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Watch, Watched, Watching: Britannia doesn't rule the waves


Veltigar

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Trying to finish "Shut Eye" before I go to Sneaky Pete, S2. It's starting to get difficult. While season 1 of Shut Eye had a lot of silliness I still enjoyed it a good bit, S2 has some good parts but it's really jumped way over the shark with the

Spoiler

fucking doll(s) with the taekwondo thing. The show became Ally McBeal for a few minutes.

 

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I watched Red Sparrow. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it, it does a reasonable job of keeping up the mystery about what the character's true agenda is among all the double and triple crossing, but it did feel that sometimes events unfolded in a particular way for the purposes of progressing the plot rather than because it would make sense for the characters to behave in that way. Some of the violence/torture also felt a bit gratuitous.

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I went and saw Greatest Showman on Saturday. I really enjoyed it, which wasn't surprising - I love high melodrama musicals. 

Still got to go see A Wrinkle of Time, but won't be able to see it until this coming weekend. 

I finally worked my way through The Tick, which was so good. 

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Just watched Patriots Day.

I would definately recommend it. I cant really explain why, but Khandi Alexander really left an impression on me in her role as the Muslim "Special Interrogator." She really had a certain gravitas in that role even though it wasnt a lot of lines.

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On 07/03/2018 at 10:07 AM, Ramsay B. said:

It's such a weird and mesmerizing movie, with one of the most chilling performances I've seen in quite some time. It stuck with me the first few days after I saw it. Interested to see what others here think.

Ok, so when you say chilling performances I am just now reminded a little of We Need to Talk About Kevin. Watched this last night (The Killing of a Sacred Deer) and my first thought is: I am not surprised this wasn't really mentioned during the award season because I was quite disappointed by the film overall. I recall seeing a trailer for it at the cinema last year and thinking 'that looks super creepy and weird and amazing' but then the reality did not live up to it for me.

One other minor point - the sound just felt a bit heavy handed. A couple of films spring to mind which use sound in a really oppressive and unforgettable way: Upstream Color (which I saw at the cinema) and Kill List (which I saw on TV but with a decent sound system). The sound in those films felt integrated, i.e. it seemed to be an ongoing experience which was part of the whole, rather than just someone suddenly banging heavily on the piano keys, which is what The Killing of a Sacred Deer felt like to me. I know absolutely nothing about sound in films from a technical POV but I just wish it had been done more...smoothly?

I guess I'll put the rest in spoiler tags here

 

So... literally everyone in this film was a sociopath? I mean, that was one odd family (even without Martin's interjection). At times the mother seemed to show a little bit of emotion (she wasn't icy just kind of dead inside) but it almost felt like that was a mistake and she actually should have been utterly frozen the entire time because that would be more in character. And the kids!

I can accept that the symptoms the kids were suffering were maybe meant to be 'not real' - and that would be more plausible to me than this entire family who are dead inside but ostensibly normal.

If you take Stephen's character in isolation, then yes, he appears to be a narcissist and quite likely a sociopath and that is feasible to me - by itself. But how is the whole family like that? HOW? I am so confuzzled by this film. I wanted it to do MORE. I felt like it could have done, but it was just a bit of a cop out.

Ok and I haven't even mentioned the penultimate scene. Like, how lucky would you be to actually hit a person (let alone give them a fatal wound) if you fire a gun while not even aiming at them? I don't know, perhaps that scene is a metaphor for the entire film.

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On 3/5/2018 at 10:29 AM, Isis said:

Finally saw Personal Shopper, which has been on my to watch list for ages. A bit disappointing in terms of performance because I've seen Kristin Stewart do much better than this. I should have guessed earlier on that you were never going to receive a definitive answer to what was happening. It was mildly diverting I guess. Think I would have been let down if I'd paid to see it in the cinema. Oh and the keypad tones and message sent alerts. OH MY WORD. Such annoying sounds.

I've tried to watch it a couple of times and have been bored to tears, and I have a very high tolerance for bad horror, LOL.  

