“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” on Amazon prime. Though I don't find the Lord of the Rings I.P. particularly interesting, I wanted to watch the show just to see what a one billion dollar production budget would buy. I got what I expected: The production design is gorgeous, the writing is boring, the direction is unimaginative. The real stars of the series are Ramsey Avery and Kate Hawley, the production designer and costume designer, respectively.

I saw The Spy who Dumped me, because I love big budget comedy movies :)

It starred Kate Mckinnon, Mila Kunnis, Sam Heughan, and Justin Theroux

Sam is the spitting image and sound alike of Cary Elwis from his Princes Bride days in this movie, it's weird.

It's an ok film, lots of fast paced action and the jokes are in context and work well. This wasn't spectacular or special but it did the job.

————–

It's still so strange to me that spies in movies are their own trope that exists no where else but in fiction. There's not relationship to reality what so ever to almost every single spy trope, they just reference and build on the tropes from other movies. It's fascinating.

So there's pretty much no such thing as a spy move (apart from weird exceptions). They're actually all just knock-off James Bond movies.

THE ROAD (2009)- Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Robert Duvall and a bunch of bad-guys. Dismal future where nothing much left, finds dad Viggo and young son Kodi wandering the wasteland looking for food with flashbacks to his wife Charlize, who left him for a senseless reason. Good idea to use sub-titles as could only make out about 1/2 the dialogue. Roaming bad-guys are cannibals who kill anyone to eat, Viggo won't stoop that low. Duvall cameo as old timer who just wanders off.
Viggo's getting sick and what will poor Kodi do when he finally dies. Along comes Guy and his family and everyone lives happily ever-after, I think. A 2 1/2 on the Moizmeter.

moizmad wrote:
THE ROAD (2009)-
Roaming bad-guys are cannibals who kill anyone to eat, Viggo won't stoop that low.

This used to be a SUPER common theme is really shitty post apocalyptic stuff from the 1970s, interesting that it still carries (Zombies are a subtype of this I suppose).
It makes zero sense though. It's such a stupid idea because it's utterly unsustainable as a food source; they'd run out of sustenance and starve very quickly. Like in a few weeks. They'd all die out.

Cannibalism can only be “sustainable” if there are a tiny amount of them and a huge amount of healthy people who aren't cannibals but also have easy access to normal food- so that makes all post-apocalyptic cannibal gangs void.

Cannibalism is only logical in extreme situations as a last resort, or in stupid cultural ritual practises. They never use it in either way in post-apocalyptic films.

The smart thing to do in those post-apocalyptic situations would be us marshal all the people they could and use them to create a sustainable food source by putting together a farm (for plants and or insects or something). That's the only way they'd survive more than a couple of weeks.

I saw the first episode of The Watch last night.

This is a live action re-imaging of “The Watch” stories from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of books.

It's hard to know what to say about this…
It's weird to me that you'd bother changing soothing tis much from its origin. It's like doing a Harry Potter series but making Harry Potter a hairdresser from Ethiopia and all the other characters into Chinese guitar makers from Inner Mongolia.
I mean, why bother with the source material at all? Just make it original.

The Watch is a non-linear urban fantasy. Some of the characters are tangentially related to the books, but not really.
This is its own thing, nothing to do with Terry Pratchett in any way at all.

I've only seen the fist episode.
I don't really like urban fantasy very much, it's ok but I prefer traditional magical fantasy. It's more magical and evocative, and in terms of the Discworld, which was specifically crafter to work of and parody traditional fantasy, this modern urban style makes zero sense and robs it of its magic.

But again it's its own thing… So… What to say? The acting is great, the sets, costumes and effects are great too. The actors are all excellent. The non-linear storytelling is an absolute pain in the arse though. Just really annoying.

TL/DR:
Pretty much zero to do with Terry Pratchett. Great production values, high quality piece of work in all ways. Annoying structure.

“Elysium” starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster. If you enjoy films that are about a gritty, angry, hard-boiled middle-aged macho man who is also The Chosen One, who also saves the world and rescues the damsel in distress, then this is the movie for you. None of those tropes interest me, so I wasn't left with much to enjoy. The production design and special effects are good, but that's not enough to carry a movie for me.

THE ENGLISH, a BBC mini series, airing on Amazon Prime, produced and starring Emily Blunt as an English lady in the Wyoming environs circa 1890.
She's there to find and kill the man who killed her son. Explaining what that actually means is what the series is about.

