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Halloween Kills - i quite enjoyed the 2018 Halloween installment. Thought it was a great setup for a new trilogy. This middle entry, I enjoyed while watching, up to a point. Some of the kills are great, and Michael is completely ruthless. That I loved. But the things I didn’t love, I’m still thinking about a week later…
first of all, the whole mentally disturbed other inmate subplot was unnecessary and distracting. I don’t know exactly what they were trying to do here, but it felt like some kind of very shoe-horned in social statement that I didn’t need. Secondly, and this is my main issue, that “mob attacks michael” scene. my entire attachment to MM was that he was human. While he was insanely strong and had mad killing skills, he did get injured and had to be somewhat mindful of his ability to get injured. This fucking scene, for some reason they decided to elevate michael to some kind of god. He took so many gunshots, fatal clubbings, kicks, stomps, etc. And gets right back up? Fucking retarded. His humanity is exactly why he was my favorite among the three biggies. This completely unnecessary decision changed the entire context of this trilogy and pushed it into ridiculous territory. And i stress again - this was completely unnecessary. I don’t see why we needed to give anthony michael hall and his people some kind of closure with this. And again, it felt very shoe-horned in, like this was some kind of mob mentality social statement that didn’t need to be made.

So i guess as i’m typing this, i have to say i wouldn’t recommend it. Some great kills and whatnot, but the parts that were dumb were really dumb and undermine the rest of it. Real bummer.

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You (Netflix) - i thought we talked about this, but turns out trying to search such a common word is a nightmare, so just putting it here. We finished S3 a couple days ago. I really liked the first two seasons but was kind of wondering where s3 was going to go. Turns out worries were unfounded. It was a pretty fucking crazy season, and i didn’t see that ending coming. I know people compare it to Dexter, like it’s a CW-ified Dexter, but I didn’t watch that show so can’t comment. What i can tell you is the show is damn entertaining.

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Mother Of Tears - i had never seen this until last night. I know it’s been out 14 years but just never made it across my radar. While i appreciate Susperia (the original), i find it supremely goofy and - beyond set design and music - really overrated. Inferno was fine. Point is, i don’t have the agento obsession/attachment that some folks have. So to me, this film seemed to fall exactly in line and hit familiar argento beats. Some very goofy parts, some fantastic and over the top gore/effects, etc. it was more entertaining than some other argento flicks i’ve seen, and as is par for the course, the ending sucked. Two things that i was focused on more than anything else - first, it was kind of jarring seeing ‘70s and ‘80s italian horror approaches with such stunning quality cameras. It felt kind of unnatural. Second, i just kept thinking about anthony bourdain and how much it sucks he’s gone.

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Goliath (Amazon series) - i swear i talked about this before, but search turns up nothing. hm. well, someone said something silly to me like "oh, you like twin peaks? you should check out Goliath". it's a billy bob thornton vehicle where he plays a down and out lawyer fighting for the good guys. each season is essentially its own case cycle. it's a really good show, but didn't get overly surreal until season 3. lots of surreal parts in that season. it's been quite a while between seasons, but the fourth and final season dropped last month. just watched the first two episodes last night, and man are they just going for it. i guess they figured fuck it, it's the last season, let's lean way into the weird. while the show is of course nothing like twin peaks beyond the surface "guy investigates a weird case" maguffin, it is a really good show. billy bob can act his ass off, nina arianda steals every scene she's in, and each season has a killer supporting cast. s3 was full of heavies, including william hurt. this season, bruce dern is chewing sets. hope they come up with a great ending for the show.

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TC wrote: 04/11/21, 15:11:57 Goliath (Amazon series) - i swear i talked about this before, but search turns up nothing. hm. well, someone said something silly to me like "oh, you like twin peaks? you should check out Goliath". it's a billy bob thornton vehicle where he plays a down and out lawyer fighting for the good guys. each season is essentially its own case cycle. it's a really good show, but didn't get overly surreal until season 3. lots of surreal parts in that season. it's been quite a while between seasons, but the fourth and final season dropped last month. just watched the first two episodes last night, and man are they just going for it. i guess they figured fuck it, it's the last season, let's lean way into the weird. while the show is of course nothing like twin peaks beyond the surface "guy investigates a weird case" maguffin, it is a really good show. billy bob can act his ass off, nina arianda steals every scene she's in, and each season has a killer supporting cast. s3 was full of heavies, including william hurt. this season, bruce dern is chewing sets. hope they come up with a great ending for the show.
Well, it was an ending. Not great. But i guess that’s one way to end a show. The last couple episodes, you understand why most of this show ignores the courtroom aspect of lawyering. It’s Matlock-level reality in their courtrooms. Other than that, great show. I dug it quite a bit and would recommend it to anyone looking for something good to watch.

