I watched a bunch of old school Unsolved Mysteries, which was mostly quite satisfying because a majority of the stories have “updates,” and the sense of closure was cathartic.

Then I fell down a rabbit hole of true crime series on Hulu, but those put me in a crap mood. Partly due to the stories, but mostly due to the storytelling style. I also decided the reason women like hatchbacks is that they can't get locked in a trunk. And it reaffirmed my life choices of not having any relationships except for a very alert watchdog.

Anyway, I broke free from the true crime and started watching Twilight Zone for the umpteenth time. Watching on Hulu because 1. Netflix doesn't have as many episodes and 2. Netflix continues trying to play the episode I always skip because it flagged it as unwatched. It's “unwatched” for a good reason, dingus.

Desperate again so watched KNOWING from '09 with Nicholas Cage about the end of the world. Supposed to be in Boston? but actually filmed in Melbourne, Australia. At least our children are saved by aliens who fly them off to new worlds. A 2 1/2 on the Moizmeter.

TO CALL A SPY - Sarah Megan Thomas, Stana Katic, Radhika Apte. Two women head off to France as spys, Churchill's advisors think the Nazi's won't notice ladies as the enemy. Based on true story. Lots and lots of smoking there Stana, and good performance by Sarah, wow, that was an amazing blonde wig she just threw on, looked like real hair! From 1941 thru 1944 with the good and bad in between. An OK watch for me, getting 2 1/2 on the Moizmeter.

I saw Coming to America 2 on Amazon Prime.

Coming to America was one of my fave comedies from the 80s, I never expected a sequel though! This isn't a film that suggests one in any way what-so-ever. It's a very closed story, a traditional fairytail about a prince finding true love and marrying a common person- with Eddie Murphy as the fish out of water from African royalty and privilege, experiencing the inequality of black life in America in the 80s and marrying into what was essentially the American version of black royalty- an heiress to a fast-food chain.

The sequel is funny, culturally updated for today in certain respects, it ironically pokes some fun at itself, and it includes a lot of the original actors reprising their roles in smaller parts and cameos, which was really nice, as well as cameos from stars like En Vogue and Salt ‘n Peppa.

My fave part though was Wesley Snipes as the antagonist, General Izzi from the country of “Nextdooria”! He stole the show XD

The weak part of the film is the focus on the children…
The story is that Prince Akeem needs a male heir but all he has are daughters. But it turns out he has an illegitimate son in New York. So a bit of the story is about this son’s struggles to reconcile his new position as African royalty and also his eldest daughter wanting to be queen like she always thought she'd be…
It takes focus away from the story we all WANT to see which is the Eddie Murphy stuff. And because of the huge amount of Eddie Murphy stuff there's never enough focus on any of the kids to make their story meaningful or let us really care about them as much as we need to to make their plight affect us or have any bearing on the story- especially the daughters. There's more on the son but we barely see the daughters at all.

Anyway, all up it was a good movie. I'd like a spinoff about Snipes' General Izzi though.

I'm faithfully trying to wade through The Walking Dead. If this wasn't the last season I'd probably call it quits.

No matter how many times I've watched it I'm still watching The Office when I see it on.

machineheadstudio wrote:
No matter how many times I've watched it I'm still watching The Office when I see it on.

British or American?
Either one, I'd do the same :D

I'm checking out the series “I am a Killer.” Typical kind of true crime, but the framing is unique. The convicted murderer tells their account first. Sometimes it garners sympathy. Then the law enforcement, attorneys, convict's family and friends, and victim's family and friends talk about what happened. The most interesting part is that there's no narrator, no conclusions presented. The viewer is left with these points of view and gets to come to their own realizations of the nature of the killer. In most cases I've watched so far, it has been a deluded narcissist gaslighter who is trying to garner sympathy for a possible parole. Only one story had me feeling sympathetic at the end (although at the beginning, I am apt to take each account at face value).

