Watch, Watched, Watching: The Prequel

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

4 hours ago, dbunting said:

Always need a bigger tv. I got a 55" recently and now I am thinking a 70 would be so much better.....

It's amazing to me how the prices have collapsed in recent years.

The last TV I bought was a 2009 model 42" LG that sticker'd for $2100 when new.  For 2009, CNET rated it 2nd, in that size, just behind the high-end Samsung.  Thanks to the recession, there was a lot of excess inventory in the first half of 2010 so I bought it for the clearance price of $900 shipped. I thought I got a good deal.

I recently got a text message from my cell phone provider saying if I bought a new LG smartphone with a 2 year contract, I'd get $100 cash and a free 43" LG 4k television.  Madness.

[PetyrPunkinhead]

On 6/26/2018 at 11:03 PM, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

...Blade Runner 2049 was absolutely meant for the cinema.  I saw it opening weekend and I was totally sucked in.  It's just not the same on a Tee Vee.

I might need a bigger Tee Vee.

I agree. I saw BR2049 on an IMAX screen and was captivated. Even when Leto's boring ass character was on screen. However, I tried to watch it on HBO a few weeks ago and got bored. I've only got a 46" TV, so maybe an upgrade is in order for me, too. 

[Ramsay B.]

14 hours ago, dbunting said:

Always need a bigger tv. I got a 55" recently and now I am thinking a 70 would be so much better.....

Do it! I had a 55” and when that crapped out I upgraded to a 70”. I don’t think I’ll ever go higher than that.  It’s finally enough.

[Isis]

19 hours ago, Helenas Musikautomat said:

Thanks for the rec. I lived within sight of where he was shot while I was at uni. Had ocassion to speak with a number of people in the area while I lived there’s who obviously had their own views on the shooting, aftermath and crime and gang culture more generally. Will give it a watch.

We almost watched it at the cinema actually. Possibly not worth it But it's on Netflix now and it is only about 90 minutes long. So worth a watch on there.

[dbunting]

4 hours ago, Ramsay B. said:

Do it! I had a 55” and when that crapped out I upgraded to a 70”. I don’t think I’ll ever go higher than that.  It’s finally enough.

Yep, already planned. The living room tv is a 42" Sony from like 2008(?), bought it in a bundle from Best Buy when the PS2 came out. It's losing some pixels in the lower corner, so as soon as it's done I will move the 55" out of the man cave and replace it with a 70" 4k. 

[RedEyedGhost]

3 hours ago, dbunting said:

Yep, already planned. The living room tv is a 42" Sony from like 2008(?), bought it in a bundle from Best Buy when the PS2 came out. It's losing some pixels in the lower corner, so as soon as it's done I will move the 55" out of the man cave and replace it with a 70" 4k. 

I have a 52" Samsung from Jan 2009 that is starting to have a vertical red line about an inch from the right side of the screen one pixel width the entire length about 1/10 of the time I turn it on, so I'm worried that it's about to crap out soon.  Will be upgrading to a 75", and I'm certainly ready to do so... I'm doing a pretty good job at holding off for now.

[dbunting]

1 hour ago, RedEyedGhost said:

I have a 52" Samsung from Jan 2009 that is starting to have a vertical red line about an inch from the right side of the screen one pixel width the entire length about 1/10 of the time I turn it on, so I'm worried that it's about to crap out soon.  Will be upgrading to a 75", and I'm certainly ready to do so... I'm doing a pretty good job at holding off for now.

Yeah I had a 48ish projection LCD that was crapping out for a long time, it finally died and I was happy. I have no problem buying a new one but I can't justify doing it before the other one was completely dead. Man that thing had great sound, it's the one thing I miss about older tv's.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

Yeah, I'll go out on a limb and side with the controversial "70" TV is much more better than a 55" TV" faction.

Crazy, I know.

[DMC]

So just watched the first 4 episodes of Archer: Danger Island, otherwise known as half the season as it's only 8 episodes.  Drink them in because it's been the best season in...I don't know, there's been a lot of them, but awhile.  Really great stuff and repositioning of the characters in a super-fun backdrop/timeframe.  Can't say enough good things.  And this is after waiting well over a month to watch it because I haven't been enthused lately.

