Jump to content

Watch, watching next


DireWolfSpirit
 Share

Recommended Posts

10 hours ago, Ran said:

Watched Runaway Train, a 1985 Cannon Group/Golan-Globus film that is shockingly good.

I remember seeing it as a kid. I can't remember if my parents rented it or if it was on CBC. I remember being kind of blown away by the ending at whatever age I was.

-

3below: tales of Arcadia. a really good animated show on Netflix. Guillermo Del Toro, yadda yadda. It turns out it's part 2 of a multi part series that I haven't seen yet so I'm watching it out of order. That explains the Troll and magical idiots that suddenly appear in an episode of what is ostensibly a sci-fi cartoon. 

It's pretty great. The animation isn't anything cutting edge but the industrial design and world building are first rate. Well written and laugh-out-loud funny in parts. Stellar voice cast. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Went to a very late showing of John Wick 4. Tons of fun of course. I'm going to be biased - one of my framed movie posters in the living room is the second film; I knew from the very limited amount of press I read that it was going to be a fun ride.

I absolutely think it should have had about a half hour cut. Maybe only kill 15 or 25 guys per major setpiece instead of several dozen. Perhaps that was a bias in seeing a 10:30 showing. The whole (enormous) theater was restless during that very, very measured scene in the art gallery.

Gorgeous action scenes, though. I think the [redacted] sequence is my favorite extended battle in the series.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Managed to crush through 3 seasons of Barry in no time. Really great show, maybe the most fun I’ve had watching something in years, it’s criminal that it feels so unmentioned in general conversation. It has some real Breaking Bad vibes. If this was on Netflix it would be Ozark level big. 
 

Yes it did get pretty dark towards the end, that last episode was genuinely upsetting and stressful at times. My other half was like ‘why is this labelled as a comedy??’. But it’s actually very funny too, I thought the motorcycle chase from the penultimate episode was brilliant! 
 

Also nice to see Henry Winkler getting some love. It’s made me go back and watch him as Fonzie and it does get missed what a good bit of acting that really was. I always thought he was a bit of a joke as an actor but there’s a lot of thought gone into that ‘heeey’

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Heartofice said:

 

Also nice to see Henry Winkler getting some love. It’s made me go back and watch him as Fonzie and it does get missed what a good bit of acting that really was. I always thought he was a bit of a joke as an actor but there’s a lot of thought gone into that ‘heeey’

He was excellent in his Parks and Rec cameos also. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3/22/2023 at 10:07 PM, dog-days said:

Re Endeavour. My mother was amused/delighted to discover that Shaun Evans has a Scouse accent. She'd never suspected while watching the show, and she's from Liverpool and worked there for her whole career. 

I haven't watched it myself yet, but I like the decision to cast someone from an untypical acting background as Morse. Shaun Evans was a scholarship boy with a taxi driver father. It meshes nicely with John Thaw in the original series, a Mancunian rather than Liverpudlian, who also came from the working class. 

Yes, it fits very nicely. 

I finished Daisy Jones and the Six last night. I really liked it, much more than I expected to, and I think that is a lot to do with the actors in the lead roles. There's lots of chemistry and I find them compelling to watch. Plus, I LOVE all the 70's hair and clothes etc. I think the show does a better job than the book at making the story a satisfying one. I'd almost forgotten some elements of the book in the (few) years since I read it. Would recommend the show to anyone who was thinking of giving it a go. I think you'll know by the end of the first episode if you want to keep watching or not. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

I remember seeing it as a kid. I can't remember if my parents rented it or if it was on CBC. I remember being kind of blown away by the ending at whatever age I was.

Yeah, a very strong ending with a very memorable image, and yet it and some of the best scenes related to Manny aren't from Kurosawa's script. There's a great scene where he's called an animal (by a very-unglamorous Rebecca de Mornay), and he says he's worse than that, he's human... and at the end of the film, there's a Richard III quote which reflects a similar sentiment. I was sure they were both from Kurosawa, but nope. I feel like the writers of the final screenplay basically took in a lot of late Kurosawa (particularly Kagemusha) and I think they basically said, "Okay, if Kurosawa wrote this screenplay in 1985..." (Funnily enough, Ran was also released in 1985.)

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Ran said:

Yeah, a very strong ending with a very memorable image, and yet it and some of the best scenes related to Manny aren't from Kurosawa's script. There's a great scene where he's called an animal (by a very-unglamorous Rebecca de Mornay), and he says he's worse than that, he's human... and at the end of the film, there's a Richard III quote which reflects a similar sentiment. I was sure they were both from Kurosawa, but nope. I feel like the writers of the final screenplay basically took in a lot of late Kurosawa (particularly Kagemusha) and I think they basically said, "Okay, if Kurosawa wrote this screenplay in 1985..." (Funnily enough, Ran was also released in 1985.)

There's a brief mention of Runaway Train in Electric Bugaloo, the Cannon pictures documentary. It basically sounds like they gave the production the resources to make the film and failed to micro manage it the way they did on some projects. If Cannon pictures had one quality, it was that the would sometimes give accomplished directors a fair amount of creative independence; at least until the editing stage.

Wikipedia lists Kurosowa as having story credit but IMDB does not. Curious.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

There's a brief mention of Runaway Train in Electric Bugaloo, the Cannon pictures documentary

Oh, that's a documentary I need to see. I forgot that Breakin 2 was one of theirs.

Hell, they even had Cassavetes directing a film for them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Ran said:

Yeah, a very strong ending with a very memorable image, and yet it and some of the best scenes related to Manny aren't from Kurosawa's script. There's a great scene where he's called an animal (by a very-unglamorous Rebecca de Mornay), and he says he's worse than that, he's human... and at the end of the film, there's a Richard III quote which reflects a similar sentiment. I was sure they were both from Kurosawa, but nope. I feel like the writers of the final screenplay basically took in a lot of late Kurosawa (particularly Kagemusha) and I think they basically said, "Okay, if Kurosawa wrote this screenplay in 1985..." (Funnily enough, Ran was also released in 1985.)

