What Have You Watched Recently?

[Tech]

Watched "Frozen Fever"

[Joe Walsh]

Made for Love (HBOMax) Last night we watched S2E1 and wow, it's as good as S1. Here's hoping they keep it up.

 

[death tribble]

Johnny Frenchman

Wartime film about the rivalry between Cornish and Breton fisherfolk, interrupted by the start of the war. A woman on the Cornish side is supposed to marry a man she has known since childhood but a Frenchman falls in love with her. She ends up torn between them. The French and Cornish learn to co-operate as the French shelter in Cornwall away from the Germans and the French remove a mine that is threatening the harbour.

 

Happy Thieves

Rex Harrison, Joseph Wiseman and Rita Hayworth are art thieves who lose their prize to someone who wants them to steal a Goya in order to avenge his family. As this is one of the largest paintings in the Prado museum in Madrid it will take some doing to steal the painting. The person who they stole the painting from is dating a famous matador and the thieves want him to resign before the bullfight in order to create a distraction that will alert the guards at the Prado and occupy them for a few minutes. The guy who is getting them to steal the Goya shoots and kills the matador creating a sensation in the bull ring. The thieves switch the painting and then have to come back for it but their patron is killed by the person dating the matador. The thieves negotiate the return for the Goya by getting themselves free with the exception of the boss who takes the rap for the patron's death. It is ok.

 

Cat People

This is the original black and white not the McDowell and Kinski colour version with Bowie soundtrack. A woman trying to draw panthers at the zoo becomes attracked to and marries a man she meets there. She is from Serbia and their is a legend among her people about them mixing with cats. She becomes jealous of her husband's colleague and stalks her. The scene in the 80s version makes a lot more sense having seen this one. Having attacked and killed a psychiatrist she goes to the zoo she releases a panther who kills her. Sad but atmospheric.

 

Six Inches Tall aka Attack of the Puppet People

A doll manufacturer hires a woman to work with him after a previous employee disappears. The manufacturere has a thing about loneliness and makes people small so that they do n ot leave him. Quirky, interesting little horror film. See once.

 

Dementia 13

Francis Ford Coppola wrote and directed this film. A woman goes to see her mother in law as her husband is being cut out of the will. As long as he lives she is in line for some money but he has died and she has covered it up. She decides to try and make the old lady mad as the commemoration of the death of her only daughter causes her great sorrow. But someone else is obsessed with the dead girl and this causes death. Richard Campbell and Patrick Magee are the standouts here.

 

Guadalcanal Diary

The temptation to write Dairy instead of Diary is almost too much. This film is a truncated version of the the Guadalcanal campaign by the marines. It is Richard Jaeckel's first film and is among one of Antony Quinn's first 50 films. They are the ones people will know nowadays rather than William Bendix, Richard Conte and Lloyd Nolan. It deals with the first landing until the marines are removed. This was made only a few months after the real campaign had ended. It's not bad a s a propaganda piece.

[Ternaugh]

The Orville: New Horizons: The first episode of the third season, entitled "Electric Sheep". The focus is on drama, and the extended runtime allows for characters to get a chance to develop. The sets and special effects look to be upgraded, as well. Overall, an excellent SF show in the style of the best of TNG-era Star Trek. (Hulu; I believe that it's on Disney+ outside of the US)

 

Starflight One (aka Starflight: the Plane That Couldn't Land and Airport 85): This was a made for TV movie from 1983, which takes all of the worst tropes from the Airport movies and blends it with a hypersonic airliner that accidentally ends up in orbit after a near-miss with another rocket. The film relied on stock footage from NASA for many of the scenes, which created humorous errors, like the Vertical Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center being seen in back of an Apollo-era rocket in a picture labeled, "Sydney, Australia", and mislabeling a landing test of the Enterprise space shuttle as the Columbia in more than one sequence. Special effects by John Dykstra's Apogee Inc. were abysmal. Watch Airplane II: The Sequel instead. (Amazon Prime)

[mattingly]

5 hours ago, Ternaugh said:

humorous errors, like the Vertical Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center

 

Vehicle Assembly Building. I used to work in one of the small buildings next to it.

[Ternaugh]

2 hours ago, mattingly said:

 

Vehicle Assembly Building. I used to work in one of the small buildings next to it.

 

You're right, of course. It hasn't been the Vertical Assembly building since 1965, when it was still under construction.

[Starlord]

I prefer horizontal assembly buildings myself.

[Asperion]

Building preference: realistically sized where normal human can get from any point to any point in minutes without need for assistance. This removes things such as warehouses,  skyscrapers,  factories,  mansions, or other places that require HUGE amounts of staff for minimum upkeep. 

