What Have You Watched Recently?

[death tribble]

Bringing Up Baby

Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn in a screwball comedy. A dinosaur bone and a leopard cause all sorts of havoc. It maybe that Hepburn's character would be criticised today. It is fun and madcap.

 

Enter Inspector Duval

A French police inspector is brought in to help with an investigation in London. A burglar has killed a woman while attempting to find jewels that she owned. The British police and Duval work through all the suspects in order to find the killer and the jewels. Anton Differing plays the French inspector which is nice change of pace for him. This is a short film.

 

The Street with No Name

This is one of this films with a bit of narration and is supposedly about the FBI trying to find and infiltrate a new style of gang. Richard Widmark plays the gang leader. How evil is he ? He beats his wife up so of course he's evil ! And as all moral films of this period are, he pays for this with his wife. Widmark does have one secret. One of the police contacts is passing hin information. Worth a second look.

 

My Favourite Brunette

Bob Hope is a photographer who wants to be a private eye and when his business neighbour Alan Ladd who is a PI is out of town gets mistaken for him and offered a case. But is the woman giving him the case mad ? This is quite fun with Dorothy Lamour as the woman and Peter Lorre and Lon Chaney Jnr as part of the bad guys group. Bing Crosby also cameoes. This is very good.

 

A Prize of Arms

Three men try to rob the army at a base with soldiers about to ship out to the Middle East. Stanley Baker and Tom Bell star. Quite fun. But dated for the techniques.

 

Band Waggon

Arthur Askey and Richard Murdoch are trying to get on the BBC and as the film starts are living on the roof of the BBC radio HQ. Evicted they end up in a haunted castle which enemy spies are using to pass info back to Germany. Arthur and Richard end up uncovering the whole thing by accident. Better than the Ghost Train as Askey is more tolerable here.

[Jhamin]

Rewatching old episodes of "Night Court" on Amazon prime.

 

Nostalgic for me, but *man* does this show not age super well.  John Larroquette's loveable sex maniac character is less loveable and a lot more cringe in 2022.

 

Brent Spiner's recurring role as a luckless hick is still kinda great though.

[Ternaugh]

52 minutes ago, Jhamin said:

Rewatching old episodes of "Night Court" on Amazon prime.

 

Nostalgic for me, but *man* does this show not age super well.  John Larroquette's loveable sex maniac character is less loveable and a lot more cringe in 2022.

 

Brent Spiner's recurring role as a luckless hick is still kinda great though.

 

"We ate the Necco Wafers."

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Anybody else watching Eurovision? Grand finale tomorrow. 

[Ternaugh]

Firestarter: This Stephen King story has been remade into a 2022 movie, which struggles to approach the level of the 1984 release. The soundtrack's probably the best part, and is composed by John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter, and Daniel Davies. (Watched on Peacock; also in theaters)

 

The Fifth Element: First released 25 years ago (on May 9, 1997), this one still looks and sounds gorgeous, especially in 4K/Dolby Atmos. (Movies Anywhere/Vudu streaming copy, because I was too lazy to load the 4K Blu-ray into the player)

 

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: MCU's first movie with heavy reliance on horror. I enjoyed it. (In theaters)

 

Chariots of the Gods*: Back in 1974, this was released in our local area as a "four wall" movie**, with my Mom on site at the Daytona multiplex record audience reactions and to gather the movie receipts. I would sometimes sit in on the films for a showing, but Mom declared to my Dad that the film was utter trash and not suitable for a 5-year-old. She sat me down in a different theater, where I watched Young Frankenstein instead. Watching the "documentary" now, I believe that she made the correct decision. (Amazon Prime)

 

 

*The book and film were champions of the theory that ancient astronauts visited Earth, and built a bunch of ancient wonders (because early civilizations couldn't figure out how to stack rocks on their own). It went on to influence a bunch of other projects, including Marvel's Eternals and Stargate. It also spawned a bunch of breathy "documentaries", where a few carefully selected pieces of information are presented, and then a conclusion is given, usually with an appeal to an authority figure.

 

**Four wall distribution involves a company renting out a theater to show their movie, and all receipts belong to the distributor. It used to be fairly common in the 1970s with a variety of smaller films. Mom worked with a company known as Schick Sunn Classics, which distributed Chariots, as well as a bunch of films targeted towards family audiences (G ratings), like The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams and In Search of Noah's Ark.

[Tjack]

I’m just finishing re-watching the first season of Veronica Mars.  Very, very good stuff.  Kind of teen noir.

[Scott Ruggels]

Saturday with Netflix.

 

Russian Doll.  Too New York, Too glib, too whiny. too slow. Gave it a pass after the first episode.

 

Cobra Kai, Episode 4, Season 4.  The show continues to be well written, and amusing, and thankfully free of wokeness. 

