Watch, Watched, Watching: I missed the last thread?

[RedEyedGhost]

Been watching Hell On Wheels and enjoying it quite a bit.  I had made it through season 2 when it originally aired, but never got around to season 3.  Just finished 4 and am starting 5.  

Working out with Marvel Netflix shows.  Finished season 1 of Jessica Jones on Sunday, and have begun season 1 of Luke Cage - two episodes in, and liked them, but Diamondback has yet to appear, and it's all downhill from there.  Really enjoyed Raphael Saadiq's performance in the first episode.

[RedEyedGhost]

And now for stuff that I missed from the last thread:

 

On 7/29/2020 at 3:31 PM, DMC said:

What's the near distant future?  Wouldn't that just be the future? 

Time's so wonky now that I completely understand near distant future.

 

On 7/30/2020 at 5:14 PM, Leofric said:

And Die Hard is a Christmas Movie.   The whole thing is about McClane traveling to the west coast to be with his family for the Holidays, just like Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, but with more guns and less pillows.

"Those aren't pillows!"

 

On 8/1/2020 at 4:51 PM, Tywin et al. said:

Most comedies don't age well.  And yes, it's the first one. 

I still love me some There's Something About Mary, and am thinking I'm due for a rewatch.

 

On 8/2/2020 at 10:57 AM, john said:

My only must watch if I see it on tv (not going to happen much anymore since tv is dead apart from sports) is Hot Fuzz. Used to be Shaun of the Dead but I eventually maxed out on that.

Hot Fuzz is so good.  My favorite of that "trilogy."

 

On 8/4/2020 at 10:05 PM, briantw said:

Could have done with a few more dicks.

Can there be more than all of the dicks?  I'm quite positive mine ended up in there at one point.

 

On 8/5/2020 at 2:43 AM, Nictarion said:

Hanks best film is clearly The ‘Burbs.

Truth.

 

8 hours ago, Isis said:

Yesterday I read Picnic at Hanging Rock in a day and then checked if there were any adaptations available for me to watch. The only one I could find was a 2018 TV series which was on Prime for free. The book is quite short and I have to say I felt a bit, 'where is this going then/what is the goal of this narrative...?' most of the way through the book (after the main event occurs). This TV series builds on the source material and fleshes out the characters' back stories in a way that really worked for me. The TV show has Natalie Dormer in the lead role and gives her lots of room for showing different aspects of a beefed up version of the school mistress. It also has Samara Weaving in one of the key student roles. It's delightful to look at (scenery, how the shots are put together and it has lots of pretty people and costumes in it) and I just ate it up in nearly one sitting. Only six, episodes you guys. Read the book and watch the show!

Oooo, thanks for reminding me about this.  I had added it to my watch list before it was released, and then it ended up getting buried.  Haven't read the book though.

[RhaenysBee]

I watched the new season of Good Girls.

While it’s filled with minor and major plot holes in order to keep the plot running, in terms of dialogue and characterization and themes, it’s still one hell of an underrated production. (If someone enjoys an edgy chick flick) I enjoy the humor, I’m invested in the characters and their stories, I enjoy the multi-dimensional angle from which the writing inspects societal and ethical issues and that it’s sometimes sprinkled with humor. And even though you know things are going to be fine, because the show must go on, they still manage to create an atmosphere of tension, unpredictability and subversion on the small scale. I do like a lot that they don’t shy away from putting characters into uncomfortable conversations and let it unfold instead of cutting away. That’s mostly where the previously mentioned atmosphere comes from.

While every main character has their own personal drama going on, the show did lose them in terms of the plot, which is driven by the main leading lady and the crime boss. In these scenes the other two ladies are basically just stand-ins and one can’t help but wonder why they are present in these situations at all. I also don’t like that former obstacles/antagonists seem to keep returning, it’s not a particularly smart way to keep the plot going. Kinda makes me feel like they are a bit scared of introducing new characters or problems, because the audience just wants the original ones. I don’t think this is the case, so far new characters worked well and we also kinda want to see the characters handle problems we haven’t seen them handle three times already. 

