8 Mile (2003)
Working class twenty-something from the 8 Mile Trailer Park tract in Detroit aspires to become a city-famous freestyle rapper. Finally following his dream, Rabbit escapes to the underground rap battle stage where he must go against rappers who attended well-respected private schools.

This film really nails the details of riding public transportation in a city with a hammer.

Deer Hunter
A group of working class factory workers from a rural town in Pennsylvania are drafted to fight in Southeast Asia, circa the late 1960s. Once overseas, the Slavic soldiers are forced to play Russian Roulette by a group of non-Slavic people.

The Art Department did a terrific job designing De Niro and Walken’s shared apartment/trailer by placing empty boxes of KFC chicken above the refrigerator in the kitchen.

The only good thing in Deer Hunter (outside of DeNiro, Walken's performances amd introducing Meryl Streep) is the Orthodox wedding. The rest is garbage and total fiction. My family is Russian from that part of PA and we're veterans.

I've recently fallen in love with The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. Daryl has always been my favourite character in the TV show, so I love seeing him as the star.

I'm also watching the full walkthrough gameplay of Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

Nothing at this moment in time.

Watching the 2014 Russian 4-part tv film adaptation of Dostoevsky's: Demons. So far it's very good, not just because it cut the first, long introductory part of the novel, that's pretty much uneventful, but because of the ominous music and back and forth storytelling foreshadowing a lot of the crimes yet to happen. The actors are good and since it's Russian, they rather make a 4 hours-long adaptation faithful in depth to the written dialogues than to cut corners and pack it into a single movie. I enjoyed their mini series version of The Idiot as well, but that's inarguably a far less eventful and intricate story. Also I think that this adaptation includes the most defining and disturbing part about the main protagonist's motives, that was even cut from early versions of the novel and just like a similar theme from Crime and Punishment was always cut from any adaptations I've seen, due to it describing child abuse.

I ended my Annual Horror Marathon, and will be switching to Science Fiction for November. I did not get everything on my list, some of them were movies I had already watched.

All Hallows Eve is a director really trying to make his Freddy Kruger, Pennywise slasher villain work. It is two short films about Art the Clown, framed around new footage featuring Art. He was trying to make Art the Anti-IT but forgot that Tim Curry's genuine charm made Pennywise so scary. “Oh they float… come down here, and you'll float too…” They have gone on to make the Frightener series, but I thought it was violent and gross without much creativity.

The most disappointing show was Haunting of Bly Manor. There was no story, it was just people in the present being jump-scared for 6 episodes, and then an infodump to explain all the filler and one very good final episode.

The last few movies were spur-of-the-moment choices and they were both great.

Scare Us: A “bottle” episode-style movie. With two writers caught in a storm trying to one-up each other with scary stories. The actors act the stories out live with sound effects and clever camera angles.

Summer of '84: Was Rear Window ala Goonies. A kid is suspicious of his neighbor and enlists his 13-something friends and the hot babysitter to harass him. It relies heavily on humor and nostalgia, but things get real in the third act and I was genuinely surprised by it.

Spring: A Lovecraftian Romantic-Horror. The movie is just a long conversation between a man and a monster he has fallen in love with. It is tragic and sweet, with the stakes of their relationship steadily increasing as their stories unfold—a great example of how dialog can create a compelling story.

Yes, that was another dig at Andor.

I fell in love with the Loki series on Disney plus.

Initially I stayed away because the promo was terrible and I did NOT want to indulge in another marvel thing, especially not a series, and especially not with a stupid fannish character like Tom Hiddleston's Loki.

But I was wrong.
The Loki series is better than any Marvel film. The storytelling is interesting and clever. The acting is great and the characters are diverse and interesting. Tom is fantastic as a much more fleshed out loki. The costumes are great. The set design is beautiful and SO well thought out with a 1930s art decco feel leading into a 1960s Soviet cold war aesthetic. The direction, camera angles, plotting, pacing, casting, everything is good.

————–

Also Star Trek Lower Decks-
I finished the 4th season. It makes up for the floppiness in the 3rd.

