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

[RedEyedGhost]

22 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:

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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 really loved season three, and the show in general.  I'm happy that it was renewed for a fourth season in July.  There really were some scene of brutal imagery this season

melting down the Liberty Bell into a swastika, the guy spinning the little girl around like I do with my nephew only to smash her head into a wall to kill her...

 

3 hours ago, Isis said:

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.

Interesting to see The Haunting of Hill House so high, but I'm sure that will drop a bit after it's been out longer.  I don't think it's my favorite Netflix show (or season), but it's definitely top 5.

I really wish The World's End was better.  Hot Fuzz was just sooooo good, and The World's End was just too similar to Shaun of the Dead.  I don't hate it, but I would rather watch the other two five times each before another viewing of The World's End.

[Mexal]

1 hour 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.

I'm enjoying it. My wife likes it more. It's not great but entertaining enough.

[WarGalley]

19 minutes ago, Mexal said:

I'm enjoying it. My wife likes it more. It's not great but entertaining enough.

How is Salem? I feel like he's going to be key with this being some less-comedy, more-drama version of the show.

[KingintheNorth4]

My family is having their annual Halloween party, and we were watching the 2005 remake of The Fog, but after watching a quarter and finding it kind of lame, I just dipped.

[red snow]

12 hours ago, Isis said:

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.

I love how subjective that Forbes article is (although in fairness they are upront with this). They clearly went through whatever metrics they could find in order to get one where their favourite show was top and then added how shows they didn't like should be lower and ones they liked should be higher . But at least it wasn't just their own personal list delivered with the authority of Moses announcing the ten commandments which happens all too often these days.

i think I'd be more inclined to believe the results in a few months as releasing a horror show near Halloween is bound to bump up the score. A bit like a decent father Christmas show would do well in December. Still it suggests house of cards and peaky blinders are very popular/consistent shows as they have been around for years and still score highly.

i just noticed the trailer for hunter killer with Gerard butler and it dawned on me that I now associate the actor with bad movies. I'm not sure when that happened as I really haven't watched him in much beyond 300 (which I still like). There was maybe that one where he was in a sort of video game shoot email up thing. But something about his films scream "b movie" to me. The fact that Gerard butler cancels out the positive of Gary Oldman sort of cements this negative association. Maybe I've unconsciously been put off by his forehead?

 

[Mexal]

14 hours ago, WarGalley said:

How is Salem? I feel like he's going to be key with this being some less-comedy, more-drama version of the show.

He's a cat. 

[Zorral]

1 hour ago, Mexal said:

He's a cat. 

There's not enough cat.  I got bored with it about episode 5 and quit as I was spending a lot more time wondering where in New England they had mines, what year it was supposed to be, especially when the overscreen text says, "Present Day", but the laptop Ambrose has is from like the early 1990's or something, and there are NO CELL PHONE.  It looks like the early 1960's, sorta.  Also I spent most of my time spotting what other tv series and books they bit from: particularly from Buffy and Harry Potter, and then True Blood, from which they've pulled the most yucky of the yucky -- and there's a LOT of yucky.

Sabrina herself, in particular, is a bore, but all the characters except Salem -- and fairly often Ambrose -- are such caricatures.  It's too Riverdale for me, i.e. comic book -- nor am I the target demo for it, either, so eff me.  

[Corvinus85]

1 hour ago, Zorral said:

There's not enough cat.  I got bored with it about episode 5 and quit as I was spending a lot more time wondering where in New England they had mines, what year it was supposed to be, especially when the overscreen text says, "Present Day", but the laptop Ambrose has is from like the early 1990's or something, and there are NO CELL PHONE.  It looks like the early 1960's, sorta.  Also I spent most of my time spotting what other tv series and books they bit from: particularly from Buffy and Harry Potter, and then True Blood, from which they've pulled the most yucky of the yucky -- and there's a LOT of yucky.

Sabrina herself, in particular, is a bore, but all the characters except Salem -- and fairly often Ambrose -- are such caricatures.  It's too Riverdale for me, i.e. comic book -- nor am I the target demo for it, either, so eff me.  

Trying to figure out the time period drove me nuts. Everything about the setting screams 60s, maybe 70s, but then there's Ambrose with a laptop. I don't think I'll continue, either, for pretty much the same reasons you've listed.

[Annara Snow]

I wrote this already on the Rank Your Shows Throughout the Year thread (2017), but I'll just copy paste it here.

