klimov wrote: 15/11/23, 04:37:05 The Killer was pretty good. A revisionist John Wick, one might say, in which the protagonist is completely unlikeable and acts only out of self interest from beginning to end. He even

spares the one person the audience is encouraged to want dead because it suits his purposes in the moment,

thus denying the traditional payoff to such films. I could have done without the Fight Club-ish VO. And perhaps one might question the purpose of making a film about such a repugnant individual, but ok.

I don’t know, i don’t see how we get any context of what he’s feeling without the VO or without involving more people, which would have made it a different film. He would have seemed way too robotic. At least with the VO we eventually get to realize that while he may be very good at what he does (he “put in his 10,000 hours”), he’s also kind of dumb in other ways.

Also, if you’re reading this, please don’t expect anything like John Wick. This isn’t a film where many dozen people die, or a straight up action film in any manner. He’s after three very specific people. There are a couple collateral damage deaths but John Wick this isn’t.

It's an anti-John Wick.

Without the VO we'd have to work to determine his motivations and thought process, and it would lend it an existential sparseness (assuming no scenes were added), harking back to the ne plus ultra of all these movies, Le Samourai.

Yeah fair point. I’d watch a fan edit of it like that for sure.

TC wrote: 26/12/20, 06:04:19 Tenet - believe what you hear on this one. what a train wreck. it's like nolan set out to prove that just because a movie is very "smart" doesn't mean it should also be enjoyable. felt like the entire first 30 min was exposition - meeting after meeting of talking and talking, setting up what was going to be happening without the context of any of it actually happening yet, so by the time it happened, you had forgotten what the fuck was supposed to be happening. also, perhaps most importantly, yet another nolan movie where the mix is fucking awful. lots of different accents, with dialog very low in the mix, and "action" and music punching you in the fucking face. even my kids were complaining they couldn't understand what was being said. it was bad enough that we gave up and had to turn on subtitles after 15 min. i'm not going to (entirely) blame the acting, like it seems most people are - the writing was just terrible. stilted, wooden - like i said, it was clearly a "smart" movie, but felt like reading a textbook, or like nolan was just doing things because he liked the way they looked, he'd figure out something to write under it later. the entire last set piece felt unnecessarily over-wrought, like he was really trying to be overly-clever but just turned everything into a jumbled mess to further punish the audience, for anyone still trying to pay attention. as for the concept, i didn't think it was impregnable. it seemed pretty straight forward at a high level, and very interesting. which is what makes the movie even more irritating - it had potential on paper, but execution on this was bad all around. really not in any way enjoyable, beyond practical effects and stunts, and i wanted to like it.

I re-watched Tenet last night, first time since the viewing that spawned the above. I was prompted to do so because a coworker told me that Tenet was his favorite movie. I told him that sentence has never been said by anyone, ever, and that he was insane. But i did promise to re-watch it. I actually enjoyed it way more this time. Not sure what it was - better sound system, etc., but it was way more engaging to me this time. It’s still a ridiculously cold film, and subtitles are still required, but it’s not a “bad” film, just also not great. Certainly an impressive film. Looking forward to finally seeing Oppenheimer next week.

Sly - amusing that as Sly is discussing the competition between him & Arnold in the '80s, this is clearly a response to the Arnold doc released earlier in the year. as opposed to the Arnold doc, which went in great depth spanning his life from the beginning through his entire career, this one is essentially a Rocky documentary that talks about other things for a few minutes. skips over wide swaths of things Sly has done. the most ridiculous part of this is seeing how many goddamn Rocky statues he has in his own house - in the office, living room, pool - they're everywhere. while interesting, felt very light and only talking about what he wanted to talk about to suit the narrative. Sly is certainly smarter than he seems, and some of that comes through here, but it still felt very surface compared to Arnold's great doc.