The costumes are great. The set design is beautiful and SO well thought out with a 1930s art decco feel leading into a 1960s Soviet cold war aesthetic. The direction, camera angles, plotting, pacing, casting, everything is good.

Yeah, To be fair, I'm not caught up with season 2 yet, but the 1st season's Loki wasn't exactly brilliant in my eyes, after all, he was mainly just a punching bag, someone everything just happens to. He was far from being a trickster god, but I suppose he can make a comeback. The set design was a favorite of mine as well. I loved how a series for Loki played on referencing A Clockwork Orange with the whole retro feel, the theme song and even the literal orange-colored clock. All in all, I too think it's the best series Marvel had to offer to date.

InkyMoondrop wrote:
Yeah, To be fair, I'm not caught up with season 2 yet, but the 1st season's Loki wasn't exactly brilliant in my eyes, after all, he was mainly just a punching bag, someone everything just happens to. He was far from being a trickster god, but I suppose he can make a comeback. The set design was a favorite of mine as well. I loved how a series for Loki played on referencing A Clockwork Orange with the whole retro feel, the theme song and even the literal orange-colored clock. All in all, I too think it's the best series Marvel had to offer to date.

I didn't get that reference but you're right ^_^
In both seasons he's still mostly a reactive character rather than a fully active one, but I felt that was warranted because he was SOOOOOOO arrogant of a character who always thought he had the upper hand no matter what and was thinking 16 steps ahead- he really needed to mature, learn and change, which is what the series does to him. I really loved that genuine character growth they pulled out of him through those experiences.

A Clockwork Orange:

We are all oranges, with tough skin. Slice him open and and replace the soft innards with clockwork pieces and we have a good little soldier who does what we say.

I should probably rewatch La Commune (Paris, 1871) from Peter Watkins. It's definitely one of those films people rarely ever heard of with its 345 minutes runtime in a closed set, utilizing more, than 200 actors (mostly volunteers I suppose) to give an excitingly unique take on historical events in the form of televised news reports from various perspectives and their political agendas. It's mostly for arthouse fans and requires patience, but Watkins always liked to experiment with semi and pseudo-docmentary styles (Punishment Park, Edvard Munch) and is an original voice in filmmaking, although one barely registered with the masses.

Binge watching Stargate SG-1. Just never had the opportunity to see it when it was on TV. Loving everything about it especially how they're building up the universe. And of course the movie and TV show inspired a whole conspiracy theory about Stargates. Just like reptoids there is no evidence of the idea anywhere before the movie and series.
But that doesn't lessen how wonderful the series is.

Mine is also a Hebrew name that comes from the Bible, specifically the boy who was gifted a coat of many colors, then his jealous brothers tried to get rid of him because of the favoritism their father showed him.

I very, very rarely ever meet any other Josephs, although, abbreviations like Joe and Joey seem to be far more common.

J_Scarbrough wrote:
Mine is also a Hebrew name that comes from the Bible, specifically the boy who was gifted a coat of many colors, then his jealous brothers tried to get rid of him because of the favoritism their father showed him.

I very, very rarely ever meet any other Josephs, although, abbreviations like Joe and Joey seem to be far more common.

Hahaha, wrong thread Josephus!

bravo1102 wrote:
Binge watching Stargate SG-1.

It's an ok show. Back in the day it was on TV in a block with Farscape and Buffy. Out of them Farscape stood out though… Buffy was just too much of a relationship teen thing at heart and Stargate was a bit too mainstream and bland next to the spicy, gritty, exciting dirt of Farscape.

But in its own right it's a good show. Which the two main Farscape actors join as stars after their show was cancelled!
I saw the movie again the other day just to see how much James Spader changed from then to now (from pretty boy with shaggy hair to fat fatty round headed balding old man… we're all getting older)- it held up. One of the last big epics that WASN'T all CGI!!!! Worth it just for that.
Also seeing French Stewart in there as a tough guy was super weird! XD

