1311
by TC
weekend round-up:
The Silent Sea - korean space sci-fi/drama on Netflix. while it was interesting, it was also pretty clunky. starring the guy from the excellent Train To Busan, who was once again great in this, it had lots of good ideas but just wasn't executed extremely well. lots of ridiculous two-dimensional characters and plot lines not well fleshed out. but, again - interesting and had some good scenes. can't say it's recommended viewing though.
The Last Duel - i really liked this film, eventually. at the beginning, the timeline of what's happening made me feel like i was crazy. i think they covered 12 years in like 10 minutes? i wasn't sure what the fuck was happening. it felt like a film adaptation of the cliff's notes of some events. it was really crazy and ridiculous. by the 20 minute mark, i just gave up even trying and figured that none of what happened leading to the gates they were rushing through was important, only that there was some history between the two main characters i was meant to understand. once i accepted that, it quickly went to "Part 2" and i understood the construct of the film. at that point, i was on board and it was pretty great. as it's ridley scott, lots of over the top violence, but also extremely well-acted. by the end i realized i had been suckered into loving another matt damon/ben afleck script. i remember that used to be a joke, but damn it these guys are good. this construct could have been a disaster in less adept hands but scott pulls it off quite well. recommended.
Peacemaker - four episodes into this. gone is the tongue-in-cheek humor of The Suicide Squad, which i quite liked. it's been replaced with massively shoe-horned woke-ism every step of the way. cramming nearly every conceivable social issue into this show seems to be the goal. i'm blown away we haven't been lectured on trans-gender children, CRT, or voting laws yet. while i like gunn's stuff typically, this feels like it was taken over by people that are incapable of executing his more subtle humor and satire and replaced with the writers of far-left leaning blog sites. it's ultimately just disappointing, given the potential here. still watching as there are moments of humor and some great violent scenes, but it's approaching that line of just being so irritating i bail, like SNL of the last five years or so. ironically, what they're showing is in contrast to what they're saying - the black characters in the show are the ones who are deceitful, lying, manipulative, and two-faced. they spent several minutes of one episode furthering the myth that Louis CK exposed himself to random people. i just don't understand who this show is for. sad.