Watch, Watched, Watching: Anybody but Superman

[Veltigar]

We're 400 posts into the old thread, so it time for a new thread!

Started Mr. & Mrs. Smith. One episode in and while I see the potential, right now I'd say this is something I'll need to be in the right mood for to watch.  Curious to see whether that will change in time.

Edited March 28 by Veltigar

[Zorral]

Guess jetlag is behind me now.

The Gentlemen really silly, and again we're to pull for Bad People.  It amplifies the long-held cited proverb -- "Behind every great fortune there are great crimes,",  to, "For a great titled family to hang on to said title and estates, more great crimes are committed. "  Therefore, not as silly as it appears, right?

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

This is good for a laugh:

 

[WarGalley]

Finished Deadloch which is on Amazon Prime (US). Decent show. I wouldn't nominate it for any Best series of the year awards but I was entertained enough to the point where I was looking forward to the next episode. The show is a murder mystery in a small Tasmanian town. It's very similar to Three Pines where you are dropped into a very small town with a lot of the community's characters as a backdrop to the main crime. Unfortunately, one of the co-protagonists is very irritating and over the top with her behavior, so much so that she is unbearable to even the audience for at least the first half of the season. As the crime solving progresses, her character does mature and becomes milder but it's very grating and possibly a deal breaker for some in the beginning.

Now I'm on episode 3 of Shogun while on vacation. Absolutely excellent series so far and shaping up to be my #1 show of the year (though admittedly I haven't really been keeping up with many of the more acclaimed series currently broadcasting). Love the political tension and landscape as well as the season starting strong with the Japanese cultural embracement of death. It's difficult to imagine it continuing for the whole season. Blackthorne’s parts are the weakest but I expect that to improve. I am really motivated to go pick up the book and read it alongside the episode viewing and I might just do that when I return home. I assume it can't actually be chapter for chapter even if the novel is broken up that way. I can't recall reading a book alongside watching a show before so I might try it if I don't binge the whole season first.

Edited March 29 by WarGalley

[TheLastWolf]

Yi Yi

Felt like a Cuaron or Inarritu picture. One for the ages.

[TheLastWolf]

Kes - 1969 - Ken Loach is now my new all time favourite 

[Veltigar]

Is anyone watching 3 Body Problem? I find it so strange that I don't see more buzz for it online.

 

[Zorral]

3 minutes ago, Veltigar said:

I don't see more buzz for it online.

Enormous amount here in the US, and not just 'online' either.  Constant interviews and articles with and about everyone involved.  As commented above, NF did a real, professional, PR effort on this show, the sort one would see coming out in ye older days from Hollywood for an expected box smash major movie.

It also has an impressive viewing record for NF too -- 80.71 millions streaming hours.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/us/3-body-problem-on-netflix-hit-or-flop-heres-what-numbers-reveal/articleshow/108827290.cms?

 

 

Edited March 30 by Zorral

[DMC]

47 minutes ago, Veltigar said:

Is anyone watching 3 Body Problem? I find it so strange that I don't see more buzz for it online.

 

It has its own thread:

 

[Heartofice]

Roadhouse 2024's existence feels like the product of some late night coke fuelled Hollywood  conversation. It is a real mess of a movie.. thought not always unenjoyable.

I can only imagine Conor McGregor was at one of these parties and had an idea about getting into acting, and was rambling on to Joel Silver, who said he'd put him into something just to get rid of him. 

McGregor is just bizarre. Roided up to the teeth, gurning and twitching, his new veneers on show in every scene as he just grins and swaggers around. You wouldn't call it acting, but someone decided he did enough to stay in the movie. There are a bunch of other over the top performances too.

I've seen commentary that 'they don't make movies like this any more'.. they do!  It's just you don't watch those movies because they are so awful.

The other side of this movie mixes incredibly uncomfortably with the over the top swagger and silliness. It's like Doug Liman and Jake Gyllenhaal wanted to make this deeper, smart movie about the life of a down and out UFC fighter.. but that got merged with a big dumb Roadhouse remake by Joel Silver and somehow this monster was produced.

