Watch, Watched, Watching: Easter Edition

[ithanos]

Growing up in a Christian upbringing, after Easter Friday mass and dinner at home, my family would settle down to watch a movie suitable for the occasion - long 3 hour affairs, the likes of; Ben Hur, The Robe, Quo Vadis and even The Ten Commandments. If it starred Charlton Heston or was directed by DeMille, all the better. 

This year, being on my own and keeping a social distance, I decided to keep to tradition and watch an old(ish) movie with religious themes. The Kingdom of Heaven: Director's Cut it was.

I saw the original theatrical release in cinema waay back in 2005 and enjoyed it for its entertainment value but thought it could've been so much better than it was. Now although I had heard of the director's cut and the praise given to it, I thought I had seen it - apparently not. This 3hr+ director's cut was a revelation. It was like I watched a different movie. The motivations of the two main characters are presented for consumption, tying the seams through the movie, where originally they were barely inferred or presented, How the hell...   

Spoiler

...could they have cut out Sybilla's son and implication entirely from the theatrical release? (which of course they did)

Now I feel kind of cheated on that theatrical experience.

[dbunting]

@HelenaExMachina I would go back to the Americans, but Ozark is current and I don't want to get spoiled. The Americans is over and not in the headlines right now so I feel safer waiting on it.

[Mexal]

3 hours ago, ithanos said:

Growing up in a Christian upbringing, after Easter Friday mass and dinner at home, my family would settle down to watch a movie suitable for the occasion - long 3 hour affairs, the likes of; Ben Hur, The Robe, Quo Vadis and even The Ten Commandments. If it starred Charlton Heston or was directed by DeMille, all the better. 

This year, being on my own and keeping a social distance, I decided to keep to tradition and watch an old(ish) movie with religious themes. The Kingdom of Heaven: Director's Cut it was.

I saw the original theatrical release in cinema waay back in 2005 and enjoyed it for its entertainment value but thought it could've been so much better than it was. Now although I had heard of the director's cut and the praise given to it, I thought I had seen it - apparently not. This 3hr+ director's cut was a revelation. It was like I watched a different movie. The motivations of the two main characters are presented for consumption, tying the seams through the movie, where originally they were barely inferred or presented, How the hell...   

  Hide contents

...could they have cut out Sybilla's son and implication entirely from the theatrical release? (which of course they did)

Now I feel kind of cheated on that theatrical experience.

It really is a different movie. I hated the theatrical cut because it just jumped from scene to scene without any real character motivation; the director's cut solved that. Cannot recommend it highly enough.

[williamjm]

I watched the most recent Robin Hood movie (the one starring Taron Egerton) without any particularly high expectations. It had a deliberately anachronistic feel to it, with the crusade scenes feeling more like a modern Middle Eastern war and Nottingham being a mix of medieval and 20th Century totalitarian state which felt a bit weird. It wasn't terrible, it moved along at a good pace and the action scenes were entertaining enough but nothing about it particularly stood out. It had a good cast but didn't give them that much to do and despite Ben Mandelson's best efforts his Sheriff of Nottingham couldn't compare to Alan Rickman's version.

[Heartofice]

Directors cut of Kingdom of Heaven is really a million times better. Even the smaller changes make a hell of a difference.

The theatrical versions first 45 mins are a bit of a mess and feel rushed. Specifically I remember a scene with the priest that makes little sense without the additions in the DC. On top of all that it just adds a lot more historical depth and makes it less of bland action blockbuster

The new Robin Hood movie I can safely say was terrible, on every level. I really like  Egerton but wow he‘s picking some bad roles.

On the topic of bad movies, I was bored enough to watch The Meg. Dunno what I expected but it’s a horrific collection of cliches and bland shark horror. 

The worst part of it was being able to easily identify everything the movie was doing to ‘panda’ to the Chinese market. Clearly that’s where it thought it would claw its money back.

Love Statham mainly in the Crank movies and Spy, but he’s really not any good unless he’s being a parody of an action star or just grunting enough between kicks to justify a speaking wage.

[Cas Stark]

I found the new Robin Hood unwatchably bad.  Once in a while a mash-up of modern/middle ages can work, like A Knight's Tale, which, while it was not by any means a 'good' movie, was at least entertaining.

[Heartofice]

Never liked Knights Tale either,  but at least it seemed to be making a creative choice to make it a mix of modern and Middle Ages. 
 