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TC wrote: 11/02/21, 07:44:52 The Head - this danish show has real deep 'The Thing' vibes. it takes place at an antarctic research station. they even watch 'The Thing' in the first episode. and someone isn't what they say they are. but there's not a lot of gore or practical effects, or horror for that matter. in fact, some people get shot with very little blood, even. it's maddening at times (like, how the fuck is it taking 48h for him to get the entire fucking story?!?!?), and asks a lot of the viewer to believe at times (it didn't occur to anyone shooting it that you should be able to see everyone's breath, pretty much at all times outside?), but it was enjoyable and i hope they do more than the six episodes we got (although, it's pretty self-contained, don't know how you'd continue the story. would have to be a prequel of polaris 5 maybe?). good sort of "what happened here" mystery. sort of 'the thing' mixed with an hercule poirot story. definitely more mystery than horror. it's only six hours, you should check it out if you have hbo.
looks like we're getting a season 2:
Variety wrote: ‘The Head’ Season 2 in Pre-Production at The Mediapro Studio

Madrid-based The Mediapro Studio, the high-end drama production-distrubution arm of media giant Mediapro, has kicked off pre-production on Season 2 of “The Head,” whose first season was a massive global hit for the company which has already released in 90 countries.

Continuing with the show’s key themes of isolation and the struggle between good and evil, often highlighting the grey areas in between, Season 2 will relocate from the South Pole to an ocean freighter on a scientific mission.

Set at a remote polar research station in the dark of winter, “The Head” Season 1 utilized tricks of time and perspective to slowly uncover the details of a grizzly series of murders, started by a decapitation, at one of earth’s most isolated human habitats, an Antarctic research station over the winter months. When the summer staff flies off to leave a skeleton crew behind all is well, but after an unexpected radio silence, tensions are high as the helicopter returns in spring only to discover a grizzly scene.

International by nature, the series starred well-known actors from several countries, including BAFTA nominee John Lynch (“The Fall”), Álvaro Morte (“Money Heist”), Katharine O’Donnelly (“Mary Queen of Scotts”), Tomohisa Yamashita (“Code Blue the Movie”) and Mónica López (“En la ciudad”).

Season 1 was directed by Jorge Dorado (“The Department of Time”), who returns to take the reigns for Season 2. Genre TV specialist and Season 1 executive producer Mariano Baselga (“The Boarding School”) and playwright Jordi Galcerán (“The Grönholm Method,” “Burundanga”) have stepped in as co-screenwriters for the new season.

Former Keshet executive and “Homeland” producer Ran Tellem, now director of international content development at The Mediapro Studio, will lead storyline development for series, having co-created and executive produced Season 1. Also returning are executive producers Laura Fernández Espeso, Javier Mendez and Bernat Elias. The Mediapro Studio Distribution will continue to handle global distribution of the series.

“With this second season, ‘The Head’ becomes one of the Studio’s greatest franchises and we are immensely satisfied, not only with the commercial success of the series, which has been sold to more than 25 clients and is present in 90 countries; but it has also proved an enormous hit with audiences. All these factors contributed to making possible for us to announce the production of its second season,” said Fernández Espeso, CEO at The Mediapro Studio.

For his part, Tellem added: “Since we announced the project ‘The Head’ has been an amazing adventure, a challenging journey, whose achievements, having been on screens in more than 90 countries, receiving great response worldwide from the U.S. to Japan to Scandinavia to France. The millions of viewers worldwide have shown us what we are capable of doing when talent and means go together hand in hand. Continuing this story is a challenge and a true passion for us as creators.”

In industry terms, “The Head” Season 1 was one of the biggest drama series productions at Mediapro, one of Europe’s largest independent TV-film groups. Produced by the company’s The Mediapro Studio with Hulu Japan and HBO Asia. Season 2 promises a similar level of ambition and international reach in both production and eventual sales.
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Invasion - appleTV+ show. watched the first three episodes last night. construct is, we're following the lives of a few different people in different parts of the world while an alien invasion is happening, but no one knows (yet?) that what's happening is an alien invasion. seems at first like localized events or incidents, eventually people start realizing something is happening globally. first three episodes are intense.
sam neill was in the first episode, and the reason i decided to check it out, but it appears like they killed him in the first episode. the show definitely doesn't pull punches, there are real stakes here.
i'm into it so far, hopefully it doesn't drop the ball. recommend checking it out if you're looking for something else to watch. caveat: s1 isn't over yet, so not sure if it pays off.

