Re: Recent movie/TV playlist

1401
Samaritan - this is apparently based on a 2014 graphic novel (i haven’t read it). Really come across like Stallone made this film simply because he wanted to do a superhero-ish film. That’s it. He doesn’t have the range to pull off some of what they want his character to do in this. No one in the film really gets any kind of development - the bad guy(s) are bad simply because they are, etc. - and in that sense, it’s a throw-back to late ‘80s action films. Even though that might sound awesome, it’s really only ok at best. It’s just kind of “there”, not well-acted or put together. And really, if you want a great Stallone super hero comic book-y movie, watch the last Rambo film instead.

Re: Recent movie/TV playlist

1402
City On A Hill - watched s1 as i heard this was a good show. it was pretty good. kevin bacon on full display here, he really revels in this huge piece of shit character. well cast all around. a little too much time spent on some side stories, but eventually goes come around. curious to see where s2 goes, and i guess s3 is airing currently. so far it isn't exactly top 10 series' ever, but it's enjoyable.

Re: Recent movie/TV playlist

1403
TC wrote: 29/08/22, 08:13:36 City On A Hill - watched s1 as i heard this was a good show. it was pretty good. kevin bacon on full display here, he really revels in this huge piece of shit character. well cast all around. a little too much time spent on some side stories, but eventually goes come around. curious to see where s2 goes, and i guess s3 is airing currently. so far it isn't exactly top 10 series' ever, but it's enjoyable.
s2 was also great. Kevin Bacon rules in this character. it's pretty remarkable. only gripe i have here is the obvious shoehorning of "social issues" - complete with massive shortcuts to get there - into the show. still, tolerable and doesn't directly affect the outcome of the thing. good show. will hold off on s3 until it completes at the end of the month to see where this goes next.

Re: Recent movie/TV playlist

1404
Hellbender - this was almost good. Just parallel to good. It was a good idea, and could have been great, but they just couldn’t resist being goofy. Thus, i’d give it a solid “meh”.

Incantation - full of japanese horror tropes and characters. About 30-40 min too long. But, it is lovecraft-adjacent / pseudo-lovecraftian if you can filter through all the drama for the main plot idea. Another solid “meh” from me.

Re: Recent movie/TV playlist

1405
Beyond The Infinite Two Minutes - excellent "short" film (67 minutes), all done in one take, about time travel. very clever construct executed incredibly well. reminds me of One Cut Of The Dead in that way. highly recommend you check it out, on Amazon.

Possum - not sure what i just watched. looks like the entire thing takes place inside the "this would look good on your wall" painting given to Laura in FWWM. it's creepy, that's for sure. payoff is light, but it's all mood with this one.

Re: Recent movie/TV playlist

1406
Moonfall - absolutely awful and absolutely hilarious. i loved it. feels like roland decided to lean into the absurdist comic-book logic of his disaster porn films, and it mostly just works. some great visual gags too.

Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum - took a while to get past the long, dull set-up but did eventually turn into something quite decent. just took way too long to get there to salvage it for me.

Who Invited Them - dime store Jennifer Aniston and Bradley Cooper lead this predictable and mercifully brief...thriller? Hard "meh" here.

Re: Recent movie/TV playlist

1407
Goodnight Mommy [2022] - well, with the intro scene they immediately take away one of the things that worked well in the original. seems like the mantra was "remove all doubt and make something more straight-ahead". i just don't know what that "something" was. naomi was great, given how little she had to work with here, but damn was this unnecessary. original was pretty great, this - not so much.

Deep Water - i had extremely low expectations given all that i'd heard about this, but ended up enjoying it. it's an interesting take on the situation for sure. it just seems like there was no joy had in making this. it's very drab in just about every way you can imagine. but some interesting things happening. wouldn't say go out of your way to watch it, but if it's on, given it a look. don't know what happened to lyne.

