Whatcha Watching?

[dbunting]

2 hours ago, l2 0 5 5 said:

wow.... i knew nothing about this when I started watching it and just assumed it was mocking a reality show, but still scripted with actors. It looks like it is actually a reality show. I feel so duped right now lol.

Lol, I was generally confused and thought maybe the show really was mocking reality competition shows when I saw your post!

[l2 0 5 5]

7 hours ago, dbunting said:

Lol, I was generally confused and thought maybe the show really was mocking reality competition shows when I saw your post!

They had me convinced. I don't know how to break this to my wife. She is into the show more than me. 

[Mexal]

1 hour ago, l2 0 5 5 said:

They had me convinced. I don't know how to break this to my wife. She is into the show more than me. 

I really thought you were joking. No one actually dies horribly in this version…

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

I watched something completely random last night: Freaks vs the Reich. It's an Italian film about four circus performers who are superheroes evading and fighting the Nazis in 1943. It uses very little dialogue while having music playing throughout most of the film. I haven't seen many things like it. Idk if I'd say it was good, but it's different in an interesting way.  

[TheLastWolf]

The Wire S3 finale has me sputtering in rage against the sheer injustice. Fuck underrated and unappreciated in its time, this is the best goddamn show that ever was and could be. Hmph

[Zorral]

I am liking this, a French-Martinique production, set on Martinique, with two differing sorts of women as the cop protagonists/leads.  It's lovely to look at, you betcha!  

https://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2022/03/deadly-tropics-tropiques-criminels-tv-series/

[l2 0 5 5]

5 hours ago, Mexal said:

I really thought you were joking. No one actually dies horribly in this version…

Lol yeah and I voiced that when watching the first challenge. I thought they went soft serve ice cream and played nice cause it was supposed to seem like a reality show.

Look, I've shamed myself with this post, and I have to accept it at this point. Please forget that I brought up a reality tv show on the prestigious Watching thread. 

I have to wear this now 

Hope you're well, Mexal

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

On 11/28/2023 at 6:36 AM, 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? 

A few weeks late, but I finally watched this. Holy shit this movie is hilarious. The true masterpiece is the entire concert scene. The music is terrible, the extras clearly don't want to be there, the final fight scene, my god, talk about horrific editing and in the end the bear breaths fire as it dies. 

Also you can make an argument that Fletcher's character in this movie is way more evil than Ratched. 

Watch this one if you like terrible B horror films that are unintentionally funny. 

[Veltigar]

Rewatched Ridley Scott's Alien (I wonder what gave me the idea). It's a film I admire, but that I do not really love. Still, I tend to rewatch it every so often, since I feel like you cannot watch Aliens (my personal favourite in the franchise), without first watching Alien. 

This time around I paired my viewing of Alien with a long video essay about the film which I thought was rather good. It's always fascinating to see a breakdown of a classic like this, it always adds to the viewing experience when you get to discover the sources of inspiration for the film and what other people perceive to be the subtext.

Edited December 12, 2023 by Veltigar

[Ran]

After the Squid Game: The Challenge ended, I saw discussion that suggested if people wanted to see a Korean game show that had much more complicated contests they should check out The Devil's Plan. Decided to do so, and it was actually very interesting to see how different it was in some aspects -- particularly in the fact that one player, a science Youtuber who goes by the moniker ORBIT, made it his mission to try and keep as many players as possible in the game until the finale. It was an interesting challenge, and one that he didn't entirely succeed at, but he did materially seem to keep some of the weaker players around for much longer than they otherwise would have been if the spirit of cooperation he instilled in his fellow players didn't pan out.

This led to a very interesting dynamic with an actor/TV personality named Seok-jin, a front runner who seemed to snidely dismiss ORBIT's approach as "communism" and "socialism", indicating he was of a more conservative bent... but as time goes on, you start to maybe see his perspective, especially as he does seem pretty cool play on his own.

