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[Zorral]

Watchers who are interested in Outer Range and / or Yellowstone may find this of interest:

https://slate.com/culture/2022/05/outer-range-season-finale-ending-yellowstone.html

Quote

Some viewers of Outer Range’s first season may have been focused on parsing the Amazon Prime series’s Lost-style mysteries: What is up with the big, swirling time hole in Royal Abbott’s pasture? Why did Rebecca Abbott, his daughter-in-law, vanish without a trace? What does Autumn, the charismatic hippie camping on Royal’s land, want with the Abbott family? I had a different question about the sci-fi Western: What the heck is this show doing with Taylor Sheridan’s megahit Yellowstone? ....

 

[RumHam]

9 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

I watched the first season. It wasn't bad, it's just not that funny. I found myself smiling a lot, but never busted out laughing. Also, the twist was incredibly predictable. 

Yeah, you're not wrong. I still thought it was worth watching though. There were moments eventually that made me laugh out loud.

We Own This City continues to be very good I'm sorta surprised no one is talking about it given that it's the closest we'll ever get to a The Wire sequel. I wish it came out on Sundays though instead of at the same time as Better Call Saul.

Spoiler

The scene where they call Wayne in and pretend he's in trouble for police brutality only to reveal that they're fucking with him was amazing. Infuriating but just perfect. So weird to be laughing while also incredibly outraged.

 

[Ran]

I've been enjoying the hell out of We Own the City myself. It has such a near-documentary style to it, weaving back and forth and building its case. Excellent stuff. And Berenthal has been great as Wayne.

[Zorral]

3 hours ago, RumHam said:

I'm sorta surprised no one is talking about it

I haven't had the opportunity to even begin watching.  Several things I've looked forward to have appeared around the same time, I take a long time to watch series generally anyway, and it's a very busy time of years.  Plus much activism around What Is Going On In This Country.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

The Pentaverate

So stupid it's brilliant. Funny as hell.

Some thoughts:

-Canadians as a rule have no problem with profanity. Even Hosers from southern Ontario.

-Canadians don't talk like that. UPers talk like that. Canadians only talk like that when they're messing with Americans. 

-I have to check IMDB when I'm done because WOW there are a lot of supporting characters that look familiar. I just can't place them.

[briantw]

On 5/8/2022 at 11:29 AM, Veltigar said:

I saw The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent in theatre earlier this week. Really a delightful movie. I don't think anyone but Cage could pull off playing a fictional version of himself...

...but his longevity is also a testament to his skill and appetite for work.

 

 

[Heartofice]

Got the finale of Ozark. Was expecting a complete clusterf**k after the things I’ve read, but I don’t think it was that. 
 

I’ve actually enjoyed the second half of this season more than the first. Maybe because it had settled in a bit, that first half just seemed to be going into overdrive trying to create situations to keep us interested. The second half is more about resolving them so I guess it’s easier to be taken along by it.

The finale wasn’t perfect of course, very truncated and it wasn’t exactly satisfactory but:

Spoiler

I think the whole season, and show was really saying that the little guy doesn’t win, and that the world is such a bad place that you only survive by being the worst person going. 
 

What this season did well I think was showing the consequences of those actions on families and mental health. These shows often get the viewer to revel in bad behaviour and hate on good people, but I do tbink Ozark makes viewers think about consequences.

Of course at times Ozark totally doesn’t do that, and there were a few times where actions are skimmed over and forgotten.

The car accident is almost a joke. All that build up.. for nothing? They all walk away unharmed and are like ‘oh yeah, we had an accident.. what’s for dinner?’ Pffft.

And yeah, everything happening and wrapping up in the last 10 minutes was not good, but I am not upset by the actual events. They are fitting.

 

[Zorral]

I tried to watched the good parts of the 1959 Ben-Hur.  First, the whole plot of Ben-Hur, which novel, my great-great grandmother's copy (still have it!) I loved and re-read countless times, hinges on something that is vastly non-historical.  There were no galley slaves until much later in history, certainly not in the early Roman Empire.  I was told this from a reliable source: an historian whose specialty is nautical matters -- dynastic Egypt - through European antiquity. 

Galley slaves as practice came in the later medieval eras, via the Venetians and Genoese and other city states, and then the Ottomans, after 1453, when they were able to build navies and do sea-going warfare. So, the Renaissance was the high  time of your classic galley slave.  I cannot in any way suspend disbelief over this error for the sake of the story.

Second, even the 'good parts', meaning the Roman stuff, such as parties and the chariot race, is well, just awful.  I guess the only thing left to enjoy about this 1959 Ben-Hur, is an anecdote: supposedly, "Gore Vidal and William Wyler told Stephen Boyd on Ben-Hur to act as if he and Charlton Heston's characters had been lovers as boys, but they never told Heston." 
 

[briantw]

20 hours ago, Heartofice said:

Got the finale of Ozark. Was expecting a complete clusterf**k after the things I’ve read, but I don’t think it was that. 
 

I’ve actually enjoyed the second half of this season more than the first. Maybe because it had settled in a bit, that first half just seemed to be going into overdrive trying to create situations to keep us interested. The second half is more about resolving them so I guess it’s easier to be taken along by it.

The finale wasn’t perfect of course, very truncated and it wasn’t exactly satisfactory but:

  Hide contents

I think the whole season, and show was really saying that the little guy doesn’t win, and that the world is such a bad place that you only survive by being the worst person going. 
 

