Watch, Watching, Watch -- Hold 'em, Fold 'em, When to Walk Away

[Teng Ai Hui]

4 hours ago, RhaenysBee said:

I’m watching Catch Me If You Can it’s beautiful and heartbreaking. 

That's one of my favorite movies.  Frank Abagnale's autobiography of the same name is an interesting read.  Also, Abagnale was always entertaining when he was a guest on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

[Corvinus85]

Episode 3 of Arcane. Holy shit! I know this is a steampunk story based on a mobile video game, but I can't help be reminded of Scott Lynch's Gentleman Bastard series.

[TheLastWolf]

6 hours ago, RhaenysBee said:

I’m watching Catch Me If You Can it’s beautiful and heartbreaking. 

I watched the under-rated Blood diamond for Leo's 47th

[dbunting]

Just watched Promising Young Woman. Very dark, not feel good movie. I did like the ending though, tied things up in a way that stayed true to the character.

Spoiler

She and Ryan were all happy and shit and i checked and it was a little past half way of the movie and it dawned on me that he was going to end up involved in rape.

 

[RhaenysBee]

6 hours ago, Teng Ai Hui said:

That's one of my favorite movies.  Frank Abagnale's autobiography of the same name is an interesting read.  Also, Abagnale was always entertaining when he was a guest on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

Thanks for the recommendation, I might as well check it out. Ever since I had listened to the book about Theranos (Bad Blood by John Carreyrou) I’ve been trying to find something similar, white-collar soft true crime. 

4 hours ago, TheLastWolf said:

I watched the under-rated Blood diamond for Leo's 47th

As a teen I had rather awful prejudices against Leo, because he was, is really, such a pretty-boy, it seemed unlikely that someone should be both so talented and so handsome. I think it was Shutter Island or Inception that changed my mind about him. Never seen Blood Diamond, definitely should watch. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

I have not seen it yet though I plan to once I can rent it, but how do people feel about a movie like Spencer? Personally I enjoy fictionalized takes on historical figures, however, should film makers be doing that with someone who died somewhat recently, whose immediate family is still alive?

[Zorral]

Re-watched Blade Runner 2049 over the course of 3 evenings.  The screen contained quite a bit of his Dune-type topos, right? the brutal monumental architecture, the rather amazing machinery -- the quite plausible looking/behaving flying cars in BR, as the thopters in Dune -- a clandestine rebellion brewing, the planetary toxic atmosphere and environment, the Big Bad of Corp sitting in pools of water in BR, the Big Bad Harkonnen sitting in pool of whatever that stuff was, the unreliable guide of memory - vision.  So much.

One could even make connections, though perhaps with some straining with the themeatic content: Replicants vs real boy > Pinocchio whose wood carver father makes him (those carved wood animals, the Trojan horse of memory > golems, bene geserit, etc.).

This is how I have avoided finishing watching Narcos Mexico season 3.  I just ... can't.  It's hard when one knows so very very very certainly there is no victory of any kind to combat any of it, but all of it from the killings of the women to the ramping up of the cartels and the miseries of the Mexican people -- and people everywhere, really -- will only get worse and worse.

[JGP]

3 hours ago, Zorral said:

This is how I have avoided finishing watching Narcos Mexico season 3.  I just ... can't.  It's hard when one knows so very very very certainly there is no victory of any kind to combat any of it, but all of it from the killings of the women to the ramping up of the cartels and the miseries of the Mexican people -- and people everywhere, really -- will only get worse and worse.

The showrunners definitely romanticized Amado, wasn't much in there about him ordering the deaths of 400 [+?] people. 

[DMC]

6 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Personally I enjoy fictionalized takes on historical figures, however, should film makers be doing that with someone who died somewhat recently, whose immediate family is still alive?

If not how is Peter Morgan supposed to feed his family?

[Ran]

6 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

I have not seen it yet though I plan to once I can rent it, but how do people feel about a movie like Spencer? Personally I enjoy fictionalized takes on historical figures, however, should film makers be doing that with someone who died somewhat recently, whose immediate family is still alive?

If you can do a film about someone still alive, I don't see why you can't make a film about someone who has recently passed away with still-living family members. 

They made A Mighty Heart five years after Daniel Pearl's death.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 hour ago, Ran said:

If you can do a film about someone still alive, I don't see why you can't make a film about someone who has recently passed away with still-living family members. 

They made A Mighty Heart five years after Daniel Pearl's death.

If someone is alive they have the ability to express how they feel about it. Fictionalize the mental state of a recently deceased person could be really upsetting to their family. 

[WarGalley]

A Back to the Future marathon was playing as I was flipping through channels. Couldn't change the channel. Greatest trilogy ever made.

[Fez]

Saw the next 3 episodes of Arcane, which dropped on Netflix last night. Still really good, but maybe not quite as strong as the first 3 episodes. EXCEPT, for the frankly bizarre decision to make that Imagine Dragons' song diegetic by animating the band and having them playing in a bar. It was a very short scene, but took me out of show entirely for that brief bit.

Something else I realized is that the animation style, especially of faces, heavily reminds of the Dishonored video games. Dishonored was created by Arkane Studios, which is located in Lyon, France; and Arcane was created by Fortiche, which is located in Paris, France. So now I'm wondering if this is a common French animation style; if so, I need to find some more French animation because I really like the look of it.