Re: Recent movie/TV playlist

1408
TC wrote: 01/01/22, 08:59:46 Cobra Kai - Season 4 - as we covered back on page 58, s3 ended in kind of insane land where many teens should now be living at juvi. S4 picks up immediately after the events of s3. I don’t really understand how much time passes during a season - two weeks? Five days? A school year? - and that creates some issues with this season especially. A kid that has been in your class for what i assumed was maybe a week is doing the skills demonstration? He’s also able to strike your best guy? Anyway, was a good season. Brought back the guy who i guess was the villain in Karate Kid 3? I don’t know, didn’t watch that one, but there were enough flashback scenes for me to grasp i guess this guy has existed in the canon of this franchise. He was fine, definitely more enjoyable than Krese. Thankfully, we didn’t get Krese fight scenes this year - those were so painful to watch last year. Guys biggest opponent is clearly arthritis. But, these two guys - ‘nam vets? How old are they supposed to be again? They’d have to be in their 70s at minimum, but in the flashback scenes they looked older than 20, so… Anyway, forgetting about all that, this season was enjoyable. Had some laughable moments. But there’s just no way to recapture why s1 was so great. Watching this, i feel the same way i do watching the CW superhero shows - there is so much teen drama that is both annoying and ridiculous, just in this show, all their issues somehow end up getting solved by and with karate. And i’m still watching because i’m invested. But if all those kids tried the roof jump and fell to their death like lemmings, i’d be fine with that too.
ok, so season 5 fixed everything i hated about s4. s5 was pretty goddamn funny, and entirely self-aware, leaning into the ridiculousness of their internal timelines, among other things. it was definitely better than s4. my only real gripe was that ending, because it means
we have to deal with more fucking kreese, who is the worst character in the show, and incapable of acting in any meaningful way, let alone trying to fight and be a badass. leave the poor old man alone. i cheered when they killed him. but then, of course he's not dead. shrug.

Re: Recent movie/TV playlist

1409
Devil In Ohio - seemed like a good idea, but boy is this a dud. it's a lifetime movie gone satanic-ish. the chick from color out of space and i guess bones (didn't watch it) star. so many plot lines introduced and not ever mentioned again, and every single person on this show that has a job is absolutely terrible at it. it's laughable. finally at the very end we get an interesting twist, but then credits roll so i guess we'll never know what that was. totally ridiculous show, which is too bad as the premise deserved far better. oof.

Re: Recent movie/TV playlist

1410
TC wrote: 02/09/22, 11:01:03
TC wrote: 29/08/22, 08:13:36 City On A Hill - watched s1 as i heard this was a good show. it was pretty good. kevin bacon on full display here, he really revels in this huge piece of shit character. well cast all around. a little too much time spent on some side stories, but eventually goes come around. curious to see where s2 goes, and i guess s3 is airing currently. so far it isn't exactly top 10 series' ever, but it's enjoyable.
s2 was also great. Kevin Bacon rules in this character. it's pretty remarkable. only gripe i have here is the obvious shoehorning of "social issues" - complete with massive shortcuts to get there - into the show. still, tolerable and doesn't directly affect the outcome of the thing. good show. will hold off on s3 until it completes at the end of the month to see where this goes next.
S3 was really good. I enjoyed it more than s2. Unbelievably, it didn’t end tragically for the leads involved in this season (other than the main antagonist). I thought things would end much worse. But the setup for bigger stakes next season was solid. I really love seeing Kevin Bacon be such a giant piece of shit asshole. He’s really good at it.

Re: Recent movie/TV playlist [titles without stand-alone thread]

1411
Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story - Evan Peters is fucking phenomenal. Can't recall seeing him in anything where he wasn't just great. Some of the creative license taken with this is interesting to say the least (like somehow portraying Jesse Jackson as something other than an opportunistic POS), but still an enjoyable (such as it is) show. Society is fascinated with this guy. This felt much less exploitative than other serial killer shows. They didn't show any murders, really - most was offscreen. Didn't show any eating of flesh, it was implied. The only murder really shown was Scarver killing Jeff (spoiler alert). But, yet another Dahmer show that didn't include any music from Macabre. Missed opportunity.

