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Ramsay B.

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We finished Grimm at last. That finale felt a little bit like the joke X Files episodes where nothing is actually real and the events of that episode don't really relate to the rest of the show. I'm sad it's over but I feel able to move on now. :)

Also I did NOT watch Riverdale. But if I had I'd be thinking that I really loved what they did with the colour palette, that kind of unreal sugary pink tone, giving some characters a fairy tale hue, that was really nicely done. It didn't take itself too seriously either.

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I watched the first episode of Long Strange Trip, Amazon's 5-part documentary series about the Grateful Dead. I thought it was amazing, but as a deadhead I'm going to be biased. Still, I think it's compelling enough that even non-heads would find it entertaining. I can't wait to dive into the rest!

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 @HelenaExMachina

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I would say no to Rebellion. A resounding, echoing NOOOOOOOO to the Tudors and probably a No to Marco Polo though to be fair, I got bored by the second episode and gave up so maybe it improves. 

Instead you should watch The Last Kingdom and/or Wolf Hall, depending on what era you are looking for. Both great shows. Last Kingdom is fast paced with great characters (it takes certain liberties with historical accuracy for the sake of narrative, mostly jigging up the timeline somewhat) and a stronger second season than first, as the lead actor grows into the role and the overall arc of the season is more compelling. Wolf Hall is less action-y, more political intrigue. If you are interested in The Tudors, Wolf Hall offers an infinitely superior take on Henry VIII than Michael Hirst's glorified bodice-ripping soap opera.

Thanks for the recommendations!!! :D I've added Wolf Hall and The last Kingdom to my watch list. Didn't start any of them yet because I got hooked with Vikings season 3 last weekend. Wow, episode 8 felt a lot like Blackwater (GoT S2E9).

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Films: Free state of Jones and Maggie with Schwarzenegger.

Free state of Jones, pretty good film, 7 stars out of 10.

Maggie: Also quite poignant, a zombie film with some actual characterization. Also 7 out of 10.

Series: Bosch, season 1. Decent but unexceptional. May not watch seasons 2 and 3. 6 stars out of 10.

Series on the docket: House of Cards, Billions, Big Little Lies, Last Kingdom, Gomorrah, Narcos, GoT season 6.

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On 6/6/2017 at 11:50 PM, Baltan said:

 @HelenaExMachina

Thanks for the recommendations!!! :D I've added Wolf Hall and The last Kingdom to my watch list. Didn't start any of them yet because I got hooked with Vikings season 3 last weekend. Wow, episode 8 felt a lot like Blackwater (GoT S2E9).

No worries. 

As someome who at one time loved Vikings I would recommend dropping it after Season 3. Much as I wanted to like it, Season 4 was a steady decline in quality. So much so that I gave up midway through Season 4B. It was a real shame, because I loved the show and wanted to like the new season but I just couldnt. Characters, acting and plot just took a real nosedive.

ETA: The Last Kingdom will no doubt leave you making comparisons with Vikings as they cover similar eras (from what i read in the Vikings thread season 4 ends roughly where TLK begins).

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Riverdale.  It's curiously interesting -- not least due to the actors, of course.  It's an odd mix of elements that one might not think would blend into the slick and smooth surface that Riverdale is.  The only utterly unnecessary element is insisting it's based on the Archie comic characters.  The television series characters and their relationships owe nothing to the Archie comics, so I am baffled why they went to the unnecessary expense of paying Archie Comics licensing fee?

Edited to say -- duh, concerning why the Archie Comics licensing fee -- duh, duh, duh -- the head of Archie Comics himself developed the series for television.

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I watched The Day Will Come (Der kommer en dag). Child abuse at a Danish orphanage in the late 60s based on actual events. Very good but also tough to watch at times. Sofie Grabol and the child actors, really the entire cast, were very good.

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I went and saw It Comes At Night today. It was decent but kind of a letdown. It dragged at a few spots, and the trailer was brilliant but kind of misleading to what the film actually was. Definitely worth a watch though. 

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Has anyone heard anything at all about The Mighty Eighth? Its supposed to be another Tom Hanks produced HBO WWII mini series like his Band of Brothers and The Pacific. I haven't seen or heard anything about this in like 3 years. I really hope this is still a go.

Does anyone have any suggestions similar to this other than BoB, The Pacific, Generation Kill, and Our World War?

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14 hours ago, -Ghost- said:

Has anyone heard anything at all about The Mighty Eighth? Its supposed to be another Tom Hanks produced HBO WWII mini series like his Band of Brothers and The Pacific. I haven't seen or heard anything about this in like 3 years. I really hope this is still a go.

Does anyone have any suggestions similar to this other than BoB, The Pacific, Generation Kill, and Our World War?

In the same boat as you regarding news on The Mighty Eighth. I hope it's still a go.

Some suggestions:

Generation War (Unsere Mutter, unsere Vater) if you have Netflix. A German miniseries on WWII following a group of close friends and the direction the war takes all of them.You'll have to ignore the complete whitewashing of Nazi Germany, though.

The Heavy Water War. Raid on a heavy water plant in Norway to thwart Nazi attempts at creating atomic weapon.

14 -  Diaries of The Great War. Exactly that. Docudrama based on the experiences of several individuals during WWI.

The War. Ken Burns documentary based on the experiences of four cities in the U.S. and soldiers from each in WWII.

I believe all of these are available on Netflix.

