You Have Been Watching

Topic

What have you been watching lately?

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garjones wrote:

It’s Thandiwe Newton now remember.

Yes I forgot the name change (not least because all these episodes I’m watching at the moment have her top-billed under the old spelling).

Another thing I like about this season is that (like the first season) it seems to be about someone who makes some minor bad decisions that then lead to a situation that spirals out of control and requires worse and worse actions (and cover-ups) to keep a lid on it all.

I prefer that sense of desperation and chaos to the stories in seasons two and three where it’s more about genius masterminds controlling and contriving everything.

Yeah I agree, I liked the grey area of both those seasons. They weren’t bad people but covering up misjudgements just drove them down in ever decreasing circles.

Actually of the ‘guests’ that appear none of them are really that bad, they have reasons you can understand they go down the paths they do. Their stories are always more compelling than the three leads.

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Dave

Thanks to the recommendations here, we began watching the first season of LINE OF DUTY last night. Two episodes in and already hooked.

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Sean Robinson, Dave, garjones

Hope you enjoy Jerry. Here’s a guide to the endless acronyms: https://lineofduty.fandom.com/wiki/Acronyms

No I have no idea why the recording device beeps for 20 seconds before they start interviews.

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njerry

garjones wrote:

No I have no idea why the recording device beeps for 20 seconds before they start interviews.

Ha, I’ve been wondering this too. But I’m reluctant to google anything around this show for fear of spoilers.

Last night’s Inside No. 9 was a great little story that would probably appeal to members of this board, as it revolves around a feted creator of a popular fantasy TV franchise (who delivered what was perceived to be a duff series finale) and his relationship with the show’s fans.

I won’t give anything away but (as with almost all Inside No. 9) it’s a standalone story unconnected to other episodes in the series that can be enjoyed as a short half-hour play in its own right.

Well worth a look!

My parents are huge Line of Duty fans. They watch pretty much any European procedural show but they talk about that one way more than the others. I’ll have to give it a look.

I watched Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life the other day. It’s excellent. Tells the true story of Franz Jagerstatter, an Austrian farmer and devout Catholic who refused to swear a loyalty oath to Hitler and fight for the Nazis, and was put to death. It’s a long movie, nearly 3 hours, but well worth the time. I got chills over my whole body at the scene where Franz sees his wife for the very last time. It’s not often a film does that to me. Tremendously moving, one of Malick’s very best.

It does a cool thing I haven’t seen before where all the essential dialogue is in English (Austrian/German-accented, as most of the actors are Austrian or German) but background dialogue is in non-subtitled German. I liked the technique a lot, a cool halfway point between subtitling and using all English.

Yeah,I got caught up on Line of Duty a few months back. Ģreat show.
Over here it’s on both Netflix and Amazon Prime, but only up to season 5.
Dont know when to expect S6.

Another show I’ve just started is Succession. Can normal people enjoy this show?
Or only those with the personality flaw of loving to watch families with pure dysfunction?
Man is this good, plus the people that pushed me to watch say S2 is better, so I’m in for the long haul.
And lucked out with season 3 coming later this year (definitely watch as it comes out).

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Will_C

I think the Nevers just became a good show in the latest episode. Like in an Agents of SHIELD bait and switch kind of way.

And it had Claudia Black so yea!

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Todd

Sean Robinson wrote:

Over here it’s on both Netflix and Amazon Prime, but only up to season 5.

We’re watching it on Hulu; there’s commercials, but they have all five seasons and no extra charge. Amazon Prime wanted me to pay for something called the Brit Box in order to watch, and only the first 4 seasons are available IIRC.

I finished off s2 of Incredible Hulk. The change in premise is actually an improvement, giving more variety to the show’s plots (even in spite of She-Hulk’s forced catchphrase). It’s a bit odd that Banner’s going about so freely and less hunted, but whatevs.

The Grey Hulk thing is never really explained satisfactorily. I like the concept of him and the green Hulk duelling in Banner’s mind to take control when his emotions go out of control, but the distinct personality he has doesn’t make much sense. If the traditional Hulk is Banner’s rage given form, the grey Hulk is… his cynicism?

The other interesting thing is that while the animation isn’t particularly mind-blowing in terms of quality, it doesn’t stick go stringent models. So She-Hulk has a different outfit pretty much every episode (admittedly some questionably skeevy ones) and Hulk is in the remnants of whatever Banner happens to be wearing instead of always the same purple trousers. There’s also some experimental visual effects used, like overlays of the Hulk(s) with negative colour borders over Banner when he gets stressed and starts to lose it. Sort of like the old Ditko Spider-Sense effect in cartoon form in a way. Unfortunately, they’re completely butchered by Disney+’s anti-bright-flashes editing, which lowers the brightness on every shot using anything like that, making them look worse than they probably are.

njerry wrote:

Amazon Prime wanted me to pay for something called the Brit Box in order to watch, and only the first 4 seasons are available IIRC.

Okay, so I guess there’s regional (country) differences. Same for Netflix.
Good to keep in mind.

Sean Robinson wrote:

Another show I’ve just started is Succession. Can normal people enjoy this show?

It’s great, and doesn’t dip in season 2. That and Chernobyl are the two 10/10 shows I’ve seen in the past few years. Once Succession season 3 is up and running the The Watch podcast will surely cover it weekly, if you’re into that kind of thing. They’re currently focused on Mare of Easttown (and Top Chef).

The Rewatchables pod finally did an episode on Goodfellas; I’m only about halfway through the podcast episode and of course it’s just making me want to watch the film again. This was always going to be featured on the show but all of last year they were recording via Zoom and really wanted this especially to be an in-person recording – they finally got there, finally spending time together after 14 months apart.

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Sean Robinson

MARE OF EASTTOWN is a fairly compelling series that does a great job making the “b” stories as entertaining as the main mystery. It also gets the strange PA accent of that area down pretty well. I lived in Pittsburgh for a few years, and Pennsylvania has an extreme variety of accents all very distinct over a relatively small area (well, every area in the United States is pretty big compared to most other countries that aren’t Russia or Australia).

It also gets the depressed culture of the state down pretty well as well. Everything and everyone seems resigned to decay and disappointment. However, strangely, it’s enjoyable to spend time with them.

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Will_C, Andrew

Andrew wrote:

Yeah, but is there not more to it than that?

Does there have to be? I mean, that’s already quite a lot to explore, and Fight Club is doing that in a pretty complex way. There is more to the movie on a lot of levels, especially the narrative tricks it uses and the voice of the VO narration (which is something you don’t often see in movies these days, isn’t it), of course, but when it comes to the basic issues it is concerned with, it has its plate full with examining its topic, I would say. (Especially as, as you say, it doesn’t simply reject the ideas of toxic masculinity; it explores the attractions of it first.)