Having said that, I quite liked it!

Edited March 31 by Heartofice

[williamjm]

I watched Ghostbusters : Frozen Empire. I enjoyed the film, although it did have some flaws. I do like the new generation cast introduced in Afterlife, but the size of the cast did seem to be getting a bit unwieldy because many of the characters from the original film are given more to do in this one and there are also some new characters introduced. The number of nostalgic callbacks does threaten to distract from the plot at times, I think they could have cut back on a lot of that. Dan Aykroyd has an important role in the plot but I don't think Bill Murray's scenes were adding much.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

On 3/30/2024 at 8:13 AM, Veltigar said:

Is anyone watching 3 Body Problem? I find it so strange that I don't see more buzz for it online.

 

I liked it. I hope it continues. 

[Nictarion]

Been watching some of the indie movies on Netflix this weekend, and so far my favorite has definitely been: I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore. It’s kind of a dark comedy/crime thriller directed by Macon Blair (Blue Ruin, Green Room), with Melanie Lynskey and Elijah Wood as the leads. Wood’s character in particular had me cracking up. 

It was also cool to see Robert Longstreet pop up in this. I actually just recently met him at a horror convention, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him in anything outside of the stuff he’s done with Mike Flanagan. 

Edited April 1 by Nictarion

[Isis]

9 hours ago, williamjm said:

I watched Ghostbusters : Frozen Empire. I enjoyed the film, although it did have some flaws. I do like the new generation cast introduced in Afterlife, but the size of the cast did seem to be getting a bit unwieldy because many of the characters from the original film are given more to do in this one and there are also some new characters introduced. The number of nostalgic callbacks does threaten to distract from the plot at times, I think they could have cut back on a lot of that. Dan Aykroyd has an important role in the plot but I don't think Bill Murray's scenes were adding much.

Went to see this last night: now that I have a cheap monthly pass to my local cinema I am able to see stuff that I would not bother to pay full price for AND I get to sit in a fancy seat. Seeing more films on a big screen is great actually.

ANYWAY

That guy from Stranger Things was the weak link here. In a big cast he stood out like a sore thumb as someone who was distracting to watch from a performance perspective. Everyone else did a good job with what they were given. Phoebe clearly channeling Beetlejuice Winona, which is fine, if derivative. Overall, low hanging fruit (with the OG Ghostbusters) slathered in cheese. The family stuff was (in the words of Tim Messenger) too cutesy pie. was it just me, it did it feel kind of rushed in the end? It was ok as a nostalgia trip, but if it didn't have all those callbacks, would it be any good?

[Werthead]

Been bouncing around a few things:

• Manhunt: Outstanding, a close rival to Shogun for "best thing on TV right now." Tobias Menzies has always been a very reliable performer, but he's delivering a career-best performance here. The weak link is the guy playing Abraham Lincoln who's a bit too cliched, but given he gets killed off in the first episode (not a spoiler, I hope), not a major problem. He is better in the flashbacks later on. Also not sure on Patton Oswalt in a dramatic-only role. Everyone else is on fire, especially Anthony Boyle as Wilkes Booth.
• The Reluctant Traveller with Eugene Levy: almost totally depth-free froth, but for switching-the-brain-off entertainment, very serviceable. Levy is a congenial host. So far I think the first series was better, simply because Levy was much more entertaining with his Johnny Rose-esque non sequiturs, and seeing him in Finland or Tokyo or the middle of Utah (which ended up being unexpectedly emotional) as a guy out of place was more entertaining than seeing him sipping whiskey in Scotland or wine in Tuscany, which feels much more comfortable for him.
• The Bear: Wasn't impressed at first as it was just a bit shouty, but after three or four episodes it settled down and became increasingly excellent. Adding Jon Bernthal to the cast (albeit as a flashback-only character) was a good move.
• Silo: Very good, despite Rebecca Ferguson's wandering accent. The production design is sensational.

[HexMachina]

Saw that BBC has The Wiz on iPlayer so I watched that over Easter. I've been aware of The Wiz for some time but never  had the opportunity to see it. I thought it was a really enjoyable adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, the original film of which I dislike (much, if I recall correctly, to @Veltigar's displeasure but hey, I can live with that). 

