was co-showrunner and also lead writer. It’s a shame it was cancelled, it would’ve been cool to get another season of this.
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Me, I watched the first episode of Carnival Row today and I think I’ll dive in a bit further tonight. It’s not bad at all; not exactly subtle or entirely original, but at the dialogues at least don’t make me cringe, and I like the setting a lot.

This;
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DOCTOR SLEEP was all right. It’s not entirely a horror movie and, honestly, it’s about as similar to THE SHINING – King’s novel or Kubrick’s film – as Peter Hyam’s movie 2010 was in comparison to Kubrick’s 2001. Flanagan wrote and directed a great horror movie in OCULUS and a great horror series in THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE and both of those were more like riffs on the basic themes and elements of THE SHINING, anyway, but DOCTOR SLEEP actually feels less like it belongs in the world of THE SHINING than either of the former projects.

A lot of King’s novels and short stories have to do with people who have strange psychic powers – like FIRESTARTER or HEARTS IN ATLANTIS, for example – and the equally strange people or organizations that want to prey on them or exploit them. So, DOCTOR SLEEP sometimes feels more like a horror superhero movie and that somewhat dampens down the scares. When your heroes and villains have somewhat ambiguous superpowers, then there is always going to be some way for them to magically turn the tables and keep the plot moving.

It’s pretty tense, but rarely outright scary. The main villain is pretty good – and the concept for them is interesting – but their are some flaws in their part of the story. I have to admit I wasn’t that interested in finding out more about them while I was much more interested in Dan Torrance’s best friend Billy and his life in the town Frazier, New Hampshire. Billy was played by Cliff Curtis and he wasn’t used to his full potential. Ewan Macgregor, as usual, is very winning as Dan and pretty much carries the movie up until the end goes a little bonkers. Kyliegh Curran as the young psychic who comes to him for help against the villains is also pretty good, but this is not a standout performance, probably because she’s often working across from Rebecca Ferguson as Rose The Hat, the main villain, who is very good at expanding a pretty thin role.

For the most part, I’d recommend it, but it is pretty long and I don’t think there is any compelling reason to see this in a theater rather than watching at home.

I saw Velvet Buzzsaw and thought it was pretty neat. It didn’t seem to make much of a splash, but I suppose the target audience for a mix of satire taking place in the art-world and horror movie isn’t all that big. I thought it was great fun watching those egotistical people get killed by artworks.
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Also, I thought the first episode of Watchmen was fantastic.

I liked Velvet buzzsaw too.

I think it’s funny that critics hated it, given the subject matter.

Anonymous wrote:

I think it’s funny that critics hated it, given the subject matter.

Ha! That’s true, and actually maybe just the way it has to be.
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I also thought Gillenhaal gave a really great performance. Most impressive I’ve seen him in a long while.

Gyllenhall is particularly good. I think he’s good at those roles which are sort of like a wink at the audience as to the absurdity of it – like he’s breaking the fourth wall without actually turning to the audience and winking. He sort of did that in Donnie Darko too.

He’s a good actor – i expect his career has many twists and turns left.

SteveUK wrote:

Pennyworth
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It’s not our world, it’s set in an Elseworld, middle 20th Century with various differences that become clearer over time.
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And it’s a bit overdone, rushes a long in places, takes time on things in others that might not need the space.
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It has some swearing, some blood, some sex that doesn’t quiet become sexy.
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The potential is there, it could become something interesting. I’ll stick with it a while longer.

Ok, so following up on this, I’ve had to accept that it’s like ‘Torchwood’.
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It’s another PG rated show that has added swearing, boobs and blood to qualify as an adult show, but it’s really a juvenile show, it’s “adult” as imagined by a 13 year old. All the “adult” material feels tacked on, after the fact.
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The cast are great though, and some of the ideas are fun, but it’s a bit of a missed opportunity.
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My personal taste would be for the show to be more like the 1960’s Steed and Mrs Peel ‘Avengers’. British and weird (which it is) but not… well the word “gratuitous” is spot on here.
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Maybe it’ll settle down if we get a second season?

