apologies for my absence. life has been crazy busy for me for a while. in jan, i went to the studio for a week to finish up a new PM recording. since then, work has been kicking my ass, complete with travel, so i've been unable to find time to post. however, that hasn't stopped me from watching a ton of stuff. time to try to catch up. from memory...

Tacoma FD - finished s4, which ended up being the final season. really amusing watching this after watching Yellowstone, as the cowgirl chick is chief's daughter on this show. anyway, s4 was funnier than previous season, still an amusing show. i wouldn't say "must watch", but it's good enough. the move to Netflix wasn't enough to save it, but at least they got to finish this season. i hear tell the Broken Lizard troupe has now moved onto filming Super Troopers 3, so at least there's that.

The Killing Of A Sacred Deer - as i said nearly six years ago when i first watched it, a tight, dread-inducing film. i had been wanting to watch this again since first viewing but just never got around to it. now in the context of everything he's done since, was great seeing Barry Keoghan killing it so hard in this film. really great film. still obtuse, but very enjoyable.

Eastern Promises - i feel like i watched this previously, but if so, i didn't post about it. re-reading what you guys said, starting back in 2007 when O-dot used to post here, i agree with him and Mike. really good film, quite enjoyable. didn't love the ending, but doesn't take away from how great the rest of it was. bleak, but earned. great cast. certainly more enjoyable than Cronenberg's more recent output.

Surf II: The End Of The Trilogy - don't know how this slipped under my radar back when all i did was rent bad horror films from the local place, but apparently it did. my friend insisted i watch this movie. it sounded really dumb but i agreed. it is in fact really dumb, but pretty goddamn amusing. wild seeing people like Eric Stoltz and fucking Cleavon Little next to the likes of Ron Palillo and Eddie Deezen. plot is entirely ridiculous, and something that simply wouldn't be done today. they all looked like they had a lot of fun doing this pile of dung. well worth a watch if you've never seen it.

Suitable Flesh - Joe Lynch tries to channel Stuart Gordon, with several folks - including Brian Yuzna - producing this HP Lovecraft adaptation of "The Thing On The Doorstep". Heather Graham, Bruce Davison, and Barbara Crampton lead the cast here. while there is a strong try-hard "girl power" motif in parts, this is a quite enjoyable throw-back effort and worthy addition to the catalog of Re-Animator and From Beyond, although never attains that level. very enjoyable to see Babs back in her wheelhouse here, she's still sexy as hell. some interesting re-works of the source material, but also some that stick close to the intent. i was quite surprised as i was expecting much less from this. pretty damn good flick. recommend checking it out.

Poor Things - went into this relatively blind. i mean, i've seen the trailer, but still didn't really know what this was. trailer doesn't do it justice at all. it's a very bizarre film. can't really wrap my head around how to really describe it. it's part fairy tale, part Frankenstein re-telling, part coming-of-age, part love story. the world looks like Tim Burton does retro-futurism, so you're never quite sure when this is supposed to take place, which is actually a really good way to do this film. emma stone crushes this as the adult baby who goes through birth to, say, around 30 years old during the course of this film, including puberty and "discovering her body", let's say. but she's far from the damsel in distress you might expect in a traditional fairy tale - she was raised/created by Dafoe's Frankenstein's Monster (essentially, although never really mentioned directly), who is a brilliant scientist/surgeon, so her entire approach to life is purely analytical and 100% direct. that decision is what makes this film work. does create a lot of "fish out of water" moments as her naiveté about life presents itself (really, kind of is the story). Dafoe's character's name is "Godwin", which results in Stone's character calling him "God" the whole film, so there is some allegory there i'm sure about creator/creation. some very absurdist moments in this film as well. i'll just say you shouldn't believe the trailer, which makes this look like some kind of musical, or low-key sequel to The Princess Diaries or something. it's nothing like that. i loved it, it's quite amusing, very smart, frequently sexy (with lots of "furious jumping"). just very well done. still, have to say, i'm about Ruffalo'd out. while he's good in this as the asshole, he's very hammy and hatable. maybe that was the intent. if so, mission accomplished.

La Brea - as i have said here several times before, this show is ridiculously amusing. they finally returned for their final 6-episode sprint to the end, and they were back in crazy, insane, ridiculously mockable form. top-notch MST3K-style fun to be had here. it's insane how this show wraps - after everything they've been through, everything just kind of works out for everyone left alive, with zero thought given to anyone that died along the way. people are nearly literally skipping down the hill hand-in-hand, off into life, as the credits roll. so goddamn funny. i've previously posited that the creators/writers have to be in on the joke here, that there's no way they created this earnestly, so now that it's over, i looked them all up. that was kind of a bummer, as it looks like most of them are just kind of "staff writers", who have worked on all the "big" major network shows, just going from gig to gig. their resumes don't read like they did this on purpose. yet, i still say there's no way someone created this masterwork of self-aware ridiculousness in a serious way, like this was meant to be taken seriously. just impossible. anyway, now that it's over, i highly recommend watching this show. excellent stoned viewing material, so goddamn funny. just plow through the overly-serious lows in s2, it does get back to the insanity of s1. such an anomaly that a show that succeeds in a huge way that's the polar opposite of their intent. glad it ended, but very glad it ever existed. thank you, gods of mediocrity, for allowing this to exist.