The Snowman - 2017 thriller starring Fasbender as a disgruntled, alcoholic detective in Oslo. pretty wild cast here, including Rebecca Ferguson, Chloe Sevingy, JK Simmons, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Toby Jones, and Val Kilmer (!!) among others. i had heard this movie was terrible, and saw that it was absolutely destroyed on Letterboxd, so was looking forward to a good bad film. thing is, it's not that bad. it's fine at worst, pretty good at best. i understand that there are a zillion red herrings introduced and never followed up on, and yes, the protagonist's unfortunate name is "Harry Hole", but people reviewing this on Letterboxd seem to think that the filmmakers weren't aware of this. they know exactly what it is and the cast elevates what should have been a throw-away b-level procedural. there are some very tongue-in-cheek moments left in this film, including some amusing exchanges with Fasbender and Gainsbourg at his apartment in the final act. you probably saw the twist coming, but given the myriad of red herrings, maybe not. also, the dialog replacement for Kilmer is very distracting. while i appreciate wanting to keep him working as long as possible, this was clumsily handled and he probably should have been recast. thankfully he's kind of a supporting role, at best, here, and most of his dialog takes place while looking at the back of his head. and no, we never discover the "why snowmen", or any number of other questions you will undoubtedly have. but that doesn't make this a 1/2 or 1-star film. really don't know what prompted the review-bombing. i was expecting a spectacular failure of execution here, but was greeted with a decent film, sadly.

The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial - another film with an incredible ensemble cast here, and another film that just makes me very sad that Lance Reddick is no longer with us. he's a huge stand-out here. but the real draw is this being William Friedkin's final film. while it's somewhat tragic that it's yet another version of a film based on a play based on a book, Friedkin executes this beautifully. high drama from the opening seconds through the fantastic ending. high tension throughout, deftly crafted by Friedkin here. the one complaint - and it's kind of a big one - is Kiefer Sutherland's completely inexplicable Dick Cheney impression throughout. like, where did this come from? why do this? that, and the fact that he starts 90% of his lines with, "Well,...". once you just accept that that's what he's going to do for the entire film and get past it, this is really good. RIP Friedkin.

Berberian Sound Studio - i saw this on some list and it sounded interesting, so checked it out. it was a Toby Jones kind of weekend, what can I say? he drives this fim as a mixer/engineer that travels to Italy to do sound for a horror film, which is not his usual milieu. what ensues is pretty much inexplicable. i'm not sure what's happening in this film, which i guess is the point, but man it goes full nonsensical by the end. while the detail of audio engineering and foley work in the '70s is great, the actual narrative (and i use that term here very, very loosely) is inane. yes, i suppose it falls into the "surrealism" category, which is what drew me to it in the first place, but i have no idea why this gets such rave reviews on Letterboxd. it was a lot of nonsense for me, i just don't get it. if i want to watch surreal horror based on making a horror film, i'd re-watch the fantastic The Editor fifteen times before putting this on again.

Unknown: Cave Of Bones - doc about an amazing discovery in the titular cave. yes, it's an amazing, history-changing discovery. yes, you probably saw this guy on rogan talking about it if you're at all interested in the subject. just re-watch that conversation - it's way more engaging than this film. they repeat the same 5 things 15 different ways constantly throughout, when they aren't jizzing themselves over what they uncovered and making wild, unsubstantiated assumptions about things to tell a neat story for the animation to show us. i mean really, they have no idea of the "why" here. until you find multiple locations where the same behavior happened around the same time, you need to stop saying this was their practice. with one instance uncovered, it could just of easily have been a serial killer who buried his murder weapon with his victims when he dragged them here to conceal his acts. could have been 45 minutes but somehow stretched to double that. fascinating subject and discovery, as i said - not taking away from that part of it - but breaking your arm to constantly pat yourself on the back about it for purposes of documentary does not a great film make.

