What Have You Watched Recently?

[Starlord]

B:TAS is decent, not as good as many think.  I think the high point of the 'Timm-verse' is Justice League and Justice League Unlimited.

[Spence]

2 hours ago, zslane said:

I finally made my way through Batman: The Animated Series.

 

Despite the high praise this cartoon routinely receives, it just was not for me. I say that as a middle-aged adult who never watched it during its original run. I was already in my late 20s when it aired and I had no interest in it. So I carry no nostalgic feelings towards it. I can only view it through the lens of an adult who has very high standards for storytelling that no kid's cartoon could possibly meet.

 

But rather than go through the long list of things that drove me nuts about the show, I will just list the things I give it an A+ grade for:

• Stellar voice cast.
• Exceptional music score.
• Excellent character designs.
• Wonderful Retro-Decco aesthetic that reminds us of the time period Batman truly belongs to.
• Batman regarded by the police as an ally (Bullock notwithstanding).

 

Pretty spot on.  For me it is one of my favorite cartoons because Batman.  Batman is pretty much my favorite DC character, so I am willing to overlook a lot

Though I'll admit I prefer the older original grittier versions over the more modern sanitized versions. 

That setting aesthetic IMO is one of the best things in the show.  The TV series Gotham also had a great vibe. 

[archer]

I watcher The Starving Games (on Amazon Prime).

 

I highly recommend that everyone who even remotely liked the Hunger Games should watch this movie.

 

Really. No fooling.

[tkdguy]

UEFA Under-21 Quarterfinals

 

French Open Round 1

[zslane]

On 5/30/2021 at 1:52 PM, Spence said:

Batman is pretty much my favorite DC character, so I am willing to overlook a lot

 

I am currently watching the 24-episode continuation, The New Batman Adventures, but only because it features Batgirl as a main character. She is my favorite DC character, and I'll watch anything with her in it. Unfortunately, most of what I hated about B:TAS continues to afflict TNBA as well, but I (try to) overlook the flaws because of Batgirl.

[Pariah]

"Unafraid of the Dark", the final episode of the 2013 series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey.

[mattingly]

17 hours ago, zslane said:

The New Batman Adventures

 

That includes my favorite Batman episode -- Beware the Creeper.

 

[Ninja-Bear]

I ran across the Indonesian Super hero Gundala.  It’s a little slow in the beginning but I think it’s as well done as anything in Hollywood. 

[mattingly]

A friend recently mentioned Jackie Earle Haley, which put me in the mood to rewatch the Human Target series.

Still so good.

 

[mattingly]

O Brother Where Art Thou. One of my top three Coen Brothers movies.

 

[Matt the Bruins]

I've been watching the Stanley Cup playoffs games featuring Boston vs. Long Island. My team lost the most recent game, but it was an overtime nail-biter with excellent play on all sides. (Game 3 is tonight.)

[Christopher R Taylor]

Documentary on Netflix about video games (and tangentially role playing games) called High Score.

 

Its only real fails were the narrow scope (missed a lot of games), its fixation on inclusion which had some ridiculous stretches just to add x off a checklist even if they were utterly irrelevant to the game industry, and it cut off so early (release of Doom) when so much more has happened in gaming.

 

But it was a lot of fun to watch.

[Old Man]

Finally finished WandaVision.  A sitcom parody has no business being that good.  And it did an awful lot of work continuitywise: two origin stories, two rad accidents, one government agency, and a Secret Invasion.

[Christopher R Taylor]

The Food That Made America, great little series about the origins of all the most familiar food brands.

[Matt the Bruins]

First episode of Hulu's Marvel series Helstrom. It was right up my alley, and executed better than I'd expected. I'm both glad I bit the bullet to buy the series on Vudu and sorry to hear it apparently didn't get renewed.

[mattingly]

I would have liked to have seen it continue.

[Matt the Bruins]

3 eps in now and it's probably my 2nd favorite Marvel TV series after Agent Carter.

[DoctorImpossible]

Currently watching a handful of my favourites of Tilda Swinton. 

Only Lovers Left Alive - A slow paced emotional drama with John Hurt, Anton Yelchin, Tom Hiddleston, and Tilda Swinton. Tom Hiddleston is a vampire with depression. He's currently going through a small period of suicidal thoughts so his old friend, and fellow vampire, Tilda Swinton, travels from her home in Tangier to visit him at his house in Detroit and keep him company, hopefully dissuading him from acting on it.

 

Orlando - The life of a person born a man in the 1600s, quite androgynous and a skilled poet, as he becomes Queen Elizabeth's confidante, ceases aging because she told him to, romances a Russian Princess and an American rebel (who may or may not be the spirit of freedom and adventure), and one day wakes as a woman, still being very androgynous, because the masculine world was no longer suiting her.

