Watch, Watching, Watch -- Why do movies have to end so soon?

[Whiskeyjack]

20 hours ago, Kalibuster said:

It's remarkable how much fun peacemaker is. Definitely got the James Gunn vibe.

It's so good.  Can't remember the last show that made me laugh so much.

Eagly is the best.

[Ramsay B.]

12 minutes ago, Nictarion said:

Not so recent (2013) but Joe is a really good one, too. 

Good call. I forgot about that one. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

22 hours ago, Ramsay B. said:

Color Out of Space

 

22 hours ago, briantw said:

Never heard of the latter, but I'll look it up.

And presses play. Will report back. 

ETA: I have a hard time calling Color Out of Space a good movie. It's certainly unique, so if you like odd Nic Cage movies and don't mind spending a few bucks, go for it. If not, pass. 

[briantw]

2 hours ago, Whiskeyjack said:

It's so good.  Can't remember the last show that made me laugh so much.

Eagly is the best.

Loved this scene:

 

[Zorral]

This is quite something, Sundance Documentaries de-erasing history:

https://www.vox.com/22911366/tantura-descendant-riotsville-downfall-review-documentary-sundance

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Read the pieces in the New York Magazine about this Anna Delvey when they came out.  And like all journalism now it seems, the fictionalized tv show (Shonda Rhimes production), Inventing Anna, is at least as much about the ‘journalist’ first person personal blah blah blah.  Will we ever find out who this scammer was? It’s awfully long – each episode 60 minutes, and there are 9 of them.  Will I watch all of it?  I have been enjoying the New York City it showed us in the first two episodes -- most of which I know well. There are others though, that I have only a passing familiarity with, such as those most opulent, exclusive because so very expensive, restaurants.  This means having been a guest occasionally of those who could pay for such a thing, as New York Film Festival dignitaries and, for 'foreign films,' probably the film's nation's art and film institute and / or something else connected to the nation's embassy. Something like that!  The accent Delvey-Sorokin manufactured for herself was just so ludicrously right, I love listening to her character talk.

 

[Werthead]

Just wrapped up Wellington Paranormal. Brilliantly funny, much closer to fellow What We Do in the Shadows spin-off, er, What We Do in the Shadows in quality than I was expecting. I particularly liked the subtle implication that the repeated vampire mind-wipes in the original movie are responsible for Minogue being such an incurious doughnut about the paranormal stuff they encounter, and possibly O'Leary's similar unflappability (though she's much more on the ball). Some of the gags are superb, especially 

Spoiler

the dyslexic mall manager inadvertently hiring Satan for Christmas and O'Leary's calm to camera spiel about Satan being around children "especially at Christmas" is "not optimum." Then the revelation that Satan moonlights as a "dubstep DJ" and gets offended when everyone tells him that dubstep is over.

Back to Succession for a bit. Reading a great book on the making of Battlestar Galactica (both versions) at the moment, so thinking of a neo-BSG rewatch.

[Kalbear]

The Marshawn ep of Murderville was absolutely everything it was hyped up to be and holy crap does he need to be in everything 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

The Good The Bad And The Ugly. 

First time in years. Still amazing. Cinema, Mellon Farmer!

[SpaceChampion]

7 hours ago, Zorral said:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Read the pieces in the New York Magazine about this Anna Delvey when they came out.  And like all journalism now it seems, the fictionalized tv show (Shonda Rhimes production), Inventing Anna, is at least as much about the ‘journalist’ first person personal blah blah blah.  Will we ever find out who this scammer was? It’s awfully long – each episode 60 minutes, and there are 9 of them.  Will I watch all of it?  I have been enjoying the New York City it showed us in the first two episodes -- most of which I know well. There are others though, that I have only a passing familiarity with, such as those most opulent, exclusive because so very expensive, restaurants.  This means having been a guest occasionally of those who could pay for such a thing, as New York Film Festival dignitaries and, for 'foreign films,' probably the film's nation's art and film institute and / or something else connected to the nation's embassy. Something like that!  The accent Delvey-Sorokin manufactured for herself was just so ludicrously right, I love listening to her character talk.