A couple of months ago I pretty much accidentally started watching The 100 (because it happened to be on TV - Fox Serbia started airing it from the beginning), a show that I had heard a lot about, a lot of it very mixed - I knew it's a show with a very strong and passionate fandom (especially since I hang out on SpoilerTV, where it's one of the most popular shows), but also that it (and its showrunner) has been widely criticized for some storytelling choices (which are mostly due to season 3) on racial and LGBT issues (which was also why I had been spoiled on several plot developments since forever, way before I even started watching it). I was cautious, but curious. And then a weird thing happened - after just a few episodes, I got more emotionally involved in it than I've been in a new show (well, new for me - it's about to start its 6th season next year) in a long time. I started binging and finished season 4 yesterday (I saw the season 5 premiere today).

The 100 is a weird, weird show in so many ways. It's kind of the opposite of The Expanse for me. The Expanse's biggest strength is great worldbuilding, but I've never had a strong emotional attachment to the characters, especially not the main duo of Holden and Naomi (which may be because of not being impressed by the actors). On the other hand, wordlbuilding on The 100 is utter crap and rarely makes any sense, but I'm insanely attached to its characters, and two of the leads have quickly become some of my all-time favorite characters. 

Going in, I expected a CW teen show version of a SciFi apocalyptic drama. My biggest surprises have been: it seems to start CW-ish, but after a first few episodes, it completely loses its CWness (the only similarity with other CW shows is that the cast is incredibly attractive) and gets incredibly dark. I've never seen a show push its protagonists into such morally compromised and uncomfortable situations (they're really trying to make everyone as morally grey as possible), and boy, does this show love mass murder as a plot device (more than GoT loves rape). I was also really surprised how strong the acting is - and I don't mean by the older actors like Henry Ian Cusick from Lost, though they are fine, but most of all by the young-ish actors that I've never seen in anything before (some of whom were apparently previously mostly in Aussie soaps). 

So, on one hand, great acting, also good cinematography, great choice of music, but on the other hand... incredibly inconsistent writing that can go from really good to downright awful in a heartbeat. Some of the problems are: the writers seem to confuse moral ambiguity with moral relativism. Sometimes they're also too in love with shock value and surprise revelations that haven't been set up. The worldbuidling makes no sense, and there are some really uncomfortable racial dynamics occasionally (mostly season 3, which was pretty awful), which is not a surprise since it's a show with an incredibly diverse cast, but a very white American writing staff and showrunner that seems pretty clueless on a bunch of things and how they would be perceived in the fandom (which, again, was especially obvious in the mess that was season 3). Around season 3, the show became really enamoured of the same kind of Strong Female Character (TM) that GoT loves (murderous violent asshole with unlikely fighting skills), though to be fair. unlike GoT, the show has other actually strong female main characters (including the lead) that don't fit that mold. It's also often awful or at least incredibly weird in how it does romance - but not in the CW way: fortunately, it doesn't have the annoying kind of overplayed love triangles that plague the Arrowverse shows. But on the other hand, the showrunner seems to belong to the school of thought that good relationships are boring, so those are only allowed to happen to side characters. Otherwise, it's either an endless Mulder/Scully type "will they, won't they" dynamic  with characters getting always separated and kept apart in every way possible but with constant ship-baiting, so the audience will keep coming back (while anti-shippers can pretend it's totally a "platonic friendship" - even though it obviously isn't) - which somehow ended up being the one really compelling and well developed romance on the show, or the protagonists are, meanwhile, put in horrible, toxic, badly written unconvincing relationships that are romanticized and presented as good. There was one in season 3, which was over-hyped and promoted and oddly enough got celebrated in the public simply because it's a same sex relationship, so it's supposed to be progressive just on the basis of that (which I don't get - sure it's some kind of LGBT representation, but it's terrible LGBT representation), and there's another one in season 5 that's almost an exact copy of that one, only a hetero version and involving another lead character. 

So far, I really enjoyed season 1 except for the first few episodes. Season 2 was great, much better than I ever expected this show to be. But season 3, while it had some great moments, it was overall (especially the first half) one of the biggest piles of crap I've seen recently and could give later seasons of The Walking Dead and the last 3 seasons of GoT a run for their money in that regard. Its main storylines got me so angry that I was writing huge rants about it on the SpoilerTV daily comment board after seeing it. However, season 4 was mostly free of that and one of the better seasons of the show (not as good as season 2, but maybe just above season 1). But many people are saying season 5, which I've just started, is as bad as season 3, so I'm bracing myself. 

