Re: Recent movie playlist

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TC wrote: 08/07/21, 09:55:07
TC wrote:Mythic Quest - Apple TV+ show from Rob McElhenney & Charlie Day, starting Rob. setting is a video game (online MMORPG) company. it's no Always Sunny or Silicon Valley, but it's pretty amusing. Danny Pudi and F. Murray Abraham are also in it and great supporting characters. finished S1 yesterday, looks like S2 started a few weeks ago. will start that soon.
finished the extremely odd and mostly irritating season 2 of this show. i'm assuming it was the final season. a far cry from the fun of s1. they did multiple 2-episode backstory asides in this season. they were interesting and sometimes well done, but not at all funny. this is a comedy show. just very odd choices in writing. but then again, when it got back to the actual development of the video game, that was way lacking this season as well, so i get that they had to fill space with something. Derek Waters had the best scenes in the season, and he's only in a couple episodes if that tells you anything. i'd kind of like to wipe this season from memory.
S3 was better than s2. I'm still watching this show, but it isn't anything like "must see" or "can't miss". I usually put it on when my wife is falling asleep after we're done watching mandatory things. I enjoyed the season, and there were some funny moments, but the most memorable episode was the episode about Poppy and Ian's childhoods, which was pretty dark. It's a well done show, I just don't love it. They set up a season 4 but I wouldn't be surprised if it's done. I was wrong before, could be wrong again.

Re: Recent movie playlist

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O-dot wrote: 18/03/20, 08:46:40
TC wrote:Hunters - al pacino amazon prime show. it's... interesting? seemed like it should be great on paper, and sometimes it is. but that's the problem - sometimes. the tone is all over the place. one minute it wants to be shindler's list. the next minute it wants to be a QT film. and the QT moments aren't scattered evenly throughout, they are infrequent enough that when they do pop up, it's jarring. and there are serious timeline problems - even in their own universe they created here, the timelines don't make sense half the time. it is also SOOOOO preachy at times that it's just irritating. still, i'd say it's worth a watch. i hope they get these problems solved, as a season 2
without al pacino
would probably be better.
We barely made it through the pilot. A real mess.
well, s2 was certainly entertaining. some intentional, some unintentional. jennifer jason leigh was fantastic as jonah's aunt chava, udo kier was excellent as hitler, and several other great casting choices (Travis) keep it interesting. some nice action set pieces, some good comedy (again, both intentional and unintentional). on prominent display in the finale was the very transparent "trump is literally hitler" disease of hollywood (in this case, "literally" being used correctly). other than that, not very preachy overall, really, thankfully. some quite glaring plot holes and devices that were comical in their clumsiness as they raced, with two fewer episodes than s1, to their end. then, unexpectedly, they set up a next season they knew wasn't going to happen in the final few minutes. extremely weird. really, the best episode of the season - the penultimate - was entirely a flashback that involved zero of the main cast. also, perhaps not as odd, all of the flashback scenes involving pacino were the weakest of the season, which seems like quite an achievement on paper. extremely odd show, but again, entertaining in one way or another. strange that this is what took them three years to produce. shrug.

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

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The Rig - 6-episode series on Amazon. Don’t know who decided it was time for sci-fi/horror to go back to the sea - 1899 (sadly canceled), s2 of The Head (fantastic), s1 of The Terror, etc. - but I’m here for it. This show, of which I had heard nothing (which is surprising given the cast and obviously decent budget), is about an oil rig where something weird happens. That’s about as much as I can tell you without blowing it all (sort of). Several Game Of Thrones actors in this, like Jorah Mormont (Iain Glen) as the lead, Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy), Alliser Thorne (Owen Teale), etc. Shot entirely in Scotland. It’s really quite good, I enjoyed it a lot. Tense and well-written. I’d say the only down side, if you want to pick nits, is the female lead, Emily Hampshire, is not a great actress. She provides some unintentionally hilarious moments because of that, and her boyfriend on the show starts out as such a whipped idiot that when he abruptly changes to normal man behavior, it’s quite noticeable. Anyway, great little show, does set itself up for a mysterious s2 should it get picked up, but could also just end like this and be fine. It’s not breaking any new ground, and at very few times is clumsily preachy (“We fuck the planet then are surprised when it fucks us back”), but you should check it out.

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

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Perfect Blue - don’t know how I’d never seen this, other than it hasn’t been on streaming for a long time apparently. Added it to my list when it hit Shudder (of all places) last year and finally watched it. It had been described to me as being “Lynchian”, which is obviously a good thing. While there is one aspect of the story that I guess you could call “Lynchian” - suddenly towards the middle/end, you become unclear what is a dream, what is real, what is the movie they’re filming in the movie, etc., and there are multiple red-herring endings - it’s not exactly a thing Lynch invented, and certainly not as deftly crafted as anything Lynch would do. This is not a drag on the film, it’s just, sometimes that “Lynchian” descriptor gets lightly thrown around. Anyway, this film is very short - something like 87 minutes - and is a quite enjoyable sort of mental murder thriller. The setup is that a pop idol in Japan decides to quit and become an actress instead, and an obsessed fan is none too pleased.
That’s the red herring here - the real plot, as unravelled by the end - is more akin to Single White Female.
Really is an excellent film, very well done story and perhaps not something you’d expect from an animated film. Certainly adult (lots of brutal murders and nudity), it really feels surprising that no one has done a 1:1 live action version of this. Other than the short section where someone has to get the internet explained to them (this was in 1997), it’s pretty timeless and I could absolutely see it being a great, dark live action film. But perhaps leave well enough alone and go enjoy this fantastic bit of storytelling and animation.