 

I've been watching.  On to episode 5 now.  When I found out the DJ party guy she was crashing with was a pretty infamous grifter himself, it was pretty hilarious.

[briantw]

4 hours ago, Kalibuster said:

The Marshawn ep of Murderville was absolutely everything it was hyped up to be and holy crap does he need to be in everything 

He was wonderful.  I'm sure they did plenty of editing to make it work, but I'm glad they did because he was great.

[briantw]

Finally got around to watching The Witcher.  The first season was very much a mixed bag.  I remember trying to get through the first episode with the girlfriend back when it came out and we both hated it.  I tried to get into that episode at least two more times and felt similarly.  I finally forced myself to push through and it definitely gets better, but the second season is where the show really takes off. 

I'm not sure I've ever seen such a vast improvement from one season to the next.  The constant time jumps in the first season made the show a jumbled mess, made doubly annoying because the time jumps weren't labeled on screen and most of the principle characters don't age.  

The second season adds a lot more political intrigue, doesn't have the "monster of the week" feel the first season has, and is more cohesive and more interesting.  

Henry Cavill is great throughout, though.  He is Geralt from the games.  Same voice, same look.  You can tell he's a fan of the games because he just perfectly apes the vocal performance of Doug Cockle. 

[Ramsay B.]

On 2/12/2022 at 12:30 AM, Tywin et al. said:

 

ETA: I have a hard time calling Color Out of Space a good movie. It's certainly unique, so if you like odd Nic Cage movies and don't mind spending a few bucks, go for it. If not, pass. 

I think Mandy is easily the better of the two that I mentioned… but they are both on the weird side and definitely not everyone’s cup of tea. They have substance though and that was the point.

[Isis]

Watched a less than mediocre 2011 film called Ironclad last night. It was sold to me as stylised medieval ultraviolence, like 300 mets Braveheart. It's too long, too predictable and barely engaging. It's got James Purefoy, Brian Cox, Charles Dance, Paul Giamatti, and Derek Jacobi in it and it's still extremely disappointing. And it's nearly two hours long!

Back to finishing off Squid Game then I guess.

 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

Bigbug on Netflix.

Very offbeat French robot apocalypse movie. Sort of gave me some Futurama vibes. Very funny. I liked it a lot. 

[Isis]

Saw Legally Blonde for the first time today, while I was in bed feeling poorly. Super wholesome. 

[Veltigar]

Been a while since I had something to post about, but I watched the original A Nightmare on Elm Street yesterday. I guess I must have seen this as a kid, because some things seemed familiar but all in all it was unfamiliar enough to feel new. I actually thought it was pretty cool.

The concept of Freddy Krueger as laid out in this is quite scary. They turned him into a joke in the sequels but like It Follows, the core concept around which this film is build is just amazing. Imagine never being able to sleep soundly. That would be one of the worst fictional universes to be stuck in.

Apart from the concept, I also liked the use of colour and sound in the film. It was very evocative and I like that in my horror films. The acting was utter dross, but I could live with that given how strong everything else was.

For the rest I watched episode 4 of Peacemaker. I feel like it is picking up some steam now and am curious to see where it goes.

Also watched four episodes of the MacGruber TV show. So far I find it a bit odd. There are moments where it is able to recapture the glory of the original film (mostly whenever MacGruber interacts with Ryan Philippe's character), but then there are also many more moments that it is just kind of there... Which isn't necessarily a big slight or anything. Even then it is leaps and bounds better than something like Anchorman 2, but I haven't really gotten the impression that there is an actual story to tell here.

Stuff like Ted Lasso or Creed show you can bring back an old character and tell a great story with purpose, so I hope they'll be able to do that in the back half of the season.

[Zorral]

14 hours ago, SpaceChampion said:

I've been watching.  On to episode 5 now.  When I found out the DJ party guy she was crashing with was a pretty infamous grifter himself, it was pretty hilarious.

