Watch, Watched, Watching: Movies That Could Never Be Made Today Version

[GallowKnight]

I watched The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford yesterday. I've seen it before, probably ten years ago, and while I have always liked it I think I even more now. It has been a long time since I was so engrossed in a movie as I was with this. My memory from the first time tells me it was slow but that was not a problem this time around. And the cinematography and acting is just fantastic, easily one of the best looking movies I have ever seen and definitely among the best work Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck and Sam Rockwell has done..

[red snow]

2 hours ago, GallowKnight said:

I watched The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford yesterday. I've seen it before, probably ten years ago, and while I have always liked it I think I even more now. It has been a long time since I was so engrossed in a movie as I was with this. My memory from the first time tells me it was slow but that was not a problem this time around. And the cinematography and acting is just fantastic, easily one of the best looking movies I have ever seen and definitely among the best work Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck and Sam Rockwell has done..

There's something about a great western that often requires a second viewing to fully appreciate. I liked the film well enough when it was released but agree it has the potential to be better the next time around.

[SpaceChampion]

Season 3 of Frontier on Netflix, November 23.  Usually on in Canada a few months earlier but not this year it seems, unless I've missed it.  Shawn Doyle is always great in his shows.  I think it's a pretty good cast all around.  Am i going to have to start watching Downton Abbey to get more Zoe Boyle?

[Zorral]

1 hour ago, SpaceChampion said:

Season 3 of Frontier on Netflix, November 23.  Usually on in Canada a few months earlier but not this year it seems, unless I've missed it.  Shawn Doyle is always great in his shows.  I think it's a pretty good cast all around.  Am i going to have to start watching Downton Abbey to get more Zoe Boyle?

O woo -- they're really doing another season of Frontier?  I have loads of problems with this series, but I also like it a lot.

 

[Mexal]

Well this is annoying. This shit better be picked up elsewhere.

 

[SpaceChampion]

1 hour ago, Zorral said:

O woo -- they're really doing another season of Frontier?  I have loads of problems with this series, but I also like it a lot.

 

Yes, they renewed it as soon as season 2 aired in Canada i think.  I think it's gotten better.  I enjoyed season 2 a lot.

[Zorral]

40 minutes ago, SpaceChampion said:

Yes, they renewed it as soon as season 2 aired in Canada i think.  I think it's gotten better.  I enjoyed season 2 a lot.

Ya -- I thought season 2 was a lot better too.  But I still disliked immensely Morgana (Katie McGrath playing the fur trader - furrier Elizabeth Carruthers.  I couldn't tell if it was the actor or the character that grated on my nerves so much.  It could have been the actor as I disliked her as Morgana just as much.

 

 

[lokisnow]

My favorite film streaming service, FilmStruck is getting axed by AT&T (now that they control Time Warner) effective Nov. 29th. Because they're a periphereal service and AT&T isn't interested in stable nor growing small income streams.  the cable channel TCM is rumored to also be killed by AT&T (or turned into a channel with commercials).  HBO Go/Now will probably be next because corporate synergy says to kill all the time warner streaming services so that there is only one $40+ ATTTimeWarner streaming service bundle.

[RhaenysBee]

I’m watching the Sabrina remake on Netflix. It’s.... weird. And it has some very very F’ed up camera focus, no idea why but I find it terribly annoying. 

[SpaceChampion]

binged Season 3 of Man in the High Castle.  Seemed much tighter in plot but less emphasis on character than past seasons.  I think it was a new showrunner, and this was much more coherent, and an implied ending of sorts:

Spoiler

Since multiverse travelling depends on your doppleganger being dead so you can enter their world, this implies a dead end for the Nazi plan to invade other worlds, but also that other worlds could invade this Nazi-dominated one (since billions have died all over the globe).  Never thought this show would have a satisfactory ending, but that sort of does it.  Still, a fourth season is coming.  Invasion of karma for the Reich?

Jason O'Mara's character is standard reluctant rogue in the Han Solo mold.  ok, fine.

Seeing trade minister Tagomi kick Aryan Lebensborn ass was fun.  Not very well used this year otherwise. 

Less pleasant is seeing the Charlottesville-like Nazi march.  Highly disturbing.

Plus the shocking demise of two main characters.