The storytelling utilizes flashbacks, quite significantly beginning in the 4th episode that re-orients the plot and what we know of the characters. I liked it, that spin on the head; my husband hated it.
Both of us loved the cinematography, even with the occasional glares.
It's grim, lots of violence (although they often refrained from filming the ugliest), and plausible if not historically accurate.

Acting: high marks; visual: high marks; storytelling: decidedly mixed marks

fallopiancrusader wrote:
“Elysium” starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster. If you enjoy films that are about a gritty, angry, hard-boiled middle-aged macho man who is also The Chosen One, who also saves the world and rescues the damsel in distress, then this is the movie for you. None of those tropes interest me, so I wasn't left with much to enjoy. The production design and special effects are good, but that's not enough to carry a movie for me.

I couldn't watch this movie because of the whole white saviour thing. The starring role should have been a black person or South American. Matt Damon didn't fit at all. It was just off.

The only mildly interesting thing about the movie was how close it was to a lot of 90s cyberpunk anime like Alita.

Amazon Prime and me. They have GTO.Great Teacher Onizuka the dubbed anime from 2002. Had to watch it again and ended up spending two whole weekends binging. Love that show. I've also seen the live action movie and later live action series in the past as well. It really can be difficult since the dubbed version doesn't translate any of the Japanese writing.

And Joe 90. A Gerry and Sylvia Anderson series I missed when I was growing up because it wasn't syndicated in my area of the US. Great thing is that every fifth episode or so is comedy. Like all the marrionation series the characters are an eclectic bunch. You can see the Gerry Anderson channel for a documentary on how bits were reused in the series from Captain Scarlet.

Onizuka was a good show.

Boy, I was not impressed with Black Adam.
The villain is another power-hungry shell of a human being without any real ideals or vision (apart from maybe a slight reference to Trump by how he wants to make their homeland “great”, wasn't sure about that). Naturally, gaining power from a bunch of demons in a hellish scene wouldn't make such a great character wonder if this is the right thing to do or not. And of course as far as mom and her son's concerned let the blood of invaders flow in rivers, because freedom is above all and the heroes won't save them. It's funny, how she doesn't want her kid to be taught killing and violence, but is so comfortable with the one he idolizes burning people alive and smashing them to bits. Especially since, you know… she caused the whole crisis around the superpowers to begin with. They're the victims of oppression, so I suppose the message here is: piling up bodies for the west to notice is cool as long as it's not the bodies of locals. The conflict between Adam and the heroes is a poor and shallow one when it's quickly resolved (put aside) to save the day and while it might seem they came to a mutual understanding about middle paths, actually nothing is resolved. The jokes were okay, compared to the average DC humor, interestingly the bunch were more entertaining on their first appearance than the Justice League after their individual members' repeated appearance, but one of them was clearly playing on the mildly-irritating newbie boyish appeal of Tom Holland's Peter Parker, so I wouldn't exactly call anything about this film original. Aside from how shamelessly it glorifies violence under the flag of freedom. I should just finish season 3 of The Boys. It's woke, it's gory and unapologetic, but it's still somewhat more nuanced when it comes to portraying characters as grey instead of black and white.

Binging the **** out of Red Dwarf will be the perfect way to end this year.

I watched all the The Pentaverate starring Mike Myers.
It's about a secret society that influences the world and tries to be nice and make things better. Myers plays many roles using pretty good makeup.

It was reasonably good. Not a compelling smash hit, but certainly funny enough. Lots of injokes about his own career and about Canada. Some other actors wore very heavy makeup too to do different roles.
It makes a lot of fun out of conspiracy theories, which is always good.

AMMONITE - Kate Winslet, Saoirse Ronan…they have lesbian affair way back in 1840 England. Develops very slowly but some hot scenes. What is ammonite? Some kind of fossil rock which Kate studies. Movie ends without telling us what happens to them, leaves it up to viewers to decide. I hate it when some movies do that, but love Kate in anything so she gets it a 3 on the Moizmeter.

InkyMoondrop wrote:
Binging the **** out of Red Dwarf will be the perfect way to end this year.

Watching it right now, currently on confidence and paranoia. been years since I watched the first series.

Genejoke wrote:

InkyMoondrop wrote:
Binging the **** out of Red Dwarf will be the perfect way to end this year.

