Watch, Watched, Watching: The cancellations continue

[Caligula_K3]

4 hours ago, DMC said:

Eh, if it's not your cup of tea after 6 episodes I can't really argue it gets significantly better after that, IIRC.  Although I do think the second season was my favorite.  Before moving on I would suggest skipping ahead to the episode "Modern Warfare."  It's definitely worth the ~20 minutes.

I disagree- I liked Community from the get-go, but I think it morphed into a very different and much better show midway into the first season. I agree that checking out Modern Warfare is worth it, and also the Goodfellas parody episode about chicken, and maybe Romantic Expressionism for a more grounded episode. Those three episodes give a good sense of what the show's humour is going to mainly be. If they're not feeling it after those three episodes, I agree, probably not worth watching any further.

[WarGalley]

I watched Kingsman: The Golden Circle. I've never seen these movies and wasn't sure if this was the first movie or the second.. but the first 10 minutes looked so absurdly wretched that I said "screw it, I'll probably turn it off pretty soon anyway." But then they cut to Poppyland and Julianne Moore's villainess character "Poppy" and things took a turn. The absurdly wretched became absurdly hilarious. This was quite a good movie if you don't take it seriously and just throw popcorn at it. It reminded me of an over the top James Bond satire crossed with Starship Troopers. I especially loved the writing around the villain's plot and how 

Spoiler

the heroes have to stop the legalization of drugs. "Save Lives! Legalize!" I was very amused with that, the Trump and Hilary-like characters in the White House, and the global pandemic afflicting a vaccine-desperate world. Watching this movie now was awesome timing on my part.  

A 51% rating on RT seems too low for a movie that's more cartoon and comedy than anything else. Looking forward to the original movie next.

[williamjm]

1 hour ago, WarGalley said:

I watched Kingsman: The Golden Circle. I've never seen these movies and wasn't sure if this was the first movie or the second.. but the first 10 minutes looked so absurdly wretched that I said "screw it, I'll probably turn it off pretty soon anyway." But then they cut to Poppyland and Julianne Moore's villainess character "Poppy" and things took a turn. The absurdly wretched became absurdly hilarious. This was quite a good movie if you don't take it seriously and just throw popcorn at it. It reminded me of an over the top James Bond satire crossed with Starship Troopers. I especially loved the writing around the villain's plot and how 

  Hide contents

the heroes have to stop the legalization of drugs. "Save Lives! Legalize!" I was very amused with that, the Trump and Hilary-like characters in the White House, and the global pandemic afflicting a vaccine-desperate world. Watching this movie now was awesome timing on my part.  

A 51% rating on RT seems too low for a movie that's more cartoon and comedy than anything else. Looking forward to the original movie next.

I liked the original a lot more than the sequel. While neither film took itself too seriously I thought the second film was getting a bit too ridiculous at times.

[Mexal]

2 hours ago, williamjm said:

I liked the original a lot more than the sequel. While neither film took itself too seriously I thought the second film was getting a bit too ridiculous at times.

The original Kingsman was 50x better than the sequel.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

23 minutes ago, Mexal said:

The original Kingsman was 50x better than the sequel.

Agreed. The first one, while being a film I won't go out of my way to see again, was enjoyable and entertaining. The second one....maybe it's okay if you're drunk and stoned. Maybe. 

[WarGalley]

21 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

 The second one....maybe it's okay if you're drunk and stoned. Maybe. 

 I had indeed partaken in a few beers and some fine California herb. No regrets.

[Heartofice]

9 hours ago, WarGalley said:

I watched Kingsman: The Golden Circle. I've never seen these movies and wasn't sure if this was the first movie or the second.. but the first 10 minutes looked so absurdly wretched that I said "screw it, I'll probably turn it off pretty soon anyway." But then they cut to Poppyland and Julianne Moore's villainess character "Poppy" and things took a turn. The absurdly wretched became absurdly hilarious. This was quite a good movie if you don't take it seriously and just throw popcorn at it. It reminded me of an over the top James Bond satire crossed with Starship Troopers. I especially loved the writing around the villain's plot and how 

  Reveal hidden contents

the heroes have to stop the legalization of drugs. "Save Lives! Legalize!" I was very amused with that, the Trump and Hilary-like characters in the White House, and the global pandemic afflicting a vaccine-desperate world. Watching this movie now was awesome timing on my part.  

A 51% rating on RT seems too low for a movie that's more cartoon and comedy than anything else. Looking forward to the original movie next.

The sequel is one of the most appalling movies I’ve ever seen. If the Elton John stuff wasn’t bad enough, that  scene in  the festival is just jaw dropping .. in a bad way. What a lazy, poorly considered cash grab!

[polishgenius]

Yeah the second movie is pretty dreadful. Even setting aside the uncharacteristic lean into 'fuck bad taste policing I'll do problematic if I want!'  (uncharacteristic in that Vaughn usually reigns in Mark Millar's worse tendencies when adapting his work not defends them) the action was lazy, the characters were less likeable and the plot bloated.

