Watch, Watched, Watching: The San Diego Sneak Preview Version

[Isis]

I watched Before I Go to Sleep last week, just because I stumbled across it on Netflix not because I actively sought it out. Maybe it worked better as a book? I don't know, I just didn't really care about what happened to the people in the film. It was an interesting idea for a thriller. The reveal was a little unconvincing but I guess anything is possible. It just didn't light my fire.

[Kindly Old Man]

I enjoyed season 2 of Humans. It started off a little slow but had some very good episodes at the end. I hope it gets a third season.

[HexMachina]

@Theda Baratheon I was watching to the other day and I think Season 1 of Fortitude was airing again on Sky sometime soon. I have some vague recollection of you wanting to rewatch it or something. Or I'm imaging things. Both are highly plausible.

[Theda Baratheon]

11 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

@Theda Baratheon I was watching to the other day and I think Season 1 of Fortitude was airing again on Sky sometime soon. I have some vague recollection of you wanting to rewatch it or something. Or I'm imaging things. Both are highly plausible.

Thanks mate!! Yeah I really did want to watch it only caught one or two eps and then missed the rest

[DunderMifflin]

Just saw Love Actually for the first time and I just need to rant.

I can usually tolerate and even enjoy the most mediocre of RomComs but this is such an awful awful awful movie. How so many people call it a classic is beyond me. Maybe it would have seemed better if I had seen it when it was released. The horrible cliches and annoyingly unrealistic situations in every scene were sooooo....ughhhhh.

Off the top of my head.

-Starts off with a transgender joke first scene, thats super hacky even by early 2000s standards.

-A grown man and a little boy watch Titanic together to help the boy get over being in love....really????.......really????

-English loser guy goes to America and immediately gets into orgy of hot women in apparently some sort of weird indictment against slutty American women.

- The Walking Dead Sherriff hits on his best friends wife with cue cards at Christmas, douche.

- Oh, Laura Linney unable to have a sexual relationship due to taking care of a mentally ill relative. Because everyone is that much of an asshole they refuse to put up with someone who takes care of sick relatives.

 My only theory is that all it takes to make a hit RomCom is a middle aged British man that isn't fat. 2 or more of them you have an instant classic.

- 

 

 

[polishgenius]

Just now, DunderMifflin said:

-English loser guy goes to America and immediately gets into orgy of hot women in apparently some sort of weird indictment against slutty American women.
 

 

 

Love Actually is a pitiful movie but I have no idea how you read this bit as any kind of indictment against anything.

[AncalagonTheBlack]

I was thinking of watching Assasin's Creed on the big screen but early reviews are calling it awful.RT score of 18%, oh well,might watch something else instead.

[dbunting]

I saw Nocturnal Animals last week. Trailers looked pretty interesting, led me to think the movie was one thing when it was actually something different entirely.

Spoiler

From the trailers I thought Amy Adams was in the car getting kidnapped and maybe was involved somehow, turns out she is just reading a book he sent her. No clue until I saw it that it wasn't all real life, if that makes sense.

Also, the opening scene is very unexpected. Doesn't seem to me to fit in with the rest of the movie other than to establish Amy Adams career at that time.

All in all I enjoyed the movie and liked the way it ended.

[briantw]

8 hours ago, AncalagonTheBlack said:

I was thinking of watching Assasin's Creed on the big screen but early reviews are calling it awful.RT score of 18%, oh well,might watch something else instead.

Well, that basically makes it the best video game movie ever, right?

[polishgenius]

Watched The Grandmaster by Wong Kar Wai. Was hoping that, even if it didn't match quite the martial-arts slickness of the Ip-Man movies, since he's is not an action director and its stars not generally action stars/kung-fu practitioners, it would provide a deeper take on the story and one not beset by Donnie Yen's seeming ego problem that means he can't be made to look like he's even vaguely under pressure for one second in any movie he stars in.

But no. It was fucking rubbish. In fairness, it did address my second problem, but other than that it was a mess in almost every way, right from the pretense that it's even about Ip Man - it's not, it's about Zhang Ziyi's character and fitting in Ip Man and some of his backstory  too just means both their stories are ridiculously, ridiculously fragmented and rushed. It just felt like they had to fit him in to sell it better. And visually, it's pretty in still shots, but whenever anything is moving it's almost all messy close-ups and shakycam, which means it's neither good action nor good art- plus it's hard to follow any storytelling actually going on within the action.

The only good thing is that Zhang's performance is excellent. I just wish there'd been more of it and the whole film was about her.

Oh, and the lighting is nice.

This was my first film by Wong Kar Wai. I hope his others are better.

[HexMachina]

15 hours ago, Theda Baratheon said:

Thanks mate!! Yeah I really did want to watch it only caught one or two eps and then missed the rest

I'm glad I wasn't imagining that. It would probably speak volumes about how much I am browsing this site if I had..