[Cancer]

To be fair, there are buildings where an intrinsic required aspect of their design is to limit access.  Mostly these are industrial facilities, but there are others.  Aside from prisons, none of them are places where you're supposed to live.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Finished up Hacks S2 last night. Unfortunately, S3 does not have a green light yet. 

[Joe Walsh]

Ms. Marvel (Disney+): One episode in, this seems pretty good. It's an interesting variation on some of the Spider-Man tropes. It's clearly intended for younger viewers, but it's enjoyable enough for adults as well.

 

[Ternaugh]

28 minutes ago, GM Joe said:

Ms. Marvel (Disney+): One episode in, this seems pretty good. It's an interesting variation on some of the Spider-Man tropes. It's clearly intended for younger viewers, but it's enjoyable enough for adults as well.

 

 

The first episode was good, and the graphic stylings of her daydreams reminded me a bit of Into the Spider-Verse and Turning Red. 

[Scott Ruggels]

Just finished Stranger Things Season 4, Pt. 1.  On par with the first season, with a lot less comedy, more of that Stephen King influence the First Season had.  They turned on the Money spigots at Netflix as the production looks lush, and each episode is like a movie.  Characters are doing things, and acting mostly smart. Definitely recommended.

 

Bosch: Legacy on Amazon Prime Video.  a smart detective show. Harry Bosch has left the LAPD and has gone into being a private Eye, which allows for him to use a lot more creative problem solving than he did as an LAPD Detective for the past 6 seasons.  But old problems from those days continue to follow him, especially due to how slowly the courts move. 

 

About to dive into Season three of The Boys.

[DShomshak]

Last week I watched the premier episode of the new Tom Swift series on CW. I have fond memories of the Tom Swift Jr. book series from my youth, so I expected to be disappointed and by cracky I was.

 

Actually, my first reaction was, "Wut?" I mean, does anyone under 50 even remember this kid's book series about a Boy Genius Inventor? But watching the ep explained why anyone would be interested in this IP.

 

(For those not in the know, Tom Swift was the hero of a series of kids books from, like the 1920s or thereabluts, with titles like Tom Swift and his Giant Airplane or Tom Swift and the Big Oil Gusher. He's a young inventor and industrialist who travels the world and has adventures. Series rebooted for his son, Tom Swift Jr., going into outright SF with titles like Tom Swift and his Polar /Ray Dynosphere, Tom Swift in the Caves of Nuclear Fire, and Tom Swift and the Visitor from Planet X.)

 

I did know that Tom's character would have to be changed significantly because in the books, he doesn't have one. He is a perfect whitebread straight arrow, exactly what 1950s America thought a young person should be. So, boring.

 

The series makes him Black and gay. OK, whatever. Tom also starts as an undisciplined party boy as well as a scientific genius, and he has major daddy issues. Also an AI assistant. Aha! They're trying to make him Tony Stark. Reasonable, because Tony Stark is well known and popular, but of no interest to me because we already have one Tony Stark and I don't see the need for another one.

 

The acting, dialogue and plot are meh. Tom Sr. blasts off in the cpmpany's new rocket to Saturn. Leaves the company in the hands of someone other than Tom Jr., because Junior is undisciplined and a disappointment despite his genius. Rocket blows up once it reaches Saturn. Junior finds evidence there was sabotage, but also that his father survived in an escape pod. Who sabotaged the rocket? A secret society, "an offshoot of the Illuminati," dedicated to reversing technological progress (but is nevertheless willing to use advanced technology to do so). Episode ends with Tom going on a road trip to collect the three parts of the message capsule his dad rocketed back to Earth, Tom vowing to reclaim control of his father's company, and a revelation that the conspiracy has already infiltrated the cpmpany.

 

I ought to have watched episode 2 to see if it got any better, but I forgot and don't mind much. Honestly, I cannot imagine why anyone should waste their time on this derivative drivel. But then, I am also certainly not the target audience.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

4 hours ago, GM Joe said:

Ms. Marvel (Disney+): One episode in, this seems pretty good. It's an interesting variation on some of the Spider-Man tropes. It's clearly intended for younger viewers, but it's enjoyable enough for adults as well.

 

 

I've got to say, I was not impressed. They made her just another Disney teen and the new powers are terribly generic. But I'll keep watching, only one episode is not enough for me to judge by. 

[Starlord]

Stranger Things Season 4 was fantastic, maybe even better than season 1.  There is a lot of story but all the time is used brilliantly and every character written well.

