Watch, Watched, Watching: Getting Sneaky

[HexMachina]

6 hours ago, Martell Spy said:

Just watched Rocketman and it is quite a wild ride. Definitely worth seeing. It is not a standard musical biopic, there are magical sequences in it. Egerton does a great acting job and even does the actual singing. 

The cast and director have called it a musical fantasy and i think thats quite an apt descriptor.

would not be surprised to see it turned into a stage show

9 hours ago, Triskele said:

I'm like the opposite.  Seen Okja (very good) but not Snowpiercer.  

Oh i’ve seen and loved both, but watching snowpiercer made me want to rewatch Okja. Bong Joon Ho does some excellent stuff

[red snow]

1 hour ago, HelenaExMachina said:

The cast and director have called it a musical fantasy and i think thats quite an apt descriptor.

would not be surprised to see it turned into a stage show

Oh i’ve seen and loved both, but watching snowpiercer made me want to rewatch Okja. Bong Joon Ho does some excellent stuff

Is there a director's cut of snowpiercer and is it the better version? I vaguely recall there being one. It's on Netflix but I've no idea which version it is and would rather not watch the inferior cut

[red snow]

8 hours ago, Astromech said:

It felt like he was asked to write a series to showcase the new Paramount Network at the last minute. Rushed and not well thought out. I had high hopes for it but s1 was laughable and eyeroll-inducing at times.

It could be Sheridan works better with a tight script. Curious thst it might have been rushed. 

[Astromech]

2 hours ago, red snow said:

It could be Sheridan works better with a tight script. Curious thst it might have been rushed. 

I don't know if it was rushed, but it kind of felt like it. Like randomly throwing out ideas and jumbling them together.

[Isis]

On 5/30/2019 at 11:08 PM, HelenaExMachina said:

Good Omens drops this weekend and its Prime exclusive. I’m annoyed now  

There is enough decent stuff on Prime for it to be worth having an account just for that. (Also useful for Amazon delivery options too of course)

On 5/31/2019 at 6:24 AM, red snow said:

It could be worse it could be on one of their other channels like starz or funimation requiring an additional subscription.

Exactly. And I will never stop moaning about having to pay £25 for the pleasure of watching The Terror - because it wasn't included in the monthly Prime fee. 

Have to say that after American Gods I am not that fussed about watching Good Omens anyhow. Maybe one day.

So we were going to start watching Chernobyl last night but the episodes weirdly downloaded in the wrong order so they weren't ready to watch. Will probably pick it up tonight instead.

But in the meantime we opted to watch Life. Such a lot of bad Science (concepts) and bad science (science being done badly in practice), it was hard to get beyond that to the story. As with all of these bad science films - I will never know why they don't opt for saying less rather than saying more detailed things which are inaccurate. I mean, how hard is to find out the difference between cilia and flagella? It's right there in an A level biology book. The H&S side of me was appalled by the evident lack of risk assessment which took place. Then the commander goes on about (paraphrase) 'imagining the worst that can happen is my job' - yes, this is literally the definition of how you perform a risk assessment of a scientific process - but then clearly NOBODY did a risk assessment of the work they were carrying out, least of all the dude calling himself a scientist. 

Is it a good alien film? It's ok. Would it have been better if I wasn't so distracted by the bad science? Yes, a little. Does it ask any profound and worthy questions? I think it would like to have done so but it was a little more concerned with making a wishy washy diluted version of Alien.

[red snow]

32 minutes ago, Isis said:

There is enough decent stuff on Prime for it to be worth having an account just for that. (Also useful for Amazon delivery options too of course)

Exactly. And I will never stop moaning about having to pay £25 for the pleasure of watching The Terror - because it wasn't included in the monthly Prime fee. 

Have to say that after American Gods I am not that fussed about watching Good Omens anyhow. Maybe one day.

So we were going to start watching Chernobyl last night but the episodes weirdly downloaded in the wrong order so they weren't ready to watch. Will probably pick it up tonight instead.

But in the meantime we opted to watch Life. Such a lot of bad Science (concepts) and bad science (science being done badly in practice), it was hard to get beyond that to the story. As with all of these bad science films - I will never know why they don't opt for saying less rather than saying more detailed things which are inaccurate. I mean, how hard is to find out the difference between cilia and flagella? It's right there in an A level biology book. The H&S side of me was appalled by the evident lack of risk assessment which took place. Then the commander goes on about (paraphrase) 'imagining the worst that can happen is my job' - yes, this is literally the definition of how you perform a risk assessment of a scientific process - but then clearly NOBODY did a risk assessment of the work they were carrying out, least of all the dude calling himself a scientist. 