Watching it right now, currently on confidence and paranoia. been years since I watched the first series.

I used to LOVE that show. Especially the early seasons. The first 2 series have a cool feel that is unique from the rest. I was devastated when the original versions disappeared and you could only get the ones with the terrible digital effects replacing the old practical models.
They George Lucassed it. -_-

Ozoneocean wrote:

Genejoke wrote:

InkyMoondrop wrote:
Binging the **** out of Red Dwarf will be the perfect way to end this year.

Watching it right now, currently on confidence and paranoia. been years since I watched the first series.

I used to LOVE that show. Especially the early seasons. The first 2 series have a cool feel that is unique from the rest. I was devastated when the original versions disappeared and you could only get the ones with the terrible digital effects replacing the old practical models.
They George Lucassed it. -_-

Wow. That sounds bad. But almost done with the 2nd series so I guess I'll see.

Tim Burton's Wednesday looks Addams Family, but I have a feeling it's more like Daria for Gen Z. The grotesque cruelty of the old ones were funny because it wasn't displayed, except for family members who were (cartoonishly) always fine a scene or two later. This new one seem to take a different approach. Sort of like if Jerry would tear off Tom's arm (or why not testicles to stay with Wednesday's example), laugh the whole thing off and leave Tom severely mutilated for the rest of the show, but still expect you to root for Jerry. It's a lot to come to terms with, I hope the mystery and other aspects of it will be more rewarding. (btw Tom and Jerry DID have an episode where they freakin' execute Tom, French revolution style, I think that's when I decided that the mouse is not anyone's friend)

InkyMoondrop wrote:

Ozoneocean wrote:

Genejoke wrote:

InkyMoondrop wrote:
Binging the **** out of Red Dwarf will be the perfect way to end this year.

Watching it right now, currently on confidence and paranoia. been years since I watched the first series.

I used to LOVE that show. Especially the early seasons. The first 2 series have a cool feel that is unique from the rest. I was devastated when the original versions disappeared and you could only get the ones with the terrible digital effects replacing the old practical models.
They George Lucassed it. -_-

Wow. That sounds bad. But almost done with the 2nd series so I guess I'll see.

The version on prime video in the UK are the original non CG versions. Thankfully.

@Inkymoondrop- My guess is she's based on the version from the 90s films and that's since been augmented with comics or other fiction?
I don't know, the original series is pretty perfect for me, everything since has never reached that same level of glory. Mainly because of the absolutely perfect Gomez and Morticia. Without those two there's no point. It's like comparing velvet paintings of Elvis to the real Elvis XD

Genejoke wrote:
The version on prime video in the UK are the original non CG versions. Thankfully.

WOWSERS! Really? I don't think it's on the Australian version of Prime. For some reason that has mainly American shows with only a few British ones. It REALLY sux. Most Aussies grew up with British shows and now we have limited access to them :(

We have this “Britbox” streaming service but it has the bare minimum of shows, it's slow, and there isn't much old stuff,
The oldest shows are the Goode Life, To the Manor Born, Yes Minister and Doctor Who. (I don't care about much of the post 2000 stuff apart from the comedies)
They have Red Dwarf but I didn't check which version.

I remember when Star Wars used to be this huge thing that people camped out at premiers to see and now it's everywhere in all shapes and sizes and I suppose unless someone is a lifelong fanatic, it's not a big deal anymore. And it's similar with superhero movies, because I noticed that I don't get that excited when a title is announced, I know I'll watch it eventually (I have to if I want to understand the rest…) but otherwise I grew accustomed to drowning in Marvel and DC. So when the trailer for the new Guardians of the Galaxy vol 3 popped up, it really felt good to once again feel like I'm some excited teenage fan hyping it. It's probably the only Marvel series I literally can't wait to see, I'm so grateful for still being able to feel this way once in a while.

InkyMoondrop wrote:
I remember when Star Wars used to be this huge thing … I'm so grateful for still being able to feel this way once in a while.

Blockbuster fatigue. Every movie has to be so much bigger than the last so eventually it just gets tiring. When is enough, enough? The Blockbuster is no longer special, but just another same old stuff.

Ozoneocean wrote:
@Inkymoondrop- My guess is she's based on the version from the 90s films and that's since been augmented with comics or other fiction?
I don't know, the original series is pretty perfect for me, everything since has never reached that same level of glory. .

