What have you been watching lately?
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Chaos Walking – I didn’t have high expectations going in for a multitude of reasons. And yeah, it’s not great. Just kind of there. Basically they took a trilogy of books and made it into a single 115 minute movie by stripping out just about everything that made the books interesting and engaging. That includes, but is not limited to, casting actors a solid 10 years older than the main characters should have been. That said, I suppose they did a decent job of visualizing the noise for film. In the end though, I’m mostly left curious by what the Charlie Kaufman script was like. Because this was just kind of empty.
Joker
I lasted 40 minutes then gave up. Absolute shite.
Watched The Matrix for the first time in about 20 years. Surprising absolutely nobody with the revelation that it is still excellent. What does seem odd is that it is leaving Netflix in the next week. Seems weird they would let that slip with the sequel so close to release.
Watched The Matrix for the first time in about 20 years. Surprising absolutely nobody with the revelation that it is still excellent. What does seem odd is that it is leaving Netflix in the next week. Seems weird they would let that slip with the sequel so close to release.
They only re-added the Trilogy a few weeks ago.
Watched The Matrix for the first time in about 20 years. Surprising absolutely nobody with the revelation that it is still excellent. What does seem odd is that it is leaving Netflix in the next week. Seems weird they would let that slip with the sequel so close to release.
It’s possibly because it’s owned by Warner and they want it exclusively on whatever their streaming platform is called now ahead of the sequel’s release
Free Guy
I’ve seen some really divisive opinions on this. It’s been absolutely slated by some writers I respect, yet enjoyed by non-writers.
I found myself in the middle. It’s fine. Fun enough in places, but it’s basically running on the same level of computer literacy and internal logic as Tron, which is disappointing. The whole film seems to take place in some odd alternate reality where pre-sales of a video game and MMO glitches can make TV news, which felt more unrealistic than its understanding of servers and suchlike.
I found it really odd that it completely abandons the set-up it had in the trailer of building up to a reveal of Guy’s world being a video game. It just limply throws it out there from the off with talk of “sunglasses people” in the most perfunctory way.
The weirdest thing about it though is that it ends up riffing on the same concepts as that issue of Transformers where Optimus Prime kills himself for letting some NPCs die.
Watched The Matrix for the first time in about 20 years. Surprising absolutely nobody with the revelation that it is still excellent. What does seem odd is that it is leaving Netflix in the next week. Seems weird they would let that slip with the sequel so close to release.
It’s leaving Prime Video next week too.
SQUID GAME on NETFLIX is very good. Korean series can be often cliche and sentimental, but this is on the higher end with a sensative hero confronting life’s cruel absurdity and meaningless suffering in the sort of survival game drama common in a lot of action thriller and science fiction. Though, this is not really sci-fi in any way.
It seems to me like there are increasingly a lot of good Korean shows and movies on Netflix, Prime and Hulu, but that could just be because my wife watches them all on my accounts so that’s what pops up whenever I go to those channels.
Finished this last night and absolutely loved it. I’m rarely shocked by anything these days, but the casual executions were genuinely quite disturbing to watch.
I just finished Squid Game.
I thought it was a good series with some great performances and fantastic character moments.
I think what worked against it for me was its predictability. You knew who was going to survive because that’s what the story required. I had a weird deja vu when watching the back half of the series. A lot of it seemed very familiar though I have no idea from what. I think it may just be that I’ve consumed a lot of books, TV, and movies so it was easy to predict the what would happen next.
It was a good series but it didn’t completely blow me away.
Yeah I didn’t think it was as good as they’re hyping it to be… but that’s probably because I’m older and I’ve seen plenty of stuff like that… though I can see why a younger audience or people who ain’t as steeped into media like me would find it more riveting.
I just tried watching two adult animated series on Netflix.
Q-Force: This show is about a group of LGBT+ spies. The first episode is all set up and drags from it. I gave the second episode a shot and it wasn’t much better. The humor really leans heavily into stereotypes but doesn’t do anything interesting with it. I won’t be watching anymore.
Chicago Party Aunt: I only got halfway through the first episode. The lead character Diane, party aunt, is way beyond annoying. I couldn’t watch anymore. Avoid this series.
Ted Lasso finale – a good wrap up, setting up things well for the next season.
Rewatched The Departed after listening to the recent Rewatchables episode on it (their second go!). I hadn’t seen it since the one time at the movies; although I’m a Scorsese fan I didn’t love the flick the first time around, and felt much the same this time. It’s very messy, lots of plotholes, with some good performances to save it.
Went to see Ron’s Gone Wrong with the kids this afternoon.
It’s a fun kids movie with some good laughs and a fair bit of heart, as well as a fairly balanced view of tech/social media and how it interacts with kids’ lives. It’s already led to some good conversations.
Fast ‘n’ Furious 9
Sure, I’m pretty certain that isn’t how magnets work. That guy was definitely dead. No way can you do that and survive, nor that, definitely not that.
And yet it’s so much fun. It has Helen Mirren bombing around London at high speed, and that’s not the only crazy sequence here either. The character ensemble works very well, everyone has a fair amount of space and it just goes along at speed.
I liked this far more than 8.
Watching the new season of Movies That Made us, starting with the Coming To America episode.