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Dave, Andrew, Will_C

njerry wrote:

Amazon Prime wanted me to pay for something called the Brit Box in order to watch,

Brit Box is a joint BBC and ITV initiative where they host most of their shows.  I think the main target market is expat Brits who want access to their favourites. Amazon do a thing where they ‘host’ other streaming services, like in the UK Starzplay or Sundance are available through them. Essentially it’s subscribing to a brand new streaming service but they use Amazon Prime as the front end to access it. None of it is great value if you just want to watch one show.

SteveUK worked on a lockdown Zoom movie called Host which has had great reviews but it’s accessed by subscribing to a horror streaming service called Shudder and I’m not a big enough horror fan to watch much else so will have to wait until it eventually arrives somewhere I am subscribed to.

 

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njerry

Martin Smith wrote:

Disney+’s anti-bright-flashes editing

I’ve seen this mentioned a couple of times recently. What is is exactly? Are they literally cutting out scenes with flashing lights beacause… uh… epilepsy?

No, they’re reducing the overall brightness of shots which have bright flashes, lights or effects, presumably so that it can’t trigger epilepsy or suchlike, but to me it just seems to make it more noticeable that there’s a flash. In one episode, it looks like they’d replaced actual white flash frames with grey ones. It’s pretty crudely done.

Here’s an example:

Normal

And then when the creature emits a flashing effect

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DavidM

garjones wrote:

SteveUK worked on a lockdown Zoom movie called Host which has had great reviews but it’s accessed by subscribing to a horror streaming service called Shudder and I’m not a big enough horror fan to watch much else so will have to wait until it eventually arrives somewhere I am subscribed to.

Oh that’s cool, Host was a lot of fun. And just one hour, too. Does Shudder not do a free trial?

If not, you could do a month (it’s very cheap over here, just $6/mo via Amazon), watch Host and rewatch The Wicker Man! Train to Busan and Lake Mungo are on there too; in my experience those are the kind of horror movies that even non-horror fans end up loving.

Anonymous wrote:

MARE OF EASTTOWN is a fairly compelling series that does a great job making the “b” stories as entertaining as the main mystery. It also gets the strange PA accent of that area down pretty well. I lived in Pittsburgh for a few years, and Pennsylvania has an extreme variety of accents all very distinct over a relatively small area (well, every area in the United States is pretty big compared to most other countries that aren’t Russia or Australia).

It also gets the depressed culture of the state down pretty well as well. Everything and everyone seems resigned to decay and disappointment. However, strangely, it’s enjoyable to spend time with them.

In the city I work for, the Public Works Director is from Pittsburgh and one day, he was telling me about the “Pittsburgh Accent”. He said some linguist determined that it was the worst accent on the planet. He said they were 100% correct. He started playing me some “Pittsburgh Dad” videos.

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Oh, I saw Assassin’s Creed last week. Bullshit plot, but at least it had some visual flair to make up for it. I still think Kurzel is a good director, but… Nothing was going to save that script. Man, to think that this team went from Shakespeare’s dialogue in Macbeth to this… ugh. I mean, it was nice to watch, it was just impossible to care about the story because it was so dumb.
And they brought in fucking Brendan Gleeson for a ten-sentence role, too!

Is this Succession (HBO) ever quotable and funny.

“Can you make sure (blank) doesn’t come home in a box?
I don’t want him showing up dead at the bottom of some French fag’s pool!”

And on and on it goes.
But when you start thinking of how to describe this, or what kind of comedy, pow, body-blow shot of seriousness.
Add some opportunism and manipulation to the pre-existing dysfunction and you’re stuck at how to describe this (other than awesome!).

Finished season one, wondering if I should space it out and wait a bit for season 2 (season 3 comes in 4th quarter this year).
Don’t want to spoil yourself when not a lot compares.

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paul f

Sean Robinson wrote:

Is this Succession (HBO) ever quotable and funny.

“Can you make sure (blank) doesn’t come home in a box?
I don’t want him showing up dead at the bottom of some French fag’s pool!”

And on and on it goes.
But when you start thinking of how to describe this, or what kind of comedy, pow, body-blow shot of seriousness.
Add some opportunism and manipulation to the pre-existing dysfunction and you’re stuck at how to describe this (other than awesome!).

Yeah, it’s from the same people who did The Thick of It and early Veep, so it has a similar very-quotable style, just with a different comedy/drama split.

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Ben, Sean Robinson

njerry wrote:

Amazon Prime wanted me to pay for something called the Brit Box in order to watch

Actually I just checked. Amazon Prime has first 3 seasons for free (for me), then 4 & 5 for rent or with subscription (Acorn TV?).
I swear that’s changed from late last year.
Netlix Canada has all 5 seasons for me still, but wondering if that will change.

Found this link – Variety
‘Line of Duty’ Season 6 to Bow on BritBox in the U.S., Canada

will debut on BBC and ITV-backed streamer BritBox in the U.S. and Canada. BritBox has agreed a deal with ITV Studios and the new season will premiere in May…
BritBox will be the exclusive U.S. home for future seasons of “Line of Duty.”

Well fuck this. I have enough to watch (plus a ‘to read’ pile that could fortify every wall) and enough services (Netflix, Amazon, CraveTV (HBO Canada plus 3 more channels).
If I still don’t have Disney+, then things like Britbox and AppleTV are out.
Maybe I catch up 2 or 3 years later, but giving the middle finger more important than bowing to pressure.

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njerry

Saw “Army of the Dead”, and… I want to say it’s fine for what it is, but honestly it wasn’t. It was a bit of a slog to get through, really. For someone who made a pretty good Dawn of the Dead remake, Snyder certainly hasn’t figured out what makes zombie movies work.

(Hint: It’s not armoured-up intelligent zombies riding around on horses and grieving for their mates.)

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lorcan_nagle

Christian wrote:

Snyder certainly hasn’t figured out what makes zombie movies work.

Really? What is that? The whole social commentary that’s been done to shit and back already?

Well, I can sort of agree to a degree, because it is more of an action movie with zombies, rather than a proper zombie movie, for which I was honestly grateful because the whole zombie movie thing got old like a decade ago.

I really enjoyed this though, I wasn’t expecting much and it’s indeed not much, it’s just dumb and fun and that’s perfectly fine for a movie such as this… I do have A LOT of questions though… there’s some shit that happens that just happens out of nowhere and no one mentions it and it was kind of a big deal.

Also: Valentine didn’t disappoint lol…

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Jon wrote:

I do have A LOT of questions though…

The campaign for a director’s cut starts here.

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Rocket, lorcan_nagle, njerry, Todd, Uncle Retrospective

Dave wrote:

Jon wrote:

I do have A LOT of questions though…

The campaign for a director’s cut starts here.

Nah… This is a 100% Snyder… those questions probably have to do with what’s gonna happen in the spin-offs (maybe sequels) and such, but yeah, some stuff is just weird… I’d talk about it but we all know how anti-Snyder people in here are, so I’ll save my breath… or my fingers or whatever…

Jon wrote:

Really? What is that? The whole social commentary that’s been done to shit and back already?

