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

[Theda Baratheon]

20 hours ago, Ramsay B. said:

Good to hear. It’s been on my radar and I’ll probably check it out tonight. 

I watched Hold the Dark on Netflix yesterday. It was decent but a lot of it was really vague. I still don’t completely understand what they were going for with a few things. I need to go read about it or something. It did have a few obnoxious scenes that I was kinda surprised that Saulnier included: 

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So 2 cops were gunned down in cold blood and the next day the police captain(or whatever he was then) goes to one of the suspects house and actually gives him a chance to come out peacefully? Like why take any chances!? Then he doesn’t set up a proper perimeter by actually surrounding the house and gets like 15 “green” cops slaughtered. And when he finally does flank the guy who is actively killing everyone he still hesitates to fire on the guy until he draws on him.

Then he just has a nice dinner and glass of wine with his wife and Bernard. Maybe I’m overthinking a lot of this but it all seemed pretty ludicrous to me. 

 

 

17 hours ago, Nictarion said:

I’ve heard good things about this one (other than the first half being a little slow). Always enjoy Nicholas Cage in full batshit crazy mode. I’ll probably check it out soon. 

It’s very slow in the first hour but I didn’t mind that at all - it worked for me.

it’s a fairy tale - it even has magical horns that summon monsters & a blade being forged for the hero on his journey. 

And I LOVED that simple fairy tale format. Because it means all the added craziness works as well because the plot isn’t too detracting from the beautiful visuals.

cage gives a committed and suitably insanely and intense performance 

[Nictarion]

Not really feeling this season of Shameless so far. Probably a case of a show going on longer than it should have at this point. Still love Emmy Rossum and William H. Macy, but I find myself pretty disinterested in a lot of what’s going on anymore. 

[Consigliere]

5 hours ago, Nictarion said:

Not really feeling this season of Shameless so far. Probably a case of a show going on longer than it should have at this point. Still love Emmy Rossum and William H. Macy, but I find myself pretty disinterested in a lot of what’s going on anymore. 

Same here. Felt this way about last season as well. Lip's storyline was the strongest last season but the rest of the storylines generated practically no forward momentum, new characters were mundane and a waste of narrative space (hello Kassidi!), storylines were introduced only to be abandoned and resolutions were poorly done. This season continues in much the same vein. The show is mostly uninteresting now with not much substance beyond creating "shameless" things for characters to do. Doesn't bode well especially with Rossum confirmed to be leaving the show at the end of this season. 

[GallowKnight]

10 hours ago, Nictarion said:

Not really feeling this season of Shameless so far. Probably a case of a show going on longer than it should have at this point. Still love Emmy Rossum and William H. Macy, but I find myself pretty disinterested in a lot of what’s going on anymore. 

Yeah it's pretty bad so far. Most of the cast hasn't had a good storyline in years and even Lip and Fiona, who are usually the best and gets the good stuff, have been given some pretty shit stories this season. And with Rossum leaving at the end of the season I don't think the show will survive, and maybe it shouldn't.

[RhaenysBee]

I watched All the boys I loved before and it’s like the movie version of the dullest girl  novel from a village library. 

And now I’m watching Bad Moms and even though I freaking hate every character Katherine Hahn ever played, this movie still has five times more life than all the boys I loved before. 

 

[aceluby]

Finally watched Solo, I thought it was pretty good for what it was.  The first 45 min or so could have been edited down to about 15 and the ending wasn't all that great (except the playing cards part).  I still think it would have worked better as a Lando standalone with Han sprinkled in.  Overall enjoyable and will definitely watch it again with my wife (who fell asleep).

[WarGalley]

One more episode of Gomorrah Season 3 left. This season so far has left me with a 'calm after the storm' kind of feeling. Very good but not the massive adrenaline rush of the first two seasons. This is still my favorite active show right now and possibly my most favorite show ever. I'm still a little surprised by how well they're able to bring in new characters and keep me interested while also killing them off by the dozens. I also like how women in the show are very strong figureheads with prominent roles and maneuvers.

[RhaenysBee]

Sierra Burgess is a loser was not as boring as All the boys I loved before but definitely even worse in terms of a message. It was also way too long. 

Insatiable however is the kind of trash tv you can’t stop watching even though every second of it screams trash. 

I wish I could stay home another day to watch shitty Netflix productions, use a box of tissues, drink six gallons of tea and wait for my sinusitis to clear up. 

[Bonnot OG]

Watched Bully (2001) again, stuck with me the first time given how dark it was, but holy shit I forgot just how fucked up it was.