Enter the Dragon showed up on Netflix recently, and I’d never watched it so I have it a shot this evening. And it was pretty good. The plot is the template Street Fighter would later use – a martial arts tournament is being held on an island ruled by a nefarious overlord, and the protagonists are all there for various reasons. In this case Lee is a shaolin monk from the same temple as Han, the evil boss, sent there by the Hong Kong government to find evidence of Han’s crimes and also to avenge his sister’s death; John Saxon plays Roper, a gambling addict there to refil his coffers, and Jim Kelly plays Williams, an easy-going black man in the mold of a blaxploitation hero.

The plot is pretty perfunctory from there on out. In between matches, Lee attempts to infiltrate Han’s base – leading to repercussions during the daytime tournament. It takes quite a long time to get going, between each character getting an introduction and a lengthy sequence of them getting to the island, attending a lavish banquet, and some fanservicey moments. And when the action kicks in… it’s bitty.

The one-on-one fight scenes tend to be excellent, even the ones that are brutal and short. But there are two extended sequences of Lee fighting his way through hordes of enemies, and they’re all shot very tight, often with people moving into frame, being hit and falling out again, but if you were to think about how Lee was acting before they appeared in frame, it doesn’t make a huge amount of sense. Compared to the sweeping, balletic mass fights typical of Shaw Brothers movies, it’s lacking. At the same time, the fights are far more brutal than your typical Shaw fare, with Lee’s character explicitly killing a number of his enemies (including a very young Jackie Chan at one point), often with a zeal and satisfaction that doesn’t exactly match his character. Roper’s fight with Han’s muscle-bound henchman Bolo is probably the best moment of the movie, with some really dynamic moves both in terms of the the characters in the fight and how the camera frames it.

Overall, I enjoyed it, but I don’t think it quite deserves the plaudits it’s gotten. There are definitely better martial arts movies out there, but this one deserves a place in the canon. Oh, and the Lalo Schifrin aoundtrack is amazing.

Watched the debut episode of DUBLIN MURDERS (based on the Tana French novels) on Starz last night. I think it’s a pretty good start, that didn’t drag out the big surprise regarding the lead detective’s connection to the case they’re working on. Solid performances all around, especially Conleth Hill as the superintendent of the Murder Squad, a long way from his turn as Lord Varys.

I’ve read the books so I was looking forward to this; but Liz, who’s not familiar with the novels, also loved the first episode. We both recommend it.

Watched DOLEMITE IS MY NAME… fantastic movie… didn’t know anything about the real guy or his movies but that didn’t stop me from enjoying it at all… Plus it was REALLY great to see both Eddie Murphy and Wesley Snipes back to actually acting like they actually give a fuck… Snipes especially… The rest of the cast is great as well.

Yeah, the folk tale origins of the character was really interesting. Oddly, the style of the movie reminded me a lot of BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY, too. I didn’t find the stage act to be very funny, but a lot of the interaction between the characters was hilarious.

Speaking of hilarious, the season premiere of RICK & MORTY was classic. The show reminds me a lot of a Mel Brooks take on the old science fiction writer A. E. Van Vogt. Van Vogt was famous for having about two dozen ideas in every story that would each make for a good story alone. The first Van Vogt story I remember reading was very short about a race of aliens that rapidly colonized every world they could because they had accidentally discovered a way of finding habitable planets quickly. Since they discovered this process from a world they had colonized long ago, they also came up with a process for reversing localized time and resurrecting whatever ancient corpses they found in the ruins of whatever planet they colonized as well. So this story was about a team of them resurrecting beings on the planet they were newly colonizing. Eventually, the reader quickly realizes that the members of this devastated extinct civilization they are resurrecting are actually humans and they eventually start bringing back samples of people from far into our future until they resurrect one who is superintelligent and has formidable psychic powers they cannot contain. He steals their planet finding and resurrection technology and tricks them into destroying themselves in an attempt to kill him and prevent him from bringing back his dead race and conquering their own empire.

It’s a great short story, but reading it, it just crams new idea after new idea without really worrying about it. Rick and Morty does the same thing. Each scene has a completely new idea that’s good enough for a whole show, but just runs along to the next idea as fast as possible.

The latest John Oliver segment on Bob Murray.

Utterly brilliant

njerry wrote:

Conleth Hill as the superintendent of the Murder Squad, a long way from his turn as Lord Varys.

Varys running a police department would be a great show.

SteveUK wrote:

Varys running a police department would be a great show.

He has gathering Confidential Informants down

I know what I am not watching today and that’s Disney+.

Is it March yet?