This Robin Hood has ‘design committee’ written all over it. Surprised Poochie doesn’t cameo 

[Raja]

Someone needs to stop me from watching this

 

[Zorral]

10 hours ago, ithanos said:

my family would settle down to watch a movie suitable for the occasion - long 3 hour affairs, the likes of; Ben Hur, The Robe, Quo Vadis and even The Ten Commandments. If it starred Charlton Heston or was directed by DeMille, all the better. 

One of mine for this annual Good Friday weekend is the Richard Burton / Elizabeth Taylor Cleopatra.

Or -- maybe it was?  I haven't done this in a few years. By now I know so much more of the history of Cleopatra. Caesar and Anthony, maybe I can't enjoy my happy descent into HUGE SCREEN Phony History.  I still have the Cleopatra dvd set here on the shelf.

In undergrad days, my friends and I would settle after Thanksgiving dinner to watch My Fair Lady.

 

 

[HexMachina]

1 hour ago, Raja said:

Someone needs to stop me from watching this

 

Come now Raja, take one for the team and watch so we don’t have to. I want copious notes mind!

[Mexal]

2 hours ago, Heartofice said:

Never liked Knights Tale either,  but at least it seemed to be making a creative choice to make it a mix of modern and Middle Ages. 
 

This Robin Hood has ‘design committee’ written all over it. Surprised Poochie doesn’t cameo 

A Knight's Tale is one of my most watched movies ever. Has everything I like in a re-watchable movie (charismatic lead, love story, funny sidekicks, detestable villain, underdog story, and an appropriate ending for an underdog story). So good.

[dbunting]

So I started Ozark S3 and yep, loving it as usual. Really not liking Wendy's choices right now. Still love Ruth, by far the best part of this show.

Spoiler

Loved Marty bribing the counselor, that was funny shit.  The whole take over of the other casino was done pretty poorly and hastily, not worthy of this show. Little ham fisted with the goon putting his palm on the glass and raising his head up, just screamed I am gonna get caught and be the snitch.

Took me a minute to recognize Wendy's brother, kept getting a Keanu Reeves vibe, had to Imdb him to figure out it was Iron Fist.

[williamjm]

2 hours ago, Heartofice said:

Never liked Knights Tale either,  but at least it seemed to be making a creative choice to make it a mix of modern and Middle Ages. 
 

This Robin Hood has ‘design committee’ written all over it. Surprised Poochie doesn’t cameo 

If they're going to make a ridiculous film then they should have some fun with it, the Robin Hood film managed to be ridiculous in a very bland way. A Knights Tale on the other really embraces the absurdity of it all with the crowd clapping along to We Will Rock You or having a wooden London Eye in the background when they go to London. I'm also oddly fond of the Paul W.S. Anderson Three Musketeers film which is utterly bonkers (Orlando Bloom trying to invade France with a fleet of airships is a highlight) but at least it's not shot as if it's a serious war film.

Having said that, I think King Arthur : Legend of the Sword shows that there are limits to how much ridiculousness I can tolerate.

18 minutes ago, Mexal said:

A Knight's Tale is one of my most watched movies ever. Has everything I like in a re-watchable movie (charismatic lead, love story, funny sidekicks, detestable villain, underdog story, and an appropriate ending for an underdog story). So good.

I agree, it's a film I don't get tired of rewatching.

[Heartofice]

I think I was too old for Knights Tale when I came out as I always thought of it as too teen for my tastes.

But I respect that it knew what it was, and did things a bit differently ( even if I guess it was inspired a lot by Romeo and Juliet the movie)

That new Robin Hood and King Arthur basically are terrified of making a real serious story out of these tales. I know that the Russell Crowe version wasn’t great and went too gritty but the answer isn’t always to go the opposite direction and make a video game style movie next. 
 

Prince of Thieves was great fun! Make it fun for Christ’s sake! Men in Tights is better! 

[williamjm]

7 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

Prince of Thieves was great fun! Make it fun for Christ’s sake! Men in Tights is better! 

I did think about mentioning Prince of Thieves as well as something that's having more fun than the recent Robin Hood films and for all its absurdities is still ridiculous than the Taron Egerton film. No matter how many Robin Hood films get made Alan Rickman will always be the best Sheriff of Nottingham everyone else gets compare against.

[RumHam]

1 hour ago, dbunting said:

So I started Ozark S3 and yep, loving it as usual. Really not liking Wendy's choices right now. Still love Ruth, by far the best part of this show.

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Loved Marty bribing the counselor, that was funny shit.  The whole take over of the other casino was done pretty poorly and hastily, not worthy of this show. Little ham fisted with the goon putting his palm on the glass and raising his head up, just screamed I am gonna get caught and be the snitch.