After the last season was a bit too pisstakey and pleased with its own jokes, this is back to the style of season one – just a good solid making-of with plenty of anecdotes I wasn’t aware of.
Looking forward to watching the Aliens and Robocop ones too.
pisstakey
In the US we spell “pistachio” differently.
Succession S03E01 – it’s good to have this show back!
We foolishly didn’t revisit the last season or even just the last episode of season 2 so I’m sure we missed some details (it’s been over two years!), but managed to follow all the important stuff. Still very quick, very smart, and very funny. Looking forward to the discourse via Twitter and Podcasts.
Finished season two of Ted Lasso. It was fine. Always pleasant to spend time with these characters and good for a laugh or two, yet it never hit the heights of the first season. The first time around they had the core storyline of Rebecca using Ted to tank the club to get back at her ex husband, with Ted deliberately using his aw-shucks persona to hide an astute wit. This time around they had no clear arc for the season, although they certainly packed in a lot of half baked ideas that could have carried it, while Ted himself was basically just a passenger. They’ve got things set up well for a third and final season but we’ll see how it goes. It was funny seeing which Premier League club they picked to be the big bad next time around. Who’d they piss off?
Yeah, it was a bit looser with a lot more subplots I guess, but from memory in season one Rebecca was won over by Ted and revealed her plan well before the last episode, no?
The two additional episodes this time around copped a lot of scorn, particularly the second one, but I didn’t think they were that bad.
It was funny seeing which Premier League club they picked to be the big bad next time around. Who’d they piss off?
It must have been an interesting conversation to have.
“Hello West Ham? Warner Bros here. We were wondering if you’d be ok with us giving you a fictional owner and manager for the next season of our show. Yes, Ted Lasso, the feel-good comedy on Apple TV+. You are? Excellent. Oh btw they’re evil, ok thanks bye!”
Yeah, a few episodes before the end and then it became about both of them proving Rupert wrong and trying to avoid relegation. All a bit neater than season two.
I didn’t mind the two extra episodes but they felt way too long, especially the Beard’s drunken night out. Just because they’re not beholden to the 22 minutes limit doesn’t mean they have to stray too far beyond that.
It was funny seeing which Premier League club they picked to be the big bad next time around. Who’d they piss off?
It must have been an interesting conversation to have.
“Hello West Ham? Warner Bros here. We were wondering if you’d be ok with us giving you a fictional owner and manager for the next season of our show. Yes, Ted Lasso, the feel-good comedy on Apple TV+. You are? Excellent. Oh btw they’re evil, ok thanks bye!”
If only they had been able to wait a few more months for the Newcastle takeover…
I watched ‘Yesterday’ with the Mrs.
It’s funny as it’s a twist on a recurring dream I used to have but with time travel where you go back a year before any great musical movement and ‘invent’ it yourself.
All in all it’s a pretty well done version of the typical British rom-com albeit less middle class and white than Richard Curtis’ template tends to prefer, which is nice.
There is one bit I loved though. I’ll blank out for spoiler reasons.
They hint all the way through that Jack is not the only guy that can remember The Beatles, with a Russian fan in the crowd and a suspicious lady in Liverpool. It’s ratcheted up as a potential big confrontation and they end up just thanking him for bringing the songs they love back as he has musical talent and they don’t. I always like when in a very predictable genre a little bit comes up that subverts, even just a little bit.
Yeah, I liked Yesterday (including that bit you spoiler-tagged). I was expecting it to be overly schmaltzy and sentimental but you have to credit Curtis as he has good judgement to know just how far to go with that stuff without the audience starting to feel that they’re being overly manipulated (see also his Doctor Who episode). Although I guess mileage varies a bit on that.
Lots of good, sharp gags too. One of my favourite little bits from the movie involves the non-existence of a certain other band that was heavily inspired by the Beatles, which got a laugh from me and worked well as a nice throwaway gag.
I think the romance bit worked as Lily James is impossibly gorgeous but the whole thing with Jack is his lack of self confidence. I can realistically see me making the same dumb mistakes he did and probably have at least a couple of times
Lots of good, sharp gags too. One of my favourite little bits from the movie involves the non-existence of a certain other band that was heavily inspired by the Beatles, which got a laugh from me and worked well as a nice throwaway gag.
It’s an obvious joke, but then only helps break the logic of the rest of the film. I know, I know – it’s a silly fantastical comedy, but I can’t help it. Even the idea that Ed Sheeran would have a career without the Beatles is silly!
Is no one else here on the Succession train?
I binged the first two seasons of Succession last year and absolutely loved them. I’m going to try and let the new episodes pile up a bit before I start on them.
We finished Only Murders In The Building tonight. It was a fun series and decent throughout but faltered a little bit towards the end. Not sure whether multiple seasons is a good idea.
But it’s hard to resist Steve Martin and Martin Short being so likeable silly so I’m sure I’ll be back for more.
Watching Abar, The First Black Superman
https://archive.org/details/abar_the_first_black_superman_1977
We finished Only Murders In The Building tonight. It was a fun series and decent throughout but faltered a little bit towards the end. Not sure whether multiple seasons is a good idea.
But it’s hard to resist Steve Martin and Martin Short being so likeable silly so I’m sure I’ll be back for more.
