What're you watching?

Topic

What movies and TV shows are you watching?

Replies

We’re still at the age of buying the same damn Paw Patrol dog in the fourteenth variation. They don’t even change them all that much!

Dave wrote:

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.

It’s a great episode. It gives a good history of the comic book as well.

garjones wrote:

The other is I think the presence of the adult collector market has rather priced them out.

I think it’s been that way for a long time now. Aside from the price, a lot of the subject matter suggests that the producers are not counting on sales to children. Just take a look at the Funko POPS line of figurines — what self-respecting adolescent or teen today is interesting in picking up an entire set of the Brady Bunch POPS figures that basically just…stand there. But those bastards at Funko know that I will spend every spare penny on the latest figurine from their Hellboy collection.

I think toys as an industry are doing fine, but the crazes aren’t as big and nothing has exploded into pop culture ubiquity like in the 80s. Fortnite toys and branded merch like nerf guns and those LOL egg things have been massive for the last couple of years.

lorcan_nagle wrote:

Fortnite toys and branded merch like nerf guns and those LOL egg things have been massive for the last couple of years.

Oh, there are definitely trends that capture kids’ imaginations (Hatchimals were massive for a while too), it just doesn’t seem to be the case that traditional action figures are really popular any more.

Dave wrote:

lorcan_nagle wrote:

Fortnite toys and branded merch like nerf guns and those LOL egg things have been massive for the last couple of years.

Oh, there are definitely trends that capture kids’ imaginations (Hatchimals were massive for a while too), it just doesn’t seem to be the case that traditional action figures are really popular any more.

The Action/Adventure aisle in Smyths in Dublin city centre is a tiny chunk of the shop, and it’s mostly Transformers, Superheroes, Wrestling, Star Wars, some knockoff GI Joe style military toys, Funko Pops, and then Fortnite. Lego alone has about half the amount of space all the action figures do.

First half hour of the first episode of the BBC’s War of the Worlds has been a bit too Downton Abbey (ie turn of the century drama) and not enough heatrays and tripod for my liking. Starting to heat up (ha!) now though.

That was a bit dull. I’ll probably tune in to part 2 but more because theres fuck all else on telly on a sunday evening rather than out of any real enjoyment of part 1.

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And it’s as crazy as it looks.
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We saw the gory version, at the Soho Horror Film Festival tonight. This was the original cut, then the film was trimmed to remove the blood and some dirty jokes, to try and make it a kids films. It was rediscovered recently and now it’s playing festivals.

Todd wrote:

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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Yeah, that was news to me too. I knew there was a lot of Joe characters based on Hasbro staff and friends (Tunnel Rat is Hama, Leatherneck is Ron Rudat, Sneak-Peek is Stephen King’s son, Scoop is a real journalist, I think) but had never heard that about 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.

It was the Pony episode and it’s an interesting point. I think the big lines of the 80s kind of caused that though by forging such a strong link between toys and other media. It’s just much easier to take something already profitable in other media and make toys of it than vice-versa.
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I’ve watched all the episodes except the Turtles one now (saved that for last) and it’s been a solid series although the Power Rangers and Wrestling episodes got a little bogged down in potted histories of what they’re based on rather than specifically the toys. That’s understandable, especially for Power Rangers, but the Wrestling one almost entirely glossed over Jakks’ WWF line, despite it lasting a decade and a half. It just skipped straight to the laser scan technology, completely ignoring their other innovations like the Titantron sound effect thing.

Bruce wrote:

First half hour of the first episode of the BBC’s War of the Worlds has been a bit too Downton Abbey (ie turn of the century drama) and not enough heatrays and tripod for my liking. Starting to heat up (ha!) now though.

I turned on half way through because I had completely forgotten it was on (I mean, when is there ever watchable TV on a Sunday night? ), so I’m glad to hear I didn’t miss much.
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Not terrifically impressed with what I did see. The tripod and heat ray effects were good, and suitably menacing. But I didn’t care much for the unnecessary character drama that surrounded the core idea. Also, they should have used Jeff Wayne’s music
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The trailer for the next episode has given me higher hopes, though, because I enjoy watching out-of-touch politicians making stupidly arrogant speeches while the world burns around them.
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Oh, wait, that may have been a Brexit news broadcast

DavidM wrote:

I mean, when is there ever watchable TV on a Sunday night?