Watched Ex Machine this weekend.  LOVED it.  And what a beautiful movie for only $10M.  

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12 hours ago, Isis said:

Ok, so when you say chilling performances I am just now reminded a little of We Need to Talk About Kevin. Watched this last night (The Killing of a Sacred Deer) and my first thought is: I am not surprised this wasn't really mentioned during the award season because I was quite disappointed by the film overall. I recall seeing a trailer for it at the cinema last year and thinking 'that looks super creepy and weird and amazing' but then the reality did not live up to it for me.

One other minor point - the sound just felt a bit heavy handed. A couple of films spring to mind which use sound in a really oppressive and unforgettable way: Upstream Color (which I saw at the cinema) and Kill List (which I saw on TV but with a decent sound system). The sound in those films felt integrated, i.e. it seemed to be an ongoing experience which was part of the whole, rather than just someone suddenly banging heavily on the piano keys, which is what The Killing of a Sacred Deer felt like to me. I know absolutely nothing about sound in films from a technical POV but I just wish it had been done more...smoothly?

I guess I'll put the rest in spoiler tags here

  Reveal hidden contents

So... literally everyone in this film was a sociopath? I mean, that was one odd family (even without Martin's interjection). At times the mother seemed to show a little bit of emotion (she wasn't icy just kind of dead inside) but it almost felt like that was a mistake and she actually should have been utterly frozen the entire time because that would be more in character. And the kids!

I can accept that the symptoms the kids were suffering were maybe meant to be 'not real' - and that would be more plausible to me than this entire family who are dead inside but ostensibly normal.

If you take Stephen's character in isolation, then yes, he appears to be a narcissist and quite likely a sociopath and that is feasible to me - by itself. But how is the whole family like that? HOW? I am so confuzzled by this film. I wanted it to do MORE. I felt like it could have done, but it was just a bit of a cop out.

Ok and I haven't even mentioned the penultimate scene. Like, how lucky would you be to actually hit a person (let alone give them a fatal wound) if you fire a gun while not even aiming at them? I don't know, perhaps that scene is a metaphor for the entire film.

Well absolutely no surprise this kind of movie wasn't mentioned during award season. It was way too dark and different for that, even if it had been award worthy(which I agree it probably wasn't, beside Barry Keoghan's performance). I also don't remember the sound sticking out at all, kind of interested in that now though. I think some of the things you disliked about it were some of the things I enjoyed the most.

Spoiler

The family and the dialogue being so weird was compelling for me to watch despite being however unrealistic (or not, rich people are fucked). Stephen was also a narcissist so his kids being very selfish and messed up isn't that big of a stretch. I feel the coldness of everyone included just added another layer of terror to a situation that was getting more messed up by the second. 

I didn't mind the ending either. People get killed by stray bullets, it happens. I do find it interesting, but not surprising, that self-absorbed Stephen never even considered killing himself at any point(if I remember correctly). Any "normal" human in that situation would at least inquire about going that route, and I'd assume that that would've been justice in Martin's eyes. 

The kids crawling to try and impress Stephen to save themselves stuck out to me too. That was just sad and incredibly brutal at the same time. I'm still trying to figure out if Martin really did have some supernatural power or was a hypnotist or what? 

I also LOVE Kill List. One of my favorite horror movies ever. 

 

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I saw a film last night that came out a couple of weeks ago. And people kept telling me that it was groundbreaking and brought new ideas to the cinematic experience about what a film could be. That it broke ground and gave the spotlight to those who were usually just flavor to the standard action or adventure.

And they were right! I'm so sorry I wasn't there on opening day! I feel like an idiot. All these Marvel movies, I figured I'd just catch it on Google or Netflix. But by god did this deserve to be seen in theaters. Our overseas friends have shown us up by demanding it be removed from Netflix and put on the big screen while we in America have caused a disastrous opening.

Annihilation is the best film I've seen in years. It's fucking beautiful and haunting. It is a grade A masterpiece no less perfectly executed than Dunkirk or exotically presented as that fish movie.

