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Watch, Watched, Watching: Looking for the Light


Ramsay B.

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Finished Season 2 of The Legend of Vox Machina. Loved it and agree the second season was better, I think because of the villains and because they were able to juggle all of the character personal journeys with the main storyline. It generally felt like one long journey versus an episodic storyline of episodes. I particularly like the high fantasy setting of Exandria (I don't actually read a lot of fantasy these days) and the combination of creatures and settings were great to see visually. The raunchy comedy and some of the dumb humor was also a great entertaining relief amidst the drama and lore being explored. I particularly liked the visit to the Fey realm and the Archfey Saundor. Did anyone else think his (Saundor) depiction was 

Spoiler S2E08 - Echo Tree

Spoiler

partly inspired by the Chtaeh in Wise Man's Fear? That was one of the very first things that popped into my head during his scenes. I know Rothfuss has been a guest on episodes of Critical Role so I'm wondering if they were paying deliberate homage to him.

 

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33 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

Yeah, this is great. 

If you've not seen it, I'd highly recommend what is something of a companion piece in Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau.

Absolutely bonkers. 

That movie is peak so bad it's good. I'll have to check it out. I've heard stories about what a complete disaster that set was as well. 

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Completed Ted Lasso as is stands right now. Pretty good show, more of a dramedy than a comedy but it is well done and very well acted.

Went to see Ant Man...   it's visually pretty good, with the world it's set in being totally imaginary they have leeway and use it. That said, the rest of the movie is rather bleh. Another movie where if the "heroes" just talked to each other before hand all could have been avoided.

Spoiler

All she had to do was say, there is a guy banished in there worse than Thanos, don't ever try to open a gate to it or communicate with it and this is all avoided as is the upcoming villain as the post credit scene shows him/they(?) coming because they killed Kang.

Also the surprise of the ants showing up in the nick of time was very obvious. 

There is one cameo that was surprising, not sure how well it worked but it was surprising, and no it wasn't Martin Scorcese, although having him walking down the street mumbling angrily at Scott during a certain sequence would have been amazing. 

Have to say I haven't enjoyed any of the Ant Man sequels. I think it was at it's best with just him and his band of merry men.

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1 hour ago, Tywin et al. said:

Wait a God damn minute, Professor McGonagall is Captain Flint's mom? 

Mind blown... 

Toby Stephens is acting royalty. His father Robert Stephens was a well-known and respected actor (when sober), mainly famous for his stage-work. He voiced Aragorn in the 1981 BBC Radio adaptation of Lord of the Rings. Toby looks more like his mother, but I can hear his father in his voice. 

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11 hours ago, Ran said:

Have you tried Firefly? That got cut short and may not be to your taste, but it's the other show to try really. Well, that and Dollhouse, but that was a lot more uneven and didn't really find its footing until the end of the first season (when Fox interference got to a minimum) and especially season 2.

No but I have seen it in my Disney recommendation and I know Nathan Fillion is in it. Might give it a try. Never heard of dollhouse but will look it up. Thank you! 
 

7 hours ago, Kalnestk Oblast said:

It was meant that way; while this wasn't going to be the final season they had a few episodes notice that it would be the final season and tried to wrap things up.

And yeah, it's a great ending for angel. 

well it sure worked perfectly. Even Angel himself sort of grew on me by the end. 

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Re-Watch, Watched, Watching:

Arrival

This was the first time watching it since I've seen it the first time. Great film. I don't think I appreciated it enough at the time.

Mad Max Fury Road Black and Chrome

This is one of those films I revisit every so often. So good.

Watched:

I Care A Lot

Just landed back on Canadian Netflix. A terrifying critique of capitalism that works, but it meanders a bit at times. Good performances. Good movie. I'd recommend it. 

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Watched this odd little Italian film called 7 Women & a Murder on Netflix. It was a harmless, moderately charming film which was occasionally funny (but probably a lot less funny than it was meant to be). Sort of a mash up of an olde worlde farce and Knives Out I guess. But it didn't have all that much depth or acting quality to it. Anyway I am sick and it passed the time.

We've also been watching Meet, Marry, Murder which is SUPER triggering and depressing for anyone with experience of domestic violence. It is absolutely rage-inducing. The other negative thing about it is the constantly re-used still shots in each episode. Like, they take these exterior shots of the house where a murder happened and then show the same shot of a guy wearing baggy jeans walking down the road seven or eight times. Holy filler, Batman, it is awful. They use the same black and white video of a guy drinking out of a Stella glass in both a US and a UK episode while talking about a husband with a drinking problem. Why are they making things seem banal when they are talking about such horrifying things? So odd.

The episode that tipped me over the edge was one where a man killed his wife after telling his mates 'I'm going home to kill my wife' and the landlady at the local pub (also the wife of the murderer's best mate) said WE WERE ALL SO SHOCKED AND SURPRISED when he killed his wife. Even though she said on camera in this episode that she had been told a first-hand account of the murderer picking his wife up by the throat... Oh no, you didn't know anything about him being violent, did you? I see that very little has changed and people still want to pretend that they don't see domestic violence even when it is happening under their nose. This landlady was literally saying on camera what a great bloke this murderer was. Honestly, women, you have to shift for yourselves here - never assume that anyone else is going to help you even if they know you're a victim of domestic violence. They would rather look the other way and not rock the boat. 

Anyway, if you want to absolutely FUME then definitely watch Meet, Marry, Murder, which has a ridiculous 28 flipping episodes in its first season. 

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Anyone watched Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre on Netflix? I’ve read a few of his Manga (Uzumaki, Tomie, Gyo), and really liked them, especially the first two, but the reactions to this seem pretty negative from what I’ve seen. Wondering if I should bother. 