The ABC Murders - never did catch this 2018 effort with Malkovich's take on Hercule Poirot, which I'm pretty sure released as a 3h film. amazon has now released it on streaming as a 3-part miniseries, so i checked it out. i found the story to be actually more enjoyable than the recent Branagh take on the character, but yet again here's a film with no joy in it. and yet again, here's another take on a Poirot backstory. this one is definitely unique in the film world - haven't seen this backstory for him before. granted, i also haven't read the source material, so don't know what the "real" backstory is, or how many different versions of it there are. but that reveal didn't come until near the end of this miniseries. again, story-wise, this is a fine effort with enjoyable twists. my chief problem with this is that people keep asking Malkovich to do accents. he is a well accomplished actor, and i always enjoy seeing him on screen, but i have never seen him pull off an accent. every time he does, it's abjectly terrible. this is no different. maybe 20% of the time, he puts a "French twist" on certain words, but in the same sentence, he's very clearly speaking American English. granted, it's not as bad as his various attempts at a Russian accent, but it's equally stilted and completely unnecessary. he also forgoes the traditional "wild mustache" that Poirot is known for. so why not forgo the accent entirely? there's also a segment where he speaks French, which he's much better at than doing some weird French-by-way-of-Belgium, on-again-off-again accent, so why not let him do the entire film in French? i don't know, literally any option other than asking him to sustain an accent for any period of time would have been better than this. so in the end, it's pretty good at best. i don't know why it's so hard to translate Christie's material to an enjoyable film, but people are really struggling to do so. would have been interested to see him continue this role, but i guess Branagh made that impossible.

Lucky Hank - Bob Odenkirk’s new AMC show. By “new” I mean six months old at this point, but I didn’t have AMC / cable at the time. With my recent switch from Shudder to AMC+, this made the watch list. Glad it did. Goddamn is this a funny show. Apparently based on a ‘90s novel called Straight Man, which I didn’t read. Follows the life of a “curmudgeonly” professor / english department chair / failed writer as things ensue. Largely directed by Peter Farrelly. Pretty great cast all around, several alums from Silicon Valley, The Office, others involved. Kyle MacLachlan is the big wig at the school, and one of many antagonists this season. Enough information - the show is goddamn funny. It starts really, really high with episode 1, coming out of the gates swinging. I don’t think it ever hits that straight forwardly hard again over the next seven episodes, but the laughs get sneakier, coming when you least expect them, as we go deeper into Hank’s life. His best friend is played by Diedrich Bader, who also has some great moments. Ends in a way that sets up a volatile next season, which I hope it gets. The show is way better than I expected it to be on paper. Bob is really comfortable and in his element here. Well-written (adapted), mostly really good cast - recommend you check it out.

A Nearly Normal Family - a six-part Swedish crime drama (originally titled En Helt Vanlig Familj) that follows a teenage girl through her life events/trauma (she's 15 when she gets sexually assaulted, then it time jumps to her being 20 or 21 and arrested for murder) as her parents (mom's a lawyer, father's a priest) cope. that's a very reductive summary of this show, but high-level details are accurate. it's an engrossing show that's very well-written with many twists & turns. i quite enjoyed it, wished it were longer frankly. recommend checking this out on Netflix.

The Raid: Redemption - US title of The Raid. had never seen this somehow, but watched it shortly after re-watching Dredd. yes, it came out before Dredd, and is pretty amusing that it's essentially the same plot, handled very differently. The Raid is a martial arts film disguised as a straight-ahead action film. the fight choreography is incredible. the cinematography is incredible. the stunts are incredible. the soundtrack is great. really, it's a fucking amazing film. while they are similar in plot, because of the different approaches to it, Dredd doesn't feel derivative to me. they both stand on their own as amazing films, and i loved them both equally. at least The Raid got a sequel, which is on deck next for me!

Please Don't Destroy: The Legend Of Foggy Mountain - oof. don't believe whatever you might have seen saying things like "comedy is back" or whatever nonsense people are saying about this. there are a couple funny moments - mostly due to Conan O'Brien being in a small role here somehow - but this is 99% woke shit. if this is the new blood of comedy, we're in for some awful alleged comedies in the next decade. i guess these clowns are from SNL? i gave up watching that finally last year or so and don't miss it. it had gotten so goddamn bad it was unbearable. that's pretty much this film. it's somehow simultaneously woke nonsense and full of ridiculous stereotypes. i guess they think that makes it "edgy"? it doesn't. it's just real bad. do not watch.