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Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings - first 20 min is breakneck pacing, then immediately slows to about 20mph until the end. other than that, i loved it. really great entry that, i supposed, required a lot of establishing backstory for folks unfamiliar with the character, as it's a lesser-known marvel property. but now that that's established, this can go a lot of different ways and have some great follow-up. very enjoyable marvel flick, but i would have enjoyed more of the jackie chan-esque fun of the first 20 min.

The Morning Show - as i saw s2 is ending this week, figured we'd check out the debut flagship show of AppleTV+. ended up plowing through first season and first few of s2 in a day. first season was pretty great, but i don't recommend just endless watching of this. eventually had to take a break from what seemed like jennifer aniston either yelling or crying her way through every scene. but it is a very good show. high drama in tv land with a great cast. not essential viewing, but well done.

The North Water - only five episodes in this fantastic period piece. colin farrell and stephen graham are fucking excellent, dominating every scene they're in. i watched because someone told me it was kind of like s1 of The Terror. that's really not true - only similarities are that it does involved a boat trip through norther ice waters. but this is something you should check out. really good.

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_Marcus_ wrote: 28/01/19, 16:12:54 A Quiet Place - Well, that was sort of disappointing. The premise is nice and all, and the actors give it their best (Emily Blunt is always a fine thespian). But goddamn, I haven't seen a film break it's own set rules this much in a long time. It's basically a script issue. For instance -
why do the family have an entire wall dedicated to family photos or whatever, where every frame hangs on a nail in the wall all while the film makes it clear that pretty much any sudden sound attracts the creatures? A slight breeze and those photos fly right off the wall and death is imminent.
The film is FULL of those types of details going against it's own premise.
Finally watched A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place 2 yesterday, had never seen them before. the first one was basically aka Jump Scare, The Movie. and yeah, i have A LOT of questions/issues with the "logic" and plot holes in this film. but all that aside, it was effectively done and pretty tense. the second one less so. while i absolutely love murphy, i think the first one worked because of the built-in tension with the construct and the fact that it was just this one family. as soon as there are more people involved, the whole premise kind of gets blown apart, which is really what happened. it was fine, but don't really get the hype for this franchise. lots of other films have done it before with equal effectiveness. nothing ground breaking in either film.

just for fun, some of my questions:
  • How is the electricity still on? It doesn't appear like magic out of the air, generation stations must be manned and make a lot of noise. A year later and it's just on everywhere? Right.
  • So no one has ever farted or had diarrhea over the course of the year? There are a lot of uncontrollable noises that come with existing, that would be a death sentence.
  • What parent, in this situation, would walk ahead of the kids in their little conga line? It would be first parent, kid, kid, kid, other parent. No one would let the kids be out of sight, even walking a regular route. As such, it's absolutely the parent's fault their son is dead. "I could have carried him" isn't the thing that's wrong here.
  • The pictures, like you mentioned. Death waiting to happen. Ridiculous.
  • The nail in the stairs - so, they saw a flattened nail here and painted over it where you are supposed to step, leaving it there? When she snagged and pulled it up, she didn't stop to look at what snagged? She didn't tell anyone about it, yet no one else stepped on it? All of this is ridiculous.
  • Why not just live by the waterfall? Seems like that would have solved a lot of problems.
  • She started having contractions and then had a baby in the span of a few minutes, with one last scream pushing out a very large, very healthy baby? On her own? It didn't scream when she cut the umbilical? It never feeds or needs diapers changed?
  • The dad, seeing his kids in trouble and knowing saving them meant likely dying, didn't even attempt to go at it with the axe he had? His solution was to drop the axe and make noise, suicide by alien? So leaving a single mother (with a foot that would absolutely be infected at this point, given the rusty nail with paint on it and traipsing around in standing water) with a tween girl, a young son, and a newborn alone in this world is your idea of how to keep them safe?
  • We never seen the aliens actually eating any humans. All they seem to want to do is kill us. Which begs the question - why? To what end? They came here why, exactly? What does killing the humans get them? If we were a food source, that would make sense. But doesn't seem that way. They seem to just like spending their time waiting for humans to make noise so they can kill us. Let's say that works and we're all gone - now what are they doing? I don't see any alien structures around after a year, so doesn't seem like they're actually "doing" anything here other than killing us.
many, many, many other questions...

