Watched, Watched, Watching: Saltier Things Part One

[DireWolfSpirit]

11 hours ago, Ran said:

Been awhile since I've updated. Not too many movies seen, though I've started Zhang Yimou's To Live (aka Huo zhe) after having enjoyed Raise the Red Lantern and then later his two gorgeous wuxia films Hero and House of Flying Daggers. It's the story of a wealthy compulsive gambler, Fugui, and his family, told across decades beginning in the 1940s, the tremendous changes brought by the communist revolution very much a focus on the film but foregrounding at all times the actual human experience and the toll it had. 

"To Live" and "Raise the Red Lantern" are 2 of my favorite movies, I've always made sure to see everything Gong Li is in.

"To Live" was a view into what the Cultural Revolution meant for so many. I would always hear the words or phrase dropped in editorials or stories, but it never really registered with me what it entailed. That movie really painted what China's Cultural Revolution  encompassed.

To Raise the Red Lantern, such a gorgeous and loved film to many. It was even made into an acclaimed ballet, directed by Zhang and performed by the Chinese National Ballet.

I would so love to see it as ballet, opera or a live play.

Meishan-

 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Season 2 of Rick and Morty is absolutely brilliant. 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

Ambulance:

AKA: Michael Bay discovers drones.

You know, this wasn't half bad. Bay has obviously adjusted his dosage and come up with something that's actually quite compelling. Plenty of Bayhem with throwbacks to Heat and Speed. Good performances. People mostly talk like adults. Some of the zoomy drone camerawork and practical effects are pretty amazing actually.

I liked it. 

ETA: This is Mark Kermode's, "Least un-favorite Michael Bay film." I don't know if I agree* but that's tantalizingly close to being an endorsement.

*The Island (the last film Bay made before he got into the smashy smashy robot business) was not bad I thought. I haven't seen it in a while but I recall there was a pretty good sci fi premise built in there.   

[RumHam]

Quote

AKA: Michael Bay discovers drones.

I expected this sentence to continue "...following him and uncovers" and blah blah blah

now I want a Galaxy Quest type movie where aliens abduct Micheal bay.

[Spockydog]

Everything Everywhere All At Once. Strong, strong contender for most over-hyped movie of the year. It's about forty-five minutes too long and nowhere near as clever or entertaining as it thinks it is. An incoherent mess.

 

[Heartofice]

Everything Everywhere is by a country mile the best movie I’ve seen all year, one of the best movies I’ve ever seen if I’m honest. Maybe some people don’t like things that require them to think or keep up, or creativity.. it also I think appeals to people with some background knowledge of movies and genre. 
 

But yeah, calling it over hyped is just stupid. 

[Nictarion]

We saw it last night, and both thought it was fantastic. I didn’t expect it to have such an emotional impact. 

 

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

2 hours ago, Spockydog said:

Everything Everywhere All At Once. Strong, strong contender for most over-hyped movie of the year. It's about forty-five minutes too long and nowhere near as clever or entertaining as it thinks it is. An incoherent mess.

 

Can’t agree more , I hated it. Had to stop it after 20 minutes. Couldn’t understand anything and the actors accents were way too thick for comprehension.

[Isis]

Watched 14 Peaks yesterday. What a weirdly surreal experience. Imagine if a climber from the US had done this - how different the reaction would have been. Just incredible. 

Also started on S2 of The Wilds. Only managed one episode before getting tired of it. Are they trying to put people off? What a boring, drawn out mess. I'll try one more episode but unless it picks up I'm done with it. Ars longa, vita brevis.

[Zorral]

Irma Vep -- first episode really grabbed me, in the engaging, entertaining way one wishes.  Though a very different effort in intent and tone, from the start Dark Winds has done the same.

[Heartofice]

2 hours ago, Isis said:

Also started on S2 of The Wilds. Only managed one episode before getting tired of it. Are they trying to put people off? What a boring, drawn out mess. I'll try one more episode but unless it picks up I'm done with it. Ars longa, vita brevis.

I said it in my review this show is equally awful as it is entertaining. Absolutely it is boring and drawn out and just when I’m about to switch it off something interesting happens. Dunno if I’d recommend you continue because it’s such a horribly cynically made tv show, but it’s not always terrible 

[Lord Varys]

Is anybody else watching 'Becoming Elizabeth' on Starz? It begins with the death of Henry VIII and thus effectively a continuation of 'The Tudors'.

So far I liked the depiction of Edward VI and the way the show includes Jane Grey. The schemes of the Seymour brothers also seem to be depicted rather faithfully.

[Mexal]

19 hours ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

Ambulance:

AKA: Michael Bay discovers drones.

You know, this wasn't half bad. Bay has obviously adjusted his dosage and come up with something that's actually quite compelling. Plenty of Bayhem with throwbacks to Heat and Speed. Good performances. People mostly talk like adults. Some of the zoomy drone camerawork and practical effects are pretty amazing actually.

I liked it. 

Not gonna lie, my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed it. She refused to watch it when she saw the trailer and then out of spite, i put it on and we couldn't stop watching. Good shit.

In other news, 3/4ths through RRR and it's brilliant. Will finish tonight.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

I'm really tempted to watch RRR, probably will wait until next weekend though. It's a long ass film.

Season 3 of Rick and Morty is absolutely hilarious. The levels to these jokes are so off the charts. Brilliant writing and execution.

 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

 

6 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

I'm really tempted to watch RRR, probably will wait until next weekend though. It's a long ass film.

Get it together, man. 

6 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Season 3 of Rick and Morty is absolutely hilarious. The levels to these jokes are so off the charts. Brilliant writing and execution.

Are you seriously just catching up with this now? Good for you. 