Blackberry - i watched the AMC+ version, which breaks this film into three parts that apparently have some additional/extended scenes. while a lot of this is fictional and/or exaggerated, this is a really great film. perfectly cast, and Howerton is perfectly over the top. in some scenes, you're left thinking that he (Balsillie) just IS kind of Dennis in the corporate world. really great, really funny, really sad what happened. well, not REALLY sad, as everyone left extremely rich, which is kind of left out of this. also, yet another appearance of the ever-growing animal that consumed Michael Ironside. what the hell happened to that guy? yikes. still a commanding presence, made all the more intimidating by his enormous size, but goddamn guy - get it under control. i also honestly hope that Balsillie really did scream those things at the NHL board of governors and commissioner. fuck gary bettman forever.

It’s A Wonderful Knife - Goddamn is this movie awful, and I generally enjoy McHale and Long. Even the kills are not good. A “horror comedy” that isn’t either thing. Fuck whoever decided this film should be made as it is. I don’t understand who this is for, or who all the people liking this film are. Not horror fans. Closeted Hallmark stans who think they like horror? I wish I could take my view count back. This is the most contrived piece of shit I’ve seen in a while - some producer obtained a “woke” checklist and tried to one-up it. Everything about this film is bad, and you’ll know it from the first scene, where the punchline is that someone says “fuck” in a commercial. This film is the direct result of all those people spending the last 5-10 years or so ret-conning seemingly every old horror film as “gay”, and also saying they like horror because it’s funny. Someone heard those two words together and shat out this turd. While it’s absolutely gay - to the point where I’m not sure how there are children in this film, as the overwhelming majority of couples are gay - it’s also absolutely not funny. Do not watch.

Obliterated - holy fuck is this show great. I don’t remember a show being this fun in a very long time. It’s over the top, ridiculous, silly, but also fucking hilarious and awesome! C. Thomas Howell is in it, Wags from Billions is in it, not many other names I recognize but I think that’s what makes it work. It’s pitch perfect for the tone it’s going for, which is over the top “special ops team” action as they chase down someone threatening to nuke Las Vegas (spoiler alert: Russians, which in and of itself should tell you this is a completely self-aware ‘80s throwback in tone). Some fantastic kills in this. Also, some of the most - yes, again - unbelievable, over the top dongs you’ve ever seen. Guys, if you’ve ever had a catheter, buckle up for one episode that will leave you squirming in your seats and yelling at the TV. So yeah, lots of drugs, lots of violence, lots of sex and/or sexual things, drugs, gratuitous Ruskies, violence, sex, and did I mention drugs? This show fucking rules. Really did stick the landing too. Yes, it’s over the top ridiculous, but if you can stop your incessant questioning of “why would that work” or “who’s tracking that in some publicly accessible database” and just enjoy the ride, it’s fantastic. Mostly talking to myself there, but once I just accepted it in a more MST3K way, this became possibly one of my favorite shows I’ve seen in a long time. It’s so ridiculous, I love it. Hope it gets picked up. Hey, are you still reading this? Go watch it!!

P2 - a huge improvement of a "christmas movie" over It's A Wonderful Knife for sure. still, while there were some great shots and it was tense, feels like it could have done more. and the instantaneous transformation of the female lead into some kind of cold badass was a lot to ask of the audience. even so, it was beyond entertaining to see Jamie from Yellowstone as a homicidal incel.

Leave The World Behind - Sam Esmail written & directed film, exec produced by Barack & Michelle Obama (among others). i loved Mr. Robot, so was kind of looking forward to seeing what Esmail did next. this is a terrifying film, just not for the reasons he wants it to be. speaking directly to the film itself and the reality it presents, this is a very real/fair premise on the surface. some of the execution is pretty fantastical (why would GPS satellites going out cause healthy airline pilots to fly the planes directly into the ground, for just one example), but i'll accept it. there are also some massively unexplained red herrings (what the actual fuck is happening with all the deer? they do not behave that way. but, they were still my favorite part of the film), ala MNS, and the ridiculous racism exhibited by the homeowner's daughter is pure pandering. still, i accepted all of that and was going with it. the real problem is the ending. again, not that it absolutely, 100% couldn't happen, but - and this is where the real terror comes in - this is produced by the Obamas, who were the first family with Barack being "leader of the free world" for 8 years, and were certainly "in the know" (don't think you can get more in the know), so... what the fuck are they telling us with this film? where did this come from? especially considering Obama as the source, who certainly played a massive part in strengthening our collective enemy's resolve against us. it's a crazy film for them to produce. if not for their involvement, i'd still be middle of the road on this. i wanted it to be better. but hey, here's an idea - stay the fuck out of the film business (officially).

