What Have You Watched Recently?

[Michael Hopcroft]

Your brief post reminds me of how much I wanted to see Hadestown on tour, but that I could not afford tickets when they toured Portland.

[Ternaugh]

See How They Run: Comedy set around a murder at the 100th performance of the play, The Mousetrap, which lampoons the various genre tropes surrounding Agatha Christie-style mysteries. We had a good time, but it may be lost on folks unfamiliar with the source material. (In theaters now)

[Joe Walsh]

We watched two superhero movies over the weekend that stand in pretty stark contrast to one another.

 

Everything Everywhere All at Once: Wow. This one showed genre literacy *and* an understanding of good story structure. It's not flawless; it felt repetitive for a while. Chopping 20 minutes off the runtime would improve it. But otherwise, it's fantastic. An interesting story about characters that are easy to understand and care about. The main character goes through a transformation and by the end of the story is truly changed. Surprising stuff happens. Delightful stuff happens. One of the best supers movies I've ever seen.

 

Thor - Love and Thunder: Oh what a wasted opportunity. They finally get back to the Jane Foster storyline, but they never make it interesting. It's mostly a bunch of set-pieces that look like they could have been lifted from a video game, punctuated by hit-or-miss jokes. I'm not sure what the intended audience is. Parts seemed made for small children, while others seemed unsuitable for them. But either way, this one is very skippable. Glad I didn't see this one in the theater. Better to read a one-paragraph summary and move on.

 

[csyphrett]

Columbo night brings us Andrew Stevens as the murderer trying to run a double bluff. Peter Falk doesn't get to do his typical antics here since this one was all about the drama

CES

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Started Abbott Elementary last night. There were some legit LOL moments in the pilot, so I'm optimistic.

[Pariah]

I've been making my way through the second season of Star Trek: Voyager, and today I watched the notorious episode "Threshold".

 

It was as bad as I remembered.

 

But I don't think it is by any means the worst episode in any version of Star Trek, as is sometimes claimed. For example, I think the episodes "Spock's Brain" (TOS), "Code of Honor", and "Sub Rosa" (both TNG) are all worse. And don't even get me started on the Enterprise finale "These Are the Voyages". 

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

I will brook no slander of "Spock's Brain!"

 

 

I found myself saying "Brain! Brain! What is brain?" out of nowhere just yesterday 

[Starlord]

8 hours ago, Logan.1179 said:

I will brook no slander of "Spock's Brain!"

 

 

I found myself saying "Brain! Brain! What is brain?" out of nowhere just yesterday 

 

Spock's brain is the worst, man.

[Ternaugh]

Minions: The Rise of Gru: It's a Minions movie, with Gru. I'd rate it as being better than Jurassic World: Dominion, but that's a low bar. (Peacock)

 

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

9 hours ago, Starlord said:

 

Spock's brain is the worst, man.

 

The space hippies prove you're wrong. 

[Ternaugh]

Lightspeed: The Robinson Family Buzz Lightyear and a crew of 1200 crash land on a hostile alien world, and work to try to get their hyperspace drive fixed, when a strange menace arrives

Spoiler

And it's actually Dr Smith and Will Robinson Buzz Lightyear from the future. 

The movie just isn't very interesting. Watch Toy Story again instead. (Disney+)

 

Watched the second episode of The Great British Baking Show Collection 10 (the current series, dropping each Friday), and Netflix decided to recommend a couple of other food-related shows: Dahmer and Morbius. I'm guessing that the only reason that Silence of the Lambs wasn't recommended was that it's currently on Amazon Prime.

[mattingly]

I saw The League of Super-Pets on Saturday. It was pretty fun.

 

[csyphrett]

It was Columbo night as Columbo teaches two spoiled frat boys that they can't get away with murder. I've noticed that he still can't drive and the humbleness is more sarcasm as Columbo's normal personality is more on display.

CES

[Starlord]

 

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Watching Abbott Elementary now. Good stuff, not what I expected.

 

If I had to describe I'd say it's like a combination of Community and Parks & Rec. 

[Old Man]

On 9/19/2022 at 4:17 AM, GM Joe said:

Everything Everywhere All at Once: Wow. This one showed genre literacy *and* an understanding of good story structure. It's not flawless; it felt repetitive for a while. Chopping 20 minutes off the runtime would improve it. But otherwise, it's fantastic. An interesting story about characters that are easy to understand and care about. The main character goes through a transformation and by the end of the story is truly changed. Surprising stuff happens. Delightful stuff happens. One of the best supers movies I've ever seen.

 

 

This film was phenomenal.  Long, but well written with good characterization, and incredibly shot.  One of those movies where you can't help but wonder how they even filmed it while you watch.

 

It also gives hope for those of us who are in the worst timelines.

 

 

The Rings of Power (Amazon Prime Video): Really playing fast and loose with the source material, but Badass Galadriel is badass, and each of the many pennies that Amazon spent on this series is onscreen.  It's flipping beautiful.  Númenor looks like a great place to live, what with its gorgeous architecture, strong labor unions, and abundance of people buying rounds for the entire city square.

