What Have You Watched Recently?

[Starlord]

Napoleon = BORING!

[csyphrett]

Watched the last disc for season two of breaking bad. Gus was right to shun Walt and Jesse, and he should have kept shunning them because they are nothing but bad luck and trouble.

CES 

[Old Man]

Echo on Disney+ got a lot better in Episodes 4 and 5 as it finally started to address the interpersonal (and intrapersonal) conflicts set up in the previous episodes (and the Hawkeye series).  I'd rate it as average for an MCU series, which would make it above average viewing in general.  The portrayal of Choctaw culture really gives this series a boost, but it could have used a shot of Hawkeye-level humor.

 

Don't forget to stick around for the mid-credits scene after Episode 5.

[death tribble]

Another post another large dose of stuff

 

Maigret

Three more Bruno Cremer episodes. Mrs Four and her Children. This is not a Maigret story but one featuring another detective that was adapted to be a Maigret. A woman comes down in the night and sees her husband with a dead body. Next morning she flees with her children and reports the matter to the police. The husband is a pharmacist and he vanishes along with a woman who also works at the pharmacy. Maigret is supposed to be on holiday with the detective in charge of the case and rather than go and relax he takes it over going undercover. Maigret manages to get the woman to take her back to her home which had a fountain which stopped working which woke her up to begin with. Turns out the husband is a psycho who has killed several young women. Maigret identifies something on the bodies which he then notices on a maid at the hotel where she is staying. So the police lay a trap for the husband.

Death in a Vegetable Garden. A man is found dead in a shed in a garden belonging to two sisters. Among his possessions is a gun which killed a tramp in Paris which draws Maigret there. He finds two sisters who it turns out have a lot to do with the dead man.

Death in First Class. Maigret's nephew is a policeman and calls his uncle after a man is killed on a train. The only possible killers are in First Class as the train was isolated from the rest of the train by a locking mechanism and the killing has to occur at the last stop. The nephew has the two First Class coaches separated from the rest of the train so people can be questioned. However one of the people is a French Consul who gets to leave with his family. The dead man has no papers and no-one seems to have a motive for his death. But various of the passengers have motive to lie to the police as the train has come through Germany and Belgium. Maigret pieces the evidence together and sets a trap for the killer by having the luggage searched and then the coaches will be connected to an express going to Paris at a set time. The man is killed because he is trying to sell a Vermeer lost in the war.

 

Run for the Sun

This is a retelling of the Most Dangerous Game which was about man hunting man for sport on an island. This time an author who has gone into seclusion is trying to take back a journalist to Mexico after not getting the story when they crash land in remote South America. They are rescued by people who turn out to be Nazis who escaped Europe after the war. And when the author identifies them there is no way they are getting away alive. Richard Widmark and Trevor Howard star. It is not bad.

 

X-Men: Dark Phoenix

This is a story I am very familiar with as I collected the X-Men for years. There were various problems with the script like Jean killing her mother and the aliens coming after her to use the Phoenix force. McAvoy and Fassbinder are very good as Professor X and Magneto respectively. It is not bad but it could have been better.

 

Birds of Prey and the Fabulous Emancipation of one Harley Quinn

This was fun. It only got made because of Margot Robbie. And you got a hint of the Joker without actually seeing him. Making Cassandra Cain a kid was I think a mis-step. Harley breaking into the police station and taking down the cops but then using lethal force on the prisoners was a highlight. Ewan McGregor as Black Mask was fun but he gets killed so that was a disappointment.

 

Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

This was really good. The martial arts fight on the bus was really well done. I know they had top redo the origin of Shang Chi and this was done quite well I thought.. Having Michelle Yeoh as a guest star just elevated the whole thing without her overpowering the entire story. The nice inserts with Wong were fun and just what or who are the rings signalling to ?

 

Dr Who

This cover the three specials with David Tennat returning and the Christmas episode with the new Doctor. The first of the specials covers The Star Beast and Tennant trying not to cause Catherine Tate to remember him and thus die. An alien spaceship crashes on earth and its engine will destroy London if it takes off again. The story was adapted from a Dr Who comic story from the last century.

The second story Wild Blue Yonder has the Dopctor and Donna travelling to the edge of the universe and finding a spaceship and then duplicates of themselves. This has consequences as the next story The Giggle reveals,

The third story The Giggle brings back a villain from William Hartnell's time, The Celestial Toymaker. It also links to the first television image tests. Th Toymaker was able to break into the universe thanks to the previous story as it was at the edge of the universe. The Toymaker defeats the Doctor and causes a unique form of regeneration which results in him facing and fighting two Doctors.