I really enjoyed the music and thought some of the performances were stand outs - Jackson as the Scarecrow being the big one. 

Having looked up the Wikipedia I see it was a critical and commercial flop but thats the way my taste tends to go  I would love the see it on stage though

[williamjm]

4 hours ago, Isis said:

ANYWAY

That guy from Stranger Things was the weak link here. In a big cast he stood out like a sore thumb as someone who was distracting to watch from a performance perspective. Everyone else did a good job with what they were given. Phoebe clearly channeling Beetlejuice Winona, which is fine, if derivative. Overall, low hanging fruit (with the OG Ghostbusters) slathered in cheese. The family stuff was (in the words of Tim Messenger) too cutesy pie. was it just me, it did it feel kind of rushed in the end? It was ok as a nostalgia trip, but if it didn't have all those callbacks, would it be any good?

I did see it suggested online that Trevor could have been away at college during the events and the film wouldn't really have lost anything.

[Isis]

47 minutes ago, williamjm said:

I did see it suggested online that Trevor could have been away at college during the events and the film wouldn't really have lost anything.

Spot on.

We watched this documentary called Murder in a Teacup on Prime at the weekend. It's about a man who is obsessed with poisoning people. All those classic questions about whether being a psychopath makes you a serial killer (or vice versa), with a whiff of terrorism thrown in. Obviously I don't want to spoil anything - the title kind of gives it away - but I would recommend it if you enjoy the debate about the Mindhunter/pathology/understanding serial killers type of thing. One questionable choice is that they have bits from the diary of the murderer read out in this completely OTT salacious 'Tom Riddle going to the forbidded part of the library' kind of voice. But even with that it's absolutely fascinating stuff.

[Veltigar]

We switched up the Scorsese/Shōgun pairings this week. Instead we watched the latest episode of Shōgun alongside 1988s Time of the Gypsies (original title Dom za vesanje), a Serbian film about the Romani people starring mostly non-professional actors from a Romani background. It's most famous due to its haunting score, including the achingly beautiful song Ederlezi.

I'll begin with what is most definitely my most unpopular opinion of the moment and repeat my weekly observation that Shōgun looks stunning, but that some essential quality of the original is lost in this adaptation. Strangely enough this week's episode had an original element at the very beginning of the episode that I really liked (and added to the source material), before immediately squandering all the earned goodwill which some baffling decisions particularly the reduction of the agency of a significant character.
Book spoilers below:

Spoiler

I liked the use of flashbacks to give us more of an insight into Mariko's youth and how they used it to also bring Lady Ochiba more to the forefront. That's a significant upgrade from the book and is actually something I'd like them to lean into more. Mariko's father is a bit of a cipher in the original novel and flashbacks that deepen his character, relation to Goroda, the Taiko, Toronaga and his own daughter would I think improve the potential of this story even further.

Sadly enough, there were also a lot of baffling decisions in this episodes. Most were dumb simplifications that were introduced due to the time/budget limitations of the adaptation (e.g. the fifth counselor not being secretly in league with Toronaga and trying to escape, but instead declaring heavy-handedly that he's disagreeing with Ishido which leads to his very predictable murder) and I can sort of live with those.

Much worse however was the reduction of Mariko's agency. In the show it is Toranaga who needs to remind her of her duty to avenge her father, which will lead to the climax of the story. This is sad, because Mariko and Toronaga are by far the most interesting characters in the novel and she in particular is such an incredibly strong character, having done her utmost to maneuver herself into a position to avenge her father. She used Toranaga as much as he used her, which makes her unique as pretty much his only equal. I think this change in the show fundamentally lessens her character, which is not the way to go imo.

Time of the Gypsies then, is a difficult movie to accurately discuss. We watched it mostly because of the music and I was expecting it to feel quite... boring or slow by modern standards (being 36 years old and Yugoslavian), however I thought it had remained a superbly interesting film that captivated my attention throughout.

