What Have You Watched Recently?

[csyphrett]

Konosuba as Kazama a normal gameplaying guy dies of a heart attack and is sent to kill the demon lord in a fantasy realm. His weapon of choice is the dippy Aqua, goddess of water. His party Megumim, a mage who only knows one spell Explosion, and Darkness, a crusader knight who likes being hit a lot. Some of it is creepy, but the demon lord's general shows up and he's a little ticked off that Megumim has been blowing up his castle every day for months.

CES   

[Ternaugh]

The Princess Bride: Classic fantasy story about True Love. (Disney+)

 

Fezzik: Why do you wear a mask? Were you burned by acid, or something like that?
Man in Black: Oh no. It's just that they're terribly comfortable. I think everyone will be wearing them in the future.

 

Willow: Somewhat slow fantasy story from George Lucas, but still enjoyable. (Disney+)

[Pariah]

I just finished Season 8 of Stargate SG-1. (Amazon Prime)

 

Before watching Seasons 9 & 10, I think I'll watch Farscape. You know, to get a taste for Ben Browder and Claudia Black in their first series together.

 

Or maybe I'll finish Season 1 of Star Trek: Discovery. I dropped out after 5 episodes it so.

 

 

[slikmar]

13 hours ago, Ternaugh said:

Willow: Somewhat slow fantasy story from George Lucas, but still enjoyable. (Disney+)

Friends of mine once got ahold of the original Star Wars script and muted Willow and read the script along with it. It matched up way to well.

[Spence]

Finished the second season of Titans.

 

First off I have come to understand that the show is either a "inspired by" but not actually based on series.  Or maybe based on one of the many "I have no talent but will shamelessly rewrite an existing story" steaming messes.

 

The cast did a really good job of portraying the parts they were given. 

 

Starfire was a lot better, especially after they dumped the 70/80s streetwalker costume and let her dress and act like an adult. 

 

Most of the rest were fine except Raven and Beastboy.   Instead of Raven being mature beyond her years due to the intense training received to resist Trigon.  She is a completely untrained angst teen.  And BB was reduced to a one trick pony victim. 

 

And why they swapped Terra for this Rose I don't understand. 

 

For someone who has no real understanding of the comic, it was pretty good.  But if were familiar with any of the original storylines, the way the characters have been nerfed will detract from your enjoyment

[Matt the Bruins]

9 hours ago, Pariah said:

Before watching Seasons 9 & 10, I think I'll watch Farscape. You know, to get a taste for Ben Browder and Claudia Black in their first series together.

 

Definitely the way to go if you haven't seen it before. Aside from being one of the best-executed and most visionary science fiction series in its own right, familiarity with it will help you get a great joke in the later seasons of Stargate SG-1.

 

I've started catching up on the TV series Limitless since it's leaving Netflix at the end of the month. I wish my fatigue with prodecurals and Bradley Cooper hadn't made me take a pass when this was first airing—I've really enjoyed the first five episodes.

[Pariah]

2 hours ago, Matt the Bruins said:

 

Definitely the way to go if you haven't seen it before. Aside from being one of the best-executed and most visionary science fiction series in its own right, familiarity with it will help you get a great joke in the later seasons of Stargate SG-1.

 

Episode 200, for example?

[Matt the Bruins]

Yes, Vala's proposal and Martin Lloyd's reaction to it had me rolling on the floor.

[death tribble]

Mr Kingstreet's War

John Saxon is an American in Africa as World War 2 breaks out. He is looking out for animals and the local natives when the Italians try to get hold of his place as he has the only water for miles. He has to play off the italians and also the British who would take out the water as well. The ending is a bit brutal. Everyone dies.

 

A Million Ways to Die in the West

Seth McFarlane does a number on Westerns. Has a whole load of nasty bits about how you can die in the West. Watch for Liam Neeson and Charlize Theron.

 

Forever Vespa

Italian documentary about the Vespa motor scooter which is still going strong today.