This was crowd pleasing stuff and it continued with the Christmas special.

The Christmas Special had the Doctor meeting Ruby Sunday who was left on the steps of a church. Her foster mother is fostering another baby when goblins try to steal it to eat and the Doctor gets involved trying to stop them. A promising start to the new series.

 

Western Union

This is a Randolph Scott Western with Dean Jagger with hair no less. It is about building the telegraph across the States with Scott as a bank robber who recuses Jagger's surveyor and then gets a job with the company. But Scott runs across his old gang who want to stop the line going through.

 

The Black Dakotas

This Western quickie is a Civil War set piece with the Confederacy trying to get the Indians to attack a local town. The agent in charge is just after the money which he intends to escape with. It is simple and easy to watch.

 

The Favourite

Olivia Colman got an Oscar for her portrayal of Queen Anne who has two women fighting over being her favourite. It covers the downfall of Sarah, Lady Marlborough who was the Queen's favourite but pushed too hard to support The Whigs political party and finally got on Queen Anne's nerves. It is a fun piece with Rachel Wiesz (as Sarah) and Emma Stone playing Abigail (Sarah's cousin) who replaces Sarah in Anne's affections. A view of part of British history that is not usually covered.

 

Blind Rage

How do you steal money from a Philipines bank destined for the Vietnam war ? Simple ! Use blind men ! This is an unusual film having five blind guys steal the money after extensive training. The ending is a little too neat and tied up with Fred Williamson parachuted in as a strategic guest star. He tracks and captures the mastermind after a quck martial arts fight.

Edited January 17 by death tribble

[Ternaugh]

29 minutes ago, death tribble said:

The Black Dakotas

This Western quickie is a Civil War set piece with the Confederacy trying to get the Indians to attack a local town. The agent in charge is just after the money which he intends to escape with. It is simple and easy to watch.

 

 

[Scott Ruggels]

Korean TV Series on Netflix. The Ongseong Creature. It takes place in 1945 first in Manchuria, and then in Korea, where nefarious Japanese Scientists are conducting human experiments on hapless Korean civilians collected on trumped up reasons, THe first Lab is destroyed, so the scientists move to a towns Hospital, the OngSeong hospital. Nearby is our hero, a well to do operator of the towns Pawn Shop, called the Palace of treasure. He is known as someone who can get the right information, item, or person for the right price.  Charming, and sharply dressed he is a stand out in the community.  Entering the scene are a pair from Manchuria, a father and daughter "sleuths" (Bounty Hunters), looking for a particular woman, who has ben missing for 10 years.  And then there is the monster.... It has the whole group of types in the casst. THe corrupt policemen. Angry Japanese Soldiers, a Femme Fatale, Revolutionaries, and the town's "Network"
. All in all, well acted and very pulp.

[mattingly]

21 hours ago, death tribble said:

Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

This was really good. The martial arts fight on the bus was really well done. I know they had top redo the origin of Shang Chi and this was done quite well I thought.. Having Michelle Yeoh as a guest star just elevated the whole thing without her overpowering the entire story. The nice inserts with Wong were fun and just what or who are the rings signalling to ?

 

Depending on my mood, my favorite MCU movie is Shang Chi, Guardians of the Galaxy 1, or No Way Home.

[Ternaugh]

Just finished Season 4 of For All Mankind on AppleTV+. For those who haven't seen the series, it deals with an alternate timeline where the Soviets beat the US to the moon. Season 4 is concerned with diverting an asteroid that will be passing nears Mars to Earth orbit for mining (Mars base Happy Valley was established in Season 3). The acting's very good, and the story lines are interesting and entertaining. Looking forward to a fifth season.

[Old Man]

From Russia With Love (1963): The lull in Marvel output has presented me with a chance to watch those Bond films that I've only seen pieces of.  I have to say I was amazed at how quickly the Bond franchise got the formula down--this is the second ever Bond movie and all the requirements are here.  I like this version of Bond--more spy, less Batman--and the movie is relatively light on effects as a result.  Daniela Bianchi makes for an excellent Bond girl (though I don't expect any Bond girl to outdo Lois Chiles as Dr. Holly Goodhead).  This movie felt way longer than its 1h55m run time.  No mid- or end-credits scenes.