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TC wrote: 15/11/21, 09:00:39 The Morning Show - as i saw s2 is ending this week, figured we'd check out the debut flagship show of AppleTV+. ended up plowing through first season and first few of s2 in a day. first season was pretty great, but i don't recommend just endless watching of this. eventually had to take a break from what seemed like jennifer aniston either yelling or crying her way through every scene. but it is a very good show. high drama in tv land with a great cast. not essential viewing, but well done.
finished s2. ended stronger than it started. again, not essential by any stretch, but a really well done show. with all the hot-button issues taking place in this show, they somehow managed to not really be overly political or preachy. pretty deft accomplishment, really.

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Foundation - watched the first 6 episodes of this then took a long break to watch other things. it was just soooooo slow, sooooo full of setup with really not much happening. i have not read the source material, but reading the reviews online from people that worship the source material, seems some very extreme changes were made that are antithetical to the entire point of the source material. that being said, i did eventually come back to it and finished s1. the last few episodes paid off some of the extensive setup and building of the first few pretty nicely. don't know if it's getting a season 2, but i assume the rights were expensive and the production of this was very expensive, so i have to assume it will. without spoilers, i'll just say that a lot of the characters we were introduced to in the first half and a ton of time spent with them were ultimately non-consequential in the back half, making the first half seem even more draggy than it needed to be. it's like the first half wants to be star trek without any pesky action and very few characters you actually give a shit about, and the second half wants to be star wars. very kind of odd show. again i'll say they seemed to find their footing in the last few episodes, which were by far much more effective than the prior episodes, but i don't know that i can recommend this show to anyone that doesn't know the source material. and again, even so - it seems the show really betrays the source material, so i'm not sure who this show is for. shrug.

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Tiger King 2: This Time, It's Personal - when i heard they were doing a "season 2" or sequel mini-series or whatever they're calling it, i rolled my eyes as i assume the collective audience of the first one did. on paper it felt like a massive cash grab. yes, it was a crazy story but just happened to drop at the perfect time to appear in the zeitgeist. do we really need a second one? after watching the 5 episode sequel, the answer is yes we absolutely did. the shit that has happened since the first one is somehow even more bonkers than the first story. and it still isn't resolved. i'm sure we'll get a part 3 as well. but man, truly what is happening in this world of tiger people is fucking insane. if you at all liked the first one, i definitely recommend watching the follow-up. my only real surprise was the complete lack of mention of Doc Antle. i know he doesn't really play a part in the subject of the follow-up, which is mostly about the court case and investigation into don's disappearance, but i feel like since there is a portion covering the various zoos and what's going on with the animals, it seems like omitting doc is a huge oversight. i'm sure he threatened to sue them if they did anything else about him, maybe they felt it was credible? don't know. but other than that, you don't really need him involved to tell the story they told in these 5 episodes. just insane shit.

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Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings - I actually sat down to watch a movie in the living room for the first time in probably a year. I was going to watch the new Dune but HBOMax decided to pull it apparently Wednesday because they learned nothing from those Grinch movies and stole my holiday. It's too fucking cold out to go dance merrily around the town square so I went with watching Shang-Chi instead. I know nothing about the character from the comics, but it was a fun film and nice to see some fighting in a Marvel film that wasn't 100% cgi (only about 90%). If I was still at a toy buying age I'd totally want the dragons.
Just cut them up like regular chickens

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Red Notice - man people are skewering this when i look at reviews. I don’t get what they expected. It’s a very self-aware film full of some great stunts, some questionable effects shots, and lots and lots of Ryan Reynolds being Ryan Reynolds. If you aren’t into RR, then why would you be watching this? He quite literally says that they need to find the Macguffin shortly after whistling the Indiana Jones theme song in one scene. I thought it was a light, fun adventure film and quite amusing. I’d be happy to see a sequel. And I don’t even really like The Rock. His acting stinks. He must be the most fun guy in the world to work with, otherwise I don’t really know how he keeps getting roles. He’s a fine straight man for most of this, but really we just spent the time talking about how ridiculously big the guy is. RR makes several comments about it in the film too. But acting? Yikes.

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Clerk - There's no bigger fan of Kevin Smith than Kevin Smith, and this film is an extension of that. If a film could suck it's own dick it would be this one. There's no deep insight to be found here. The whole Harvey Weinstein thing is glossed over in a few seconds with a simple "I didn't know." Smith's "failures" (Jersey Girl, Zack and Miri, Cop Out) barely get more than a shrug and are dismissed as someone else's fault. His heart attack gets a little more time, but he doesn't really offer any deep insight or reflection on it or how it changed his life aside from going vegan. Dude, you almost fucking died, that has to have offered up some self reflection you could share. Most of the stories they do include are things he's either already told in the q&a videos or on other movie making of docs. People randomly show up to praise Smith who I can't even figure out the connection to him (I'm looking at you Penn Jillette). I guess this is what happens when you have a close friend make a documentary about you instead of someone a bit more unbiased. This is a two hour long EPK for Kevin Smith masquerading as a movie.
Just cut them up like regular chickens

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he talks so much and does so many interviews, i can't imagine there's anything in here no one has heard who is a fan. so yeah, seems pretty redundant. i won't be watching.