Nonfiction is fascinating but eventually notes me, so I'll probably switch back to reruns of animation soon.

HONEST THIEF - Liam Neeson, Kate Walsh, Jai Courtney, Jeffrey Donovan, Anthony Ramos. For several years Liam used his military training in explosives to rob banks during off hours so nobody got hurt. He amassed about 9 million but never spent a dime of it. Then he fell in love with Kate and decided to give himself up but the FBI guys decided to keep the money themselves, leading them to murder most foul. Liam then goes thru oodles of ideas to undo their mess and find true love. A 2 1/2 on the Moizmeter.

Palm Springs - a romcom with a supernatural twist…or I guess it's a loop.

Very funny and very moving. Make sure to watch the crucial mid-credits scene at the end.

It struck all the right notes for my personal taste; themes that really get to me. I gotta watch it again now. Really good find that would have gone under the radar in theaters, probably.

Edit: Liked it so much I watched it again today. Great movie!

Banes wrote:
Palm Springs - a romcom with a supernatural twist…or I guess it's a loop.

Groundhog Day for the 2020s… :D
But it covers morals and ethics and the science of the premise.

The Irregulars - watched first eppy way to irregular for me, say no more. Then went back and saw Clive Owen in Croupier which must hold the record for most cigarettes smoked in one movie, everyone was smokin! Toughed it out getting a 2 on the Moizmeter.

FINAL DESTINATION 5 - Nicholas D'Agosto, Emma Bell, Miles Fisher and an entire cast of unknowns. Only interesting scene is the collapse of the bridge right at beginning, tons of special effects there but bridge is Vancouver's Lion's Gate Bridge, can see North and West Van in background as well as Stanley Park seawall below. Otherwise a bore for me, 1 on the Moizmeter.

COLD PURSUIT - Liam Neeson, Tom Bateman, William Forsythe, Tom Jackson, Laura Dern and a cast of thousands. Liam's son is murdered and he sets out on revenge of bad guys aplenty. Bodies galore. Drug cartels vs natives get involved and who do you trust? Don't get attached to anyone as they won't be around long. Supposed to be in Colorado area but filmed mostly in and around Vancouver. Almost a 2 on the Moizmeter.

22 JULY - Anders Danielsen Lie, Jonas Strand Gravli, Jon Oigarden, Seda Witt, Ola G. Furuseth, Maria Bock. Based on actual event in 2011 where a terrorist kills 77 with a bomb and rifle. Good performance by Anders as you will be hating him not long into film. He wants Norway to be cleansed of non-whites, Capitalists and I'm not sure of what else. Jon gets the brutal job of defending him in court. Focuses on recovery of Jonas, a teen who was shot 5 times and almost died. Anders sentenced to 21 years in solitary and then the horror of him being released in another 10 years, gadfrey, police should've killed the piece of shit on his arrest but now the Norwegians are stuck paying this monster's everything, legal, medical, food & lodging etc. just like all these other mass-murderers who get taken alive, No way Jose, get rid of them quick and maybe with a little pain thrown in, tee hee. 2 1/2 hours but a real good watch, getting a 4 on the Moizmeter.

Feeling down so watching funny movies…
Last night I saw The Watch and Super Troopers.

I'd seen a bit of The Watch before, but now I watched the whole thing. I didn't realise how tall Richard Ayoade was… I thought Vince Vaughn was big but it's probably only because Ben Stiller is so small. Ben is starting lo look more and more like his dad Jerry… Probably even more now since that film was 9 years ago!

It's a film about guys starting a neighbourhood watch group and fighting off an alien invasion, Seth Rogan had a part in writing it which accounts for the awkward “straight men pretending they'd be homosexual” humour and other various awkward sex based jokes.
It wasn't a bad comedy. A good, competent film.

———–

Super Troopers was a surprisingly low budget offering. It's a comedy movie about missfit state troopers and their conflict with the local over jurisdictional responsibility over their small patch of regional Ohio (I think that's where it's set). There's not enough budget for both.