Seriously. Stop what you are doing. Go see this movie. Have a friend, because you'll be scared sometimes and you will need someone to talk to after.

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3 hours ago, Pony Queen Jace said:

I saw a film last night that came out a couple of weeks ago. And people kept telling me that it was groundbreaking and brought new ideas to the cinematic experience about what a film could be. That it broke ground and gave the spotlight to those who were usually just flavor to the standard action or adventure.

And they were right! I'm so sorry I wasn't there on opening day! I feel like an idiot. All these Marvel movies, I figured I'd just catch it on Google or Netflix. But by god did this deserve to be seen in theaters. Our overseas friends have shown us up by demanding it be removed from Netflix and put on the big screen while we in America have caused a disastrous opening.

Annihilation is the best film I've seen in years. It's fucking beautiful and haunting. It is a grade A masterpiece no less perfectly executed than Dunkirk or exotically presented as that fish movie.

Seriously. Stop what you are doing. Go see this movie. Have a friend, because you'll be scared sometimes and you will need someone to talk to after.

Man, now I am going to have to watch it. I posted a couple weeks ago that this was one I was really up in the air on because I liked the previews but have heard some bad reviews of it.

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I watched Wind River this long weekend and really liked it. I wasn't blown away but thought it was pretty damn good, thanks to those who posted on here about it. I may not have watched it otherwise.

Watched Gringo, had zero expectations except I expected more of a comedy about drug smuggling based on previews and it wasn't really. It was surprisingly a pretty good movie. I mean there of course are issues but whatever. The lead plays his role really well and there are a few pretty funny spots.

I also binged Jessica Jones S2 and thought it was pretty good. S1 was a little more interesting because of the villain but this held up pretty well. As others have said this season was more about the characters than the villain. And holy cow! I was on Imdb while watching to see who the mother of Trish was, and found out it was Rebecca DeMorney (sp?), didn't recognize her at all.

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20 minutes ago, dbunting said:

Man, now I am going to have to watch it. I posted a couple weeks ago that this was one I was really up in the air on because I liked the previews but have heard some bad reviews of it.

It was annihilated by Black Panther just as Wrinkle In Time and everything else was.

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15 hours ago, Nictarion said:

Started Sneaky Pete season 2. Very minor spoiler for episode 2x01

 

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Having Julia look up money laundering to be taken to the plot of Hell or High Water (which Marin Ireland was in) was pretty good.

:lol:

 

Episode seven was fantastic!  Finishing the rest tonight.

Well, I thought I had posted the above, and came to post that episode eight was just as good, if not better only to see the text box still open. Yeah, eight was better.

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2 hours ago, RedEyedGhost said:

Episode seven was fantastic!  Finishing the rest tonight.

Well, I thought I had posted the above, and came to post that episode eight was just as good, if not better only to see the text box still open. Yeah, eight was better.

Yep, that was awesome.  They stuck the landing again.

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17 hours ago, Cas Stark said:

I've tried to watch it a couple of times and have been bored to tears, and I have a very high tolerance for bad horror, LOL.  

Watched Ex Machine this weekend.  LOVED it.  And what a beautiful movie for only $10M.  

It also feels a bit like The Clouds of Sils Maria, because she plays an assistant in that too. But I far preferred that film to Personal Shopper. I mean that has Juliette Binoche in it anyway, so it's obviously going to be a better film.

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15 hours ago, Ramsay B. said:

Well absolutely no surprise this kind of movie wasn't mentioned during award season. It was way too dark and different for that, even if it had been award worthy(which I agree it probably wasn't, beside Barry Keoghan's performance). I also don't remember the sound sticking out at all, kind of interested in that now though. I think some of the things you disliked about it were some of the things I enjoyed the most.

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The family and the dialogue being so weird was compelling for me to watch despite being however unrealistic (or not, rich people are fucked). Stephen was also a narcissist so his kids being very selfish and messed up isn't that big of a stretch. I feel the coldness of everyone included just added another layer of terror to a situation that was getting more messed up by the second. 