The BBC One line-up for Sundays is pretty strong at the moment. They have Seven Worlds, One Planet followed by His Dark Materials followed by War of the Worlds. That’s three hours of my time that they’ll get every Sunday from now until the end of the year.

(Yes, there’s some celebrity dance-show guff interspersed in there somewhere, but that gives me a chance to put the kids to bed.)

Talking of Sundays, ever since Sherlock it’s been a pretty plum position for BBC One, with stuff like Bodyguard and Doctor Who put in that Sunday-night slot.

Yeah, in the US Sunday night is when all the hot shows run new episodes. As far back as THE SOPRANOS (possibly further back), all the way up to GAME OF THRONES and now WATCHMEN, HBO owned the 9-10pm slot on Sundays; but now many other channels run their hottest shows around that time slot. AMC did it with THE WALKING DEAD and MAD MEN and BREAKING BAD; Showtime with RAY DONOVAN and HOMELAND; and Starz with OUTLANDER and now DUBLIN MURDERS.

I watched, sorry, tried to watch the Watchmen film before seeing the tv show. I lasted about an hour. I can’t quite explain why I hated it but it felt like a bad cover version of a song. All the bits were there but it was off and just didn’t sit well with me at all.

Don’t worry too much. They’ve said the TV show is a sequel to the story in the comic and not the movie.

The Toys that Made Us is entertaining – they have a nice storytelling side that makes the hour fly by and makes all the internal corporate politics interesting. It’s always fun to see just how small that world was in the 80’s.

as for toy lines, my boys play with action figures from Batman, Daniel Tiger, Paw Patrol and Peppa Pig, and they buy those disposable toys like LOL and Shopkins and Hatchimals. They love pretend roleplay, it’s still their favorite game. I think the action figure is still fine as a toy line. Toys just have to split the spend with video games now and you’re not going to get a singular toy that becomes a national conversation as we’re in a very fragmented world now.

Paw Patrol are actually a nice example of a new brand taking off and capturing market share. And it’s a fun cartoon too.

We watched the TMNT Toys that made us episode – it was really good, and orchestrated a long overdue Eastman/Laird reunion! I didn’t know they’d fallen out so badly.

We might watch the others but I’m not really interested in Power Rangers, Pony, or Wrestling. I think we still need to see the He-Man and GI Joe ones, skipping Hello Kitty.

Yeah, I’ve picked out only the episodes for toys I’m interested in. The episodes for Transformers and He-Man were good.

Jim wrote:

they buy those disposable toys like LOL and Shopkins and Hatchimals.

If the Toys That Made Us has taught us anything, it’s that nothing is disposable and anything might end up being worth stupid amounts of money when your kids are nostalgic 30-somethings!
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I would definitely say it’s worth watching the episodes of TTTMU for the lines you’re not interested in, as they turned out to be some of the most fascinating for me. I’ve no interest in MLP, Barbie, Hello Kitty or Star Trek, but it meant that I hadn’t heard any of the stories before and it was all new information to me.

I enjoyed all the eps of the previous series. The behind the scenes was fascinating, whatever the toy. Art vs Commerce has a lot of drama, and humour.

Has anyone tried UK Britbox since it launched?

I signed up for a free trial but I’ve been quite disappointed. Not only is the content pretty poor – mostly it’s either old ex-iPlayer stuff from the BBC or stuff that I wouldn’t watch for free if it was on ITV2 – but also the lack of any app support for any of the various devices I have plugged into my TV means that I’d be restricted to watching it on a phone or laptop, like something from the dark ages.

Still, apart from the poor content and limited functionality, top marks!

I don’t see it lasting long – people aren’t going to pay for this. Even the most avid fan of Poirot or Jonathan Creek or Midsomer Murders can surely just buy the DVD boxset.

Dave wrote:

Even the most avid fan of Poirot or Jonathan Creek or Midsomer Murders can surely just buy the DVD boxset.

Not only that but they seem to be on continual repeat on various FTA digital channels.
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I thought the initial concept for Britbox was the target audience was overseas, which makes more sense as they don’t get all these shows repeated daily on ITV3 or UK Gold type channels.

Yeah, it’s been running in the US for a while now. I think it’s done ok there.

As you say though, why are people in the UK going to pay for stuff that’s typical ITV3 fare? I just don’t think they have the content they need to even come close to competing with the other streaming services.

