Thing is Zanzibar and Rio may be real, tge the Hollywood image of them was anything but. It was pure fantasy as sure as Baldur's Gate and Rivendell. Audiences bought into the fantasy of far off places but just because the place names are on a real globe doesn't make them anymore real than Tolkien's maps in the end papers of hus books.
This is the thesis of any number of works on traveller's tales and how far off places were perceived before travel became commonplace. Even in the 1930-40 Hollywood could still get away with foreign fantastical places that only shared a name with some remote real places. The Morocco in Road to Morocco doesn't much resemble the real place as the soldiers who arrived there in November 1942 in Operation Torch soon discovered.

Sorry Bravo, I don't think I explained bmyself well 😅😅

The fact is because those places are real you don't need to do any work at all to make them appear that way, it's enough to reference any place in our real world. You can even just show them using nothing but an abstract painting of a landmark, like the Eiffel Tower showing it's Paris in Pepe La Pew cartoon, or the leaning tower of Pizza in another Warner Brothers cartoon or the backdrop image in a play.

You don't need anything more than that because the audience know it's set in this real world so it's naturally assumed that all the rest of this world's stuff applies.

But when you set things in a fictional magical place that isn't anywhere on earth or even in reality then the burden is on you the author to do the work unfortunately.😓

Started watching Winder Woman for the first time.
I loved the old TV series Soni wasn't interested in a new movie version…

Anyway, I've just started it and so far is soooo so stupid.

I know it's a fantasy but sooooome connection vto logic might be a good idea? 😅

So why was zues their god instead of Athena?
Why are the Germans automatically “the bad guys” in WW1?
In WW1 alllll sides are bad guys if they're fighting compared to a non-alligned peaceful country.

Why did the Germans start firing their guns at random women standing on a cliff? Why did they all come into the beach to start fighting hand to hand with women who only had primitive weapons while they had rifles with a range of over a KM?

This film was written by an idiot.

I hope it gets better.

Ozoneocean wrote:
This film was written by an idiot.

All good questions, and you've arrived at the right answer!

We watched the first 2 episodes of The Jackal with Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch, pretty good, thrills and spills, although it feels there's something wrong with the idea of peeking into the secret family life of a cold-blooded killer who doesn't deserve sh!t.

Sinners is exactly what you want from a movie. It's not simply a reimagined version of From Dusk Till Dawn, it has style, the music makes you wanna sing and dance, all the drama and action and horror isn't over-the-top, nor anything special really, but it creates a nice blend of entertainment, the quality you usually get from Tarantino movies. And you know there's a lot of depth to it, unspoken, somehow in the songs and what they mean to living and dead. The lighting was too dark at times, but it didn't take much from it. Recommended.

Also it's recommended for those The Lost Boys fans I frequently see here. This one has one of the best depiction of vampires, who are more like antagonists than villains here. They sure do have their villainous qualities, but somehow you're completely under their spell because they look like they genuinely believe everything they say, even when they're full of shit. It's more like a sports film in that regard, where two teams are playing for the win, but who wins or loses starts to matter less and less, since the game is fantastic. :)

Turning Point: The Vietnam War A documentary on the Vietnam war, and how it affected many generations of Vietnamese and Americans. I am old enough to remember watching the anti-war protests happening in the streets of San Francisco when I was a kid. It's both enlightening and haunting to see all the far-reaching consequences of that war being brought into focus.

Started watching The Umbrella Academy (with dub, to possibly learn some language). Everyone says the 4th season is terrible, so I'm already afraid, but so far it's a nice watch. With these numbers as names it's like an adult version of Codename: Kids Next Door. And that was a really fun watch, definitely in my top 10 cartoon series.

The Rake. The monster that features in many CreepyPastas. This is the director's second movie, and there is a lot of pacing and poor choices made.
Namely, the cast has 3 dark-haired white girls and 3 dark-haired white guys, and the only reason that I know one of them is Shanea Grimes-Beech is that she has a nose ring. Throw in a blonde, give one of the guys a beard, c'mon man!

However, two choices make this movie stand out. First is that it is not about “a group os college friends spending a weekend in the woods”. Instead, after two young kids witness their parents' very strange murder, we meet them 20 years later as they reunite with their adopted siblings. They are family, but they are not sure how strong this connection is as adults.