 

[Maithanet]

Finally caught Creed II on Netflix.  It felt a bit stale because the Rocky formula is so familiar at this point  I was totally uninterested in Stallone's character, and all of his character decisions seemed to be to inject false drama rather than feeling like realistic choices. And for the first time ever, I found Michael B. Jordan to be fairly disappointing as well.  Really felt like he was just going through the motions without being particularly invested in the role.  Instead it was the supporting actors like Tessa Thompson and Dolph Lundgren that provided a spark. 

One quibble, Drago and son are from the Ukraine.  And yet when they're having a party to celebrate his success, they talk about bringing glory to Russian Boxing.  Umm...Ukraine and Russia are two different countries, and they've been fighting a low intensity war for several years.  Plus, both Kitschko brothers brought a great deal of glory to Ukrainian boxing, since they were the two best heavyweights in the world for several years.  I guess the movie assumes we forget about them?  Or maybe the Dragos are Ukrainians who identify as Russian?  Anyway, seemed an odd choice.  Was there a throwaway line in Rocky IV about Drago being from Ukraine?  Because making him from Russia would have cleared up the whole issue. 

But that said, the movie is competent and enjoyable enough.  Loving Rocky IV definitely helps (looking at you @Jaime L).  The scene at the end

Spoiler

Where Ivan throws in the towel to protect his son was the only surprise in the film and a very good moment.  I really wanted to like Ivan and his son, although the film didn't really give us a lot to work with. 

 

[Caligula_K3]

Got to season 6 in my Lost rewatch.

Spoiler

First of all, season 5 really is phenomenal. It kind of buckles under its own weight and the ridiculousness of the nuclear bomb plot at the end, but it's amazing how well they pull off this convoluted time travel season, and how over the course of seasons 3-5 they perfectly set up and executed the "John Locke's whole life is a con" plotline. Jacob's cabin aside. That still makes no sense.

But now into season 6, and god, I wish the flash sideways had actually been a parallel universe instead of the world's worst Purgatory. The season premiere, LA X, sets it up so well, and there are so many interesting ways they could have taken it.

Sayid just woke from the dead, and now I remember that his final story arc is this very lame "he's infected by Smokey, kind of, maybe, ish?" thing. I'll see how I feel at the end of the season, but maybe one of the reasons I never bought the "Lost was always only about the characters, not the mysteries/plot!" line, aside from being kind of absurd because the show is so mystery and plot driven, is that so many of the characters in season 6 have barely any arcs or character work on the island. From what I remember, it's not just Sayid, but also Sun and Jin, and Claire, and Desmond and Penny, and pretty much anyone who's not Ben, Jack, Sawyer, Richard, or Hurley.

 

[DMC]

13 minutes ago, Caligula_K3 said:

Got to season 6 in my Lost rewatch.

Spoiler

Agree with most of what you said.  Season 5 has really grown on me throughout rewatches.  I love the episode where Hurley and Miles are arguing about time travel and after being annoyed with Hurley's questions the entire time he stumps Miles and the latter's like "Hey, ask me more questions about time travel."

I always fast forward through the flash sideways scenes.  They such so hard.  Other than that though, I don't have much of a problem with what happens in season 6 on-island - other than the grave disappointment of Across the Sea.  I really like Ben's redemption arc - that's actually probably the only part of the flash sideways scenes I'll stop and watch occasionally.  I think Sun and Jin had a good sendoff.  I don't like how much Claire is ignored, sure, but she wasn't even in Season 5.  I would have liked more Des and Penny of course, but their arc was pretty much completed with The Constant in Season 4 - one of my favorite episodes of TV ever.  

I do agree, emphatically, that Sayid gets short shrift.  And I really hate that he dies committing suicide holding a bomb.  That's just...c'mon.