The first act is by far the strongest part of the film, as the viewer is plunged head-first into a bewildering representation of Romani culture, combined with a very strong helping of magical-realist influences by the way of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and consorts. As stated before, the cast is non-professional and are all from Romani backgrounds, but the film is also entirely shot in Romany and the first act takes place entirely within the Romani village from where our protagonist hails.

In other words, you have very few anchoring points, since the film uses a language you have never heard, zooms in on a culture you usually do not get to see, and features levels of abject poverty that I don't think contemporary Western viewers are accustomed to seeing (and certainly not in a "European" context).

I would say that the non-professional actors are not so much acting as giving you a slice of their life in that first act, but given the long history of persecution of Romani people and the difficulty of finding information about the reception and making of this film (e.g., the IMDB trivia is extremely limited) by the community I have zero idea about how accurate this film is (when filtering out the magical elements of course).

The absurdity of it all often made us laugh and there is a sneaking suspicion that Sacha Baron Cohen drew most of his inspiration for the early scenes of Borat in his village in Kazakhstan from this film, but Time of the Gypsies plays it straight and manages to find a strange beauty into this time and place that is easy to overlook. Strongly helped by some absolutely stunning music, which is really the highlight of the movie.

The story then takes a darker turn in act two and three, as the action moves mostly to Italy. I don't want to give anything away, but there are some truly abominable social practices on display and while it remained interesting, I did feel like the film bit of more than it could chew, trying to stuff too much story in too little film. I'll say that I was a bit disappointed in the ending, although I believe others will probably love it

Spoiler

Mostly because it was such a downer ending. I was really hoping Perhan Sr. would survive his ordeals and return to take care of his grandmother, sister and son. Living an honest life and atoning for his past sins. Perhaps that would have been too much of a fairytale ending given the persistent discrimination against the Romani, but sometimes you just want things to end on good terms for characters you have grown to care for.

 

On 3/30/2024 at 3:16 PM, Zorral said:

Enormous amount here in the US, and not just 'online' either.  Constant interviews and articles with and about everyone involved.  As commented above, NF did a real, professional, PR effort on this show, the sort one would see coming out in ye older days from Hollywood for an expected box smash major movie.

It also has an impressive viewing record for NF too -- 80.71 millions streaming hours.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/us/3-body-problem-on-netflix-hit-or-flop-heres-what-numbers-reveal/articleshow/108827290.cms?

Aha okay, it is very popular then. I had seen there was a thread like @DMC had kindly shared, but I know no one in real-life who has given it a shot. Thanks for the information.

2 hours ago, HexMachina said:

Saw that BBC has The Wiz on iPlayer so I watched that over Easter. I've been aware of The Wiz for some time but never  had the opportunity to see it. I thought it was a really enjoyable adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, the original film of which I dislike (much, if I recall correctly, to @Veltigar's displeasure but hey, I can live with that). 

I really enjoyed the music and thought some of the performances were stand outs - Jackson as the Scarecrow being the big one. 

Having looked up the Wikipedia I see it was a critical and commercial flop but thats the way my taste tends to go  I would love the see it on stage though

It's a bonafide classic, but you know, de gustibus et coloribus non est disputandem.

9 hours ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

I liked it. I hope it continues. 

D&D's involvement makes me doubtful. Plus, I have the book on my shelf so kind of weighing which to tackle first, book or series  

[Zorral]

The Red Queen (2024), a Spanish production, adapted from the Spanish thriller of the same name, is an enjoyable outing on AP.  They did a good job casting the two primary characters,  because whether or not one wishes to spend 7 episodes in the show depends on them -- because the novel itself depended on their very disparate characters and how they were able to work together.  Yes, I read the novel, and can say there is no reason to read the novel if you only watch the series.  This is a compliment to the series, which could be, as it is in many way, as it includes so much of which we are familiar from other police / cop, up against a deadline, thriller. The one exception to our familiarity is that of the male cop -- yes, he's an outsider, but not for the usual reasons in a cop show, and he's not a cliche of the reasons he is 'different.'  It is pleasing to see the television series really got why the novel worked so well, making it an international best seller.