Watch, Watched, Watching: The Movie and Television Thread

[MJ_Lone wolf]

I really hope

comes out next year..

Wow, that looks awesome. I hadn't heard of that until now. Kinda reminds me of role models, which is one of my favorite comedies. Also if you like comedy/horror check out "Tucker and Dale vs. Evil" My buddies made me watch it on Netflix and I could not stop laughing.

[AndrewBaelish]

Wow, that looks awesome. I hadn't heard of that until now. Kinda reminds me of role models, which is one of my favorite comedies. Also if you like comedy/horror check out "Tucker and Dale vs. Evil" My buddies made me watch it on Netflix and I could not stop laughing.

COLLEGE KIDS!

[polishgenius]

Just watched I Saw the Devil, Korean serial killer revenge thing. Kim Ji-Woon is a nutball and for that reason, despite myself, I'm looking forward to The Last Stand (though it's going to have much more in common with The Good, The Bad, The Weird than this).

Also, Choi Min-sik is brilliant as the villain.

[Sivin]

Watched a horror film called ATM the other day with a friend of mine. It was horrible, then became vaguely interesting, then became horrible again.

[Fragile Bird]

Thumbs up for The Good Wife.

I'm still watching Remington Steele. This show should be a cult classic, I have no idea why it's so obscure. (well, it's obscure to me anyway. I'd never heard of it.)

Remington Steele was one of my favourite programs in the early 80s. It was trying to copy the old 'screwball' movies from the 30s and 40s. Because I was used to such a lightweight Brosnan, I couldn't see him as James Bond when the casting was announced, but he was ok.

I am watching a Sons of Anarchy marathon. My, my, what foreigners must think of life in California. Fortunately, having watched programmes full of liars, double-crossers and backstabbers over the years when I watched soap operas with my mom, nothing in this comes as a surprise.

[Derfel Cadarn]

I seem to be going through a Scandinavian phase, As well as starting The Killing yesterday, I recently watched the Millenium trilogy (dragon tattoo etc). First film was good, other two were okay. Also watched Jo Nesbo's Headhunters, which co-starred Jaime Lannister. Was disappointed to be honest. The dubbing was poor, and the main character was an unlikable douchebag. I was rooting for the bad guy for the first hour to be honest.

[Reposado]

rewatching summer heights high after a few years. it really is just as funny as i remembered and well worth watching.

apparently there are multiple hours of bonus footage on teh dvd, which will be new to me.

[Datepalm]

Remington Steele was one of my favourite programs in the early 80s. It was trying to copy the old 'screwball' movies from the 30s and 40s. Because I was used to such a lightweight Brosnan, I couldn't see him as James Bond when the casting was announced, but he was ok.

I should probably watch those, I guess - Remington Steele does farce a lot, and much better than i'm used to seeing on tv, and I love farce. With retrospect on the retrospect, it is so weird to me that he went on to be James Bond, because Steele is kind of a deconstruction of Bond a lot, especially in the first season. (I dunno that he's a lightweight, I think it's just a humorous show and he's funny in it, but the character should be insufferable but he isn't, so clearly some sort of acting type stuff is going on. (I'm really, really terrible at telling good acting from bad acting, mind, or at least managing to figure out what's going on to make it so.)

Oh, I saw Brave and How to Train Your Dragon, and both were cute but neither were brilliant.

[polishgenius]

Oh, I saw Brave and How to Train Your Dragon, and both were cute but neither were brilliant.

I should probably watch Brave, if only to complete the set of 2012's archery heavy movies...

Yesterday I also watched War of the Arrows - known in the US as Arrow: The Ultimate Weapon I believe. I think it's a shame that it only really got attention in the West - certainly in England - from Asia-specialist review sites because it's awesome. And would totally be palatable to a large audience because unlike a lot of Korean films, it's got a very Western style (but probably could only have been made in Korea because of their obsession with archery) - it strongly evokes action-Spielberg in its general beats and Apocalypto in some specific elements. This isn't a bad thing because it can quite comfortably stand alongside those. The plot is totally cliche twaddle - though, while cheesy, not as cloyingly sentimental as, say, Saving Private Ryan - but also largely irrelevant especially in the second half which is basically a solid hour of action - and aside from one dodgy scene with a tiger, it's all really well staged.

It's also based around the archery, rather than having the archery crammed in awkardly to the fight scenes, which does make it different to the average historical epic.