I’m through 4 and an 1/8th episodes so far, and this 5th ep is 75 minutes (the others are more like 60 minutes, though sometime a bit longer)/

What’s amused me about this show, along with the ludicrous invented accent Anna creates for herself, and the equally preposterous “Anna Delvey Foundation” which is a projected multi-million dollar international franchise private club for billionaires, with ever more exclusive clubs nested inside one another like those Russian Doll nests -- how any supposedly financially astute person fell for such a ridiculous idea of a business is beyond me -- are the title, the declaration, "Everything Is True,"  followed by the declaration, "Except For Everything That Is Made Up" displayed on various aspects of the architecture w/in which the show is located.  They outright grabbed that from Australia TV’s Lucy Lawless’s charming show (which, charming, Anna, is certainly not), My Life Is Murder.

What I’m liking best is the actor Alexis Floyd, who plays her role of aspiring film maker Neff Davis, dayjobbing as concierge at the fictionalized 10 George Hotel, who allows Anna to run up massive charges w/o ever paying – who is the only person who sticks with Anna when she’s busted down.  The way Alexis Floyd plays this, her delivery of her lines, is mesmerizing. You can’t wait to hear her speak again. However, one does wonder if Neff may also  suffer from Dunning-Kruger, as do all the other figure in the series, starting with Anna herself – always excepting  Vivian the Journalist’s easy-going, supportive husband, and the sweet-natured older journalists who contribute every bit of their long experience to assist The Journalist to get her story. This puts Neff in a category of one, herself, so Neff’s the most interesting figure –  the only one who is authentic, yet she too runs after status rankings like all the figures Anna scams, starting with Anna herself and her obsession with money, fashion, status and fame as the only values.

[Heartofice]

I watched Mitchells vs The Machines. I really misjudged this when  it came out, gave it 5 minutes then, made assumptions about it because it was on Neflix. If only I’d paid more attention to who made it. 
 

Tried it again today and I LOVED it. I laughed out loud several times, especially with the Furby Queen. Very well written, and has a heart. No surprises it’s the guy behind Gravity Falls, I should have spotted that given that the art style is so similar.  
 

also been watching I think you should leave with Tim Robinson. It’s such an odd show that I kind of love but also find deeply frustrating. The humour is so dark and surreal that it ticks a lot of my boxes, but also the sketches tend to go on soooooo loooooong. It’s more like a nightmare than a comedy show sometimes.

 

On MacGruber, I’m a massive fan of the original sketches and the movie, but I had to check out halfway episode one of this, it felt bereft of humour and I hate seeing my heroes be brought down by tired writing 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

Richard Jewell.

Whatever your opinion of Clint Eastwood, the man is a hell of a good film maker. This is an incredible, engaging, movie. He could have made a much more reactionary, "lame stream media" movie but he treats the whole subject with a sensitivity and tone that's perfect. This is a film that's 80% people-talking-in-rooms and it never dragged; I was never bored.  

I'll give Eastwood credit, he could have hired a Shia Lebouf type and had him spend 6 months eating bean burritos and ice cream to prepare for the role, but that's exactly what he didn't do. Paul Walter Hauser delivers an incredible performance.

I couldn't recall seeing him in anything and I just thought Eastwood recruited some bumpkin from Georgia to play himself and read off cue cards or something. Nope. He's a professional actor from Michigan. He does a great job of playing this incredibly naive, innocent, "law and order", "respect authority" type. Kathy Bates absolutely deserved her Oscar nomination. Hauser maybe should have gotten one too.

I understand that there was some controversy regarding Olivia Wilde's character. It's not a unreasonable criticism, but I think it's minor in the broader context. I'd have hated her character regardless. an in the end I though she came off as somewhat sympathetic. 

 

   

[dbunting]

1 hour ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

Richard Jewell.

I couldn't recall seeing him in anything and I just thought Eastwood recruited some bumpkin from Georgia to play himself and read off cue cards or something. Nope. He's a professional actor from Michigan. He does a great job of playing this incredibly naive, innocent, "law and order", "respect authority" type. Kathy Bates absolutely deserved her Oscar nomination. Hauser maybe should have gotten one too.

 

   

He plays Sting Ray in Cobra Kai, very different character from Jewell, and he's the baton wielding bad guy in I Tonya