Oh, stuff like tension and people turning into zombies, you know? I mean, the only guy of the main cast who we actually saw getting turned was the bad guy they sacrificed at the start.

Yeah, like you said, more of an action movie. Which could’ve been fine, but it really was just too by the numbers to be enjoyable for me; there was nothing that stood out. The characters were generic and lame (including Mr. Bad Guy who totally surprisingly pulls a Paul-Reiser-in-Aliens, I mean, who could have expected that?!), their dialogues cliché, the action was just a lot of shooting stuff really, and – and this is where I’m really disappointed considering it’s Snyder – there weren’t even any visuals that would’ve caught my attention. Best bit was the montage at the start really.

Well there were 2 right at the start… the two military guys got turned, and we saw that… but honestly, eh… I don’t care about that… I was more interested in many of the other things going on with the zombies, rather than seeing how they turn… there’s actually a fairly interest sci-fi thing going on in the movie, which I hope gets explored further.

As for the tension, there was plenty, just not in a “horror movie” kinda way… I’ve seen people mention Aliens, but tbh the movie felt more like a Predator movie to me… I mean, the alpha is literally a Predator.

I’ll say this, it is indeed the “safest” Snyder movie, probably ever… but hey, at this point, sure, let him do a safe bland action flick that maybe people won’t hate for some reason… or maybe not… it IS Snyder after all…

Christian wrote:

Saw “Army of the Dead”, and… I want to say it’s fine for what it is, but honestly it wasn’t. It was a bit of a slog to get through, really. For someone who made a pretty good Dawn of the Dead remake, Snyder certainly hasn’t figured out what makes zombie movies work.

(Hint: It’s not armoured-up intelligent zombies riding around on horses and grieving for their mates.)

Is the closing theme really Zombie by The Cranberries? Because, uhhhhhhhh… That song isn’t about zombies.

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Todd

lorcan_nagle wrote:

Christian wrote:

Saw “Army of the Dead”, and… I want to say it’s fine for what it is, but honestly it wasn’t. It was a bit of a slog to get through, really. For someone who made a pretty good Dawn of the Dead remake, Snyder certainly hasn’t figured out what makes zombie movies work.

(Hint: It’s not armoured-up intelligent zombies riding around on horses and grieving for their mates.)

Is the closing theme really Zombie by The Cranberries? Because, uhhhhhhhh… That song isn’t about zombies.

What are you talking about, it says so right there in the title!

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Christian, Todd, garjones, Bruce, lorcan_nagle

It actually fits the themes of the movie… but hey, don’t let me stop you from judging stuff you haven’t seen

The theme of the movie is IRA litter bin bombs in Warrington?

Now I want to watch!

Joking aside I will have no proper comment on this, it’s not my cup of tea, I’m not much of an action movie fan.

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lorcan_nagle

Jon wrote:

Well there were 2 right at the start… the two military guys got turned, and we saw that… but honestly, eh… I don’t care about that…

Well, apparently, Snyder also doesn’t care about any of that, but since that is what makes zombie movies good, maybe he shouldn’t have made (another) one.

I was more interested in many of the other things going on with the zombies, rather than seeing how they turn… there’s actually a fairly interest sci-fi thing going on in the movie, which I hope gets explored further.

Whereas I wasn’t in the least interested in the little zombie community rituals or that they are able to get preggers. Again, that’s not what’s fun about zombies and if I want to see that kind of stuff, I can always watch some of the late-stage Ridley Scott material.

We’re in agreement though. We both thought it was a bland action movie. I suppose I just have less patience with those anymore.

lorcan_nagle wrote:

Is the closing theme really Zombie by The Cranberries? Because, uhhhhhhhh… That song isn’t about zombies.

Yeah, I did roll my eyes a little at that.

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lorcan_nagle

lorcan_nagle wrote:

Is the closing theme really Zombie by The Cranberries? Because, uhhhhhhhh… That song isn’t about zombies.

In related annoyances, I still find people who think that Iron Man by Black Sabbath is about Iron Man.

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Sean Robinson, lorcan_nagle, Todd

garjones wrote:

The theme of the movie is IRA litter bin bombs in Warrington?

Well I mean, it’s not even a spoiler that the movie ends with a nuke strike in Vegas, which is tied to some political controversy, besides the fact that it wipes the zombies, who in this movie (some) are very much sentient and have feelings, and like Christian spoiled can even get pregnant. So I’m not saying it’s a 1:1 perfect fit, but it’s not entirely unfitting either.

Christian wrote:

Whereas I wasn’t in the least interested in the little zombie community rituals or that they are able to get preggers. Again, that’s not what’s fun about zombies and if I want to see that kind of stuff, I can always watch some of the late-stage Ridley Scott material.

Fair enough if you didn’t like it. FWIW, I wasn’t interested in those ritual either, it was more the concepts behind the zombies… since we’re spoiling it:

So, the “zombie” virus is hinted at being alien in nature, which is kinda cool because in general you don’t see a lot of alien life-forms in movies be viruses or bacteria or the likes… it also seems that this virus gives people some type of healing factor/super soldier serum effect (which gets diluted, and depends on who bit you) which is why the dead can actually be raised.

I also liked thew detail of the alpha zombie being a soldier volunteer (or maybe he was volunteered?), which ties with the military angle in the movie and why the whole goal of the heist was actually not the heist but getting back the blood samples.

But beyond all that, I think there might be a lot more going on in the movie, because there’s a couple of weird bits of dialogue, and most obviously: so, some zombies have blue glowing eyes for some reason right? well if you paid attention it turns out some zombies were robots?? I was like wtf??? I don’t remember if it was the glowy eyes zombies only or if there were glowy eyes zombies AND robot zombies, but at any rate, yeah… there was definitely something else going on in there… or Snyder took a lot of acid that day… I don’t know

Edit: Oh and I forgot, but kudos to the FX team on the work they did with Tig Notaro… it was really impressive and the pulled it off almost flawlessly… if you’re not looking for it you probably won’t even notice it (except maybe one scene), but kudos to Tig Notaro too… she did a pretty good job, not being an actress and all… I can at least see this movie bieng nominated for 3 oscars, FX, costumes & makeup (and probably why Netflix did a limited theatrical release).

Changing the subject… is anyone else watching that Hulu MODOK series?? I started watching it and I think I’m gonna stop at 2 episodes… I just don’t care and it’s just not as funny as they think they are being… so yeah =/

Funny thing, it immediatly (and obviously) reminded me of Robot Chicken, and indeed, it’s the same guys behind it… but here it just doesn’t work.

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Christian

We finished the sixth and final series (at least, for now) of Line of Duty tonight. No spoilers here but I thought it was a decent enough sendoff for a show that probably peaked a couple of seasons earlier.

As I said upthread I prefer the more personal stories of series 1 and 4 to the big overarching conspiracy stuff that dominates the other series – and in terms of pulling together threads from earlier in the show, series 6 feels like Infinity War.

