Watch, Watched, Watching: From Scott Civil Wars to Christmas Movie Wars

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 hour ago, Veltigar said:

I decided to rewatch The Prince of Egypt yesterday and was blown away by it. What a great film and definitely the best adaptation of Exodus that I have seen (or heard about, still not planning on watching Ridley's version). I can only applaud the creators for having the guts to tackle a biblical story and foreground the human conflict lurking within it. 

This film lowkey might be one of the best animated films ever. It's at The Lion King and Aladdin's level.  

[Zorral]

 Last night's Reacher episode was a big improvement on the one before it. Also a bit of a twist for a shoot-out, at least location-wise --

Spoiler

Have I seen before an assassination attempt at funeral in the cemetery as the body is literally being buried?  Maybe, in a Western, sometime? long ago?

 

[Scott_N]

2 hours ago, Zorral said:

 Last night's Reacher episode was a big improvement on the one before it. Also a bit of a twist for a shoot-out, at least location-wise --

  Reveal hidden contents

Have I seen before an assassination attempt at funeral in the cemetery as the body is literally being buried?  Maybe, in a Western, sometime? long ago?

 

Spoiler

That scene is, even by a low-brow action show standard, so dumb it beggars belief.

Two professional hitmen, with sniper rifles and their targets 200 yards away, manages to not hit a single person. Then Reacher and gang runs straight at them and, still, these professional hitmen with sniper rifles can't take anyone out. Not the one. Yet, Neagley, with a pistol, then takes out one of the hitmen with a single shot straight in the head. But of course. There is suspension of belief and then there is this.

And, btw, in what world does a hitman expect to get paid for a mission where he managed to not hit a single target? He deserved to be blown up for being incompetent *and* stupid.

Reacher is a guilty pleasure, I get that, but this season has had me roll my eyes far more than season one.

 

[Zorral]

59 minutes ago, Scott_N said:

  Hide contents

That scene is, even by a low-brow action show standard, so dumb it beggars belief.

Two professional hitmen, with sniper rifles and their targets 200 yards away, manages to not hit a single person. Then Reacher and gang runs straight at them and, still, these professional hitmen with sniper rifles can't take anyone out. Not the one. Yet, Neagley, with a pistol, then takes out one of the hitmen with a single shot straight in the head. But of course. There is suspension of belief and then there is this.

And, btw, in what world does a hitman expect to get paid for a mission where he managed to not hit a single target? He deserved to be blown up for being incompetent *and* stupid.

Reacher is a guilty pleasure, I get that, but this season has had me roll my eyes far more than season one.

 

Spoiler

Which is so Western too, which even we as kids laughed at, at the time.  That all these tough guys are shooting shooting and miss everyone, and a hand gun takes down a baddie from a thousand yards away or something

! 

[dbunting]

5 hours ago, Scott_N said:

  Hide contents

That scene is, even by a low-brow action show standard, so dumb it beggars belief.

Two professional hitmen, with sniper rifles and their targets 200 yards away, manages to not hit a single person. Then Reacher and gang runs straight at them and, still, these professional hitmen with sniper rifles can't take anyone out. Not the one. Yet, Neagley, with a pistol, then takes out one of the hitmen with a single shot straight in the head. But of course. There is suspension of belief and then there is this.

And, btw, in what world does a hitman expect to get paid for a mission where he managed to not hit a single target? He deserved to be blown up for being incompetent *and* stupid.

Reacher is a guilty pleasure, I get that, but this season has had me roll my eyes far more than season one.

 

Absolutely

Spoiler

It was pretty obvious the building was going to explode. The person who set it up may not have even known they failed unless someone was watching it to confirm. The news and social media would have reported shootings and casualties at a funeral. 

Seems like a pretty clear frame up of Swann, to be the fall guy. 

But remember, you don't mess with the investigators!

[Isis]

After listening to a podcast about it I got an urge to watch The Prestige (for either the third or fourth time I think). I'm a big fan of Christopher Priest so I'd read the book before I first saw it, but I have to say that the book story and the film story have blurred into each other a bit for me in the intervening two decades (!). I'm finding this a lot recently - films that seemed REALLY familiar to me are for years after they were made are now things I struggle to recall the opening scenes of, for instance... I guess this means I can rewatch all those 90's classics that I've only seen once or twice and be amazed.

Anyway, sometimes I forget this was a Nolan film (because yes, I'd seen Momento but I was more interested in this flm because it was adapted from a book by an author I was really into), so it was interesting to look back on it through that lens. And then look onwards to The Dark Knight and Inception. I just love Christian Bale in this film and this film definitely rewards multiple viewings, it's full of plausible deceptions. A lower-tech, non-cheat class of deception ahead of Inception and Tenet.

