What Have You Watched Recently?

[Pariah]

I'm into the fourth season of Star Trek: Voyager. Seven's outfit is ... gratuitous, but the character is admittedly more interesting than Kes was (not a high bar to clear, mind you). Star Trek has never been able to do telepaths very well. Recent episodes include:

 

"Day of Honor": a/k/a/ "B'Elanna Torres and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day". B'Elanna is even crankier than normal on a Klingon holy day. An engineering experiment gone wrong leads to B'Elanna and Tom Paris going after their ejected warp core while alien refugees try to steal all of Voyager's stuff. B'Elanna and Tom nearly suffocate in the vacuum of space after their shuttle is blown up, but it all turns out okay in the end.

 

"Nemesis": Chakotay finds himself in the middle of a war where two alien species are trying to wipe each other out. Physical hardship, psychological trauma, and desecration of enemy bodies are commonplace. Voyager's take on < insert Vietnam movie of choice here >. 

 

"Revulsion": Voyager intercepts a distress signal from a maintenance hologram aboard an alien freighter, whose crew has all died of a virulent plague. B'Elanna and The Doctor beam over and discover that the hologram is homicidally germophobic and actually murdered the crew, and intends to do the same to B'Elanna so that he and The Doctor can run off an enjoy an organic-free exploration of the stars. Either that, or he's going to imprison The Doctor by damaging his mobile holographic emitter. Something like that.

 

So far, the series is better than I remember it. The writing is still inconsistent at times, but overall it's pretty solid. 

 

Edited April 12, 2023 by Pariah

[death tribble]

Crown Court

This week's Crown Court revolves around the case of a medium. Did he con an old woman into believing her son spoke to her and thus showered the medium and his disciples with gifts including a house ? There is a specific piece of British legislation that deals with the topic of mediums which I did not know about.

 

Maigret

Maigret at the Majestic. A woman is found dead in the bowels of a hotel. Who killed her and why ? Maigret works her way around the suspects until he finds the culprit. This is another Bruno Cremer piece.

 

Unforgotten

The slow burn police series returns with a new senior officer following the death of Nicola Walker's character and her ex-subordinate still grieving for her. The body of a woman is found in a fireplace. Who killed her and why ? The suspects include an MP who was made a Lord, a guy working in France who turns out to have been the woman's social worker, a drug addict thief and a pair running a restaurant (the woman's mother). The new senior officer finds out that her husband is or has been having an affair on the day she starts her new job.

 

Paris-Roubaix highlights

The race delivered but the climax was spoiled somewhat as a puncture to the guy in second let the guy who won get away. Still liked it.

 

Colombiana

After her parents are murdered by the drugs people they worked for the young Catalaya flees to America and her uncle. She asks to be trained as a killer to avenge her family. Zoe Saldana plays the adult Catalaya who has been killing people and leaving a symbol on the bodies of her victims hoping to attract the attention of the drug lord. The police however have not released info until a murder in a police station of a criminal. She gets herself arrested in order to work her way through the station to him and kill him. The film does not drag and delivers a satisfying conclusion.

 

Godzilla, King of the Monsters

This was finally screened on terrestrial TV. We get Mothra, Godzilla, Rodan and King Ghidorah. I liked it.

[Joe Walsh]

Avenue 5: Routine cruise around the solar system gets off course with no hope of returning home. Hilarity ensues. Prematurely terminated by HBO, this hilarious satire skewered everything in sight. I'm going to assume they eventually found a way around the overwhelming idiocy and venality they were up against and made it somewhere better.

 

[Ternaugh]

Cocaine Bear: I'd probably file this under horror-comedy. It was unexpectedly enjoyable. Very loosely based upon the story of "Pablo Escobear", a black bear who was found to have ingested about 35 kilos of cocaine from a smuggler's dumped load. The movie version has various folks who come across the coked-out bear in many hilarious (and tragic) ways. Worth a watch. (Peacock)

 

The Sea Beast: Very good animated feature about monster hunters who go after the terrifying creatures who roam the sea. It's a very good watch. (Netflix)

 

[Ternaugh]

Cinderella: Disney's version of the Charles Perrault version of the story. It's been recently released through the Disney Movie Club in an Ultimate Collector's Edition, featuring a new 4K Blu-ray, a standard Blu-ray, a DVD, and a digital copy. The transfers for the Blu-rays are new, and have corrected an issue with the last release, where the film grain was scrubbed a little too much, and colors were a bit off. This one looks and sounds great (4K UHD Blu-ray)

 

Johnny Dangerously: Spoof of the gangster film genre, this film's become a kind of a cult film. It's a fun watch. (HBO Max)

[mattingly]

Los Espookys, a team of horror propmakers encounter strange and wacky customers and situations. In Spanish.