[AncalagonTheBlack]

The reviews for Sicario: Day of the Soldado are not good.Pity.I was looking forward to watching this on the big screen.Oh well, will wait for when it's released online.

‘Sicario: Day of the Soldado’ Is Playing With Fire

Quote

Can you make an action thriller out of a humanitarian crisis? Writer Taylor Sheridan tries to answer that question with this ‘Sicario’ sequel, which brings Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin back to the land of wolves.

Ultimately, though, Soldado is Del Toro’s show and, to give credit where it’s due, he refuses to sleepwalk through a movie that is otherwise on autopilot, from Solimma’s slick, imitative direction (including a highway shoot-out that’s modeled on Villeneuve’s superior checkpoint skirmish) to Sheridan’s unpersuasive one-liners. (“A beautiful day, a blue sky, a large-caliber weapon—I love getting out of the office.”)

Seemingly ageless behind his dark sunglasses, he cuts a menacing figure without ever becoming a cartoon and even manages to make Sheridan’s most ridiculous twist work through sheer, inventive physical acting. (It’s a memorable moment at least, and the audience I saw the film with cheered loudly as it happened.) Del Toro’s stalwart professionalism mirrors his character’s own sense of duty. It’s a shame that he doesn’t have a series more worthy of him—and even more so that he’s probably going to come back for Round 3 all the same.

 

[Nictarion]

2 hours ago, Ancalagon El Pistolero said:

The reviews for Sicario: Day of the Soldado are not good.Pity.I was looking forward to watching this on the big screen.Oh well, will wait for when it's released online.

‘Sicario: Day of the Soldado’ Is Playing With Fire

 

Chris Stuckmann gave it an A- and his opinion carries more weight with me than just about any other film critic out there. I’m seeing it tonight. 

[dbunting]

1 hour ago, Nictarion said:

Chris Stuckmann gave it an A- and his opinion carries more weight with me than just about any other film critic out there. I’m seeing it tonight. 

I am going tomorrow, I don't have as high of expectations as I did for the first one so I am sure I'll be happy with it.

[drawkcabi]

Rewatching every episode of Community from the beginning.

Seasons 1 - 3...just wow. I never forget that it's my favorite comedy, but sometimes if I haven't watched it in a while I forget just how amazing it is and coming back to it after some time hasn't dulled it, it still shines brightly in its brilliance.

I can make a list of the greatest sitcoms ever, I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners, MASH, Cheers, Seinfeld, Frasier, Friends, All in the Family, Good Times, Barney Miller, Taxi, WKRP, The Cosby Show, Scrubs, Arrested Development, The Larry Sanders Show, Brooklyn-99, The Office, Parks and Recreation...*

If I am including animated comedies too then: The Simpsons, Futurama, South Park, Archer, King of the Hill, Family Guy, Rick and Morty...

They can all vie for spaces in the top 10, 20, 25, whatever, greatest comedies of all time but maybe spot 10 is only a little bit higher than 11, or spot 5 just a nudge better than spot 6, or on a different day spots 3 and 4 swap, or 7 and 9.

But...

Community in my opinion is so far above all them, it sits in #1 in a class all by itself and is rooted in place. Even Rick and Morty, how great it is, for me still doesn't get to Community's tier.

 

*If you're thinking I forgot about Veep, I didn't, I just have never seen even one episode of it yet, but eventually I'll get around to it.

 

[Martini Sigil]

4 episodes in... this season's Goliath is really, really fucked up....lol

[Jace, Extat]

VEEP is perfect. There's no weak link among the cast.

[Zorral]

    . . . . Prisoner of Zenda BBC (1984); novel (1894).

This production lacked only a decade to have made it an anniversary celebration of this classic adventure tale, that has been adapted in many forms ever since publication.  But if it had been made in 1994, the characters would likely not have been quite as noble, maybe?  It's kind of fun to speculate, even though it's fruitless as it didn't happen.