[Spence]

3 hours ago, Ternaugh said:

Watching the "documentary" now, I believe that she made the correct decision.

 

Well actual documentaries ceased to exist back in the 90s, so......

I actually enjoyed Chariots and some of the other programs.  Great place to mine ideas for games. 

[mattingly]

18 hours ago, Ternaugh said:

The Fifth Element: First released 25 years ago (on May 9, 1997), this one still looks and sounds gorgeous, especially in 4K/Dolby Atmos. (Movies Anywhere/Vudu streaming copy, because I was too lazy to load the 4K Blu-ray into the player)

 

I watch this one frequently. 

 

Vampires (John Carpenter). I hadn't seen this one in a few years. It's great seeing James Woods as an action star. And I like the explanation that the first vampire came from a "reverse exorcism."

 

 

[Joe Walsh]

The Dropout (Hulu). I'm always leery of these sorts of biopics, but this one was pretty good. I liked the pace of the miniseries and enjoyed the acting. I was glad it didn't try to build empathy for Holmes or her partner in crime, and didn't try to minimize what they did.

[Ternaugh]

On 5/15/2022 at 12:45 PM, Spence said:

 

Well actual documentaries ceased to exist back in the 90s, so......

I actually enjoyed Chariots and some of the other programs.  Great place to mine ideas for games. 

 

It's a well to which many have gone, some more successfully than others. Probably my favorite adaptation of the ancient astronauts concept was Stargate: SG-1.

 

Prometheus: Prequel to Alien, this one has an expedition funded by the Weyland Corporation searching to discover a race of engineers, who were depicted in a bunch of ancient art from around Earth, along with a constellation of stars that were too far away to see without a telescope. The explorers find an ancient structure on a moon, and proceed to break just about every safety protocol while investigating, helped along by the unknown mission of their android, David. Solid cast, all "Acting Appropriately Stupid"* to allow the horror to develop. Not quite as good for me as either Alien or Aliens, it's still a decent watch. (Amazon Prime)

 

The Pentaverate: Mike Myers plays a number of characters in this Netflix series about a "nice" secret society, and the polite Canadian reporter investigating them. There are many fun cameos, including during each episode's title sequence. Overall, fairly funny, though it does earn its TV-MA rating. (Netflix)

 

Short Circuit: Nostalgia watch about a military robot that becomes sentient after a jolt of lightning zaps it. A fun watch. (Amazon Prime)

 

 

*A rule in the RPG, It Came from the Late, Late, Late Show, for enforcing genre tropes in bad movies, like checking out a noise in a basement with a broken light after hearing a report on the radio that there's a homicidal maniac killing people in their homes.

[csyphrett]

Season six of the Columbo set started with three episodes per disk. The three for Sunday were William Shatner killing his television show's producer (Walter Koening had a bit part as a detective at the murder scene), Joyce Van Patten setting up her security guard and brother to look like they killed each other in the museum because the brother wanted to close the place down, and an accountant/member of a MENSA type club setting up a looked room mystery at the club after he kills his partner Sorrell Booke. (A young Jamie Lee Curtis plays a surly waitress in one scene who winds up having to replace Columbo's donut with a fresh one after she takes it from him. )

CES

[mattingly]

I finally saw Glass (2019) and Birdman (2014). 

[Joe Walsh]

Finished S1 of Minx (HBOMax). It's very well done, with the early 70s setting and specifically 70s SoCal well represented. And it's a fresh take on the feminist movement of the time. But keep in mind you have to be prepared for quite a bit of full frontal male nudity to watch this series.

 

Also finished S1 of Our Flag Means Death (HBOMax). While the first couple of episodes of this pirate-themed fish-out-of-water series are weak, and there are several points in the series (especially in the final episode of the season) where you can see the writer's hands quite obviously in the plot, it's overall a true delight to watch. I appreciate the way they fictionalized the historic characters, with the broad outlines still fitting into the historic record but with the characters as presented being appropriate for this story. Plenty of laughs, and lots of great characters. Nicely done.

 

And we finished S2 of Deadwood (HBOMax). That is one of the finest seasons of TV I've ever seen. Wow.

[Ternaugh]

I have two episodes to go with Our Flag Means Death. As GM Joe noted above, it's nicely done.

 

Jurassic Park: The original is one of my favorite movies, and it's hard not to get emotional when the John Williams score kicks in. An excellent watch that spared no expense. (HBOmax)

[Ternaugh]

The Lost World: Jurassic Park: Second in the series, Ingen's plan is to grab dinosaurs from Site B for a theme park in San Diego, but are opposed by Ian Malcolm and the team sent by Hammond to "document" the dinosaurs. This film goes a bit off the rails in the last act, but is otherwise enjoyable. (HBOmax)

 

Jurassic Park III: The first one not directed by Spielberg. A divorced couple trick Dr Grant to help them search for their missing son, who was last seen in the vicinity of Site B. This one's grown on me over the years, though it's far from the best movie in the series. (HBOmax)

 

Chip 'N' Dale: Rescue Rangers: Surprisingly entertaining movie about a series of disappearances of animated characters, and the two chipmunks reuniting to investigate. It's a mix of animation and live-action, and includes cameos from a variety of characters. (Disney+)

[tkdguy]

Partners in Crime: A 1983 series based on Agatha Christie's novels starring Francesca Annis and James Warwick as Tuppence and Tommy Beresford. 

