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Watch, Watched, Watching : Series or Stand Alone? Home or Theater?


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49 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

It's that time of the year, which means , look for horror films you may have missed.

Black Friday, which Scream completely ripped off, is fucking fantastic. It's not actually very scary, but then again horror films rarely spook me so use your own governor. What a perfect little film. Also, I don't think I need to use spoiler tags on a movie that's nearly 50 years old, but was the first example of someone being told to get out of the house and they'll be just fine, but instead decide to both run upstairs to the killing area, and then also run into the fucking basement to escape, when the god damn front door is right there with the police trying to save your ass?

Do you mean Black Christmas?

Edit: And I agree that that is a fucking fantastic movie.

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23 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

It's that time of the year, which means , look for horror films you may have missed.

Black Friday, which Scream completely ripped off, is fucking fantastic. It's not actually very scary, but then again horror films rarely spook me so use your own governor. What a perfect little film. Also, I don't think I need to use spoiler tags on a movie that's nearly 50 years old, but was the first example of someone being told to get out of the house and they'll be just fine, but instead decide to both run upstairs to the killing area, and then also run into the fucking basement to escape, when the god damn front door is right there with the police trying to save your ass?

You mean Black Christmas, I think? With Margo Kidder? Love that movie. The 2006 remake is abysmal. The 2019 remake I remember thinking wasn't as bad but had nothing on the original. 

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I just finished The Wind. Horror/western from 2018. It was decent. Nothing spectacular, but if you like slow burn, atmospheric type horror it’s worth watching. I decided to give it a try after seeing a tag line from one reviewer of - - “Repulsion by John Ford.” Which is pretty fitting. 

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I had a vampire theme evening and we watched three films:

  • Blacula (1972): I first heard about this film shortly after I had discovered The Room (2003) for the first time. I was sure that this was going to be a film in the same mold, as the trailer is pretty dreadful. I couldn't be sure however because I couldn't find it until very recently. After almost a decade of waiting I decided to give it a go now.

    Sadly, it wasn't what I was expecting. Blacula is actually a surprisingly decent film, for a 1970s take on Dracula. There is a lot of jive music in it and some of the language and attitudes on display is so outrageous by our standards that it becomes funny again, but all in all it's a real decent film. Nothing you'll be blown away by, but also nothing hilariously awful.

    The best thing about it was William Marshall as Blackula. I think he was very commanding, with a lot of screen presence. I do think they could have dragged more out of the story however. The effects weren't great, which I can forgive because it was a film from the 1970s, but they could have done more with the story (e.g. their positioning of Blacula as hero/villain. I think a reincarnated Dracula would have been a good addition). Still, this concept (with perhaps a more appropriate name for the current age) could work very well in an updated format. Where is Jordan Peele when you need him to tamper with classic horror films?
     
  • Blade II (2002): Del Toro's surprisingly decent stab at a Blade sequel (pun intended). The action is a bit too derivative of the Matrix (especially towards the end), there are some logic fails and Donnie Yen is sadly wasted, but all in all this is one of the best Marvel sequels. It isn't particularly scary, as the only real source of horror is derived from just how early 2000s the film is (bullet time, early CGI, guyliner, leather, techno, etc.) but Wesley Snipes as Blade is just the epitome of cool. I'm really curious about Mahershala Ali's take on the character, but he's going to have to do some real heavy lifting to replace Wesley.
     
  • Nosferatu (1922): The original Nosferatu by F.W. Murnau. If Helen of Troy's face launched a thousand ships, this film launched film's obsession with the vampire, the most cinematic of monsters'.  I loved this film. It isn't scary in the modern sense, but it's just great to see the atmosphere. I can't believe this film is almost a century old. Crazy to see all those old, long-deceased people playing out such a classic story. Definitely interested in seeing more of F.W. Murnau's work.

I also watched the first season of Better Call Saul to kill time. Surprisingly enough, I'm completely hooked. Much more so than I was with Breaking Bad which took a long time for me to get into. Not sure how much that is because of what Breaking Bad has established, but it's just very skillfully done. So far, I really like what they are doing with Jimmy, so keep up the good work I'd say.

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6 hours ago, Veltigar said:

I also watched the first season of Better Call Saul to kill time. Surprisingly enough, I'm completely hooked. Much more so than I was with Breaking Bad which took a long time for me to get into. Not sure how much that is because of what Breaking Bad has established, but it's just very skillfully done. So far, I really like what they are doing with Jimmy, so keep up the good work I'd say.

I also found Better Call Saul easier to get into. I think for me it was because most of the characters are likable and relatable, which wasn't the case in Breaking Bad.