My son just texted me his Disney+ password. Did I raise him right, or what?!

Nice to hear that all the old 4:3 episodes of the Simpsons are presented on Disney+ in cropped 16:9, despite previous assurances to the contrary.

Oh, and apparently they’ve edited the ‘Han Shot First’ scene yet again.

I think I’ll stick with the DVD boxsets.

See you *say* that but it doesn’t really *feel* like that’s nice to hear at all

In all seriousness I don’t see why everyone cares so much about Greedo and Han.

I mean, who gives a shit?

…

…

I … should find somehere to go hide, right?

I think they should edit it more. Give Greedo a tear-jerking monologue before Han callously shoots him in the head.

I think what you really want is a 6 season Greedo prequel series which chronicles his downfall.

Vince Gilligan to script and by fuck will you hate that you care for Greedo by series end.

So few weekends ago I drunkenly agreed to record an episode for a 90s movies podcast. What could possibly go wrong…

Oh.

Honestly, it’s not as bad as all that. The first third is a perfectly serviceable 90s action movie. The action and violence lacks a any real teeth but it get the job done. Theres some great design in it too.

Unfortunately it shits the bed during the remainder. Stuff happens because it has to to move the story along rather than for any good reason. It feels like theres big chunks missing between and during scenes. It’s been edited with a butcher’s knife.

I was surprised at the fact Rob Shneider didn’t irritate the living piss out of me whenever he was on screen. I kept a laugh vs groan counter during the movie. Laughs won 9 vs 6. It almost makes me feel bad for laughing at that video of him falling down the stairs while filming the movie.

Almost.

Finished Carnival Road, and I have to say it held up pretty well. Parts of it were pretty predictable towards the end, but the unfolding of the mystery was still handled pretty well. And I liked how story of Imogen and Agreus was handled. Overall, it was a pretty good show, and I’ll come back for season 2.

Who could possibly hate a film with gems like this.
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Bruce wrote:

Theres some great design in it too.

This is my main memory of it – that it actually looked pretty great and was very stylish at the time for a comicbook movie.

The design was always awesome on the Stallone Dredd. Much better than the Urban one.

Unfortunately every other aspect was rubbish in comparison.

RonnieM wrote:

Who could possibly hate a film with gems like this.
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That whole Block War section is great. The whole situation, thecool calm walk through the gun fire, the “these blocks are under arrest” line – it’s like some of those early comics. Stallone Dredd looks like he was drawn by Ron Smith which also helps a great deal.

Yeah, the Karl Urban film is definitely better, but it’s also an utterly generic, scifi cop film. I understand why people who hadn’t read the comic bypassed it in theatres.
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I’m sure a lot of people have enjoyed it at home since then. If they get the TV version going it’ll have the space to explore all the stuff that makes Dredd interesting, which is the stuff that isn’t him, it’s the rest of the characters and Mega City One.

SteveUK wrote:

Yeah, the Karl Urban film is definitely better, but it’s also an utterly generic, scifi cop film. I understand why people who hadn’t read the comic bypassed it in theatres.

I loved Dredd with Karl Urban but it was basically The Raid with a few sci-fi elements. It absolutely worked as a Dredd film but like you said, didn’t do a lot to separate itself from everything else.
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The Stallone film went the opposite direction with the complete bonkers stuff. I think it almost tried to do too much and pull together a bunch of classic Dredd stories and tropes while introducing an origin. Casting Stallone at that time also guaranteed that you were going to see his face and be more of a vehicle for him.

SteveUK wrote:

Yeah, the Karl Urban film is definitely better, but it’s also an utterly generic, scifi cop film. I understand why people who hadn’t read the comic bypassed it in theatres.
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I’m sure a lot of people have enjoyed it at home since then. If they get the TV version going it’ll have the space to explore all the stuff that makes Dredd interesting, which is the stuff that isn’t him, it’s the rest of the characters and Mega City One.

I hope it happens. The way things’ve been going on TV, they could probabyl go all out on the political satire aspect of Dredd and be successful with it.

Would Karl Urban do TV though?
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Because I can;t imagine anyone else being anywhere near as good.

RonnieM wrote:

I loved Dredd with Karl Urban but it was basically The Raid with a few sci-fi elements.

That’s true but also slightly unfortunate for them. Dredd started principle photography a year before The Raid was released but they just coincidentally ended up being very similar and The Raid came out first.

