Watch, Watched, Watching: The Final Cut

[RedEyedGhost]

19 hours ago, Mexal said:

I've heard it's very good from some reviewers I trust. I haven't gotten around to it yet though. So if you get time, watch a few episodes and let us know  Manhattan from WGN had a good first season. Still have to get to the 2nd season though.

Season 2 was definitely a step down in quality from season 1. I saw previews for Underground during Outsiders and the dialogue seemed terrible. Outsiders is excellent btw, gid gid ya.

[First of My Name]

I finished the third season of The Wire this afternoon and man oh man this show is so damn good. I'm already well into the fourth season now and it looks like this one might be even better.
I can't get over how well done the characters are. I don't think there's been a single unconvincing actor or a plotline where I didn't care about the people I was following. (Admittedly the Docks story didn't work for me right away, but once they got past the set-up it got really good.)

[briantw]

Really enjoyed the Jason Statham impersonator in season two of Banshee.  Shame they didn't keep him around longer.

[wolverine]

2001: A Space Odyssey

 

For the first time ever.  WTF?  Seems to leave a lot of questions for me.  I am sure the internet has lots of answers

[Veltigar]

1 hour ago, wolverine said:

2001: A Space Odyssey

 

For the first time ever.  WTF?  Seems to leave a lot of questions for me.  I am sure the internet has lots of answers

And, lest we forget, a lot of porn  

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 hour ago, wolverine said:

2001: A Space Odyssey

 

For the first time ever.  WTF?  Seems to leave a lot of questions for me.  I am sure the internet has lots of answers

That's a deep internet rabbit hole you're about to fall in to. 

[Theda Baratheon]

i like 2001 i really do and think it's a good film but i don't think i've ever loved it as much as im supposed to ??? 

[briantw]

With his beard in season three of Banshee, Brock looks way too much like the guy who voices Sterling Archer on Archer.  Sounds kind of like him too, but I never would have noticed that without the beard.

[Astromech]

22 hours ago, First of My Name said:

I finished the third season of The Wire this afternoon and man oh man this show is so damn good. I'm already well into the fourth season now and it looks like this one might be even better.
I can't get over how well done the characters are. I don't think there's been a single unconvincing actor or a plotline where I didn't care about the people I was following. (Admittedly the Docks story didn't work for me right away, but once they got past the set-up it got really good.)

You're in for a treat. The 4th season is the best one.

[briantw]

2 minutes ago, Astromech said:

You're in for a treat. The 4th season is the best one.

The second season was my personal favorite, but really you can't go wrong with any of the first four seasons.  The fifth is the only one I feel is clearly inferior to the others, although it's still enjoyable enough.  

[First of My Name]

2 minutes ago, Astromech said:

You're in for a treat. The 4th season is the best one.

So I've heard, and so far it hasn't let me down. I watched three episodes in a row last night, couldn't turn away. The politics are even more interesting than last season and I love the school setting.

Is it true that the fifth is by far the worst one? I hope I'll like it better than many others did.

[Kindly Old Man]

6 minutes ago, First of My Name said:

So I've heard, and so far it hasn't let me down. I watched three episodes in a row last night, couldn't turn away. The politics are even more interesting than last season and I love the school setting.

Is it true that the fifth is by far the worst one? I hope I'll like it better than many others did.

I think it's definitely the worst season of The Wire but it's still very good TV.

[williamjm]

Primarily for reasons of nostalgia I watched the BBC's revival of Robot Wars, which I did watch regularly when I was at school (and university). It's a show that hasn't really changed much in the dozen years it has been away. Dara O'Briain did a reasonable job of hosting although I do miss Craig Charles a little bit.

[briantw]

10 minutes ago, First of My Name said:

Is it true that the fifth is by far the worst one? I hope I'll like it better than many others did.

The worst season of The Wire is still better than a lot of what's on TV.

[Mark Antony]

I thought the 2nd episode of Vice Principals was really good.

They made Gamby a little more likable than he was in the pilot and that house scene was fucking hilarious. Goggins killing it as always

 

[First of My Name]

1 hour ago, Kindly Old Man said:

I think it's definitely the worst season of The Wire but it's still very good TV.

 

1 hour ago, briantw said:

The worst season of The Wire is still better than a lot of what's on TV.

Okay, shame that it's not as good, but I'm glad it's not a complete drop in quality. All this show needs is a good ending to tie it together, I'm hoping the final episode at least will do the trick for me.
 

[Talleyrand]

14 minutes ago, First of My Name said:

 

Okay, shame that it's not as good, but I'm glad it's not a complete drop in quality. All this show needs is a good ending to tie it together, I'm hoping the final episode at least will do the trick for me.
 

Most of the Storylines are to me of the same quality of previous series it's just hampered by a couple of weaker links and a shorter running time,

[Veltigar]

I went to see El espíritu de la colmena  (Spirit of the Beehive) today. It's supposedly (one of) the best Spanish film(s) of all time and I was keen on finding out whether it really was as good as I was lead to believe. So, when I found out they were playing it at the outdoor cinema at the beach today, I just had to check it out. 

