What Have You Watched Recently?

[wcw43921]

Is it just me, or is Natalie Portman with the power of Thor really, really hot?

[Bazza]

Just you. 

[slikmar]

And, my first thought was that even these "serious" scenes, they couldn't resist adding stupid silly too it. Zeus behind curtain with ice cream eavesdropping, Mjolnir tapping on window. God this could have been such a better movie. It had so many good elements and people.

[Old Man]

1 hour ago, wcw43921 said:

Is it just me, or is Natalie Portman with the power of Thor really, really hot?

Those biceps!

[Lord Liaden]

I may have gotten too old to respond to "hot," but I do think she looked good. She took her physical training seriously. I just wish it wasn't so obvious that she was standing on a platform to look taller. But that's what happens when you cast a 5'3" actress to play a 6' thunder goddess.

[Dr. MID-Nite]

My main problem with Love and Thunder is that they revealed the main plot point with Jane WAY too early. It would have been far more dramatically effective to reveal that sometime after Thor and her meet again. That and the silliness carried over from Ragnarok. Bale feels like he should be in a different movie. This just doesn't deliver on any level. It's a shame.

[Lord Liaden]

Having the formerly-fragmented Mjolnir be able to separate into guided shrapnel is a pretty cool visual, though, and expands its tactical uses.

[wcw43921]

The Angry Black Girl And Her Monster

 

If you're looking for something different this Halloween, this may be it.  Vicaria is a teenage scientific genius growing up in a housing project.  After losing first her mother and then her brother to violence, she comes to the proposition that death is a disease--and it can be cured.  Using the bodies of other victims of violence, she repairs the body of her brother, then brings it to life with a massive surge of electricity.  Things get worse from there.

 

The story may be familiar to us all, but the way it is told is quite unlike any previous telling of the tale.  (The only reference to the original is the title of Vicaria's scientific journal--The Modern Prometheus.)  The movie uses the story to address a wealth of current issues--the effects of poverty, gang violence, and drug use, the (deliberate?) inability of white people to comprehend the situation--Vicaria has plenty of reasons to be angry.

 

The movie is available on Amazon Prime or elsewhere.  Check it out if you get the chance.

[Pariah]

Over the weekend I watched the first three episodes of Star Trek: Short Treks. My initial thoughts:

 

Ep. 1: "Runaway" The second season finale of Discovery is what led me to this series. It was interesting to see Po's backstory. And Tilly makes me smile every time I see her. She is so delightfully quirky.

 

Ep. 2: "Calypso" Well hello there, guy we've never seen before. Who are you? What is your story? What are you doing aboard Discovery? And why is she completely empty except for you? The budding friendship between a lost space traveler and an artificially intelligent computer really had the feel of something written in the '50s or '60s. I loved this episode.

 

Ep. 3: "The Brightest Star" although he has never been my favorite character on Discovery, I enjoyed seeing a little bit of Saru's backstory. He never really was a typical Kelpian, was he? Plus, Michelle Yeoh. 

[Pattern Ghost]

Watched Disney's Haunted Mansion remake today on Disney Plus. It was better than I expected. It had a solid cast and was pretty fun overall. Definitely aimed at a younger/family audience.

[Scott Ruggels]

One of the best animated Superhero fights I have seen was in the second episode of the second season of Invincible.  It was a fight between Atom Eve, and her "Siblings", on a freeway. both side were being smart, and operating within their limitations. A bit gruesome for some, and definitely not Comics Code Approved, it was just a nice bit of choreography.

Also watched a few Episodes of Generation V, and while I like it better than The Boys, it can get a bit intense.  At least the plot doesn't feel as bitter as The Boys, and the characters aren't as actively unlikeable. Watch as college students solve the mystery of the secret hospital under the campus buildings, and what the Dean is working on.

 

Both are available on Amazon Prime.

Edited November 9, 2023 by Scott Ruggels

[death tribble]

Grab yourself a drink and here we go

 

Crown Court

After a long hiatus case 22 involves whether or not a model killed a photographer while one or both were under the influence of LSD. The case turned on whether the photographer was suicidal and was the supplier of the drug in the first place.

 

The Believers

This is a horror film with faces that will be familiar to American viewers. Martin Sheen is a psychiatrist to the police who returns to New York following the accidental death of his wife. He has to counsel police over child killings and an odd religious practice. This will not be for all but I think it is worth a look. An early outing for Jimmy Smits and Robert Loggia is also in the cast.