In any case, the contests are bonkers-complicated and I'm not sure trying to understand all the details of the rules at the outset works, but once they start playing you get a sense of it. I've never seen another game show where the contestants regularly went around with notebooks and pens trying to keep track of all the information being thrown at them. 

Also, never expected to see Nine Men's Morris play a key role in a Korean gameshow. Oh, and the first game is a somewhat complicated version of Mafia/Werewolf, I think, for those who have enjoyed playing those on the forum.

Then watched Gone Girl after listening partway through the Blank Check podcast series on Fincher. Saw it once near its release and decided to see it again, and yeah, holds up -- very well-made film, and Rosamund Pike is terrific. Such a dark, messed up ending.

 

Edited December 11, 2023 by Ran

[The Grey Wolf Strikes Back]

Saw The Boy and the Heron today. If this really is the end for Miyazaki its a great way to end his career. Next week, I hope to watch Yorgos Lanthimos' latest, Poor Things. Also enjoying Blue Eye Samurai.

 

[Gigei]

I watched the two Spider-Man multiverse animated movies, since they're both on Netflix. I can't believe how cool the anarchist Spidey is! Enjoyed both of them a lot, but first is still my fave. Second seems really sad for some reason, and I was very confused when there was no ending.

[The Grey Wolf Strikes Back]

11 hours ago, Gigei said:

I watched the two Spider-Man multiverse animated movies, since they're both on Netflix. I can't believe how cool the anarchist Spidey is! Enjoyed both of them a lot, but first is still my fave. Second seems really sad for some reason, and I was very confused when there was no ending.

The second is definitely a bit darker and more mature. I liken it to SW: TESB in that regard, down to ending with the heroes firmly on the backfoot. It helps if you go in knowing there'll be a third concluding part.

[Corvinus85]

I re-watched the 2014 Godzilla because I'm watching the show Monarch, and that movie heavily connects to it. I don't think I watched it since it released. I remember not being too impressed with it, but that's because I wanted big monsters fights, and a lot of the movie was dark and the big monster fights were often in the backdrop. I imagine that's the reason its sequels have been the way they are. I've now improved my opinion of it. The movie is clearly meant to be viewed through human eyes. The destruction of cities feels quite visceral, the human death toll can actually be felt. 

Unfortunately the human characters are not that strong and its sequels only get dumber in this aspect. This movie at least tried, though its main failures were

Spoiler

killing off Cranston's character too soon, because he was the most interesting, and severely underusing Ken Watanabe.

 

[Ran]

46 minutes ago, Corvinus85 said:

The destruction of cities feels quite visceral, the human death toll can actually be felt. 

Gareth Edwards is really excellent at that sort of thing. The scale, and connecting the gigantic to the miniscule humans looking at it or suffering it.

Spoiler

Killing Cranston's character when they did was the right move, in the sense that it was bold and really exciting to do it... but yeah, the performances from the others don't fill the gap he left behind. He's too good.

 

[Kalbear]

Godzilla (2014) was beautiful and yeah, the scale was great, but it was largely garbage as a godzilla movie until the very end. Call it something else, or have some other monster instead. Shaky cams and fights off in the distance is not what I want to see in a Godzilla movie. 

Even Godzilla minus 1 does this better and it's largely a character drama! 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Meanwhile the late 90's Godzilla movie is in the corner crying and asking why nobody likes it.

[hauberk]

I’m also in the midst of Monarch. Really liking it so far. 
 

The scene with old Shaw looking at the old film with young Shaw projected over him as a well constructed scene. 

[williamjm]

I rewatched Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and seeing it a second time did make it even more clear how superior it is to every other superhero film out this year (with the exception of Across the Spiderverse).

[Nictarion]

Watched Leave the World Behind from Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail. I like end of the world movies so I figured I’d be into it, and I was. I’ve seen some criticism of the runtime, but I thought the pace was fine. Mahershala Ali and Julia Robert’s were both very good in it.