What Have You Watched Recently?

[Lord Liaden]

Like many others, I believe Carol Kane is a place-holder. Hemmer is coming back, I'm betting on it.

[Pariah]

Hemmer was one of my favorite characters in Season 1, but I don't want to see him come back. Unlike certain other Trek characters I could mention (Tasha Yar, Jadzia Dax), Hemmer's death had meaning. To bring him back would cheapen his sacrifice. I don't want Hemmer to become the Jean Grey of Strange New Worlds.

 

But I agree that Carol Kane's character is a placeholder, just as Hemmer was. I know this because neither character has a proper Scottish accent. 

 

One thing I missed in my earlier post: Dr. M'Benga has a dark past, and it doesn't involve his daughter. I wonder how big a deal they're planning to make of it.

[Lord Liaden]

Bruce Horak, the actor who played Hemmer, was officially authorized by the producers to state that his involvement with Star Trek isn't over.

 

I would agree with you about Hemmer's death, if his character had a full arc before then. But we barely got to know him. We had what amounts to a whole new alien species to explore, but if he's permanently dead all that potential is lost.

 

And Geordi La Forge, Miles O'Brien, B'elanna Torres, and Trip Tucker also lacked a Scottish accent.

Edited June 17, 2023 by Lord Liaden

[Ternaugh]

I'm now current with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which I've generally enjoyed. (Paramount+)

 

The Monuments Men: Based on the true story of the men who tried to find and return the art stolen by the Nazis at the end of WW2. It has a real problem with deciding to be a comedy or a drama, and rarely succeeds at either. (Hulu)

 

Renfield: Comedy in which the titular charater attempts to escape from his controlling boss. This one's pretty good. (Peacock)

[Pariah]

12 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

And Geordi La Forge, Miles O'Brien, B'elanna Torres, and Trip Tucker also lacked a Scottish accent.

 

But none of them ends up being the chief engineer of Kirk's Enterprise.

[mattingly]

7 hours ago, Ternaugh said:

The Monuments Men: Based on the true story of the men who tried to find and return the art stolen by the Nazis at the end of WW2. It has a real problem with deciding to be a comedy or a drama, and rarely succeeds at either. (Hulu)

 

I love this one.

[Bazza]

Me too, mainly as it highlighted their unit & activities. 

[Ternaugh]

Wargames: I've watched this a few too many times, I have the launch code memorized. This was a recent 4K release of the movie from Shout Factory, and it looks and sounds better than it did on my old Blu-ray copy. A good watch. (4K UHD Blu-ray)

 

I'm slowly watching the first season of Star Trek: Discovery on Paramount+. Once I accepted that I was watching Trek fanfiction, I was good.

[Pariah]

Discovery is best viewed as the grimdark iteration of the franchise, much like Stargate Universe, Rogue One, or the reimagined Battlestar Galactica. I figure somebody wanted to tell a war story in the Star Trek universe and decided that Deep Space Nine didn't go far enough.

 

I found the first season hard to watch, but with Jason Isaacs and Michelle Yeoh involved, I had to see what was going to happen. And I'll admit, I became enamored of Tilly pretty quickly.

 

Discovery starts feeling much more like Star Trek in season 2. That season also introduces Captain Pike, which leads directly to Strange New Worlds and is therefore not a bad thing.

 

YMMV, of course.

[Lord Liaden]

On 6/18/2023 at 12:36 AM, Pariah said:

 

But none of them ends up being the chief engineer of Kirk's Enterprise.

 

This isn't Kirk's Enterprise. It's Pike's Enterprise.

[Hermit]

On 5/22/2023 at 10:49 AM, Ternaugh said:

The first two episodes of The Muppets Mayhem on Disney+. The basic premise is that there's a small record company in Hollywood that's winding down until the assistant finds that The Electric Mayhem owe it an album. She then attempts to herd cats the Electric Mayhem towards recording the album. Expect lots of random cameos. There are 10 episodes, each running about 28 minutes or so, but it feels much longer. The story probably should have been done in about 90 minutes, as I started losing interest fairly rapidly (and I'm a big fan of the Muppets). 