Having said that, on a plotting and planning level it’s pretty impressive to see how it’s all been set up, and it’s satisfying to see some loose ends addressed, even if I didn’t find it the most dramatically compelling season.

I know there were some complaints about the finale after it went out, but to me they seem a bit overblown. It was maybe a little flat and not as dramatic as previous series finales but I didn’t think it was terrible, and there was a reason for that approach even if not everyone liked it.

And to be honest, like I said before, I don’t take the show hugely seriously anyway – and I don’t think the show takes itself that seriously actually, as there’s lots of gentle humour and slight campness throughout that makes me think it’s written and acted from quite a knowing perspective.

One other thing I would say about the final series is that the quality of the direction is a notable step up. There were several quite cinematic sequences that I found impressive for this level of TV show.

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garjones, Will_C

Following Fight Club last time we stuck with Fincher and rewatched The Social Network on Friday night. We saw it in cinema originally, and I’d rewatched it at some point over the past decade but it had been a while. The Ringer podcasts always bring it up as they’re on the whole big Fincher boosters, and it’s topped their list of best film of the 2010s.

The film… holds up. It’s very Sorkin of course; lots of quick patter, back and forth, but it’s delivered well by the entire cast, and the score suits the film perfectly. It’s not a documentary so liberties have been taken with regard to Zuckerberg’s character. Again, a difficult balance between having him be the protagonist while not being likeable.

As the opening credits scrolled by wife was increasingly aware of the problematic paths key players took. Justin Timberlake (“Oh, forgot he was in this”), Armie Hammer (“Oh no”), Kevin Spacey (producer credit) (“Gets worse and worse!”).

It’s funny and captivating throughout, and in the end you are made to just feel sorry for the Zuckerberg character, a lonely, bitter guy left out of all the parties.

The Rewatchables Goodfellas episode was my companion for the commute last week, and I relistened to it as we prepared dinner last night – surprisingly wife suggested we watch the film after dinner – and we did (on DVD via the PS4, since none of the 4 local streamers we pay for had it). Amazingly great, of course – zips by despite its 2.5 hour runtime, with a career best performance from De niro. Testament to Scorsese’s talent is that he summoned those performances from Liotta and Bracco who both never really reached those heights again. Shame.

Dave wrote:

Having said that, on a plotting and planning level it’s pretty impressive to see how it’s all been set up,

I haven’t quite finished yet, have 4 episodes to go but some of that stuff is really impressive.

I had no idea that Pilkington was the gang kid from back in series 1. When Kate said he looked familiar I was trying to think back if they’d met in the previous series and was impressed when they showed it was the actor from 2012 when he was 13. As well as all the other old characters and plotlines reappearing. When we discussed the plotting previously I didn’t want to say too much as you hadn’t reached series 5 where a lot of those callbacks also happen. 

I just checked and while I knew it wrapped up the central mystery I wasn’t sure the series had fully ended, apparently Mercurio says he’d be happy to do more and with 12m viewers I’m sure the BBC would too. He’s in a great position anyway as Bodyguard was a massive hit on TV and Netflix and is meant to be doing more of that.

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Dave

Todd wrote:

Heh. Good job, as always.

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Todd

garjones wrote:

I just checked and while I knew it wrapped up the central mystery I wasn’t sure the series had fully ended, apparently Mercurio says he’d be happy to do more and with 12m viewers I’m sure the BBC would too. He’s in a great position anyway as Bodyguard was a massive hit on TV and Netflix and is meant to be doing more of that.

Yeah it’s the final series for now but I wouldn’t be surprised if they come back for another go at some point.

I see that Mercurio is working on a couple of things for ITV, one involving Vicky McClure – which I’ll watch as I think she’s great – and another about Stephen Lawrence which is maybe unsurprising given the allusions in Line of Duty.

It only lasted one season, and almost nobody watched it, but I was a big fan of Mercurio’s last medical drama, Critical. It was an incredibly intense show, where the vast majority of each episode would just be one long almost-real-time surgery scene.

Andrew wrote:

It’s funny and captivating throughout, and in the end you are made to just feel sorry for the Zuckerberg character, a lonely, bitter guy left out of all the parties.

Seriously? You felt sorry for the guy who screwed over his only friend to the tune of millions of dollars and was still stalking the ex-girlfriend he publicly ridiculed? Your empathy levels are way higher than mine.

 

I saw Army of the Dead and it was terrible. I was facepalming in the first couple of minutes at how dumb the characters acted (and continued to act throughout), the whole thing looked like garbage due to some hideous depth-of-field filter that appeared to be added in post so even the real footage looked fake (Snyder was his own DP on the movie, so he’s 100% to blame) and literally the one thing I thought it would deliver was a decent action scene, but nope – it was boring as fuck at a typically self-indulgent two-and-a-half hours, and there was about a single second that resembled a cool action scene (the bit where Bautista rolls backward to shoot the zombie that leaps at him) and the rest was downright pedestrian.

It clearly wanted to be Aliens – rag-tag band of macho dudes go on suicide mission, get fucked over by capitalist stooge who’s actually there to retrieve a bio-sample to sell to the military – hell, Snyder even rips off the “Bishop! God damn you!” scene at the end – but it’s vastly inferior to Aliens in every way.

Don’t even get me started on the zombie king and his bride that he’s made pregnant whilst being zombies…

 

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lorcan_nagle, Todd

Steve Sensible wrote:

It clearly wanted to be Aliens

He aped many many shot-for-shots from it, so yeah =P

Damn, a lot of people hated the depth of field thing lol… I didn’t mind it, tbh, but yeah, bold choice… anyways, fwiw it’s not CGI, he just used some very specific lenses, which he’s been geeking about. He filmed the JL nightmare sequence with those, which is why that scene looks soooooo different to the rest of the movie.

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Steve Sensible wrote:

Seriously? You felt sorry for the guy who screwed over his only friend to the tune of millions of dollars and was still stalking the ex-girlfriend he publicly ridiculed? Your empathy levels are way higher than mine.

I think it’s sad that the character in the film has this huge success, has all this money, but still has no date, no love, no affection in his life. Closing the film with him just refreshing the friend request for his ex; it’s sad, no?

Andrew wrote:

Closing the film with him just refreshing the friend request for his ex; it’s sad, no?

No, he’s an awful human. Even the completely mythological Sorkin/Fincher version. It’s a great movie about a horrible person.

Incidentally The Social Network also has a terrible, faked, depth-of-field / tilt-shift moment during the boat race scene. It still bugs me 11 years later. Fincher at least did it for a reason though – half the footage was shot on the day of Henley Regatta, the other half on an empty boating lake that they concealed with the blurriness.