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

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The Offer: I kind of liked it at the start, but it got a bit ludicrous the longer it went on. I get that they were trying to make parallels to the Godfather itself, but it got a bit too meta for me after awhile, and at some points just downright silly. Especially with the mafia stuff. It also probably could have been about two episodes shorter than it was. And boy did whomever wrote this have a serious hardon for Albert Ruddy.
Just cut them up like regular chickens

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

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darkness wrote: 22/01/23, 13:30:58 The Offer: I kind of liked it at the start, but it got a bit ludicrous the longer it went on. I get that they were trying to make parallels to the Godfather itself, but it got a bit too meta for me after awhile, and at some points just downright silly. Especially with the mafia stuff. It also probably could have been about two episodes shorter than it was. And boy did whomever wrote this have a serious hardon for Albert Ruddy.
I think Ruddy was an executive producer or somesuch. It was all made with his blessing.
This is a snakeskin jacket. And for me it's a symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom.

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

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TC wrote: 07/12/22, 14:34:04 Slow Horses - Gary Oldman-led AppleTV+ series. held off on watching it until i knew s2 was happening. since s2 is currently airing, we started watching it a couple days ago and just finished s1 last night. it went by VERY quickly. this is a fantastic, fast-paced show about MI5 rejects and/or agents that have been figuratively "sent to siberia" to serve under disgraced leader Oldman. the writing is top notch (Will Smith - no, the other one - who also wrote things like Avenue 5 & Veep), particularly for Olman's character. he is so low key which is a great "straight man" to the high action/tension show, and his absolute loathing of people he works with (in a loving way) results in many, many LOL quips that i'll be quoting for a long time. toss in a couple GoT actors and i highly recommend this show, and now very anxious for s2 to wrap so i can watch it.
season 2 was fantastic. extremely tight at only 6 episodes. oldman is such a great actor - he gives lamb a complete three dimensions. the character feels absolutely lived-in. a lot of idiosyncrasies that couldn't have been written in the script that one wouldn't think were necessary make it feel so real, and oldman makes it look effortless. thankfully, at the end, we get "coming in season 3" with a few clips. cannot wait. this show rules.

Re: Recent movie playlist

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TC wrote: 09/06/21, 11:52:23
TC wrote:Mosquito Coast - four episodes into this and it’s pretty fucking great. i haven’t read the book but am familiar with the story thanks to the Harrison Ford film in the ‘80s. Crazy that Thoroux is starring in it, given that his uncle wrote the book. Seems like he did a lot of work digging into this, and brings some family history to the part. Given what just happened at the end of episode 4, i can’t imagine this goes anywhere good. Waiting until the season finale Friday to watch the last three.
wrapped up s1 on this. holy shit this show is pretty intense. granted, so many of the issues they all face are their own fault here, but even so - tense. well-acted, great action and stakes are high. i'd recommend it.
Wrapped s2, which was the next and final season of this show. I was initially bummed to hear that, which I heard prior to even starting this new season, but after watching, it makes sense to end it here. Somehow another pretty intense season, even though the setting and stakes were very different from s1. In some ways it seemed more realistic, complete with nearly everyone on the show making inexplicably bad decisions at times. The behavior of the wife for the entire season can only be explained by a complete psychotic break. She’s totally snapped. The main guy maintains the same level of calm the entire season - no highs or lows from him. Nearly zero emotion, as a guy that’s just accepted what’s happening and where they are now. Not saying Theroux wasn’t great - he was, somehow conveying emotion and intensity through this false “level”. Some cartoon side characters get involved, but stay mostly to the side. The resolution was not unexpected - I mean, was this ever going to end completely well for everyone? - but the coda was kind of unexpected. Regardless, this two-and-done series was really, really good. If you’re looking for 20 episodes of something to binge, this is a great candidate.

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

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TC wrote: 29/11/22, 14:59:37
TC wrote: 06/10/22, 08:08:02 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.
so just finished the s2 mid-season break (next episode won't be until the end of jan) and it hasn't lost a step. tears from laughing at how bad/good this show is. they HAVE to be in on it. like, they have to know exactly what they're doing. in which case, these writers/creators are geniuses. thank you.
fuck yeah!
La Brea renewed for Season 3

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

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The Righteous Gemstones - had some friends tell me this show was great so we checked it out. it is quite hilarious. finished the second season last night, and i guess the third season starts later this month. very anxious for it. danny mcbride and his whole shtick can get old fast for me, but this works great as it's an ensemble cast with a lot of different things happening. his character fits in perfectly. so much cringey humor in this show that is pitch-perfect. if you're looking for some disposable trashy TV comedy, this is for you.

