Whatcha Watching?

[BigFatCoward]

Almost finished S2 of Welcome to Wrexham.  Finding the stuff away from the main story more compelling (i suppose cos i already know how it ends).  The women's team and the community stuff/getting to know the players etc a bit more has me much more invested. 

[Zorral]

Have watched 6 of the 8 episode Suburræterna (2023), sequel to Suburra, which evidently was to be the next stage in the crime saga begun by the investigative journalist, Roberto Saviano, and adapted (with his production input) to a very successful international televison hit series,Gomorrah .

Like Suburra, Suburræterna doesn't possess the interest, tension and compelling characters that Gomorrah does. The characters are not as involving or intriguing -- despite every moment in the Rome series there is intrigue which involves backstabbing and betrayal. One gets dizzy trying to follow who was with who and is now with somebody else, as the betrayals loop around and around, coming back to where they began and then starting all over again.

In Gomorrah the goals were straightforward. It was gangsters vs gangsters vs. cops and journalists. In the series set in Rome, it's politicians and the Church nabobs, as well as competing gangsters. However the true objective is get control of public monies, because bilking the taxpayers is where the great fortunes are (as if the Church wasn't already sitting on more money than God).

In the Gomorrah series there was the associated theme/plot of Gennaro, the disappointing heir to the father, turning himself into a worthy gangster boss; we see his process of becoming a boss.  In the Suburræterna series there is a most convoluted attempt to do something like this, with Alberto 'Spadino',

Spoiler

the gay heir to the Roma Anacleti crime family --who three years ago, essentially expelled by mama/grandma from the fam, at the end of Suburra split for Germany, where he found not only more congenial work at which he's a success, but also love

-- coming back to save his family.  It isn't convincing, to see this guy who was a total eff-up in Suburra now handling it all. There is no transition from his former self to this one, or at least one provided to the audience --

Spoiler

unless one believes that being a music promoter is just the same as running a big crime family that also sells massive quantities of drugs.  Which, the music biz, as we all know, is filled with kind, healthy, non-drug taking, non alcoholic, honest, loyal and generous people to a fault. [sarcasm]

Spadino's competency for strategy and intimidation just ... is.

Nor are Suburra and Suburræterna  as engaging to look at as were the seasons of Gomorrah. Even Naples's Scampia neighbohood's shyte and garbage are photogenic -- everywhere one stands in these parts of Naples one is in a great painting.  In Rome, you are just in the shyte. Even the palaces of the Vatican's rulers look shabby and dreary, just like the skies.

Edited November 27, 2023 by Zorral

[Ramsay B.]

Just flipping through the movie channels and came upon Grizzly 2: Revenge from 1983. Sure, why not?

2 guys and the classic 80’s ditzy blonde are camping out. I slowly realized that the girl is a very young Laura Dern and she’s hooking up with fucking George Clooney. They get slaughtered by the grizzly as their friend Charlie Sheen comes upon them and suffers the same fate. Wtf is this star-making masterpiece? 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

15 minutes ago, Ramsay B. said:

Just flipping through the movie channels and came upon Grizzly 2: Revenge from 1983. Sure, why not?

2 guys and the classic 80’s ditzy blonde are camping out. I slowly realized that the girl is a very young Laura Dern and she’s hooking up with fucking George Clooney. They get slaughtered by the grizzly as their friend Charlie Sheen comes upon them and suffers the same fate. Wtf is this star-making masterpiece? 

It somehow also has Louise Fletcher in it. JFC, now I have to watch this too.

Interestingly it was made in 1983, but wasn't released until 2020. I wonder if this is because of the pandemic. I've heard about a couple other movies from that period that were "lost" but resurfaced when the studios had to shutdown. 

[3CityApache]

1 hour ago, Ramsay B. said:

I slowly realized that the girl is a very young Laura Dern and she’s hooking up with fucking George Clooney. They get slaughtered by the grizzly as their friend Charlie Sheen comes upon them and suffers the same fate. 

So who kills the bear? Now I need to know.

[BigFatCoward]

1 hour ago, 3CityApache said:

So who kills the bear? Now I need to know.

Sometimes the bear lives happily ever after. 

[Kalbear]

10 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

Sometimes the bear lives happily ever after. 

*firm noed*

[polishgenius]

2 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

It somehow also has Louise Fletcher in it. JFC, now I have to watch this too.

 

Looking at wikipedia: also Timothy Spall and Jonathan Rhys-Davies. What the fuck man. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

31 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

Sometimes the bear lives happily ever after. 

And sometimes the bear has to die along with Alec Baldwin in The Edge. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

4 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

Looking at wikipedia: also Timothy Spall and Jonathan Rhys-Davies. What the fuck man. 