[Joe Walsh]

5 hours ago, Ternaugh said:

 

The first episode was good, and the graphic stylings of her daydreams reminded me a bit of Into the Spider-Verse and Turning Red. 

 

Good point! It's pretty fun stuff.

 

I also like that the way they're handling the DMs and text messages makes them much more readable for my old eyes than many other series have lol

[rravenwood]

Just finished Stranger Things 4 vol. 1 - enjoyed it!  Don't want to say too much lest I spoil, but Murray is pretty fun this season

[Pariah]

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

 

I could've sworn I saw this film back in the day, but when I watched it today it was mostly unfamiliar. I remembered.the rock climbing scene and the "What does God need with a starship?", And I've seen the clip where Scotty bonks his head on a bulkhead, but the rest of the movie didn't ring any bells. 

 

So apparently I didn't see it before. But now I have.

[Starlord]

3 hours ago, Pariah said:

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

 

I could've sworn I saw this film back in the day, but when I watched it today it was mostly unfamiliar. I remembered.the rock climbing scene and the "What does God need with a starship?", And I've seen the clip where Scotty bonks his head on a bulkhead, but the rest of the movie didn't ring any bells. 

 

So apparently I didn't see it before. But now I have.

 

My condolences.

[Pariah]

Eh, it was at least as entertaining as Star Trek: The Motion Picture. 

 

Not a high bar to clear, particularly.

[Bazza]

Injustice, a less nuanced adaption by DC, of Marvel’s Squadron Supreme miniseries written by Mark Greunwald, about a pastiche of the Justice League taking over the world. 

[Pariah]

As I was flipping through the channels last night, I found one of my favorite sports movies of all time: The Sandlot. Come for the chase scene with Benny and The Beast, stay to hear James Earl Jones talk about the history of baseball.

[death tribble]

Farscape Season 2

There was a delay finishing this as one episode 'Won't Get Fooled Again' was not shown with the rest. It is on Youtube so finished it there. They upgraded the costumes or uniforms in the series and this looked good. Crichton's hallucinations until he finds out about Scorpius's chip are good. And the whole Crichton has to marry and rule a planet arc. Then we go back to the Shadow depositary and we find Dago's son.

The last episode with Crichton stuck on an operating table and Aeryn dead pulls the rug out from under your feet.

 

Yellowstone season 2

A new threat emerges to threaten the ranch in the form of two brothers who own slot machines. They poison the cattle which is a bad thing but it takes the family a while to work out it was them. Jamie's babbling comes back to bit in the backside and he then does something that he should not. You say how tough Beth is and how far Kayce will go for his family. I like it. It has a violent edge and does not shy away from it. The villains were a bit comical or one dimensional but as one was played by Neal McDonough I am prepared to overlook it.

 

Criterium de Dauphine 2022

The prelude to the Tour de France was dominated by one team Jumbo Visma. Their sprinter was in the lead until the last mountain stages and took the Green Jersy for the sprint competition and that was Wout Van Aert. But the team leader Primoz Roglic won overall in the mountains. This gives them a real advantage going into the Tour.

 

21 Bridges

Two ex-soldiers rob a place holding drugs and the police turn up en masse and they kill seven of eight of them. A detective that is not in the local precinct is assigned and has the bridges closed in order to keep the criminals trapped in Manhattan. But the FBI want the case. The police on the other hand do not. The criminals are trying to sell the drugs and flee while the cops try to find them fast. This is a taut fast piece and stars Chadwick Boseman. It is very good. Find and watch.

 

Prince of Darkness

John Carpenter time with Donald Pleasence as a priest who brings in scientists to look at a cylinder which contains evil. This is a film I saw at the cinema and it still holds up. Alice Cooper plays one of the homeless entranced by the influence of the evil.

 

Assault on Precinct 13

The original John Carpenter version not the remake. A new lieutenant is assigned baby sitting duty on a precinct house that is closing down. Three prisoners are brought there after one takes ill. Then a man seeks sanctuary there after his daughter is murdered while getting an ice cream. He had hunted down the car and killed one of the occupants who happens to be one of the leaders of a local gang. The gang want revenge for the death of six of their number so were cruising the streets looking for victims. And now they want the guy in the station and anyone with him. It does not let up and is much better than the remake despite the lack of any star name.

[csyphrett]

Last night was Columbo night as our master detective warns Ruth Gordon that she can't expect kindness, Nicol Williamson that he had made too many mistakes and lies for someone who trained his dogs to kill, and forces Louis Jourdan to have dinner with him as he arrests the man.

CES