Lawmen: Bass Reeves - i assume this is plural because the plan is to focus each season (should it be renewed) on some titular lawman from history, we're just starting with bass reeves. fine by me, as this show was pretty damn good. another taylor sheridan "old west" tale that works well. although, there are some plot points that are begun and go nowhere. basically, any attempt at side story or anything not involving bass is useless here. could have been much tighter and 2-3 episodes shorter without any of that. i understand from the opening credits that this is based on a couple books, so i assume this was done in an attempt to service the source material, but i'm guessing that in the book, these side stories go somewhere or something meaningful happens. not so in this miniseries. all of that being said, well worth a watch. good action, enjoyable if kind of goofy central plot. bass' accent drifts in and out over the course of the show, but it's nbd. if you like taylor's stuff, same thing here, just different context.

Beacon 23 - new Lena Heady-led series. premise had potential, but Lena deserved far better writing than this. lots of nothing happening, then a ridiculously irritating ending means my recommendation is: avoid. nothing to see here, sadly.

3 Body Problem - very interesting premise here. i guess it's based on a 3-book series from a Chinese author, which i haven't read so i can't speak to the adaptation, but from what i understand, a lot of the hard science has been "dumbed down" to the point of being able to be quickly represented in this 8-episode first season. as this is from Benioff and Weiss, it has a ton of GoT alums on cast, which is quite welcome. Davos Seaworth's character is fantastic, and a great illustration of his acting ability. Samwell Tarley is only in the first couple/few episodes, thankfully. he's just goofy and distracting. several others do very well here, decently written. but again, similar issues here with the last couple seasons of GoT - lots of time setting up speeding to the next event. this whole season feels like its entire job is setting up the next two seasons. at least this time, the books are done, so hopefully there's a wealth of material for them to pull from and they don't start trying to invent storylines, because we all know how well that worked for them in the past. still, pretty good show that i will say i recommend only because the promise of future seasons is pretty big. if it is one-and-done, i wouldn't recommend it, as it doesn't really go anywhere.

Brain Donors - little-seen Turturro vehicle from 1992 finally gets a new Blu release from 4k scan (i will never understand why they don't release a 4k UHD version if they've done a 4k scan), and my preorder arrived last week or so. finally got the opportunity to re-view this film. i worked at a movie theater when this first came out and i remember my midnight pre-screening only attracted one other employee. he was very confused by this very brief film, but i loved it then, and i love it now. it's so beyond goofy. as it's a Zucker Brothers production, you can imagine the jokes are quite literally every goddamn line. some are more subtle than others, but if you are laughing at something, you likely missed two more jokes. it's also loosely based on the first two Marx Bros films, so that should give you an idea of tone. there is also a lot of visual humor, courtesy of Bob Nelson, which is pretty great. also fantastic seeing Nancy Marchand in a perfect "straight man" role here, with the context of her future iconic run as Livia Soprano in mind. quite prolonged and amazing claymation opening and closing credit sequences as well. while i'll acknowledge this film isn't for everyone, i fucking love it and have been quoting it for over three decades, so it's great to have this new release. looking forward to checking out the commentary tracks included, although they aren't with the cast. if you've never seen it, get yourself in silly mode and put it on - you'll thank me.

Constellation - this was a very wild show. very hard sci-fi plot here. multiple alternate timelines twisting and turning, sometimes intersecting. a pretty great portrayal of extremely complex concepts as well as an exploration of grief. noomi rapace and jonathan banks were both great, but by the time you get to the end of this, you realize that the actual star of the show is the character of alice, played by young twin actresses rosie and davina coleman. if they want it, these girls have a long career ahead of them. very well done show. recommend checking it out.

Dream Scenario - was excited to watch this new nic cage film, as it looked like a serious film, which is a bit of a departure from his recent output. it is billed as a comedy, which is weird. while there may be some amusing moments because of the character's awkwardness, it's far from a comedy. of course, this is the industry that labeled Nurse Jackie a comedy for its entire run, so i shouldn't be surprised. anyway, this is an interesting film. there are some pretty transcendental moments in it, but those feel accidental. it kind of doesn't really go anywhere, and edges right up to the precipice of saying something then backs off. i really wanted to like it more than i did, as all the ingredients were there for it to be great, but ultimately i felt the parts were greater than the whole.

TC wrote: 12/03/24, 05:43:16 when O-dot used to post here