Detroiters: comedy series with a pretty unique tone. One of the creators/stars is Tim Robinson. I’ve seen his sketch show “I think you should leave” and it’s very odd and funny. I think I like The Detroiters better…I’m more a fan of story than sketch. Good stuff so far! A bit too high-energy for me to binge, but a nice gradual watch (at least so far!)

DREAM HOUSE - Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, Naomi Watts, Martin Csokas, Elias Koteas….from 2011, a bit confusing at times, guess some scenes are dreams, while others reality? Daniel & wife Rachel move from city to secluded house that seems a tad haunted where murders took place a few years back. We find out the murders were a mistake and Daniel's wife and kids were the victims but in Daniel's mind they are still alive and living in the house. Neighbor Naomi helps Daniel get better after the 2 bad guys (Martin & Elias) kill each other. Daniel writes a best-seller about the case. A 2 on the Moizmeter.

fallopiancrusader wrote:
“Don’t look up” on Netflix.
It uses the old trope of an asteroid on a collision course with earth to make a hilariously damning indictment of American society and politics. Not only that, but it also uses the analogy of the falling comet to riff on the comedic aspects of global warming.

I just watched that ! LOVED it
Im gonna put it on my top movies like Zardoz and Idiocracy

Re Don't Look Up…..aside from all that, I thought Cate Blanchett was amazing, did not recognize her during movie until I saw cast list afterwards, during movie I had no idea who that blonde woman was. Super job Cate!

“The Kindergarten Teacher” on netflix with Maggie Gyllenhaal. A teacher is unfulfilled with her family and life at home and often escapes to her poetry classes. One day one of her 5 year old students begins pacing back and forth reciting a peculiar poem in the classroom sparking obsession.

I enjoyed this film, I felt it had strong acting and the poetry art/scene was a lot of fun to watch. The little boy was very adorable and believable in his role. Surprising ending, not sure if the film would be for everyone though.

I'm re-watching Hunter, the old TV cop show from 1985.
It's not bad really. It's well written, punchy and fun.
The obvious influence for it was Clint Eastwood's dirty Harry, who the main actor really looks like, but they very quickly soften that after the first episode.

Initially he's a badarse who likes to shoot first and doesn't care about the dirty scum criminals… but that just doesn't hold for long. He's got too much brains and heart for a moron persona like that.
It's reasonably woke for its time, there's decent representation for the time. The team up with him and his lady partner is a team of equals. They're both as tough as each other.

——-

I can't help but compare it to Miami Vice which was another cop show that began a year earlier in 1984. Miami Vice is a LOT flashier and the stories are far deeper and more serious and darker. Hunter is still serious but lighter.

Miami Vice is something we base our idea of the 80s on: big hair, pastel and neon clothes, fancy cars, awesome fashion, mansions, rock stars, fancy parties, cocaine everywhere, amazing hair, headbands,amazing architecture, cool art aerobics, great suits, great bodies…
That existed in the 80s but it was a VERY small part of it.

Hunter is what the 80s were really like: brown and beige everywhere, bad fashions, receding hair, bad perms, bad suits, shitty tweed sports jackets, shitty old cars, crappy run down dirty cites… It's a joy to see that all again <3

The Witcher: season two. Though I thought season one was a hot mess, I must admit that the first season had some emotional texture. It was all melodramatic bathos for sure, but you could feel an emotional connection with the characters. Season two reads more like a brittle history lesson. There's lots of convoluted storytelling, but it's incredibly dry. I found myself fast-forwarding through a lot of it out of sheer boredom. This season also firmly cements Henry Cavill's status as the Fabio of the 21st century!

Animated series Centaur World and Kid Cosmic on Netflix.

Centaur World was excellent. It reaches a series conclusion in two seasons. At first, you get the feeling that it wants to be Adventure Time, but it stands alone in its own right. It is mostly musical numbers. It's self-aware, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, but the plot is heavy and, at times, dark. Tbh, it's my favorite kind of story with a light mood/characters but heavy content. Synopsis: A soldier's horse ends up in an alternate world due to a magical artifact and tries to reunite with her rider (and then take on the evil being that is causing the war).