Dave wrote:

Yeah, it’s been running in the US for a while now. I think it’s done ok there.

As you say though, why are people in the UK going to pay for stuff that’s typical ITV2 fare? I just don’t think they have the content they need to even come close to competing with the other streaming services.

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As I said when they announced it, it’s only going to work if they move their content off other platforms (which they won’t) or they really delve into their archives for stuff people haven’t been assaulted with on Gold and ITV3 for decades. I tried to have a look at the programme line-up when they launched but I don’t think you can without signing up (which seems pointless even for a free trial given the lack of apps and options), but I’m guessing they’ve not done that.
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Mind you, Netflix was pretty shite when it launched (I subbed for a month in 09 or 10 maybe and the sum total of interesting content was about six films), so maybe BritBox will magically get better like that did. Or maybe it’ll just remain rubbish like Amazon Prime Video is.

At least Amazon Prime has some decent exclusives and good functionality. I don’t think it’s too bad.

American Horror Story: season 9.

Its not very good. Its not even a guilty pleasure at this point. Its basically an ensemble cast dressing up to a halloween theme and chewing the scenery for 45 minutes an episode.

That is probably what its always been but the gimmick has worn thin on the 9th iteration. The show really hasn’t been very good since Roanoke. Cult was forgettable, Apocalypse was interesting but not a patch on Coven, this basically meanders through the eighties without any real mystery or motivation for the characters whatsoever (dead or otherwise).

At this point it should probably just end, but if not Id rather they just tied up the loose ends, like Asylum, and maybe the first-witch/devil thing.

Dave wrote:

Yeah, it’s been running in the US for a while now. I think it’s done ok there.

I was just checking the history and yes it launched 2 years ago in the US and a year later in Canada. They have 650,000 subscribers in the US which isn’t bad I suppose when there’s no real new content to pay for.
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I’m honestly wondering if the UK launch is really just a case of ‘why not?’. BBC and ITV own the service and the rights to the shows, they have already set up the infrastructure, being internet based geography doesn’t really matter so if they pick up a very small number of UK users it’s probably money for nothing.
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It may be convenient for some, we’ve seen with Netflix stuff like Friends get very high ratings even though 6 episodes a day are shown on free to air TV.

Finally got around to watching the TMNT episode of The Toys That Made Us.

What a great documentary – I could have watched one twice as long. In these shows I’m always impressed by the creativity and instincts of the people who made these franchises a hit, and there was plenty of that here.

But the extra element of Eastman & Laird’s friendship and the various twists and turns it took made this episode particularly watchable. I loved their enthusiasm and their appreciation for each other (when they talk about how they first met and shared their love of Kirby comics, it made you remember how much harder it could be in those days to find people with common niche interests) and I won’t deny the last couple of minutes left me with a bit of a lump in my throat.

Anonymous wrote:

American Horror Story: season 9.

Its not very good. Its not even a guilty pleasure at this point. Its basically an ensemble cast dressing up to a halloween theme and chewing the scenery for 45 minutes an episode.

That is probably what its always been but the gimmick has worn thin on the 9th iteration. The show really hasn’t been very good since Roanoke. Cult was forgettable, Apocalypse was interesting but not a patch on Coven, this basically meanders through the eighties without any real mystery or motivation for the characters whatsoever (dead or otherwise).

At this point it should probably just end, but if not Id rather they just tied up the loose ends, like Asylum, and maybe the first-witch/devil thing.

The show is basically a piss-take on horror. It has gone way over the top. It hasn’t been serious (and that’s pushing that description) since Asylum (Season 2). It’s become more like Scream Queens than anything else. Roanoke was a fun satire of reality TV. I appreciate what they tried to do with Cult though if it had stayed more grounded, it would have been better.
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I read that because Ryan Murphy signed a huge deal with Netflix in 2018, it is possible Season 10 could be the last season. My heart wouldn’t break if that happened.
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I will say this about Season 9, it had something you really never see in horror: A truly happy ending.

Watched the Power Rangers episode of The Toys That Made Us earlier today. I do like this show – despite being too old to have a nostalgic connection to Power Rangers, they made the story really compelling and made me appreciate the toys in a way that I never had before. I’m going to have to go back and check out all the old ones now.