[TheLastWolf]

Sunday Funday tomorrow!

Time for some long unwatched PTA

Inherent Vice

[Werthead]

Apple+'s Invasion is splendidly bad enough that I decided to catch up with the last three episodes and was rewarded with a surprisingly good mini horror movie in episode six, with the most tedious bunch of characters in the show playing hide-and-seek with an alien in a house in the middle of nowhere. That was really well-done. Perhaps Simon Kinsberg would be much better-regarded if his scripts didn't have any dialogue in them? *ponders*

As with the whole show, the Japanese and Afghanistan storylines are pretty effective. Shiori Kutsuna is the show's MVP at this point (after the show made a huge deal about Sam Neill and Rinko Kikuchi and then benching them after just one episode, though Kikuchi has had a couple of flashbacks) with a terrific performance, but Shamier Anderson is also great.

The whole "bunch of London kids stuck in the countryside" story has potential, but collapses under any kind of logical scrutiny: unless they've driven into the middle of the Highlands, there's simply no way they could spend hours and days traipsing across Britain without bumping into a single other living soul.

21 hours ago, Fez said:

Saw the next 3 episodes of Arcane, which dropped on Netflix last night. Still really good, but maybe not quite as strong as the first 3 episodes. EXCEPT, for the frankly bizarre decision to make that Imagine Dragons' song diegetic by animating the band and having them playing in a bar. It was a very short scene, but took me out of show entirely for that brief bit.

Something else I realized is that the animation style, especially of faces, heavily reminds of the Dishonored video games. Dishonored was created by Arkane Studios, which is located in Lyon, France; and Arcane was created by Fortiche, which is located in Paris, France. So now I'm wondering if this is a common French animation style; if so, I need to find some more French animation because I really like the look of it.

Interestingly, strong rumours floating around that Netflix are developing a Dishonored show, possibly with Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul/Lord of the Rings producer Gennifer Hutchison, though the rumours seemed to suggest live-action. But animated could work, maybe even better, given the game's stylised look.

[Corvinus85]

21 hours ago, Fez said:

Saw the next 3 episodes of Arcane, which dropped on Netflix last night. Still really good, but maybe not quite as strong as the first 3 episodes. EXCEPT, for the frankly bizarre decision to make that Imagine Dragons' song diegetic by animating the band and having them playing in a bar. It was a very short scene, but took me out of show entirely for that brief bit.

Something else I realized is that the animation style, especially of faces, heavily reminds of the Dishonored video games. Dishonored was created by Arkane Studios, which is located in Lyon, France; and Arcane was created by Fortiche, which is located in Paris, France. So now I'm wondering if this is a common French animation style; if so, I need to find some more French animation because I really like the look of it.

I watched that episode last night and had to chuckle. For me, it wasn't the band itself that took me out, it's that show doesn't seem to care about technological consistency, ie, the band with electric guitars in a steampunk world.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Finally got to see No Time to Die. I very much enjoyed it despite there being some legitimate flaws. The film is too long for starters, the villain's main plan doesn't make a lot of sense and some character arcs seem rushed, which again is odd for a movie that's a bit bloated. All that said, it's a beautifully shot film, Bond's arc is very well done as is most of the close figures around him, it's a very fitting end for the Craig run and I really liked the new 007. Overall it was not as good as Casino Royale, but how could it be? That's a top 100 film in my book. I do think it's on par with Skyfall though.

Also, Ana de Armas is stunning, both to look at and for the performance she gave. If I was a Hollyweird producer I'd be trying to cook up an action film for her to star in.

[Larry of the Lawn]

Very excited for Succession tonight.  I had insomnia pretty bad the last few weeks and rewatched the first two seasons.  Noticed so many little things I'd missed, can't think of another show where the characters' reaction shots and glances at each other have so much depth.  And of course it helps that it's all hilarious.  

What We Do in the Shadows is probably the only show that makes me laugh out loud more.  

[Rippounet]

2 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Finally got to see No Time to Die. I very much enjoyed it despite there being some legitimate flaws. The film is too long for starters, the villain's main plan doesn't make a lot of sense and some character arcs seem rushed, which again is odd for a movie that's a bit bloated. All that said, it's a beautifully shot film, Bond's arc is very well done as is most of the close figures around him, it's a very fitting end for the Craig run and I really liked the new 007. Overall it was not as good as Casino Royale, but how could it be? That's a top 100 film in my book. I do think it's on par with Skyfall though.

Also, Ana de Armas is stunning, both to look at and for the performance she gave. If I was a Hollyweird producer I'd be trying to cook up an action film for her to star in.

Hey, I watched it this weekend (friday) too!

A bit long, yeah, but very entertaining. They subverted an expectation or two, didn't they?

2 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

 the villain's main plan doesn't make a lot of sense

That was the best part!

Spoiler

They didn't even pretend to have a credible villain. I absolutely loved it when Fiennes says "to protect... this... bla bla bla, liberty..."
Lots of small details like that were really funny.

 

[RhaenysBee]

I’m watching The Gentleman. I just don’t think Guy Ritchie is my cup of tea. I mean objectively I don’t have a lot to complain about with this film, but it bores the life out of me and fails to captivate on every level. This was the case with King Arthur, Snatch and Uncle as well.