I enjoyed it too. Although did Disney+ put two episodes up together for the last week? It said “series finale now live” or whatever on the front page, but despite watching weekly, I had ep 9 and 10 available. So either they put up two or I missed a week at some point without realising.
We finished Only Murders In The Building tonight. It was a fun series and decent throughout but faltered a little bit towards the end. Not sure whether multiple seasons is a good idea.
But it’s hard to resist Steve Martin and Martin Short being so likeable silly so I’m sure I’ll be back for more.
I enjoyed it too. Although did Disney+ put two episodes up together for the last week? It said “series finale now live” or whatever on the front page, but despite watching weekly, I had ep 9 and 10 available. So either they put up two or I missed a week at some point without realising.
Yeah, D+ were a week behind the US all though the run, but I think they realised with all the spoiler-y articles out there after the finale aired in America they should probably put it up early.
Yeah, it was a nice surprise to see both at once as I assumed we’d be waiting an extra week for the finale.
Yeah, D+ were a week behind the US all though the run, but I think they realised with all the spoiler-y articles out there after the finale aired in America they should probably put it up early.
Ah, ok! I was really getting worried about my memory there for a moment. I think putting the last two up together actually worked pretty well given that it’s reasonably clear Jan’s the murderer before the end of the penultimate episode, so that’s week wait would have undermined the finale a bit, I think.
Yeah, although I half expected a further twist in the finale to overturn that after the penultimate episode gave so much away.
Watching Abar, The First Black Superman
https://archive.org/details/abar_the_first_black_superman_1977
- This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by JRCarter.
Did you see my post in the Marvel Movie and TV thread?
Watching Abar, The First Black Superman
https://archive.org/details/abar_the_first_black_superman_1977
- This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by JRCarter.
Did you see my post in the Marvel Movie and TV thread?
I did.
Finished Squid Game last night. I enjoyed it, but it was definitely predictable. Even the two “twists”, or whatever you want to call them, in the last couple of episodes were pretty obvious. Still, it was a well produced and acted series that did a pretty solid job of amping up the tension even when the ultimate outcomes weren’t really in question.
Finally found this on YouTube:
Finally found this on YouTube:
One of the rare instances where they, the performer, are a better comedian (by far) than they are an actor/actress.
Legacy of Lies
Whoever can tell me what was really going on in this mess of a film gets some kind of prize.
I watched Scary Movie this evening, as part of my season of non-horror Halloween viewing*. It’s… not aged brilliantly, but it is funny in places.
The most stark bit is seeing Anna Faris as the dowdy brunette every-girl. She moved so far away from that over the years, I’d completely forgotten that was how she started out. (Oddly, that transformation plays out across the film FAQ About Time Travel, where she goes from mousey blonde to Terminator Barbie).
*So far it has been this, Haunted Mansion, Practical Magic, Addams Family (1991), Death Becomes Her and that Undertaker choose your own adventure thing on Netflix.
Not entirely sure why but I watched The World Is Not Enough for the first time this century. Pleasantly surprised that it was a lot better than I remembered! I haven’t really spent much time with the Brosnan Bond movies and had forgotten about some welcome appearances like Robbie Coltrane and John Cleese. Brosnan himself walks a very fine line between Dalton’s seriousness and Moore’s tomfoolery, which is a rather tricky thing to do. In retrospect, I should give Brosnan more credit for his Bond than I had done before. The plot was pretty solid too, rooted in something at least vaguely credible, not too outlandish and with a decent twist. It also allowed for Bond to actually do some spy work rather than just bluntly forcing his way to the boss. Speaking of which, Robert Carlyle was all sorts of fun here and his final scene with Brosnan was surprisingly touching. Even the most memorably foolish part – Denise Richards as a hotpants-wearing nuclear physicist named Christmas Jones – was not entirely awful and almost saved by the final line of the movie.
I seem to recall this movie came out during the peak of the Austin Powers buzz and suffered as a result of people being unwilling to take an actual Bond movie as “seriously” as they once had – or maybe that was just me. In any case, it was a fun couple of hours.
Great theme song too. Shirley Manson should belt out a few more numbers in that style, it certainly suits her voice.
I remember The World Is Not Enough going down pretty well at the time, second only to Goldeneye among the Brosnan Bonds. It’s one of the better Bond movies.
And yeah, Coltrane was good there after his relatively brief appearance in Goldeneye – they obviously realised he was worth bringing back for more.
Never would have imagined Coltrane as a Russian gangster having a shoot out in an action movie but it worked. Shame he never got another shot.
For whatever its worth, the adjusted-for-inflation chart on Wikipedia has TWINE as the lowest grossing of the Brosnan movies, although they are all solidly above the Moore/Dalton efforts from the ’80s.
Coltrane really became a much better actor than you might ever have imagined in his early comedy days. After Cracker he’s had lots of great roles, although I guess now he’ll always be remembered by a certain generation as Hagrid.
For whatever its worth, the adjusted-for-inflation chart on Wikipedia has TWINE as the lowest grossing of the Brosnan movies, although they are all solidly above the Moore/Dalton efforts from the ’80s.
The 80s, for all people of our generation love to enthuse about childhood memories of cinema, is the least successful decade for box office in history. The BFI rather handily record total number of tickets sold so you don’t have to make inflation adjusted estimates.