Kid Cosmic is less intense, more of a kid story. I love the art style. The characters are likeable. Each season is stand-alone but has a continuity link. Synopsis: A comic-obsessed kid in a small desert community finds space rocks that imbue their possessors with super powers. He forms a superhero team with his neighbors to take on aliens that want the stones.

~~~

I also watched Archive 81, which is outside my usual genre. I guess it's horror? I was drawn in by the concept of unraveling a mystery in old VHS tapes. It gets supernatural pretty quickly. The characters are interesting and pacing is good, so it managed to hold my interest through to the end.


So now I'm RE-watching Russian Doll. I love time-bending stories.

PRISONERS - Jake Gyllenhaal, Hugh Jackman, Paul Dano, Terence Howard, Viola Davis, Melissa Leo, Maria Bello, David Dastmalchian. From 2013, 2 young girls disappear and frantic parents go on the hunt. Detective Jake leads investigation, many leads go nowhere but finally one girl is found alive and Jake focuses on Melissa, who has the other girl alive, they have a shoot-out and he kills Melissa, takes girl back to her mother. Now where's father Hugh? Will Jake find him? A real good watch for me, getting a 4 on the Moizmeter.

I watched The Man From Hong Kong the other day.
This is a 1975 kung-fu movie made in Australia with some scenes in Hong Kong.

I had NEVER heard of this. It was super stereotypically a 1970s kung-fu film,with all sorts of bloody, violent deaths from men in big hair, tight shirts and giant flares.
Including Samo Hong! - Jacki Chan's fave guy.

George Lazenby, first James Bond is also in this as the badguy boss and he's awesome. He's like Burt Reynolds with class.
And Hugh Keays-Byrne is ALSO in it, as a good guy policeman. (Toecutter from Mad Max and Immortan Joe in Fury road). He plays a vice cop who dresses undercover… SO that means he literally looks like a hobbit for the whole film!
-Green long sleeve shirt with lacing at the collar and a brown belt at the waste so the shirt tales hang under it. He wears an American sheriff badge on it, he also wears brown flares, and he hair is super shaggy and curly. He's a hobbit.

The movie was Ok. Nothing special except the above mentioned stuff with the actors and Australia. It's just a pure 1970s kung-fu beat-em up with plenty of blood, fiery explosions, terrible punch SFX, and henchmen being slaughtered.

I saw Marley and Me last night only because I like Owen Wilson and his hair…
It's a movie about a newspaper reporter/columnist and his partner getting a dog (Marley), as practice/company before they have children. But the dog turns out to be a handful.
It's a comedy but mostly told in a reasonably serious, realistic manner.

I found it was boring as all hell till when (SPOILER), the dog died (as we all do). I found that so sad that I cried.

MIDNIGHT IN THE SWITCHGRASS - Megan Fox, Lukas Haas, Emile Hirsch, Bruce Willis….1 1/2 hrs boredom about a serial killer, what on earth was Bruce doing in this nonsense. I never knew what switchgrass was so had to look it up. A 1 on the Moizmeter.

@usedbooks - thanks for the tip on Article 81! I’ll look it up.

@moizmad - I’ve heard good things about Prisoners from other people too, thanks!

@moizmad - I love Bruce Willis, but he does a LOT of junk xD



The Riteous Gemstones - very interesting comedy/drama. Unusual setup with fully realized characters. Most absorbing and intriguing! Still finishing up season one.
John Goodman the legend leads a really good cast.

Edit: may have spoken too soon on Riteous Gemstones. Season 2 is going way over the top for most characters and storylines. Keeping the balance is never easy I guess! John Goodman and his story are what’s keeping me watching. Hopefully they’ll tone down the cartoonishness and over the top, nonsensical storylines…cast is still good but it seems to have gone off the rails a bit in season 2.

Believe it or not I was watching the first ep. Of knight rider on Netflix. (And a couple of eps in…) and the next thing I saw on YouTube was a guy turning his Tesla into the Kitt, but without changing the body. He got the scrolling red LEDs in the front and he found an app that mimics Kitt’s interface with voice. (I need to look that up). He change the steering wheel and show the car driving itself while asking kitt questions. (The auto pilot from Tesla and the app on his phone are separate from each other. So you can’t ask Kitt to go into autopilot, but it looked cool.) To top it off, he let the car drive down the same exact road kitt did while using his drone for the sky view. (Dang, I wish I had money to burn to do stupid $#!+ like that)


Check it out if you’re interested. https://youtu.be/_hWLAmMlz4U

cdmalcolm1 wrote:
Believe it or not I was watching the first ep. Of knight rider on Netflix. (And a couple of eps in…) and the next thing I saw on YouTube was a guy turning his Tesla into the Kitt, but without changing the body. He got the scrolling red LEDs in the front and he found an app that mimics Kitt’s interface with voice. (I need to look that up). He change the steering wheel and show the car driving itself while asking kitt questions. (The auto pilot from Tesla and the app on his phone are separate from each other. So you can’t ask Kitt to go into autopilot, but it looked cool.) To top it off, he let the car drive down the same exact road kitt did while using his drone for the sky view. (Dang, I wish I had money to burn to do stupid $#!+ like that)


Check it out if you’re interested. https://youtu.be/_hWLAmMlz4U

Sounds awesome! Though the original Kitt looks better than a Telsa XD

———–

I'm watching Vox Machina on Amazon Prime.
It's a fantasy comedy based on Dungeons and Dragons campaigns, with D&D type characters.
I'm only watching it because I played the game for the first time with Banes, Em, Pit, Tantz, and Gunwallace. The show itself sets my teeth on edge, for a number of reasons, chief of which is the mixed tone: silly childish 5 year old level humour about people liking sandwiches and being a bid dumb doofus (for example) mixed with anal sex jokes.
It's so jarring and awkward it's like fingernails on a blackboard.

That's bad writing. It's the equivalent of a bad graphic designers using too many fonts, effects and colours.

As a writer you have to know your audience and tone. Don't mix Paw Patrol with Porkies. Just don't. Kids don't respond will to comedy about vaginal fisting and adults don't think big friendly dumb people wanting a sandwich is hilariously charming.

I just saw Pixels, the much derided 2015 Adam Sandler film.

It was NOT a bad film at all, in fact it was a good kid's movie. Peter Dinklage was stand out and by far the best thing in it!

Interestingly it had both Brian Cox and Sean Bean in it, both as soldiers, Brian was the head of the US military force and Sean the British. Cool to see them both together, since they were both so awesome in many episodes of Sharpe. Sean did not die either.

The only negative points where the “pixel” character Q-bert, he was shit, uttering cliche lines one after another, and Adam Sandler himself who just played himself… He started doing that years ago and it sucks. No one wants to see a grumpy, aging ex-comedian. He USED to be an actor! Not a great one but he USED to do characters and he was good at that.

Ozoneocean wrote:
I just saw Pixels, the much derided 2015 Adam Sandler film.

It was NOT a bad film at all, in fact it was a good kid's movie. Peter Dinklage was stand out and by far the best thing in it!

Interestingly it had both Brian Cox and Sean Bean in it, both as soldiers, Brian was the head of the US military force and Sean the British. Cool to see them both together, since they were both so awesome in many episodes of Sharpe. Sean did not die either.

The only negative points where the “pixel” character Q-bert, he was shit, uttering cliche lines one after another, and Adam Sandler himself who just played himself… He started doing that years ago and it sucks. No one wants to see a grumpy, aging ex-comedian. He USED to be an actor! Not a great one but he USED to do characters and he was good at that.

That’s sounds so awesome to play D&D. I wanted to respond to the Pixel movie. I liked it too. And man I really, really thought it was just me that Adam didn’t do any goofy characters. I was kind of looking forward to one of his crazy over the top characters. Peter made that movie hands down. My favorite Adam Sandler movie is Don’t Mess With The Zohan. It’s because I like superhero stuff and to me it was a Humorous spin on a nations hero. ( I died laughing when he caught that bullet with his nose). Anyways, I don’t know why that even put Qbert in the movie. It was just there. No point what so ever. Waste of CGI on a movie.

cdmalcolm1 wrote:
That’s sounds so awesome to play D&D. I wanted to respond to the Pixel movie. I liked it too. And man I really, really thought it was just me that Adam didn’t do any goofy characters. I was kind of looking forward to one of his crazy over the top characters. Peter made that movie hands down. My favorite Adam Sandler movie is Don’t Mess With The Zohan. It’s because I like superhero stuff and to me it was a Humorous spin on a nations hero. ( I died laughing when he caught that bullet with his nose). Anyways, I don’t know why that even put Qbert in the movie. It was just there. No point what so ever. Waste of CGI on a movie.

Exactly! Sandler's characters were so fun! But he just stopped doing them.
Don't Mess with the Zohan is my fave of his too. Love it!

Just gonna pop in here to say I'm loving Vox Machina.

I have no prior affection for “Critical Role” the D&D liveplay show the cartoon is based on, but I do play D&D myself and enjoy another similar D&D show “Dimension 20”, and they all absolutely feature that wonderful blend of high drama, childish humor, and extreme violence…because that what it's like when you're goofing off and playing a game with your friends.

It's not bad writing, its trying to (re)-capture a specific feeling in a specific setting, and I think it's doing a fantastic job.

Ozoneocean wrote:
As a writer you have to know your audience and tone. Don't mix Paw Patrol with Porkies. Just don't. Kids don't respond will to comedy about vaginal fisting and adults don't think big friendly dumb people wanting a sandwich is hilariously charming.

Nah dude I'm gonna hard disagree, they do know their audience very well. Critical Role is a massively popular youtube series that's almost single-handedly responsible for bring D&D to the mainstream. It's an animated adaption of the campaign they played on the show, I'd hardly call it “written”– if it seems like tone whiplash that's because it's based on something spontaneous and improv based. It's tailor-MADE to the audience, it's just a very specific audience.

Your example absolutely tracks with the exact sort of tone/humor that 99% of tumblr/twitter absolutely eats up and having listened to other realplay podcasts, exactly what to expect. Though I've never seen either Critical Role or the series yet, I am aware of it through osmosis whether I want to know or not. Not exactly leaping to defend Critical Role ‘cuz I’m not really a D&D fan (too basic for me and I hate what they're doing with their lore) but I just gotta point out it's more you're not in the target demographic.

I actually do like stuff that has a veneer of innocence and then it slaps you in the face with something violent or mildly inappropriate. It's that balance of sweet & sour. I guess it's a Millenial thing?

I actually do like stuff that has a veneer of innocence and then it slaps you in the face with something violent or mildly inappropriate. It's that balance of sweet & sour. I guess it's a Millenial thing?

It's a gamer thing. Sublime to the utterly ridiculous. Totally immature to far heavier adult themes. That's table top gaming. Just make your saving throw or you'll be totally FUBAR.

Try playing with Medieval studies majors and experts in military history and a veteran or two. Yee-ouch.

Try to be cute and the one playing a samurai feels dishonored and chops your cute trick in half.

Just finished the first season of Star Trek:Prodigy. Very good. Like the angle of the show. Watch out for episode 6, because if you're any kind of fan you'll have to wipe a tear from your eye.

Oh, definitely a gamer thing! The Millenial comment wasn't to suggest that generations outside it can't appreciate whiplash tones, just that I see more of my peers making content like what Oz is critiquing than I do older gens.

You guys have to watch it to appreciate what I mean in this particular context…
I get what you mean but the way it's done in Vox Machina isn't “cute” in that way. It's literally stuff than ONLY a child (and a particularly young one at that) would appreciate, most normal kids would find it groanworthy. This isn't the sort of stuff you might see in a well made cartoon like that My Little Pony remake or something good, it's an idiot's idea of cute and funny XD

————–

I saw Knights of Badassdom the other day.
It's about LARPers who accidentally unleash a demon and then have to fight it during an ongoing LARP camp event.

It was ok, there were some good moments. I like that it didn't make fun of the LARPers too much or the LARP concept, though there was a bit of that, but it was mostly LARPers having a joke at themselves I think.

This movie was obviously made very cheaply but still looked very good despite that. I'd class it as a horror comedy.

I would have preferred more of a fantasy thing (i.e. the LARP becoming real), but horror is MUCH easier and cheaper to make and they obviously had limited resources.

I was a little disappointed that many of the super cool actors died early- Peter Dinklage, Dani Pudi (community), Jimmy Simpson (Always Sunny in Philadelphia)… And the boring pretty leads were the heroes in the end- Summer Glau and Ryan Kwanten. Though the last song when they defeat the demon was great.

Special mention to Bret Gipson who was great as an ersatz Dolph Lungdren style barbarian.

I'm trying not to watch the news these days, nothing but bad news.

I could never get through Austin Powers. I know it was much loved but it just seemed so awful to me. It had zero novelty factor because I grew up with British TV here in Australia so none of it was charming or cute, It just seemed crude and clumsy.

I finally steeled myself and watched all of International Man of Mystery.
It sucked. It was like a bad, extended SNL sketch that just never worked but they kept stretching it out anyway. The only good part was Elizabeth Hurley.
I'd advise people to watch the Roger Moore James Bond films, anything by Peter Sellers, and the 1967 version of Bulldog Drummond.
You'll get way more out of those than this shitty parody.


Then I watched the sequel…
The Spy Who Shagged Me.
It was about 10000x times better.
THAT is a film that lives up to the reputation and makes Austin Powers a character worth talking about. Uma Thurman was fantastic- not just her performance but her character too. Loved the whole thing.
This movie had real writers who actually knew what they were doing.

What helps is that it's a real film in its own right with characters and a plot rather than mainly just a parody of a style with tropes.

I just started watching Raya the last Dragon