I started watching the first episodes of Only murders in the building on a whim and was pleasantly surprised. It's pretty much exactly what you'd expect from the trailer, and it works.

I also watched the second season of Motherland. I have no idea why I watched the first season, as I found it terrible. Anyway, season 2 has a completely different feel to it, and holy shit it got dark fast. First season alternated a very slow plot with long, painful times of romance and sould-searching. The writers seem to have decided that they wanted to do something else after all, and built on everything they'd thrown around in season 1 to develop a plot with horrifying twists and turns, including a torture scene that just won't end. In the end I can't tell whether I liked it or not, but it sure surprised me.
 

 

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Better Call Saul is better than Breaking Bad, as far as I'm concerned. 

Breaking Bad is telling a flashier story, and it does a great job. Better Call Saul is about how someone can sell their soul bits at a time, and they tell the story better. I assume because they learned in the course of making Breaking Bad. 

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Watched Werner Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre, starring Klaus Kinski as the vampire, Bruno Ganz as Jonathan Harker, and Isabelle Adjani as Lucy Harker (for some reason, Mina's and Lucy's names and roles are swapped). It's a tight, well-done film, with Kinski being particularly fantastic. Herzog apparently used his tactics from Aguirre to keep Kinski under control, starting fights that led to Kinski's explosive tantrums ... and then rolling camera once he wore himself out.

Also, I think I've said this before,  but will say again: Isabelle Adjani is, for my money, the most beautiful woman to ever grace film. And she is outright heroic in this (the film is very faithful to Nosferatu in this regard, although the twist at the end is something new and I thought quite an interesting turn.)

Also started watching Maid. I've always liked Margaret Qualley, and she's giving a very fine performance here. Casting Andie McDowell as her mother ... I'm surprised it's taken this long for that to happen. 

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Age of Treason (1993-4, depending on region)

So, Lindsey Davis's classical Roman novel series, featuring a detective named Falco, was a movie in 1993-4.   It took amazon prime to dig up this one.

Judging by the generality of people writing about it, whatever is wrong with it, it evidently was worth watching, if only for fun, but for other reasons too, some watchers say.  YOU decide!

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106227/reviews

 

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5 hours ago, Ran said:

Watched Werner Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre, starring Klaus Kinski as the vampire, Bruno Ganz as Jonathan Harker, and Isabelle Adjani as Lucy Harker (for some reason, Mina's and Lucy's names and roles are swapped). It's a tight, well-done film, with Kinski being particularly fantastic. Herzog apparently used his tactics from Aguirre to keep Kinski under control, starting fights that led to Kinski's explosive tantrums ... and then rolling camera once he wore himself out.

Also, I think I've said this before,  but will say again: Isabelle Adjani is, for my money, the most beautiful woman to ever grace film. And she is outright heroic in this (the film is very faithful to Nosferatu in this regard, although the twist at the end is something new and I thought quite an interesting turn.)

Also started watching Maid. I've always liked Margaret Qualley, and she's giving a very fine performance here. Casting Andie McDowell as her mother ... I'm surprised it's taken this long for that to happen. 

The same thing happened in John Badham's 1979 Dracula starring Frank Langella as Dracula, Laurence Olivier as Van Helsing, and Kate Nelligan as "Lucy" (Mina), so I guess it was just a thing they did for some reason in 1979. 

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2 hours ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

I'm just now discovering "Raised By Wolves".

This is really entertaining, I can't stop bingeing through the episodes.

SPACE RAGNAR!

I liked this, though it did kind of lose the plot towards the end of the first season.

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It must be the change in season but we’ve returned to the Great British Bake-Off (or Great British Baking Show in the US) for light viewing.  With the benefit of a gap, I’m finding Pru, Sandy and Noel to be perfectly fine.  When they were first introduced they were too jarringly not Mary, Mel or Sue.

Why is Paul giving out handshakes like candy this season?  First it was over-hyped as some special badge of honor (the show really does pander to his ego), and now it’s being debased faster than the Zimbabwean dollar.

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Geezus Taylor Sheridan is kinda good at this movie stuff.:D

Just saw the AJolie billed "Those Who Wish Me Dead."

Much better than I thought it would be (see first sentence up top), all the trailers were kinda misleading imo.

Jon Bernthal, Aidan Gillen and a few from some other Sheridan works (like Yellowstone and the villain of Wind River) are in this as well.

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Finished Netflix's Maid. All I said before about performances held, but as with too many shows these days, it was just too long. I think about six episodes would have been right, four less than what we actually got. 

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