Christian wrote:

The way things’ve been going on TV, they could probabyl go all out on the political satire aspect of Dredd and be successful with it

The way things’ve been going, it won’t be satire for much longer.

DavidM wrote:

Would Karl Urban do TV though?
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Because I can;t imagine anyone else being anywhere near as good.

The initial proposal I saw for the show was very much a Mega City 1 show, then the title in the proposal was tweaked to Judge Dredd: Mega City 1.

That allows a bit of scope for Dredd to pop in and out rather than be the focal point. Urban also said he was in discussion about being in it so at least hasn’t ruled it out. There are bigger stars doing TV now.

DavidM wrote:

Would Karl Urban do TV though?

Almost Human

Also, there is a little tv show called The Boys

speaking of The Boys
Homelander’s cut scene

I am glad it was cut. it left a little mystery about how truly damaged was Homelander. But I have feeling Antony Starr enjoyed making it(hopefully there were not too many takes though)

Ha ha, I completely forgot he was the lead in The Boys despite watching it all only a couple of months back. Doh.

Ohhh I liked Almost Human… I was bummed that they cancelled that… =(

Jon wrote:

Ohhh I liked Almost Human… I was bummed that they cancelled that… =(

Yeah, me too. It was a really good show, and Michael Ealy was particularly great in it.

‘Gemini Man’
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It’s no worse than most action movies, certainly no weirder, dumber, or more outlandish than ‘Hobbs and Shaw’ and yet, that makes $759m and this makes a quarter of that.
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‘Hobbs and Shaw’ is funnier, this has some wisecracks but its trying to be a bit deeper.
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I think the problem may be that it’s not really grounded, so it’s harder to take seriously, but it doesn’t embrace it potential as a fantastical sci-fi world, so the silly and exaggerated bits get in the way.
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The cast are good, but Clive Owen is badly served. He could’ve been a complex and nuanced bad guy, but he’s stuck playing someone more artificial than Smith’s CGI clone.
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Pity.
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As two hours of explosions and gun fights with a set of committed performances though, it’s fine.

Started watching the first X-Men movie tonight with the kids. I haven’t seen it in years and it’s been fun to return to it.

It’s kind of funny to think that X-Men 1 is now almost as old as Donner’s Superman was when X-Men 1 came out. Given that, it actually holds up well and definitely still feels of a piece with modern superhero movies.

What surprised me was just how quickly and bluntly it explains everything from the start – there’s very little time wasted in getting on with the characters and the story, and briskly introducing such a large cast.

Also, it benefits from being sincere and taking the whole thing seriously. There’s gravitas here that most superhero movies can’t boast, although that’s partly through the great casting of Stewart and McKellen in particular.

I watched the latest season of The Toys That Made Us. As with previous seasons, highly informative and fun. I was shocked to learn that the playset designer for My Little Ponies was the model for GI Joe’s Doc.
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I don’t remember which episode (My Little Ponies?) but in it, one of the toymakers commented that that we may have seen the end of an era for toys. Lines that were created back in the 1980s or before are still going but no new ones have achieved that level on success.

We’ve mentioned it before but what I see from my kids and their friends is action figures and dolls seem to have lost their appeal. While we all had some kind of Star Wars or Action Man/GI Joe collection they don’t seem bothered and never ask for them.

I don’t really know why but have a couple of theories. The collector urge is being served by video games, they do like getting new creatures on Pokemon or additional items on the likes of Fortnite. We had video games in the 80s of course but they didn’t really have that element to them.

The other is I think the presence of the adult collector market has rather priced them out. They are higher quality but I look now at standard figures being priced around $20 each. Looking at the retail price of them in 1980 and running it through an inflation tracker they should be $8 to match the comparative costs then.

Yeah, my son is really into making stop-motion animations at the moment, and while I would have had a million action figures to use for the purpose it’s a lot harder to find suitable toys in his collection – we mostly use transformers or some of the minecraft toys that were made for animation specifically. He just doesn’t have any action figures really, and they are expensive these days for what they are.

Transformers are actually really good at offering a wider range of sizes at different price points.

Todd wrote:

I watched the latest season of The Toys That Made Us

Anyway, thanks for this reminder Todd – I really want to watch the TMNT episode as I have fond memories of that range, they came out at a formative age for me.