[red snow]

Watched "first man" today and thought it was excellent. It's hard to make a film where the lead is deliberately withdrawn (and assumedly dealing with depression/loss badly) but Gosling is a master at this type of role. I really liked the use of close up shots/narrow fields of view which made the training/space scenes feel like you were there and the sound effects and vibrational effects really gave off the impression that the shuttles could fall apart at any minute (I need to look into whether the sets actually vibrated/rolled or if it was just really clever camera work).

There was also some really good visual storytelling at multiple places in the film where you knew exactly what the character was thinking without them speaking or making overt gestures.

I couldn't get past the first 30 minutes of "la la land" but musicals are my film kryptonite but with this and "whiplash" (which is how you fool me into enjoying a musical) there's no denying the talent and versatility of the director. I'm going to be keeping a close eye on him especially since he doesn't go off the rails with a big budget (like aronofsky tends to do)

And Gosling is so good at playing understated roles that I can forgive him not really doing anything that breaks the mold for him. 

Hopefully neither of them get sucked into a superhero movie although it would still be weirdly fascinating if they did.

[WarGalley]

5 hours ago, Mexal said:

He's a cat. 

Is that all? That's very disappointing.

4 hours ago, Zorral said:

Also I spent most of my time spotting what other tv series and books they bit from: particularly from Buffy and Harry Potter, and then True Blood, from which they've pulled the most yucky of the yucky -- and there's a LOT of yucky.

That was exactly what I was thinking during Episode 4. I once felt like I was watching a Harry Potter story and then later a PG-13 version of True Blood. I don't think the show is bad, and there's enough guilty pleasure and gorgeous visuals to keep me going. But I do feel like they a little comic relief... and Salem's the character at the top of the list who should be playing that role. Aunt Zelda is even more stiff and boring than her sitcom counterpart and Hilda's just not "fun" enough and doesn't really contribute anything.

Will keep going though.

 

 

[williamjm]

I watched Venom. Initially I hadn't been too keen about going to see it based on the trailers and reviews, but people I know who went to see it gave it more positive reviews. The film does have some serious flaws and I'd struggle to really describe it as a good movie, but the scenes with Tom Hardy and Venom were a lot of fun. Hardy seemed to be having fun with the character, although the other characters ended up being a bit overshadowed. It's certainly a big improvement on Venom's last appearance in Spiderman 3 (although that's not exactly a particularly high bar to clear).

On 10/28/2018 at 5:32 PM, Annara Snow said:

So far, I really enjoyed season 1 except for the first few episodes. Season 2 was great, much better than I ever expected this show to be. But season 3, while it had some great moments, it was overall (especially the first half) one of the biggest piles of crap I've seen recently and could give later seasons of The Walking Dead and the last 3 seasons of GoT a run for their money in that regard. Its main storylines got me so angry that I was writing huge rants about it on the SpoilerTV daily comment board after seeing it. However, season 4 was mostly free of that and one of the better seasons of the show (not as good as season 2, but maybe just above season 1). But many people are saying season 5, which I've just started, is as bad as season 3, so I'm bracing myself. 

I didn't manage to make it through season 3, the plot developments ended up annoying me too much. It's a shame because season 2 was excellent.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

I watched so many movies this weekend, but along with it came scotch and now they've all melded together. I could have sworn I saw Dracula and Indiana Jones work together to hunt down a giant shark. 

[briantw]

32 minutes ago, SpaceForce Tywin et al. said:

I watched so many movies this weekend, but along with it came scotch and now they've all melded together. I could have sworn I saw Dracula and Indiana Jones work together to hunt down a giant shark. 

Don't give George Lucas any ideas.

[SpaceChampion]

Watched "Sorry To Bother You".   Good surreal and biting satire.

[red snow]

9 hours ago, williamjm said:

I watched Venom. Initially I hadn't been too keen about going to see it based on the trailers and reviews, but people I know who went to see it gave it more positive reviews. The film does have some serious flaws and I'd struggle to really describe it as a good movie, but the scenes with Tom Hardy and Venom were a lot of fun. Hardy seemed to be having fun with the character, although the other characters ended up being a bit overshadowed. It's certainly a big improvement on Venom's last appearance in Spiderman 3 (although that's not exactly a particularly high bar to clear).

I didn't manage to make it through season 3, the plot developments ended up annoying me too much. It's a shame because season 2 was excellent.

It's like I said, if you like Tom Hardy the film is salvageable and far from the worst superhero film out there. Although I really hope they address the very valid criticism for making a sequel instead of looking vat the box office and thinking "let's give them more of the same"

It's good to hear that the 100 is very uneven. Sounds like sons of anarchy in that respect and it does sound like the arrow verse too. Thing is I was so sick of season 2 and 5 of Flash and Arrow I ditched the whole thing. I've become really unforgiving of bad seasons of TV usually because they rarely bounce back. 