 

 

[Joe Walsh]

9 hours ago, Ternaugh said:

Johnny Dangerously: Spoof of the gangster film genre, this film's become a kind of a cult film. It's a fun watch. (HBO Max)

 

I think in the mid-80s about 20% of the time my friends and I opened our mouths out would pop a Johnny Dangerously quote.

[Ternaugh]

3 hours ago, GM Joe said:

 

I think in the mid-80s about 20% of the time my friends and I opened our mouths out would pop a Johnny Dangerously quote.

My friend quoted Johnny Dangerously once. Once!

[csyphrett]

Watched the Mario movie with the boy. The movie implies that Peach wandered into the Mushroom Kingdom from Brooklyn as a child and became the Toads' champions. The games' themes were used throughout, once by Bowzer teaching a piano lesson. Luigi didn't get quite as much action, but he saves the day at the end.

CES

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Dude, spoilers!

[L. Marcus]

Saw Mad Max: Fury Road yesterday, a cinematographic masterpiece of an action extravaganza.

[Ternaugh]

Matilda: A neglected child educates herself and develops psychokinetic powers in this adaptation of the Roald Dahl story. (Netflix)

 

Coraline: A dark fantasy tale about a girl who discovers a small door in her apartment that leads to an alternate world with delights (and dangers). (HBOmax)

 

Casablanca: Classic film, now remastered onto 4K. The picture looks amazing. HDR works well with black and white, and the film is clear but preserves some film grain. Sound is also much improved. This one's definitely one to buy in 4K if you have the equipment to play it. (UHD 4K Blu-ray)

[Old Man]

Train to Busan.  I haven't seen every zombie movie and show yet, but it's not for lack of trying.  Tightly written and paced with few plot holes, hit me in the feels a few times.  If you like zombies and can read, see this with subtitles.

[Pariah]

I recently watched the Star Trek: Voyager episodes "Year of Hell", parts 1 & 2. Also known as 'Kathryn Janeway's Descent Into Madness'. 

 

Strangely enough, I don't remember seeing this story before. This was about when scheduling by UPN made it difficult for me to find Voyager episodes when I was actually at home. This one was pretty well done, although the Status Quo Is God ending was a bit of a letdown. I understand that at one point there was talk of extending this storyline beyond two seasons, perhaps even for a full year. Enterprise later did this with the Xindi war, but it could have been interesting with this storyline as well.

[death tribble]

Crown Court 

Case 14 revolves around an apparent murder and the trial of the alleged murderer as there is no body. I thought maybe the accused gave himself away but the case came up not guilty although the accusd was then arrested for car theft which was his alibi.

Case 15 involves blackmail as a brother and sister are alleged to be trying to extort money from a priest. The priest and the woman were having an affair and the priest's wife found out. The woman is also dying from cancer and the judge warns the jury not to get emotionally involved in her story.

 

Maigret

The Patience of Maigret. There must be results after a policeman is killed trying to foil a raid on a jewellers. Maigret is removed from that case after the man he suspects to be the mastermind behind this raid and others is killed. He and Maigret had been fencing for years. Slowly Maigret puts together the case and works out who did it.

 

Pony Soldier

Tyrone Power is a member of the Royal Canadian Mountain Police and goes to the Cree Indians in an effort to get them to the reservation in Canada and return two hostages they have taken. Not much on action but lots of talking. Could not be made today as you have Cameron Mitchell playing one of the Cree.

 

Alone We Fight

This is about the fighting in the Hurtgen forest prior to the Battle of the Bulge. What is left of a group of Rangers must find and destroy a German petrol dump to stop the Germans making a breakthrough and killing the wounded at an Aid station. Worth one look for what was happening before the Bulge.

 

The Bed Sitting Room

This British comedy might well tax your patience to the limit. Set in the aftermath of nuclear war people are trying to survive and one fears he is turning into a Bed Sitting Room. Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Harry Secombe, Spike Milligan, Arthur Lowe, Michael Hordern, Roy Kinnear and Sir Ralph Richardson are frankly wasted.

 

The One

Jet Li is travelling to parallel universes to kill his doppelgangers in order to become powerful or so he believes. This is a lot of fun. Jason Statham is pursuing him as is Delroy Lindo. Jet Li trying to beat up Jet Li is actually quite intriguing.  

[death tribble]

wait ! There is more !

 

False Colours

Hopalong Cassidy foils an attempt to steal a ranch by a crooked banker. The film has Robert Mitchum in one of his first roles.

 

Busybodies

This is Laurel and Hardy working in carpentry. It is a short and it is fine.