I didn't mind the ending either. People get killed by stray bullets, it happens. I do find it interesting, but not surprising, that self-absorbed Stephen never even considered killing himself at any point(if I remember correctly). Any "normal" human in that situation would at least inquire about going that route, and I'd assume that that would've been justice in Martin's eyes. 

The kids crawling to try and impress Stephen to save themselves stuck out to me too. That was just sad and incredibly brutal at the same time. I'm still trying to figure out if Martin really did have some supernatural power or was a hypnotist or what? 

I also LOVE Kill List. One of my favorite horror movies ever. 

 

Ok, so I was in the supermarket earlier and this film just popped into my head, the bit quite early on where she (Kidman - was she Anna or Hannah? I didn't really care at the time) says to her husband, 'I'm going to bake a lemon cake tomorrow and it's all for you.' Even that was pretty creepy to me. I thought, this must be a metaphor for some sex thing? I thought oh god, they're going to be one of those couples who uses creepy euphemisms for sex aren't they? I think I'll creep out my own husband by telling him I am going to bake him a lemon cake tomorrow. He'll have nightmares. :ph34r:

I really appreciate films which use sound cleverly. I'm trying to recall if Only God Forgives did as well... certainly that film was disturbing from a visual sense, especially the use of so much red colour and light. I recall taking a bag of snacks in with me and being unable to eat ANY of them because I felt so physically uncomfortable. But that's what makes cinema fantastic! Kill List, I literally had to pause to breathe the first time I watched it because it was so claustrophobic. 

Yes, you're right in that it never seemed to occur to Stephen that he could kill himself. Right before the penultimate scene I thought he was going to kill his wife (because this would be preferable to him than killing one of his children) and that was why she wanted to put her nice dress on.

The bit where he kept dragging his son along, trying to get him to walk and virtually dropping him on the floor was pretty brutal to watch. :/

Sure, there were things to admire in this film. One of the best bits is where Stephen goes to see the principal in order to effectively get him to say which of the kids is the best and therefore shouldn't be killed. It's kind of brilliant...in a 'what the fuck is wrong with this dude' sort of way.

It says a lot that it doesn't even really matter that much how the symptoms of disease are produced, if they are even real etc., because that's not even the weirdest thing about this film.

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Started up Hell on Wheels last night.  Pilot was ok, will give it a few more episodes before I decide if I want to keep going for all 5 seasons.  Might be something I leave on in the background as I finish up Zelda.

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4 hours ago, aceluby said:

Started up Hell on Wheels last night.  Pilot was ok, will give it a few more episodes before I decide if I want to keep going for all 5 seasons.  Might be something I leave on in the background as I finish up Zelda.

I sort of liked season 1 and 2. 2 had a surprising ending but felt like the end. I've yet to watch the rest but feel I should probably finish the rest of "turn" if I'm going to finish FX shows from that era first.

Started watching "Troy-Fall of a city". I've yet to finish all of episode one but it's "ok". Seems to have strong production values and I was surprised to see them involving gods (the tendency seems to play these types of show straight of late). I'm just not convinced on them using Paris as the main protagonist. I guess I'm just jaded from my reading of the Iliad in that I felt it was all largely his fault and that he was a bit of a prick. It's taking some effort to be more sympathetic towards him. What's proving even harder to forgive is how they appear to be portraying Hector as some thuggish brute. He's my favourite character from the Iliad (always felt the most "modern"/human in his behaviour) and the one I empathised with the most. Hopefully they don't treat him as merely the brawn to Paris' brains or I won't last long with the show. I do like their design of Troy - it felt very authentic and clearly played off the archaelogical "Troy" site (even if it may have been later incarnations of the city). Anyway I'm hoping it'll pick up as it could be "The last kingdom"ish with a few more episodes. It seems it's bombing in the UK though audience wise.

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1 hour ago, Risto said:

Watched new Lara Croft movie with Alicia Vikander. It was terrible. Words cant express how bad it was

This is disappointing.  I love adventure movies, and there have been far too few even adequate ones in recent years.  I was hoping this would scratch that itch.

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