 

Constantine - A DC action film that totally butchers the DC trickster wizard and his world, not even pronouncing his name in the right way. But, at least it makes good use of Tilda Swinton as the appropriately agendered archangel Gabriel, who advises Constantine on the will of God as he tries saving the world from Satan's rebelling son.

 

The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe - Tilda Swinton plays Jadis, the White Queen. She's an immortal, albino, giant, who created Narnia after destroying her last world in order to have somewhere new to conquer and currently reigns over it as the Queen of an endless winter without a christmas. (Yeah. Fun fact: when Aslan said "Don't quote the deep magic to me, witch. I was there when it was written!", what he's carefully not mentioning is that, though he was there, it was *her* who wrote and cast the deep magic. She actually *is* Queen of Narnia, rightfully, and the Humans from our world are colonial invaders.) 

[slikmar]

1 hour ago, DoctorImpossible said:

The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe - Tilda Swinton plays Jadis, the White Queen. She's an immortal, albino, giant, who created Narnia after destroying her last world in order to have somewhere new to conquer and currently reigns over it as the Queen of an endless winter without a christmas. (Yeah. Fun fact: when Aslan said "Don't quote the deep magic to me, witch. I was there when it was written!", what he's carefully not mentioning is that, though he was there, it was *her* who wrote and cast the deep magic. She actually *is* Queen of Narnia, rightfully, and the Humans from our world are colonial invaders.)

Ok, it's been a while since I read the books, but where did that come from? One of the books specifically deals with the creation of Narnia and the talking animals (the Magicians Nephew) and I don't remember her being in it and The Last Battle is the end of Narnia.

[mattingly]

13 hours ago, DoctorImpossible said:

Only Lovers Left Alive - A slow paced emotional drama with John Hurt, Anton Yelchin, Tom Hiddleston, and Tilda Swinton. Tom Hiddleston is a vampire with depression. He's currently going through a small period of suicidal thoughts so his old friend, and fellow vampire, Tilda Swinton, travels from her home in Tangier to visit him at his house in Detroit and keep him company, hopefully dissuading him from acting on it. 

 

Have you seen the What We Do in the Shadows TV series?

 

 

11 hours ago, slikmar said:

Ok, it's been a while since I read the books, but where did that come from? One of the books specifically deals with the creation of Narnia and the talking animals (the Magicians Nephew) and I don't remember her being in it and The Last Battle is the end of Narnia.

 

She's the Turkish-Delight pusher herself -- the White Queen.

 

 

 

[fdw3773]

I watched Domina, an Epix series focusing on the rise of Livia Drusilla, the third wife of Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus who would become Rome's first emperor and assert her own influence through his political rise.

 

 

[pinecone]

Ragnarok season 2 not as good as season 1, but I still enjoyed it.

[Michael Hopcroft]

I've seen part of the controversial (and, by many, despised) 1984 film of Dune.  When you give a filmmaker like David Lynch an unlimited amount of money, this is what you get -- a beautifully shot, decently-acted bit of Grand Guignol weirdness.

 

Everything in the film is grandiose and much, much larger than life. Every set is massive, every costume is ornate, all the action bigger than life. Even the Gom Jabbar scene  is big.

 

Does it work? Sort of. The novel itself is very problematic, and it's unsure just what Frank Herbert was either lauding or condemning. Paul Atriedies is an ambiguous figure, at least morally, and I don't know why such an entitled young man deserves to be a Messiah. The Spice itself is a major logic hole -- there appears to be nothing it can't do, and the battle over it reminds me of a drug war.

 

But grandiose though it is, it's lovely to look at.  Kyle MacLachlan is not at all a bad actor, although he is asked to play Paul as a nearly perfect man. I haven't read Dune in a while, so  I don't know how he decided to write  the character. Sting does not at all look, sound, or act like Sting. You just don't expect to see one the artists most dedicated to peace and compassion playing a homicidal maniac whose grasp on reality is tenuous at best. (He has since said that this shoot was one of the many things that turned him off to acting.)

 

I'm kind of surprised this is being remade for a second time, because I'm still not sure the source material demans it. Realism does not match this novel. It demands the sort of operative treatment Lunch brought it.

 

 

 

 

[DoctorImpossible]

On 6/17/2021 at 12:08 PM, mattingly said:

 

Have you seen the What We Do in the Shadows TV series?

 

Oh, my god, yes! Tilda Swinton, *as* Tilda Swinton, turning out to be the secret leader of all vampires in the council of elders!? Such an amazing choice.

[Spence]

3 hours ago, Michael Hopcroft said:

I've seen part of the controversial (and, by many, despised) 1984 film of Dune.

 

That movie is painful.  So much potential that went swirling down the drain.  Every time they did something great they had to stick in something completely crappy.  Like Emperors generals commanding the fight on a merry-go-round!?! Just a waste of money and actor talent.

 

The two SciFi Channel mini-series were actually better.