Is it a good alien film? It's ok. Would it have been better if I wasn't so distracted by the bad science? Yes, a little. Does it ask any profound and worthy questions? I think it would like to have done so but it was a little more concerned with making a wishy washy diluted version of Alien.

Yeah, the digital landscape is fracturing and Amazon is particularly sneaky/reckless in sub-dividing its material.

Chernobyl is my top show of year so far (although fleabag was an excellent comedy).

Good omens is like most Amazon shows good but lacking that binge feeling. Last prime show i binged was the jack Ryan show. The expanse might achieve it but I'm saving season 3 for closer to season 4 release.

Haven't seen Life but I've been tempted as there's a very strong suggestion it was meant to be a "venom" prequel. I think the evil company in venom was even called the "life foundation". 

I watched John Wick 3. Enjoyed it quite a bit although the final showdown fell flat for me as i was simply over-saturated with duels (the preceding 2on1 battle was better). The film is at its best when simply moving from action scene to action scene. It's utterly ridiculous and nonsensical when expanding its contradicting mythology though. Halle Berry needs some more action roles! She's great in this and has previously been wasted in other action roles (Bond and Catwoman). I'd watch a film focused on her character in the wickverse.

[Raja]

So I finished 'When they see us', and man, that last episode is haunting but gorgeous. I haven't stopped thinking about it since last night. Jharrel Jerome is phenomenal, and the direction is so good.

I want to see DuVernay get all the love for this - it's obviously important work, but she's also so good at her craft. The final episode ending with Nipsey & Frank Ocean 

If anyone's on the fence, go watch this, it's brilliant. 

[RhaenysBee]

I’m watching Good Girls season 2 and I kinda enjoy it. 

[Centrist Simon Steele]

I'm watching Arrested Development (again). Of course, the first three seasons are so good, it's impossible not to watch seasons 4 and 5. I know the issues people have with the newer seasons, and I have them too, but the comedy is so good, it's hard not to watch the new stuff. Some stuff I don't like really centers on Michael Bluth and how he has become a miserable man and failure. A lot of this makes for some funny stuff but also hurts the strength of the bond he and George Michael always had. GOB is always great, and the recut/remastered season 4 is much better than how it was originally aired (in my opinion). Something I learned is that characters like Tobias, who I think are comedic genius in motion, are better left to the side and not dedicated entire episodes toward.

Either way, I just have such a love of this series, and I'm sorry to see it get such negative reactions from media outlets (not sure how fans feel about it, but I'm more thinking about the Vox "explained" BS that tells us why the new seasons are bad/problematic).

[Centrist Simon Steele]

On 5/31/2019 at 5:02 PM, Martini Sigil said:

Saw Godzilla today.... it's not a great movie, but the fight scenes are impressive AF

I saw it on Friday too and loved it, but something seems to be missing from it. I'm not sure what. I think the director seems like the perfect choice for this kind of film (Doherty's Trick r Treat and Krampus capture the essence/spirit of those stories and in the case of Halloween--the spirit of that holiday, I think). 

But with Godzilla, something just fell kind of flat. When things began to happen, it felt awesome, but something was lost in the translation to the screen. I don't know yet. I recommend it if you love Godzilla--Doherty fills it with a love for the old Godzilla movies (I didn't realize until well after the movie was over that there were twins in the film!).

[Astromech]

4 hours ago, Isis said:

There is enough decent stuff on Prime for it to be worth having an account just for that. (Also useful for Amazon delivery options too of course)

Exactly. And I will never stop moaning about having to pay £25 for the pleasure of watching The Terror - because it wasn't included in the monthly Prime fee. 

 

I lost interest in The Terror and never finished it. The second season looks quite interesting though. I'll probably tune in for that.

[Nictarion]

Watched the first episode of NOS4A2 on AMC. Horror show based off Joe Hill’s book of the same name. Not terribly impressed so far, but I remember really liking the book so I’ll probably give it at least a few more episodes. It’s been a while since I read it, but the show seems pretty different. I remember Vic being much younger at the start of the book. If they’re not doing a time jump forward with her having a son this is going to be a drastically different story. 

[Isis]

14 hours ago, Astromech said:

I lost interest in The Terror and never finished it. The second season looks quite interesting though. I'll probably tune in for that.

I loved the book and I thought that the TV series was very good.

[HexMachina]

Dead to Me was a really bingeable watch. Really liked the season and how it ended. Hopefully gets a second.