What I'm saying there I guess is that I really liked it. :P

[Mad Queen]

Finally I saw Argo. Undoubtedly a good movie, especially the beginning, which was amazing, but the rest is full of Hollywood cliches. How can a movie based on a real story feel so much like Unrealistic Action Movie #948? Cheesy family drama that isn't connected with the rest of the plot should have been cut or better developed. All in all, good work from Ben Affleck.

[Francis Buck]

With acquiring Netflix for the second time, I know have a massive list of movies I need to see, many of which are foreign and indie (with a large number of Asian flicks). I'm thinking of going for Red Cliff first, as I heard really good things about it, and I'm kind of in the mood for a big, epic, period piece.

[williamjm]

With acquiring Netflix for the second time, I know have a massive list of movies I need to see, many of which are foreign and indie (with a large number of Asian flicks). I'm thinking of going for Red Cliff first, as I heard really good things about it, and I'm kind of in the mood for a big, epic, period piece.

I thought Red Cliff was a good film. There are two versions of it so you might want to check which version you are getting, the British cinema release was about half the length of the original Chinese release (which was released as two separate films) and featured an incongruous English-language narration in a few early scenes.

[Black Wolf Smith]

With acquiring Netflix for the second time, I know have a massive list of movies I need to see, many of which are foreign and indie (with a large number of Asian flicks). I'm thinking of going for Red Cliff first, as I heard really good things about it, and I'm kind of in the mood for a big, epic, period piece.

then I would suggest a swedish film, Arn : The Knight Templar which I know Netflix had early in 2012. Parts are in english, Latin and other languages, as well as swedish. They made two movies, but Netflix has a long version where both are combined. IMO very well done, , not like some tired old hollywood retread.

[Mexal]

So Lost ended up being on G4 this morning and I started watching the pilot again. Now I'm going to do a re-watch of season 1. I will avoid going past that but season 1 of Lost was probably the most fun I've had watching a tv show. It's been a long time, looking forward to this now.

[Raja]

That season 1 was probably the best TV at the time. I still think Lost was more "they managed to pull it off" rather than "they managed to screw it up", but that's a completely different discussion. There are some great episodes later on as well; like the Constant and Through the Looking glass, to name a few. I really should get the complete show at some point.

[Mexal]

That season 1 was probably the best TV at the time. I still think Lost was more "they managed to pull it off" rather than "they managed to screw it up", but that's a completely different discussion. There are some great episodes later on as well; like the Constant and Through the Looking glass, to name a few. I really should get the complete show at some point.

Agreed. There are definitely good episodes later but I don't want to wade through all the filler to get to them. That's why I just wanted to watch season 1. It should be enough to fulfill my Lost itch without turning into a time sink.

[Raja]

Yeah, I kinda did a re-watch of season 1 a couple of months back but never got around to watching the second season. Unfortunately the negative press/feedback of the final season seems to have become synonymous with Lost as a whole, getting a friend of mine to pick up on the series is difficult as they just look at me skeptically and say "but din't it get terrible towards the end", and whilst that's true to some degree, the last season certainly has it's moments

Moving on, watched "Chronicle" and I loved it. I've always liked found-footage ( That's probably not what the genre is called) , especially if they can show something new, and chronicle did that really well. Even though you can see where the plot is going about 1/3 of the way through the movie, it still manages to be quite refreshing. The leads are all excellent too, it's just a very well made movie. There are some weaknesses though, at times you could really see how restrained the director was with the budget. Some of the scenes just looked very unfinished. Some more character development would have helped, given that it's only about 90 minutes, a couple of the characters could have been fleshed out a bit more. But I'm willing to overlook some of that in light of how much I enjoyed it.

[Sivin]

So Lost ended up being on G4 this morning and I started watching the pilot again. Now I'm going to do a re-watch of season 1. I will avoid going past that but season 1 of Lost was probably the most fun I've had watching a tv show. It's been a long time, looking forward to this now.

That season 1 was probably the best TV at the time. I still think Lost was more "they managed to pull it off" rather than "they managed to screw it up", but that's a completely different discussion. There are some great episodes later on as well; like the Constant and Through the Looking glass, to name a few. I really should get the complete show at some point.

I watched Seasons 1&2 about a year ago. I'd planned on continuing (and stopping) with season 3, but the thought of Charlie's death was not something I could deal with.

[Baitac]

Finally finished watching the end of Downton Abbey. Lovely period piece. I have warmed up to the Lady Mary, but nothing beats Maggie Smith. I wish she were featured in more of them and for a longer period of time.

[Lady Olenna]

We just finished Downton Abby as well. Really enjoyed it. Just looking at the decor and the castle was worth it. I am a huge Maggie smith fan and was really hoping she would end up being the Queen of Thorns. She would have nailed that role IMO.