 

Mansion of the Doomed

Richard Basehart is a surgeon trying to restore his daughter's eyesight after a car accident blinds her. Gloria Grahame is the nurse who assists him as he does eye transplants from living donors which is why this is a horror film. I am phobic about eye stuff so it was a bit difficult to watch in places. This was made in 1976 and is also one of Lance Hendrickson's first roles.

 

One Mile Square

This is a short documentary about the City of London voiced by the sometimes menacing Valentine Dyall. It shows locations around the square mile not just St Paul's Cathedral and The Bank Of England. A slice of life from the 60s also showing the rebuilding which was continuing from the war.

 

The Deep

Nick Nolte and Jacqueline Bisset are diving on holiday and come across a shipwreck. This lands them in trouble with a local crook (Louis Gosset Jnr) and they seek assistance from veteran diver Robert Shaw. This is Peter Benchley's follow up to Jaws and Speilberg advised him not to do another water based book. The crook is after a WW2 era wreck which was carrying morphine while the veteran is interested in a ship that should not be in the waters carrying jewels. Had not seen it in a while but still good.

 

Allan Quartermain and the Lost City of Gold

The follow up to King Solomon's Mines has Richard Chamberlain and Sharon Stone reunite to find a missing city and hopefully Quartermain's missing brother. They are joined by James Earl Jones as a native and an Asian wise man. The cast also includes Henry Silva as a priest and Cassandra Peters (Elvira) as one of the rulers of the city. It was made at the same time as King Solomon's Mines but on release was not a success. Worth one look.

 

The Eyes of Laura Mars

A fashion photographer is putting murder scenes in her photographs and then starts seeing the murderer carrying out the attacks and they start being people close to her. Faye Dunaway is the photographer, Rene Auberjonois is her agent, Brad Douriff is her driver, Raul Julia as her ex husband and Tommy Lee Jones as one of the police officers investigating the killings. From a story by John Carpenter. 45 years old and it still holds up.

 

Maigret

Maigret is Afraid. Maigret is going to see an old friend who is a judge but people in the town think he is there to solve two recent murders. While he is there another murder occurs and Maigret assists the police in their enquiries. The killings seem to be the work of a maniac. Suspicion falls on the son of a well to do family. But after his suicide Maigret points out that the last two killings were to cover up the first which had a real motive,

Maigret Goes Home. The detective has received an anonymous note telling him that a crime will be committed during mass on All Soul's Day in the village where he grew up. He takes his wife there and renews acquaintance with some of the locals. The Countess, who knew Maigret when he was younger as the father was the steward to the Count, dies from a heart attack in the church. Maigret starts to investigate as to who would want her dead. Her son is a wastrel living a dissolute life in Paris. He had fallen out with his mother who had declined to pay his debts. She was devoted to a young musician and was showering him with affection, Some one is trying to pin the blame squarely on the son as his mother's prayer book is found in his car saying that he has died. The denouement is carried out by the Count in Maigret's presence as he invites people to a dinner party.

[Tech]

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

Edited November 9, 2023 by Tech

[Hermit]

I'm bingwatching the Lower Decks series, and I love it!

[Bazza]

Glen Maxwell’s cricket World Cup inning against Afghanistan in which he scored a record 201 not out, and  overcomes debilitating cramps & back issues to win the game from an impossible position. It’s simply sport at its best. 

[Old Man]

The Marvels (no spoilers).  Verdict: Flawed but worth seeing in the theater, unless female leads bother you.  Better than Quantumania, actually a bit better than the first Captain Marvel.  Relatively short at 1:45.  One mid-credits scene.

 

Once again I watched a movie so you don't have to!  I went into this with probably the lowest expectations of any MCU film, just based on its disastrous financial performance and the knowledge that it needed at least one rewrite.  And it is by no means among the best of the MCU, but it wasn't bad.  It had some character development, even some vulnerability out of Carol Danvers.  It did veer hard into the silly a couple of times, but that was a welcome change from the grimness of the first CM.  And like so many MCU films the villain is forgettable--even in the comics this particular villain had like a six issue run. 