The second choice is that the existence of the monster itself is in question. Grimes's character has some serious mental issues, and only we see what she sees. The characters and the audience have good reason not to believe her.

Finally, when we do see the monster (or do we?), it is an AWESOME practical effect that looks exactly like the Creepypasta art.

Ack! Looks horrific. I really don't like horror XP


So I started Caligula
The uncensored version featuring Malcolm McDowell and many prominent actors like Helen Mirren, Sir John Geilgud and Peter O'Toole and others.

It's said that Bob Guccione, Penthouse magazine owner, had hardcore sex scenes inserted after the film was done unknown to the main cast, that might be true but there were also CERTAINLY actual sexual stuff going on WHEN the principal cast was there as well.

The dubbing is really bad, even by the English speaking cast doing their own lines.
The acing is very well done because these people were al renowned professionals.
The cinematography and photography and sets were top notch, expertly done technical work, even the effects were all A+.

There's LOTS of full nudity, there's masturbation (male and female), ejaculation, actual sex etc.

I only made it halfway through before I had to quit though.
The film is vile.
The story is horrible, the writing is shi*t and the sex, violence, sexual violence, and death are all awful while the film itself is incredibly boring and tedious. I started to fall asleep many times.

How can a movie be both disturbing AND boring? Quite and achievement.

That said, I love that Malcom McDowell has always continued to be a horrible, evil bastard in screen for almost his entire career. He's very good at it.

Ozoneocean wrote:
So I started Caligula
…
I only made it halfway through before I had to quit though.
The film is vile.

Another spot-on assessment, I remember watching this in a movie theater with my missus and she nudged me and got up and headed for the exit, I followed her out. Other couples had already exited before us.

I watched it for Malcolm McDowell. I also fell asleep several times. I Claudius is just so much better. John Hurt played “little boots” in a wonderful performance as a slimy but clearly insane person. The hypothesis is that an illness had left Caligula completely insane. It's also possible some things related by chroniclers were exaggerated and based only on rumor.

Sir John Gielgood appeared in a few movies in the 1970s that had lots of nudity. He was a known prude but he reported in his memoirs he knew but just paid attention to his acting and not pay attention to the antics. The Wicked Lady was one but that one is so delicously fun whereas Caligula is just awful.

I think the biggest star of the movie Caligula was the sets. They built some pretty outrageous sets that must have cost a fortune.

Other couples had already exited before us.

Hah! It's a horrible film LOL!

bravo1102 wrote:
I Claudius is just so much better.

I Claudius is very good. With the amazing Derek Jacobi!

fallopiancrusader wrote:
I think the biggest star of the movie Caligula was the sets. They built some pretty outrageous sets that must have cost a fortune.

They're awesome. I was shocked at how expensive the sets were and the cast VS the cheapness of the script and the tackiness of the rest LOL!

The costumes were not great either. The normal Roman stuff was ok but a bit skimpy, obviously, but the Roman armour stuff was really dumb.

fallopiancrusader wrote:
I think the biggest star of the movie Caligula was the sets. They built some pretty outrageous sets that must have cost a fortune.

There's a documentary about the production that PBS had. It was crazy. Guccione had no idea what he was doing or what he wanted and the BBC doing I, Claudius stepped on what they wanted to do.
There's also a documentary about the Charles Laughton I,Claudius that was never finished.

Roman epics can be pretty wild because even some of the pre Hayes code ones got racy. Claudette Colbert in Cleopatra and Sign of the Cross for example.

I watched Lilo & Stitch. I thought it was pretty good, much better than previous live action Disney remakes. But there's a reason for that, it's the same reason the original was different from the rest of the animated features as well. It was one of the last great productions of an era. The era of silly 90's,-early 2000s family comedies with a holiday vibe and a heart of gold. Naturally, that has its own nostalgic value to my generation. And yes, the main protagonists of such are / were almost always children. They might've leaned into coming of age sometimes, but never in ways to ruin the feelgood vibes. And sometimes they were wacky sci-fi or fantasy adventures, sometimes just a simple vacation-summer camp sort of flicks, sometimes the humor was tasteless and sometimes not, but the ones that worth a dime always managed to have entertainment value and some heartfelt message to the entire family. Casper, t first Jumanji, The Mighty Ducks, The Parent Trap, etc were basically my childhood, so it's nice to see the 80s isn't the only thing they can summon on the screen. And Kikujiro… now that was something I think I enjoyed more as an adult than I would've as a kid. Now, that was a great movie.

