Watch, Watched, Watching: Those aren't pillows!

[Mexal]

6 minutes ago, drawkcabi said:

I see that Midsommar has been added to the movies available for free with Amazon Prime. I seem to remember it getting some high recommendations here, or am I mistaken?

Also, is it a foreign language film? Not a deal breaker, just like to know going in.

I'm a fan of Midsommar. My wife loved it. Definitely worth a watch.

[Nictarion]

12 minutes ago, drawkcabi said:

I see that Midsommar has been added to the movies available for free with Amazon Prime. I seem to remember it getting some high recommendations here, or am I mistaken?

Also, is it a foreign language film? Not a deal breaker, just like to know going in.

It’s in English, and it’s fantastic. Ari Aster is one of the best young directors in the business right now, and Florence Pugh gave an amazing performance. I highly recommend it. 

[dog-days]

5 hours ago, dbunting said:

Finished off Lost in Space S2 and have to say I really liked it, much better than the first season. I blew through the last couple episodes and was surprised by the ending, though I shouldn't have been. It's a good clean fun SciFi show.

Yeah, I binge-watched it over two days, despite getting bored and giving up on the last episodes of S1. Ready for S3 now! 

[Ran]

A bit of a rut, watching films and catching up on some things. Two Oscar nominees seen on Netflix in the last days, The Two Popes (charming performances by Hopkins and Pryce, but it feels like a lot of invention took place in characterizing the relationship between Benedict and the future Francis, and on the whole I think it's a good but not great film) and the French animated film nominee I Lost My Body which is actually quite lovely and affecting (and has a really great soundtrack that sets the mood). It has a strange central concept -- a severed hand trying to return to its owner after an unknown event, and moving back and forth between its epic journey through an inimical city and the events in the life of the young man, Naoufel, whom it belongs to.

And then an oldie, that I somehow have failed to see until now Walter Hill's The Warriors, that strange 1979 film about a gang of young toughs trying to get back to their turf in Coney Island all the way from the Bronx. Based on a novel, it's inspired by Xenophon's Anabasis and its account of the epic march of Greek mercenaries to the sea and home through a now-hostile Persian empire when their employer, Cyrus the Younger, is killed. There's all these weird, colorful gangs that have various schticks -- the Gramercy Riffs wear kung-fu tunics and do Shaw Brothers-style martial arts, the Baseball Furies wear baseball uniforms and prefer bats, and so on -- and the acting is absolutely not great (though Roger Hill as the film's version of Cyrus is compelling for his brief time on the screen, and David Patrick Kelly as the main antagonist chews the screen nicely). If you're a fan of things like Carpenter's Escape from New York, this should appeal.

[red snow]

36 minutes ago, dog-days said:

Yeah, I binge-watched it over two days, despite getting bored and giving up on the last episodes of S1. Ready for S3 now! 

I'm half way through. I'm not enjoying it as much as s1 but i like the light-hearted approach of "family tackling a challenge each episode". I also really appreciate how they are telling us quite a bit about what's going in instead of being "lost" with mysteries that never conclude.

[dog-days]

12 minutes ago, red snow said:

I'm half way through. I'm not enjoying it as much as s1 but i like the light-hearted approach of "family tackling a challenge each episode". I also really appreciate how they are telling us quite a bit about what's going in instead of being "lost" with mysteries that never conclude.

Yeah, I'm just hoping that teen romances don't get too much screen time in the next season. At the moment I think they're getting the character balance just right. I admit my favourite character remains Debbie the Chicken. 

Something else that I've enjoyed has been the treatment of moral issues - in particular, the faking of the stress test results. I like the way the show never seems to say that it was okay, even while it depicts the person concerned sympathetically. The original sin, as it were, hasn't been forgotten. 

[dbunting]

1 hour ago, Ran said:

A bit of a rut, watching films and catching up on some things. Two Oscar nominees seen on Netflix in the last days, The Two Popes (charming performances by Hopkins and Pryce, but it feels like a lot of invention took place in characterizing the relationship between Benedict and the future Francis, and on the whole I think it's a good but not great film) and the French animated film nominee I Lost My Body which is actually quite lovely and affecting (and has a really great soundtrack that sets the mood). It has a strange central concept -- a severed hand trying to return to its owner after an unknown event, and moving back and forth between its epic journey through an inimical city and the events in the life of the young man, Naoufel, whom it belongs to.

