Watched, Watched, Watching: Saltier Things Part One

[Kalbear]

1 hour ago, RumHam said:

I love the police chief on Barry. "No, we haven't seen him since he dramatically cocked his gun and stormed out. He's probably seeing the sights" 

And then he's like 'man I wish he'd take me with him some time'

1 hour ago, RumHam said:

I do think the Albert stuff was a little odd.

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That they didn't have a scene together earlier in the season, and that he just left Barry out there in the desert.

I think this season was a slight step down, but still great.

I didn't think the Albert stuff was odd.

Spoiler

To Albert Barry had earned a lot of leeway, and Albert wanted to be the one who handled it. He figured out right away that Barry became a contract killer, and to him he was giving him a second chance. If he brings Barry in that's it - Barry goes to prison for the rest of his life. 

 

[RumHam]

1 minute ago, KalVsWade said:

And then he's like 'man I wish he'd take me with him some time'

I didn't think the Albert stuff was odd.

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To Albert Barry had earned a lot of leeway, and Albert wanted to be the one who handled it. He figured out right away that Barry became a contract killer, and to him he was giving him a second chance. If he brings Barry in that's it - Barry goes to prison for the rest of his life. 

 

Spoiler

But like he also has no reason to assume that The Raven won't tell the other cops about Barry, right? It wasn't the weirdest thing to happen on the show but I thought it was maybe a little convenient.

 

[Kalbear]

3 minutes ago, RumHam said:

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But like he also has no reason to assume that The Raven won't tell the other cops about Barry, right? It wasn't the weirdest thing to happen on the show but I thought it was maybe a little convenient.

 

That's true. Albert doesn't care about that. 

Spoiler

He's the only one who thinks that the Raven is full of shit. He's the only one who thinks Barry is guilty. Everyone else has cleared Barry, repeatedly. 

 

[WarGalley]

I also watched No Time to Die. It was okay I guess. There wasn't really much special about this movie though I'm hesitant to call it bad. It was certainly the least misogynistic Bond movie ever made though that is certainly the lowest of bars to clear. I liked Rami Malek's acting though I agree with others, he could have been fleshed out better. What I didn't like was:

Spoiler

Blofeld being able to orchestrate a trap on Bond from prison (where he's clearly being surveilled) after like 5 years of Bond being off the grid. C'mon, this guy must be the most heavily guarded man on the planet and he's doing his own private Zoom meetings from his prison cell. And how does Malek have an organization with enough intel and resources to take down Spectre? Reminded me too much of the flaws in Javier Bardem's character in Skyfall.

I did like killing off Bond though even if it happened in typical Hollywood action.

 

[briantw]

7 hours ago, dbunting said:

I am going to get a lot of hate for this but that's what turned me off to the Lord of the Rings movies. I knew absolutely nothing going in to it. When I watched the first long ass movie and absolutely nothing happened except to set up for the next in the series I was so pissed. The only one of those I liked was the last one and will never watch them again.

I loved the Clerks 2 quote about The Lord of the Rings.

"Three movies of people walking to a fuckin' volcano.  Even the trees walked in those movies."

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

18 hours ago, RumHam said:

Swimfan an all too often overlooked character study of a woman who was such a fan of swimming that it caused problems in the community.

I suppose that makes you a Swimfan fan. 

[KingintheNorth4]

I finished season 1 of The Wire today. I can see why it's received so much praise. It accurately depicts urban life and institutional dysfunction in America. 

[dog-days]

I loved The Wire. Stayed up late with my dad to watch it when it was broadcast on BBC4 at 10/11pm before the era of Netflix and on-demand television. One of the best things about it was how it managed to bring so much humour and warmth and touches of normality into such bleak subjects. At times I liked even the worst characters. 

I've been steadily catching up on Derry Girls. Now midway through the second season. The casting and writing are brilliant, but my favourite by a mile has got to be Sister Michael. She's a misanthropic delight in every scene. 

 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

The Novice:

I liked this film a lot. Great performances. Beautifully filmed.  I loved the way it was scored. This is the first feature film by Lauren Hadaway. Kind of a "Black Swan" or "Whiplash" vibe. Recommend. 

Licorice Pizza: 

I'm sad to say I don't share the enthusiasm for it that others have expressed on this board. It's typical PTA in terms of the standard of film making but it never seemed to come together for me and I just didn't find it terribly interesting. It was OK. 

[Heartofice]

Saw Ghostbusters:Afterlife

It’s one of the most accurate 80s nostalgia movies I’ve ever seen in that it captures the vibe of those films I saw growing up better than most other attempts. Thinking back to stuff like Stranger Things and Super 8, which very purposefully try and copy the sense of growing up in the 80s, but I always think they fail because they end up just being caricatures, almost parodies of the period.

What I think Afterlife gets right is that sense of freedom and adventure, as an escape from abject poverty. I mean 80s kids movies like Goonies and Karate Kid were set against a background of crap home lives and being poor. It’s hard to remember what that is like I think for a few directors.

I also think it’s got a snappy sarcastic vibe that isn’t grating due to decent performances all round, especially Rudd and Coon. 
 

