Pariah Posted October 24, 2017 Report Share Posted October 24, 2017 We took Little Boy Pariah (and his sister, of course) to see Cars 3 for his birthday last night. I give the movie the highest praise I can think of: It was good enough to atone for Cars 2. slikmar 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolgroth Posted October 24, 2017 Report Share Posted October 24, 2017 Binge watched Season 7 of the Walking Dead. By now, most things I could mention should be public knowledge, but spoilering just in case. Glen's death really robbed something from the show. I know we lost main sequence characters in the past, but Glen was one of the moral anchors of the show. Was anybody really surprised by the scavenger faction turning on Rick and everybody? When Rick first recruited them, I knew from their motto ("We take") that they were going to be bad juju. It's really sad too, as it is dividing the morality in Walking Dead along black/white lines rather than shades of grey. Negan, as played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, is one scary individual. Stopping just shy of going "over the top" in many scenes, JDM was able to ooze menace with the character. My main problem with Negan is that he seems to be a re-tread of the Governor. A little more crazy perhaps, but essentially the same character. That said, I know that the whole Saviors versus Good Guys war is set to take place in Season 8. I just really wished that Negan had bit the proverbial bullet in the finale. I don't feel excitement or anticipation going into Season 8. I just want the whole storyline to conclude. I think the whole thing is more poignant to me because Rick, in Season 6, didn't make the sound tactical decisions I have come to know from him. In fact, the whole introduction to Hilltop and such was so forced as to be fake. That led to more forced encounters and a string of generally bad decisions, which led to the encounter on the road. If Rick had acted more like Rick, then none of that would have happened. More zombies are needed. One of the things that attracted me to the show is that the Walking Dead are a huge threat. Instead, the characters have hunkered down in far too many places (the Farm, the Prison, and now Alexandria), thus making the walkers barely more than background. In fact, there is an almost cavalier sense of jocularity when they go fight them now. The sense that they are a threat is completely gone. I know that the story cannot always be them on the road and that it makes both actual and literary sense to explore having some sort of colony, but the neutering of the walkers was a bad call. It will take some real plot gymnastics to try to reclaim that sense of teetering on the edge of survival. That's assuming that the Walking Dead keeps going. Okay. That's pretty much my review and opinion on the show. There were a lot of little details like Carl becoming one of my favorite characters. Never much liked him as a rugrat, but I am liking the young man he is turning into. Ambivalent to anybody added to the roster since Season 6 or so (except the tiger). I'll probably watch Season 8 when it gets to Netflix. It will be tedious and painful, but I will want to see how the Savior War turns out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Walsh Posted October 31, 2017 Report Share Posted October 31, 2017 Over the weekend, we watched Me Before You, a 2016 romantic drama starring Emilia Clarke as a former waitress turned caregiver who is taking care of Sam Claflin's paraplegic millionaire character. I don't want to give anything away, so I'll just say it was a good movie with surprising depth. Well worth watching for free on Amazon Prime (I think it's on Hulu, too). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolgroth Posted October 31, 2017 Report Share Posted October 31, 2017 The Hateful Eight - Post Civil War western set in a Montana waystation where eight people are trapped by an unexpected blizzard. Being a Quentin Tarrantino film, there are a few interesting twists along the way. Overall the movie was enjoyable, but probably just a touch too long. Also suffered from Tarrantino's tendency to wander off the plot sometimes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigdamnhero Posted November 11, 2017 Report Share Posted November 11, 2017 Jane, the "profile documentary" about Jane Goodall, made using mostly archive footage from the 60s & 70s. Magnificent: visually beautiful, personal, touching, funny, occasionally heartwrenching, and even managed to be educational. Definitely catch this one on the big screen, unless you don't care about beautiful nature photography. As an aside: I've always know Jane Goodall as this healthy but somewhat dowdy grey-haired woman. Who knew she was a Gwenyth Paltrow lookalike back in the day? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ternaugh Posted November 11, 2017 Report Share Posted November 11, 2017 9 hours ago, bigdamnhero said: Jane, the "profile documentary" about Jane Goodall, made using mostly archive footage from the 60s & 70s. Magnificent: visually beautiful, personal, touching, funny, occasionally heartwrenching, and even managed to be educational. Definitely catch this one on the big screen, unless you don't care about beautiful nature photography. As an aside: I've always know Jane Goodall as this healthy but somewhat dowdy grey-haired woman. Who knew she was a Gwenyth Paltrow lookalike back in the day? Pattern Ghost 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywind Posted November 11, 2017 Report Share Posted November 11, 2017 Spider-Man: Homecoming Sixteen Candles Star Trek Beyond Started in on s2 of Supernatural Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattingly Posted November 11, 2017 Report Share Posted November 11, 2017 Really enjoying season 2 of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. Joe Walsh and Armory 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigdamnhero Posted November 12, 2017 Report Share Posted November 12, 2017 17 hours ago, Ternaugh said: Supposedly the Jane Goodall Institute got all pissed off about this cartoon & tried to sue Larson. Inappropriate and disrespectful and all that. Until someone showed the cartoon to Jane herself, and she thought it was funny and told them to drop it. (That wasn’t in the film; I just read about it.