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Watched, Watched, Watching: It's not the plane, it's the pilot


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57 minutes ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

It's either this or Nope.  

I was worried they showed way too much in the trailer, but the few reviews I've checked out say that isn't an issue and the opinion is positive to varying degrees. 

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3 minutes ago, Rippounet said:

This second season really delivers, with the cast providing stellar performances. Houdishell's Bunny is a delight.
The 5th episode strongly reminded me of Sherlock's The Sign of Three (by far the best imho).
I hope they land the finale.

Everything about this season has been amazing. It even delivers on the meta level.  But there hasn't been a single off performance.  Plus they're still not making it easy to figure out...

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4 hours ago, Ran said:

Don't limit yourself to Kurosawa's jidaigeki films, folks, you'll be missing out. Drunken AngelStray DogThe Bad Sleep Well (pairs well with Throne of Blood, as it's basically Hamlet), High and Low, and Dersu Uzala are all excellent...

And I didn't even mention Ikiru, which just melts even the coldest heart.

(But don't forget Red Beard, if you want to stick to historical period drama. Toshiro Mifune is so, so good.)

HBO Max must have recently added this. I thought I had watched all the Kurosawa films they had on there. Might try to get to it over the weekend. 

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8 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

I was worried they showed way too much in the trailer, but the few reviews I've checked out say that isn't an issue and the opinion is positive to varying degrees. 

I’ve heard nothing but good things so far. I already have my tickets for Friday night. 

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17 hours ago, RhaenysBee said:

It’s over. :bawl: What am I supposed to do with my life now? I know, Angel. Well, I’ve got to say this was the sweetest, most therapeutic piece of entertainment I could have spent the past month consuming. (but you know, don’t try this at home, don’t burn through 5 seasons of anything in 3 weeks. You can’t do that, it’s wrong!)

Well… I suppose I need a little break from the screen now. But I will soon be back for the Angel experience. And I hope to see Spike, bless his heart. 

Maybe you could try Dark Horse Comics' Season 8.

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50 minutes ago, Nictarion said:

I’ve heard nothing but good things so far. I already have my tickets for Friday night. 

I meant that comment to be the early word is it's good to great depending on what you're hearing. I've yet to see a negative review.

That said, I'm still not interested in running to opening weekend screenings of anything really. I can wait for the crowds to die down and honestly my home theater is good enough that waiting a month or two has basically paid for the damn thing itself.

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7 hours ago, IFR said:

I'll join those giving acclaim to Kurosawa. I took a film class where one of his movies was shown (High and Low) and I was instantly won over.

Ran is my favorite, but Red Beard, Seven Samurai, High and Low, Yojombo and its sequel are all fantastic. I think the only movie I disliked of Kurosawa's was Dreams.

Truthfully, and hear me out, I liked Seven Samurai but it felt a little derivative to me. Not that it was derivative; but it felt that way. Because, before I'd seen it, I'd probably seen a dozen other films made since that were inspired by it in some way. It's a bit like trying to adapt the Burroughs John Carter material. One of the problems is that stuff's already been mined for other films to the point where a good deal of it is basically tropes. 

I would have loved to have seen Seven Samurai fresh. 

ETA: RAN was a different story. Apparently it was inspired by King Lear. I've never read King Lear. Amazing film. You could never make a big budget film today and end it like that. You certainly couldn't kill that many horses. 

2 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

I was worried they showed way too much in the trailer, but the few reviews I've checked out say that isn't an issue and the opinion is positive to varying degrees. 

I'm avoiding all news about it.

Going to see Top Gun Maverick was a throwback to me in a number of ways. One of them was I knew nothing about it aside from the trailers I'd seen. Not being a CBM or adaptation or an active franchise film, it was largely ignored by the entertainment media; there were no leaks or spoilers, little to no speculation about the story or the characters; no fan casting, etc. I knew nothing about the critical consensus going in. Never read a review.

I gotta tell you it was refreshing as hell. It reminded me of going to see The Matrix back in the '90's. Aside from a vague sci fi premise and some cool visuals, I had no idea what that film was about when I bought my movie ticket. 20 minutes in and I still didn't know. I remember seeing that opening scene and thinking, "What the hell is this?!?" 

I need more of that I think.

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Moonhaven hits all the tropes of the false utopia genre (Aeon Flux, Logan's Run, Gattaca, Demolition Man, The Minority Report, that episode of TNG where "on our planet, we dont' walk, we run!") if anyone is interested.  I mean, that's decent company to keep, but I've only seen the first episode so far. 

Dominic Monaghan plays a kind of adorable moon cop who knows he's useless as a detective, as the A.I. name I.O. that runs their society does all the detecting.  Joe Manganiello is also in this as a bodyguard that is either proselytizing his Earth cult or just deliberately trying to be cryptic.  I'm not sure there are any cults in this show at all, but they sure sound like it from the odd pseudo-poetic cultish way everyone speaks, and maybe that wouldn't have been an annoyance if it was only the Moonhaven colonists who do so, but the Earthers sound the same way too!  I mean, the Earthers might be all part of totally different cult but that seems like a bad stylistic choice.   Hey AMC, one annoying cult at a time, tell your writers!  

...Maybe this is suppose to be a satire??

i really don't know what's going on in the show, clearly things are afoot but I don't yet know if it has anything interesting to say, but it's mildly entertaining weirdness.

 

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1 minute ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

Haven't seen it. It's on the list. The guy made a lot of movies. 

I'm currently going through the works of his contemporary giants, Satyajit Ray and Ingmar Bergman and cant quite decide who is the best among the three. 