Watching HIGNFY and Mock The Week tonight, one after the other, and Maisie Adam was on both. Which is awkward enough, but she then did the same Corbyn/jam gag AND the same Jennifer Arcuri gag on both shows.

Come on BBC! Stop stretching that licence fee by not paying for new jokes!

Todd wrote:

The show is basically a piss-take on horror. It has gone way over the top. It hasn’t been serious (and that’s pushing that description) since Asylum (Season 2).

Yeah, it’s what I liked about Asylum, but didn’t work for me with Coven anymore, for some reason. haven’t gotten back in since then, though I am sure I will at some point.

Took the kids to Frozen II today. It’s pretty much exactly what you’d imagine – lovely visuals, catchy songs, a decent enough story without being anything amazing or unexpected, and plenty of good gags. Including some nice ones aimed at the adults (Kristoff’s 80s-style soft rock ballad was the standout for me).

I can’t say I’m ever going to be desperate to watch it again, but it was ok for a cinema trip on a rainy day.

This is officially the new earworm in our house.

Okay

*lowers voice*

What is it … “unoficially”?

Anonymous wrote:

Okay

*lowers voice*

What is it … “unoficially”?

I don’t know because that isn’t a word.

You are a big meany

But to answer your question, probably Chicago’s ‘Hard To Say I’m Sorry’ as there’s a song in Frozen II that draws on it heavily.

I am surprisingly unfulfilled by that answer.

Sorry.

 

(Not so hard after all.)

We need a slow clap emoji

Dave wrote:

Watching HIGNFY and Mock The Week tonight, one after the other, and Maisie Adam was on both. Which is awkward enough, but she then did the same Corbyn/jam gag AND the same Jennifer Arcuri gag on both shows.

Come on BBC! Stop stretching that licence fee by not paying for new jokes!

Yeah, both those shows and the Last Leg all being on within an hour of each other on the same night doesn’t do any of them any favours (does demonstrate how hard it is to be original in topical comedy though, as you get the same gags from different comedians on different shows).

Mock the Week and HIGNFY booking the same guest in a week seems entirely avoidable though, although fair enough that Adams took both of the bookings. Even just putting MTW back earlier in the week would help give it some breathing room (it’s still recorded on Wednesdays, as far as I’ve heard, it’s just left a day longer for broadcast).

Yeah, it’s weird that they moved it from Thursday to Friday. Having both shows in one night just feels like creating needless duplication.

(I think the Mash Report was moved to Thursdays this series wasn’t it?)

Not sure about how HIGNFY holds up these days but Mock the Week went downhill when Frankie Boyle left.

HIGNFY went through a rough patch for a few years and felt quite tired, but I feel like it’s improved since they’ve dialled down the old running gags and given Hislop a bit more time each episode to actually address some serious topics.

saga wrote:

Not sure about how HIGNFY holds up these days but Mock the Week went downhill when Frankie Boyle left.

As much as I like Frankie Boyle, Mock The Week is much improved by the absence of him (which happened over a decade ago now), Russel Howard and, especially, Andy Parsons (who would eat up so much screen time shuffling his way to a punchline you guessed as soon as he started talking). It’s a very different show – it used to be an absolute bear pit of comedians struggling to get a word in, now it’s essentially a panel show training ground for up and coming comedians, with O’Briain, Dennis and occasionally Ed Byrne there as a safety net.

Dave wrote:

HIGNFY went through a rough patch for a few years and felt quite tired, but I feel like it’s improved since they’ve dialled down the old running gags and given Hislop a bit more time each episode to actually address some serious topics.

I agree mostly, but I think in a couple of instances this series where Hislop has been allowed a soapbox (of sorts) and essentially shouted down everyone else like when, I think it was Victoria Coren, was talking about the rough press treatment of Meghan Markle being inherently racist and he wasn’t having any of it, how dare someone criticise the actions of the free press.

I gave up on the show a long time ago.

There came a point where I realised that, even as a Lefty, that didn’t mean I personally liked everyone on the Left.

Hislop and Merton as very smart, talented people, but that doesn’t mean I’d want to have a drink with them.

And Hislop at least, I’ve seen in the same Soho pubs I’ve been to, on occasion.

Hmm, not sure I’d characterise the show as left-wing in that way, or Hislop personally. But I’m wary of dragging a political discussion into a place where it doesn’t belong.

I was speaking of the people specifically, the show wants to be neutral, as it should be, but I can’t see Hislop or Merton voting Conservative.

