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What Have You Watched Recently?


Susano

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Okay. I went to the movies and saw Zootopia. It's a movie with a moral message, but isn't as simplistic in its approach as it might have been which I'm grateful for.  It IS still chiefly for kids though so don't expect high brow 'realistic solutions' either. The co-protagonists work great off each other with lively banter and a friendship that develops believably. It's actually better in that regard than a lot of 'buddy cop' movies meant for adults. :)

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Captain Harlock (2013) 

 

Before the movie: "Been meaning to watch this.  I loved the ship design when I was a kid and saw it on TV."

 

After the movie: "I love that ship design.  ... That is all."

 

To be fair, though, the movie was a little fuzzy.  I made the mistake of using my "Anime I Haven't Seen Drinking Game" rules and managed to check off (among other things):

 

Protagonist not the movie title's protagonist? Drink

Gratuitous shower scene? Drink

Antagonist turns out to be protagonist's brother? Drink

Super cool tech used by heroes at start of movie inexplicably doesn't work as well against same enemies next time? Drink

Movie title protagonist does nothing until more than halfway into the movie, does something awesome, and then gets captured? Drink

Super cool tech is now back to being overpowered against same enemies because its the final act? Drink 

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Sometimes you want to give a creator another chance, even if briefly. Take, for example, the case of KIll la Kill, one of the hottest and most-cosplayed anime series of the last two years (one way to judge the popularity of a series among mainstream anime fans is to see how many people dress up as its characters at conventions). I hated it. Absolutely loathed it. It was one of the most misogynistic series I had ever seen, and in places actually looked downrightg rapey (the heroine was involuntarily disrobed and examined by creepy men twice in the same episode). I can't for the life of me figure out how a girl or woman couldn't be horribly offended by it.

 

The creator has a new short-form series, Space Patrol Luluco, which is off to an amusing start but have problems of its own. So maybe I shouldn't have given them another chance after all.

 

Luluco is a girl who is utterly obsessed with living a "normal life". But sadly her father is a Space Patrol officer and she lives in the one place in Tokyo where humans and aliens live side-by-side. After Dad has an accident with a "cold sleep" capsule, his very creepy-looking boss recruits Luluco into the Patrol (partially to pay the costs of thawing out Dad), because adult officers can't get into her middle school where there is apoparnetly a plethora of "space criminals". While Luluco is trying to figure out how to turn down the offer, the boss' assistant secretly fits her with the official Space Patrol underwear that, as she discovers, turns into a skin-tight self-directing combat spacesuit whenever it detects a criminal nearby -- whether she wants it to or not.

 

In a way it's even worse than Kill la Kill. Luluco's city is a ghetto in the literal sense -- the aliens are essentially locked in and can't leave. And given that Luluco's first action in the Space Patrol is to kill an alien classmate who is using time travel to cheat on his midterms (if I told you how she did it you would not believe me), I imagine that aliens who step outside the "neighborhood boundary" meet ghastly fates. The idea seems to be a comedic District 9. And Luluco is bothered that she has to abandon her ideal of normalcy -- but not by the killing part, because -- sweet though she seems -- deep down she hates aliens. Apparently that belief will be challenged as the season progresses, but I'm not sure I want to stick around long enough to see if that develops.

 

I would probably be making a better use of my time finally seeing GATE....

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Burnt (2015)

 

Starring: Sydney Bristow's dead guy friend.

 

Its like an eighties martial arts film, but without martial arts. Instead, its got... cooking. Because, chefs are the closest thing foodies have to action heroes. It even has the epic failure and retrain for ultimate victory trope / arc at the heart of its plot. And the assemblage of a team of "the best of the best."

 

He even says, "That's what I want my chefs to be, the Seven Samurai."

 

Except, you know, real victory is a three-star Michelin rating. Dear lord, this film gave me the recipe for entertainment indigestion. An championship cook-off with The Best Of The Best theme playing would have been more intense.And less campy. But, no. Instead, this is about a one-man kitchen's road to... culinary redemption.

 

I'm not kidding. This movie is about... making dinner.

 

And is peppered with scathing one liners like... "A heat lamp?!" Let alone, like edgy ironies like world-class chef's writing their recipes while gnoshing at Burger King. Because, you know, product placement makes good art. Or, my favorite, slicing vegetables and frying / seasoning an egg to intense, building action scene background music.

 

Distillation: It was like watching bonobos copulate; you want to look away, but just can't quite turn it off.

 

Oh, and the "Michelin Men" are the MIB / Boogey Men of the cuisine-velt.

 

The phrase: "They're coming for us" is even used.

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Sometimes you want to give a creator another chance, even if briefly. Take, for example, the case of KIll la Kill, one of the hottest and most-cosplayed anime series of the last two years (one way to judge the popularity of a series among mainstream anime fans is to see how many people dress up as its characters at conventions). I hated it. Absolutely loathed it. It was one of the most misogynistic series I had ever seen, and in places actually looked downrightg rapey (the heroine was involuntarily disrobed and examined by creepy men twice in the same episode). I can't for the life of me figure out how a girl or woman couldn't be horribly offended by it.