Re: Recent movie/TV playlist [titles without stand-alone thread]

1412
The Wailing - the first third of this was prolonged and really ended up being a red herring, but this did eventually turn into something quite interesting. feel like i need to watch it again. but it was really well done. not a lot of "horror" per se, but more of the story of a man dealing grief and the death around him as it hits closer to home and his religious beliefs (or lack of). good film.

Re: Recent movie/TV playlist [titles without stand-alone thread]

1413
TC wrote: 27/09/22, 08:29:47 Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story - Evan Peters is fucking phenomenal. Can't recall seeing him in anything where he wasn't just great. Some of the creative license taken with this is interesting to say the least (like somehow portraying Jesse Jackson as something other than an opportunistic POS), but still an enjoyable (such as it is) show. Society is fascinated with this guy. This felt much less exploitative than other serial killer shows. They didn't show any murders, really - most was offscreen. Didn't show any eating of flesh, it was implied. The only murder really shown was Scarver killing Jeff (spoiler alert). But, yet another Dahmer show that didn't include any music from Macabre. Missed opportunity.
I should also add that Jennifer Lynch directs a huge chunk of the episodes, and it shows. Those are stylistically and noticeably superior to the others. Check it out. Oh, and buy a bunch of orange soda first, as it is heavily featured in this show to the point of wondering if it is a sponsor (along with AB for excessive Budweiser consumption). You’ll be craving one, the other, or both by the end.

Re: Recent movie/TV playlist [titles without stand-alone thread]

1414
Industry - i had heard good things about this show, so i tried watching it. made it through like four episodes before deciding i really don't give a fuck about anyone on this show or anything that's happening. this is the horniest show i've seen in a very long time, maybe ever. every person on here has a raging hard-on 100% of the time and is just figuring out ways to fuck (or fuck with) coworkers. it's pretty crazy. seems so disconnected from reality. anyway, i bailed. but if you know anything about finance and want to see a lot of 20-something sex (mostly gay), check it out.

Re: Recent movie/TV playlist [titles without stand-alone thread]

1415
Blonde - I know there is a lot of hate on this movie, but I don’t get it. Granted, I don’t really know Marilyn Monroe - her movies, her story, her history, etc. - very well, so I can’t speak to the historical accuracy of this movie. I do know it was based on a book - maybe take it up with the author? Regardless, unless you have some personal vesting in how much this maps to reality, you should check this out. (And again, for all I know, this is 100% accurate. I have no real idea how much of the blanks filled-in are true). I found it to be extremely well done. It’s filmed as sort of a surrealist take on MM’s life. That really works/fits for me, since it’s made clear pretty early on that she was traumatized so much as a child (and adult) that her view of reality is skewed. Since this is mostly told from her POV, it’s the ol’ unreliable narrator gag, but pretty frictionlessly implemented. Be forewarned, it’s a fucking depressing film. Probably top 3 depressing films I’ve ever seen. At least top 10. The shit that this woman was put through is heartbreaking. In this film, you are just watching a woman become broken in every conceivable way. But why I think this group might like it - the last third has heavy Laura Palmer vibes, to the point where it seems very obvious that this director watched FWWM on repeat at some point in his life. We are watching MM become Laura, essentially. Even the music starts to morph to be very Badalamenti-esque. The lighting, the angles, the wardrobe (complete with scene in which MM has lipstick smeared on her face/lapel and is beat up). Hell,
she’s even essentially killed by her father - once it’s revealed she’s been completely conned about her father’s existence her entire life, that one of her early loves has just been fucking with her, she kills herself. Her belief that her father would one day come essentially destroyed her life. It was her demon, her personal Bob.
I also don’t really know why it was NC-17. We see no more of Ana than we’ve already seen many times. Granted, there are scenes of rape, but they aren’t graphic. There is forced abortion. There is sexual violence. But none of this is graphic. The one thing I can maybe guess is that there is a scene where she’s blowing someone, but we see it from essentially her mouth up - never any confirmation that there’s something going into her mouth, etc. But there is certainly head bobbing. Maybe that’s it? Not news to anyone here that the ratings board is ridiculous, I’m sure. Anyway, I found this to be a very engrossing, very well done movie. I’ll likely watch it again at some point, even though it is long and extremely depressing. I think some people just don’t want to see the image of MM touched in any way, and this eviscerates the facade. Ana’s accent is almost entirely gone (a couple words in a couple scenes might have your head tilting for a split second). She absolutely crushes this roll. She goes so far above and beyond to get what we see on screen. I hope she wins all the awards for this performance, frankly. She deserves it.