The prequel, while I don't think it's at all necessary, at least looks like it's going back to basics, albeit very explosive basics.

[Heartofice]

The first movie was a cheeky wink at bad taste and over the top violence. The sequel was like your drunk uncle making bad jokes at Christmas. It just tried to shock without any self awareness. It was all just so lazy.

’hey why don’t we get Elton John.. wouldn’t that be funny!’

’eh.. yeah guess so..’

’and then let’s put a tracking device up a lady’s vagina!! Har har!’

‘Haha.. you said vagina!’

Maybe they put the movie in front of some drunk 14 year old boys and got a good reaction. That’s all I can imagine 

[Annara Snow]

On 11/20/2020 at 2:08 PM, BigFatCoward said:

S3 of hannibal is the biggest drop off in quality I can think of for any TV show. And I'm including the last season of GOT. 

 

 I had issues with the first half of season 3 of Hannibal, but to call that the 'biggest drop of quality' ever and compare it to the likes of GoT is ridiculous..It's not probably not even top 20. And the second half of season 3 was good.

Although, GoT's biggest drop of quality was with season 5, so season 8 already had a poor starting point.

The biggest sudden drop in quality was the final season of The 100 - it had issues before, but season 6 was really good and made me hopeful the ending would be satisfactory, before the show self-destructed.

Since Twin Peaks was mentioned, it had a huge drop of quality in season 2 after the storyline of Laura's murder was wrapped up and the show turned into just a very bad soap, but it picked up again with the season 2 finale. The revival was weird AF but interesting - though I'm not sure how I feel about the ending.

The X-Files declined in quality after season 6 and went on for far too long - season 7 was very bad and lackluster; season 8 was better, but the mythology was a mess at that point and so was the ending, and the less said about the revival seasons, the better.

[SpaceChampion]

In the past week watched Brave New World, The Queen's Gambit, and the The Crown. 

Now rewatching The Witcher while looking at a map trying to pay attention to the geography and remember the names of all these kingdoms.

[A True Kaniggit]

25 minutes ago, SpaceChampion said:

Now rewatching The Witcher while looking at a map trying to pay attention to the geography and remember the names of all these kingdoms.

How is it on rewatch?

[Heartofice]

Finished second season of End of the F***ing world. 
 

My initial fears were misplaced, I still enjoyed this season. Once the two leads came back into the show the magic returned.

Having said that,  not as good as first season. I get what they were going for this time round and the point they were trying to make, but the introduction of Bonnie didn’t work for me. It felt like a device to get things to happen and she wasn’t a great character, she didn’t feel real in the way others did.

Still first season maybe one of my fave shows ever. Rarely cared so much for fictional characters 

[SpaceChampion]

5 hours ago, A True Kaniggit said:

How is it on rewatch?

It holds up.  Totally rewatchable.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

6 hours ago, SpaceChampion said:

In the past week watched Brave New World

I read the book recently and wanted to check this out, but I haven't heard many good reviews. Plus don't you have to get Apple's streaming service to see it?

[SpaceChampion]

1 hour ago, Tywin et al. said:

I read the book recently and wanted to check this out, but I haven't heard many good reviews. Plus don't you have to get Apple's streaming service to see it?

I'd say it's a good adaptation.

I think some of those reviewers might be stricken by the herd mentality, because they never really explain their thoughts on it.  "Oh it doesn't go deeper than what it showed" is a particularly vapid comment when the reviewer doesn't provide any example of what they think would be "deeper".  I think it does the book justice.

It's on Peacock in the U.S. but Showcase in Canada.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

21 hours ago, Heartofice said:

The first movie was a cheeky wink at bad taste and over the top violence. The sequel was like your drunk uncle making bad jokes at Christmas. It just tried to shock without any self awareness. It was all just so lazy.

’hey why don’t we get Elton John.. wouldn’t that be funny!’

’eh.. yeah guess so..’

’and then let’s put a tracking device up a lady’s vagina!! Har har!’

‘Haha.. you said vagina!’

Maybe they put the movie in front of some drunk 14 year old boys and got a good reaction. That’s all I can imagine 

The first movie was a Star Wars remake.

The second movie was... yeah...

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

I'm watching Dolittle. "How bad could it be?"

It's so fucking terrible. It's actually funny how terrible it is. How is this directed by the same person who directed Syriana?

Oh good! A dragon just showed up. I am now hate-watching Dolittle.

Why didn't they just walk away? Why didn't they all just walk away?

[polishgenius]

It's amazing how no-one who adapts Dolittle seems to actually have read the books and understand their charm and shit. And like, okay, the books do have some massively racist elements in some of them, but adapting (most of) them well without those would not be a problem at all if you're gonna make them into films. But turning them into Eddie Murphy comedies or whatever the hell this was supposed to be, some kinda Pirates of the Caribbean equivalent? I dunno. Anyway, not necessary. Whimsy, please!

[Nictarion]

I picked up the Criterion blu ray release of Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai. Rewatching it for the first time in years (great movie btw) and I just spotted a young Jamie Hector (Marlo from The Wire) as “gangsta in red.”