Anyway, it's very 1980s in tone and style. VERY 80s. I don't mean in aesthetics, it's not made to LOOK like an 80s movie. I mean that if we were all living in the 1980s now and that movie came out, it would not be out of place in any way at all. But as a movie from 2001 it sort of is.

Features Brian Cox trying to do an American accent, he's horrible at it and sounds very strange. Looks weird without a beard too. Linda Carter has a cameo as the governor, she looks amazing.
It was an ok comedy but I wasn't in the mood for the retro feel and the sleazy sex based humour.

THE 2nd - Ryan Phillippe, Jack Griffo, Lexi Simonsen….never mind, this was so bad it got the kybosh before ending, ridiculous fight scenes, car chases, maybe the worst movie I've seen this year. A Royal Goose Egg on the Moizmeter!

DOA (2006) Bunch of beautiful women in very little clothing. Based on a video, it has very little plot, lots of eye candy and beautifully choreographed fights. There's more dance and gymnastics than martial arts and as that it's nice to watch. Turned off my brain and just enjoyed the 90 odd minutes.

I watch this stuff for comic inspiration since I'd like to do some martial arts comics and I was not disappointed.

Twilight: Eclipse

The third installment of the fan-fiction turned film series. I remember watching this in theaters when it first came out and now I am rewatching it for the comedy? I get the characters are dealing with “heavy” life issues (Vampire and Human relationships), but they take everything way to seriously. For a good laugh, Twilight Eclipse.

I watched Something About Mary again for the manyanth time…
It's not a great film but it's a good comfort movie and it's really not bad.

One thing I noticed this time around was that Ben Stiller isn't the main character, rather he's just one of many. Matt Dillon probably has more screen time (never realised this before), and his comedy acting is amazing, whereas Stiller is mostly a straight man.
The scene of Stiller's genitals caught up in his fly are just as horrific as ever.

I love how everyone calls him out as being a “stalker” when he says he'd like to track down Mary. XD

The duelling battle of misinformation with Matt Dillon's and Lee Evan's character as they try and woo Mary is beautifully “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”…
Stiller's part in the film is a lot less interesting than all the other stuff happening.

Completed “Sun Valley Serenade” for the first time! I love Glenn Miller and his Orchestra and recently acquired a set of 45s that were the soundtrack for Sun Valley including the famous Chattanooga Choo Choo.

The 1941 film was enjoyable and uplifting and of course spikes a curiosity to discover more movies that feature Glenn Miller’s songs.

MARE OF EASTTOWN - Kate Winslet, Guy Pearce and a cast of millions. Watched first 2 eppy's, a bit confusing with so many unknown characters and who's who etc. Anyway there's a murder and looks like more to come, and Kate's the investigating detective. Both Kate and Guy have to do American accents but sounds OK. I'll be tuning in next week for sure, love Kate in anything.

THE GIFT - Joel Edgerton, Rebecca Hall, Jason Bateman. Who's the bad guy, and who's the good guy? Watch and you might get fooled. Poor Rebecca gets caught in the middle, but a very good watch getting a 3 1/2 on the Moizmeter.

Stowaway (2021) released on Netflix. A crew of astronauts are on a trip to explore Mars, and then they discover an unauthorized passenger on their spaceship. When the movie was over, all I could ask myself was: “what lobotomized chimp gave the green light to producing this dumpster fire of a screenplay?” The production values and the acting were decent, but the story was utter dreck. I almost felt like they ran out of money in the middle of production and just released whatever they happened to have on film up to that point.