And then an oldie, that I somehow have failed to see until now Walter Hill's The Warriors, that strange 1979 film about a gang of young toughs trying to get back to their turf in Coney Island all the way from the Bronx. Based on a novel, it's inspired by Xenophon's Anabasis and its account of the epic march of Greek mercenaries to the sea and home through a now-hostile Persian empire when their employer, Cyrus the Younger, is killed. There's all these weird, colorful gangs that have various schticks -- the Gramercy Riffs wear kung-fu tunics and do Shaw Brothers-style martial arts, the Baseball Furies wear baseball uniforms and prefer bats, and so on -- and the acting is absolutely not great (though Roger Hill as the film's version of Cyrus is compelling for his brief time on the screen, and David Patrick Kelly as the main antagonist chews the screen nicely). If you're a fan of things like Carpenter's Escape from New York, this should appeal.

Man I loved Warriors! It's not a good movie but damned if it isn't an enjoyable movie? Another one like that IMO was Eddie and the Cruisers. Again it's not a good movie but dammit I liked it. If the Dark Side song comes on the radio I still crank it up!  I saw both of these as a teen around the same time and maybe that influenced my opinion of them.

[dbunting]

1 hour ago, red snow said:

I'm half way through. I'm not enjoying it as much as s1 but i like the light-hearted approach of "family tackling a challenge each episode". I also really appreciate how they are telling us quite a bit about what's going in instead of being "lost" with mysteries that never conclude.

I think it ends on a high note.

[Ran]

32 minutes ago, dbunting said:

Man I loved Warriors! It's not a good movie but damned if it isn't an enjoyable movie? Another one like that IMO was Eddie and the Cruisers. Again it's not a good movie but dammit I liked it. If the Dark Side song comes on the radio I still crank it up!  I saw both of these as a teen around the same time and maybe that influenced my opinion of them.

Definitely very fun for what it is. Also, the original Assault on Precinct 13 is another film that kind of fits in the same broad wheelhouse. Apparently, The Warriors was rushed through production so it could release before The Wanderers, a period gang piece also set in NYC which I've never actually seen. But The Warriors is definitely the one that's a cult classic.

 

[drawkcabi]

1 hour ago, dbunting said:

Man I loved Warriors! It's not a good movie but damned if it isn't an enjoyable movie? Another one like that IMO was Eddie and the Cruisers. Again it's not a good movie but dammit I liked it. If the Dark Side song comes on the radio I still crank it up!  I saw both of these as a teen around the same time and maybe that influenced my opinion of them.

I love Eddie and the Cruisers!!! Saw it when i was a kid, had "On the Darkside" and "Wild Summer Nights" on the juke box at my parents' place and played it all the time.

True it's not a good film, but it's a good movie!

Great cast too, Michael Pare may be a one note actor but he's perfect as Eddie. Tom Berenger, Joe Pantoliano, Ellen Barkin all great in it.

I even like the sequel, it's a far inferior and more amateur movie, but I still like it.

[Nictarion]

1 hour ago, Ran said:

Definitely very fun for what it is. Also, the original Assault on Precinct 13 is another film that kind of fits in the same broad wheelhouse. Apparently, The Warriors was rushed through production so it could release before The Wanderers, a period gang piece also set in NYC which I've never actually seen. But The Warriors is definitely the one that's a cult classic.

 

Saw this for the first time recently. Napoleon Wilson was awesome. Carpenter was great at those kinds of characters. 

Also, I love The Warriors. Watched it a ton growing up. 

[Corvinus85]

Speaking of The Warriors, there is a movie that I very vaguely remember that I watched at pretty young age. Maybe the board hive mind can find it for me. Movie is probably from the 70s or 80s.

The only things I remember:

• early in the film, the parents of the main or one of the main characters are killed in a street ambush; I remember a blue car, and soldiers trying to fight off the attackers
• the above mentioned character, who I think was female, teams up with some rogue-ish people to fight against some scary looking dudes; I don't believe they were zombies, but they were scary (for a kid like me)
• there's a climactic fight in a beached derelict ship or submarine.

[Heartofice]

7 minutes ago, Corvinus said:

Speaking of The Warriors, there is a movie that I very vaguely remember that I watched at pretty young age. Maybe the board hive mind can find it for me. Movie is probably from the 70s or 80s.