They’re quite happy to point out Labour and Lib Dem screw ups, corruption and duplicity, but that doesn’t change their underlying political beliefs.

Alright, I haven’t been on here so much recently, and I’ve seen a lot of films in the cinema, so here’s a quick round-up.

 

The Irishman – Pretty good, I thought. I really enjoyed watching Al Pacino do his thing and the running time didn’t matter all that much to me in the end (besides making me reduce my fluid intake beforehand). There are some interesting discussions that could be had but they’re all in spoiler territory so I’ll leave it for now. The effects never pulled me out of the movie, meaning that they really worked.

 

Midway – This was a good time at the movies. I thought that it wouldn’t be very good and looked like a two/three pints down kind of movie, but I saw it sober and was pleasantly surprised. If any of the dialogue or inspirational speeches land, it is because of the experienced performers delivering them rather than the script. Also, the effects were pretty variable. A couple of breathtaking moments rub up against stuff that is so shoddy that it ruins moments that have been pitched to get an emotional reaction. To have the most fun with this you have to surrender to the PS2 aesthetic and go with the more arcadey moments. This movie sure isn’t Dunkirk but I enjoyed the battle stuff more than in most of Disney Star Wars. I left the theatre thinking about Red Tails a lot, and wondering how they would directly compare. Something worth mentioning that the marketing seemingly didn’t is that the point of view does shift to the Japanese at points and does show some of the frustrations and internal battles that their chain of command were having at the time. It was a much more balanced film than I expected, in a lot of ways.

 

Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood: Extended Edition – Okay, so this is my favourite film of the year and the extended version doesn’t touch the main film at all but rather adds a few in-jokey fake adverts before the movie starts and has a couple of deleted and extended scenes after the final credits. Supposedly this is how the movie was playing at the New Beverly cinema anyway, and while you can’t match the level of immersion offered by seeing the film there, the fun additions are still fun and hopefully they all wind up on the blu-ray.

 

21 Bridges – Middling action thriller with a decent cast that sadly can’t elevate it. I felt myself check out around two-thirds in during yet another impersonal second unit setpiece and was only brought back around by an actor who I hadn’t heard was in this thing at all. When the Russo bros (producers here) said that we don’t see many movies like this one, I can only be glad.

 

Marriage Story – I thought that this was phenomenal, with a handful of terrific dramatic scenes that would be the best part of any other movie but in this one they just keep coming. It’s very funny too. Driver and Johansson deserve all of the award buzz. I’ve currently put it at number two in my 2019 list.

 

The Report – This was a well-packaged and informative film relating to the US torture program during the war on terror and the struggles that went into bringing it to light. The torture scenes are suitably horrible without showing gore or strong violence, it’s the threat that carries them through. Adam Driver does good work here and the script packs a lot in. It felt longer than it was but it goes by a whole lot faster than reading a 700-page report would.

 

 

Caught up on the first two episodes of War Of The Worlds. I think it’s pretty good – I appreciate the bleakness as it rings true with what I remember of the book, and the jumping around in time works well.

Athough there are definitely times when I feel like a bit of Jeff Wayne would liven things up a bit.

I have just gotten back from Frozen two and I have succumbed.  I like this song too damn much. I drove home way too fast singing this song like a crazy person.

Soooo Gemini Man… It’s not a terrible movie, not great either… I guess it’s a “novelty” kind of thing… but nah, the FX ain’t there yet… it’s a barely decent attempt, and we’ve already seen better in terms of facial de-aging, and the full fx clone looked fake all the way through, not better than movies 10 years old… Ultimately, I don’t see the point of this, except for the semi-interesting plot about cloning. Oh well… it’s not a shit movie either, but yeah, I guess pointless describes it well. Shit’s gonna look SUPER dated in 5 years though… it already looks dated =/

Hank Cannon wrote:

I have just gotten back from Frozen two and I have succumbed.  I like this song too damn much. I drove home way too fast singing this song like a crazy person.

Into The Unknown is a genuinely great song. The more I listen to it the more cleverly constructed I think it is. And it’s insanely catchy – I’ve had it in my head all week.

I watched The Irishman on Netflix.

I give it 1k Karma Points.

We can talk about it now, Kandor

Oh, I’m very much looking forward to that one. Three of my guys, together at last.