 

[Caligula_K3]

48 minutes ago, DMC said:

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Agree with most of what you said.  Season 5 has really grown on me throughout rewatches.  I love the episode where Hurley and Miles are arguing about time travel and after being annoyed with Hurley's questions the entire time he stumps Miles and the latter's like "Hey, ask me more questions about time travel."

I always fast forward through the flash sideways scenes.  They such so hard.  Other than that though, I don't have much of a problem with what happens in season 6 on-island - other than the grave disappointment of Across the Sea.  I really like Ben's redemption arc - that's actually probably the only part of the flash sideways scenes I'll stop and watch occasionally.  I think Sun and Jin had a good sendoff.  I don't like how much Claire is ignored, sure, but she wasn't even in Season 5.  I would have liked more Des and Penny of course, but their arc was pretty much completed with The Constant in Season 4 - one of my favorite episodes of TV ever.  

I do agree, emphatically, that Sayid gets short shrift.  And I really hate that he dies committing suicide holding a bomb.  That's just...c'mon.

 

Spoiler

I'll be curious to see if I agree with you about Jin and Sun. I remember being very let down by their deaths and especially their roles not just in the last season, but most of season 5, which has been confirmed so far on my rewatch. Sun especially; she's set up in season 4 and early season 5 to get really involved in the plot. And then she gets to the island and all they give her to do is ask people where her husband is, follow people who claim they can reunite her with Jin, and ask questions to allow for exposition. Jin doesn't get to do much more.

For Sayid... Oh god, that death. I really don't know what they were thinking. Especially since the rewatch has confirmed that Sayid really is one of the best characters, not to mention actually competent. I have no idea why anyone would follow Jack or Locke from season 2 on when Sayid is basically right about everything.

 

[DMC]

24 minutes ago, Caligula_K3 said:

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I'll be curious to see if I agree with you about Jin and Sun. I remember being very let down by their deaths and especially their roles not just in the last season, but most of season 5, which has been confirmed so far on my rewatch. Sun especially; she's set up in season 4 and early season 5 to get really involved in the plot. And then she gets to the island and all they give her to do is ask people where her husband is, follow people who claim they can reunite her with Jin, and ask questions to allow for exposition. Jin doesn't get to do much more.

For Sayid... Oh god, that death. I really don't know what they were thinking. Especially since the rewatch has confirmed that Sayid really is one of the best characters, not to mention actually competent. I have no idea why anyone would follow Jack or Locke from season 2 on when Sayid is basically right about everything.

 

Spoiler

I agree that Sun's storyline is way too tropey or stereotypical, but she gets a lot of attention in Season 5 just by the nature of her being the one that didn't get sent back in time.  Jin, yeah, kinda gets short shrift, but he has that episode with Danielle that's pretty cool.  They always were B-level characters.  While I absolutely adore their love story, I think it's given a proper arc, and ended quite well with Jin refusing to leave her.  Very Romeo and Juliet, but every time I watch that I'm like "c'mon man you have a daughter - don't let her be raised by her mob boss grandpa!!!"

One of my favorite things about Sayid - which agreed they make him the awesome character that kicks ass and always knows what the right move should be - is actually a deleted scene from Season 2.  When Jack goes out to "the line" with the Others (Tom) to try to get Michael back, they deleted a scene where he first asks Sayid before Kate.  Sayid refuses and when Jack asks why he says something like "because we don't agree on anything.  You, Locke, me.  And that's a weakness."  Love it.

 

[Tywin et al.]

@Gaston de Foix,

I've got one for you. I'm currently watching Office Space. It's a bit of a change of pace from your other reviews given that it's a light comedy about boring, terribly run corporate structures. 

[williamjm]

I watched Jumanji : The Next Level which was as enjoyably daft as the previous film. The Rock playing a character who is basically Danny DeVito in the body of The Rock was particularly amusing.

