I watched episodes 13 & 14 of Balssreiter, a Gonzo anime from mid 00s-ish.

I literally only watched those two episodes out of context, cause they were recommended to me on youtube, and it was late and i had nothing else to do.

This show is probably pretty bad all around, but what i saw was a flashback to the protagonist's chilhood and just those two episodes were the bumpiest, most hilarious emotional rollercoaster i experienced in a long time. I burst out laughing at the levels of melodramatic soap opera writing on display. Just one catastrophe hit this kid after another. Parents died, raised in an orphanage, the orphanage burns down, he gets beat up daily by the rich kids, get accused of a crime he didn't commit, his father figure bites it, everyone is dying of the plague, he finds his long lost sister only for her to be beaten to death on the street… and all of this only to lead to the protagonist being infected with nanobots to become some superhuman fighting machine.

Anime, man.

Ozoneocean wrote:

I watched all the Back to the Future movies.

That scene where one of the band members calls Chuck Berry, “Hey Chuck, it's your cousin Marvin. You know that new sound you're lookin' for? Well, listen to this!” He also sings “Earth Angel” in the movie.

That actor is Harry Water's Jr. who was a teacher of mine at the youth theatre I went to for years. We were pretty good friends while he was there.

Is the Karate Kid trilogy worth burning through for context before watching Cobra Kai? I'm not a fan of sports, but my boiler decided to fall and turn my bathroom into a warzone and as much as I love creative work, it's not the best distraction when I'm stressed with a terrible sleep schedule and tomorrow I have to go to work, dirty or not, so… if I start to burn through something along a few glasses of Cuba Libre, I wouldn't mind enjoying it.

“Copenhagen Cowboy, ” a six-episode mini-series on Netflix. I couldn't make heads or tails of it. Either I am too ignorant to understand such high art, or it's just too pretentious for its own britches. I fear it's more the latter. The director seems to have taken the last shot of Antonioni's “The Passenger,” and built his entire directorial style off of it. Talk about derivative. So, yeah, in short: pretentious and derivative.

InkyMoondrop wrote:
Is the Karate Kid trilogy worth burning through for context before watching Cobra Kai? I'm not a fan of sports, but my boiler decided to fall and turn my bathroom into a warzone and as much as I love creative work, it's not the best distraction when I'm stressed with a terrible sleep schedule and tomorrow I have to go to work, dirty or not, so… if I start to burn through something along a few glasses of Cuba Libre, I wouldn't mind enjoying it.

They have the rights to all the movies so Cobra Kai is able to use them in flashbacks for context. However, I and II are quite good and are worth watching. Plus Mr. Miyagi is only in the films and is a major part of the story.

III is referred to, but I don't think I ever really watched it. IV can be avoided.

sleeping_gorilla wrote:

InkyMoondrop wrote:
Is the Karate Kid trilogy worth burning through for context before watching Cobra Kai? I'm not a fan of sports, but my boiler decided to fall and turn my bathroom into a warzone and as much as I love creative work, it's not the best distraction when I'm stressed with a terrible sleep schedule and tomorrow I have to go to work, dirty or not, so… if I start to burn through something along a few glasses of Cuba Libre, I wouldn't mind enjoying it.

They have the rights to all the movies so Cobra Kai is able to use them in flashbacks for context. However, I and II are quite good and are worth watching. Plus Mr. Miyagi is only in the films and is a major part of the story.

III is referred to, but I don't think I ever really watched it. IV can be avoided.

Thanks, I ended up watching the 1st film and then started the series. I enjoy the series so far. “IV can be avoided” to be fair, I would've only watch it for Hilary Swank. I like her tomboy energies in other films.

Last night I saw a short interview with Pat Morita about how he got the role of Mr Miagi, it was pretty cool. Hahaha!
He was a funny guy. ^_^

—————

Ive been re-watching Gavin and Stacey.
-Mathew Horne and James Cordon comedy drama. It's just as god. I really like it. Love Bob Brydon in that show, he really leans into his Welshness. Love the expressions “And I'll tell you for why” haha!

My daughter is home from university and she's got us all watching Singles Inferno, which is a sort of Korean take on Love Island, if Love Island has been made in the 1950s.

The singles sit around in casual clothing, discussing their feelings with great sincerity, while being flawlessly considerate of how the others might react to said feelings. In the British Love Island, the singles sit around slagging each other off in their underwear, until the whole thing turns into a drunken slanging match.