So far: Ew >_<

So it's a fantasy movie based on south East Asian cultures: Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia etc. The problem is that all these people have solidly North American voices and turns of phrase and expressions. Even their facial morphology are like American born and raised examples of those peoples.
It's a creepy and awful effect…
If you've ever been to those countries and seen those people, they DON'T conform to US standards of beauty, they have their own expressions, accents, and gestures.

So far what I'm seeing with this movie is just standard American characters that have been re-skinned to look like South East Asians and it's not a nice effect.

I have a free trial of Amazon Prime, so I've been taking advantage.

Electric Dreams - Sci-fi anthology. Many episodes have a bit of recurring theme of androids/aliens/etc. hiding among us. Some episodes are weaker. The episodes the internet rated lower were ones I liked more. One particularly campy episode was fun. Pacing was a weakness of many or putting in weird bits that had nothing to do with the plot (like orgy tunnels under the city?) Casting and acting was excellent throughout.

Tales of the Unexpected - A 1970s series based on Rhode Dahl short stories. First couple seasons had intros by Dahl, which were more entertaining than the stories. (Much like Alfred Hitchcock Presents.) The tales became progressively less unexpected as murderers' plots backfire and adulterers get offed. Horrible 70s musical score. Plentiful nipples.

Truth Seekers - A fun 8 episode ride with the Shaun of the Dead folks. Main character is a YouTubing ghost hunter whose day job is with a cellular company. The episodes lead nicely into each other. I was a little concerned when the first episode had a gory bit, but the rest isn't so graphic.

Undone - Beautiful 8 episode animated series with a potentially unreliable narrator building ambiguity between mental illness and magical realism – doing a much better job of it with far more endearing characters than Horse Girl.

I've like Simon Peg, Nick Frost and gang since Big Train, Spaced, Hippies and all that other TV and radio they did together, But I just couldn't get into Truth Seekers.
It could be my bias that I think Ghost Hunting and Ghosts are such silly things that I had trouble suspending my belief for it to get into the world they were creating in the show. It might be something I need to be in the mood to see.
——————

I saw the last film in the Austin Powers series, Gold Member.

So now I know that the second film was best:

-The first was a pure parody, written like a bunch of extended sketches stitched togther. It wasn't very good.
-The second was a genuine film experience with rounded three dimensional characters and a well written cohesive story that the characters were invested in.
-The third film was a far too self-aware deliberate parody of itself. It was better than the first film but nowhere near as good as the second.

Austin Powers and his silly world are already a hugely broad parody, parodying THAT just makes it diluted and reduces the effect.

It's like the idea that old wine eventually turns to vinegar but old vinegar just gets more vinegary- It doesn't: old vinegar gets less acidic and turns to water. As in this: a parody of a parody doesn't become more funny, it just gets lame.

The Austin Powers movies are best understood as homages to the 1960s-70s mod style. To really appreciate the first one you have to watch the James Coburn as Derek Flint movies and Dean Martin as Matt Helm and The Avengers (not the MCU stuff but the classic and unequaled TV series) also the Persuaders and The Saint and Man from UNCLE even Get Smart. The films are full of references and homages especially the Flint movies.
This is the stuff the creator grew up on and saw dozens of times on TV and he's said as much in interviews.

There's also The President's Analyst . You could just watch the Austin Powers opening credits and just watch the Derek Flint movies. Lol.

bravo1102 wrote:
The Austin Powers movies are best understood as homages to the 1960s-70s mod style. To really appreciate the first one you have to watch the James Coburn as Derek Flint movies and Dean Martin as Matt Helm and The Avengers (not the MCU stuff but the classic and unequaled TV series) also the Persuaders and The Saint and Man from UNCLE even Get Smart. The films are full of references and homages especially the Flint movies.
This is the stuff the creator grew up on and saw dozens of times on TV and he's said as much in interviews.

There's also The President's Analyst . You could just watch the Austin Powers opening credits and just watch the Derek Flint movies. Lol.

I grew up with all that stuff and more as well as all the British Stuff Myers references. Oh I get it. I get it completely man ;)

That's why the first film wasn't interesting to me. The original stuff was so much cooler than a parody. I'd rather watch anything from the 1960s and 70s than the first Austin Powers film.
And that's why the second film was so good- it really IS a homage.