[Joe Walsh]

Ghostbusters: Afterlife: A surprisingly enjoyable decades-later sequel. Nothing will recapture the magic of the original, but this was very well done.

[Joe Walsh]

Watched another nostalgia flick, this time one that I don't have any nostalgia for because I didn't watch the originals: Chip 'N' Dale Rescue Rangers. I still enjoyed the bazillion cameos and references to other media properties, a la Roger Rabbit (including several to Roger Rabbit itself). The story was about what you'd expect, nothing brilliant, but it works. More importantly enough of the humor works to make it an enjoyable watch.

 

[Scott Ruggels]

Watching Bosch: Legacy on Amazon Prime’s free service FreeVee. It’s a continuation of the Bosch series, but takes place after an acrimonious split from LAPD. My mom and I agree that Harry Bosch is more interesting and creative as a private eye than he was as a cop detective.  The cast is necessarily smaller, but there a lot of cameos from previous years.  It’s very much above average television. It is also filmed mostly in the old neighborhood I lived and worked in, and I often point out locations where I have been ( much to my mom’s annoyance). 

[Jhamin]

Finally saw Bill & Ted face the Music.

 

I wasn't up to running a game Saturday so my group decided to have a movie night instead.  I remember reading a review when it dropped that it was exactly a 3rd Bill & Ted movie.  If you disliked the older ones you would dislike this one in the same way, but if you found the old ones fun or charming, then you would feel the same way about this one.

I really agree.  It *felt* like a 3rd in the series, not just a decades later nostalgia pic.  The musical duo's increasingly desperate attempts to unite humanity via the power of Rock, combined with their surprisingly successful run at Fatherhood made for a fun time.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

"Count Me In" A good documentary about drummers on Netflix. Includes footage from the recently departed Taylor Hawkins. 

[death tribble]

The Night Caller

British sci fi film with John Saxon as an American associate of a British scientist. They investigate a meteorite which gives birth to a creature which escapes the army's custody eventually. It is believed to come from Ganymede, one of Jupiter's moons. It is abducting women and kills several people who try to stop it before fleeing into space.

 

A Wing and a Prayer

Propaganda piece which fictionalises the build up to Midway with one aircraft carrier being used as a diversion to lull the Japanese into a false sense of security thinking the US carriers are elsewhere. The truth was better but this was released in 1945 when they could not say exactly what had happened and how they knew. Not bad.

 

A Tale of 5 Cities

A man becomes amnesiac in a Berlin nightclub and a magazine helps him to retrace his steps in Europe via 5 cash noes on which are women's names. This takes him from Rome to Vienna to Berlin to Paris to Rome and finally London before we find out the full story. Again not bad.

 

Meet the Navy 

This is the film version of a revue called Meet the Navy which was set up by the Canadian Navy. It details how various members of the cast ended up in the show and their fortunes thence before a final gala performance in London before King George VI, his wife and the Princess Elizabeth. The last part of the show is in glorious technicolor.

 

Donovan's Brain

A scientist is doing experiments trying to keep a monkey's brain alive when a plane crash gives him a human subject, the businessman Donovan who is fighting the tax authorities. Keeping the brain alive allows it to start influencing the scientist so that the businessman can continue his schemes. But his partner is not happy about it, nor his wife, there is a reporter butting his nose in and the tax authorities are still on the hunt. It is rather a simple story but that is why it works.

 

Woman on the Run

A man witnesses a killing and the killer fails to kill him. Not happy about police protection he takes off. His wife tries to find him discovering that he had more layers than she thought. A reporter ingratiates himself with her in order to get the story. But the police are tracking her as well. This is a nice quick film noir.

[Pariah]

I caught The Hunt for Red October on cable over the weekend. It was as good as I remember it, Sean Connery's accent notwithstanding.

 

I really wish Alec Baldwin had stuck around for the other Jack Ryan films. Harrison Ford is good, but he's just not Jack Ryan.

[Ternaugh]

1 hour ago, Pariah said:

I caught The Hunt for Red October on cable over the weekend. It was as good as I remember it, Sean Connery's accent notwithstanding.

 

I really wish Alec Baldwin had stuck around for the other Jack Ryan films. Harrison Ford is good, but he's just not Jack Ryan.

 

The soundtrack's good, too.