 

I watched In a Valley of Violence last night. Don't make the same mistake I did. Terrible film that didn't know what it wanted to be. I should've avoided it seeing as Travolta was playing a villain. He's generally terrible in everything, but especially so when it comes to playing villains. Ethan Hawke wasn't much better.

Spoiler

And it resorts to the sacrificial pet trope. Everyone knows they are only added to simply kill them half way through the film and get sentimental points for the "hero" and to vilify the antagonist. Terrible.

 

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Agree about In A Valley of Violence. It was awful. I almost turned it off a couple times. Travolta was the least of its problems imo (I actually think he's a pretty good villain in most stuff). The girl from AHS was the worst part by far. She certainly doesn't have her sister's acting chops (her real life sister Vera Farmiga not the one in the movie). What an insult that this movie is supposed to be a homage to the great spaghetti westerns. 

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I just watched Cabin in the Woods pfffft. It was ok I suppose. If you like that sort of thing. I mean, it was mildly clever I guess, maybe if it had been made 20 years earlier it might be a little more impressive. Overall I'm just left thinking they could have tried harder. 

Now watching The Virgin Suicides after having listened to the soundtrack for years and years... *later that day* ok, so this film was exactly how I expected it to be. Maybe that's because the soundtrack has some audio on it too so I already 'knew' what was going to happen (plus the clue is kinda in the name). But the slow, lethargic pace and the sun-bleached appearance of everyone and everything in it... it was just how I expected it to be. Glad to have seen it at last. It's a beautiful film. Not cheery but beautiful.

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23 hours ago, Nictarion said:

Agree about In A Valley of Violence. It was awful. I almost turned it off a couple times. Travolta was the least of its problems imo (I actually think he's a pretty good villain in most stuff). The girl from AHS was the worst part by far. She certainly doesn't have her sister's acting chops (her real life sister Vera Farmiga not the one in the movie). What an insult that this movie is supposed to be a homage to the great spaghetti westerns. 

All the actors were pretty terrible. Jumpy, who played Abby, was the best actor :)

I finished the first season of AMC's The Son based on Philipp Meyer's novel. It was entertaining enough to kill an hour a week.

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I watched Logan. Loved it. This is the best X-Men / Wolverine movie made by Fox and a great way to end the franchise. I particularly like

 

many of the character deaths such as the farmer and his family as well as the reveal of X-24 being a younger, more animal Wolverine (i.e. the Weapon X character we've been looking for outside of the X2 flashback scenes).

If (or when) they make another Wolverine movie, I hope they continue with this darker adult theme (as opposed to going with a "younger" movie ala the current Spiderman storyline).

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I watched this weird creepy film called The Gift which was recommended to me by Netflix. It's about a couple who move somewhere to make a new start but end up encountering a secret from their past. I thought it was going to be a lot simpler and more shallow than it was actually.  I'd say it was worth a go if you enjoy slightly dark, unsettling films.

And then I watched Bright Young Things which is Stephen Fry's adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel Vile Bodies. I read it as a teenager (i.e. a long time ago) and loved it. I didn't think I'd seen it before, but then when I got almost to the very end of it I had a big wash of deja vu. Now I can't be sure if that's because I really have seen the film before or because I'm familiar with the story. A day later and I still don't know. It's a bloody hilarious film though, super OTT and excessive (like you'd expect something from Stephen Fry to be). 

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I watched Elysium and it was poor. The idea was ok but I just didn't care about anyone in the film.

I've just started watching Mad Men but it's so gross and creepy I'm really not sure how much longer I'll be able to persevere with it. 

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I watched The Proposition yesterday again and it's such a good movie. It is brutal as hell but definitely one of my favorite westerns. Huston, Winstone and Pearce are all brilliant and the score is just perfect for it. On a related note has anyone ever seen Nick Cave's 20,000 Days on Earth? It always intrigued me but I never watched it.

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Sorry for the long post incoming..

I saw Wizard of Lies. It was decent I guess. If you have an interest in the financial industry and crisis, then you might enjoy this movie. Otherwise there's not a lot going on and it isn't very tense or dramatic (although it tries to be very dark at times).

During the movie, I kept finding myself asking the same question: What part of these characters are fact vs fiction especially with regard to Ruth Madoff? 
 
Bernie Madoff - scumbag and corporate sociopath. I knew that going in. There's an ongoing theme questioning whether he is a sociopath or if he just happens to be the mascot of the financial crisis and Wall street greed. I think there's some truth in both based on my experiences with corporate executives. It just doesn't make him any less despicable or responsible of his crimes. The man didn't just screw over his investors and immediate family (wife and sons) but according to the movie, his sister-in-law and their family as well. I need to google it to see if that part is true (I'm guessing so). This guy had some serious chutzpah. 
 
Mark and Andrew Madoff -- here I'm more sympathetic to the 2 sons even before watching the movie. They were guilty in the court of public opinion but I never saw or ready about any actual evidence of fraud. Mark's fate also strikes me as someone living under the kind of pressure that would have prevented him from committing this level of fraud in the first place. Again was their portrayal more fact or fiction, I'll never know.
 
Ruth Madoff -- this is the one character which I had the most doubts about. What I've read about Ruth Madoff is completely different from the movie version. Was she really an innocent bystander who never learned how to live life on her own and is completely dependent on her husband? I suppose living a billionaire lifestyle could turn you into that but talk about pathetic excuses to side with that man (even after all that her family and victims went through). 
 
The elitism about Benie and Ruth Madoff was only hinted at in the movie compared to things her daughter in-law had to say about them -- so I again had to question how accurate their portrayal was.
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