1984 – the year Ghostbusters, Karate Kid, Beverly Hills Cop, Temple of Doom and Gremlins hit UK cinema is the least successful year since the 1920s to today of the getting bums on seats.
(To be fair a lot of that is structural, they were moving from single theatres to a multi-screen option but it is true and makes me take 80s receipts on Bond with the industry in context).
An earlier Damon Wayans comedy special:
Another spooky season double bill for me.
The Babysitter – which I saw when it was originally released and was pleased to see it holds up. Sure, it’s a tad thin on motivation, but it’s funny and exciting in a glossy way. I really liked Robbie Amell’s character (ignoring the fact Amell is ~30 playing a high schooler) and the way he’s weirdly supportive to Cole while also trying to kill him.
Don’t Look Under The Bed – this is a Disney channel original movie from 1999. They’re big nostalgia points for some people, but not for me – I’m pretty sure the Disney Channel was still a subscription one at this point in the UK (on top of a Sky sub) and by the time it went free to air, I’d aged out of it mostly (except for Kim Possible). I think I would have really liked this if I’d seen it at the time and it’s enjoyable enough for a bit of Halloween fluff now, which some interesting ideas about the fates of imaginary friends. It stars Erin Chambers, who’s really good in a role that could have been a lot more annoying with a different actor. I vaguely recognised her, so looked her up afterwards and she was in a couple of episodes of Stargate Atlantis, Veronica Mars and also LA Noire. But generally only guest spots and soaps, which is a shame (and not the trashy exploitation movies I thought she’d been in, when I confused her with Erin Cummings).
The Babysitter: Killer Queen
Wow this was bad. I’m not sure what was worse: the massive retreading of the first movie; the attempt to try and redeem Bee by sketching in some motivation; turning the love interest from the first film into a vapid carbon copy of Bee; the over-use of the first film’s occasional stylistic flourishes to the point of them being utterly annoying; that the subtitle means nothing and seems to be there only to justify using the song at the end.
Actually, no, I do know, it’s making Melanie the villain. Is being annoyed about that a sign that the characters are good enough to care about or simply just being annoyed by the inherent misogyny of changing her entire personality and turning her into a manipulative mastermind because teenage girls can’t be trusted, I guess? Blech.
The plot really feels structured around them only being able to get Samara Weaving (who looks oddly gaunt) for a day or two of filming, which surely should have been a sign to not bother.
For a moment, I thought the film was going to do something interesting by having co-lead Phoebe starring in her own, different horror movie that jams into Cole’s but unfortunately not.
The latest season of The Good Fight started in the UK tonight (only four months after it did in the US). It took a really interesting approach to picking up after the previous season was cut short by COVID. It did the episode as an extended “previously on” clip reel. Which I’m sure a comedy show has done (and it’s bugging me that I can’t remember which – Sealab 2021? Community?) but it’s played straight here. As straight as the Good Fight gets anyway.
It does more substantial clips than you’d really get in an actual recap reel and is just fragmentary moments of what would have happened last season with some reflection of current events. And it works well. Not perfectly, some of the plot threads from last season are dropped (Liz’s office romance, John Laroquette’s scheming guy) but it does tie up most of it sufficiently and gives Adrian and Lucca the exits they were planned in decent enough fashion (although Lucca’s travelled to London in some alternate reality where Big Ben isn’t undergoing repairs and is still regularly chiming).
I’m interested to see where the series goes now, having lost most of its original cast and especially as there’s no Trump administration to rail against. Admittedly I would have liked to have seen it all not four months late, when all the topical stuff will be stale, but what can you do?
So I watched Army of Thieves, completely forgot that was coming out, and… I dunno, it’s nothing special, but it’s just super solid. Solid cast, solid acting, very good cinematography and direction and VFX and everything else… the story is just there, nothing too unique about it, but it IS fun, so there… Perfectly good solid movie, nothing worth getting excited about though. I guess that’s like a perfect streaming service movie…
Finished up Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building last night. Good concept, great cast of people who know their way around comedy, lots of twists and surprises. And most of the episodes ran about 35 minutes, so not a lot of useless filler. I’m happy to learn there will be a second season in 2022, with the three stars already confirmed. Recommended.
Wow this was bad.
If I had seen your review of Babysitter in time, I would have warned you about the sequel. Amell is like the only good thing in the sequel. Speaking of which I wonder what is happening with Upload. Season 1 was enjoyable and I heard they were going to do Season 2. I haven’t heard anything since.
Last Night in Soho: Pretty good, which is slightly disappointing for an Edgar Wright movie.
The performances are great, and there are some lovely set pieces, but some of the plot twists are very obvious, and some of the creative decisions didn’t work for me. The whole thing with the predatory men as faceless ghost-zombies starts as effectively creepy, then devolves into a CG-looking mess, losing a lot of the style and personality that made it work earlier. The love interest character is so underdeveloped I’m not sure his name was even mentioned until ten minutes from the end.
Could have been better, and I’m glad to see Wright trying something different, even if it didn’t entirely work for me.
The Final Girls
Three years ago, Max’s mum died in a car accident. Now Max has reluctantly agreed to attend a screening of the campy 80s horror movie her mum starred in – Camp Bloodbath (based heavily on Friday 13th) – on the anniversary of her mum’s death. For some reason, a fire starts in the cinema and the only way out for Max and her friends is to cut through the screen, which somehow sends them into the movie.