[Isis]

Have now seen three eps of A Discovery of Witches and it seems I was right the first time.

MASSIVE TWILIGHT VIBES.

 

[Zorral]

Lovers of (good episodes) Vikings and The Last Kingdom: Taras Bulba (1962).  Magnificent battle scenes.  The sort of movie my dad would have loved, and for all I know may have watched -- like me now, he did love El Cid.

Of course, a watcher these days has to somehow get past Tony Curtis wearing that 1962 hair (when no one else does -- and all the cossacks are wearing the scalp lock, yet TC never has a scalp lock).  But Yule Brynner is pretty good. The gauchos of Argentina, who stand in for both cossacks and Poles, are brilliant horsemen and make this movie, supposedly in the Ukraine, shot in Southern California and the pampas, truly exciting to watch.  Thank goodness the romance is given as short shrift as they could get away with.  

[Zorral]

8 hours ago, Isis said:

Have now seen three eps of A Discovery of Witches and it seems I was right the first time.

MASSIVE TWILIGHT VIBES.

 

Color me sad.

Why?  Why?  Why o why did they go there?  No faith in the source material evidently.

[red snow]

1 hour ago, Zorral said:

Color me sad.

Why?  Why?  Why o why did they go there?  No faith in the source material evidently.

It's not really gripping me 3 episodes in. It does seem to lean on the "chosen one with forbidden one" trope that Buffy etc employed. I'd put it in the disposable TV category like the arrow verse shows. Not terrible but not must see. I'd be curious to hear how people who've read the books find it.

On the disposable front I've just got back from watching "venom". Nowhere near as bad as the early reviews suggested but the only thing of merit is Hardy arguing with himself. The plot is nonsensical and feels like 15-20 minutes were skipped between second and third act. Also Hardy's character in first 10 minutes is completely different from the one in the rest of film like two different scripts were forced together. The first extra credit scene is utterly hilarious though.

[williamjm]

I watched a couple of films which I think both came out last winter.

Kenneth Branagh's Murder on the Orient Express was good fun. I haven't seen an adaptation of it before, but I knew the vague outline of the plot (including the identity of the culprits). There aren't any surprises (other than the sheer magnificence of Kenneth Branagh's moustache), but the story is told well and there's an excellent cast of actors. I thought it almost made good use of the setting, showing both the opulence of the carriages and how it forces the passengers together because there's nowhere else they can go. There are a couple of great tracking shots following Poirot as he moves along the carriage.

I also watched The Disaster Artist. I've never seen The Room, although I've seen some clips from it and I had heard some things about what a crazy production it was, but nothing compares to the reality of it. It is an entertaining story, and the bizarreness of Tommy Wiseau's behaviour does provide some good comedy.

Also watched the start of season 3 of The Good Place. I was a bit unsure where there were going to go with the story with this season, but it looks like they're setting up an intriguing scenario.

[red snow]

All 3 of the above have been good. 

Orient express had a timeless charm about it and the moustache is a thing to behold. I'll certainly check out next year's sequel

[williamjm]

42 minutes ago, red snow said:

Orient express had a timeless charm about it and the moustache is a thing to behold. I'll certainly check out next year's sequel

I did wonder if they were going to do a sequel, there was a fairly obvious set-up for Death on the Nile at the end.

[Astromech]

Mr. Inbetween has been great so far. Shame it's only a 6-episode season.

S2 of American Vandal hasn't been nearly as good as the first season. Kevin McClain is no Dylan Maxwell and it worked better with Peter and Sam investigating an incident at their own high school.

[RedEyedGhost]

48 minutes ago, Astromech said:

Mr. Inbetween has been great so far. Shame it's only a 6-episode season.

I did not know that, and that sucks so much.

[Zorral]

3 hours ago, red snow said:

It's not really gripping me 3 episodes in. It does seem to lean on the "chosen one with forbidden one" trope that Buffy etc employed. I'd put it in the disposable TV category like the arrow verse shows. Not terrible but not must see. I'd be curious to hear how people who've read the books find it.

 

The books aren't like this at all.

[Isis]

8 hours ago, Zorral said:

The books aren't like this at all.

Last night a friend was telling me that she has just read the first book (she was 'craving' it lol) and can't wait to read the next two. She assured me that Diana 'gets much stronger' as the story goes on. Stonger as a person? Because obviously as a supernatural being, she's going to be strong, i.e. THE CHOSEN ONE because that's such an obvious trope. My friend then said she would be compelled to watch it because she has a mild obsession with Matthew Goode.