Watch, Watched, Watching: The cancellations continue

[Veltigar]

On 11/30/2020 at 5:51 PM, polishgenius said:

 
I've seen this so I can't really argue.

That is the weirdest video I have seen in a while, but unsurprising given it is Japanese XD

17 hours ago, DMC said:

Agreed entirely.  In fact I'd argue it's one of the most underrated as far as "all-time classics" go.  Man, haven't seen it in years.  Hm..well shit, doesn't appear to be streaming free on anything.  Damn Hearsts.

Yeah, I can get that. It hardly as the same amount of buzz to it as some other films of the period. Compare the reception of this film vs. the gushing about The Third Man and Citizen Kane and it is almost as if this film doesn't exist by comparison.

18 hours ago, Ran said:

@Veltigar

Yeah, fantastic movie, totally ahead of its time in some ways: Welles's Hank Quinlan is an antagonist for the ages, his physical presence oozing an air of gross corruption. And the whole motel sequence with Leigh's character, Susie, felt incredibly harrowing to the point where I couldn't really believe it was in a film from 60 years ago.

Welles really is a wonderful actor. Definitely a competitor for GOAT, totally agree on everything you said about Quinlan.

With the motel sequence, do you mean the 

Spoiler

abduction scene or the murder that followed it?

For me both were great scenes, although I do think the abduction scene showed its age a bit. Not in the way it was depicted, because that was scary as hell, but with how they followed up on that by saying that nothing bad happened. It felt to me like they were implying a gang rape, but they sort of backtracked from that.

 

18 hours ago, Ran said:

He completed The Trial and Chimes at Midnight afterward, but yes, he had a lot of unfinished projects that followed Touch of Evil.

Not sure about The Trial, but Chimes at Midnight isn't really finished right. Doesn't Welles himself do a lot of the character voices? It's a technicality of course, as the film is very watchable but I think it is mostly nearly finished and not yet fully completed  

[BigFatCoward]

Rewatching entourage. It's very easy viewing, not surprised that non of the cast went on to bigger things, the acting is clearly the weakest part. 

Also watching we are the champions, seen the cheese rolling, chilli eating and yo yo episodes so far. I love it, mad bastards are the best. 

[Ran]

15 minutes ago, Veltigar said:

With the motel sequence, do you mean the 

Spoiler

First one. Yes, the implication of what was going to happen was definitely in there, which is what was so shocking... even if he pulled back and didn't actually do it as a step too far.

Quote

but Chimes at Midnight isn't really finished right. Doesn't Welles himself do a lot of the character voices? It's a technicality of course, as the film is very watchable but I think it is mostly nearly finished and not yet fully completed  

It's finished in that all the filming was done and the editing was complete and it was released. The redubbing had to do with, on one hand, several actors with heavy accents getting dubbed over, and on the other because the audio from the original filming was in many places unusable and so they had to re-record it and because of time constraints Welles and some other performers dubbed over several other performances. 

But the finished film was presented at Cannes and all. Same with The Trial, it was completed and edited and eventually released. But it's true that Welles tended to attract all kinds of problems for himself with his filming approach and his independence leading to funding sometimes falling through, especially in the later years, which provided complications. Speaking of Welles and investors, I'm reminded of this story...

 

[ljkeane]

I just watched the last episode of The Undoing. A bit of disappointment.

Spoiler

I watched the whole series waiting for there to be some sort of twist but, no, the obvious suspect did it and Nicole Kidman's character was in fact being stupid by having her dad pay for his defence. Ok, that's probably fairly realistic but it doesn't make for a particularly interesting story.

 

[RhaenysBee]

I finished Roadkill at last. 
What little plot there is keeps falling apart but I did grow fond of characters, the overall atmosphere and the sublime acting. I would watch more of this if only there was a story. 

[Veltigar]

Saw the original Mad Max just now. Weirdly enough, I thought I had already seen it, but turns out that I have zero recollection of any of the scenes in it. It's an entirely different film to its sequels (much more civilization is left here) and contains far less action. 

In truth, I think it took a long while to get going, while resolving the conflict in the end rather quickly. The shots in the movie and the effects mostly still hold up however, which is a feat given how cheaply it was made. It helps that Miller is smart and implies a lot of the violence. That saves money, allows the audience to do the imagining and has also contributed for the movie not looking very dated I guess.