 

 

Stranger Things (Netflix): Well, I see what all the fuss was about.  Writing started to fall off toward the end of Season 4, but I think my wife might finally be beginning to understand how RPGs work.

[Ternaugh]

On 9/26/2022 at 4:55 AM, mattingly said:

I saw The League of Super-Pets on Saturday. It was pretty fun.

 

 

Just watched it on HBOmax, and I would concur. Well worth watching!

[Bazza]

So I’m either 2 Deadpool films behind, or in front. 

[Grailknight]

11 hours ago, Bazza said:

So I’m either 2 Deadpool films behind, or in front. 

 

Definitely behind, the Deadpool movie are pure gamer humor of the highest quality.

[Starlord]

Love the movies...comics = meh

[death tribble]

Strange Harvest

This is a short British film about two men who rob a sailor and leave his dead body in a field stealing his car. When one of them finds out that the field is going to be harvested then he tries to get his colleague to help him recover he body. However the sailor is still alive and speaks to the farmhands. One of the robbers is trapped in the field and tries to evade the harvesters and is caught by the police. It is just not that good.

 

The Mad Magician

Vincent Price is a man who makes magical illusions for magicians but wants to do it himself. After his employer wrecks his performance he turns on him and kills him. He then impersonates his employer and hides the body in a bonfire. He is forced to kill again when his ex-wife returns and when a magician tries to blackmail him. Worth seeing for Price, this was made the year after House of Wax and was originally shot in 3D.

 

Return of the Vampire

Bela Lugosi is a vampire in WW2 London out for revenge against the family who staked him in WW1. He goes after the children but his werewolf servant is turned against him and he is dragged into the sunlight. This was stopped from being a Dracula film by Universal so they just changed the names. It is not bad.

 

Night of the Living Dead

The classic George Romero when the dead are suddenly returning to life and killing the living. Creepy as all in. The dead are referred to (correctly) as ghouls several times. Worth seeing but genuinely scary and disturbing. The film will stay with you.

 

The Saint

The first season was only 12 episodes long. All the stories are in Britain despite the fact they are supposed to be abroad in some cases. Some actors are recycled playing different parts like Shirley Eaton who is an insurance agent in the first episode and the wife of a business man in a later one (She is the woman killed by gold paint in Goldfinger). Warren Mitchell appears a couple of times but playing the same character a Roman taxi driver. We are also introduced to Simon Templer's long term nemesis in Scotland Yard but not the actor who would play the role the most. To be honest Roger Moore is better in this than he is in the James Bond a decade later.

 

Silent Enemy

 Dramatized account of Lionel Crabb trying to stop Italian attacks on British shipping in Gibraltar. The Italians had set up a secret base to launch attacks there after their successful attack on British battleships in Egypt using frogmen and chariots. It is very good with Laurence Harvey playing Crabb who disappeared the year before supposedly trying to spy on a Russian warship in British waters (1950s..It has a good support cast with Sid James (who would go on to become a well known comic actor particularly in the Carry On films). This is a flag waving British war film which can be watched repeatedly.

[slikmar]

1 hour ago, death tribble said:

To be honest Roger Moore is better in this than he is in the James Bond a decade later.

I watched a lot of the series after seeing him play Bond and always felt he was just playing Bond as the Saint, but then, I suspect that is what the powers that be wanted, as a change from Connery. If you want a real treat, find the old Saint radio programs with Vincent Price as Simon Templar. He gets to really show his comedic chops in it and he had a great voice for radio.

[Ternaugh]

1 hour ago, slikmar said:

I watched a lot of the series after seeing him play Bond and always felt he was just playing Bond as the Saint, but then, I suspect that is what the powers that be wanted, as a change from Connery. If you want a real treat, find the old Saint radio programs with Vincent Price as Simon Templar. He gets to really show his comedic chops in it and he had a great voice for radio.

 

From the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/TheSaintVincentPriceOTR

[Ternaugh]

Hocus Pocus 2: The Sanderson Sisters are summoned 29 years after the events of the first Hocus Pocus, and it's up to a trio of teens to put things right. It's actually pretty good. The production firmly accepts the camp and comedy elements of the original production, and runs with it. (Disney+)

 

No Time to Die: This is one of the better Daniel Craig 007 movies, and manages to entertain through most of its 2 hour 40 minute running time. A good watch. (Amazon Prime)

[DShomshak]

Last night I watched Trilogy of Terror on MeTV and and though camp/horror host Svengoolie called it a classic, I thought it hadn't aged well since its 1975 TV movie release. Or just plain not that good. The third segment, best known as a pre-Chucky use of the "Killer Doll" trope, had my sister and me asking annoying nerdish questions such as, "Why was a Zuni warrior's spirit trapped in the doll in the first place? And then what is this potent supernatural object doing in a gift shop for any random idiot to purchase, complete with instructions not to remove the golden chain that keeps the spirit bound?" Possibly nerds just shouldn't watch low-budget horror movies.

 

Dean Shomshak