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Jon wrote:

But beyond all that, I think there might be a lot more going on in the movie, because there’s a couple of weird bits of dialogue, and most obviously: so, some zombies have blue glowing eyes for some reason right? well if you paid attention it turns out some zombies were robots?? I was like wtf??? I don’t remember if it was the glowy eyes zombies only or if there were glowy eyes zombies AND robot zombies, but at any rate, yeah… there was definitely something else going on in there… or Snyder took a lot of acid that day… I don’t know

There was a lot set up that didn’t pay off. Someone pointed out that when the military convoy left, they were followed by shining UFO’s. Weird.

Robot zombies sound something like the Borg in Star Trek where the virus is actually nanotech gradually converting organic material to technological.

Still, none of that really is the point of the movie which is pretty close to ALIENS in design and intent.

How is Batista in the movie? Quietly surprised that he’s done as well as he has since going from wrestling to movies.

Anonymous wrote:

Robot zombies sound something like the Borg in Star Trek where the virus is actually nanotech gradually converting organic material to technological.

Yeah, I assumed it’d be something like that. I guess we’ll find out in the TV series… ugh.

saga wrote:

How is Batista in the movie? Quietly surprised that he’s done as well as he has since going from wrestling to movies.

I love Batista as a person but don’t think he’s a very good actor; he’s fine in Army of the Dead though. The film has a lot of problems; Batista isn’t one of them.

Andrew wrote:

I think it’s sad that the character in the film has this huge success, has all this money, but still has no date, no love, no affection in his life. Closing the film with him just refreshing the friend request for his ex; it’s sad, no?

I did feel the same way. What Steve fails to appreciate is that you can feel some sympathy even with horrible people.
Of course, that’s the trick of the movie; I have my doubts as to whether the actual Zuckerberg deserves any sympathy at all, at any point of his life.

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Christian wrote:

I did feel the same way. What Steve fails to appreciate is that you can feel some sympathy even with horrible people. Of course, that’s the trick of the movie; I have my doubts as to whether the actual Zuckerberg deserves any sympathy at all, at any point of his life.

True – the point is that there is no relation between the character in the film and the real person. Characters in film whether based on a real person or a novel or from a completely original screenplay are all fictional. Even if they take actual transcription from a person, the context and way the actor plays it completely divorce it from any factual truth. Honestly, I think we end up knowing less about the actual real person after seeing a movie about them. Even the facts and timeline of the movies – like Wolf of Wall Street, Goodfellas, Casino, Inside Man – all of them are moved around or completely invented to serve the story.

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Christian, Dave

Christian wrote:

What Steve fails to appreciate is that you can feel some sympathy even with horrible people.

I do not fail to appreciate that in the least. I just don’t feel sympathy for that character. That’s not to say it isn’t a good movie – it is – but I don’t like anyone of those characters.

From the perspective of the difference between reality and fiction, it is difficult to blame the real Zuckerberg for the course of action in regard to Facebook. From Thomas Edison to Howard Hughes to Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, it is nearly impossible to find anyone better than Zuckerberg who founded a billion dollar industry. If anything, he’s actually a bit higher on the list as far as not being a complete villain.

I agree the film really depicts as he was the first person to screw everyone over primarily because everyone else would have screwed him over if they had gotten the opportunity. So, no real heroes as far as everyone directly involved in the project.

Anonymous wrote:

There was a lot set up that didn’t pay off. Someone pointed out that when the military convoy left, they were followed by shining UFO’s. Weird. Robot zombies sound something like the Borg in Star Trek where the virus is actually nanotech gradually converting organic material to technological. Still, none of that really is the point of the movie which is pretty close to ALIENS in design and intent.

Well they put in a ton of little weird things that will allow them to expand on the story… the UFOs, the robot thing, the nature/effect of the virus… and then there’s also the 2 other iterations of the team they find dead, which they also basically gloss over… so there also seems to be some time fuckery going on… but yeah, they basically don’t delve into any of it, presumably because they’ll do so later on.

I mean, in a way, it feels more like the first episode of a series, which it sort of is, except it’s a movie so it’s wierd… We’ll see if it pays off later or if it was just a bad idea.

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Yeah, the headache is that it neither served the story or characters in the movie. It’s the interesting thing we see with “worldbuilding” that generally turns me off. Like “Easter Eggs” showing up all over some franchises where creating a cinematic universe or some sort of material for a wider world doesn’t really matter if they are more interesting or leave you thinking about those trivial details more than about anything that happens in the movie or the characters in the story.

It was an interesting thing in this Indonesian movie I watched recently called GUNDALA. It starts out with this very Marvel or DC style intro showing all these Indonesian superhero characters I was completely unfamiliar with, but the movie itself focuses on the one character. If there were or weren’t any connections to the wider Indonesian superhero universe in the movie, I wouldn’t miss them, but I wasn’t looking for them either because I was interested in the character, his progression and the story of the movie.

So now, I’d like to see more movies and more characters from that universe. For Army of the Dead, I’m not all that interested in finding the answers to the mysteries set up in this one because I wasn’t that invested in the story.

Steve Sensible wrote:

terrible, faked, depth-of-field / tilt-shift moment during the boat race scene

One of the more memorable moments for me, with the classical music accompanying it. I didn’t think it looked bad at all.

Steve Sensible wrote:

No, he’s an awful human. Even the completely mythological Sorkin/Fincher version.

I’m only referring to the fictional version, the character, not the real Zuckerberg. In this film he’s portrayed as borderline damaged from the start – autistic or something like that. He’s never really happy throughout, he’s chasing things without a real reason – bar spite and revenge. But even then when he gets his revenge (by in theory living well, with billions of dollars) he’s still so cowed as to want a connection of some kind with the ex.

Andrew wrote:

I’m only referring to the fictional version, the character, not the real Zuckerberg. In this film he’s portrayed as borderline damaged from the start – autistic or something like that.

I’m not sure autistic people would agree they’re “damaged,” but that aside, autism doesn’t make you an asshole, which Zuckerberg is. His girlfriend breaks up with him because he’s being an asshole, so how does he deal with it? He acts like an even bigger asshole by posting shit about her on his blog. Then because he hasn’t been a big enough asshole yet, he lashes out at all women by creating a dehumanising website where you can rate their hotness.

This is how he spends the first 15 minutes of the movie (when he’s not being an asshole in the court deposition scenes), so whilst it’s presented in a fascinating – even exciting – way by Fincher, do I have one little bit of sympathy for the character? Nope. I do not.

 

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Ben, Martin Smith, Andrew, DavidM, lorcan_nagle

Fair enough. And yeah, I could have worded the autism bit differently.

Andrew wrote:

Rewatchables

The latest episode is on the 90s action hit The Rock. Cage is one of my favourite actors, but I’ve never seen this one…

Steve Sensible wrote:

I do not fail to appreciate that in the least. I just don’t feel sympathy for that character. That’s not to say it isn’t a good movie – it is – but I don’t like anyone of those characters.

Once again, there’s a difference between liking someone and feeling sympathy with them. You can do the latter without doing the former. I didn’t like him, either. Like Andrew, I did feel some sympathy. In the end though, it doesn’t matter; I do feel that Sorkin tries to get us to sympathise, but the movie still works without that.