 

BTW, The Electric Mayhem at their best reminds me a lot of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sajA51HO6Ww

 

 

 

I finally watched it. I actually loved it. It had it's flaws, and maybe I am just vulnerable to Nostalgia, but I found myself smiling quite a lot, and laughing outloud at a few. I think they stayed true to the characters even as they fleshed out their back stories.

[Pariah]

On 6/16/2023 at 5:25 PM, Pariah said:

So last night I watched "The Broken Circle", the second-season premiere of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. 

< snip >

On 6/16/2023 at 5:25 PM, Pariah said:

Overall, I thought it was good. Not great, but good. I hate to invoke "sophomore slump" one episode in, but I didn't think the writing was as solid as the first season episodes were. But I have faith this was just a bump in the road. I expect subsequent episodes to be better. 

 

Episode 2, "Ad Astra per Aspera", was at least an order of magnitude better. It feels a lot like the original series, using science fiction as a metaphor for the social issues of its day. I feel that Star Trek has always done a good job with their courtroom episodes. This one is no exception.

[Tech]

Frozen 2 again

[Old Man]

21 minutes ago, Tech said:

Frozen 2 again

 

How many times is that?

[Tech]

Mmm, probably over 5.

[Old Man]

I've seen Cars literally dozens of times, so good luck.

[Starlord]

I think I've watched Raiders of the Lost Ark all the way through at least 30 times

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

As you should. 

[L. Marcus]

It's a very good movie to be traumatized by as a wee nipper.

[Pariah]

22 hours ago, Tech said:

Mmm, probably over 5.

 

21 hours ago, Old Man said:

I've seen Cars literally dozens of times, so good luck.

 

Lightweights. 

[Old Man]

PSA: Multiple versions of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse were released.  Which one did you see?

 

[Pariah]

Didn't they try that with Clue back in the day?

[Ternaugh]

6 minutes ago, Pariah said:

Didn't they try that with Clue back in the day?

 

It could have happened that way.

[Ternaugh]

Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1: This animated series tells the story of a bunch of young prisoners who find a lost Federation ship and manage to escape. With dreams of becoming part of Starfleet, they must deal with a threat to the entire fleet. It was really good, and I binged it over the course of a couple of days--unfortunately, it's becoming another victim of the streaming wars. Even though its second season is in post-production, the show's just been canceled, and Paramount+ will be pulling all episodes from their service very soon. Watch it while you can.

[death tribble]

A Shot in the Dark

Peter Sellers returns as Clouseau investigating a murder. His boss, Herbert Lom, immediately tries to remove him from the case. However Clouseau keeps getting put back on the case and releasing the main suspect despite the fact that more people die which sends his boss over the edge. Had not seen it in a while but still very funny.

 

Maigret in Montmartre

Somehow missed putting this one in first time around. This again is Bruno Cremer and I had seen the Rupert Davies version. A stripper is killed because she tried to say that a Countess was going to be killed. And when a Countess is found dead Maigret starts piecing it all together. This was the first of Cremer's outings as Maigret and was obviously a success.

 

Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten

This is a documentary about the lead singer of the Clash exploring his entire life with input from those who knew him at all stages of his life and also from celeb fans like Johnny Depp. You also have his own thoughts from interviews he did and a radio programme he fronted. Great for Clash fans particularly.

 

The Bride

This is the 1985 take on the Bride of Frankenstein where the Baron is named Charles, Clancey Brown plays the Monster who is named Victor in the film and Jennifer Beals as Eva created to be the monster's mate. Not bad but a bit long and the original is better.

 

Hannibal

This is the sequel to Silence of the Lambs with Hannibal Lector loose in Florence while Clarice Starling is disgraced following a take down which goes wrong. The film is a vast improvement on the book which I had read and did not much like. Neither did Jodie Foster or Jonathan Demme who did not return to the franchise. Julianne Moore plays Clarice and Ray Liotta plays Krendler a character who was in Silence. Gary Oldman is Mason Verger who is hunting Lector while Anthony Hopkins returns and is as suave and evil as ever. I won't need to see the film again but I rather this version than the book.

 

Jo Jo Rabbit

Finally watched this down. A little boy in a fictional German town as the 2nd World War is coming to its close joins the Hitler Youth. He has an imaginary friend, a likeness of Hitler. His mother is keeping a girl in the attic. Said girl is a Jew. This is just brilliant. See it and be astonished as I and others have been.