And yeah, the writing is ballsy and amazing. It's not easy to tackle the concept of infinity the way they do and they do it beautifully. They're either brilliant people or weirdos who're loaded with drugs. Maybe both. 

Seasons four and five will blow your mind. 

[Veltigar]

I saw Lightyear during the weekend and liked it. Definitely not the greatest film in the Pixar catalogue, but good fun regardless. I was surprised to learn that it only has like a 4.7/10 with general audiences on IMDB. It's not essential viewing, but that score is more than a bit too harsh I'd say. 

Also started rewatching Friday Night Lights on a whim after seeing the mentions here. I'm about four episodes into the first season and I got to say, it might have been a tad too soon with the rewatch. I know it eventually weaves together and becomes great, but there is a lot of set up in the first couple of episodes (+ I don't really care for the Jason Street storyline which is front and center). Not sure whether I'll keep going.

The latest episode of The Boys was pretty cool, although I already regret the decision of not waiting for it to be ready so that I can binge. Series like this just work better that way.

On 6/17/2022 at 6:59 PM, dbunting said:

Assume you cant sleep on planes either? When I made the trips across I was the same way, watched movies there and back both times! The trip there was brutal the first time. We laid over in Amsterdam for like 6 hours before flying to Stockholm Sweden. Then we stayed up all day touring the city since it was our only free day there, went to the Vasa museum. 

Usually I do have trouble, but it depends on the trip. On the way back I think they roofied me, because I slept like a baby.

On 6/17/2022 at 6:59 PM, dbunting said:

Days of Thunder, I remember liking this when it came out, but have never seen it since then so it may suck

I'd advise you not to try it again. Best to preserve the positive memory if you have one.

On 6/17/2022 at 6:59 PM, dbunting said:

Kenobi..I like it enough but the last episode did some really dumb things, they really need to wrap it up well. I still like The Mandalorian more.

What gets me with the Mandalorian is that after two seasons it still only amounts to "Sidequest: the series." I also dislike a lot of the guest stars in the series, so that doesn't help either.
 

Kenobi has a lot of incredibly stupid moments, but Ewan McGregor is front and center. That and the pace being so high (and it really helped that I could binge most of this) really does it a lot of favors.

On 6/17/2022 at 10:20 PM, Ran said:

I feel like the time and setting you chose was not optimally conducive! I think you're literally 40 years from when the visual effects were completely unprecedented and jaw-dropping (the reason they weren't nominated for an Oscar for VFX? The Academy reacted viscerally against the computer-generated effects and refused to acknowledge it as real visual effects), and IMO the design of the electronic world and vehicles are still very strong.

There's also the incredible electronic score by pioneer Wendy Carlos.

It's absolutely true that its pace and story are kind of middling. It's not a fantastic film script, and the performances feel kind of empty most of the time (no doubt in part due to the utter weirdness, for them, of the sets they were working on and the way they looked, and having to try and imagine seeing effects that weren't right there in front of them).

 

 

Your point is more than fair. I was watching it with contemporary eyes and as someone who is used to VFX extravaganza's I feel the film falls flat. I did not however take into account that the film was literally groundbreaking. I still wouldn't recommend it from an entertainment POV, but I'm glad I saw it for film historic reasons then  

EDIT: Should really review my text before posting.

[Ran]

Forgot to add that I also watched Hustle, the Adam Sandler film packed with NBA athletes and other people in that orbit. Pretty predictable film, all your standard beats, but solid enough and Sandler plays someone who's quite likable unlike his Uncut Gems role (which was very good, but still, Sandler can play the nice guy too!) The look into the NBA Combine that takes place, as well as high-level training exercises for basketball players, was pretty eye opening -- Juancho Hernangómez is, I'm told, a middling NBA player, but seeing the stuff he does as part of his training makes you realize just how  off the charts even a middling NBA player is in terms of physical and athletic abilities. This article calculates that anyone dreaming of getting into the NBA has a .03% chance of making it.

[Inkdaub]

I finished the first season of Hanna and I am totally into it now. This type subject matter will almost always get to me, though. I have read some people having trouble with suspension of disbelief but I feel it's misplaced. Hanna is a comic book character or maybe a video game...her competence is not intended to be realistic. It's sci-fi at it's root I think. My issues with suspension of disbelief are more about the isolation certain characters experience growing up. Still, these are young characters and not normal people and so maybe they can adapt more quickly...is how I will rationalize it haha. Whatever the case, I am liking the show and will continue with season two tomorrow. Also, Esme Creed-Miles is good as Hanna and Joel Kinnaman and Mireille Enos are as good as they always are.

Spoiler

No one can play an almost Satanic CIA agent that is traumatized by her past actions like Mireille Enos. Here she is consistently sinister and sympathetic at the same time.

 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

2 hours ago, Ran said:

Forgot to add that I also watched Hustle, the Adam Sandler film packed with NBA athletes and other people in that orbit. Pretty predictable film, all your standard beats, but solid enough and Sandler plays someone who's quite likable unlike his Uncut Gems role (which was very good, but still, Sandler can play the nice guy too!) The look into the NBA Combine that takes place, as well as high-level training exercises for basketball players, was pretty eye opening -- Juancho Hernangómez is, I'm told, a middling NBA player, but seeing the stuff he does as part of his training makes you realize just how  off the charts even a middling NBA player is in terms of physical and athletic abilities. This article calculates that anyone dreaming of getting into the NBA has a .03% chance of making it.

Middling is kind. He was on the team I root for last season and I barely ever saw him play. Kind of surprised he's the guy they'd pick to make a movie around. 

[Ran]

54 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Middling is kind. He was on the team I root for last season and I barely ever saw him play. Kind of surprised he's the guy they'd pick to make a movie around. 

Guess he didn’t have much going on…