On a different note, I watched Love and Monsters on Netflix. That was better than I thought it would be. It takes a silly idea and does some really nice world-building with it, and it works nicely as a romance, too. It’s got its own voice, and it knows what kind of movie it wants to be very well. Also, the creature CGI are very cool for what I assume is a very low-budget production.

After watching, I thought that it was a little like The Babysitter in that way, and it turns out it was written by the same guy. Brian Duffield certainly knows how to write these fun little genre riffs.

Love and Monsters is great. It walks that very fine line between sappy and knowing humour with great skill. And it even throws in a few surprises along the way. It’s an under-appreciated gem.

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Christian

You can hate his movies… but you gotta love the man…

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Christian

Andrew wrote:

The latest episode is on the 90s action hit The Rock. Cage is one of my favourite actors, but I’ve never seen this one…

It’s good but his other mid-90s action movies, Face/Off & Con Air, are better. Cage is also playing it straight in The Rock; Connery is the wilder one. I think the best performance in it is Ed Harris as the antagonist, though.

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Rocket, Ben, Uncle Retrospective, Andrew

Ah, see I always liked The Rock more than those other two. Partly for Connery (it might be his last great performance?) and partly for Harris (who seems to think he’s acting in a different, much better movie to everyone else), but honestly I think it’s one of Cage’s best too.

Although it does feature one of the most laboured one-liners in movie history (intentionally I think) with the Elton John joke, which feels like it takes about ten minutes to set up.

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Uncle Retrospective, Will_C

I watched THE DRY, an Australian murder mystery with Eric Bana. Worth seeing on the television though it would look nice on the big screen. A little slow, but effective.

Also caught up with FATMAN which was a lot more serious than I expected, like a Western along the lines of TRUE GRIT or UNFORGIVEN. It was funny, but the comedy was not all about a grumpy, violent Santa Claus, and it actually had some strong thematic conflict in the story.

As far as the movie, it is fairly unique though it owes a lot to other films. Coen Brothers in a lot of ways though nothing like their style. I’d really compare it to other eccentric low-budget films like THE MAN WHO KILLED HITLER AND THEN THE BIGFOOT or HE NEVER DIED. In fact, it’s like a combination of both movies. Though it is more entertaining like the latter than the former. A very good cast with a lot of good scenes. Of all the characters, I think Walton Goggins actually probably has the most screen time. I feel certain he probably spent the most time in shooting as Mel Gibson’s scenes are mostly a single location.

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Andrew

Will_C wrote:

It’s good but his other mid-90s action movies, Face/Off & Con Air, are better. Cage is also playing it straight in The Rock; Connery is the wilder one. I think the best performance in it is Ed Harris as the antagonist, though.

I love Face/Off and Con-Air – part of why I’m not as interested in The Rock is that Cage is playing it straight; he is too in Con-Air but that has the benefit of the massive cast of great actors. We rewatched it last year, and as far as big dumb action movies go? It holds up!

Wife refuses to rewatch Face/Off.

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Will_C

Andrew wrote:

We rewatched it last year, and as far as big dumb action movies go? It holds up!

I think the performances by Steve Buscemi and John Malkovich raise CON AIR to a level above “big dumb action movie”. That, and the line “Put the bunny in the box.”

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Ben, Will_C, Andrew, Uncle Retrospective

Wife’s choice last night; a rewatch for her but new to me – Munich. She loves revenge tales, so it makes sense. She had forgotten that Geoffrey Rush was in it though, but powered through.

It was… fine. I actually found it a bit long and a bit slow. It was still interesting as I don’t really have much knowledge of that event and its fallout. Bana and Daniel Craig are good as the main two roles, with none of the cast being bad really. I think it’s just the pacing that throws me off.

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Well, they raise it to the level of “dumb action movie with really fun performances”, but I did like that a lot about it (and I was very bored by The Rock, on the other hand).

I just re-watched Edge of Tomorrow with the kid, and it really is one of the best sci-fi/action movies. It just succeeds perfectly at what it does. And one thing I noticed, after all those trailers for Tomorrow War? There is not one fucking speech about anyone wanting to save the world for their daughters and whatnot. In fact, not one character explains their motivation for fighting the aliens at any point; Emily Blunt just hisses at Cruise that she joined up voluntarily and isn’t walking away and Bill Paxton gives the same hilariously over-the-top speech about heroism a dozen times, which is just brilliantly funny. Turns out you don’t actually need your characters explain to us who they’re saving the world for all the time.

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Rocket, DavidM, Ben, Uncle Retrospective, Todd, Will_C, njerry, Martin Smith, Andrew

I’m watching Flash Gordon, with Brian Blessed commentary.

I never usually like single-person commentaries, but Blessed is more than able to keep up the energy by himself.

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lorcan_nagle, Ben, Will_C, Todd

paul f wrote:

I’m watching Flash Gordon, with Brian Blessed commentary.

I never usually like single-person commentaries, but Blessed is more than able to keep up the energy by himself.

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Rocket, lorcan_nagle

Andrew wrote:

Will_C wrote:

It’s good but his other mid-90s action movies, Face/Off & Con Air, are better. Cage is also playing it straight in The Rock; Connery is the wilder one. I think the best performance in it is Ed Harris as the antagonist, though.

I love Face/Off and Con-Air – part of why I’m not as interested in The Rock is that Cage is playing it straight; he is too in Con-Air but that has the benefit of the massive cast of great actors. We rewatched it last year, and as far as big dumb action movies go? It holds up!

Wife refuses to rewatch Face/Off.

If you want to really see what Woo can do, you need to watch The Killer and Hard Boiled.

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Christian, lorcan_nagle, Andrew, Will_C

Ben wrote:

Andrew wrote:

Will_C wrote:

It’s good but his other mid-90s action movies, Face/Off & Con Air, are better. Cage is also playing it straight in The Rock; Connery is the wilder one. I think the best performance in it is Ed Harris as the antagonist, though.

I love Face/Off and Con-Air – part of why I’m not as interested in The Rock is that Cage is playing it straight; he is too in Con-Air but that has the benefit of the massive cast of great actors. We rewatched it last year, and as far as big dumb action movies go? It holds up!

Wife refuses to rewatch Face/Off.

If you want to really see what Woo can do, you need to watch The Killer and Hard Boiled.

Don’t forget A Better Tomorrow and Bullet in the Head! Together 4 of the best action movies ever made, maybe even the best of the 80s/early 90s.

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lorcan_nagle, Ben

True.  A Better Tomorrow II is also insane.

You’re going to apologise to the rice, right?

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lorcan_nagle, Will_C

paul f wrote:

I never usually like single-person commentaries, but Blessed is more than able to keep up the energy by himself.

I doubt anyone else would have been able to get a word in – Blessed is an Olympic-level anicdotist.

I’ve seen him in the wild – I once stood behind him in the queue at a petrol station. He was much smaller than I expected (and quieter) and he had a very shabby-looking BMW.