My expectations were tempered by famed critic Margaret Pomeranz’s lukewarm review (though she gave it 4/5 in the end).

We watched the third of the four recent Queer Eye in Japan episodes – the subject was a young female wannabe manga artist. The show is still a feel-good “TV” highlight.

<p style=”text-align: left;”>Someone should go paint Maggie Pomz’s house…</p>

Love the rebooted Queer Eye.

Antoni has stealthily become a favourite after being the weaker link in the early episodes.

We do roll our eyes a bit when Karamo descends upon the subject to officially commence Crying Time.

Totally need a companion show that details all the work Bobby does. His home upgrades require the most thought and work and probably make the most valuable, lasting impact on the subjects but there is hardly ever time to go into it in detail!

Loved Knives Out. Great fun, and I hope it gets Ana de Armas more high-profile work. Nice to see she’ll be working with Craig again in No Time to Die. I’ll probably see it again this week.

I also watched the John Williams score-only version of The Last Jedi while working today, and it works really well.

I really like Ana de Armas. She really impressed me in Blade runner 2049.

Clearly she’s gorgeous but shes also very talented.  She deserves to be a star

Yeah, KNIVES OUT was a terrifically entertaining movie. It would be a nice double feature with READY OR NOT. Daniel Craig does still have a commanding presence, and de Armas kept focus just by playing such a good person relative to all other members of that family. Extremely well written dialogue and comic timing. Blanc’s overextended donut hole analogy at the end was pretty hilarious.

Also, Christopher Plummer leaves a great impression in his few scenes. He certainly remains a presence in the whole movie.

Birthday weekend! (39 + 12)
Going out for dinner with a friend.
He bought me Peaky Blinders seasons 1 & 2
Heard good things.

I’ve recently started watching the LotR movies with the kids. They still hold up pretty well, despite the occasionally dated-looking CGI (but even that is used sparingly enough that it isn’t a distraction – and some things like the Balrog still look good).

We finished the first movie last night (watching the Extended Edition, so quite a slog) and as soon as the kids woke up today they asked if we could start watching the second – so I think they’re a hit.

I hope you started with The Hobbit films.

No, I want them to like it.

Saw Destroyer. From the trailer we saw here, I’d kind of expected it to be more unconventional than it was, in the end, but it was an interesting twist on this kind of noir revenge story, and it’s a beautifully filmed movie. Nicole’s doing fine, too. Worth watching.

This is the only Destroyer that counts:

Watched the second episode of the BBC War of the Worlds adaptation. Thought it was much more engaging than the first part – stuff actually happened!

I’m playing the long game on War of the Worlds, watching it as one big block on Monday.

War of the Worlds has been pretty decent so far I think. I watched episodes one and two on consecutive nights which helped. Looking forward to seeing where they take things in the finale.

Dave wrote:

War of the Worlds has been pretty decent so far I think. I watched episodes one and two on consecutive nights which helped. Looking forward to seeing where they take things in the finale.

My prediction is the Martians are defeated by the common cold.

That would be ridiculous. Any advanced civilization would be aware of the threat of alien viruses and take appropriate precautions. If that’s really how they lose, that’s really weak.

Saw Knives Out again. Still great.

Possible new favourite line: Michael Shannon’s off-screen “I will not eat one iota of shit!”

Been watching The Movies That Made Us on Netflix – the episodes covering Die Hard and Ghostbusters tonight.

It’s as much fun as its toy counterpart, even if it’s covering slightly more well-trodden ground. There are some great anecdotes and behind-the-scenes details in these episodes.

lorcan_nagle wrote:

Dave wrote:

War of the Worlds has been pretty decent so far I think. I watched episodes one and two on consecutive nights which helped. Looking forward to seeing where they take things in the finale.

My prediction is the Martians are defeated by the common cold.

I know this is a joke but there have been a couple of elements to this series that have made me think they might deviate from this ending.

paul f wrote:

Saw Knives Out again. Still great.

Possible new favourite line: Michael Shannon’s off-screen “I will not eat one iota of shit!”

Christel and I just saw it. It was so much fun! We enjoyed it a lot. I would be up for another Benoit Blanc mystery. I think it could be a fun little franchise.

Yeah, I do wonder if he’s a character that could sustain the same sort of interest as Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes with a completely different cast.