Has Korea become the new Bollywood? My mom and her best friend binge K-dramas like they have terminal illnesses and are try to cram as many in single sessions as they can before they pass - it's been leading to spikes in our internet usage that exceed our data allowance.

According to my daughter, Korean culture exploded onto the world stage after Psy had an international hit with Gangnam Style. Now everything from Korean food to music to TV is hot. They have erected a statue of Psy as a result.

Gangnam Style? That was like a hundred years ago . . . is that even still a thing?

It might originate from Gangam style

Personally I thought the wave started with the rise of the K-pop phenomenon… J-pop had been a bit of a thing but k-pop quickly overtook it and gained a big following, mainly due to the hyper stylised nature of it with the performers wearing so much makup and with so many filters that they look like pretty, artifical, hyper-beautful people, and the dance moves are similalry weirdly more than human.
I think Gangam style came out of that because it was the antithesis of it, which made it stand out. And its sillniess made it even more popular so it spread much further beyond the young women who made up the K-pop audience.

Also, a lot of American animated shows are drawn over in Korea and their style of anime has slowly filtered across over the years as well.

For whatever reason Korean shows are a huge block of the content on Netflix… This might just be because they have a large amount of Korean American subscribers in the USA where Netflix is based?
Amazon Prime here in Australia has a huge block of Indian content and I can only assume that's for all the recent Indian migrants here for work.

—————

One thing I really don't like about streaming services is the lack of British content, mainly older shows. I grew up with old British shows and I'd like to see a lot of them again but you're out of luck with all streaming services in Australia. You get a few newer ones on various services but the selection is pathetic.
“Britbox” is the only specialised one we have for it but even the selection there is super-duper thin! Very disappointing.

It's supposed to be a joint thing between the BBC and ITV but that just makes it even more pathetic considering the paucity of their offereing.

A lot of Japanese anime is actually animated in Korea. See credits in Japanese and suddenly there's this block of Korean names in Latin alphabet.
See that sometimes in Chinese movies where there will be blocks of Vietnamese and Korean names in Latin alphabet.
Whole lot of co-productions and sub contracting of production resources going on.

Not just anime, but almost all of western animation from about the 80s or so into the New Tens was actually outsourced from Korea as well. Nowadays, much of western animation is outsourced from studios up in Canada - as a matter of fact, my (former?) best friend of 17 years' husband worked for Jam Filled Entertainment on such shows like WILD KRATTS, PINKY MALINKY, and THE LOUD HOUSE. She explained to me the reason why American studios outsource their animation from Canada is not only is it cheaper (obviously), but also because Canadian animators aren't unionized, so that makes it easier to exploit the talent and work that goes into the animation for their shows.

Ozoneocean wrote:

One thing I really don't like about streaming services is the lack of British content, mainly older shows. I grew up with old British shows and I'd like to see a lot of them again but you're out of luck with all streaming services in Australia. You get a few newer ones on various services but the selection is pathetic.
“Britbox” is the only specialised one we have for it but even the selection there is super-duper thin! Very disappointing.

It's supposed to be a joint thing between the BBC and ITV but that just makes it even more pathetic considering the paucity of their offereing.

There are two or three channels on Freeview here in the UK which show a lot of that content, so I assume they must license those on the understanding that the main channels don't show them. That probably keeps them off Britbox. BBC/ITV probably see that as an easy revenue stream and I can't complain as it's free for me, but a pain for international viewers like yourself. I don't think they see the value of this stuff, but at least they don't wipe the tapes anymore or throw them in the trash.

Ironscarf wrote:

Pommy bastards, hoarding all the good shows! XD
I want to watch Minder again… Jeeves and Wooster, Dangermouse, Lovejoy, Class Act, Bergerac, The Professionals, Smith and Jones, Hale and Pace, The Fast Show, Big Train, Green Wing, and so many more

After all these years I finally finished How I Me Your Mother!
Whew!

I gave up on the show after I went to the US the first or second time back in 2010 or 2011… I was sort of addicted but then couldn't get back into it. I think originally I got into the show because of the weird title and then stuck with it mainly because of Barney.

Anyway, hmmmm… We finally met the mother and stuff I suppose. The last season felt really cringiney to me and the last two episodes were even cringier… Why did they do it that way?

Would have been better if we only met the mum in the final episode instead of dragging it out over a season because it fakes a whole big attachment to a character they we haven't known long enough to like nearly that much, so it feels forced.
“THIS IS THE MUM YOU HAVE TO LOVE HER! SHE'S A MAIN CHARACTER NOW. DEAL WITH IT”

ugh.