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lorcan_nagle, Todd, paul f

Ben wrote:

True.  A Better Tomorrow II is also insane.

You’re going to apologise to the rice, right?

The American actors they get for the NYC scenes are so bad, haha.

Chow Yun-Fat’s character’s twin teaching a near-catatonic triad boss how to eat and speak again was not a subplot I was expecting for the sequel to A Better Tomorrow.

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lorcan_nagle, Ben

Steve Sensible wrote:

I doubt anyone else would have been able to get a word in – Blessed is an Olympic-level anicdotist.

Yup. Richard Herring for years wanted him on his Leicester Square Theatre podcast, when he finally arrived Herring says about 3 words. Blessed just goes off on his bizarre anecdotes and rants for an hour and a half on his own.

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Ben wrote:

If you want to really see what Woo can do, you need to watch The Killer and Hard Boiled.

I’ve seen Hard Boiled once. I remember liking it well enough.

The local version of Big Brother is back – it’s been back for a few weeks; out only reality TV “guilty pleasure” – it’s quite different to the “original” 2000-08 seasons, but still enjoyable in a dumb way. The group this year are very focused on strategy so it’s pretty interesting, with all the betrayals and backstabbing and whatnot.

The earlier run’s seasons would take place over two months, with a daily 30 minute show (summarising the previous day’s “action”)  in addition to the Sunday eviction, Friday Night Games, and an adults-only Up-Late on Thursdays.

The current iteration (this is the second year) is all filmed in one go before it starts airing. Each of the Mon/Tue/Wed episodes covers 2-3 days of life in the house, with an eviction each episode (we don’t get to vote until the final one).

It’s much more family friendly now – no swearing, no rude jokes, no shower footage, none of that. Shame.

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lorcan_nagle

paul f wrote:

I’m watching Flash Gordon, with Brian Blessed commentary.

I never usually like single-person commentaries, but Blessed is more than able to keep up the energy by himself.

Watching that commentary with Mark and Wesman was one of the best experiences.

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Todd

So I watched the 1st season of the french War of the Worlds show, plus the 2 new ones from S2… Kind of a shame, first season was pretty great but then they decided to do a VERY stupid reveal at the end, and that’s the direction S2 is going with which kind of ruined everything… =/

Watched THOSE WHO WISH ME DEAD last night via HBO Max. Despite good performances by Nicholas Hoult, Jon Bernthal, Aiden Gillen and Jake Weber, the film was disappointing. And the blame falls squarely on Angeline Jolie, who is just totally unconvincing in just about every emotional or critical moment in the story. I think she is a great actress who brings her talent to every role, even in fluff like TOMB RAIDER and GONE IN 60 SECONDS; but in this film, where she is the lead character, her performance is insincere and lackluster.

Then again, I didn’t pay to see it in a theater, so that’s something, I guess…

njerry wrote:

Then again, I didn’t pay to see it in a theater, so that’s something, I guess…

Todd was right, wait for cable.

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njerry, Todd

njerry wrote:

Watched THOSE WHO WISH ME DEAD last night via HBO Max. Despite good performances by Nicholas Hoult, Jon Bernthal, Aiden Gillen and Jake Weber, the film was disappointing. And the blame falls squarely on Angeline Jolie, who is just totally unconvincing in just about every emotional or critical moment in the story. I think she is a great actress who brings her talent to every role, even in fluff like TOMB RAIDER and GONE IN 60 SECONDS; but in this film, where she is the lead character, her performance is insincere and lackluster.

That’s a shame; I liked Sheridan’s Wind River and was kinda looking forward to Jolie in one of his movies.

Yeah, Jolie she was quite badly miscast in that. The scene at the start when she’s sitting with all the other firefighters, and they try and paint her as “just one of the guys”, was bloody laughable.

Some really good casting though is Emma Stone in Cruella. She gives a great performance and I thought the whole film was tons of fun. They definitely cut down the more problematic elements of the character, but I think it’s an enjoyable origin story and I’d love to see a sequel.

Andrew wrote:

It’s great, and doesn’t dip in season 2. That and Chernobyl are the two 10/10 shows I’ve seen in the past few years. Once Succession season 3 is up and running the The Watch podcast will surely cover it weekly

Just concluded Succession season 2 and can confirm you are correct sir, the quality is top notch.
Brian Cox is great, the rest of the cast is great (and all with big pay bumps), guest stars are great, and the writing is perfect.

If you haven’t seen, then do NOT do a google search, but take my word for it.
Quotes like “It’s very quietly become the best show on TV” are everywhere.
However, any article is too excited to not talk about events, so spoilers abound.
And knowing nothing can only make first viewing better.

Season 3 (rumored for 4th quarter of 2021) will have Sanaa Lathan, Linda Emond and Jihae Join in the cast for the new season.
Also added are Alexander Skarsgård, and Adrien Brody.

So if you haven’t watched, you’re in perfect position to watch 20 episodes (2 x 10) and roll right into season 3.
________________________________________

“Not to be crude about it, but politics is what comes out the a**hole.
Wouldn’t you rather be up front, feeding the horse?”– Logan Roy (Brian Cox)
______________________________________

“The Logan Roy School Of Journalism.
What’s Next, The Jack The Ripper Women’s Health Clinic?”

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Rocket, Andrew

Jon wrote:

So I watched the 1st season of the french War of the Worlds show, plus the 2 new ones from S2… Kind of a shame, first season was pretty great but then they decided to do a VERY stupid reveal at the end, and that’s the direction S2 is going with which kind of ruined everything… =/

Is it still worth a watch despite shitting the bed at the end of the season? I noticed it was on Disney+ the other day and as a huge fan of the novel I’m always interested in new adaptations.

Bruce wrote:

Is it still worth a watch despite shitting the bed at the end of the season? I noticed it was on Disney+ the other day and as a huge fan of the novel I’m always interested in new adaptations.

Yeah, it’s more of a slow burn, not huge in action, but yeah I was definitely enjoying it for the most part… give it a go, maybe you won’t hate that ending like I did, plus the new season started recently, so there’s that at least.

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Bruce

Jon wrote:

Bruce wrote:

Is it still worth a watch despite shitting the bed at the end of the season? I noticed it was on Disney+ the other day and as a huge fan of the novel I’m always interested in new adaptations.

Yeah, it’s more of a slow burn, not huge in action, but yeah I was definitely enjoying it for the most part… give it a go, maybe you won’t hate that ending like I did, plus the new season started recently, so there’s that at least.

I’ll add it to the watch list and keep that in mind. Thanks.

Sweet Tooth, unlike some other Netflix stories (particularly JL), hits the ground running. I’ve only watched the first episode but it wastes little to no time to set up the premise.

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Will_C, garjones, Todd

For some reason, I missed Bladerunner 2049 when it was on the big screen, and I’ve been hesitant to watch it at home. Finally decided it was time last week, and it was very good.