Dave wrote:

lorcan_nagle wrote:

Dave wrote:

War of the Worlds has been pretty decent so far I think. I watched episodes one and two on consecutive nights which helped. Looking forward to seeing where they take things in the finale.

My prediction is the Martians are defeated by the common cold.

I know this is a joke but there have been a couple of elements to this series that have made me think they might deviate from this ending.

I watched The Five Deadly Venoms the other day.  Considered one of the best Shaw Brothers kung fu movies, it’s a favourite of the Wu-Tang Clan – who sampled it extensively, and Quentin Tarantino – who referenced it in Kill Bill, most notably with the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad.

The titular deadly venoms are a quintet of fighters trained by a specific kung fu master.  Most of them don’t know each other between not having trained under him at the same time, and went out into the world at different times. Each of them learned a different style named after a venomous creature – Centipede attacks with preternatural speed, Snake strikes at their enemy’s weak spots, Scorpion has powerful kicks, Lizard can walk on walls, and Toad is almost invulnerable to damage. Snake and Scorpion know each other, as do Lizard and Toad.  But nobody other than the master knows Scorpion  The Master is dying, and sends his final student, Yang Tieh out into the world to find them, determine if they are virtuous or not, and kill those who aren’t – using the fortune a colleague named Yun has amassed as bait to draw them out .  But because Yang has been taught a little of each technique, he will have to ally with one or more of the Venoms to defeat the others.

The plot is somewhat convoluted to begin with, and the story switched back and forth between Yang’s semi-comical lurking around a town and the more serious intrigue as a Constable investigates Yun’s murder, trying to deduce who is and isn’t a Deadly Venom. Along the way there’s some slapstick comedy as well as whole bunch of fighting and some quite brutal moments.  So pretty average for a Shaw historical epic.

It’s a very packed story, which sort of relies on a lot of coincidence and happenstance – Yang shows up in a part of town where all the Venoms are either ensconced in society or passing through at the same time, right as some of them kill Yun.  And later in the plot, after one of the Venoms is cleared of the murders, he and a colleague go about murdering everyone that can implicate him – and until the main Constable returns from a trip, the rest of them are fine to consider these unrelated deaths. Let’s just say it stretches credibility at points. Yang’s character is a trope from kung fu movies that I’m not a huge fan of – he’s presented as a comedic character for most of the movie, skilled but willing to play the clown to make others underestimate him, and dressed simply and dirty. He literally vanishes from the plot of long stretches of the movie’s runtime.  But when it’s time for the final battle he’s there, and all cleaned up in a fancy outfit.

But it’s a lot of fun. The fight scenes – and let’s be honest, it’s why we’re watching these movies – are great. Not the best I’ve seen, but the main cast, who would be go on to be called the Venom Gang ans work together on many more movies, are all skilled acrobats and fighters, and it shows here so well.  There’s some incredible physical feats in the fights, some fantastic choreography, and even some wire work that doesn’t always… work, but it’s still pretty cool.

I watched Ready or Not

Holy shit snacks is whatserfaceamajig a dead ringer for Margot Robbie’s little sister.

Australians must all look alike!

Anonymous wrote:

Australians must all look alike!

I married an Australian and can inform you that my missus looks nothing like Margot Robbie  

Uncle Retrospective wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Australians must all look alike!

I married an Australian and can inform you that my missus looks nothing like Margot Robbie  

But Tim is also Australian and he does looks remarkably like Margot Robbie.

I watched the 90s classic Street Fighter last night.

It truly is terrible. I’ve not seen it in maybe 20 years and I remember it being bad, so that was no surprise. Even having read the oral history of its creation on Polygon or Kotaku a few years back – where the director, Stephen De Souza talked about Seven Dwarfs Syndrome and how he convinced Capcom to use only a couple of characters and then suddenly was forced to use all of them – I was surprised just how many characters from the games they shoved in here. I’d forgotten that Balrog was Chun-Li’s cameraman (for some reason) and that one of Guile’s soldiers randomly turns out to be T-Hawk. I still don’t get why Balrog was made a “goodie” while Dee-Jay was shoved into Shadaloo (when, really, if you’re going to crowbar them into the movie, they’d work better the other way around) but I suspect it’s because De Souza had long stopped caring in that regard. The plot is absolute cobblers and not even because it’s having to use too many characters.