[TheLastWolf]

Mystic River

Last 5 mins stuck it up one ear, out the other with the brain impaled

Spoiler

Ray Jr and O'Shea killed Katie when their prank plan of threatening her to leave Brendan went wrong, the chasing and killing to hide their identity understandable, but the hockey stick bashing part though...neither was that sick, or were they?

 

Dave suicide by con since guilt even after vigilantism or genuinely believed Jimmy's promise of freedom and lied since wished to live and all?

 

Lady Macbeth shit, so does the Sean Jimmy exchange translate as A] I'm coming for you - an acknowledgement from a guilty murderer or B] It's buried between us - an acknowledgement for the same from the prick feeling righteous after his wife mindfkd him or C] First half of A x Second of B or D] Vice versa of C

 

And that shit with Sean's wife, ugh. I mean if she had an affair and left him after he cold shouldered her and called him all mute and shit, why does the idiot have to apologize never mind first but at all.

Tragic man, ugh.

[williamjm]

16 hours ago, dbunting said:

Absolutely

  Hide contents

It was pretty obvious the building was going to explode. The person who set it up may not have even known they failed unless someone was watching it to confirm. The news and social media would have reported shootings and casualties at a funeral. 

Seems like a pretty clear frame up of Swann, to be the fall guy. 

But remember, you don't mess with the investigators!

Spoiler

I doubt any competent villain uses their own name when hiring a hit-man.

I think Swann probably got wind of what his boss was plotting and tried to investigate, bringing in his old colleagues to help.

 

[dbunting]

3 hours ago, williamjm said:

  Hide contents

I doubt any competent villain uses their own name when hiring a hit-man.

I think Swann probably got wind of what his boss was plotting and tried to investigate, bringing in his old colleagues to help.

 

I agree

Spoiler

I have a feeling there is a rat amongst them though. Dixon would be my guess if there is one. She appeared at just the time they needed her. Either that or she is gonna get killed. He can't have a love interest out there long term, so she is a baddie or dead meat. Or I am just looking for more than is there.

 

[Ramsay B.]

On 12/24/2023 at 11:34 AM, Nictarion said:

Yeah, I liked it a lot. Barry Keoghan has pretty much entered - I will watch anything he’s in - territory for me at this point.

I concur. We also need a Barry Keoghan and Mia Goth collab at some point. Preferably a suspense/horror type film.

Just rewatched Infinity Pool. Mia really gives it her all in that. Such a crazy and unhinged performance. Love it.

[Teng Ai Hui]

I’ve read a lot of good things here about The Americans, so I decided to finally watch it.  I’ve watched the first 10 episodes.  It’s good storytelling, but it’s not necessarily fun to watch.  It’s hard to find someone to root for in this secret war.  Currently, I’m just hoping that the Jennings family re-unites and stays unified.  

[Ran]

Watched an interesting Swiss period film called Unrest (Unrueh), directed by Cyril Schäublin. It's really interestingly shot, with most of the scenes featuring actors filmed in the middle background, often with a very long focal length to emphasize the distance they are from the camera, and in general there are intervening objects or buildings, even trees (one shot near the end is dominated by a tree trunk covering half the frame). It's got a vague documentary feel, and also a sense that you're sort of eavesdropping with a pair of binoculars. Oh, and for those who are interested in horology, there's some nice macro imagery of watchmakers putting watches together.

It's set in the 1870s or early 1880s in Switzerland, in a town in the Jura Valley which is dominated by a watch factory. Many of the characters are employed by the factory (women in particular were heavily involved in the industry), and there's a brewing unrest over worker conditions (get it? "Unrest" has a double-meaning, as the "unrest" is also the term for the balance wheel mechanism in a watch) as innovations in timekeeping like the stopwatch has led to increasing drives for efficiency and productivity, and this mania extends even to the town, and even the global landscape as we learn that in this point of time there are as many as four different times to be concerned with (municipal time, factory time, local time, church time) and the conflict between them adds to confusion.

Many of the characters, particularly a Russian cartographer who shows up (representing a real person), are anarchists, and it's really a pretty remarkable evocation of this time period where Marx and Engels have sparked a wave of interest in communism and socialism, but with very different approaches among those interested, particularly anarchy that imagines no nations and no governments, merely rule by consensus with no tyranny. There's some really nice touches about how the capitalists and government at large initially just see the anarchists as oddballs and are quite polite, but towards the end you start to see they're beginning to take it seriously and attempting to stop it.