What this season did well I think was showing the consequences of those actions on families and mental health. These shows often get the viewer to revel in bad behaviour and hate on good people, but I do tbink Ozark makes viewers think about consequences.

Of course at times Ozark totally doesn’t do that, and there were a few times where actions are skimmed over and forgotten.

The car accident is almost a joke. All that build up.. for nothing? They all walk away unharmed and are like ‘oh yeah, we had an accident.. what’s for dinner?’ Pffft.

And yeah, everything happening and wrapping up in the last 10 minutes was not good, but I am not upset by the actual events. They are fitting.

 

I didn't find the last season as a whole to be bad.  It's just the ending was a horrendous pile of shit.

And yeah, the car crash was an absolute joke.  And a lesson, too.  If you're writing a show, don't tease something incredible at the start of a season and then deliver something completely unsatisfying at the end of it.  We can call this the Pink Bear Rule in honor of Breaking Bad.

[dbunting]

2 minutes ago, briantw said:

I didn't find the last season as a whole to be bad.  It's just the ending was a horrendous pile of shit.

And yeah, the car crash was an absolute joke.  And a lesson, too.  If you're writing a show, don't tease something incredible at the start of a season and then deliver something completely unsatisfying at the end of it.  We can call this the Pink Bear Rule in honor of Breaking Bad.

Yeah the crash tease pretty much sucked. I could live with the over the top things but that was not cool, not cool man.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

Operation Mincemeat

Great movie. A real Who's-whom of British character actors. 

It's insane that this is based on a true story. 

[IlyaP]

Proof there is no god.

https://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/1221314-scream-6-cast-confirms-4-returning-actors

Scream goddamn 6.

[Calibandar]

On 5/11/2022 at 12:04 AM, Ran said:

I've been enjoying the hell out of We Own the City myself. It has such a near-documentary style to it, weaving back and forth and building its case. Excellent stuff. And Berenthal has been great as Wayne.

Its been excellent. Watched episode 3 yesterday, great show, the dialogue. characters, the realness of the setting.

[DMC]

Has anyone been keeping up with the casting for Nolan's upcoming biopic Oppenheimer?  It's gotten so out of hand The Ringer posted a whole article on it.

[Veltigar]

Who else is excited for Top Gun 2? Just booked my tickets for the avant-première in my neck of the woods in IMAX and I'm damn pumped now that the reviews seem to be so positive

On 5/11/2022 at 4:35 AM, briantw said:

 

 

The capture alone is briliant  

[RumHam]

13 hours ago, IlyaP said:

Proof there is no god.

https://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/1221314-scream-6-cast-confirms-4-returning-actors

Scream goddamn 6.

That's funny I got like maybe an hour into the last one on Paramount+ last night and then had this moment of "why am I doing this?" and turned it off. Didn't even get to any of the old characters appearing. I thought the fourth one was fine, too. Step up from the third at least.

Feels like the franchise needed a bigger twist with four, where like one of the original cast was the killer, or the killer kills them and gets away with it to set up for the next one. Instead it's just the same shit over and over. "oh some unknown relative of so and so wants revenge!" Of course the biggest twist would have been to definitively end it. Ghostface somehow starts nuclear armageddon and the world is destroyed and no more Scream movies can happen.

[IlyaP]

1 hour ago, RumHam said:

That's funny I got like maybe an hour into the last one on Paramount+ last night and then had this moment of "why am I doing this?" and turned it off. Didn't even get to any of the old characters appearing. I thought the fourth one was fine, too. Step up from the third at least.

Feels like the franchise needed a bigger twist with four, where like one of the original cast was the killer, or the killer kills them and gets away with it to set up for the next one. Instead it's just the same shit over and over. "oh some unknown relative of so and so wants revenge!" Of course the biggest twist would have been to definitively end it. Ghostface somehow starts nuclear armageddon and the world is destroyed and no more Scream movies can happen.

That the fifth movie's twist is tied to the Stab movies and the idea of requels and the desire to inspire better Stab movies just...completely annoyed me - it felt like a variation of the fourth movie's twist, and didn't have any emotional depth whatsoever.

This series just does not know what it wants to be about. Aside from providing meta-commentary on horror movies, including riffing on itself, which is just excessive and doesn't add or say anything new to or about horror/thriller movies.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

2 hours ago, RumHam said:

I thought the fourth one was fine, too. Step up from the third at least.

Agreed with everything except this. When it came out I thought Scream 3 was crap, but for me it ages well. Yes there's a lot of stupid shit in it, but I like how it turns into a greater commentary on the film industry in general while tying the events of the previous two films together. 

[DMC]

I thought the third Scream was considerably better than the fourth one too - and a pretty good resolution for Sydney's character.

[SpaceChampion]

Watch the netflix documentary Our Father last night.  I had heard the story before as a friend from Indianapolis had told me her mom had gone to the same doctor, Don Cline, for insemination to conceive her and her twin.  Fortunately the genetic test came out identifying her dad as her dad, and not Cline.  She was friends with the woman in the doc too, Jacoba, from highschool I think.  Despite hearing he'd inseminated 30+ people with his own sperm, the full story was far more bonkers.  One, the number of half-siblings is now about 3 times what I had initially heard back then, and counting, and the creep was part of a cult.  Worst, I'm pretty sure just from viewing the doc, that the reason her mom was spared was because she is not a blue-eyed blonde like the rest of the victims.  Yes, he was white supremacist evangelical trying to breed a whole klan of Aryan babies.