Currently watching the OA which I said morecabout in the relevant thread. Finished up Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency too. Had so much fun watching this (have not read the books). Vague spoilers

I thought it succeeded very well in balancing the whimsy and absurd with an actual coherent plot, well thought out characters and well developed relationships between the characters. Elijah Wood and Samuel Barnett were great together as the leads, they had a wonderful dynamic in their scenes together. I thought the parallel relationship with Bart and Ken was also nicely handled. 

Amanda taking up with the Rowdy 3 (all four of them! ) was nice too, and I thought the actress was very good, especially in the scenes where she had her nerve disease issues strike (I can't remembervwhat it was called). 

Farah was alright and I warmed to her the more she was on screen. Think she ought to be interesting in season 2. 

Dustin Milligan as Friedkin kept making me laugh at his OTT simple minded stupidity. "Very erectus" indeed  

[Isis]

16 hours ago, dbunting said:

 

  Hide contents

 

Also, the opening scene is very unexpected. Doesn't seem to me to fit in with the rest of the movie other than to establish Amy Adams career at that time.

All in all I enjoyed the movie and liked the way it ended.

It is supposed to be representative of how the rest of the world perceives the US these days. I read about it in an interview with Tom Ford. But yes, it also shows you what her career is.

ETA: Ha. Love Actually. As soon as my taste buds return to normal (this cold has lasted 14 days so far) we are doing a Love Actually drinking game.

[Theda Baratheon]

11 hours ago, Isis said:

It is supposed to be representative of how the rest of the world perceives the US these days. I read about it in an interview with Tom Ford. But yes, it also shows you what her career is.

ETA: Ha. Love Actually. As soon as my taste buds return to normal (this cold has lasted 14 days so far) we are doing a Love Actually drinking game.

What does the drinking game entail haha 

[Ramsay B.]

19 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

Currently watching the OA which I said morecabout in the relevant thread. Finished up Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency too. Had so much fun watching this (have not read the books). Vague spoilers

  Reveal hidden contents

I thought it succeeded very well in balancing the whimsy and absurd with an actual coherent plot, well thought out characters and well developed relationships between the characters. Elijah Wood and Samuel Barnett were great together as the leads, they had a wonderful dynamic in their scenes together. I thought the parallel relationship with Bart and Ken was also nicely handled. 

Amanda taking up with the Rowdy 3 (all four of them! ) was nice too, and I thought the actress was very good, especially in the scenes where she had her nerve disease issues strike (I can't remembervwhat it was called). 

Farah was alright and I warmed to her the more she was on screen. Think she ought to be interesting in season 2. 

Dustin Milligan as Friedkin kept making me laugh at his OTT simple minded stupidity. "Very erectus" indeed  

How is The OA so far? Is Brit Marling good in it? I remember watching The East and thought she was absolutely horrible in it.

[HexMachina]

24 minutes ago, Ramsay B. said:

How is The OA so far? Is Brit Marling good in it? I remember watching The East and thought she was absolutely horrible in it.

I like it so far and think Brit Marling is pretty good, though i dont think i have seen anything else she is in so its hard to compare her performance. The show itself i like too, though episode one was a bit slow.

The theead for the OA is fairly safe to visit atm since most stuff is still spoiler tagged

[Isis]

11 hours ago, Theda Baratheon said:

What does the drinking game entail haha 

I guess we drink every time someone says or does something inherently creepy?

[Ramsay B.]

10 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

I like it so far and think Brit Marling is pretty good, though i dont think i have seen anything else she is in so its hard to compare her performance. The show itself i like too, though episode one was a bit slow.

The theead for the OA is fairly safe to visit atm since most stuff is still spoiler tagged

Cool. I'll probably check it out after I finish Quarry.

[HexMachina]

1 hour ago, Ramsay B. said:

Cool. I'll probably check it out after I finish Quarry.

I actually finished it last night. I really liked it but, especially with the ending, I think it's something that will prove quite divisive

[Theda Baratheon]

12 hours ago, Ramsay B. said:

How is The OA so far? Is Brit Marling good in it? I remember watching The East and thought she was absolutely horrible in it.

She's great - she's a really good physical performer which works for this role. One thing I'll say for the OA - it doesnt getgood until the last 15 minutes of the first (hour plus)episode but when it's good its VERY good. 

[Astromech]

I finished National Geographic's MARS six-part series on the colonization of the red planet. I quite liked it. It would flash between a fictionalized 2033 mission to colonize Mars and the present with insight from leading scientists, SpaceX, Elon Musk, etc. Very interesting. Now I can't wait for the second season of The Expanse and Bobbie Draper.