The Other Guys - this was a Will Ferrell film that i had never seen, that I heard was actually an underrated, funny film. It isn't. It's filled with jokes you've seen before, and Marky Mark playing the straight man doesn't help. There was one funny scene toward the beginning where the rock star cops plummet to their death, setting up the rest of the film, but outside of that, this is a hard pass.

30 Coins - this has been on my list to check out for a while now, but i've avoided it as it's mostly Spanish language and I haven't felt much like reading an entire series when I do have time to watch TV. but, when I saw that Paul Giamati was added to the cast of season 2, which just finished last week, I made it a point to give it a shot from the beginning. holy shit was i rewarded! this show is fucking insane. i have no idea where they got the budget to do what they did with this show. the story is incredibly complex, and the effects are fantastic (generally). lots of really good kills, lots of absolutely crazy story twists & turns (not to mention the central plot, which is also insane/awesome), and lots (LOTS) of Lovecraft influence present. reading the synopsis of this show does NOT do it justice. i really feel like i want to watch it again, as i feel like i missed a lot of things having to read it - again, Spanish language natively, so when they get excited (which, in this show, is like 95% of the time), they talk a billion miles an hour on level 100 so you are stuck watching the bottom 20% of the screen to try to read everything as it flies by, missing what's happening in the other 80% of the screen. it's very unforgiving in that sense to non-Spanish speakers. but, i stuck with it as i wanted to see where it went and context generally helps. now that i know it's fucking crazy and well worth your time, i want to go back and try to capture all the little details i may have missed. no, Giamati doesn't speak Spanish (for the most part) in this show - I was kind of looking forward to seeing what that was like - but he does play an incredible part, with an even more incredible finish. i can't even really get into what happens in this show without spoiling some aspect of it, just trust me that this show is well worth your time. it's easily the most crazy show i've seen in a while, they really go for it. loved it, hoping they get season 3.

Playing movie catch up over the holidays.

Asteroid City - This is a Wes Anderson film, and you pretty much get what you expect. Characters giving emotionless dialog about lubricious situations, bright colors, little plot. I don't know that the interweaving of the play with the behind the scenes stuff worked all that well. Tom Hanks gives an okay Bill Murray impersonation. I kind of dug the whole thing though.

Priscilla - This is the first Sofia Coppola film I've not liked. Nothing happens in this film. We don't really see Priscilla's character develop any. The ending where the relationship falls apart just kind of happens. This film is under two hours but it seemed like four. Avoid at all costs.

Expend4bles - This is exactly what you expect it to be. Mindless action and violence. It's a long ways from the days of celebrating '80s action starts. This is pretty much a Jason Statham film. Megan Fox is still hot even if her acting seems to have gotten worse.

Equalizer 4 - You know the formula by now. Edward sees some people getting unjustly picked on, goes into kick ass mode. The non-American setting was a nice change of place. Dakota Fanning served no purpose in this film other than someone said, "Hey, let's have a Man on Fire reunion, wouldn't that be cool?"

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves - I'm not really well versed on D&D stuff beyond the cartoon from the '80s (which makes a nice cameo in the film). Speaking of people with punchable faces (from the Flash thread), Chris Pine is that for me. He's annoying as fuck in every role I've ever seen him in. Yes, Star Trek included. He's no less annoying here, which makes the film a slog to get through. Some parts are amusing, but over all I just couldn't get into it.

sorry for extended absence, tons of life-stuff going on here. really. need to get caught up on what i've been watching, so here i go. first up, TV shows:

Gen V - this sister show of The Boys was way better than i expected it to be after watching the trailer. it has some wildly outrageous scenes, just like the main show, and does the tone of the main show proud. also, the ending ties directly into what i assume will be a major plot point for the next season of The Boys. yeah, there is some woke shit here, but it's not remotely preachy, outside of one or two brief scenes. if you like The Boys, you will like this. recommended.