I'm not to keen on many of the things it had to say (I always feel a bit queasy glorifying vigilantes) and some of the things in it don't make much sense 

Spoiler

e.g. I'm still surprised how Johny the Boy got out of jail. Not only is there some horrible slut shaming (I think the rape victim was referred to as "the ride of the town" in that one scene), but I'm also surprised that none of the town folk or the girl would come forward with charges. The biker guys aren't that big or well-armed of a gang to have that effect on people I feel. 

 but all in all still a very decent flick. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Mad Max is a lot like Rocky in that several later additions in the series are better than the original. It may actually be the weakest entry. I'd go Furiosa Road > Road Warrior> THUNDERDOME!!! > Mad Max, but the last two are a toss up. The Rocky series is Rocky 3 > Rocky 4 > Creed > Rocky 2 > the rest, and the order doesn't matter, but give it to Rocky because reasons. 

[Argonath Diver]

I'm trying to enjoy Letterkenny, after having it heavily recommended. I'd say about 80% of the jokes are zooming right over my non-Canadian head. Some bits have really cracked me up, though, so I'll stick with it. Definitely seems to be a love-it-or-leave-it sort of show.

[Heartofice]

I remember as a kid taping Mad Max off the tv and eagerly trying to watch it the next morning! I think I must have seen thunder dome first or at least was highly aware of Mad Max at that point.

Wow was I disappointed. It’s a really budget movie and barely feels like any of the other movies in the series. It is quite slow, it looks cheap, there isn’t much action and it really isn’t sci fi at all. At a time where I was scrabbling around trying to get hold of the tiny amount of sci fi movies around, I was pretty pissed off at this movie.

In retrospect I have  a lot of respect for it now, but I can’t say I’ve ever enjoyed it

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

OK thread,

There is a documentary that was produced by the TRIO network back in the early 2000's Called "The Blockbuster Imperative".  

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0377527/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt

It was narrated by Mark Hamill and features several big names in hollywood at the time. 

I literally can't find it anywhere. No one streams it that I can tell; no DVD/Blu Ray, VHS; no clips uploaded to youtube; nothing. Trio produced several really good entertainment documentaries back in the day but this one seems to have dropped of the face of the earth.

?

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

I might have missed something.

For all the back and forth about Orson Wells, no one has mentioned "F for fake". It's a kind of long form film essay Wells did back in the '70's. It's fantastic.  I think you can still find it on youtube.

[SpaceChampion]

Started watching Trickster from CBC.  I don't know the indigenous Canadian myths (Haida, I think) nor the books it is based off of, but it interesting and viscerally compelling so far.  Very Twin Peaks vibe, crossed with Mr. Robot in a weird way.  It's a short 6 episodes for the first season.

[Zorral]

On 12/1/2020 at 12:58 PM, ljkeane said:

I just watched the last episode of The Undoing. A bit of disappointment.

 

[TheLastWolf]

Watched Sean Connery in Entrapment 

No comments 

Watched Spielberg's Minority Report 

All praise 

[dbunting]

Finished watching Justified. I enjoyed it for what it was. As with most cop type series you have to excuse the fact that the lead character pulls their gun more in one episode than most would in an entire career let alone how many kills he racks up. The ending is pretty good, pretty close to what I thought it would be. 

The last two seasons seemed a little sloppier. One character had a bullet to the chest and it was a very big deal due to it being a main character, then in S5 or 6 she had on a few outfits showing the area and it was gone, only to reappear later in S6. Also we have a main character get shot in the chest for the second time in the series, and he is up and around a day later. Felt really rushed.

All in all a good series that was worth the watch.

Spoiler

I like that they didn't let Raylin and Winnona live happily ever after, that wouldn't have felt right. The end with Raylin finding Ava, I had a feeling she would have a kid, because that is a reason to make Raylin leave her alone. He may have anyway but the kid sealed the deal. But c'mon, did she have to button the kids shirt up like Boyds~!? And the last scene being Raylin and Boyd at the prison discussing Ava was done right.

[Kalbear]

HBO Max just decided to...I don't even know. Wow.

 

 

[Fez]

14 minutes ago, Kalbear Total Landscaping said:

HBO Max just decided to...I don't even know. Wow.

 

 

YOLO. Guess that's one way to try to goose HBO Max sign-ups.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

6 minutes ago, Fez said:

YOLO. Guess that's one way to try to goose HBO Max sign-ups.

Or it's an acknowledgment that life will not be going back to normal until further notice.

The United States cracked 200K documented cases/day yesterday with over 2800 deaths according to Worldometers.com. Things are trending entirely the wrong way to even think about reopening theaters.

[Fez]

7 minutes ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

Or it's an acknowledgment that life will not be going back to normal until further notice.

The United States cracked 200K documented cases/day yesterday with over 2800 deaths according to Worldometers.com. Things are trending entirely the wrong way to even think about reopening theaters.

Right now, absolutely. But it seems like things should be mostly back to normal by late summer/early fall, if not sooner. A movie that would be released next fall would probably fine in theaters-only.

[SpaceChampion]

Finished off Trickster season one, and enjoyed it.  It's a nice little show.