 

The Ape

Boris Karloff is the reviled doctor of a small town trying to help a woman confined to a wheelchair walk again. When a circus has a fire and an ape gets loose, the doctor uses the escaped animal as a cover to kill people to steal their spinal fluid to continue to help his patient. Watch for Karloff only.

 

The Killer Shrews

Shrews the size of (greyhound) dogs are the danger here. Scientists had been trying to solve the food crisis by shrinking people. They enlarged some shrews instead. Then they got loose. A ship captain gets involved while delivering supplies and having to ride out a storm. There are better pictures out there.

 

The Creature with the Atom Brain

A gangster teams up with a Nazi scientist to revive the dead in order to take revenge on the former being deported from the States. This is a 50s zombie flick and worth one look.

 

Now Barabas was a Robber

This is a look at people in prison in the late 1940s. One of Richard Burton's first films. All the people have their back story looked into except Richard Green's character who is awaiting execution for killing a policeman. It was an oddity.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

2 minutes ago, death tribble said:

The Killer Shrews

Shrews the size of (greyhound) dogs are the danger here. Scientists had been trying to solve the food crisis by shrinking people. They enlarged some shrews instead. Then they got loose. A ship captain gets involved while delivering supplies and having to ride out a storm. There are better pictures out there.

 

Starring none other than a young James Best, aka Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane! This one is an MST3K classic. 

[Clonus]

Lupin III versus Catseye:  It's nice to see the anniversary of the Catseye anime bringing them back to light but Lupin III definitely had them outgunned.  

[wcw43921]

On 4/2/2023 at 4:07 PM, Starlord said:

Dungeons & Dragons:  Honor Among Thieves  - Wow, this was a really fun and surprisingly good movie.  Some very funny scenes and great use of D&D-specific monsters and spells.  A dizzying shape-changing chase scene and great main characters (especially Rege-Jean Page's,  Xenk the Paladin).  Excellent Easter eggs - particularly the characters who appear during the arena scene near the end.

 

Saw this today. Excellent movie, and Chris Pine is always good to watch.  Good to see Paladins getting their due as well.

[archer]

11 hours ago, Pariah said:

I recently watched the Star Trek: Voyager episodes "Year of Hell", parts 1 & 2. Also known as 'Kathryn Janeway's Descent Into Madness'. 

 

Strangely enough, I don't remember seeing this story before. This was about when scheduling by UPN made it difficult for me to find Voyager episodes when I was actually at home. This one was pretty well done, although the Status Quo Is God ending was a bit of a letdown. I understand that at one point there was talk of extending this storyline beyond two seasons, perhaps even for a full year. Enterprise later did this with the Xindi war, but it could have been interesting with this storyline as well.

 

I thought "Years of Hell" should have been the Voyager story from beginning to end.

 

They're at the other end of the galaxy with no allies, no maintenance facilities, and most of the crew dead. So there should have been a visual progression of the ship breaking down.

 

Maybe at first just random crewmen tripping over frayed carpet and maintenance panels being left off the walls or no longer fitting right. A lot more "does anyone on the ship know how to ______?"

 

Then a progression to cables being strung across the corridor, ceiling panels missing, weird and clearly alien technology being plugged into random places in the ship to replace broken Federation tech, etc.

 

More of having to detour looking for supplies needed to keep going. More moral choices about what they needed to do in order to get whatever they needed.

 

Honestly, that was what I was expecting from the premise of the show as presented in the first episode. I was disappointed and consider the while thing to be a bait-and-switch (especially as we started to get bipolar Janeway behavior as a replacement for well-written stories).

[Pariah]

3 hours ago, archer said:

 (especially as we started to get bipolar Janeway behavior as a replacement for well-written stories).

 

This. This thing right here. The single biggest problem with Voyager was the fact that the writers didn't seem to have any clue what to do with Janeway. 

[Clonus]

The single biggest problem with Voyager was the 70 year time table for them to get back.  If it had been a 7 year time table, then progress would have been meaningful.  

[Bazza]

Legion of Super-Heroes 2023. Okay, that end credits scene was wowzers. 

[Old Man]

9 hours ago, Clonus said:

The single biggest problem with Voyager was the 70 year time table for them to get back.  If it had been a 7 year time table, then progress would have been meaningful.  

 

You have to leave narrative space in case the show gets renewed.

[Ternaugh]

Flash Gordon: This adaptation from 1980 has become something of a cult classic. I had originally seen it in the theater during the original run, but it's taken me some time for it to actually become movie I'll regularly watch. This Arrow Video edition is a 4K release sourced from the original negatives and approved by the film's director, and the HDR makes the vivid colors pop in a way that they haven't since that first viewing on 70mm film in the theater. It has a 5.1 DTS-HD sound mix, which has a good balance between music, dialog, and special effects. (4K UHD Blu-Ray)