Film and Episodic Content Discussion Thread

Discussion in 'Random Thoughts' started by purr1n, Jan 8, 2020.

  1. iFi audio

    iFi audio MOT iFi Audio

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    A very underrated movie, this one. Danny Huston who played Marlow took the cake. Interestingly it was a rather faithful adaptation of a comic book miniseries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/30_Days_of_Night

    If you're into weird vampire movies, you might want to watch this:

    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1714915/?ref_=nm_knf_t4

    That's a classic right there, I remember seeing it with my parents and how terrified I was back then.
     
  2. Pharmaboy

    Pharmaboy Friend

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    I'd never seen Danny Huston until 30 DAYS ... that's a terrifying performance. Didn't know the story came from a comic book.

    ONLY LOVERS is on my list at Prime. Anything directed by Jim J & starring Tilda is a must-see IMO.
     
  3. iFi audio

    iFi audio MOT iFi Audio

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    We're on the same boat. Such a unique director he is. Even Paterson wa great and speaking of A.Driver, Duel with him and M.Damon was a real gem.
     
  4. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Possibly spoilers with Picard Season 2, as if anyone cares.

    Tried to watch Picard season 2. Seemed pretty promising at first, despite the time-travel / alternate evil mirror universe thing. (I should have known better, anytime ST resorts to mirror universe, it means the writers have run out of ideas).

    All went decently well until that episode where one of Picard's crew, Cristobel Rios (Chris Rios), has a transporter accident where he's beamed in mid-air and falls about twenty feet smacking into the ground unconscious. Rios is brought to a medical clinic that serves illegal immigrants (this is current 21st century Earth now). The clinic gets raided by immigration authorities. Rios dons a white coat and pretends to be a physician to buy time for the other illegal immigrants leaving through the back door. US ICE agents demand to see Rios' identification, of which Rios cannot produce any (remember, he's from the 24th century). Upon hearing this, the ICE agents immediately rough him up, put him into handcuffs, and haul him away.

    I turn the TV off.

    I could have handled it if I felt Picard was going to get better, but the trajectory was pretty obvious by now. Some musings:
    1. What happened to the art of allegory, mastered by Star Trek? Sure classic Trek, TOS, TNG, was always about commenting on social issues, but it was never about hitting people over the head with them. (As such, the ST spoof show, Orville pulls it off well).
    2. Rios has a universal translator implant. Wouldn't the translator, knowing his thinking at the time, pretending to be a physician, allowed him to speak in a more standard American English accent, or at least the same as the lady physician who ran the place (who is presumably a citizen)? I can see it as more believable that ICE agents rough up folks who and speak like the idiotic Mexican retard Guillermo (on the Jimmy Kimmel show no less), than Rios, who looks more European and is a lot lighter skinned than I am. (Yes, I've been mistaken for Mexican by other Mexicans in Corpus, especially during the summer - literally, Mexican dudes drive up to me and ask me for directions in Spanish).
    3. I am curious if writers struggle working with these eight to ten episode story arcs. It's not just these Star Trek shows, but many other shows from Netflix, Amazon, etc. have a tendency to kill pacing with untimely insertion of boring dialogue or boring flashbacks under the guise of "character development" when it's really writers with no ideas writing random banter. Sure, every episode of House used the same formula and was simply variations of the same story - but I watched all the episodes of House and actually enjoyed most of them. There's something to be said with formulas that work.
    Anyway, seems to be some disconnect here with the insiders (critics) and general viewing populace.
    upload_2022-5-3_17-44-39.png

    Hoping Strange New Worlds with its episodic format comes out better.
     
    Last edited: May 3, 2022
  5. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Not cool to say this of the esteemed Sir Patrick Stewart, but could it be that he actually kind of sucks as a screen actor? I mean the Captain Picard thing may have been a role that just fit him well, but the only role I can remember him before ST was was Leondegrance in Excalibur (where he kinda sucked as well, but played a role that fit him). He kinda sucked in X-men, not really gelling well with the rest of the X-men. This same issue seems to be worse in Picard. Well, his greatest role was probably in Logan opposite Hugh Jackman, where he played a geriatric Prof X with mutant Parkinsons where he could not control his immense power. James Mangold who directed Logan is very legit as a director though (look what he did with Matt Damon in Ford Vs. Ferrari - as Matt Damon usually sucks).
     
  6. Velomane

    Velomane Acquaintance

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    He does project like a classically trained British stage actor. I'd pay to see him in the west end. King Lear perhaps.
     
  7. iFi audio

    iFi audio MOT iFi Audio

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    I've never seen him suck, but not a fan of Star Trek, so who knows. IIRC he did well as Picard in the past, didn't he?
     
  8. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    So Dr. Strange and the Multi-something of doom, or whatever it's called....

    It's not a good movie. It's also not a bad movie. Like most Marvel movies, it's just kind of... there. Like wallpaper. I remarked to a friend who hasn't seen it but is mildly curious, "it's a Marvel movie... you've seen one, you've seen them all". And that is certainly true for this.

    Yes it has well put together action sequences, gobs of CGI craziness, the standard Hollywood character beats we've come to expect, and woke quotas galore, but it also doesn't have a soul. It's just a very well polished advertisement for the next Marvel thing... at the end of the day these are kid cartoons masquerading as "cinema". Yeah, Scorsese was right.

    But that's okay. It is what it is. If you like that sort of thing, you'll probably have a good time. But it's honestly beyond boring at this point. The only reason I went was because the friend I was with is a big Marvel guy and he offered pay.

    I'd offer more of a thorough breakdown of what went wrong, but honestly the movie just isn't worth the effort. Kind of says it all.
     
