What Have You Watched Recently?

[Bazza]

3 hours ago, Spence said:

 

At the time it was what was expected from scifi and fantasy.  Both genres were "obviously" only for a very small audience and/or kids.  Most trended to have skimpy or tight costumes to pull the "teen boy" demo which was where they belived 99% of the interest laid. 

 

It took Star Wars to make film consider scifi/fantasy as a viable non-matinee box office draw.  Even after Star Wars it took a little time to get the good stuff.  But once Alien and such started scoring things got great for the genre crowd.

 

Heck the vast majority of pre-Star Wars that wasn't plain bad was generally Disney doing a classic like 20,000 Leagues. 

 

Barbarella was one of the better ones, sort of.  

Cheers. 👍
 

27 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

I'm really surprised you would make that assertion. There may have been a segment of the American movie-going public at the time who felt that way, but serious science-fiction films which were critically acclaimed and also significant box-office draws already had a history in Hollywood of nearly two decades. The Day the Earth Stood Still. War of the Worlds. The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. Forbidden Planet. THEM!  Invasion of the Body Snatchers. This Island Earth. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Fantastic Voyage. Planet of the Apes. 2001: A Space Odyssey. To name a few. As an example, THEM! was Warner Bros. highest-grossing film of 1954.

 

There was plenty of schlock produced over that period, to be sure, but that's true of every movie genre in every era.

 

The Star Wars phenomenon did re-energize sci-fi movies by emphasizing the space-opera sub-genre rather than "hard" sci-fi, swashbuckling elements, pseudo-mysticism, and marrying them to state of the art special effects. It put sci-fi into the "potential blockbuster" category in the minds of Hollywood, for better or worse.

Cheers 👍

[Michael Hopcroft]

3 hours ago, Spence said:

 

At the time it was what was expected from scifi and fantasy.  Both genres were "obviously" only for a very small audience and/or kids.  Most trended to have skimpy or tight costumes to pull the "teen boy" demo which was where they belived 99% of the interest laid. 

 

It took Star Wars to make film consider scifi/fantasy as a viable non-matinee box office draw.  Even after Star Wars it took a little time to get the good stuff.  But once Alien and such started scoring things got great for the genre crowd.

 

Heck the vast majority of pre-Star Wars that wasn't plain bad was generally Disney doing a classic like 20,000 Leagues. 

 

Barbarella was one of the better ones, sort of.  

Disney helped out on the effects for Forbidden Planet, which was far more cerebral (quite literally, as it turns out) than the matinee fare of the time. The ideas of Shakespeare's The Tempest inspired the plot, with Walter Pidgeon's Dr. Morbius modeled after Prospero -- a "wizard" of sorts, isolated from the world and more than willing to get it that way. Eventually, of course, we find out the source of Morbius's "magic" and what it has unleashed.  He was also unique at the time as he is an "antagonist" to the crew of the starship visiting the planet, but he is not undeniably evil and doesn't want to actually hurt anyone (consciously, at least).

 

It turned out the mix of science fiction with serious ideas was a perfect combination, and lifted Forbidden Planet heads above its contemporaries.  Star Trek was heavily, if not directly, inspired by it (with J.J. Adams as a sort of "proto-Kirk")  I'm sure George Lucas was paying attention as well.

[Lord Liaden]

I agree as to the significance of Forbidden Planet, but IMHO you inflate its precedent setting too much. Several of the films on the list I noted were just as significant. For example, it scarcely gets more cerebral than The Day the Earth Stood Still, and that came out five years before FB.

[mattingly]

11 hours ago, death tribble said:

Blame it on the Bellboy

Bronson Pinchot works as a bellboy in a hotel in Venice and his confusion over three names Lorton, Horton and Orton causes problems for the three guests. Mr Lorton is an assassin sent to Venice to kill one of the Mafia heads who lives there only he does not know his target and will only get his information when he arrives. Played by Bryan Brown he gets the information meant for meant for Mr Horton who is there to have a date. Mr Horton is the mayor of a town in Britain having an illicit date as he is actually married. He gets Mr Orton's package. Mr Orton played by Dudley Moore has been sent to look over and buy a villa in Venice. He gets the assassin's package and goes to see the Mafia head thinking he is going to buy it from him.

Further complications are that:-

The Mafia head knows someone is out to kill him;

The Estate Agent is trying to offload a villa that is really not worth the price but the English will buy anything;

The Estate Agent's rep and Mr Horton fail to understand that one is tying to sell the villa and that the other is here for a date leading to a lot of innuendo;

The assassin is having an attack of nerves and fails to kill the woman who is there for a date with Mr Horton, she in turn thinks he is her date and is just suffering jitters;

Horton's wife turns up as someone told her he was in Venice and she knew nothing about it;

Orton's boss treats him with abuse down the phone when he is being tortured by the mafia as they do not believe his story;

And the assassin and Horton's date think Horton is the one arranging for a hit;

It is not a great film but it passes amiably enough and I have seen much worse.