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I watched Scorsese's The Color of Money (1986) a few days ago. It stars Tom Cruise, Paul Newman and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and is a follow-up to 1961's The Hustler in which Paul Newman played the younger version of his poolshark Fast Eddie Felson character in this film.

I tried to watch The Hustler a few months ago, but the film somehow failed to grab me. I therefore decided against watching The Color of Money, but luckily I picked it up again. This is a fantastic film in my book. Scorsese himself isn't a fan of it as it is probably the least personal film he's ever made, but I think the performances really sell it.

Paul Newman is tremendous as the aging Fast Eddie Felso, who slowly falls back into his addiction to pool and finds meaning in that. Mastrantonio is great in her role as well, although I do feel that the script did her no favours by reducing her to a more stereotypical girlfriend character at the end of the film. Tom Cruise basically plays himself in this film, which is rather funny to see.

So definitely another of the early Cruise films that deserve to be watched again.

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Babylon.  What to say.  It wasn't bad exactly but not good either.  I can't even say there was a good movie in there somewhere because it was more that there were some good, even great scenes but nothing really hung together.  Brad Pitt was excellent, so was Diego Calva.  I couldn't get over the weird styling for Robbie's character.  Definitely a miss.  The less said about the final set of pretentious/silly/heavy handed montages the better.

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White Mischief (1987) From the book of the same title, that is still on my shelves, by James Fox.  The infamous Happy Valley pack of Brit rich, titled, sex and drug addicted, who all are broke or are going broke, in Kenya during the first years of Britain's WWII (recall, we USians, WWII started years before it did for us).

What a gang useless monsters; not even the breathless beauty of Greta Scaachi can redeem them, nor the fate of Lord Errol, played by Charles Dance. It does have a heck of a cast, from the Hugh Grant as a boy, to Geraldine Chaplin as Lady Nina Soames, whose husband's addiction is to spying on his wife's lady friends in the bath from a hole in the wall of a squalid closet.

The quality of the streaming on Prime for this old thing is goofy in some places.  But I’ve always wanted to see it, the actual African landscape of Kenya, the exteriors and interiors of their hangouts in Nairobi are of great interest for me, so I am watching this decadence of an imperium in action -- all the more infuriating considering what is going on 'back home' in this time.

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12 hours ago, RhaenysBee said:

I started Bones because I wanted to see David Boreanaz in a different role. The female lead is insufferable so I’ll probably drop it at some point but it scratches my crime genre itch which I tend to get every once in a while. 

I'm glad it's not just me. I have family who loved that show and something about the way she speaks always low key annoyed me. Plus it's a show about a person called "Bones" who investigates bones...

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20 minutes ago, RumHam said:

I'm glad it's not just me. I have family who loved that show and something about the way she speaks always low key annoyed me. Plus it's a show about a person called "Bones" who investigates bones...

Haven't watched the show, but that last point doesn't seem completely fair. To make up for not practising meditation, tai chi or yoga, I tune into the radio programme Gardeners' Question Time every Friday. One of the panellists is called Bob Flowerdew. Another is Pippa Greenwood. Nominative determinism in action. 

But yeah, it's annoying when an actor grates and spoils the rest of the show. I used to find Helena Bonham Carter really irritating. Haven't seen her in anything for years, so I'm not sure if I still do. 

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11 hours ago, Cas Stark said:

Babylon.  What to say.  It wasn't bad exactly but not good either.  I can't even say there was a good movie in there somewhere because it was more that there were some good, even great scenes but nothing really hung together.  Brad Pitt was excellent, so was Diego Calva.  I couldn't get over the weird styling for Robbie's character.  Definitely a miss.  The less said about the final set of pretentious/silly/heavy handed montages the better.

I see my movies at MJR. After the trailers they always run a clip montage with their song/tune and the ending of this film made me laugh because it was a nothing more than a grand version of that.

I did leave that movie happy that I had seen it but knowing I'd never watch it again.

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10 hours ago, RumHam said:

I'm glad it's not just me. I have family who loved that show and something about the way she speaks always low key annoyed me. Plus it's a show about a person called "Bones" who investigates bones...

She has rather annoying mannerisms and voice, I agree. What bothers me even more is that she’s fully ready in episode 1. I’m not sure where her character has potential to grow. 

Spoiler

All her “flaws” and shortcomings are taking her places or don’t matter when she’s trying to go places or she simply overcomes them when the situation requires more or less successfully. In terms of career, she is as successful as a thirty-something can humanly be and this doesn’t seem to affect her as a person. She has a solid social circle of a contrasting bestie, an admiring minion and a bickering future love interest. I’m like 7-8 episodes in and she doesn’t seem to have any harmful addictions or other self destructive habits, lifestyle choices or detrimental mental or physical health issues. She’s a picture perfect intj with perfect makeup from 9 to 9. 

I have no idea what kind of character story can unfold from all this. Will she won’t she with David Boreanaz and some foster system hardship she has clearly already overcome? There are so many protagonists I can compare her to and they all surpass her in every aspect. I think the last protagonist I’ve known to be so painfully bland was Liz from The Blacklist, but at least she was new on the job when the show started so even she had more of a journey. I don’t remember Cold Case too much, but I do remember that I didn’t dislike Rush. Emma Swan had the foster baggage in Once Upon and Time, she had a delinquent past, wasn’t super successful, she was completely alone in the beginning and had all kinds of self image issues. Gregory House and Sherlock Holmes were difficult people to be around , hurt people close to them, self destructed, had a myriad of psychological issues and House even struggled with his physical impairment. This chick knows no struggle. Maybe I judge too quickly. 

 

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