As befits a Swiss film, it's multilingual -- Swiss German, Italian, and French all appear, as does Russian, and even some English in one scene. I was quite taken with how it really felt like a genuine look into the time period. It's quite charming. Its message is, of course, one about political history which has application to today, but it makes the point through rather gentle conversation and imagery rather than beating you over the head with it. Also, I gather many of the performers are not actors by trade, which adds verisimilitude.

Anyways, a good watch if you can find it. It's on Mubi, at least here in Sweden.

 

 

Edited December 31, 2023 by Ran

[Darryk]

Really enjoyed Godzilla Minus One. Surprisingly emotional for a monster movie.

[Annara Snow]

3 hours ago, Teng Ai Hui said:

I’ve read a lot of good things here about The Americans, so I decided to finally watch it.  I’ve watched the first 10 episodes.  It’s good storytelling, but it’s not necessarily fun to watch.  It’s hard to find someone to root for in this secret war.  Currently, I’m just hoping that the Jennings family re-unites and stays unified.  

I don't get the "I need someone to root for in the war/conflict" argumemt. Why is that necessary to enjoy shows which are fundamentally about how these conflicts are bad and pointless and are really focsed on something else (The Americans - marriage and family)?

This insistence on fiding good guys and bad guys to toot for /against is why there were so many bad Succession takes by people who thought it was all about 'who wins' and what's ruining the House of the Dragon discourse, with people determined to make one side heroic and worthy, 

[Heartofice]

1 minute ago, Annara Snow said:

I don't get the "I need someone to root for in the war/conflict" argumemt. Why is that necessary to enjoy shows which are fundamentally about how these conflicts are bad and pointless and are really focsed on something else (The Americans - marriage and family)?

This insistence on fiding good guys and bad guys to toot for /against is why there were so many bad Succession takes by people who thought it was all about 'who wins' and what's ruining the House of the Dragon discourse, with people determined to make one side heroic and worthy, 

Totally agree. What made The Americans so compelling was the dynamic between the main characters and the tension behind their situation. They were human beings who occasionally had to do terrible things, for a reason. It was never about rooting for them or not, but being drawn in by the internal conflict. 
 

Succession was about horrible people, who were still often very watchable. Compared to House of Usher, who had horrible people who were not very watchable, you can see what really makes a good show 

[DaveSumm]

After randomly catching Die Hard on TV at Christmas, I just kept going and now I’ve watched 1 through 4. I heard 5 is bad though. 

Also, watched Palm Springs and it was really fun. Rom-com time loop. 

[IlyaP]

4 minutes ago, DaveSumm said:

After randomly catching Die Hard on TV at Christmas, I just kept going and now I’ve watched 1 through 4. I heard 5 is bad though. 

Die Hard 5 is cinematic violence.

[Teng Ai Hui]

13 hours ago, Annara Snow said:

I don't get the "I need someone to root for in the war/conflict" argumemt. Why is that necessary to enjoy shows which are fundamentally about how these conflicts are bad and pointless and are really focsed on something else (The Americans - marriage and family)?

This insistence on fiding good guys and bad guys to toot for /against is why there were so many bad Succession takes by people who thought it was all about 'who wins' and what's ruining the House of the Dragon discourse, with people determined to make one side heroic and worthy, 

13 hours ago, Heartofice said:

Totally agree. What made The Americans so compelling was the dynamic between the main characters and the tension behind their situation. They were human beings who occasionally had to do terrible things, for a reason. It was never about rooting for them or not, but being drawn in by the internal conflict. 
 

Succession was about horrible people, who were still often very watchable. Compared to House of Usher, who had horrible people who were not very watchable, you can see what really makes a good show 

Point taken.  I’ll continue enjoying good storytelling and good acting, and continue hoping that the lives of Paige Jennings, Henry Jennings, Sandra Beeman, and Matthew Beeman don’t become overly damaged by this “secret war”.

Also, I’m not necessarily looking for a hero/good guy, but I do need at least one main character that’s likeable and/or redeemable.   If a show is just horrible people being horrible to each other, then that’s not something I personally want to watch.

Does anyone watch a sporting event solely to see a top-quality athletic performance without caring about the final result?  In a way, I feel like that’s what I’m being asked to do.

[Nictarion]

18 minutes ago, Teng Ai Hui said:

Does anyone watch a sporting event solely to see a top-quality athletic performance without caring about the final result? 

Of course. 

[DireWolfSpirit]

So im starting a new series-

Tehran

Theres 2 seasons its streaming on AppleTV.

The stories and characters are fictional.

Decent tension building theres a (Mossad undercover operation), nice acting, the locales, music, dress and general setting  are interesting with Americans being so walled from this culture.

Looks quite promising so far.

Eta: Wiki says most of series filmed in Greece and that there will be a 3rd season and its an Israeli production.

Edited January 1 by DireWolfSpirit