[death tribble]

The fight scene in the train compartment is a stand out for fighting in a restricted space.

 

So a few things to get through and a major binge on BBCiPlayer.

 

Mayans MC series 2

The second series follows the two brothers attempting to reconcile, the drugs cartel trying to rebuild after the house burned down, the authorities attempting to manipulate the cartel while destroying the orphan group and the orphans manipulating the American authorities into taking out people they consider undesirable. EZ Reyes spends the series awaiting whether or not he will join the Mayans as a full member while also trying to find out who killed his mother and why. He has identified the suspect as Happy Loman of the Sons of Anarchy MC and he and his brother torture Happy for info. They find out that the order to kill their mother and the payment came from Mexico and has to do with their father who was a federale. Potter tries to manipulate the head of the Galindo cartel (played by Danny Pino) into destroying a politician but he and his mercenaries capture the head of the Orphans who is carrying Angel's baby. The club clash with other bikers including two branches of SAMC and the latter feeds into season 3. But it is a Mexican bike gang that causes the most trouble by trafficing people over the border on Mayans turf. This leads to bloody retribution on both sides.

I enjoyed the series. They are bad guys but you still root for them.

 

Cyrano

This is a part musical version of Cyrano de Bergerac with Peter Dinklege playing Cyrano. The nose jokes are replaced by jokes at the expense of his height. It is not half bad. well worth seeing.

 

Lot 249

This is another of the Ghost Story for Christmas shorts. This is about a student at Oxford who is dabbling in the occult and brings a Mummy to life. Kit Harrington (Jon Snow) is a fellow student who finds himself at odds with the student and attempts to deal with it. It is from a story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

 

The Black Arrow series 1

This first series actually follows the book by Robert Louis Stevenson and is set during the War of the Roses period, with the Black Arrow saying that there are four black arrows for people in a moat house. One is the owner of the moat house Sir Daniel Brackley, two others are for his retainers whilst the fourth is for a priest. Sir Daniel is trying to hold onto the lands of Richard Shelton and Joanna Sedley. Richard becomes suspicious that Sir Daniel conspired to have his father Sir Harry Shelton killed. The priest is a coward and tries to help Sir Daniel but also avoid being killed by the Black Arrow. Joanna escapes and runs into Richard who initially does not guess that it is a woman. Sir Daniel also has trouble with a fellow landowner who he tries to marry Joanna off to when Richard goes against him. Richard falls in with the outlaws who eventually manage to get Joanna released. The series is notable in that Duke Richard of Gloucester, later Richard III, is portrayed a s a goodie. This was made for kids but is not bad.

 

The Black Arrow Season 2

The second series has several actors returning from the first season  and is set four years after the first. Sir Daniel survived being shot with an arrow and is back disguised at times as a leper. One of the guys who played an outlaw is now playing Richard Shelton. The priest returns as does the actress who played Mistress Hatch. The landowner who Sir Daniel was trying to do a deal with is in France and his men are occupying the Moat House. The series revolves around the villagers fighting the occupiers of the moat house while Sir Daniel tries to find a chalice in the moat house which is encrusted with gems. It is hard to work out what Black Arrow is up to until Duke Richard turns up and says that Black Arrow is in France and that Richard Shelton is the new Black Arrow.

 

How to Get Ahead in Advertising

Richard E Grant is an advertising executive who begins having a breakdown while trying to come up with an idea for a pimple cream. He develops a boil which talks to him and then grows into a second head while causing his original head to shrink which is then lanced as the boil. I had not seen this in years and it still holds up. This is a comedy.

 

Toy Story 4

Bonnie makes something which comes to life in kindergarten. Woody has to introduce it to the rigours of being a toy and stop it from being trash. On a road trip Forky escapes and Woody goes after him and is reunited with Bo Peep after finding her in a kids play area. Woody ends up leaving to stay with Bo while the rest stay with Bonnie. Still feel good stuff.

 

The Lion King (2019)

I have never seen the original and so came to this fresh although James Earl Jones still voices Mufasa. I enjoyed it. I cannot say how it compares to the original but I enjoyed it.