 

The creator has a new short-form series, Space Patrol Luluco, which is off to an amusing start but have problems of its own. So maybe I shouldn't have given them another chance after all.

 

Luluco is a girl who is utterly obsessed with living a "normal life". But sadly her father is a Space Patrol officer and she lives in the one place in Tokyo where humans and aliens live side-by-side. After Dad has an accident with a "cold sleep" capsule, his very creepy-looking boss recruits Luluco into the Patrol (partially to pay the costs of thawing out Dad), because adult officers can't get into her middle school where there is apoparnetly a plethora of "space criminals". While Luluco is trying to figure out how to turn down the offer, the boss' assistant secretly fits her with the official Space Patrol underwear that, as she discovers, turns into a skin-tight self-directing combat spacesuit whenever it detects a criminal nearby -- whether she wants it to or not.

 

In a way it's even worse than Kill la Kill. Luluco's city is a ghetto in the literal sense -- the aliens are essentially locked in and can't leave. And given that Luluco's first action in the Space Patrol is to kill an alien classmate who is using time travel to cheat on his midterms (if I told you how she did it you would not believe me), 

 

 

I checked it out.  She didn't actually kill him despite the excessive force.  Apparently Lulaco operates under Toontown rules.  For what that's worth.  

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The Dark Knight Rises

 

It would have been interesting to see John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) become the new Batman, or even Robin in a sequel. I know the audience probably wouldn't have accepted it. Still, it's good as a "what if" scenario in a superhero game.

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Watched the first episode of this season of Game of Thrones. They've run out of books now, should be an interesting season. Show's been run better than the book so far, so things are looking up.

 

Watched the first episode of Season 1 of The Librarians. Not sure what to think yet. Might be good for some light-hearted fun. I'm wondering whether or not the blonde military lady is a cyborg or alien or something after making a straight-legged landing from a second story jump in the opening scene.

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Watched Ratchet and Clank. Our duo joins the Galactic Rangers to solve the mystery of planets blowing up.

CES 

I don't think I've read a single kind word about that movie from anyone. But at least it's not Angry Birds, which is drawing comparisons to wartime propaganda films (with the Pigs standing in for the insidious foreigners de jour).

 

The only movie based on a video game I have ever liked was the first Mortal Kombat -- and that was just from the sheer enthusiasm of a B-movie reveling in being a B-movie. It was silly, campy fun.

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I don't think I've read a single kind word about that movie from anyone. But at least it's not Angry Birds, which is drawing comparisons to wartime propaganda films (with the Pigs standing in for the insidious foreigners de jour).

 

The only movie based on a video game I have ever liked was the first Mortal Kombat -- and that was just from the sheer enthusiasm of a B-movie reveling in being a B-movie. It was silly, campy fun.

I'm here to tell you it was pretty good. That's why I don't listen to critics. We just don't agree on what makes a good movie.

CES

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This weekend's anime screening party was "a "10/10", where people came to show off the series they really, really liked. And I got to see a few shows I wanted to see and a couple I was surprised I would enjoy.

 

Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto is an example. Like many shows, it is set in a Japanese high school. Sakamoto is a high school freshman who is cooler than a human being has the right to be. Collected, suave, and omni-competent, Sakamoto almost effortlessly resists all efforts to humiliate or seduce him. The tough gang in his class, the jealous male model who wants all the attention for himself, the diva who wraps boys around her little finger with a wink -- he outwits them all and looks incredible doing it. I wonder if he's actually human.

 

Stein's Gate in an intruging sci-fi show about time travel. A young man who claims to be a "mad scientist" is involved in time travel researhc, or so he says. He might be roleplaying. He might be delusional. But at a press conference for a genuine time-travel researcher, he in confronted by a young woman demanding to know what he m,eant by what he said to her fifteen minutes before. The problem? He had no memory of saying anything. Soon he finds the woman's corpse, stabbed to death, and soon other events take place that suggest to him that time travel might actually be happening, and that "the Organization" he claims to be opposing may actually be conspiring against him after all....

 

GATE is the story of what happens when a dimensional portal opens between a fantasy world and downtown Tokyo. A massive army of fantasy-world warriors pours through to invade -- only to be massacred by the Japan Self-Defense Force (in other words, the Japanese Army). Three months later the JSDF returns the favor, invading the fantasy world with modern weapons, vehicles, and air assets. When massed, they are virtually unstoppable. But a patrol sent out to explore the area and befriend the locals is somewhat more vulnerable, especially when dragons show up....

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Of all the ludicrous things I could watch, Scream the TV Series. Even stranger, I liked it. Probably more than a 40-something should have. It was very much Scream translated into a ten episode TV show and it stayed faithful to the concept while not drudging back up the movie story. All new characters. All new background and story. Some of it was a little cliche, but it is a horror show. I call them tropes. While I had narrowed the list of possible candidates down to two very early on, the actual killer was concealed pretty well until the end. It was one of my two. Nice crocodile egg ending for the season. 

 

My two favorite characters were Bi-Curious and The Virgin. Lot's of good chemistry between the two. The incessant geekery was fun too. Too much of the Hollywood Hacking going on, but I expect that now when I watch a TV show.

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