It’s quite a nice premise and the film has some decent jokes and endearing characters. It’s let down a bit by its commentary on horror movies being rather familiar and sub-Scream. Also its pacing is a bit wonky and it’s heavily over-directed towards the end. But it’s an enjoyable comedy-horror.
I know I’m years late on this, but man, Succession is really good isn’t it? We just started it a couple of nights ago and we’re already more than halfway through the first season. Such great drama and such an excellent mix of characters and dysfunctional family dynamics. Plus the music is ace.
Don’t worry, I’m going to be even later to that. I will watch it one day, I swear.
Succession is a good show, but on the other hand I kinda hate the characters’ overly cartoony depiction sometimes… I mean the kids, particularly… and it’s a bit distracting sometimes.
I haven’t gotten hooked on Succession yet. My girlfriend and I have watched the first three episodes. We’ve both enjoyed them, but it hasn’t fully grabbed us yet. Good fun, but neither of us has been dying to watch the next episode.
I know I’m years late on this, but man, Succession is really good isn’t it?
So was I, and others I know. Don’t know why I resisted so long when people I trust were telling me to try.
I don’t remember the point where I was “all in”, but I kept it on and then couldn’t live without it.
Funny story, but Kieran Culkin was invited to read for the part of cousin Greg.
Culkin’s manager passed along the pilot script to Succession in 2016. As the story goes, the casting director wanted him to read for the bumbling Cousin Greg (which went to Nicholas Braun). Culkin instead put three Roman scenes on tape and sent them in.
I couldn’t imagine Roman or Greg played by anyone else.
I know I’m years late on this, but man, Succession is really good isn’t it? We just started it a couple of nights ago and we’re already more than halfway through the first season. Such great drama and such an excellent mix of characters and dysfunctional family dynamics. Plus the music is ace.
It’s also often under-appreciated that it’s funny.
I was sold at the end of the first episode, where you expect Roman to be the nice one – turns out there’s no nice one! And that’s okay!
Finished my rewatch of The Good Wife, which mostly held up really well. I didn’t remember the later seasons all that well, and was surprised how strong they were. The fifth season, with Alicia and Cary starting their own firm, is the best of the series, with a good mix of the political and legal sides of the show.
Some of the extended storylines in the later seasons don’t work: in Season Six, we know Alicia isn’t going to ever become State’s Attorney, as it would mean the show couldn’t use her as a lawyer, and in the final season, we know Peter’s presidential campaign isn’t going anywhere (though the Alan Cumming vs Margo Martindale scenes make it almost worth it).
Season six also has the problem where Julianna Margulies and Archie Panjabi refused to be in scenes together, so they only ever speak on the phone. It’s in Season five too, but as the characters aren’t working together it’s easy to not notice. Watching through this time though, it’s jarring because of how much time the early seasons spend on their friendship. It’s a very odd situation, especially as nobody has ever said anything about what happened between them.
One slightly off thing I noticed this time around is how often they did episodes with storylines relating to Israel and Palestine, almost always in a way that’s sympathetic to Israel, and several times pro-Palestine characters turn out to be linked to Hamas. A lot of it is in the political storyline, where Alan Cumming’s character bristles at the mention of anything slightly pro-Palestine, but it comes up in cases the firm takes too. It’s a weird blind spot for the show.
Now on to The Good Fight, which I’ve previously only seen the first three seasons of. I assume this show will already feel more dated, given how much of it focuses on present day, real world politics. Even when doing a storyline about a presidential campaign, The Good Wife only ever mentioned Trump once, as far as I can recall.
Sooo… I was watching the latest episode of Foundation (episode 8), and there were a LOT of Dune-like things in it… that whole episode really made me think of Dune where the previous ones didn’t really… Now, I know the Foundation books predate Dune, but I also know the TV show has changed a lot of stuff… So I was wondering if those Dune-like elements are in the book or if they’re part of the show changes. Anyone here has read the novel?
Just back from seeing Oasis: Knebworth at the local cinema, my first cinema visit since January 2020 (Little Women).
It was a “gold class” session, only my second and wife’s first – it is nice to have more room, wait service, and recliner seats. There were only 5 of us in the session. Good little documentary, only for the fans though – can’t imagine a casual listener or non-fan enjoying it (unlike the Supersonic documentary which I’d recommend to anyone).
The big thing with the film is that it’s fan-centric – voice-over snippets from fans (and staged re-enactments) who were there at the time, or who missed out on tickets and listened to the show on the radio accompany the entire runtime, and there’s no uninterrupted songs (but the whole thing – both nights’ gigs – will be released on CD and DVD/BR later this month).
But it was nice to see such a joyous, communal event, pre-internet, pre-mobile phone in a widespread sense – and unlike later in the band’s career the crowd was pretty evenly split gender-wise.
It’s still breath-taking to see the scale of the crowd – this band go from playing to 12 people in a pub to only two years later 250,000 people over a weekend. They arrive by helicopter and don’t look fazed at all surveying the crowd from above, Liam’s only 24 years old.