————-

I've been watching Fresh Meat.
It's a British sitcom about a bunch of students from different backgrounds living in a share house while going to Manchester University.
Because Joe Thomas from the high school comedy The Inbetweeners is in it, it feels a bit like a sequel to that show initially.
It's pretty decent. I like it. It's hindered by the British Sitcom fetish for constantly having characters stick to their ridged trope type despite any environmental factors or changes though. It's like a bunch of NPCs in a game who still say the same things no matter what happens to their world XD
But even with those tight constraints I like it. Vom is my fave character because I knew SO MANY people like her.

ozoneocean Farscape

You're the one who turned me on to Farscape so I will be watching that again. I like all the in jokes in Stargate SG-1. The Harry Dean Anderson remarks are great. The guy in Farscape said in an interview he based bits of his character on McGuyver and Stargate SG-1 and jumped at the chance when Anderson said he'd be perfect to replace him.

Also been watching all the DC universe movies because they're on Amazon Prime and that's the only streaming service I have. Shazam: Wrath of the Gods is the newest and was okay. The cgi was a little rough in spots and the family theme got tiring but in the end was very fulfilling. I'm sentimental like that.

I have been catching up on Sci-fi shows and slowly working in Christmas stuff.

Aporia: A low-budget time travel movie starring Judy Greer, who I am surprised has not won an Oscar yet.

Blood & Honey: This is the Whinnie-the-Pooh slasher film. If you are at all curious about it, it is worth watching. Has a solid premise, though it is too graphic for my taste. Delivers on what it promises.

The Lost Husband: A Lifetime movie starring my long-time crush Leslie Bibb (the hot reporter from Iron Man) that has no right to be as good as it is.

What Comes Around: A film about online predators where the actors are much better than the script they are given, also filled with characters too dumb to have survived this long.

There's Another You: A low-budget, high-stakes, multi-verse movie with a surprisingly good performance by CJ Perry from WWE. Not actually surprising if you know anything about her.

The Settlers: Slow-burn Sci-fi revenge tale starring Nell Tiger Free.

Resident Alien A comic book adaptation starring Allan Tudyk as an alien whose mission is derailed when he crash lands on earth. Everything he says is suspicious and it is hilarious to watch everybody misinterpret him.

The Vast of Night: A movie that makes me jealous as a writer. I wish I could write this well! A lost Twilight Zone episode.

Elves (Nisser): A Danish series about the Nisser, creatures similar to El Duende or the Red Caps. The mythology is interesting but it is hard to get around how stupid and thoughtless the characters are. It is unbelievable how much carnage these dumbasses caused.

All The Creatures Were Stirring: A surreal Christmas anthology I watch every year.

Advent Calendar: A French horror movie akin to Pet Semetary or Monkey's Paw. I have been watching this over the last few holiday seasons and it is one of my favorite Christmas Horror Movies.

Feast of the Seven Fishes: An Italian-centric movie that started as a comic book and was adapted by the writer 30 years later. Features Joey Pants and other on-screen legends. Mostly about cooking food, and holiday relationships. No real plot, like Andor, but the characters are memorable and go through endearing arcs. Will be one of my annual holiday watches from now on.

Gremlins: It's a Christmas movie, and the best pastiche of 1950's Sci-fi made. Except for maybe Vast of Night.

Christmas Horror Story: A highly entertaining horror anthology with zombie elves, changelings, ghosts, and a knockdown drag-out fight between Santa and Krampus. I would love to see a sequel to this.

The Knight Before Christmas: A Vanessa Hudgens Christmas-verse film. Much better than the Princess Switch movies.

Silent Night, Deadly Night 2 “It's Garbage Day!” It's the first movie framed around new footage, so you get two Santa-killing sprees for the price of one.

Violent Night: Die Hard with Santa and a few well-executed twists. Good but a half hour too long.

Watching the series called You (2018). It's not exactly peak TV entertainment, just a moderately fine romance-fueled crime stuff to pass the time, but with every season it's about the same formula and it burns out rather fast because of it. Thankfully they don't plan to stretch it beyond season 5, because by the 4th I'm convinced they're making more and more side characters insufferable on purpose and at this point there's about no one to relate to, at this point female characters are either absurdly stupid or mistaking strong for casually patronizing and about 95% of everyone besides the MC is the kind of snobbish idiot that make Rian Johnson whodunnit characters look deep and layered in comparison.