 

[Dolorous Gabe]

15 hours ago, GallowKnight said:

I watched The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford yesterday. I've seen it before, probably ten years ago, and while I have always liked it I think I even more now. It has been a long time since I was so engrossed in a movie as I was with this. My memory from the first time tells me it was slow but that was not a problem this time around. And the cinematography and acting is just fantastic, easily one of the best looking movies I have ever seen and definitely among the best work Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck and Sam Rockwell has done..

The train robbery sequence is pure cinematic gold. One of the great Roger Deakins' finest moments and that's saying something. I went to see this at the cinema and I loved it so much. I love that Deakins created the focus effect in the shoot mirroring photographic norms of its setting, as opposed to creating it in post-production.

[Nictarion]

1 hour ago, Dolorous Gabe said:

The train robbery sequence is pure cinematic gold. One of the great Roger Deakins' finest moments and that's saying something. I went to see this at the cinema and I loved it so much. I love that Deakins created the focus effect in the shoot mirroring photographic norms of its setting, as opposed to creating it in post-production.

The music is great during that scene too. 

[red snow]

8 hours ago, SpaceChampion said:

binged Season 3 of Man in the High Castle.  Seemed much tighter in plot but less emphasis on character than past seasons.  I think it was a new showrunner, and this was much more coherent, and an implied ending of sorts:

  Reveal hidden contents

Since multiverse travelling depends on your doppleganger being dead so you can enter their world, this implies a dead end for the Nazi plan to invade other worlds, but also that other worlds could invade this Nazi-dominated one (since billions have died all over the globe).  Never thought this show would have a satisfactory ending, but that sort of does it.  Still, a fourth season is coming.  Invasion of karma for the Reich?

Jason O'Mara's character is standard reluctant rogue in the Han Solo mold.  ok, fine.

Seeing trade minister Tagomi kick Aryan Lebensborn ass was fun.  Not very well used this year otherwise. 

Less pleasant is seeing the Charlottesville-like Nazi march.  Highly disturbing.

Plus the shocking demise of two main characters.

 

I've watched 2 episodes but I find the show a bit exhausting to watch in that it tends to require my full attention and by its nature is a downbeat show. Neither of those are bad things, I just currently find myself having to be in the right mood to watch it.

[DireWolfSpirit]

Been plowing through the Haunted Hill House episodes and its fantastic. Takes awhile for the story to unfold but its well worth the ride imo.

[DireWolfSpirit]

On October 26, 2018 at 3:20 AM, GallowKnight said:

I watched The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford yesterday. I've seen it before, probably ten years ago, and while I have always liked it I think I even more now. It has been a long time since I was so engrossed in a movie as I was with this. My memory from the first time tells me it was slow but that was not a problem this time around. And the cinematography and acting is just fantastic, easily one of the best looking movies I have ever seen and definitely among the best work Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck and Sam Rockwell has done..

Ive always absolutely loved this film. The acting is great but also the narrator just draws me right in.

[Mark Antony]

1 minute ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

Ive always absolutely loved this film. The acting is great but also the narrator just draws me right in.

It’s a beautiful movie. Music, cinematography, acting. One of my absolute favorites for sure.

[Isis]

8 hours ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

Been plowing through the Haunted Hill House episodes and its fantastic. Takes awhile for the story to unfold but its well worth the ride imo.

This Forbes piece says that it is the most highly rated Netflix original to date. It also includes the other results, i.e. next highest rated and so on (it uses IMDB ratings).

Ok, so while we were on holiday recently we stuck a few things on in the background whilst doing a massive jigsaw, one of which was World's End. Now I recall being hugely disappointed with this when I saw it at the pictures. I expected it to be on a par with SOTD & Hot Fuzz. But it absolutely is not anywhere near as good as those. In hindsight, Hot Fuzz is so good, there is no way they were going to top it. I think that WE was a decent idea, it was just not carried through or thought about deeply enough (in a way which carries on to the screen anyway). It's just not that funny which is a bit of a crime for a film which is supposed to be funny. But then we put Hot Fuzz on afterwards and everything was ok again.

Last night we picked a Friday Night Special - Den of Thieves - and we were not disappointed. First and foremost, it took me a long time to get over Gerard Butler's forehead. This is a dude who gets paid to advertise moisturiser? I couldn't take my eyes off his forehead wondering if it was just make up or some kind of minor prosthetic, or maybe he'd undergone a reverse botox procedure? SO WEIRD. Anyway, the film is a poor man's Heat (omg Heat is over 20 years old!). There aren't really any decent performances in it. But who cares cos lots of dudes fire their guns in the air and go ARGHHHHHH.