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Just saw the first episode of Sweet Tooth. Wow, that’s how you make a comic adaptation, I bet Jeff Lemire is over the moon with it. In fact I think a lot of TV shows can learn a lesson from it on how to set up a first episode to a series.

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Andrew, Dave, Todd, Ben, Will_C, Christian

Checked out KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD again. The movie has plenty to recommend it as a solid American popcorn movie, but that’s also somewhat of a problem as it is about the legend of King Arthur of England. It really feels like a parody of English gangster movies sorta  LOCK, STOCK & MONTY PYTHON’S HOLY GRAIL in a way, but that’s pretty fun for an audience that likes those sorts of movies. Similar in a way to the completely bonkers GANGS OF LONDON series. I watched the first episode of that before King Arthur.

KING ARTHUR obviously suffers from a lot of poor editing decisions that I’d bet were mandated rather than really the will of the filmmakers. Also, marketing was terrible when it came out – especially the addition of the “LEGEND OF THE SWORD” chapter title. It’s usually (not always) a bad sign when the first movie is given a second title. Wait until you get a few made and then start A New Hope-ing the series.

Finally, the special effects really clash with the regular down to earth scenes in the movie. It’s like watching BRAVEHEART and then suddenly everyone is a character a videogame with graphics not really much better than average. It starts with the best it can offer though, and that helps. It would’ve been jarring to see the “Dark Lands” scene if the movie hadn’t started off with the giant elephants from Lord of the Rings. On the positive side, it moves fairly quickly, but at the same time, this removes a lot of the impact of anything meant to develop the characters rather than move the plot.

As far as GANGS OF LONDON, it also has a lot to recommend it, and I didn’t know Gareth Evans produced it but it made sense when I saw his name in the credits. I was wondering why this gangster show suddenly turned into a martial arts demonstration. Again, it is more a cinematic ideal of London crime than anything really dealing with the criminal lifestyle, but that’s the intention. Honestly, few people really want to see an accurate depiction of real life in anything. Real gangsters are vicious, cowardly thugs and real cops are usually just doing a job like anyone else with as much connection to it as anyone in any other profession. Just like real knights were usually just violent men sanctioned to commit violence by king and church. However, we want King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, not the “Great Knight” Edward the Black Prince who in 1370 sent his knights and soldiers in to slaughter over 300 unarmed and innocent commoners after his victory during the Siege of Limoges.

Anonymous wrote:

King Arthur of England

King Arthur was (in legend at least) a Brythoneg king who fought bitter battles against the Anglo-Saxons.

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Will_C

garjones wrote:

Just saw the first episode of Sweet Tooth. Wow, that’s how you make a comic adaptation, I bet Jeff Lemire is over the moon with it. In fact I think a lot of TV shows can learn a lesson from it on how to set up a first episode to a series.

I am in absolute agreement with you on this.

Just after seeing the second episode now and this one keeps delivering. Scenes get to breathe without impeding story progression and character development.

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Will_C

garjones wrote:

Just saw the first episode of Sweet Tooth. Wow, that’s how you make a comic adaptation, I bet Jeff Lemire is over the moon with it. In fact I think a lot of TV shows can learn a lesson from it on how to set up a first episode to a series.

I watched the first episode with the kids this morning and we enjoyed it too. I went in cold (having not read the comics) and enjoyed the ideas, thought the production values were decent, and liked that they packed a lot of story into the first episode.

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Prompted by the Rewatchables podcast episode we watched Lethal Weapon 2 on Friday night – not sure if I’d seen all of it before, wife hadn’t seen it ever – we both really enjoyed it. And then we listened to the podcast on the drive to and from her parents place on Saturday. Great film, great pod.

The chemistry between Gibson and Glover is off the charts, the villains are despicable and irredeemable, and the pacing is so tight – I thought the streaming service had skipped ahead; it goes from the Warner Bros logo to the middle of a car chase, right into it. Good action, good comedy, some pathos, and a cute dog.

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Rocket

Watched Hobbes & Shaw this weekend with the kid. If all F&F are pretty much like this, I suppose the secret is that they feel like they’ve been written by a twelve-year-old and just don’t give a shit. The plot is so dumb you can’t even criticise it for it, you just have to go along with it. And the dialogue is daft and ridiculous, but it all happens so fast you don’t get to think about it anyway. I wouldn’t say that this was a good movie, but I did have a good time with it.

Weirdest dumb thing that happened was that there was a fight that started in the dark, at night-time, and ended in bright daylight. And, I mean, this wasn’t Helm’s Deep or anything, this was a fight that lasted ten minutes. So weird to just go with that, I mean, it’s not like this is something you wouldn’t notice until it’s too late to fix it.

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Bruce

Christian wrote:

Weirdest dumb thing that happened was that there was a fight that started in the dark, at night-time, and ended in bright daylight. And, I mean, this wasn’t Helm’s Deep or anything, this was a fight that lasted ten minutes. So weird to just go with that, I mean, it’s not like this is something you wouldn’t notice until it’s too late to fix it.

I’ve still only seen the first F&F film but my favourite dumb thing about it is that in the scene where a car is blown up by gangsters (outside a garden statue shop) there’s a fire engine clearly visible in some of the shots of the explosion, which isn’t meant to be there (it’s a secluded location) and is blatantly just the one the crew had to have present while doing an explosives scene that was parked in shot and no-one noticed.

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Rocket, Christian

Army of the Dead – Look, I’m no Snyder fan, but I enjoy zombie movies and heist movies. Plus, Dawn if the Dead was one of Snyder’s better outings so I figured why not give it a shot? It was a mistake. My first clue that it probably wasn’t going to be worth it was in the runtime. 2 1/2 hours? It was a red flag but I proceeded anyway. It was bad. Seriously, someone needs to convince Snyder to stop trying to write screenplays. He’s terrible at it. Nearly every character feels like a paper thin copy of each other. In 2 1/2 hours almost none of them get any backstory and they’re mostly not likable or fun. There’s also the one mom character who solely exists as a plot point. Then there’s the list of things Snyder mentions throughout the movie that never have any payoff. It’s really most of the movie.

Also, it’s sold as a heist movie, but that’s disingenuous at best. It’s a pointless recovery mission with blatant, obvious and utterly pointless betrayal based on an equally pointless “twist” of the actual reason for the so called heist. And don’t even get me started on all the time wasted on the stupid zombie king bs. The whole screenplay is just so bland and lazy, but to make matters worse…for a director known for his visual style and flare there’s basically none of it present here. It’s all so lackluster.

But I’ve only myself to blame. This is typically Snyder for me. He takes concepts I usually enjoy and then just makes them over-long, dour slogs. Really, the idea of a heist in the middle of a zombie quarantine zone sounds like a fine recipe for a 90 minute romp of a film. Instead it’s 150 minutes of overwrought nonsense where nothing pays off. Honestly it’s kind of impressive at this point.

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lorcan_nagle, Christian, Todd