Took me a minute to recognize Wendy's brother, kept getting a Keanu Reeves vibe, had to Imdb him to figure out it was Iron Fist.

Not Iron Fist, but Ward from Iron Fist. You confused me there for a second cause I really didn't think that was Loras. 

[WarGalley]

Got the wrong thread last time. Rookie mistake.

15 minutes ago, Nictarion said:

Some of the very best episodes of The Sopranos came in the later seasons though (Long Term Parking for example), and I have to disagree about the tension between NJ and NY fizzling out. The S5 finale where Tony had to

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kill his own cousin to appease NY was one of the most impactful moments of the series for me. That shit gets to me every time.

 

The only season that even kind of takes a dip in quality is S6 part I, but part II completely made up for it, imo. And it’s not like The Wire didn’t have a “down” season in S5, and while I adore Gomorrah it’s not been quite as good without

  Reveal hidden contents

Don Pietro and Ciro.

 

Long Term Parking is definitely one of the best episodes and the S5 finale was strong as well. But if you're saying that S6 part I was the only low in the whole course of the series, I'm not sure I agree. I don't remember a lot about Season 3, other than Ralphie being an annoying character (by design).

 

The Wire's down season is one or two plotlines (serial killer + newspaper). I still loved the other aspects of it, mostly with the rise of Marlo. In fact, after 

Spoiler

losing Stringer and Avon

I can't believe how well they were able to bring another compelling street level antagonist into the show (especially compared to his relatively minor presence in Season 3). Haven't seen Gomorrah S4 yet (do DM me if you know where I can watch it with English subtitles and without torrenting - I saw a massive S4 spoiler in the subreddit and never went back ). Even if diminished, I can't possibly think of one thing on the show that I would consider a "flaw." I can't even think of a single scene with a flaw. It's only 3 seasons and may not stay that way, but it's firmly Tier 1 for me. 

[Nictarion]

12 minutes ago, WarGalley said:

Got the wrong thread last time. Rookie mistake.

Long Term Parking is definitely one of the best episodes and the S5 finale was strong as well. But if you're saying that S6 part I was the only low in the whole course of the series, I'm not sure I agree. I don't remember a lot about Season 3, other than Ralphie being an annoying character (by design).

 

The Wire's down season is one or two plotlines (serial killer + newspaper). I still loved the other aspects of it, mostly with the rise of Marlo. In fact, after 

  Hide contents

losing Stringer and Avon

I can't believe how well they were able to bring another compelling street level antagonist into the show (especially compared to his relatively minor presence in Season 3). Haven't seen Gomorrah S4 yet (do DM me if you know where I can watch it with English subtitles and without torrenting - I saw a massive S4 spoiler in the subreddit and never went back ). Even if diminished, I can't possibly think of one thing on the show that I would consider a "flaw." I can't even think of a single scene with a flaw. It's only 3 seasons and may not stay that way, but it's firmly Tier 1 for me. 

I do indeed maintain S6 part 1 is the only “weak” season of The Sopranos. S3 was an interesting one, as they had to really pivot after Nancy Marchand died. The original outline for the season was going to be Livia testifying against Tony over the bust out airline tickets. They ended up giving the Jackie Jr storyline more time, and for me it worked. The parallel with Tony wanting to save AJ from going down the same path was strong stuff. 

S3 also has the best episode of the entire series in Pine Barrens, it gave us a character defining episode for Dr Melfi in Employee of the Month (man that one is tough to watch), the episodes with Gloria were excellent (she was Tony’s best “goomah” by far), and as you mentioned...Ralphie. Joe Pantoliano absolutely killed it in that role. Although his best work was actually in S4. 

We can certainly just agree to disagree though, but to me it’s still at the absolute top of the great shows. Brilliantly acted, excellent writing, funny as hell, great music, and infinitely re-watchable. Nothing has topped it yet in my book. 

As far as Gomorrah S4, I watched it on a random guy’s YouTube channel, but sadly all the episodes have been taken down. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

I have been enjoying The Chamber of Secrets while cooking. I like it a lot more than the book, which is rare for the series. My roommate's GF agrees, but maybe she is just saying that because she likes my chicken fajitas. 

[Nictarion]

39 minutes ago, Triskele said:

I actually quite enjoyed the regular cut of Kingdom of Heaven (though it's been a while) and am now quite intrigued for that Director's Cut you guys mention.  God Wills It! 

It really is a different movie. Can’t recommend the DC enough. The fact that studios feel the need to chop up the work of even some of best directors like Ridley Scott or Sergio Leone (Once Upon a Time in America is another one they completely butchered) is ridiculous.