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5 hours ago, Teng Ai Hui said:

Maybe you could try Dark Horse Comics' Season 8.

Or. for the sake of her sanity, not...

There is just one thing the comics did well, and that is retcon a terrible plotline from a terrible episode of the final season of Angel. Other than that, they are better avoided.

Season 8 did have some highlights, such as Brian K. Vaughan's Faith arc, and was interesting at least... until it went completely off the rails. In a bad way. The characteroizations, particularly of Buffy and Angel, were very skewed - without Gellar to play her, Whedon made Buffy much stupider, and Angel became insufferable and like a caricature of himself.

The subsequent seasons were written by mediocre writers and were mostly a waste of time. Even the character development that I could count as worthwhile was undone in the last season.

And the art was, for the most part, really annoying: Georges Jeanty has the habit of making the characters, especially women, look like children with oversized heads, which would be more fitting for a children's comics but is very distracting in Buffy. There were some issues with different artists where I enjoyed the art, but Jeanty worked on most of the issues.

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4 hours ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

Truthfully, and hear me out, I liked Seven Samurai but it felt a little derivative to me. Not that it was derivative; but it felt that way. Because, before I'd seen it, I'd probably seen a dozen other films made since that were inspired by it in some way. It's a bit like trying to adapt the Burroughs John Carter material. One of the problems is that stuff's already been mined for other films to the point where a good deal of it is basically tropes. 

I would have loved to have seen Seven Samurai fresh. 

The Seven Samurai trope is so over done in movies it's pretty much a genre on it's own.  I can see how someone could come into that movie and feel a little underwhelmed by the plot. I remember watching A Bugs Life back in the day and thinking 'enough already!' 

 There is so much to love about SS however, it makes you realise how ahead of others in the genre it is. It was the first Kurosawa movie I ever saw and I just remember being mesmerised by Mifune's performance, it is just captivating and has an almost universal appeal.

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11 hours ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

I'm giving serious thought to seeing this in a theater. It's either this or Nope.  

I'm going to the theatre definitely, but I'm not sure which version. Top Gun 2 reminded me that there is actual added value to IMAX if the film was shot for that format, but I find it very difficult to find out whether Bullet Train was shot for IMAX or that it's a scam like No Time to Die.

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This week's The Orville episode.  wow, pretty intense.

Does anyone else think

Spoiler

the whole kidnapping plot was put in motion by Haveen, in order to drive a wedge between the Union and Moclus?  I was expecting a reveal that the blue luminary insect was a robot controlled by her, leading Topa into proximity of the male Moclans.  And also I thought the whole underground network and the encrypted comms frequency were false information Haveen gave to Topa as a lure to the Moclans, and that there was no actual risk.  If the gamble didn't pay off as it did for the Sanctuary, then Haveen could have confessed to avoid Moclus attacking.   It was a Xanatos Gambit, win-win either way for Haveen.  You might say but Moclus will attack the Sanctuary now.  If they check the intelligence and find no actual underground network, then it would be foolish to attack since the Union is protecting the Sanctuary.

Bortus should have killed the torturer though.  That guy didn't seem to have time to have told anybody the information or written it down.  Maybe he recorded it.  But killing him and destroying the base or at least blowing up that room would take care of that.  That would have disrupted Haveen's plan though, if I'm right, because it would be important the Moclans actually get the name of the contact and frequency in order to check it and discover it was false.

If that isn't it, and it's not revealed as such in a future episode, then

Spoiler

the blue insect was just a plot convenience, and the failure to kill the torturer really stupid oversight on both Bortus and Grayson's parts.

 

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2 new shows recently,

Resident Evil S1 which is another in the long line of dystopian themed shows. I'm only a few episodes in.

On Hulu just finished S1 of The Old Man.

Enjoyed this, stars John Lithgow and Jeff Bridges who both are impossible to ignore when they deliver their dialogue.

In the season finale there's an extended scene where it's just the two of them in a car. There are so convincing you feel your in the backseat eavesdropping.

Without spoiling anything the themes here are espionage, FBI, Afghan/Soviet war and a dash of mystery to keep us guessing. 

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So I finished The Bear, and woof, it was a ride and quite good. It's exactly my kind of show, funny but tinged with sadness. I'm not from Chicago, and only been there a couple of times but I love when a show can give me a feel of the city, and it does that in 8 episodes which are sometimes as short as 20 minutes.

I think the music supervision is probably an underrated part of the show, a lot of the tracks seem to be from Chicago bands & artists, or at least about the city. I feel like few shows can give you such a sense of place, and The Bear does that really well.

And ofc there's all the other stuff with the performances and the diverse cast. It's not a particularly plot heavy show, but I think those are my favourite kind of shows.

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Persuasion. Dear god in heaven, what kind of insane misreading of Jane Austen could lead to an Anne Elliot who will not shut the fuck up for even a second?  She is constantly rolling her eyes and speaking directly to the camera when she's not rolling her eyes at her family.  I read a couple of interviews with the showrunners who claim to love the novel. Perhaps they love it but obviously did not undertand it at all.  

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4 hours ago, Cas Stark said:

Persuasion. Dear god in heaven, what kind of insane misreading of Jane Austen could lead to an Anne Elliot who will not shut the fuck up for even a second?  She is constantly rolling her eyes and speaking directly to the camera when she's not rolling her eyes at her family.  I read a couple of interviews with the showrunners who claim to love the novel. Perhaps they love it but obviously did not undertand it at all.  

Stick to the UK adaptations, they are far superior. Have watched and enjoyed both.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persuasion_(1995_film)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persuasion_(2007_film)

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