And yet… and yet it’s also brilliant. I don’t normally go for the “so bad it’s good” thing, but this movie. Van Damme is kinda terrible as Guile, yet somehow that works. Raul Julia is outstanding as Bison though. His screen presence is amazing, but also his dialogue is just superb throughout. So many great, quotable lines in an otherwise dire movie.

For you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday.

Uncle Retrospective wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Australians must all look alike!

I married an Australian and can inform you that my missus looks nothing like Margot Robbie  

David is correct. Your wife must therefore be a secret new zealender

I’ve been watching The Brokenwood Mysteries, which claims to be set in New Zealand but clearly isn’t. For a start there are no Hobbits, and for another thing Fern Sutherland is a dead ringer for Margot Robbie and therefore clearly Australian:

That aside, it’s a good series if you like the genre of lightweight whodunnits with quirky characters. It’s kind of like Midsummer Murders but in New Zealand (or Australia, who can tell? )

Anonymous wrote:

David is correct. Your wife must therefore be a secret new zealender

The horror!!

Martin Smith wrote:

Van Damme is kinda terrible as Guile, yet somehow that works.

Wasn’t one of the bigger problems with the film getting Van Damme to show up to the set and when he did, he was rarely sober?

Knives Out was loads of fun. Great cast, cleverly written, and well directed. Don’t want to say more for fear of spoilers but I enjoyed it.

We are still working our way through Halt and Catch Fire. Almost stopped bothering halfway through season one but now we are nearly at the season three finale and the show is kicking into high gear. This is brilliantly written and acted. Except for Tom, who sucks. But the rest? Golden. Looking forward to seeing how it plays out.

I’m up to episode six of For All Mankind, and I’m enjoying it quite a bit.

 

The trailers didn’t really do this series a lot of justice; the actual series is much more grounded and realistic than the advertising would have us believe.

RonnieM wrote:

Martin Smith wrote:

Van Damme is kinda terrible as Guile, yet somehow that works.

Wasn’t one of the bigger problems with the film getting Van Damme to show up to the set and when he did, he was rarely sober?

Quite possibly, but Raul Julia being at death’s door was the big problem, as they had to rearrange the entire shooting schedule to accommodate his medical treatment, which meant the fight arrangements got cut short, IIRC. And then Julia was still too ill to do much physical stuff.

I’ll add my vote to ‘Knives Out’ as a fun movie and a brilliant one to end the year on. No spoilers, it mixed up it’s genre and structure in some ways I didn’t anticipate, but which played very well and entertained me and the audience I saw it with.

One woman actually jumped so hard at one point she threw her popcorn in the air in that cliched way that so rarely happens in real life. It’s not a film with a lot of jump scares really but this one (I’ll just say “spider!”) did it for her.

Anonymous wrote:

I really like Ana de Armas. She really impressed me in Blade runner 2049.

Clearly she’s gorgeous but shes also very talented.  She deserves to be a star

Yep, gorgeous AND an excellent actress.

Out of JOKER or THE LIGHTHOUSE, we decided to go for THE LIGHTHOUSE.

It was the wrong choice.

Saw Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle yesterday, with the mid. It was a lot of fun.

Yeah, it was a fun movie. I was thinking of taking the kids to the new one but I might just wait for streaming.

Yeah, it was exactly the right kind of fun movie to watch at home, really. Not something you necessarily need to see at the theatre, though it’d make for a fun night out, too.

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Also, Jack Black’s performance was really fun. Playing a self-absorbed girl kind of meant that that was his most restrained performance I’ve ever seen, I think, and it worked really well. The Rock obviously also had fun playing the nerdy kid, and Karen Gillan was good, too. Kevin Hart really was the only one who didn’t manage to come across as anything but Kevin Hart, and Fridge was the least fleshed-out character because of it.

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Also, I notice that both Chris MeKenna and Eric Sommers are involved in the writing of this, who also both co-wrote on the new Spider-Man movies. Which makes a lot of sense, actually, as far as style of dialogue and the characters go.

Having them all play against type was a good gag that worked well and also made for some decent character development.

(The scene where Jack Black has to teach Karen Gillan how to distract the men was a highlight.)

I hope they can maintain it in the sequel. There are lots of great opportunities for humour in the whole videogame setup I think.

I tried watching Joker but I just couldn’t watch it, the mannerisms they gave him were just too silly and annoying. Like they went out of their way to make him look super crazy and weird.