I've been watching Dragon Ball Daima.

.. S'alright.

They really nerfed these characters like crazy to make this story story happen, also totally contradicted their new canon that reinvigorated Dragon Ball in Dragon Ball Super to make this too. After you've defeated universe ending monstrosities, it's hard to believe that dudes with guns are a threat now but hey, they're doing it. 🤷🏾‍♂️

InkyMoondrop wrote:
And Kikujiro… now that was something I think I enjoyed more as an adult than I would've as a kid. Now, that was a great movie.

Wait, this Kikujiro? Great movie, but quite different from the ones you mentioned.

marcorossi wrote:

InkyMoondrop wrote:
And Kikujiro… now that was something I think I enjoyed more as an adult than I would've as a kid. Now, that was a great movie.

Wait, this Kikujiro? Great movie, but quite different from the ones you mentioned.

Yep! What it boils down to is a summer road trip movie where a loser selfish bastard becomes just a little less of a selfish bastard. The comedy is genius (and a lot more mature) plus obviously it's a take on this whole thing from a Japanese perspective, but it's meant to evoke the same sentimental adventure type of thing with its characters than the usual American holiday family flicks. It's at least much closer to that than to Alice in the Cities for example (another masterpiece of a road movie with an adult and a kid, that is purely an arthouse drama and mood piece).

I saw TAG the other day
It's a 2018 film about some 50 year old men who've been playing the same game of chasey since they were kids, but only during May. One of them has never been It because he's a master at the game.
That guy was played by Jeremy Renner. I don't know why he's considered an action hero type person? o_O
He's very average and normal

Apparently it was based on a real group of guys who really did that and it shows footage of them at the end. Unlike all the handsome actors these men are the name 50 year old guys- balding round faced, grey haired, barrel chested, stocky guys. It's a striking contrast!

I'm rewatching Miami Vice again because it's on Amazon Prime- From the 3rd season because that's as much as I can remember from last time.
It's weird to watch it because it's an 80s action cop show but unlike something like Hunter, Miami Vice is super serious all the time and VERY modern in style.

It's a fully modern show. Totally holds up. Don Johnson overdoes his hair a bit but it's better that it is today in that silly Doctor Odyssey show.

———-

Still watching Archer
I'm well past what I've seen before and it's still a great show. They make Lana into too much of a monster though.
The 3 weird seasons where Archer was in a coma for 3 years REAL TIME were fun. We have Noir, Adventure, and Scifi genres.
Then he comes out of the coma and they go back to normal though he walks with a cane.
And Jessica Walter (his mum in the show) Died, which was very sad.

I'm on a re-watch of Star Trek the Next Generation
It's SO easy to just binge your way through it. I can just consume so many episodes in a day… Vs Miami Vice which is excellent but I can only watch one or 2 episodes because it's much more dense and serious.

Early Star Trek next gen is no where near as smart as I remember. It's quite simplistic but I love the beautiful, sleek utopia future world depicted.
The focus on sex is annoying though and so is Wesley saving the day every second episode.

Recently discovered a show called WEATHER GONE VIRAL, which is another commentary show, only instead of D-list comedians desperate for some exposure, this show actually features some really renowned meteorologists such as Jim Cantore, Alex Wilson, Kait Parker, Stephanie Abrams, among others . . . and yeah, sure, some of them do try to invoke a little humor in their commentary, but they more-or-less offer explanations of what it is we're seeing in these clips of bizarre and extreme weather phenomena, and why we, as humans, tend to be mesmerised whenever we witness such simply because we don't know how to react.

There's also another show called THE WORLD'S FUNNIEST WEATHER, which is basically AMERICA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS with somebody other than Tom Bergeron (man I miss that guy) hosting the same kind of show . . . and honestly, most of the video clips featured on that show actually have absolutely nothing to do with weather whatsoever, so it's kind of misleader.

Ozoneocean wrote:
I'm on a re-watch of Star Trek the Next Generation
It's SO easy to just binge your way through it. I can just consume so many episodes in a day… Vs Miami Vice which is excellent but I can only watch one or 2 episodes because it's much more dense and serious.