[RedEyedGhost]

10 hours ago, red snow said:

Thing is I was so sick of season 2 and 5 of Flash and Arrow I ditched the whole thing.

Welcome to the club.  I think there must be quite a few of us now, because I can't remember the last time I saw one of the show specific threads on the first page here.

[Annara Snow]

11 hours ago, red snow said:

It's like I said, if you like Tom Hardy the film is salvageable and far from the worst superhero film out there. Although I really hope they address the very valid criticism for making a sequel instead of looking vat the box office and thinking "let's give them more of the same"

It's good to hear that the 100 is very uneven. Sounds like sons of anarchy in that respect and it does sound like the arrow verse too. Thing is I was so sick of season 2 and 5 of Flash and Arrow I ditched the whole thing. I've become really unforgiving of bad seasons of TV usually because they rarely bounce back. 

You mean season 2 of The Flash and season 5 of Arrow? I'm not a fan of the Arrowverse by any means, but I decided to binge watch all chronologically of it a while ago just out of curiosity and to know what everyone is talking about. The first 2 seasons of Arrow were surprisingly good (surprisingly because I had only seen some of Supergirl before, which is trash), but seasons 3 and 4 were some of the worst TV I've ever seen. The only reason I got through them was because I relegated Arrowverse shows to the "just watch it as background noise while working" status. Season 5 is better on comparison, that's not saying much. The show pretty much went downhill when they changed the showrunner and started pushing Olicity.

 Season 1 of The Flash was pretty good, sesson 2 so-so, but season 3 is so bad. I haven't finished either, though. I don't have a huge motivation to comtinue with Arrowverse.

[red snow]

2 minutes ago, Annara Snow said:

You mean season 2 of The Flash and season 5 of Arrow? I'm not a fan of the Arrowverse by any means, but I decided to binge watch all chronologically of it a while ago just out of curiosity and to know what everyone is talking about. The first 2 seasons of Arrow were surprisingly good (surprisingly because I had only seen some of Supergirl before, which is trash), but seasons 3 and 4 were some of the worst TV I've ever seen. The only reason I got through them was because I relegated Arrowverse shows to the "just watch it as background noise while working" status. Season 5 is better on comparison, that's not saying much. The show pretty much went downhill when they changed the showrunner and started pushing Olicity.

 Season 1 of The Flash was pretty good, sesson 2 so-so, but season 3 is so bad. I haven't finished either, though. I don't have a huge motivation to comtinue with Arrowverse.

season 2 of Flash. I really enjoyed season 1 despite the stupidity but the stupidity was getting in my way of enjoying season 2 and I recall discussing with on the flash thread that the season made more sense if Flash was a megalomaniac. It sounds like I made a wise choice bailing before season 3.

Maybe it was season 2 of Arrow? It was the one that aired along with Flash season 2 and Damien Dark was the villain. I didn't even finish that season I was so sick of it by that point. The on/off thing with olly and felicity was played out and I never felt the show could actually juggle more than 3 members of team arrow. Which again is a shame as I really enjoyed season 1 and 2 of the show. Then again I think I'm finally coming to the realisation that superheroes don't work for me in TV format (unless a 20 minute animated series). I've enjoyed Daredevil yet at the same time can't help but think "this would have made an excellent movie as there was so much uneccessary material that diluted the main thrust of the story. Although I sometimes wonder if binge shows will naturally wind up as movies or "done in a year trilogies". We've gone from 20 episodes a season down to 13, now 10 and 8 episodes aren't uncommon. I can see over the next few years Netflix trying to do a trilogy where we get a movie length instalment every 3 months. 

[Annara Snow]

4 hours ago, red snow said:

season 2 of Flash. I really enjoyed season 1 despite the stupidity but the stupidity was getting in my way of enjoying season 2 and I recall discussing with on the flash thread that the season made more sense if Flash was a megalomaniac. It sounds like I made a wise choice bailing before season 3.

Maybe it was season 2 of Arrow? It was the one that aired along with Flash season 2 and Damien Dark was the villain. I didn't even finish that season I was so sick of it by that point. The on/off thing with olly and felicity was played out and I never felt the show could actually juggle more than 3 members of team arrow. Which again is a shame as I really enjoyed season 1 and 2 of the show. 

That's season 4 of Arrow. It was one of the worst seasons any TV show I've ever seen.