Got into a pretty good bedtime routine with my eldest. Just before she hoes to bed we watch two episodes of Teen Titans Go. It’s brilliant. Fast paced, wildly anarchic, and plenty for adults and kids a line to enjoy. Recent highlights have to be the Christmas Carol parody about Black Friday and a bottle episode set in an actual bottle. I think I’d watch this even if i didnt have kids.
Only Murders in the Building did OK….
Then, for the last episode, the writers decided to steer the plane, at max speed, into the ground, splattering itself into a gigantic mess.
Edit – oh, there’s going to be a season 2, that explains that mess of a finale. Really loathe that tendency of US TV.
Not yet. It doesn’t appear to be on any of the streaming service we subscribe to. I was thinking of renting it for the weekend though.
Well worth it. We saw it at the cinema and still had to buy it as soon as it came out on DVD. It was on pretty constant rotation in our house for a while.
Only Murders in the Building did OK….
Then, for the last episode, the writers decided to steer the plane, at max speed, into the ground, splattering itself into a gigantic mess.
Edit – oh, there’s going to be a season 2, that explains that mess of a finale. Really loathe that tendency of US TV.
What didn’t you like about it?
Just didn’t care for the wrecking of the conclusion, with a last 5-10 mins that’s only there to throw crap up into the air.
The actual main story? Concluded well enough.
Ah, ok. Yeah, there was a bit of a whiff of “we’re getting a second season, we need to do something!” right at the end. A shame as I think it would have been perfect as a single self-contained one-season story.
Having said that, I’ll look forward to more.
I had completely forgotten that the first episode opened in medias res with Selena Gomez kneeling over the body of (seemingly) tie-dye guy, so the dog-leg ending was a tad surprising, but it had laid some groundwork for going beyond this one season.
Those final five minutes did not in any way dilute my enjoyment of the entire series. And it was also anticipated/referenced in the fourth episode (the Sting episode), which was narrated by Tina Fey’s podcasting character a few months after the events of the first season, and during which she spoke about “Brazzos” and his true-crime buddies becoming the subjects of her next investigation, and told listeners to “stay tuned for ‘Only Murderers in the Building’ coming this Fall”.
it is, in the US, on Hulu and Sling subscription services and ppv elsewhere.
so, Succession…
Let me say, I have always liked Adrian Brody in many things (even if some did not see — ‘Predators’), but I honestly fell in love when he scared the fuck out of me in Peaky Blinders (when he’s in the room alone with Tommy Shelby).
Now that he’s made his appearance as a major (?) stockholder (did he say 4%?), well it feels like the pin was pulled off the grenade.
And only one episode but I think he can switch sides, multiple times.
I haven’t even picked my side as I just love the chaos, but interesting how I react when stimulus is introduced (I didn’t know I felt that way!).
And we still haven’t seen Alexander Skarsgård yet.
I don’t think a season 4 is confirmed, but there has to be.
No matter what I want, this high quality series has to drive towards an end, and it feels like there is no going back now.
I hope whoever is driving this bus has it mapped out perfectly, to smash it good and proper at the end!
Oh, almost forgot. This was pandemic delayed, so are we still in 2019? or early 2020?
Who’s “The President?” Is it Trump? (He’s referred to as “The Raisin”)
And is this going to be a thing?
Note: If you haven’t watched, you can’t just join in, start at the beginning.
You’ll be glad you did.
Kinda based on the Rupert Murdoch family, plus Conrad Black, and other white-trash as well.
I know, that wasn’t the greatest selling point for me either.
But when you give it the chance…
Who’s “The President?” Is it Trump? (He’s referred to as “The Raisin”)
I don’t think it’s supposed to be any real president, rather a ficticious yet steretypical old, white, republican president… so probably a Bush type of guy. Or, since the show is fiction, I guess we can pretend it’s an alternate reality where John McCain won… =P
Yeah, it’s a fictional President.
I don’t think Covid will happen in Succession world. The show’s creator was asked about it, and said super rich people weren’t/aren’t really impacted by the pandemic so there’s not much value in including it.
Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar
I didn’t know anything about this before watching it. I thought it was going to be some mumblecore indie thing that I’d probably turn off after 15 minutes.
Instead it’s much broader, with an albino Bond villain (played by Kristen Wiig) planning to destroy an entire Florida town with genetically engineered mosquitos. A town where middle-aged singleton best friends Barb (Bridesmaids writer Annie Mumulo) and Star (also Wiig) happen to go on holiday.
The second surprising thing about this is that it’s not based on an SNL sketch. The way it extrapolates its characters out from a cosy, small town set-up into something larger and more exotic feels just like a typical SNL movie.
And yet, despite that comparison, it’s both not an SNL thing and it’s actually pretty funny. Ridiculous without being rubbish, which is hard to achieve these days, it seems. You don’t realise it yet, but you need to see Jamie Dornan doing a music video style number addressed to some seagulls.
Of all the movies that went straight-to-streaming in the last eighteen months, Barb & Star is the one I most wish I could have seen in a crowded screening. Love that movie.
With no fanfare at all, Peacock has launched as part of Sky in the UK.
Not much there yet, aside from a few shows that were previously US-only, like the Saved by the Bell reboot, Rutherford Falls, and Difficult People, as well as the full catalogs of The Office, Friday Night Lights, Downton Abbey, and Quantum Leap. They also have the final season of Superstore, which I guess is why it hasn’t shown up on Netflix.