Early Star Trek next gen is no where near as smart as I remember. It's quite simplistic but I love the beautiful, sleek utopia future world depicted.
The focus on sex is annoying though and so is Wesley saving the day every second episode.

Don't know if it applies to how you watch, but I often binge shows while creating and the way trek is quite dialogue driven I can multitask without missing anything as I can listen and keep up.

I watched Captain America brave new world. it was better than I expected, but my expectations were very low. Anthony Mackie is no Chris Evans in terms of charisma. Also it's trying to be like the winter soldier but they fail to pull it off. I'd even go as far as to say it seems a bit like a TV movie given a bigger budget, like it was made for streaming rather than the cinema.

Genejoke wrote:

Ozoneocean wrote:
I'm on a re-watch of Star Trek the Next Generation
It's SO easy to just binge your way through it. I can just consume so many episodes in a day… Vs Miami Vice which is excellent but I can only watch one or 2 episodes because it's much more dense and serious.

Early Star Trek next gen is no where near as smart as I remember. It's quite simplistic but I love the beautiful, sleek utopia future world depicted.
The focus on sex is annoying though and so is Wesley saving the day every second episode.

Don't know if it applies to how you watch, but I often binge shows while creating and the way trek is quite dialogue driven I can multitask without missing anything as I can listen and keep up.

And I keep finding really cool series only to find it's only available in a subtitled version and I have to pay attention and can't multitask.

“The Attackers” about a Russian WW2 fighter squadron.
“Four Tank-men and a Dog” A Polish series about a tank crew in WW2
“The Lethal Three” two ronin and a ninja/huckster travel 18th century Japan solving problems.
And I want to start “Lone Wolf and Cub”

I'd even go as far as to say it seems a bit like a TV movie given a bigger budget, like it was made for streaming rather than the cinema.

Yeah, well for a good while now, Marvel isn't exactly blowing our minds in terms of special FX. It had like 23 projects since the last Avengers movie. And you can easily think a few that looked decent and was fairly good, but for every Loki or Guardians of the Galaxy vol 3 (that was definitely not my favorite), there's 10 other that is either okay or outright cheap and effortless. It's probably a bad thing that they use individual series and movies as build-ups to some big event every 8 years or so, because it's a hit or miss and unless something is a hit on a limited budget, without anyone really caring to develop it into something unique, they'll just keep throwing other stuff at you.

Also yeah, Anthony Mackie never convinced me as Captain America. I just couldn't care less, but that's probably ‘cause the Cap had a great backstory to build on and other than Mackie being some friend and the Falcon I can’t even recall what his deal is.

Watched Karate Kid: Legends. Do not expect Cobra Kai level of originality. Do not expect any level of originality. Just expect nothing and maybe you'll give it a 6 for nostalgia. I sure couldn't.

Also yeah, Anthony Mackie never convinced me as Captain America. I just couldn't care less, but that's probably ‘cause the Cap had a great backstory to build on and other than Mackie being some friend and the Falcon I can’t even recall what his deal is.

I don't think he really has one, he's just some ex military guy. I think that's a lot of the problem with many of the newer Marvel films, the newer characters simply aren't that interesting.

Genejoke wrote:
Don't know if it applies to how you watch, but I often binge shows while creating and the way trek is quite dialogue driven I can multitask without missing anything as I can listen and keep up.

That's exactly how I watch ^_^
Love to create while watching! And Star Trek the Next Generation is so good for that.

—

I finally finished a re-watch of the first season of Star Trek the Next Generation.
There are a few really dodgy episodes but by far the majority are very good!

I was really surprised how much the Next Gen in the first season is like the Original Series! Just shocked really. You could replace the actors with the original cast and it would be the same show. That's mainly due to the stories and structure but also the “outdoor” sets that are SOOOOO kitsch, exactly like outdoor sets from the 1960s, with bad, simple lighting- flat pink skies etc created by lights with gels reflecting of a white surface.

In series two there are cast changes and characters change their roles in the story (Worf is security, Jordy in engineering, Riker with a beard, Dr Pulaski replacing Dr Crusher and so on..), the filming techniques and storytelling is much improved and advanced over the simple old fashioned style in the first season.

A number of the first season episodes were reworked scripts from Star trek phase one and things like that, so in essence they were pretty much written for the original series.