Watch, Watched, Watching: My Queen's Gambit brings all the boys to the yard

[DireWolfSpirit]

Another thing i'll observe about Gomorrah is the absolutely unique wardrobe of the cast. 

It's both wonderous or garish depending on the scene and who is sporting it. But one thing, it is never ordinary by any stretch lol.

[Spockydog]

On 2/2/2021 at 10:34 PM, BigFatCoward said:

Watched first episode of it's a sin, god I can just tell it's going to fucking awful and bleak. Keeley Hawes being a dowdy middle aged mum is a weird look for her. 

This was amazing. Absolutely devastating, but amazing nonetheless. Quite possibly RTD's finest ever work. 

[Spockydog]

On 2/4/2021 at 9:14 PM, Ran said:

Did you finish it? If so,

  Hide contents

Was Keeley Hawes not just amazing in that final episode, when she entered the scene at the hospital? We were transfixed.

 

Yes, she was brilliant. 

One of the most surprisingly moving moments was Ritchie pulling shapes in the beams of his old mate's headlights. 

 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

It's crazy how prophetic Network is. I'd love to read a book about media at the time to see just how much they predicted correctly. 

[GallowKnight]

I took some inspiration from that Russell Crowe tweet from a few weeks back and rewatched Master and Commander. It really is a great movie. Visually spectacular and with a really strong cast surrounding the central performances of Crow and Bettany. I had totally forgotten that young Octavian from Rome was in this movie.

I also watched a movie from late last year called Hunter Hunter, a neat little thriller about a small family living a failing trapper lifestyle out in the woods. It was a good movie, with great performance from Devon Sawa and, in particular, Camille Sullivan as the parents. Plus it ends with some top notch fucked-up gory shit.

Finally I also rewatched Solo, which is still a mediocre Han Solo movie, but a decent enough Dash Rendar movie.

[Ran]

1 minute ago, GallowKnight said:

I took some inspiration from that Russell Crowe tweet from a few weeks back and rewatched Master and Commander. It really is a great movie. Visually spectacular and with a really strong cast surrounding the central performances of Crow and Bettany. I had totally forgotten that young Octavian from Rome was in this movie.

Brilliant film. Shame it did not kick off a franchise of similar quality. Bettany is not really a good choice for Dr. Maturin -- the character we see is very "Bettany-ized" so to speak, losing a lot of the flavor of O'Brian's character -- but he's good in doing what he does. Crowe was born to play Lucky Jack Aubrey.

Highly recommend Patrick O'Brian's books for anyone who hasn't read them but is interested in the subject matter of early 19th century British naval warfare. 

[Argonath Diver]

I also highly recommend O'Brian for some thoroughly fun reading. The only fiction I've ever seen my dad read. And a terrific, terrific movie to watch on the largest screen possible, with the best sound system possible. Taking my projector to my folks' place to screen  Master and Commander at maximum throw (about 192" diagonal) onto a big cleared wall was so much fun. 

Last night I watched Netflix's South Korean big sci-fi blockbuster, Space Sweepers. An oddball group of junkers who zoom around Earth's orbit to capture errant space debris are caught up in a plot about an adorable child who might actually be a nuclear bomb. The visuals were absolutely top notch. Some of the space action was a bit too frenetic and fast-cutting, but the best space sequences were really compelling. Much of the humor and characterization was somewhat lost on me, as a Westerner, but the four stars were all likable, and the possible WMD/Toddler was charming as all get out. Some of the really corny stuff I should forgive - our favorite American sci fi epic has a 2 foot tall muppet, robots made from waste cans, and wooden dialogue, but damnit it's high art. They freely swap languages mid scene, with plenty of Korean, English, French, Spanish (I think? or maybe a pidgin language just for this universe?). I don't mind subtitles, but it often didn't match up to what I understood from the spoken dialogue. No worries, I still enjoyed the film if nothing else as yet another showcase for said projector.

After that I felt like a change of direction, and Netflix in all its wisdom recommended Cool Hand Luke. One of many cinema classics that I "should" have seen at some point but never had. Paul Newman has to be one of the most magnetic actors of all time, right? Women want him, men want to be around him, all that hub-bub. What a terrific movie. Assuming it is a somewhat accurate depiction of a penal facility back then, and in the mean deep South, what a difference between modern depictions of prisons. 

[polishgenius]

Watching Cool Hand Luke nowadays is odd coz it feels like a total mashup of One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and O Brother Where Art Thou, even though it obviously existed well before either and O Brother in particular must be referencing it on purpose.

[Vaughn]

Bettany did a good job with the part but wasn't really "right" for it.  With the whole movie being set a sea, his non-naval surgeon activities where his looks might matter more aren't relevant though so I guess it didn't matter. Someone more like Damon Herriman (Dewy from 'Justified', Manson from 'Once UATI Hollywood') or Cillian Murphy as he's got the pale baleful eyes thing although I think he's too tall maybe?

[Zorral]

18 hours ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

Another thing i'll observe about Gomorrah is the absolutely unique wardrobe of the cast. 

It's both wonderous or garish depending on the scene and who is sporting it. But one thing, it is never ordinary by any stretch lol.

Ya, taste is different in  Italy, and particularly Naples.  Over-the-top to our eyes comes with this territory.  As I mentioned above, the acres and acres and acres of hideous wall paper -- to mine eyes.

But generally that always cool all black these later decades has never played much in Italy, and never did -- except for Cesare Borgia, particularly after he sickened with syphilis.  Still, when he went to France to marry a Navarrese princess, the French court of Louis XII tended to snicker at his dreadful taste in garments and decoration.  But they all agreed this guy was one heck of a fighter and battle field leader.