Geddy Lee Asks: Are Bass Players Human Too? - very brief 4-episode show, and the episodes are short. you don't have to be a bass player to appreciate this show. if you're a Rush fan, this is obviously mandatory, but even if you're not, this will help you appreciate where Geddy is coming from as a human. i was far more interested in a couple of these than others, but still found it interesting. seeing him interact with Les Claypool was the highlight. Krist from Nirvana is absolutely as fucking weird a human as you might expect.

Slow Horses - season 3 was just as brief as the prior two, clocking in a six episodes, which is the bad news. the good news is, this season was fucking fantastic, just like previous seasons. this is the most under-the-radar show currently airing. if you haven't watched this, you are missing out. i love this show so much. in a novel move, the end of the final episode shows the trailer for the upcoming season, which looks to be totally complete. not sure what they're waiting for, but looks like it's dropping maybe mid-year? i can't fucking wait. watching this show makes me want to seek out the books. after doing some research, it looks like each season maps directly to one book. there are currently eight novels and four novellas, so here's hoping this show gets to do all of them. gary oldman appears to be in his natural element here and is a national treasure. watch this show.

Fool Me Once - pretty wild "whodunnit" mystery mini-series. tons of red herrings, tons of real twists & turns, very satisfying ending. surprise guest star - Thomas Shelby's house from Peaky Blinders. i knew it instantly. if you don't watch it, i can't say you are missing out, but if you're game for some decent entertainment, i'd say watch it. i dug it well enough.

now, moving on to movies:

Eyes Wide Shut - we've discussed this many times over the years. this year, i decided EWS was going to start my xmas film marathon, as it is an xmas film. (speaking of which, read a theory about nicole kidman's character and xmas lights which was quite interesting. google it.). if you've been here as long as this has been here, you'll probably remember i was not a fan of this film when i walked out of the theater. i'm here to tell you that i was incorrect, again. i'm sure i've mentioned that several times since, but i think i just really wanted kubrik's final film to be something else. once i got past that and started watching this for what it was, i liked it quite a bit. in fact, with each rewatch, i like it more. i think at this point i love this film. it's really quite amazing for what it's doing.

Die Hard - continuing the xmas film marathon, revisiting this classic next. every time i watch this, some other part of this film that i previously took seriously becomes hilarious. i think this film is slowly morphing into an unintentional comedy for me, not really sure why. there is nothing bad about this. it is a masterpiece of its time and i love watching it. what else can be said at this point?

Die Hard 2 - more xmas films. this one is far more overtly a comedy, which is why i think it's far less appreciated than the original. i don't think the fans wanted this tone. personally, i've always liked this, as i always found a lot of humor in the first one. i love the supporting cast here, and dig the over the top insanity and claustrophobia of this taking place almost entirely in an airport. of course the plot is ridiculous, but that's kind of the charm. again, it's an entirely different tone than the first film - this film knows it's unbelievable and barely even sort of plausible, whereas the first film was very believable and plausible, and it goes for it. it's entertainment, but not really in the same family as the first film.

When Evil Lurks - spanish-language horror that everyone is shitting themselves over. i don't get it. it's fine at best. don't see what all the hype is. no desire to rewatch this.

Saltburn - saw all the hype online about this so decided to check it out. it was very intriguing, wasn't really sure where it was going. the answer is, really, nowhere deep or philosophical. you might think that from the way it's done and presented, but when you take away all the twists and shocks, it's just a selfish, narcissistic fuckhead who ruins dozens of lives - including his parents' - to get what he wants, for no real explicable reason. that being said, the journey is pretty great. it has a very sinister tone and lots of horror-ish moments, it just isn't either one of those things in sum total. just go in knowing as little as possible and enjoy the ride. keoghan acts his ass off in this, which is a joy to watch.