The only things I remember:

• early in the film, the parents of the main or one of the main characters are killed in a street ambush; I remember a blue car, and soldiers trying to fight off the attackers
• the above mentioned character, who I think was female, teams up with some rogue-ish people to fight against some scary looking dudes; I don't believe they were zombies, but they were scary (for a kid like me)
• there's a climactic fight in a beached derelict ship or submarine.

Is it Ewoks: Caravan of Courage?

[Zorral]

3 hours ago, Ran said:

The Warriors was rushed through production so it could release before The Wanderers, a period gang piece also set in NYC

Based on the first -- or the second? -- novel by Richard Price, whose novels I really liked, though the last two or three, well, not so much.  But he's been very busy, as we all know Bhob, writing for tv and movies. As well as having really great ears for what he writes, he's a really nice person.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0697115/

 

[Ran]

55 minutes ago, Corvinus said:

Speaking of The Warriors, there is a movie that I very vaguely remember that I watched at pretty young age. Maybe the board hive mind can find it for me. Movie is probably from the 70s or 80s.

The only things I remember:

• early in the film, the parents of the main or one of the main characters are killed in a street ambush; I remember a blue car, and soldiers trying to fight off the attackers
• the above mentioned character, who I think was female, teams up with some rogue-ish people to fight against some scary looking dudes; I don't believe they were zombies, but they were scary (for a kid like me)
• there's a climactic fight in a beached derelict ship or submarine.

The Dirty Harry sequel Magnum Force has a couple of elements, so I'll just throw it out there in case details are blending together from several movies. Specifically, it has a street ambush of a blue car containing some mobsters (a motorcycle cop pulls them over and shoots them) and there's a gun battle at the end on a derelict aircraft carrier. But the rest doesn't fit, particularly the idea of a female main character.

[Astromech]

6 hours ago, Ran said:

 

And then an oldie, that I somehow have failed to see until now Walter Hill's The Warriors, that strange 1979 film about a gang of young toughs trying to get back to their turf in Coney Island all the way from the Bronx. Based on a novel, it's inspired by Xenophon's Anabasis and its account of the epic march of Greek mercenaries to the sea and home through a now-hostile Persian empire when their employer, Cyrus the Younger, is killed. There's all these weird, colorful gangs that have various schticks -- the Gramercy Riffs wear kung-fu tunics and do Shaw Brothers-style martial arts, the Baseball Furies wear baseball uniforms and prefer bats, and so on -- and the acting is absolutely not great (though Roger Hill as the film's version of Cyrus is compelling for his brief time on the screen, and David Patrick Kelly as the main antagonist chews the screen nicely). If you're a fan of things like Carpenter's Escape from New York, this should appeal.

You could also watch Streets of Fire, another, later Walter Hill film. Similar style to The Warriors. Michael Pare as the drifter coming in to town to rescue his former, songstress girlfriend from a kidnapping motorcycle gang led by Willem Dafoe.

[dbunting]

10 hours ago, Astromech said:

You could also watch Streets of Fire, another, later Walter Hill film. Similar style to The Warriors. Michael Pare as the drifter coming in to town to rescue his former, songstress girlfriend from a kidnapping motorcycle gang led by Willem Dafoe.

Yep, liked that one too. Same time period and age for me when watching it. Wasn't Diane Lane the female lead....whooooie talk about a boy hood crush!

[dbunting]

I watched the first two episodes of The Outsider HBO last night and I am hooked already. It feels like True Detective S1 with more of a supernatural kick to it? I understand it's an adaptation from a S King book so hopefully it's a good one.

[Ran]

52 minutes ago, dbunting said:

Yep, liked that one too. Same time period and age for me when watching it. Wasn't Diane Lane the female lead....whooooie talk about a boy hood crush!

The trailer for it is absolutely amazing, and I'll definitely seek it out:

 

 Diane Lane was and is gorgeous.

 

ETA: I was thinking how Meatloaf-like that song, "Nowhere Fast" is, and then I saw that Jim Steinman wrote it. No wonder.

 

[Corvinus85]

13 hours ago, Ran said:

The Dirty Harry sequel Magnum Force has a couple of elements, so I'll just throw it out there in case details are blending together from several movies. Specifically, it has a street ambush of a blue car containing some mobsters (a motorcycle cop pulls them over and shoots them) and there's a gun battle at the end on a derelict aircraft carrier. But the rest doesn't fit, particularly the idea of a female main character.

Thanks, but not it. Definitely Eastwood wasn't in it. My memories are too vague to figure out which film it is.