Re: Recent movie/TV playlist [titles without stand-alone thread]

1416
The stuff with Chaplin, Robinson and the "father" is made up I think. The book came out in 1999 so yes, quite possible the author was influenced by Lynch. Maybe Dominik could have shown a few more of the ups - MM's friendship with Jane Russell, her activism, her business savy. This would have made the lows more painful whilst expanding the world of the film (it felt a bit too hermetic and soundstagey at times) and maybe would have averted some of the criticism floating around - although I appreciate these things weren't in the novel and certainly the author has expressed satisfaction with the adaptation. Overall I liked it, yes, and it'd be nice to see the original uncensored director's cut one day.

Re: Recent movie/TV playlist [titles without stand-alone thread]

1418
TC wrote: 27/09/22, 18:27:25
TC wrote: 27/09/22, 08:29:47 Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story - Evan Peters is fucking phenomenal. Can't recall seeing him in anything where he wasn't just great. Some of the creative license taken with this is interesting to say the least (like somehow portraying Jesse Jackson as something other than an opportunistic POS), but still an enjoyable (such as it is) show. Society is fascinated with this guy. This felt much less exploitative than other serial killer shows. They didn't show any murders, really - most was offscreen. Didn't show any eating of flesh, it was implied. The only murder really shown was Scarver killing Jeff (spoiler alert). But, yet another Dahmer show that didn't include any music from Macabre. Missed opportunity.
I should also add that Jennifer Lynch directs a huge chunk of the episodes, and it shows. Those are stylistically and noticeably superior to the others. Check it out. Oh, and buy a bunch of orange soda first, as it is heavily featured in this show to the point of wondering if it is a sponsor (along with AB for excessive Budweiser consumption). You’ll be craving one, the other, or both by the end.
i'm now becoming very annoyed with this show because of people's reactions to it. i feel like i'm witnessing history being re-written in real time. people think this was a documentary. no one bothers to go look up what really happened, they just watch this and boom, now that's history of what really happened. the sassy, know-it-all, hero neighbor? didn't exist. the scene with him offering the sandwich to the non-existent neighbor? didn't happen. the cops doing the prank phone calls to the laotian family? never happened. et cetera. i mean holy fuck people, relax. like we need more fuel thrown on the race fire right now. goddamn people are stupid.

Re: Recent movie/TV playlist [titles without stand-alone thread]

1419
La Brea - this show is hilarious. it doesn't mean to be, but it's very fun to watch in an MST3K way. my wife and i provide running commentary while watching and man does it not disappoint. everyone in this show has the logic of a video game NPC. it's just entertaining enough to keep watching. i had never watched it until a week ago, and we blasted through s1. s2 just started last week and we watched the first episode. s2 starts immediately after the end of s1, and the main characters look totally different - hair grown, visibly older in the case of the daughter, and everyone seems to have forgotten the events of the previous 24h. pretty hilarious, still entertaining. oh, and Mrs. Raylan Givens is the female lead. she's clearly above the rest of the folks on this show, but it's quite amusing. especially her son, who acts in every scene like this is his first job and goddamnit he's going to NAIL it. i'm telling you, it's maybe the funniest show on right now.

Re: Recent movie/TV playlist [titles without stand-alone thread]

1420
Beast - boy is this a formulaic mess. You can predict almost every line, they hit every trope/plot point at almost the exact time you know they will, and every character makes insane, illogical, and idiotic choices throughout. The CG, while impressive, is still just off somehow. It’s like they’ve found t he uncanny valley and are happy to live in it. So they one thing you really would watch this for is more unnerving than anything else. Do not recommend.