Last time I went there I watched El laberinto del fauno, which was truly a great experience. Today was sadly different. About twenty minutes in, the rain just started pooring. It was as if someone was gradually turning all the floodgates open. It wasn't all bad of course. The glistening wet screen elevated the already gorgeous cinematography to even greater heights and the harsh winds made the screen billow, which made it seem alive.

The truth, however, is that I was in fact pretty cold and miserable throughout most of this film's 99 minute runtime. And if that wasn't bad enough, after a while I had to balance a folded beach chair on my head to shelter from the downpour. I can also attest that we should all apologise to Hayden Christensen and George Lucas. They were right all along, sand really is coarse and gets everywhere. Especially when it's wet  

All of this did a lot to divert my attention away from the film. It also didn't help that right at the beginning, we were all distracted by a bit of live action comedy. Some annoying young shitbags were making a lot of noise and one of the other audience member asked them very politely to remain quiet. Something happened afterwards (I guess they must have thrown some sand or something else) and all of a sudden we were treated to a pretty good foot chase. I swear, the only thing missing was the Benny Hill theme and it would have been a great laugh. Sadly, we weren't able to see whether or not he managed to catch one of the little assholes, but I do hope he got one and smacked some sense in the little prick. 

Anyway, after this long rant, we now return to my review of the film itself. I must say I really liked it, although I feel like I missed a lot of subtleties due to my problematic surroundings. The film suggests a lot and it doesn't indulge in lineair storytelling, so you need to pay a lot more attention to it than cold and miserable me was able to give it. 

I really liked the cinematography. As I mentioned earlier, it  was gorgeous. Apparently the DP was slowly going blind while making this film, which makes his achievement here even bittersweet to say the least. The directing itself was also really quirky. The members of the family we follow hardly ever share the same frame, even when they occupy the same physical space in a room.  

I also liked all the beats taken from the horror genre (clanking footsteps, omnious lights, etc.). I haven't seen James Whale's Frankenstein adaptation, a film which had a profound impact on the main character of El espiritu de la colmena, but I think that anyone familiar with that version of the Frankenstein story will probably get even more out of it.

The acting was amazing. Ana Torrent really gives us a great performance as this innocent girl who gets lost in her own imagination. It makes me want to watch Cria Cuervos, another old Spanish film were she is reputed to have excelled in. The story is very dreamlike, very poetic (but still manages to get quite a few jabs in at Franco's expense) and while the pace is really slow, you aren't bored. 

I don't think it's the best Spanish film I have ever seen. I'm too fond of Viridiana, La piel que habito and El laberinto del fauno to make such a claim. However, it's definitely up there and it has been hugely influential. You can really see that when you compare it to El laberinto del fauno. Del Toro was clearly heavly influenced by this particular story. Not that I mean this as a knock on Del Toro of course. He put his own spin on it and made something truly magnificent, but at least one strand of his inspiration for that film is now pretty clear. In summation, I can say that I would highly recommend El espíritu de la colmena. Just don't watch it outdours in the pouring rain with a beach chair on your head, this film deserves better.

4 hours ago, Theda Baratheon said:

i like 2001 i really do and think it's a good film but i don't think i've ever loved it as much as im supposed to ??? 

Personally, I feel like most of Kubrick's output isn't to be loved (the exception for me being Paths of Glory and perhaps the first half of Full Metal Jacket). The majority of his films that I have seen are just to cold and clinical for that. You need to be in awe of his work, because pretty much every single one of them was a masterpiece, but it's always more of an intellectual thing for me. The heart never enters into it.

3 hours ago, Astromech said:

You're in for a treat. The 4th season is the best one.

3 hours ago, First of My Name said:

Is it true that the fifth is by far the worst one? 

Yeah, David Simon was so busy settling scores from his old days as a journalist that the actual story suffered a bit. It's still good of course, but it does miss some of the spark of the earlier seasons. 

 

.

 

 

[First of My Name]

1 hour ago, Talleyrand said:

Most of the Storylines are to me of the same quality of previous series it's just hampered by a couple of weaker links and a shorter running time,

Yeah, I'm generally not a fan of shorter final seasons, especially since this show only keeps adding to its cast every season and all those characters should be done justice (in an ideal world, at least).

16 minutes ago, Veltigar said:

Yeah, David Simon was so busy settling scores from his old days as a journalist that the actual story suffered a bit. It's still good of course, but it does miss some of the spark of the earlier seasons. 

 

Interesting. Come September I'll be studying Journalism so maybe I'll like it better than you guys. Guess we'll see.

[Zorral]

The deal was that the last season of the Wire suffered from being truncated.  Also, we switched from the cops, their lives, their targets, and the legal system to the media.  So we were given a whole new cast of characters with a whole other agenda, none of whom we knew.  So we never got enough to time to know them, invest in them, etc.