The Holdovers - love me some giamatti, so when i saw this hit, i had to check it out. from the get-go, you'll know exactly what you're in for - the artificial film grain/noise over the '70s-style opening credits sets the stage for what is really a lovely throw-back film, back to a real character study, focused on three characters, carried by some excellent writing and very quirky performance from giamatti. i really enjoyed this film, and realized that it's been quite a long time since i liked what amounts to a "feel-good" film. it's just so well-written and acted, along with a subtle directorial hand and not showy photography, that you may not realize until it's over how deft it really was. i don't quite understand how or why they did that with paul's eyes, but it really did fit the character. very much recommended.

Killing Them Softly - finally filling in some gandolfini gaps in my viewing history. i had heard about this film many times over the years but it wasn't streaming anywhere. when i saw it hit streaming, i pounced. it was really quite good. brad pitt and james gandolfini sharing several scenes together was fantastic. james once again plays a real piece of shit. to be clear, he's not a main character in this, but has a decent chunk in the middle. this really ends up being a brad pitt film, which i'm quite fine with too. anyway, more of a throwback to the dirty Jersey mob films, not the glitz and glamor mob films. it's quite gritty in scenery, and no one in here is "rich", so it feels pretty goddamn real. pit's performance is fantastic. really did dig this. the backdrop of recurring political things happening on the TV sets the tone for the world these guys are dealing with. ray liotta, vince curatola, sam shepard, and many others round out the cast. if you haven't seen this, you definitely should.

The Drop - another gap in my gandolfini catalog filled. this one stars tom hardy and gandolfini dealing with the heavy hand of a foreign mob running what used to be their bar. everyone in the neighborhood knows everyone else, there is a lot of history here, and it's played very well by noomi rapace, hardy, ann dowd and others. this is also gandolfini's last released film, so watching this great performance was bitter-sweet. loved seeing this side of hardy as well. recommended.

Oldboy - i had heard how great this was for twenty years but had never seen it. it has not been on streaming, but finally landed on netflix, so i had to check out this park chan-wook legend. have to say, i was expecting this to be revenge porn with lots of crazy gore and kills. that's not at all what this is. this film starts somewhat normal then quickly becomes a wild surreal journey. it was very unexpected. i was pleasantly surprised! did not see where this was going that's for sure, way too much happening here. it's not exactly linear - lots of frequent jumps, unclear timelines, etc. i think it just really doesn't matter if what you're seeing is really happening or if it's what our main character believes is happening. eventually, you get to the end where it's (almost) very clear what happened. that twist ending i did kind of see coming. could have done without the dental torture scene. it does feature what is probably the most realistic depiction of a one-versus-many hallway fight i've ever seen - everyone gets very tired quickly, the sounds aren't crazy, over the top foley, and the way we watched it - like a side view of the entire hallway - was something i hadn't seen before either. there really is just so much going on in this movie that i feel like i need to watch it again. but now i'm kind of curious to see the hated US remake, haha.

TC wrote: 12/01/24, 16:55:41 Geddy Lee Asks: Are Bass Players Human Too? - very brief 4-episode show, and the episodes are short. you don't have to be a bass player to appreciate this show. if you're a Rush fan, this is obviously mandatory, but even if you're not, this will help you appreciate where Geddy is coming from as a human. i was far more interested in a couple of these than others, but still found it interesting. seeing him interact with Les Claypool was the highlight. Krist from Nirvana is absolutely as fucking weird a human as you might expect.

I don't know how you watch so much stuff! I did manage to watch these 4 episodes though, being a Rush nerd. Geddy is a bit wooden as an interviewer (which I saw him fully admit in an interview about the show), but it was still interesting. I also enjoyed the episode with Robert Trujillo. His house is super cool. It cracks me up that Krist looks like a high school shop teacher or something now, and he does all this crazy stuff like fly a plane.

Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters - checked this out as a) it's monsters, and b) it's kurt russell and wyatt russell in the same show, playing the same character in multiple different timelines. was very pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable this was! i'm not a 'zilla-stan by any means, but do enjoy the films, and the recent ones scratched that itch, and i guess this show ties into the recent films directly? it's been a while since i watched the "new" films so can't exactly recall, but even viewed as a stand-alone thing, this show was very enjoyable. the last scene here promises a pretty incredible season 2. absolutely recommend you check this out if you're remotely into the a-b points i raised above!