Re: Recent movie/TV playlist

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TC wrote: 30/10/21, 08:42:49 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.
For some reason, Netflix has seen fit to release the fourth season of You (starring Penn Badgley, for search purposes) in two halves only weeks apart. I have no explanation for this behavior. But, we did finish the first half of season four last night. I knew it was going to be a bit different, both by necessity and because of the way they left last season, and I was right. This season - at least, the first half - is set up in a pretty meta way to be more of a “who dunnit” where Jonathan (neé Joe) has to figure out who’s fucking with him by killing his social circle. I made a prediction early on and turned out to be wrong, but it seems to be setting up the back half to be pretty bonkers. I watched the trailer for the second half and wtf indeed. For the first half, I counted 1 dong with Prince Albert as far as nudity, and one dismemberment as far as violence, and those are in the same episode. Most of the other deaths appear off screen so there is really very little of either in this season so far, which is quite surprising. Still, it is somehow working. I will say the first episode felt like it was taking an eternity to get going. Badgley’s narration seems to drone on and on as he’s explaining what happened, where he is, what he’s doing, etc. It’s too much. Had to be like a 20-minute monologue. But after that, it does get going. So hang in there.

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

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Decision To Leave - wasn't sure what to expect with this, went in blind based on park chan-wook's direction. my history with korean films is that they are mostly either horror films or cop dramas. this was some kind of cop drama romance horror film? is "k-noir" a thing? that's what this was. really, really enjoyed it. extremely well done with a dark ending. highly recommended.

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

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The Consultant - Christoph Waltz-led amazon series, apparently based on a book (which I haven't read). it was brief, each episode clocking in around 30+ min, but pretty damn interesting/entertaining. lots of things pointing to the true origin of the identity of "the consultant", but nothing definitive handed to you. the ending was a bit underwhelming, but christoph is just a joy to watch. he's menacing in every scene in a similar way to the MM from LH. i recommend checking it out if you're in the market for something new to watch. it's possible that a second season could happen, they certainly left it open to what that would look like, but if so, it wouldn't be a "continuation", it would be a different chapter of the consultant's life. so you would have one consistent cast member - waltz - in each season, but a completely different set of circumstances. i'd be into it.

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

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Rounders - somehow, I had never seen this. I’ve heard people talking about it for a long time though, so when it appeared on a service I have, I checked it out. It was fine, it was good, nothing ground breaking. Good lite drama/mob/poker story. Gretchen Mol is completely 1-dimensional. Martin Landau whispers for no reason the entire time. Malkovich’s accent is all over the place. But yeah, it was cool. Ending was way too tidy to be anything meaningful. Also amusing how this drops right in the middle of the “Matt Damon is a college kid that’s very smart” era of films, of which there were a few. Who decided that was what he was going to do? Very weird, but it worked.

Primal Fear - after Rounders, I was commenting on how Ed Norton always plays a great piece of shit, and how I can never really see him otherwise after Primal Fear, to which my wife responded she didn’t really remember it. So, we put this on next. It had been a very long time since I had seen this, so was fun to experience it all over again. Completely didn’t register when Brooklyn 99 came on that Lester Holt featured heavily in this film, so that was amusing to realize. Also amusing that Laura Linney has a tumultuous relationship with “Marty” here. Very prescient. Well-acted film all around, and man that turn. I see it way earlier now, and see that Marty should have too, but still great. They really don’t make these kinds of films anymore.

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

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Rounders, as a movie overall, is good. But as a poker movie, it is phenomenal. I play poker regularly with a group here, and it's impossible to have a poker game without somebody quoting Rounders. Hollywood has made so many terrible poker movies and scenes (I'm looking at you, Casino Royale), that it was so exciting to see a movie get it right as much as Rounders did. The lingo, the hands and the way they play out, Teddy KGB's underground club... there is so much that they really put effort into and it shows that they had poker pros consulting on the movie.

Never watch the poker movie All In, even though it has Michael Madsen in it. It's not even fun bad. It's just terrible.

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

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TC wrote: 31/01/23, 13:45:52
TC wrote: 29/11/22, 14:59:37

so just finished the s2 mid-season break (next episode won't be until the end of jan) and it hasn't lost a step. tears from laughing at how bad/good this show is. they HAVE to be in on it. like, they have to know exactly what they're doing. in which case, these writers/creators are geniuses. thank you.
fuck yeah!
La Brea renewed for Season 3
Finished the back half of season 2, and I may have to rescind my excitement. It was no longer fun-bad, it was just bad-bad, at least until the final 2 episodes, when it got some of the ridiculousness and silliness back. The other episodes were just a bad soap opera in 10,000 BC. Hopefully they go back to the roots for s3. If it hadn’t already been renewed, I would have bet the farm it wasn’t getting another season.