On 8/14/2020 at 6:13 AM, Tywin et al. said:

I've got one for you. I'm currently watching Office Space. It's a bit of a change of pace from your other reviews given that it's a light comedy about boring, terribly run corporate structures. 

It is a film that I think anyone has ever worked in an office will relate to.

[Tywin et al.]

40 minutes ago, williamjm said:

It is a film that I think anyone has ever worked in an office will relate to.

You got that right, G.

[Nictarion]

Thinking about starting an animated series, and I’m currently debating between Clone Wars, Rebels, or Rick and Morty...

I should probably go with one of the Star Wars shows since I’m a big fan of the movies and games, but have never seen any of the animated stuff. 

[felice]

1 hour ago, Nictarion said:

Thinking about starting an animated series, and I’m currently debating between Clone Wars, Rebels, or Rick and Morty...

Definitely do Clone Wars first. And give it time to grow on you, it doesn't start off strong.

[Ramsay B.]

8 hours ago, Nictarion said:

Thinking about starting an animated series, and I’m currently debating between Clone Wars, Rebels, or Rick and Morty...

I should probably go with one of the Star Wars shows since I’m a big fan of the movies and games, but have never seen any of the animated stuff. 

I couldn’t get into any of the Star Wars animated stuff when I tried.

I was really late to the Rick and Morty party, as I just watched them a few months back. It lived up to the hype and I loved it... although it’s apparently getting uncool now.

On S5 of The Wire:

Spoiler

I forgot how cold-blooded Marlo got after killing Prop Joe. Basically yeah I killed him, the connect is now mine, the price has raised and fuck these dumb meetings. Punked the entire room and left. 

 

[Raja]

Watched The Bourne Supremacy last night. I've seen it a few times, and the shaky cam isn't the best, but I still think it's excellent. I much prefer these types of spy films as opposed to something like Mission Impossible ( though I admire the craft of the latter).

Not enough movies do good foot chases like the ones in Supremacy.

[polishgenius]

45 minutes ago, Raja said:

Not enough movies do good foot chases like the ones in Supremacy.

Have you seen the French movie Point Blank? The film as a whole is a competent though unremarkable thriller but there's an absolutely brilliant foot chase in the middle of it.

[SpaceChampion]

Watch Project Power last night on Netflix.  It's hand waving how the superpowers are taken from animal dna but this one guy can light himself on fire because animals can regulate themselves thermally.   

Pretty straightforward plot.  Nothing to get excited about. 

[williamjm]

Partly because of the discussion in one of the other threads on here I watched Munich for the first time since it came out at the cinema. It does feel like it's an unusual film for Spielberg, it's a bit more ambiguous than most of his work and doesn't wrap things up neatly. It does have a number of tense scenes and has some good performances. A couple of scenes didn't really work for me, cutting back and forth between Eric Bana having sex with his wife and the flashback to the athletes being massacred at the Olympics felt like they were trying to be a bit too clever with the editing and it just ended up feeling a bit silly. Despite that it's probably still one of Spielberg's best films from the past couple of decades.

[JGP]

2 hours ago, SpaceChampion said:

Watch Project Power last night on Netflix.  It's hand waving how the superpowers are taken from animal dna but this one guy can light himself on fire because animals can regulate themselves thermally.   

Totally correlates to whateverthefuck Fox did in the penultimate battle there too lol

People can miss this one and not miss it.

[Raja]

2 hours ago, polishgenius said:

Have you seen the French movie Point Blank? The film as a whole is a competent though unremarkable thriller but there's an absolutely brilliant foot chase in the middle of it.

Ooh, I'll have to check this out.

1 hour ago, williamjm said:

 A couple of scenes didn't really work for me, cutting back and forth between Eric Bana having sex with his wife and the flashback to the athletes being massacred at the Olympics felt like they were trying to be a bit too clever with the editing and it just ended up feeling a bit silly.

Yeah, that totally didn't work for me either!