For me the 90s Wednesday is a valuable addition to the original series, perhaps the only one. She couldn't have existed when it was made. I'm really enjoying the Wednesday series at four episodes in. It's a mystery thing with some nice Tim Burton touches, decent writing, good acting and a sense of humour. Thing gets a starring role and Jenna Ortega settles into the lead nicely. You can't touch the original series and they make no attempt to do that, so it gets an 8 on the Scarfometer (sorry Mo!)

For me the 90s Wednesday is a valuable addition to the original series, perhaps the only one. She couldn't have existed when it was made. I'm really enjoying the Wednesday series at four episodes in. It's a mystery thing with some nice Tim Burton touches, decent writing, good acting and a sense of humour. Thing gets a starring role and Jenna Ortega settles into the lead nicely. You can't touch the original series and they make no attempt to do that, so it gets an 8 on the Scarfometer (sorry Mo!)

If I look past how neither the humor nor title character makes me want to watch further, there's still the mystery you mentioned or Enid that just happens to be INVIGORATING (not biased at all, that she's also a Sinclair). Anything it borrows that the Harry Potter series utilized nicely is also a good addition. I like the other side characters as well. Most ppl complain about Gomez, but I think Morticia is the one who needs to convince me a bit more. I guess we'll see if I grow to like it despite not being a fan of this Wednesday Addams or as the latin would say: quit, Poe-crow! :)

InkyMoondrop wrote:
Most ppl complain about Gomez, but I think Morticia is the one who needs to convince me a bit more.

Do they now! I thought he was a great choice and reminded me of the original Charles Addams drawings. Catherine Zeta Jones definitely has some catching up to do.

Do they now! I thought he was a great choice and reminded me of the original Charles Addams drawings. Catherine Zeta Jones definitely has some catching up to do.

Guzmán is one of those actors that I see in a shitload of movies and yet not one memorable role of his comes to mind. Well, that changed now.

I had high hopes for “Wednesday,” but I felt it didn't quite live up to its potential. I mean, a Tim Burton take on Charles Addams? How can you go wrong with that? But instead, I felt that it veered too close to being a Harry Potter clone. I thought the film was well-made, and the casting was inspired. I just wish the humor could have been more subtle and quirky, like in Charles Addams' original cartoons, i.e. aimed at a grown-up audience rather than at a kids audience.

Wednesday

Almost forgot this existed! Had to start watching. Jenna Ortega has a great look for Wednesday. Watching the first episode now.

The lady dropping off the hitchhiking kid in the first episode looks so much like the original Morticia - I thought it must be her, but it turns out that Carolyn Jones passed away back in the 80's. This actress has such similar, distinctive eyes.

Edit: I'm six episodes in and invested enough to keep going. I saw a snippet of Fester in the season preview and have to at least keep going until he shows up.

It's for a younger audience, as others have said, but even as an adult I don't find it too alienating. A little bit here and there, but not enough to stop me wanting to finish the season and see the mystery solved. It's well done. Makes me want to revisit the original show and the 90's movies too.

THE VANISHING - Gerard Butler, Peter Mullan, Connor Swindells and a cast of vanishers. The 3 above are assigned a 6 week job of looking after a lighthouse off the coast of Scotland. Suggest using sub-titles as hard to hear much dialogue with the heavy accents. They find a row-boat with an almost dead man who attacks Connor suddenly so Connor kills him with a big rock. A large case was found and is opened revealing many gold bars, and soon enuf, 2 bad guys arrive looking for the case. What will transpire? Watch and see but not a happy ending or an uplifting movie getting a 2 on the Moizmeter.

I just started watching A Rainy Day in New York. Woody Allen film.
I don't know if I will make it all the way through… It's so pretentious in a thoughtless sort of way 😅
The writing has no self awareness.

So far the performances of the two main actors are just impressions of Woody Allen…

It's set in the present day but the dialogue and concepts are all from 60 years ago.

Allen should just be doing period 1960s movies where he stars. It'd be way less weird

I'm not a fan of Woody Allen, because it feels like he's this safe play kind of director that sits down with any movie star and they don't even have to read the script, they'll already know what kind of a role it will be, they already know it won't be a hit, that the character is unlikely to allow any great performances, that the movie itself is going to be a romantic lemonade about a certain class of people without much to say really, but it's a Woody Allen film, so it's not going to be terrible and it'll look good on a resumé.