 

Still the biggest flaw of the film is that while the personal challenges are there, we don't get to see them until halfway through the movie.  And the marketing campaigns completely failed to pick up on them at all, which in my opinion is why the movie isn't doing so hot.  But the relationships developing between the Marvels, though imperfectly executed, are the main reason to see this movie.

[Starlord]

The Marvels - I'll give it a C

 

***Minor spoilers below!***

 

Pros:

- Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel

- Any scenes with Kamala's family

- Some of the power switching scenes

- Aladna!

- Decent plot

- Flerken scenes

 

Cons:

- Also Flerken scenes

- Carol's fluctuating power levels

- I wanted more Aladna!

- Meh villain (also with fluctuating power levels)

- Monica's beef with Carol just came off as whiny to me

- Skrulls as helpless good guys

[death tribble]

Are we ready ?

 

Right here we go !

 

Crown Court

Case 23 involves the mugging of a pensioner ? Were two young black men responsible ? The pensioner and a woman identified them in an identity parade. But said parade was not held at the police station but at a local youth club and the police officer who arranged it supposedly kept up a dialogue fingering both the suspects. Said officer denies this. I thought this case would go one way but I was wrong as both men were acquitted. One thing in their defence was the fact that they hardly knew each other.

 

Maigret

Death of a harbour master. A man has been found in Paris. He had been shot in the head but recovered so someone treated him and looked after him. However he does not speak and does not communicate. When the police publish his picture it is found that he is the harbour master of a small harbour town. His maid comes to Paris to collect him. Maigret investigates and soon finds out that something was amiss. It is a bit of a tangled web which digging into the history of the people and place reveal.

 

Willard

This is about a young guy whose only friends are rats. And how he uses them against his enemies including his boss Ernest Borgnine. However it all goes wrong when one of the rats called Ben is amrat enough to turn on him when he tries to get rid of them.

 

Ben

You may not know the film which is the sequel to Willard but you know the song as it was a No 1 hit for Michael Jackson. The rats go on a rampage killing people but Ben is befriended by a young boy with ab heart condition who cannot go out much. I had known the song for years but this was the first time I had the opportunity to see the film. Not bad. More people die and the police do the right thing in cornering and killing the rats.

 

Sisters

This is an early Brian De Palma film which has Margot Kidder playing a model who goes on a date with a guy after they both appear on a game show. In the morning he overhears her having an argument with her twin sister. She reassures him it is alright and he pops out to get her a cake for her birthday and fill out a prescription. Foreshadowing shows pills being knocked down the sink. He returns and he is stabbed to death but he manages to signal for help on a window. A neighbour in the block sees and contacts the police The model and her (ex)-husband clean the apartment up and hide the body in a fold up sofa. The neighbour turns out to be a reporter who did a hatchet job on the cops. So when they get to the apartment the cops find nothing and do not trust what the reporter says. The reporter tries to find out the truth while the model and husband try to dispose of the body. The sisters were Siamese twins only one of them was violent. This was interesting. It may not be worth a rewatch but definitely worth a look.

 

The Ninth Configuration

This film may tax your patience. A new psychiatric head is put in charge of Vietnam era officers who have all been incarcerated because they have lost their marbles. Directed by William Peter Blatty who wrote The Exorcist directs this film. Stacey Keach is the new head and he is trying to find out why Scott Wilson's astronaut aborted a moon mission on the launch pad.  Scott is all over the place as madness claim him but Keach is calm and gentle. However we find out that Keach is also a patient having mistaken orders concerning his brother's assignment as his own. Keach was a marine who killed a lot of people and then lost his mind. He however makes breakthroughs with some of the patients including Jason Miller (the young priest in The Exorcist) who is trying to put on Hamlet with a cast of dogs. Following someone recognising him and sating his name out loud, Scott breaks out and goes to a local bar. There local bikers recognise him as the astronaut who broke down. Keach goes to collect him and it turns nasty. This film is not for everyone. Wilson is almost unrecognisable here as a young man instead of an older white haired man. It is worth a look as far as I am concerned.

 

Zontar, The Thing from Venus

This is a television film from 1967 and the picture quality and script show it. The evil being cons an earth scientist into helping it before its true nature is revealed and it is defeated.