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassandra Posted November 13, 2017 Report Share Posted November 13, 2017 G-Men vs. The Black Dragon (1943) A 15 part Republic Serial where American Agent Rex Bennett, British Agent Vivian Marsh, and Chinese Agent Chang Sung battle leader to the Japanese Black Dragon Society Oyama Haruchi and his minions in Southern California. Rex Bennett returned in The Secret Service in Darkest Africa later that same year. Spence 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ternaugh Posted November 14, 2017 Report Share Posted November 14, 2017 Chappie - A damaged police robot gets upgraded with an artificial consciousness program, but gets "raised" by gang members. It left me somewhat unsatisfied in the plot department, and parts of it felt a bit like a poor remake of the original Robocop, mixed with a Singularity fantasy. It is amazing what you can do with a stack of PlayStation 4s when they're hooked up to a battered Sony VAIO in this movie from Sony Pictures, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Walsh Posted November 14, 2017 Report Share Posted November 14, 2017 Baby Driver - It started out OK, but got dumber as it went along. By the end, it was stunningly bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigdamnhero Posted November 14, 2017 Report Share Posted November 14, 2017 I thought Baby Driver was OK all the way through - not great, but entertaining. I did think it was kindof impressive from a filmmaking standpoint how well they edited the action to match with the musical beats, rather than the other way around. But yeah, not great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Walsh Posted November 14, 2017 Report Share Posted November 14, 2017 I agree, the driving and music were both very good throughout. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassandra Posted November 14, 2017 Report Share Posted November 14, 2017 High Heels and Low Lifes (2002) Minnie Driver and Mary McCormack play a nurse and an actress in London who overhear a bank robbery and try to blackmail them into giving them a cut. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slikmar Posted November 17, 2017 Report Share Posted November 17, 2017 Went and saw Murder on the Orient Express. Enjoyed it. Everyone in it is very good. I was pleased that they did not turn it into an action flick, but left it the slow, digging for information it originally was. Cassandra 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted November 17, 2017 Report Share Posted November 17, 2017 The Great War in Numbers. If you thought the Germans were evil in the Second World War, then you can see the roots in the First. What was done to make the Hindenburg line and using slave labour of Russian prisoners for example as well as being the first to start using gas attacks. There is also the stupidity even on the last day when an American general launched an attack that got men killed just to get bathing facilities. The Germans were going to walk out after 11.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Walsh Posted November 20, 2017 Report Share Posted November 20, 2017 We watched the 1999 version of The Mummy last night. We hadn't watched it before, but after the reboot edition flopped (didn't see that either) a bunch of people said the 1999 one was worth watching. So, we gave it a try. And, you know what? It was good! Very good, even. Sure, there are oddities and plot holes, but overall it is a very fun movie. It moves right along, never gets boring, and is enjoyable throughout. There's plenty of humor and plenty of thrills, too. It's like a 20s adventure movie, a 40s adventure movie, and an 80s adventure movie were smooshed together to make one movie that hit all the best bits from each. I'm so glad that I hadn't seen it before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted November 21, 2017 Report Share Posted November 21, 2017 Watched Shetland. It's a police procedural set in Scotland. The original crime is the killing of a man in witness protection. The investigation causes a lot of other secrets and deaths to happen. CES Spence and tkdguy 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted November 21, 2017 Report Share Posted November 21, 2017 Shetland is a good series. I haven't watched it in a while, though. It isn't currently showing on PBS. Jack Taylor is a good mystery series from Ireland. Italy has made its own version of Nero Wolfe! In this series, the FBI was jealous of Wolfe and ran him out of the country (Seriously, WTF?). So Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin settle in Rome and continue solving mysteries there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DasBroot Posted November 21, 2017 Report Share Posted November 21, 2017 First few episodes of the Punisher. Despite personally being lukewarm to the source material at best I am enjoying it. bigdamnhero 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted November 22, 2017 Report Share Posted November 22, 2017 20 hours ago, tkdguy said: Shetland is a good series. I haven't watched it in a while, though. It isn't currently showing on PBS. I saw Shetland on PBS with an antenna. Luther and Dr Blake are also on. They ran Death in Paradise too but it's off the air. Luther is pretty gritty and deals with psychological problemed villains, and a troubled hero. Dr. Blake is an Australian medical doctor in the fifties helping the local police solve crimes. Death in Paradise are fair play mysteries but the first two head inspectors were quirky as Columbo, the third guy isn't as quirky as his predecessors, but he's just as smart. CES Spence 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted November 22, 2017 Report Share Posted November 22, 2017 I haven't seen Luther, but Dr. Blake Mysteries and Death in Paradise are currently on the air in my PBS station. I enjoy both series. I heard Dr. Blake Mysteries is being cancelled. Sucks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slikmar Posted December 8, 2017 Report Share Posted December 8, 2017 Saw COCO tonight. And as is seemingly typical for Pixar, enjoyed the movie, enjoyed the opening short (Olaf's frozen adventure). I will warn, that as is also typical of Pixar, your allergies will crop up in both the short and big time in the movie. It's a little predictable, maybe a lot depending on person. The music is excellent, especially if you are a fan of spanish guitars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted December 8, 2017 Report Share Posted December 8, 2017 The first season of Lethal Weapon. I wince at the rights violations carried out by the heroes, but the villains biting the dust make up for it. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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