 

 

I remember watching it on TV as a child and really liking it, athough I've forgotten most of it.

It was directed by Andrei Konchalovsky - not his first Hollywood film, he already did Maria's Lovers before that. (His brother is a probably even better known film director, Nikita Mikhalkov.)

I was curious to see who wrote the screenplay, and it turns out that it was co-written by three men, one of whom was the late Edward Bunker - former convicted felon (bank robber and drug dealer) turned crime author, screenwriter and actor. He appeared in a minor role of Mr. Blue in Reservoir Dogs, and apparently a character coincidentally played by Jon Voight in Michael Mann's Heat was based on him.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, Annara Snow said:

It was directed by Andrei Konchalovsky - not his first Hollywood film, he already did Maria's Lovers before that. (His brother is a probably even better known film director, Nikita Mikhalkov.)

He was recommended to the producers by Francis Ford Coppola, apparently.

8 minutes ago, Annara Snow said:

I was curious to see who wrote the screenplay, and it turns out that it was co-written by three men, one of whom was the late Edward Bunker - former convicted felon (bank robber and drug dealer) turned crime author, screenwriter and actor. He appeared in a minor role of Mr. Blue in Reservoir Dogs, and apparently a character coincidentally played by Jon Voight in Michael Mann's Heat was based on him.

Wow. I had no idea! He also appears in the film as Jonah, a con who's friends with Manny. _And_ he got Danny Trejo a bit part, that I didn't realize was him (a boxer in prison that Roberts beats in a fight). 

Amazing stuff. This film has a lot of interesting trivia about it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Isis said:

Yes, it fits very nicely. 

I finished Daisy Jones and the Six last night. I really liked it, much more than I expected to, and I think that is a lot to do with the actors in the lead roles. There's lots of chemistry and I find them compelling to watch. Plus, I LOVE all the 70's hair and clothes etc. I think the show does a better job than the book at making the story a satisfying one. I'd almost forgotten some elements of the book in the (few) years since I read it. Would recommend the show to anyone who was thinking of giving it a go. I think you'll know by the end of the first episode if you want to keep watching or not. 

 

I thought it was pretty solid and in some cases improved upon the book. Still not completely sold on Sam Claflin as Billy (he just always seemed/looked too old for his character), but Riley Keough as Daisy was a perfect fit. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Plane, ok I mean it’s a diverting bit of action fluff, not terrible enough to turn it off, not good enough to remember it.  A couple of decent action scenes and competent performances stop it being one of those super low budget made for streaming jobbies. 
 

What was notable is that the movie is called plane, and the last shot is almost a worshipping celebration of the plane… but less than half of the movie is about the plane! If anything the plane is the villain, it’s such a worn out looking rustpot! The movie could have alternatively been called island or jungle. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3/23/2023 at 4:39 PM, SpaceChampion said:

Anyone know why Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is releasing early in a few place on a Sunday?  Or is that just in Canada?  And not even widely, until Thursday.

My sister and brother-in-law asked me and my brother to babysit last Sunday - March 19 - so they could have a night out.  When we got there they said they were seeing Dungeons & Dragons.  I was like, really, that's what you're doing with your three hours of freedom?  But, yeah, it definitely was available at a theater - this one - in Tampa.  They both said they liked the movie too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, kairparavel said:

 

I thought it was pretty solid and in some cases improved upon the book. Still not completely sold on Sam Claflin as Billy (he just always seemed/looked too old for his character), but Riley Keough as Daisy was a perfect fit. 

He grew on me as time went on. I feel like Billy's character was revealed via his interaction with Daisy. He was a bit flat before they started interacting.

We watched a youtube doc about the Barkley Marathons the other night. I had read about it a couple of years back, but it just seems even more ridiculous when you actually watch people trying to complete it. The scientist in me is horrified that people do anything this stupid when they haven't slept for two days as they will clearly be incapable of making sensible decisions (I fell asleep about 10 minutes before the end lol).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Got caught up on The Mandalorian. I think it has improved somewhat from the bumpy start of the season, but it's still a show that exudes wasted potential. The last episode included a Roc like flying creature that provided some nice action set pieces, but the way the story contrives to make the problem solvable for the (not terribly bright) protagonists in this show is really a drag. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yesterday I watched Puss in Boots 2. It is indeed excellent. Just a grand old adventure, fantastically drawn.

 

 

Today I watched John Wick 4. Also excellent. It's long, but I only really thought one scene was too long. Other than that I didn't feel the length. Also, one particular action scene I thought was brilliant. Bit different from Wick's norm in terms of style, but so much fun. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yep upon reflection, my favorite fight sequence is in this fourth film. And a second one is right up there as well.

Spoiler

The Arc de Triomphe fistfight in traffic was unbelievable. Just stunning. I also was clapping with delight at the stair climb (and fall, and fall, and fall). Here's a great interview of Reeves and Stahelski on the incredible stuntwork involved:

https://collider.com/keanu-reeves-chad-stahelski-john-wick-chapter-4-staircase-stunt-paris/

In that link, Stahelski says he submitted a 3h45m cut to the studio. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, Isis said:

We watched a youtube doc about the Barkley Marathons the other night. I had read about it a couple of years back, but it just seems even more ridiculous when you actually watch people trying to complete it. The scientist in me is horrified that people do anything this stupid when they haven't slept for two days as they will clearly be incapable of making sensible decisions (I fell asleep about 10 minutes before the end lol).

I feel like not being able to finish a documentary about the Barkley Marathons is entirely appropriate.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...