  9. Riotvan

    Riotvan Snoofer in the Woofer

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    Anyone seen the Marvelous miss Maisel? That show has great writing and is actually funny. Kind of rare these days, honestly i find the ceiling for quality higher on prime than netflix. The Expanse, Bosch and now Bosch Legacy also come to mind.
     
  10. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    I've been trying to watch Picard season 1 and I just can't get into it. I don't care about any of the characters, or about Data, or about his "daughters". I prefer shows with good character development to shows that just throw a bunch of complicated plot dynamics at you. I mean I don't even know wtf the big cube thing is. And I just don't care either.

    Also, I can't stand black and white evil villains who are just "pure evil". So boring. The hot girl getting her brother to spy on the new synthetic makes me fall asleep. She could at least take off her clothes or something.
     
  11. Pharmaboy

    Pharmaboy Friend

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    I just added MRS. MAISEL to my list on Prime. People I trust have strongly recommended it. Plus to be perfectly honest, my steady diet of shoot 'em ups and crime dramas is starting to wear me out. Never thought I'd say this, but I need a humanity pause on streaming content.

    BTW, I'm currently wrestling with two other shows that can be really great, but also can be the opposite:

    OPEN RANGE: I'm a huge Josh Brolin fan. I heard another actor refer to him as being, "Like a fine wine. He just gets better with age." Couldn't agree more. He is very powerful and compelling at moments here. His exchanges with Imogene Poots are mysterious and deep--the heart of this show's mystery (she's consistently great here). But other moments and plot points sag badly.

    FROM: Amazed I somehow missed a vampire/monster series, I dove into this one and found much to like. The show is based on occult mysteries that the script is in no hurry to clear up (a good thing IMO). Several of the actors here are quite compelling, particularly the sheriff (Harold Perrineau) and the very strange waitress at the diner (Avery Conrad). Yet the story repeatedly bogs down in group scenes and tedious dialogue.
     
    Last edited: May 8, 2022
  12. Pharmaboy

    Pharmaboy Friend

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    I would add to the higher quality list GOLIATH & HOMECOMING, both of which have stellar moments of acting and plot.
     
  13. iFi audio

    iFi audio MOT iFi Audio

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    Anyone here enjoyed The Northman?
     
  14. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    Been meaning to see this. I wish I went to this instead of generic Marvel movie #37.
     
  15. iFi audio

    iFi audio MOT iFi Audio

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    I hear you, my wife dragged me to see Dr Strange instead, but from what I see The Northman is on VOD now.
     
  16. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Spoilers Warning

    .
    .
    .

    The Batman

    I guess emo younger Batman who hadn't quite gotten all his shit together yet wasn't too bad. Pattinson was pretty good, although his bod looked kinda wimpy (supposedly he put on some muscle, but I didn't see any). At parts toward the middle of the film, he seemed to devolve somewhat into Edward Cullen - but he was good overall. Buzz played up chemistry between Zoe Kravitz and Ed Cullen, but to be honest, I didn't see any. I don't know how they went from racing motorcycles and kicking bad guys to suddenly kissing. Wife and I were kinda of huh? how did that happen.

    I thought the film was ended when they caught the Riddler. It would have been nice to stop there because a big part of The Batman was about Batman being the detective. And there was dumb car chase scene with the Batmobile with flaming rocket engine anyway. But nooo, Hollywood had to tag another 45 minutes on top of that for New York to be flooded and Batman to fight the Riddler's Incel Redditor, I mean Riddler Army. I turned off the TV and walked away. Kids, who saw this on the big screen, told me I didn't miss anything.

    BTW, Jeffrey Wright was the star of the show.
     
    Last edited: May 12, 2022
  17. Pharmaboy

    Pharmaboy Friend

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    I'll see THE NORTHMAN tomorrow night. Hoping it's good...
     
  18. Pharmaboy

    Pharmaboy Friend

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    Well, I'm an idiot. Just realized the Netflix thread I've been commenting in is totally separate from this Film and Episodic Content Thread.

    Consequently, I recently posted my comments about THE NORTHMAN in the wrong thread. Reposting those comments below:

    Just saw THE NORTHMAN tonight.

    My God, that was one of the worst films I ever saw. There's a special kind of badness that attaches to a big budget sword and sandals thriller in which some kind of made-up language is spoken by one and all (along with occasional English). And in which Nicole Kidman with her botox-paralyzed face co-stars. And in which there's more men screaming and beating their chests than in those old PLANET OF THE APES films.

    I'll try hard to forget that white-hot mess of a film, but probably won't be able to.
     
  19. crenca

    crenca Friend

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    just watched 2016's "Arrival", based on Ted Chiang's "The Story of Your Life" because it's streaming for free for Amazon Prime members and I'm isolating with covid. I have been reluctant to see this movie because the story is so good I did not want to see yet another book-to-movie chop job (particularly after The Hobbit). It's a love story - love in a deeper sense of "meaning" as opposed to the usual romanticism - imbedded in a truly creative/unique Science Fiction premise.

    The movie was pretty darn good, and was mostly faithful to the letter and spirit of the story. There were some plot letdowns, but overall worth viewing. Even the often batman-dark atmosphere worked at times, even if it was too much at others.
     
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  20. Pharmaboy

    Pharmaboy Friend

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    I knew nothing about this story or the book. I saw in in theaters and was absolutely wowed. I thought I was going to see a sci-fi film, and instead I saw a timeless cinema meditation on what it means to love, be loved, and be human.

    No one I knew saw it so I couldn't even talk about it with anybody. But I loved the film.

    Thinking about it afterward, I was reminded of the great French short film, LA JETEE--another film that was nominally about other things (time travel & war). I knew of the film's connection with TWELVE MONKEYS (a good film, but not the equal of LAT JETEE) and thought I knew what I was getting into. Wrong again. LA JETEE was another beautiful film about humanity--specifically, memory and love.
     

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