I fell love with this old BBC miniseries, oddly enough.  I didn't care for the Ruritania or George Barr McCutcheon's Graustark books much, even though I encountered them relatively early (for me), like the summer between junior and senior h.s. years.  Even then these books seemed too glib in terms of how and what happens -- and most of all, I could not believe in Ruritania or Graustark as independent monarchies existing in the late 19th C Europe after Bismark's unitary success pulling all those German principalities, dukedoms, etc. together out of the ancient jigsaw of the Holy Roman Empire. Even then I knew about the Germanies and the Holy Roman the Empire then, though what I knew as sketchy.  It was all those years of church school studies,but I did know by then the German states were no longer it was parts of the Holy Roman Empire -- or as they called it even still, then, the Empire. It was now Germany, so this little place could not have had a king.  It could have a princeps, a duke, or something else equivalent but not a king!  Even Queen Vicky's Hanover family's kingdom was annexed by Prussia in the mid-1860s.

Indeed, I laughed every time I saw the Prussian Iron Cross worn by the characters in this BBC production -- though of course made of precious metals and studded with jewels and hung on jeweled gold chains.  would have been furious to see this honor that he devised intentionally to be the equal of honor of whoever it was awarded to, however rich, whatever rank or class, no matter how poor or lowly. This is why it was made of Prussian iron. That wouldn't be possible, not in an independent kingdom by a monarch and his entourage, etc. because it was Prussian! Also the Ruritanian crown was a enclosed crown, which only emperors or pope are entitled to wear.  Mere monarch have open crowns.  Historian's nitpicks.

But watching the way this BBC production rolls and all its subtext, was so much more engrossing than the books.  It's sly and cheeky in all kinds of way that the books never were. It really plays up the Great British Empire upon which the sun never sets with Rudolph Rassendyll, a man of little money, position or accomplishment beyond his good schooling and Britishness, who shows he's better fit to be a monarch than any monarch. It shows how quickly someone who is king for a day becomes accustomed to being king forever -- yet, Rassendyll is so honorable, at least as honorable as the honorables with whom he falls in with.  Not the least honorable is Princess Flavia.

Most of all I enjoyed how efficiently this slender novel was turned into 6 episodes, each a bit less than a half hour.  Nothing was sacrificed. The pacing and rhythm were perfection.  People don't know how to write like for the screen that any more.

Rudolph Rassendyll, who has been crowned King Rudolph V, and who has successfully rescued the true Rudolph V from a dire plot to murder him and put a regent on the throne of Ruritania, departs for the train, leaving Ruritania, and the woman who he loves and who loves him, behind forever.

"God doesn't always make the best men kings," observes loyal courtier, Fritz van Tarlenheim.

Wise Colonel Sapt responds, "The devil always gets into things."

Yet it was lovely to find a respite from black evil and destruction for those bits of time watching Prisoner of Zenda, in which honor and goodness win.

Streaming from Amazon Prime.

[Ramsay B.]

6 hours ago, Nictarion said:

Chris Stuckmann gave it an A- and his opinion carries more weight with me than just about any other film critic out there. I’m seeing it tonight. 

I saw it this afternoon and it was solid. Definitely not as good as the first one but worth a watch if you liked the original.

[drawkcabi]

3 hours ago, Jace, The Sugarcube said:

VEEP is perfect. There's no weak link among the cast.

I've heard only good things about it. Glad I have the entirety of such a highly recommended series ahead of me.

[Nictarion]

5 hours ago, Ramsay B. said:

I saw it this afternoon and it was solid. Definitely not as good as the first one but worth a watch if you liked the original.

I liked it. It was never going to be as good as a movie with Villeneuve, Deakins, and Johannsson, but like you said, it’s a solid and worthy sequel. Benicio and Brolin were both great. 

[polishgenius]

7 hours ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

VEEP is perfect. There's no weak link among the cast.

It might have no weak link but it has no Malcolm Tucker either so as far as political comedies created by Armando Iannucci go it must always be second in my heart (admittedly I've only ever watched part of the first season for some reason).