 

I've always liked that one. I watch it every couple of years. 

My favorite Dudley Moore film (although I like a lot of his comedy material before he got into movies). 

 

[zslane]

On 12/28/2021 at 12:23 PM, Lord Liaden said:

I'm not sure I follow your logic for that assertion. Could you elaborate?

 

An Elric series would look too much like a rip-off of The Witcher even though in reality it is the other way around. The Witcher got there first with its Elric clone and so it is unlikely we'll see the original White Wolf on tv (or in movies) any time soon.

[Starlord]

1 hour ago, zslane said:

 

An Elric series would look too much like a rip-off of The Witcher even though in reality it is the other way around. The Witcher got there first with its Elric clone and so it is unlikely we'll see the original White Wolf on tv (or in movies) any time soon.

 

The original White Wolf is Jean Blanc, a hated albino anti-hero from the 19th century French novel titled Le Loup Blanc by Paul Feval.  Everybody takes from everybody else.

[dmjalund]

watched dopesick and i realize i miss Jake McDorman in his role in the Limitless TV series

[Bazza]

Encanto 3.5 ⭐️

[mattingly]

Today I'll watch The Hudsucker Proxy, as I do every New Year's Eve, not counting the mezzanine.

 

 

 

 

[zslane]

21 hours ago, Starlord said:

The original White Wolf is Jean Blanc, a hated albino anti-hero from the 19th century French novel titled Le Loup Blanc by Paul Feval.  Everybody takes from everybody else.

 

I've never heard of that novel. Nor, do I suspect, has anyone else who watches stuff like The Witcher. And while I appreciate that little bit of literary history, I don't think it is even remotely comparable to how close Geralt of Rivia is to Elric of Melnibone.

[Starlord]

I've heard others make this case before, but I don't see it.  Other than having white hair and the name White Wolf, very little can be said to be directly taken from Elric in my opinion.  Sapkowski stole from Polish history and literature for stories.  There is no Order/Chaos dichotomy (Chaos is more pronounced for TV).  Geralt is a monster hunter, Elric is mainly a mercenary.  Any other character similarities draw from general loner hero adventure tropes.

 

If written well (as with every other media), an Elric series could be successful.  Doom Patrol is filled with characters who are depressing and filled with self-loathing like Elric, and it's doing pretty well.  He's not Thomas Covenant gloomy, but he's close. 

 

Wait, nevermind, nobody's close to Thomas Covenant depressing. 

[Pariah]

Wait, I thought the White Wolf was James Buchanan Barnes. I may have missed something.

[Lord Liaden]

Last I heard, it was hanging out with Jon Snow.

[Bazza]

5 hours ago, Pariah said:

Wait, I thought the White Wolf was James Buchanan Barnes. I may have missed something.

Yes, White Wolf is his Wakanda name. And John Snow is from Game of Throwns, so you may/may not have heard of him. 

[csyphrett]

It's Columbo night and our detective matches wits with Anne Baxter as an actress who may have killed the wrong person, and Leonard Nimoy as a doctor trying to kill his colleague and implicates himself when he has to save the colleague to avoid an autopsy

CES

[Joe Walsh]

Ghosts (original, UK version): It's a pretty funny series. If you like Britcoms, you may enjoy this one. HBO Max.

 

[Pariah]

Whilst on winter break in Colorado, we got to see Sing 2 in the theater. It was a rare example of a sequel that is better than the original. 

[slikmar]

4 hours ago, Pariah said:

Whilst on winter break in Colorado, we got to see Sing 2 in the theater. It was a rare example of a sequel that is better than the original. 

Want to see it, but with weather and power problems, will probably have to wait until comes to regular pay channels. LOVED the first one, really hoping previews didnt give to much away.

[death tribble]

Hobbs and Shaw

The Rock and Jason Statham get their own spin-off from the Fast and Furious franchise. They are reunited as Idris Elba's villain goes amok. There are chase scenes in London and I recognise the area so this is a plus to me. Then you have Roman Reigns as part of the Rock's family on Samoa. It is not a great film but it is entertaining.

 

Johnny Mnemonic

finally saw this Keanu Reeves film. As a fan of the cyberpunk genre I should have seen this years ago.  it has Ice-T, Dolph Lundgren, Dina Meyer and Takeshi Kitano in the support cast. A little dated but still good.