Watched the new Indiana jones film and was pleasantly surprised. Actually I'd go as far as saying it's probably the best film released in 2023 that I've seen. It's a low bar to be fair.

Working my way through Silk Stalkings, Hunter, Bones, and Castle.

These are all different types of who-dunnit.

Silk Stalkings is a slightly cheesy sleazy cop show from the 1990s, starting in 1989, set in Palm Beach Florida they cover murders that have some sort of sex related angle. I watched it at the time because of the sexiness. I'm watching it now for the nostalgia of the era- I find the sexy stuff pretty irritating or repellent now but I continue to watch it for the characters, the glimpse of that aspect of the ‘90s and to get through the whole show.
The whole thing as a bit of a cheap ’90s glam feel. Like a really cut price version of Miami Vice.

Hunter is a cop show from the mid ‘80s to the early ’90s set in New York. Again it's about murders, but without the sexiness fortunately. It was made at the same time as Miami Vice but this has a much more gritty, rough feel. Given the lead actor Fred Dryer looks a bit like Clint Eastwood I think they were going for a Dirty Harry thing, but the character is and the actor are FAR more intelligent than Harry and Eastwood, so the Dirty Harry thing softens a lot and he becomes a much more complex character.

Bones and Castle …to be continued.

InkyMoonDrop wrote:

Watching the series called You (2018). It's not exactly peak TV entertainment, just a moderately fine romance-fueled crime stuff to pass the time, but with every season it's about the same formula and it burns out rather fast because of it. Thankfully they don't plan to stretch it beyond season 5, because by the 4th I'm convinced they're making more and more side characters insufferable on purpose and at this point there's about no one to relate to, at this point female characters are either absurdly stupid or mistaking strong for casually patronizing and about 95% of everyone besides the MC is the kind of snobbish idiot that make Rian Johnson whodunnit characters look deep and layered in comparison.

Oh yeah, I was watching You a couple years ago. It's enjoyable at times and maddening at other times, haha.

The last season I watched, either season 2 or 3, I was liking all the side characters more than the MC. I was hoping for all of them to be alright, even the “villainous” ones. And wishing death upon Joe, haha. You make me wonder if the side characters were made more unlikable so Joe wouldn't be so hated (if other people had the same reaction as me. Not sure if anyone did).

But it's got its thrilling moments. Had to stop watching - just couldn't root for Joe anymore. xD

But it's got its thrilling moments. Had to stop watching - just couldn't root for Joe anymore. xD

Yeah, I mean there are times when you can see him as a force of good (like how the show starts off with him saving a life) but it's kinda cringe when after like a dozen ppl killed, there's still a bunch of excuses for him to kill. Too convenient, everyone else is horrible or dangerous or whatever and he's just a very unlucky fella, because it needs to get rationalized somehow at least in order to score some sympathy. Which is fine for like a season or two, but c'mon…


Since I'm down with the flu or something and it's the end of the year, I'm watching a lot more movies than I usually do and since I'm sleeping 14-16 hours a day, I avoid 3+ hours experimental documentaries and subtitled arthouse flicks. I just watched PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie. It got released around the same time I finished my now-running chapter of Blessed Days. So many similarities in regards of plot. Anyway, I've seen worse Marvel / DC flicks.

After the first season, there was a bunch of masochistic Edward Cullen/Anakin Skywalker fans who embraced Joe as an ideal man (but men and women don't exist.) The actor thought it was disgusting and made some statements clarifying that Joe was clearly not the hero.

sleeping_gorilla wrote:
After the first season, there was a bunch of masochistic Edward Cullen/Anakin Skywalker fans who embraced Joe as an ideal man (but men and women don't exist.) The actor thought it was disgusting and made some statements clarifying that Joe was clearly not the hero.

Yeah, I recall that. To be fair, it was never too far from audiences to romanticize such figures, Dexter ran for so many seasons for a reason (with cast of recurring side characters who barely had more function than props). Being a murderer / abusive “for the right reasons” is something that appeals to many and you can always find ways to cater to this demand in today's TV entertainment.