Anyway I finished watching the last episode last night.  Now I feel bereft.  But it stopped where it should have.  I think I saw that season 5 -- and the prospective movie -- will be on HBO here too.

 

 

 

[Martell Spy]

Quote

After that I felt like a change of direction, and Netflix in all its wisdom recommended Cool Hand Luke. One of many cinema classics that I "should" have seen at some point but never had. Paul Newman has to be one of the most magnetic actors of all time, right? Women want him, men want to be around him, all that hub-bub. What a terrific movie. Assuming it is a somewhat accurate depiction of a penal facility back then, and in the mean deep South, what a difference between modern depictions of prisons. 

 

Cool  Hand Luke is definitely on my list. Newman was before my time, but I saw Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid for my New Year's catching up on old films one year. Paul Newman is amazing. I want to see the Sting very badly when I get a minute as well.

[briantw]

I recently watched The Deer Hunter.

It's the story of a group of friends struggling to survive in the most hellish situation imaginable...Pittsburgh.  It's only by going to war and playing Russian roulette with enemy combatants that they can finally feel alive and like life has meaning.

[Nictarion]

13 minutes ago, briantw said:

I recently watched The Deer Hunter.

It's the story of a group of friends struggling to survive in the most hellish situation imaginable...Pittsburgh.  It's only by going to war and playing Russian roulette with enemy combatants that they can finally feel alive and like life has meaning.

Pittsburgh doesn’t seem very nice in any of Romero’s films either.

[Argonath Diver]

5 hours ago, Martell Spy said:

 

Cool  Hand Luke is definitely on my list. Newman was before my time, but I saw Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid for my New Year's catching up on old films one year. Paul Newman is amazing. I want to see the Sting very badly when I get a minute as well.

Oh, please do. The Sting was probably the oldest movie I put among my favorites back in my teens. It's one of the reasons I love heist flicks and late-movie plot twists so much - not to mention card shark / gambling movies. I rewatched it a year or so ago, and it was every bit as fun. 

There were absolutely scenes in O Brother that were direct riffs from Cool Hand Luke. I've seen the former about three dozen times I bet, and multiple times watching the latter last night, I immediately recognized the similarities. It was also nice to see the origin of the line, "What we've got here is a failure to communicate" - which with my addled memory, I always thought was from Catch-22, despite my having read that book and seeing the Alan Arkin movie (I never did catch the newer one with Clooney). 

I'm in a bit of a lull on binge-watching at the moment. Tomorrow night I'm going to have to scan through this thread and some similar discussions a bit; scrolling through Netflix/Amazon/Hulu titles isn't getting me to dive in to something as it sometimes does.

 

[DireWolfSpirit]

Another interesting old Newman movie was 1971's Sometimes a Great Notion

Which also had Henry and Peter Fonda in it for good measure.

[BigFatCoward]

On 2/4/2021 at 9:14 PM, Ran said:

Did you finish it? If so,

  Reveal hidden contents

Was Keeley Hawes not just amazing in that final episode, when she entered the scene at the hospital? We were transfixed.

 

Avoided hidden comments until I finished it. That really was a tour de force from her. I now understand why she took such a relatively small roll.

Even though Riche was nominally the star, I still thought it was Jill's story. Also interestingly I found out her mother in the show was the basis for her story. 

Edit, music from the 80s was definitely the best of my lifetime. 

[Vaughn]

I will admit that I never watched the movie but the 'Snowpiercer' TV show just seems baffling to me from the trailers. Like, the Riverworld series made as much sense (which wasn't *that* much sense) as this does.

Is it any good? The cast seems good but I can't get past how stupid the premise is.

[aceluby]

15 hours ago, Vaughn said:

I will admit that I never watched the movie but the 'Snowpiercer' TV show just seems baffling to me from the trailers. Like, the Riverworld series made as much sense (which wasn't *that* much sense) as this does.

Is it any good? The cast seems good but I can't get past how stupid the premise is.

My wife and I like it, and I didn't really enjoy the movie.  Premise is quite stupid, but it's something you get over pretty quickly IMO

[felice]

2 hours ago, aceluby said:

Premise is quite stupid, but it's something you get over pretty quickly IMO

Yeah, the engine that generates more power the faster it moves is just a bit of magic tech you need to accept and move on like warp drive or transporters. More problematic is that the makers have no sense of scale at all; the internal dimensions of the carriages vary wildly from set to set, and they have people apparently walking the whole length of the train (which must be at least 30km) like it's no big deal. But aside from that, it's a good show, well worth giving a try.

[Ran]

On 2/8/2021 at 8:34 AM, BigFatCoward said:

That really was a tour de force from her. I now understand why she took such a relatively small roll.

Truly was.

On 2/8/2021 at 8:34 AM, BigFatCoward said:

Even though Riche was nominally the star, I still thought it was Jill's story. Also interestingly I found out her mother in the show was the basis for her story. 

Yeah, a lot of personal history and experiences in this film. My only real complaint with the show is that Jill became so very defined by her relationship with the men, to the exclusion of seemingly having any other life. Which is a point raised in the show itself, acknowledging it, but it doesn't really go anywhere with it. A very, very small issue, IMO, compared to all the wonderful stuff in it.

On 2/8/2021 at 8:34 AM, BigFatCoward said:

Edit, music from the 80s was definitely the best of my lifetime. 

This is unimpeachably true.