The Beatles: Get Back - this is incredible. truly fascinating. first, how jackson was able to get the source material to current day quality and extract some covert audio is amazing. second, seeing their writing process and how they really were a total nightmare for their management/label, not even sure they were going to do the rooftop gig the morning of, after everything had been set up for a show (for the third or fourth time). i'm not the biggest Beatles fan but this blew me away. was so great to be "there" in the room as they randomly come up with some very beloved songs was a treasure. also, i don't know how someone sat on all this footage for 50 years. that's even more amazing. seeing their last "public" appearance during the course of it was a bonus. highly recommended for anyone that has ever been in a studio trying to make a record. also, seeing Alan Parsons hanging around as tape op for the Apple sessions was pretty amazing. and man does glyn johns look like cillian murphy or what?

Chestnut Man - Danish limited series crime show. only six episodes on Netflix. was very well done, very entertaining. at several points, it seemed like this was the Danes' answer to Mare Of Easttown but that's more about them both being police procedural led by troubled female characters than anything else. watch the dub, the subtitles are all over the place.

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TC wrote: 07/08/21, 07:33:26
_Marcus_ wrote:The Suicide Squad - Meh. Gunn loves his licensed music and uses it to full effect, and has some absurd moments in this that the first one was lacking and/or couldn't pull off. But I see some people calling it the best film of the year and I kinda want to beat them up? 2,5/5 at best. Some people call it the best DCU-film ever made and I wan't to beat them over the head with Birds of Prey.
I watched it last night and loved it. I thought it was hyper-violent (hell, the things that happened before opening credits may be one of the most violent scenes in recent memory), funny, good soundtrack, great cast - what’s not to like? I also loved all the ways they did the chapter introductions in-scene. Very well done, particularly that one on top of the building. Loved seeing
Pete Davidson’s face get blown off
. Loved seeing the guy from For All Mankind doing dark humor. Everything about this just proved James Gunn knows how to make an ensemble comic book movie, and that GOTG films weren’t a fluke. While i felt like the 2016 version of this film was just kind of there, as we discussed in the thread about it, this one was fucking awesome comparatively across the board - better cast, better characters, better humor, better violence, better soundtrack, just better directed.
welp, now we have this happening:


can't say i love the "vigilante is a supreme dork" angle. thought Arrow did the character well, as little as they used him. but, ok. more hyper-violent superhero comedies, i guess. why not.

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Venom: Let There Be Carnage.

Why oh why did I like this film as much as I did? It's completely weird in a way no other Marvel movie has been thus far. Tom Hardy's Eddie Brock is dull as fuck but his job as Venom (and the writing for Venom) is what makes the entire film. If they keep this up with a third film, that shit is going to be off the scale bonkers.

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_Marcus_ wrote: 20/07/21, 15:02:38 Kill List - I've liked Ben Whetleys recent stuff quite a lot but managed to avoid this for some reason? Anyway, it's a really solid thriller with a twist that's extremely well written and acted. Also heads up
for some of the violence. It's intense to say the least.
finally watched Kill List over the weekend. not sure how i missed it the last 10 years. you're right, it's very solid. had to turn on subtitles to understand what they're saying, especially in the first half of this film. and while some weird shit was happening, i did not see that major twist coming. go into this knowing as little as possible, you'll thank me for it. recommended.
_Marcus_ wrote: 19/07/21, 16:15:36 Pig - Can't imagine many other films, if any, being better than this one in 2021. Cage continues to deliver amazing performances and this is probably tied as my favorite one of late era Cage with Mandy. A must see.
also watched Pig over the weekend - loved it. really, really good film, and as has been said ad infinitum, not what you'd expect from a Cage film. if you're looking for maximum weirdness from Cage, see Prisoners of the Ghostland. if you're looking for a film that's really good in unexpected ways, see this.

Saint Maud - pretty intense film, just not sure what to make of it. i guess it's about the illusions of faith that someone coping with the realities of life programs into their own heads to make everything they do bearable? that last shot speaks volumes. don't think i need to see it again though.

The Phenomenon - a documentary filled with information that anyone paying attention to the UFO world in the last ever already knows and has seen. useless, do not watch.