 

Daddy Longlegs

Fred Astaire and Leslie Caron star in this musical from 1955. Caron is a French orphan that Astaire anonymously sponsors through college. It has an older man and a young woman falling in love which might not pass muster today. Still entertaining.

 

New Year's Day Concert

This is the annual concert given by the Vienna Philharmonic which has become a tradition for me. It is mostly Strauss music and ends with two of the most well known pieces The Blue Danube waltz and The Radetsky March. It is something you can just drift away to and you don't need to think about.

 

Swallows and Amazons

This is a kids film from 1974 that is set in 1929. Two brothers and two sisters from a naval family are on holiday in the Lake District and begin exploring and sailing the lake. They set up camp on an island and come into contact with two sisters who also sail. The Swallow is one of the boats and Amazon is the other. The kids do not swear, they co-operate and are self sufficient which is different to today. It is charming like The Railway Children from 1970. I can watch this again and again.

 

Dr Who: Eve of the Daleks

I have not seen the latest series and this is partly linked to it but really you don't need to have seen that to see this. A self storage business has one client on New Year's Eve and then the Dr turns up with their companions. But a Dalek turns up as well and starts killing people. It also kills the Dr. And then time repeats. The Dr and everyone else recall what has happened and try to stop it. But the Daleks are also learning and adapting. Because more than one turns up. It is alright but the writer (and showrunner) felt they had to up the power of the Dalek up by giving it a multi-barrelled gun. Stupid really. 

[Ternaugh]

Encanto: Story about a family where each member (except one) has been given unique magical gifts. A good watch. (Disney+)

 

Hogfather: Adapted from the Terry Pratchett book, this one's entertaining seasonal fare. (DVD)

 

The Colour of Magic: Adapted from the first two Discworld books, it follows the adventures of the Disc's first tourist and his guide. (DVD)

 

Mission: Impossible: First in the series of Tom Cruise movies, this one's much more enjoyable than I remember. (Vudu UHD)

[Joe Walsh]

Encanto (Disney+): Lone unmagical family member must figure out why the family's magic is dying. Worth watching.

Book of Boba Fett (Disney+): After one episode, I've nearly lost all interest.

The Great (Hulu): Four episodes in, S2 is just as good as S1. It's a really enjoyable show, hilarious at times.

Pixar Popcorn (Disney+): A collection of ten short-shorts, each about 2 minutes long, starring a variety of Pixar characters. They're all worth watching, but of course some are better than others.

 

[slikmar]

5 hours ago, death tribble said:

Daddy Longlegs

Fred Astaire and Leslie Caron star in this musical from 1955. Caron is a French orphan that Astaire anonymously sponsors through college. It has an older man and a young woman falling in love which might not pass muster today. Still entertaining.

not just old man/young woman, but old man in position of authority over the young woman.

[mattingly]

15 hours ago, death tribble said:

Johnny Mnemonic

finally saw this Keanu Reeves film. As a fan of the cyberpunk genre I should have seen this years ago.  it has Ice-T, Dolph Lundgren, Dina Meyer and Takeshi Kitano in the support cast. A little dated but still good. 

 

I've always liked it. 

 

 

[Ternaugh]

Mission: Impossible 2: Not quite as strong as the first, the John Woo-directed fight sequences feature lots of martial arts, and the plot concerns stopping the release of a supervirus. (Vudu UHD)

 

Mission: Impossible 3: The lens flare and shakycam* are strong with this one directed by J.J. Abrams, which uses the unfortunate format of pulling out an "exciting" scene from later in the movie to start, and then showing us how we got there (in a very predictable way). The plot involves looking for a McGuffin that ultimately means little in this forgettable movie. Skippable. (Vudu UHD)

 

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol: The IMF team must stop a plot to launch a nuclear war after the entire agency is disavowed. Directed by Brad Bird, this one's my favorite so far. (Vudu UHD)

 

 

 

*I suspect that the action sequences were actually shot with Steadicams, and then f****d up in post-production. One particular stretch was so bad, that all I remember seeing was a blurry, bouncing door with some unidentifiable object moving past it, in what looked like three frames before a cut. The overall effect was like trying to watch a movie at 500 yards through a telescope while sitting on an operating paint mixer.

[mattingly]

2 hours ago, Ternaugh said:

Mission: Impossible 3: The lens flare and shakycam* are strong with this one directed by J.J. Abrams, which uses the unfortunate format of pulling out an "exciting" scene from later in the movie to start, and then showing us how we got there (in a very predictable way). The plot involves looking for a McGuffin that ultimately means little in this forgettable movie. Skippable.

 

This is my favorite one, actually.