They have a very random selection of about 40 movies too, even for non-Sky Cinema people, but none of them jump out as anything I want to watch (I’ll probably rewatch MacGruber and Out of Sight eventually, but I have them on DVD anyway).
Yeah, it’s weird. There was a panel on the front of the EPG this morning promoting Saved By The Bell, but there was no other trace of Peacock until this evening.
I noticed it’s got Downton Abbey in amongst its boxsets, which is strange. Surely ITV would have all domestic rights to that?
I noticed it’s got Downton Abbey in amongst its boxsets, which is strange. Surely ITV would have all domestic rights to that?
No, Downton was produced by Carnival Films, which is owned by NBCUniversal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnival_Films
Wow, that ‘Cock just popped up outta nowhere.
Wow, that ‘Cock just popped up outta nowhere.
Ahead of seeing the new one on Thursday, I watched Ghostbusters the other night (still excellent) and then Ghostbusters 2 tonight.
GB2 gets short shrift from some people, which it doesn’t really deserve. It’s certainly not a bad film, but it’s not a great one either. They really made some poor choices though.
Having the team forced out of action since the previous film just feels a bit like a cop out, just like it did in Dark Knight Rises when you find out Batman retired after his second case. Not only does it force the film into an extended redux of the setting up the business phase of the first one, but it just feels out of step with what the audience would have expected. Though certainly not exclusively a kids movie, there was a big child audience for the film, built up over the interim by the Real Ghostbusters cartoon. While I’m certainly not saying it should have been in continuity with that, it should have been more aware of the expectation and mood its existence created. Although I suppose you could argue defeating Gozer got rid of all the ghosts, there’s not really anything at the end of GB1 to suggest the business ending (whatever the reason) so it’s a really strange disconnect to go “they’re a passed fad kids party entertainers now” (especially as the kids all chant for He-Man, which was dead by 89, while RGB was popular.)
I think they should have taken more of a cue on characters from RGB. Winston still feels a bit like an outsider at times, rather than the equal he is there, but it’s the way Janine is defanged and palmed off on Louis – her interest in Egon conveniently forgotten – that feels like the biggest disservice. She’s really a shell of her former self here.
The other issue with them having been out of business is that most of the interesting stuff of them being Ghostbusters and actually catching ghosts is relegated to a montage again. The core of the Vigo story is solid and the slime river is a great visual, but ultimately it gets too weighed down in Dana being the unluckiest woman in New York and her heavily eventful relationship history (a failed significant relationship with Peter, a failed marriage and a pregnancy all in five years). It feels too much like a retreading of the first film there too. I think there would have been a more interesting role for Dana as Peter’s partner/wife rather than the one that got away for vague reasons.
I think the weirdest thing about the movie though is the music. It’s not necessarily bad – though it suffers for the lack of Elmer Bernstein’s score (not muxh they could do there – supposedly he was really pissed off they added in some pop songs to the first film, so likely wouldn’t have come back) – but it’s almost entirely scored with pop music and ends up a time capsule of a short period of hip-hop/RnB. I guess it’s maybe not that unusual – it’s only a few years before TMNT with its Turtle Power rap and MC Hammer doing the Addams Family theme – but it feels slightly at odds with how, well, white and unhip the film is.
Oh and it’s a bit odd they made those dark grey jumpsuits, used them in a lot of the promo shots and then only wore them in like two shots.
Anyway, some fun moments and a chance to catch up with beloved characters means it’s far from a terrible way to spend ~90 minutes. Which is all I’m really hoping for from the new one.
I saw Ghostbusters 2 before I saw the first one and as a result I’ve always really liked it. The first one is better but the second one certainly isn’t bad. Plus Vigo is a great scary presence in the movie.
Also, I think the whole Statue of Liberty bit is great. I know a lot of people wrote it off as a rehash of the Stay Puft man but I don’t think it comes off like that at all, I think it’s a really fun sequence.
I think the only thing I’ve watched on Peacock was the Brave New World series. It only lasted one season. It was mediocre. It wasn’t horrible but it wasn’t great either. They left it open for a potential Season 2 but it wasn’t enough to bring me back for another season, had there been one.
It feels too much like a retreading of the first film there too.
It’s a problem with a lot of 80s sequels really. There’s a tendency to repeat the same story beats and be very conservative about messing with the formula.
GB2 isn’t the worst offender by any means and is a fun film but there’s a fair amount of that as you say, let’s set up the firm we set up in the last film, let’s try and woo the woman again we wooed in the last film.
As to Peacock I think it’s their main foothold really. Things like Starz or NBC are not known quantities in the UK people are going to seek out so they get bolted on as add-ons to existing stuff like Prime or Sky. It’s probably a more sensible approach than trying to go it alone and get crowded out.
Janine is defanged and palmed off on Louis – her interest in Egon conveniently forgotten – that feels like the biggest disservice. She’s really a shell of her former self here.
There is an interesting aspect of this included in the movie. When Louis gets dressed up in the Ghostbusters gear and Janine zips him up, obviously very turned on by it, the name tag on the suit says Spengler. He is clearly a stand in for Egon in her eyes.
There are also some other indications that this is a relationship of convenience for Janine, such as when they are watching a movie and Louis won’t stop talking so she tries force feeding him popcorn in a vain attempt to get him to stop.