Robert Pattinson hated the character Edward, so he played him as a guy who hated himself. The Twilight commentary track is hilarious.

sleeping_gorilla wrote:
Robert Pattinson hated the character Edward, so he played him as a guy who hated himself. The Twilight commentary track is hilarious.

I watched the first Twilight film because my Ex made me XD
It really wasn't bad. It was cheesy and constructed in its way- carefully aimed at girls of a certain age but that's no different films carefully aimed at boys of a certain age.

It was VERY funny in places, unintentionally- when Edward was hyper fast running through the forest canopy, that looked ridiculous; any time Edward did fancy car stuff in his stupid little hatchback, that was SOOO dumb, it looked embarrassing; And the vamp family were just WAAYYY too pretty, their hair looked like wigs and their faces had so much makeup they looked like they were wearing masks, the football place scene with the two vamp groups was so silly.

It could have been a much more interesting film if it was made by a better film maker, even though people hate the romantic story, there's enough stuff there to base something interesting on… instead they make it half cartoon.

Still catching up with a few releases and some I'll only be able to watch next year, but out of the 2023 premiers, besides the already mentioned Across the Spiderverse and Nimona, my favorites were The Teachers' Lounge, Rye Lane and Anatomy of a Fall so far.

I loved, how The Teachers' Lounge offers a claustrophobic, almost Haneke-like experience about how the life of an educator can spiral out of control the more she cares about doing the right thing and doing right by her students, that it doesn't take some extraordinary event for the workplace environment to turn toxic and most of all, that it's more interested in studying how groups behave and the individual caught up between them, rather than painting a who's right who's wrong picture.

Rye Lane was refreshing and funny, a romcom with about as much mood and style than Punch-drunk Love was, a simple story executed with heart and soul, making it enjoyable from start to finish.

And Anatomy of a Fall was although long, it wasn't boring, a captivating psychological study of characters where you don't exactly get a fuller picture than a jury would about what happened, but you do get to learn a lot about the subjective truths of the people affected.

On the contrast, Saltburn did disappoint as its main interest is to shock through an antihero and its cast of spoilt, unlikable characters. Even Pasolini's Teorema with its painful ambiguity said more about the dead-ends of aristocratic lifestyle, than this edgy flick drawing parallels between being wealth-oriented, being a psychopath, being sexually depraved and criminal behavior. But you don't need to say anything new as long as the audicences agree with what you're saying and you get to pat yourself on the back for some diabolical “twist” anyone can see from a mile away.

InkyMoondrop wrote:
On the contrast, Saltburn did disappoint as its main interest is to shock

I saw this advertised on Amazon Prime and thought exactly the same!
It's super obvious it's another cliche, boring, uninformed critique of the British upperclass like that MORONIC Altman film Gosford Park, which I had the utter misfortune to see at a cinema with friends when It came out. Just cliche and cliche and cliche, made with the diseased, discarded off-cuts Agatha Christi rightly threw out and would never use.

We already have things like Brideshead Revisitedted, and Room With a View that give us extremely clever looks inside this world from an insider's perspective that are beautiful, complex, full of pathos and critique… Or the genius of Wodehouse that accurately lampoons every single aspect of the lifestyle and world of those people from every possible angle imaginable by a person who KNEW EXACTLY what he was writing about!

Instead now we have stupid fantasies based only on tropes, 4th hand knowledge, myths, and cliches and it's SO freakin' obvious that is the case that you can't even disguise it in trailers .

I watched the 2006 Black Christmas remake, I liked the original as a spiritual companion to Halloween, but this version just further proves why the originals are classics, even with a cast that includes Lacey Chabert and Mary Elizabeth Winstead it's mostly a miss.

Also watching “Christmas with the Campbells”. This is a parody of Hallmark holiday films where they treat the audience like adults and say the sex stuff. It starts getting funny when Justin Long shows up as the Bill Pullman character in “While You Were Sleeping” and immediately out man's the ex-boyfriend.

Finally watched Good Omens season 1. Tbh I'd tried a few times but always turned it off a short way in as I wasn't in the mood for it. Thought it was great, now on to season 2.