The 70's and 80's have so many B films with big stars in them. I just assume it was mostly because of cocaine. 

[TheLastWolf]

So Lynch's Dune was bad. Every genius has a fucked up dream child. Denis' way better, still no match for the book. Will catch the sequel on the big screen for sure.

Question is, should I persist with the rest of the books? The original ones by Frank himself, not the son's. The way the first book ended was disconcerting although fitting. But hearing the premises of the sequels, not sure I want to continue.

As of now, standalone, it's one of the greatest imo. Like True Detective I don't want to mess up further experiences.

[Kalbear]

1 hour ago, TheLastWolf said:

So Lynch's Dune was bad. Every genius has a fucked up dream child. Denis' way better, still no match for the book. Will catch the sequel on the big screen for sure.

Question is, should I persist with the rest of the books? The original ones by Frank himself, not the son's. The way the first book ended was disconcerting although fitting. But hearing the premises of the sequels, not sure I want to continue.

As of now, standalone, it's one of the greatest imo. Like True Detective I don't want to mess up further experiences.

I think that the next two books are worth it. Dune Messiah and Children of Dune aren't as good as Dune, but they do connect well with the original book's themes and show a lot of the tragedy that Paul wanted to avoid. 

[kissdbyfire]

2 hours ago, TheLastWolf said:

So Lynch's Dune was bad. Every genius has a fucked up dream child. Denis' way better, still no match for the book. Will catch the sequel on the big screen for sure.

How dare you?

Joking. Sorta. I do like several things in Lynch's Dune... one, for instance, is how he managed to visually depict things much as I had imagined them, the steampunk look of it. 

I also wonder what he would have been able to come up with w/o all the problems that apparently plagued the filling of it? Or even pre and post production? I'm not sure about this but I seem to recall reading about it ages ago.

Spoiler

I didn't  love Villeneuve's Dune but don't tell anyone. 

It's fine but very meh for me. He made some changes that I thought were weird and didn't quite work. 

2 hours ago, TheLastWolf said:

Question is, should I persist with the rest of the books?

YES! I mean, yes.

 

I really like the whole series, and here I mean the books by Frank Herbert. I tried a couple of the other ones written by his son in collaboration w/ Kevin Anderson, but didn't really like them.

 

[Jace, Extat]

4 hours ago, TheLastWolf said:

So Lynch's Dune was bad. Every genius has a fucked up dream child. Denis' way better, still no match for the book. Will catch the sequel on the big screen for sure.

Question is, should I persist with the rest of the books? The original ones by Frank himself, not the son's. The way the first book ended was disconcerting although fitting. But hearing the premises of the sequels, not sure I want to continue.

As of now, standalone, it's one of the greatest imo. Like True Detective I don't want to mess up further experiences.

Oh baby! Sweet baby! You gotta keep goin! 

Children of Dune is my fave. And once you've read them you can check out the excellent SciFi series, which covers books two and three pretty well for being made in 2000 for TV. 

[Ramsay B.]

8 hours ago, 3CityApache said:

So who kills the bear? Now I need to know.

I wish I knew! I just got out of work so I fell asleep early on. But the last I remember was a bunch of cringey-ass 80’s bands rehearsing for some show or something. Assuming the grizzly attacks the concert later on. There was also a Canadian lumberjack who called it the Devil Bear. 

[TheLastWolf]

8 hours ago, Kalbear said:

and show a lot of the tragedy that Paul wanted to avoid

Hopefully nothing too anticlimactic 

7 hours ago, kissdbyfire said:

How dare you?

The Lynchian in me can relate, I so badly wanted to like it

7 hours ago, kissdbyfire said:

Joking. Sorta. I do like several things in Lynch's Dune... one, for instance, is how he managed to visually depict things much as I had imagined them, the steampunk look of it. 

The space opera nature was served well by gorgeous set pieces, but the deviation from books was jarring, considering the seriousness abandoned in favour of his trademark eccentricities. 

7 hours ago, kissdbyfire said:

also wonder what he would have been able to come up with w/o all the problems that apparently plagued the filling of it? Or even pre and post production? I'm not sure about this but I seem to recall reading about it ages ago.

Jodorowsky was right to have left his

[polishgenius]

Tell you what I'm not watching, this fucking thing. Like this doesn't just miss the point it fucking spits on it.

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

Watching Lynch’s Dune makes me relieved he rejected directing Return of the Jedi….

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

26 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

Tell you what I'm not watching, this fucking thing. Like this doesn't just miss the point it fucking spits on it.

I was excited to hear S2 was dropping over the holidays. Once I read it was this I'm glad I never checked it out. 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

SISU. 

Insane. I fucking love this movie.

That epilogue: it’s a dad joke. The whole movie was a dad joke!

-chef’s kiss-