Well… I hope there ain’t any Wheel of Time fans in here, ’cause that first episode was fuckin’ awful… gonna try Cowboy Bebop… crossing my fingers sooo hard right now =P
I watched the first episode of Cowboy Bebop, and it was OK. It’s basically an adaptation of the fist episode of the show, stretched out with an intro for Spike and Jet that lifts bits from here and there, most notably the intro to the movie, and has them meet Faye during the main plot. It’s wrapped up in more of a central arc for Spike and Vicious’ feud to boot.
Faye is the best thing about this episode, she gets a ton of great lines, and Daniela Pineda’s smart-ass portrayal works really well. Everything else runs the gamut from functional to very good – John Cho and Mustafa Shakir work well as Spike and Jet, Shakir is doing a pitch-perfect Beau Billingslea impression. The biggest problem is probably the look and feel of the show, where it’s trying to be a live-action anime and just not getting it right. There’s choices when it comes to staging and editing that would work better with the visual language of anime. And the effects give the whole affair a kind of unworldly feel in a bad way. They’re very reminiscent of every time Asian cinema has tried to do a big live action tentpole movie, like Space Battleship Yamato, Space Sweepers or The Wandering Earth. I’m gonna keep watching but it’s nothing too special yet.
I watched the third and fourth seasons of A.P. Bio, which were really good, and a nice improvement over the earlier episodes.
The main difference is that they’ve wisely moved away from the original premise of Howerton’s character trying to get back to Harvard and get revenge on people from his past, and just made it a series about a wacky school with lots of wacky characters. It’s not quite as weird or good as Community, but there’s definitely a lot of similarities there (and one shared supporting cast member in David Neher, Community’s Todd).
They’ve figured out how to use the supporting characters, especially Patton Oswalt and Paula Pell, as well as the other teachers. The students in the titular class don’t get quite as much to do as in the early seasons, though there’s always a few fun group scenes in each episode.
I was wondering how they would justify keeping a show ostensibly based around a single high school class for several years without the students moving on, but the S4 finale reveals that only a few months have passed in the entire run of the show (about 40 episodes). This doesn’t make much sense, but it doesn’t need to. All of the actors playing teenagers were already in their twenties when the show began, and they don’t seem bothered about them aging when barely any time is supposed to have passed.
There’s been no word on a S5 renewal yet, but I hope it happens; it’s not like Peacock has a lot of content.
Ahead of seeing the new one on Thursday, I watched Ghostbusters the other night (still excellent) and then Ghostbusters 2 tonight.
GB2 gets short shrift from some people, which it doesn’t really deserve. It’s certainly not a bad film, but it’s not a great one either. They really made some poor choices though.
Having the team forced out of action since the previous film just feels a bit like a cop out, just like it did in Dark Knight Rises when you find out Batman retired after his second case. Not only does it force the film into an extended redux of the setting up the business phase of the first one, but it just feels out of step with what the audience would have expected. Though certainly not exclusively a kids movie, there was a big child audience for the film, built up over the interim by the Real Ghostbusters cartoon. While I’m certainly not saying it should have been in continuity with that, it should have been more aware of the expectation and mood its existence created. Although I suppose you could argue defeating Gozer got rid of all the ghosts, there’s not really anything at the end of GB1 to suggest the business ending (whatever the reason) so it’s a really strange disconnect to go “they’re a passed fad kids party entertainers now” (especially as the kids all chant for He-Man, which was dead by 89, while RGB was popular.)
I think they should have taken more of a cue on characters from RGB. Winston still feels a bit like an outsider at times, rather than the equal he is there, but it’s the way Janine is defanged and palmed off on Louis – her interest in Egon conveniently forgotten – that feels like the biggest disservice. She’s really a shell of her former self here.
The other issue with them having been out of business is that most of the interesting stuff of them being Ghostbusters and actually catching ghosts is relegated to a montage again. The core of the Vigo story is solid and the slime river is a great visual, but ultimately it gets too weighed down in Dana being the unluckiest woman in New York and her heavily eventful relationship history (a failed significant relationship with Peter, a failed marriage and a pregnancy all in five years). It feels too much like a retreading of the first film there too. I think there would have been a more interesting role for Dana as Peter’s partner/wife rather than the one that got away for vague reasons.
I think the weirdest thing about the movie though is the music. It’s not necessarily bad – though it suffers for the lack of Elmer Bernstein’s score (not muxh they could do there – supposedly he was really pissed off they added in some pop songs to the first film, so likely wouldn’t have come back) – but it’s almost entirely scored with pop music and ends up a time capsule of a short period of hip-hop/RnB. I guess it’s maybe not that unusual – it’s only a few years before TMNT with its Turtle Power rap and MC Hammer doing the Addams Family theme – but it feels slightly at odds with how, well, white and unhip the film is.
Oh and it’s a bit odd they made those dark grey jumpsuits, used them in a lot of the promo shots and then only wore them in like two shots.
Anyway, some fun moments and a chance to catch up with beloved characters means it’s far from a terrible way to spend ~90 minutes. Which is all I’m really hoping for from the new one.
You might appreciate this:
And however defanged you think Janine was here, she was worse after the first two seasons of RGB, thanks to the Q5 Corporation.
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