Still enjoying iZombie as my week-to-week watch. 

[aceluby]

I saw John Wick 3 over the weekend and didn't really enjoy it.  The original is one of my favorite action films of all time and the second one was a good follow up, though not quite hitting as high of a mark.  This one ratcheted up the ridiculousness to 11 which took me completely out of the story and the world.  The premise is that he now has to battle all these assassins, which would have been great if they did it right, but I think they missed the mark by a lot on this one.  

Spoiler

Right in the beginning he uses a horse as a fucking weapon.... twice, which had me laughing at how stupid it was.

I also thought Halle Berry's action scenes were just not good.  She didn't convince me at all that she was as competent with a weapon, or that the martial arts she was performing could ever be possible.  It's one thing that I really liked about the original, KR felt like an uber badass who could be that character and despite how ridiculous it was, go into a room of 20+ guys and just wipe them out.  Halle Berry's character did not give that off for me at all, and many times I thought some of the stuff Wick was doing was OTT.  I wish I would've waited until the bluray release. 

[Corvinus85]

1 hour ago, aceluby said:

I saw John Wick 3 over the weekend and didn't really enjoy it.  The original is one of my favorite action films of all time and the second one was a good follow up, though not quite hitting as high of a mark.  This one ratcheted up the ridiculousness to 11 which took me completely out of the story and the world.  The premise is that he now has to battle all these assassins, which would have been great if they did it right, but I think they missed the mark by a lot on this one.  

  Reveal hidden contents

Right in the beginning he uses a horse as a fucking weapon.... twice, which had me laughing at how stupid it was.

I also thought Halle Berry's action scenes were just not good.  She didn't convince me at all that she was as competent with a weapon, or that the martial arts she was performing could ever be possible.  It's one thing that I really liked about the original, KR felt like an uber badass who could be that character and despite how ridiculous it was, go into a room of 20+ guys and just wipe them out.  Halle Berry's character did not give that off for me at all, and many times I thought some of the stuff Wick was doing was OTT.  I wish I would've waited until the bluray release. 

I have my issues with it, too, but I found Berry perfectly convincing, and thought that was one of the better action scenes.

Spoiler

I liked the dogs, especially. I thought it was funny that she trained them to go for the genitals, not the throat.

Though my favorite action scene was probably the early one with all the knife throwing.

 

[aceluby]

Just now, Corvinus said:

I have my issues with it, too, but I found Berry perfectly convincing, and thought that was one of the better action scenes.

  Hide contents

I liked the dogs, especially. I thought it was funny that she trained them to go for the genitals, not the throat.

Though my favorite action scene was probably the early one with all the knife throwing.

 

Spoiler

I forgot about the dogs.... I disliked that as well and thought it was forced, which may have been due to the horse scene earlier.  All those people with guns and the dogs come out unscathed.

The knife scene was pretty awesome, but it was one of only a few scenes that was cool.  Looking back, I didn't really enjoy any of the "tag team" scenes.  Focus was lost, and when compared to John Wick the other two seemed second tier and were not convincing for me to be anywhere near as deadly and yet the direction was obviously trying to convince me they were.  To each their own, I left the theater pretty disappointed.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Has anyone seen the new Netflix movie The Perfection? It's every bit as a creepy as the reviews say it is, and Allison Williams is quickly locking up the "creepy white girl" lane in Hollywood. Her performance in Get Out only adds to the role, assuming you've seen it (and really who the hell hasn't?).

[WarGalley]

Still making my way through S3 of Sneaky Pete. Deliberately trying not to binge in order to enjoy the various cons some more. On the penultimate episode and I particularly like Ricky Jay's character thus far. I was saddened to see he passed away last November and, after watching his Ricky Jay and his 52 assistants - Magic show on Youtube, I feel like I didn't appreciate his entertainment as much as I should have. Going to watch the Deadwood movie after Sneaky Pete. He's not credited on IMDB for the movie which is another shame...

[Ramsay B.]

2 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Has anyone seen the new Netflix movie The Perfection? It's every bit as a creepy as the reviews say it is, and Allison Williams is quickly locking up the "creepy white girl" lane in Hollywood. Her performance in Get Out only adds to the role, assuming you've seen it (and really who the hell hasn't?).

What a fucked up movie. I watched it over the weekend and still don’t know how I really feel about it. It was brutal, over-the-top and just decent I guess. My younger self would’ve enjoyed it much more probably.

I’ve never seen Logan Browning in anything before and thought she was good.