Ah well, The final season was ick but I think I still like the rest of it, extended, bland, romantic comedy that it is. I like romantic comedies.

Ozoneocean bastards

AHEM. . . .

Ozoneocean
- I have to censor myself because I'm an admin

HMMMMMMM? ;P

That's fine because it's not just bastards, it's pommy bastards - an Australian term of endearment when referring to Brits.

Ironscarf wrote:
That's fine because it's not just bastards, it's pommy bastards - an Australian term of endearment when referring to Brits.

Exactly ^_^
It's an affectionate term in common use here. Australia is a weird place in that regard… A lot of nasty words are used affectionately. Like “pommy c***” is a legitimately friendly thing to call a British person- I'm not joking.

Kind of like how there's a certain F-word that gets used as slang for cigarettes or potatoes over in the UK, but in North America, that word is a homophobic slur.

Ah yes! I gave them up 18 years ago, but once in a while I still dream there's a fag in my mouth.

—

Just got through watching the new Detectorists Christmas special. If you're not familiar, this BBC4 comedy series ran from 2014 - 2017 and featured the quiet exploits of a couple of metal detectorists. Written, directed by and starring Mackenzie Crook, with ample support from Toby Jones and a great cast, there were three series which had little fanfare, but have continued to grow in reputation, hence the new special I assume.

I was worried they couldn't recapture the same magic after five years and a perfect ending, but I needn't have been. Mackenzie managed to unpick the magical tapestry of the previous ending, while surreptitiously weaving us a whole new one.

Ironscarf wrote:
Ah yes! I gave them up 18 years ago, but once in a while I still dream there's a fag in my mouth.

Wow, that even sounds you're talking about a gay blow job!

Ironscarf wrote:
Detectorists

That's on Britbox :)
I'll add it to my watchlist

I've just started Detectorists. ☺️
Thanks Ironscarf! It has McKenzie Crook, Gareth from The Office. Love that guy ☺️

I think you mentioned his name but I didn't recognise it at the time.

I really don't consider any of Aardman's work to be DreamWorks productions; DreamWorks was more-or-less a distributor for them, particularly in North American territories.

The Bad:

Indy horror and Mia Goth are two things I love. So I went to see Infinity Pool. I appreciate that the director made the movie he wanted to make, though it was censored quite a bit apparently. After two hours of blurry neon lights, extreme close-ups, genitalia, vomit, and shit being blasted into my eyes there was still no ending in sight so I left the theatre.

Everything in this movie is intentional and important to the story Cronenberg Jr is trying to tell. It would have worked better as a tight 1 hour Twilight Zone episode.

The Good:

I loved M3gan. A charming combination of puppetry, CGI, and most importantly the performance of multiple actors to create a killer doll that is somewhat aware that she is in a movie. She mocks her creator “No don't let M3Gan hear, that would be bad!”, and she even sings along with the soundtrack at one point. It has been a while since I have seen anything fun, so I really appreciated that.

Does what i'm reading count?? Cause I'm reading the amazing Spider-man: dark web finale :)

I finally saw the Queen movie Bohemian Rhapsody. The story was very contrived 😅
Especially the part where they split up and came together gloriously for live Aid. WTF? That was just over a year since their last album before that so it wasn't like a long dark teatime of the soul like it was shown in the movie.

Rami Malik didn't really look the part, but he did very well at acting it. The guy who played Brian May though was amazing. The rest of the band were great too. They had very good wig people!

It was a good movie despite the contrived structure.Im surprised they didn't have the famous Wembley concert in there. Reviewers act as if the Live Aid this was the best ever but I watched live Aid back then and don't remember being knocked over by Queen's performance on it

What I generally dislike about biographies especially about musicians is this thing I did a satire of in my comic: how there's this one person who was always special for some reason and there's the hint of madness in their genius, but essentially no one compares to them so even their own bandmates are these completely uninteresting, forgettable nobodies in the background and the most they do is clash with the MC over the extravagant lifestyle or they sign a deal without their approval and they usually make up in the end, but it's so cringe to see a movie built around some iconic figure presented in a way that he or she exists in sort of a vacuum of talent and relevance. I sort of liked the Elvis movie in the sense that it offered a subjective but still in-depth perspective on him and that it didn't try to minimize all the influences he had and the talented people around him, while it was still his story.