Shadow and Bone (2021) Young-adult fiction TV series on Netflix. I am enjoying watching this series because the world-building is quite robust and complex. It's set in a world that could maybe be described as a mix of Lord of the Rings and the Crimean war. As for the story, it's OK, but nothing special. Most of the plots seem to involve teenage soul-mates who will endure any hardship and cross any distance to be together. I am guessing that that's probably well-accepted YA trope, but it makes for stories that are too simplistic to hold my interest for long. The production design and production quality are good too. They definitely didn't cut corners when it came to sets, costumes, and VFX

fallopiancrusader wrote:
Shadow and Bone (2021) Young-adult fiction TV series on Netflix. I am enjoying watching this series because the world-building is quite robust and complex. It's set in a world that could maybe be described as a mix of Lord of the Rings and the Crimean war. As for the story, it's OK, but nothing special. Most of the plots seem to involve teenage soul-mates who will endure any hardship and cross any distance to be together. I am guessing that that's probably well-accepted YA trope, but it makes for stories that are too simplistic to hold my interest for long. The production design and production quality are good too. They definitely didn't cut corners when it came to sets, costumes, and VFX

Agreed on all points, definitely good world building etc but yeah the trope you mentioned does seem to be pretty common and made the main story fairly predictable. worth watching in spite of that though.

Yeah, that soulmate stuff is a hallmark of YA fiction aimed mainly at girls.

————————–

I watched all of the second season of Konosuba and then re-watched the first season and watched the movie. Great experience! When it comes to “other world” (Isekai), harem anime Konosuba: God's Blessing on this Wonderful World is one of the best. Just plain good writing and good characters, plus great art and animation.

The start of the story:
An unremarkable boy is walking home back to his little country town from the city after buying a limited edition computer game with a figurine… He sees a pretty girl about to be hit by a speeding truck. I dives to push her out of the way and then everything goes black and he wakes up in heaven.
He's sad to be dead but happy his death was heroic.

The pretty goddess sitting in front of him laughs as she tells him what really happened. It wasn't a truck, it was a slow tractor. It wouldn't have hit the girl anyway. He fainted in terror when he dived to save the girl and pissed all over the place. He was taken to hospital but had a heart attack from fear. His family and the doctors all though it was hilarious… His death was ignominious and stupid, according to the goddess. The goddess ridicules and makes fun of him, she tells him he can be re-incarnated in Japan or transported to a fantasy world she manages. She gives him the hard sell on the fantasy world and says he can take one thing with him, whatever he wants.

So he agrees to come to the fantasy world and decides he wants to bring her, because she's a powerful goddess and also to spite her for being a total dick.
SO that's the setup.

When he and she get to the magical world they're both basically nobodies with nothing but the clothes on their backs. They're reduced to living in a stable and working as day labourers to make enough for food and rent. And they have to build up from there.

NOT your typical Mary Sue Harem anime crap. It's fun and doesn't get dull as the series goes. Even the movie was excellent.

OMG I hate soulmate stuff. the term just fucjing “triggers” me. its suck BS

lothar wrote:
OMG I hate soulmate stuff. the term just fucjing “triggers” me. its suck BS

You're my soulmate… best cocksman in the galaxy.

THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW - Amy Adams, Julianne Moore, Gary Oldman, Fred Hechinger to name a few. Amy is a recluse head-shrinker, spends her time drinking wine and watching neighbours across the street, one of which may be a murderer. No make-up for Amy? yikes, she looked horrible. A just under 2 on the Moizmeter.

SELF/Less - Ryan Reynolds in a screwball drama about new bodies and identites??? Couldn't keep track of who or what is who or what. A 1 and a half on the Moizmeter.

moizmad wrote:
THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW - Amy Adams, Julianne Moore, Gary Oldman, Fred Hechinger to name a few. Amy is a recluse head-shrinker, spends her time drinking wine and watching neighbours across the street, one of which may be a murderer. No make-up for Amy? yikes, she looked horrible. A just under 2 on the Moizmeter.

I was considering watching that one, and I spent half the preview wondering if that was Amy Adams or not LOL. She sure has carved out a niche playing women with loose grips on reality LOL