Yes it veers too heavily into nostalgia in parts but I really appreciated that even though it’s set now it really feels like something I would have loved as a kid.

[Zorral]

Finished the final season of Peaky Blinders.  It was very good.  They did a particularly good job with showing just what shitheads in every way those aristos, Diana Mitford and Oswald Mosley, were -- and loads of more aristos, just like them. Alas, though he was imprisoned and his org criminalized in 1940, he lived the rest of his life comfy-wumfy in Paris and Ireland.  IOW, he never lost his money or his title. Diana too, didn't lose her titles and weath, despite being in prison for three years, and went on merrily being a shithead, even accepted again by her family.  Aristos' blood is always thicker than anything else.

Dear amigo and I spent a couple of pleasant hours under the Strawberry Moon last night, creating future scenarios for Tommy, including meeting David John Moore Cornwell a/k/a John le Carré, while carrying out the sort of reconnaissance / resistance missions in Europe, which le Carré described so well in his fiction, tutoring Tommy in the evil ways of the Russians, before  being killed. That is, if tobacco doesn't kill Tommy first. In any case death by WWII gunfire would surely be Tommy's preference than that near death by drowning via flooding of WWII tunnels and trenches, as his PTSD nightmares show.

 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Figured it made sense to move this here:

1 hour ago, Ran said:

I meant that the reason this show exists is because someone thinks it'll make Amazon money (or whatever they consider an equivalent during the Streaming Wars). I too share your skepticism about it, but then I've rarely found a sports-focused TV show that I enjoy.

You can probably add movies to that list as well. As a former athlete and big sports fan overall I rarely find movies or shows about them entertaining. Winning Time, for example, is actually pretty fun and it's smart to keep the basketball largely in the background. Or there's things like Any Given Sunday, which isn't good per se, but the over the top take is kind of entertaining. And of course there are some other good entries as well, but ultimately it's a pretty weak genre. Sports documentaries are for the most part much better imo. 

ETA: Johnny Utah, greatest sports player in movie history while also being the worst cop ever? You decide...

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

9 minutes ago, Zorral said:

Finished the final season of Peaky Blinders.  It was very good.  They did a particularly good job with showing just what shitheads in every way those aristos, Diana Mitford and Oswald Mosley, were -- and loads of more aristos, just like them. Alas, though he was imprisoned and his org criminalized in 1940, he lived the rest of his life comfy-wumfy in Paris and Ireland.  IOW, he never lost his money or his title. Diana too, didn't lose her titles and weath, despite being in prison for three years, and went on merrily being a shithead, even accepted again by her family.  Aristos' blood is always thicker than anything else.

 

I listened to an interview between Christopher Hitchens and Jessica Milford. A couple of things that stand out:

The last time she spoke to Diana she was 19 years old. The would have been around 1936. The interview was conducted in 1988.

The British upper class loved Hitler in the 1930's. I suspect many of them continued to do so but wouldn't say it out loud.

I hope Jessica is included in the next installment. 

[polishgenius]

Films which happen to be about sportspeople tend to be better than actual out-and-out sports films. Raging Bull, The Colour of Money (hey I guess Scorsese just knows what he's doing), The Wrestler (okay okay it's not sports but it's basically combat gymnastics,  so I'll allow it), things like that.

Still, there's always a place in my heart for a Warrior or Creed. 

 

 

Or Wimbledon.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

61* is really good. 

[BigFatCoward]

What was the programme with The Rock when he was an agent? That was pretty good for a while. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

4 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

What was the programme with The Rock when he was an agent? That was pretty good for a while. 

Ballers was bad.

 

[Maithanet]

I'm not sure why boxing movies seem to be the best sports movies.  I think that it is that boxing is a sport that lends itself to personal stories.  I virtually never watch actual boxing, but I've seen a fair number of boxing movies and can name at least 5 decent/good ones off the top of my head. 

[dbunting]

I'd say Friday Night Lights, the first few seasons..or maybe just the first season was good sports focused tv show.

Could you say a few seasons of Hard Knocks fits this? 

[polishgenius]

2 hours ago, Maithanet said:

I'm not sure why boxing movies seem to be the best sports movies.  I think that it is that boxing is a sport that lends itself to personal stories.  I virtually never watch actual boxing, but I've seen a fair number of boxing movies and can name at least 5 decent/good ones off the top of my head. 

 

I think it's also that it's one of the few sports where (1) the way it's structured as a sport means that both picking out a single, individual nemesis and building up to a climactic confrontation is easier and makes more sense than with other sports, making it easier to make a coherent hero/villain success/failure structure, and (2) the way it actually happens in-ring means you can fictionalise a fight that makes both good drama and follows the rules with no serious contrivances.

That said, no fictional boxing match has ever been as good as the Ward vs Gatti trilogy, which is why I assume The Fighter didn't bother trying and finished the film before those happened. Imagine trying to top round 9 of fight 1 in fiction (and even if you're not a boxing fan at all I recommend, nay, urge, you to go youtube that if you've never seen it, it's insane)




Also another good sports movie to throw on the pile: Whip It. Doesn't get mentioned as much as it should probably coz it's about girls.