 

The People that Time Forgot

Patrick Wayne and Sarah Douglas go looking for Doug McClure from the previous film The Land that Time Forgot. They cross hostile native lands and nasty wild life before they find Doug. The film slides down without a trace. It can be rewatched plenty of times

Edited December 3, 2023 by death tribble

[Dr. MID-Nite]

On 11/19/2023 at 10:29 AM, death tribble said:

Zontar, The Thing from Venus

This is a television film from 1967 and the picture quality and script show it. The evil being cons an earth scientist into helping it before its true nature is revealed and it is defeated.

 

This is a remake of It Conquered the World. Incredibly, it's a worse movie than the original.

Edited November 21, 2023 by Dr. MID-Nite

[Scott Ruggels]

 After reading a bunch of Reddit posts I was persuaded to give Farscape a try. Four Episodes it, it's not bad, but seems a little cramped after the first episode, but people are fitting in to their characters. Not a lot yet I could use for a traveller campaign, but it's nice to see aliens that were more than just bumpy foreheads.

[Pariah]

I don't know why I've never watched Short Treks before now, but now I have. Overall impression: fun, with a nice balance of gravitas and light-heartedness. Specific impressions:

 

The one with Tilly and the future queen who will save Discovery at the end of the second season was a solid start. Mary Wiseman is my second favorite actress from the show, right behind Tig Notaro. (I'm not sure what this says about me, but something.)

 

Not a huge fan of the two animated ones. Not bad, mind you, but kinda unnecessary fluff.

 

The ending to the one with Mudd was fantastic. 

 

The one with the previously unseen guy and the computer on Discovery in the far future was a great science fiction story, not just a great Trek story.

 

Any chance to see Pike is worth seeing.

 

Newbie Spock and Number One stuck in an elevator is a surprisingly effective story seed.

 

Best line in the series: "He was an idiot."

 

[Dr. MID-Nite]

Just got back from Godzilla Minus One....my spoiler free review from FB....

 

Movie Review: Godzilla Minus One (2023); The latest Godzilla movie in the franchise is a period piece. Taking place on the tail end of WWII, this follows the lives of regular people as they try to rebuild their lives after the war only for Godzilla to appear to crush their hopes. At two hours and 5 minutes, this is one of the longest Godzilla movies in the series. Much of that run time is devoted to the human drama. Luckily, the main cast is engaging enough so you can keep watching while waiting for the big G to appear. I have to give out a special kudos to the incredible FX work. FAR better than 2016's Shin Godzilla; this Godzilla has some life and personality in him. Better half said that this was the best Godzilla film they've ever seen. I'd try to catch this in theaters....especially in IMAX...so you can take advantage of the amazing visuals. If Toho can maintain this type of quality, I look forward to what comes next. Nuff said.

[Michael Hopcroft]

9 hours ago, Dr. MID-Nite said:

Just got back from Godzilla Minus One....my spoiler free review from FB....

 

Movie Review: Godzilla Minus One (2023); The latest Godzilla movie in the franchise is a period piece. Taking place on the tail end of WWII, this follows the lives of regular people as they try to rebuild their lives after the war only for Godzilla to appear to crush their hopes. At two hours and 5 minutes, this is one of the longest Godzilla movies in the series. Much of that run time is devoted to the human drama. Luckily, the main cast is engaging enough so you can keep watching while waiting for the big G to appear. I have to give out a special kudos to the incredible FX work. FAR better than 2016's Shin Godzilla; this Godzilla has some life and personality in him. Better half said that this was the best Godzilla film they've ever seen. I'd try to catch this in theaters....especially in IMAX...so you can take advantage of the amazing visuals. If Toho can maintain this type of quality, I look forward to what comes next. Nuff said.

The central human character, a failed kamikaze pilot under the most horrific PTSD conceivable, is riveting. I kept hoping for the best of him even though I knew the worst was coming.  The film ended to applause and to people in the audience weeping, and I was visibly shaken.

[Scott Ruggels]

Saw it this afternoon as well. Spectacular film. IT really captured the sorry shape Japan was in right after the war, and the tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union were in. Also this movie did more with a microscopic budget, than DIsney has been able to do all year with 300Million dollar budgets per film.  But this film shows the importance of compelling characters, and a good script. The VFX were top notch. Godzilla was a scary creature, made worse by the Bikini Atoll tests.

Edited December 3, 2023 by Scott Ruggels

[Pariah]

Football.

 

Lots and lots of football.