 

American Made

Tom Cruise film about a pilot employed by the CIA to photograph leftist sites in Central and South America in the late 70s and early 80s. He hen got recruited by Pablo Escobar to bring drugs into America which the CIA turned a blind eye to. Based on a true story. It was very entertaining.

 

Secret of the Incas

Charlton Heston is a travel guide in Peru in the 1950s. He looks to make a fast buck but is looking to pick up a treasure. He gets involved with a Romanian girl looking to flee to the States. And a colleague who wants the same treasure.

 

The Extra Day

After a roll of film is lost the cast and extras have to be rounded up by the crew to refilm the last day.

[death tribble]

Target for Tonight

This is a propaganda film made about the mission of one wellington bomber F for Freddie. All the people involved were all RAF personnel. The pilot went on to take part in Operation Jericho which was a raid on Amiens jail and perished there.

 

Suspect

Scientists may have found a cure for some deadly diseases but the government will not let them publish. One of the scientists is then contacted about publishing the work behind the Iron Curtain.

 

The Marked Man

A lorry driver is attacked and beaten up as he was part of a counterfeit ring that the police broke up but could not find the plates. Other criminals want said plates so the kidnap his child. 

 

I Walk Alone

This film marked the first pairing of Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster. Burt plays a guy fresh out of prison who wants his old buddy to make good on the promise they made before serving fourteen years in prison for bootlegging. Except Kirk the business man intends to shaft him. Very good.

 

State Secret

Douglas Fairbanks Jnr plays a doctor brought to a European state in order to share medical training but instead operates on the country's dictator. And when the dictator dies the head of the secret police keeps him on ice until after an election as a doppelganger takes over. The doctor escapes and tries to get out of the country while being pursued.

 

The Big Blockade

Film about British propaganda and how a blockade against Germany was implemented in the war. Had a stellar cast for the time in a series of vignettes.

[Ternaugh]

Artemis Fowl: This one was a big-budget adaptation of the first two novels, that was originally going to go to theaters, but has been sent to Disney+ for its premiere. Like most adaptations of books in its class, certain liberties were taken with both the plot and characters. It's getting savaged by critics, and many fans of the book will be disappointed with the changes. I liked the movie, and wouldn't mind seeing more of the series, but I am generally tolerant of changes when a work gets adapted for film. (Disney+)

 

The American President: This was a precursor to Aaron Sorkin's The West Wing, and shows a caring, capable, widowed president, who deals with the political fallout of starting to date again. I'm a fan of Sorkin's writing (which a friend calls "liberal fantasy porn"), and the cast is suberb. (Hulu)

 

[Scott Ruggels]

Finished Netflix's She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. My friends hated it. I was conflicted about it. the first two seasons of it were rather terrible.  But the final season (Complete) knocked the story telling up a notch or two. However, it seemed to be veering far away from a kids' cartoon into  Tumblr fanfic territory. It got pretty dark, and the BBEG of the show was s definite commentary on organized religion, but that gave him a very different flavor than the usual Mustache Twirler of most Kid's cartoons. The series was wrapped up, and there was no  indication of any  future sequels so it wrapped up. It was interesting that the comedy faded away as the stakes got higher, so it could be more compelling, but the relationship issues I did not find compelling, even though the acting and the writing was fairly good (especially compared to the first two and a half seasons). 

[Ternaugh]

Knives Out: Really good mystery/comedy story. (Amazon Prime)

 

Jurassic Park III: No, it's not as good as the original, but it's better than the second half of The Lost World: Jurassic Park. (Movies Anywhere collection)

[pinecone]

I have been watching the Runaways, not great, but good enough.

[Tech]

Frozen 2 bluray

[pinecone]

Just watched the first episode of "The Mandalorian. Looks like it plans to be "Lone wolf with cub" only in the wild west, in the future. The Mandalorians seem like a cool culture, hopefully it will be developed as things go on. For now I consider them "Star wars luchadors", never do they remove their mask, and they are as hard as steel!

[Starlord]

Artemis Fowl - This movie is so bad we couldn't finish it.  The dialogue is silly and the plot is rushed along at a ridiculous and completely nonsensical pace.  You don't care what happens to the characters whatsoever.  It's possible this may have worked better as a six to eight part series.