Oh and the scene in London has the worst 'London' accents I've ever witnessed on film (since Mary Poppins). There isn't really a 'London' accent apart from Cockney and the idea that everyone in London is a cockney is just...no. Please watch it for yourselves with a couple of beers and enjoy it. Oh my god I hope the sequel is going to be set in London.

[RhaenysBee]

For some inexplicable reason, i’m still watching Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, this profoundly boring, aimlessly wandering, mixed-genre, politically explicit Netflix creation. And I thought the worst part was the blurred focus. The sweet summer child I am... 

rant continues 

Spoiler

Sabrina is a 16 year old, orphaned high school girl from a family of witches, who lives with her two one-dimensional aunts and cousin I can’t place in the family tree for my life. She walks, talks and looks like Emma Watson with a blond bob-cut and sixties wardrobe and loves to stand up for any and every cause that comes in her way with no history of being previously interested in them at all. At school she spends her time with the matters of the women’s right group she co-founded with her Afro American and maybe-transgender friends, yelling at her principal and serving magical justice to her peers who wrong her friends. She obviously doesn’t have classes or homework or a curfew. What kind of high school student would? 

When she isn’t at school fighting for her political rights, making demands of the leadership of the institute or  punishing its deserving pupils, Sabrina is preparing for her baptism with a satanist witch coven which is kind of a religious circle but also kind of not, and is kind of in touch with real life religion but also kind of not. Her maybe real, or maybe pretend baptism comes with a zero-sum choice too, as a person born from a mortal mother and a (maybe not mortal) witch father, she can choose to become a witch and go to a non-coed Hogwarts to learn the dark arts (which she is already practicing anyways) with a group of diverse mean-girl witches and leave her mortal life behind, or she can give up her powers and stay at her high school (where she doesn’t have to study) and fight for her rights (none of which she is denied). Tough call. 

Feeling cheated out of her rights once again, not only by her principal or school mates, but also satanist coven leaders, she abandons her (pretend?) baptism to remain free AND have power, because in 2018 we know that everybody can and is entitled to both, compromises in life are for medieval times. Upsettingly, this results in her and her family’s being sued for breaking her promise to enter the cult. Sabrina seeks legal aid with a white male lawyer, who takes no longer than 10 minutes to turn out to be a corrupted scumbag that helped bad  people to escape justice in his youth. Infuriated by this travesty, Sabrina yells at her lawyer too and denies him the honor for representing her (pro-bono, we must assume) in witch court, until she realizes that the lawyer suffered a loss as price for his unethical practices, which wipes the slate clean as if no harm was ever done. Before she would win the court case by proving that she is more mortal than witch so her promise to enter the cult (or in fact, his father’s promise when she was 3 days old) would be declared void, the certificate of her catholic baptism surfaces, and proves that she is more mortal than witch so her (father’s) promise is declared void. After losing a court case against a teenager, Satan himself (or itself, as the appearance of a demonic goat would suggest) offers her a deal so that she may win even more. She may keep her mortal friends and witch family AND go to girls only Hogwarts , IF she attends dark mass every Sunday at 9am. 

There’s also a teacher possessed by a demon, who lurks behind the scenes, and works (as in does nothing in particular) to achieve the same goal four other characters are trying to achieve as well - to get Sabrina to join the cult. And there’s also a dead homosexual boy, but we find out nothing about his role in the story. And there’s also Sabrina’s 16-year-old boyfriend, who is afraid of the mines(?!) his father forces him to work at, because he had seen satan in their depths as a child. 

Even though we have four (maybe 5) shows running in parallel - a legal drama, a teen drama, a fantasy and a horror (maybe a society satire), not one of them seems to make the plot, the context, the characters, or the mush of message even remotely interesting or compelling. 

 

[WarGalley]

Finished Daredevil which was probably the best comic book TV season I've seen. Now I'm going to be a giddy 35 year old man watching Sabrina on Netflix.

[HexMachina]

38 minutes ago, WarGalley said:

Finished Daredevil which was probably the best comic book TV season I've seen. Now I'm going to be a giddy 35 year old man watching Sabrina on Netflix.

SCratch her 35 year old man part and this is more or less where I am at (one episode of DD left though)