 

The Batman

Robert Pattinson takes over as Batman with Paul Dano playing the Riddler. I did not like the idea of the Riddler being a serial killer and having seen the film, I stick to that idea. Something similar was done with the Riddler in the Gotham TV series. I like the build of the relationship with Catwoman and the endemic corruption controlled by Carmine Falcone. I did not recognise Colin Farrell as the Penguin but he was effective. Then we have the bat bike and mobile. Interesting. I was not completely sold with the idea of Thomas Wayne working with Carmine. Despite this I liked the film and Batman staying to do the rebuild.

of the city.

 

The Black Widow

Scarlett Johansson's solo outing as Black Widow is really good. I had qualms about Taskmaster being a woman but they explained it well and it fit in a story sense. Her family was interesting as well. Well worth repeated watches.

 

iPlayer had Mayans, Toy Story 4, The Lion King, Cyrano and Lot 249.

[Old Man]

Goldfinger (1964): It turns out that aside from a couple of iconic scenes, I hadn't seen this movie at all.  It really did a speedrun of the formula, as Bond gets through an infiltration, an explosion, a fistfight, a drink, and makes out with a pretty girl, all before the opening credits.  After FRWL this film went pretty far into the ridiculous, especially with regard to female character motivation, so it was something of a letdown.  And the idea of murder-by-gold-paint hasn't gotten any less stupid.  But it wasn't bad if you try really hard to suspend your disbelief.

 

Next up is Thunderball, which oddly enough is on Prime and not Max. 

[csyphrett]

Watched the first disc of season three of breaking bad as Gus Fring and Saul Goodman try to wrangle Walt and Jesse into cooking for them while holding the cartel's killers back from exacting revenge for Tuco from Season one and two.

CES   

[mattingly]

Watched the first two episodes of Castle with the new bride. Her first time seeing the show and my first time since it aired.

 

 

[Tech]

In the process of watching the cartoon tv series, "Justice League Unlimited".

[Starlord]

Other than the nerfing of Supes in the 1st season, that show is perfection.

[BoloOfEarth]

I finished the first two seasons of Hogan's Heroes (got the complete series on DVD for Christmas).  Lots of fun, and it's always great to see Schultz and Klink doing their clueless thing.  Especially enjoyed the episodes with Colonel Crittenden guest-starring.  There are a surprising number of episodes per season, so I still have quite a few more to go.  

 

I've also been watching Monk - am currently into Season 7.  (Never liked Sharona, so I started watching the seasons after Natalie replaced her.)

[Tech]

1 hour ago, Starlord said:

Other than the nerfing of Supes in the 1st season, that show is perfection.

 Don't know why but Superman was the punching bag of everyone in S1.

[Old Man]

On 1/6/2024 at 8:28 PM, Old Man said:

Godzilla Minus One.  This movie is entirely in Japanese, with subtitles.  It's also really good--Skull Island good.  As most movies do, it fails a bit when it comes to the physics.  But that's not the point of the movie at all.

 

Replying to my own post--I didn't know this when I saw it, but Godzilla Minus One was filmed on a budget of $15M.  That's almost incomprehensible considering the product that made it to the screen.  It should probably win the effects Oscar based on this fact alone.

[Lord Liaden]

 

The director has said that was the official budget, but he just wished he had that much. What he really had to work with was closer to $12M. What the production team were able to accomplish with that relatively paltry sum is a slap in the face to all the bloated Hollywood budgets that have so often produced flashy-looking trash.

 

Minus One isn't just a great Godzilla movie, or great giant monster movie, or great special effects movie. It's a great movie, period. It has a compelling story with deep characters we genuinely come to care about. The story and characters could actually stand on their own, Godzilla is the icing on the cake.

Edited January 25 by Lord Liaden

[Starlord]

I'm not convinced how good it can be if Godzilla doesn't do any martial arts or flying kicks.

 

 

[Dr. MID-Nite]

5 minutes ago, Starlord said:

I'm not convinced how good it can be if Godzilla doesn't do any martial arts or flying kicks.

 

 

 

Kaiju films are versatile enough for all tastes.

[death tribble]

Besides that is the greatest move of all time in any movie

[Lord Liaden]

No, this is the greatest move of all time in any movie.

 

 

[Stanley Teriaca]

Currently watching Scott Pilgrim Takes Off on Netflix. The pseudo anime.

[Starlord]

1 hour ago, Lord Liaden said:

No, this is the greatest move of all time in any movie.

 

 

 

He should've said, "Thanos, we would have words with thee."