[Ternaugh]

2 hours ago, Starlord said:

Artemis Fowl - This movie is so bad we couldn't finish it.  The dialogue is silly and the plot is rushed along at a ridiculous and completely nonsensical pace.  You don't care what happens to the characters whatsoever.  It's possible this may have worked better as a six to eight part series.

 

The best description of it that I've seen was "Spy Kids with fairies". 

[Michael Hopcroft]

5 hours ago, Starlord said:

Artemis Fowl - This movie is so bad we couldn't finish it.  The dialogue is silly and the plot is rushed along at a ridiculous and completely nonsensical pace.  You don't care what happens to the characters whatsoever.  It's possible this may have worked better as a six to eight part series.

If the characters are uninteresting, more time with them would not have helped.

 

I've never read the Artemis Fowl novels and didn't even know there was a supernatural element. I thought it was about the capers of a juvenile mastermind who was on a path to becoming his generation's Professor Moriarty. Am I incorrect?

[Starlord]

18 minutes ago, Michael Hopcroft said:

If the characters are uninteresting, more time with them would not have helped.

 

I've never read the Artemis Fowl novels and didn't even know there was a supernatural element. I thought it was about the capers of a juvenile mastermind who was on a path to becoming his generation's Professor Moriarty. Am I incorrect?

 

Well, I felt they skimmed through the story so fast, it felt like everyone was just a blank cardboard archetype just reading lines of explanation.  There was bare minimum spent on motivations,  quirks, world-building, etc.  So I thought maybe a series could give time for depth to take advantage of it's barely-teased potential.

[Ternaugh]

1 hour ago, Michael Hopcroft said:

If the characters are uninteresting, more time with them would not have helped.

 

I've never read the Artemis Fowl novels and didn't even know there was a supernatural element. I thought it was about the capers of a juvenile mastermind who was on a path to becoming his generation's Professor Moriarty. Am I incorrect?

 

57 minutes ago, Starlord said:

 

Well, I felt they skimmed through the story so fast, it felt like everyone was just a blank cardboard archetype just reading lines of explanation.  There was bare minimum spent on motivations,  quirks, world-building, etc.  So I thought maybe a series could give time for depth to take advantage of it's barely-teased potential.

 

Artemis Fowl the book has him strongly as the villain, and he's described as a 12-year-old criminal mastermind, who is running his family's criminal empire. After some financial reversals, he embarks on a plan to kidnap a fairy, and then demand fairy gold as ransom.

 

In the movie, he's been "Disneyfied" into a smart hero, who is initially unaware that his father's stories about the fairies are true. He gains access to a hidden room where his father has gathered a number of reference materials and objects associated with the fairies. After he researches about the fairies, he then comes to a plan to kidnap one of them to force them to help him find his father.

[pinecone]

Just started the animae Knights of Sedonia, and I am liking it so far.

[pbemguy]

On 6/13/2020 at 11:13 AM, death tribble said:

 

 

The Extra Day

After a roll of film is lost the cast and extras have to be rounded up by the crew to refilm the last day.

 

Thanks for this. This is the kind of thing I look for and watch.

Probably you've already seen it, but I recommend Ice Station Zebra (1968).

[pbemguy]

Polar on Netflix.

I didn't read any of the reviews; I just watched it cold.

Many of the reviews I read after watching said it was really horrible. I disagree. Mads Mikkelsen was great. The villain was over-the-top, but in a good way.

I think a lot of people were turned off by the opening, which features a crew of really unlikeable young assassins. As I was watching the opening I was considering shutting off the film...but then it occurred to me that we (the audience) were supposed to find them repellent. Once I considered that, the whole movie was very enjoyable. 

 

[Scott Ruggels]

Halfway through Amazon Prime’s,  Tales From The Loop. It’s a series based on the art of Stefan Stahlberg (sic) who does these realist paintings with unexplained SF elements in them. The show is very much like The Twilight Zone. Soft recommendation.