What Have You Watched Recently?

[Ternaugh]

The Marvels: The three heroes have to find a way to save the people of several worlds from a Kree revenge plot. I enjoyed it. (4K UHD Blu-ray)

 

The Equalizer: A man with a hidden past takes on Russian mobsters. I enjoyed it. (Bravia Core)

[Ternaugh]

The Amazing Maurice: Animated version of the Terry Pratchett book, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, with Hugh Laurie voicing the title character. I enjoyed it, recommended for Pratchett fans. (Hulu)

[Scott Ruggels]

Watching The Blacklist with my mom. James Spader plays a master villain who offers the FBI a list of names of wanted criminals, but only if he works with a specific female agent who may be his daughter. The show is tense, and Spader is a joy to watch but he’s definitely not a good guy.  On Netflix. 

Edited February 26 by Scott Ruggels

[Lord Liaden]

Spader's Raymond "Red" Reddington is one of the most fascinating characters ever created for television IMHO. Brilliant, charismatic, mercurial, ruthless. Utterly charming one moment, utterly terrifying the next. He may work with you, but only in service to his own hidden agenda, and you know he'll turn on you if and when that serves his interests.

 

I tend to think of him as being like Doctor Who if the Doctor was an amoral psychopath.

[Ternaugh]

Wonka: A magical vision of Wonka's early days, it's very much a love letter to Gene Wilder's take on the character. Highly recommended. (UHD 4K Blu-ray)

 

My older Sony 4K Blu-ray player has been frustrating me a bit lately, with freezing issues on some 4K discs. It also doesn't handle Dolby Vision. I've been pricing a  Panasonic 4K Blu-ray player (DP-UB820), which is Dolby Vision-capable. Checking my email this morning, Best Buy sent me a special $10 certificate, and so I decided to check their website. It was marked $75 off, and so I've bought it. Picture and sound are superb. It's the one to get if you are in the market for a 4K Blu-ray player. 

[mattingly]

Just finished rewatching the first two seasons of Resident Alien.

It was the wife's first time watching. She loved it.

 

 

[Bazza]

Thunderstruck (2012). 

[death tribble]

Moonfall

What happens when something tries to use the moon to destroy the earth. Watch this film to find out. Another example of BAD SCIENCE !

The moon it turns out was a Dyson Sphere and AI nanobots were out to kill all life. Hooray.  On the up side I don't need to watch this again.

 

Black Arrow Season 3

The third and final season of the show had two stories. One where a Lord tries to have his niece killed so he can take her lands and the second where bandits try to steal a holy relic. This was made for kids but I remember the theme tune vividly. And it was nice to see it again after over 40 years.

 

Maigret

Maigret and the Open Window. A financier is killed while the police are waiting to serve him a warrant. But all the main suspects are in sight of the police when they all hear the shot. They are all waiting to se him. Only his wife is in an ante-chambr and she is asleep. So who did it ? An interesting little story with a Christie like twist.

Maiigret and the Wine Seller. The boss of a wine compnay is gunned down in the street after visiting a high class brothel. Maigret's investigation is dogged by someone who is tailing him for some unknown reason. Carefully piecing the details together enables Maigret to stumble on who the likely killer is and then it becomes a case of drawing them out.

 

Nobody

Bob Odenkirk makes an unlikely action hero but this was fun. After a home invasion, an ordinary guy goes looking for the robbers. Except he ain't ordinary. The fight on the bus and then a father son and friend shoot out with the Russian mob.  Really good. Worth seeing multiple times.

 

Visiting Hours

Journalist Lee Grant vs psychopath Michael Ironside in this 80s slasher. William Shatner had a small role as Grant's boss. It is not that bad and people survive and act in a normal way so this was a nice surprise.

 

The Power

A small Aztec doll causes chaos and death. A journalist's friend becomes possessed by it and it causes his death.

 

The Fuzz

Yul Brynner starts making threats against local politicians whilst giving the cops of the 87th Precinct prior warnings and ransom demands. Burt Reynolds is one of the detectives whose wife is deaf so they sign to each other. He and his partner are also chasing kids who are setting fire to tramps. Raquel Welch is assigned to the precinct to trap a rapist. The detectives get the idea that one guy is involved and tail him only to find he has no connection to the politicians and is planning a liquor store raid. Brynner is actually planning to get a ransom off a millionaire after using the deaths of the politicians as proof. This is a comedy and worth a look.

 

Monster Hunter

United Nations soldiers end up on another world fighting monsters. It does exactly what is says on the tin. Pure pop corn.

 

Rio Conchos

Stuart Whitman, Jim Brown and Richard Boone try to track down a shipment of missing rifles. Nice and violent.

 

The Ebb Tide 

Robbie Coltrane stars in this adaptation of a  Robert Louis Stevenson tale. He plays a stranded sailor who takes on the delivery of a ship to Australia whose crew succumbed to the plague. Turns out the ship was part of an insurance con and was supposed to be lost. The ship ends up on an island that was supposed to be gathering pearls except there is no one left. Except for one guy and a woman. And he turns out to be psycho.

 

Dune (2019)

Full disclosure I read the books and saw the original film. This is quite a faithful recreation of the book. So far so good. I like the dragonfly like ships. No Feyd in this part but Bautista makes an impact. As does the Baron. And you get to care for Duke Leto. I look forward to part 2.

 

Wonder Woman 84

The sequel is not as good as the first film. Having Max Lord as the main villain despite the canon storyline of Diana having killed him is just not that good. But the creation of The Cheetah makes sense. True they gave Diana the invisible plane. And bringing Chris Pine back did work. But there was something lacking.

 

The Suicide Squad

The squad are sent to an island to suppress work on an alien being following a coup on said island. The squad are cut down on the beach on landing as one of their number alerted the local government. Only Flagg and Harley survive which is a shame as Boomerang survives in the comics. This is a better film than Suicide Squad. The story is better and fighting a normal foe rather than a cosmic menace works. John Cena makes Peacemaker a complete two dimensional character and it works wonderfully. It was a shame that Flagg is killed. But Stallone has a ball as King Shark.

[Ternaugh]

Clue: To make a long story short*, this is usually a regular re-watch for me. I'd had a DVD for ages, but found out that Shout Studios had recently put out a 4K version. Picture and sound are both improved from the DVD, and this version allows choosing the DVD's ending, or randomly choosing one of the three (like when it was released in the theaters). It's a good watch. (4K UHD Blu-ray)

 

My Cousin Vinny: Two youts traveling through Alabama are accused of murder, and reach out to a family member to help with their defense. It's a good watch. (Blu-ray)

 

 

 

 

*Too late!

[slikmar]

9 hours ago, Ternaugh said:

Clue: To make a long story short*, this is usually a regular re-watch for me. I'd had a DVD for ages, but found out that Shout Studios had recently put out a 4K version. Picture and sound are both improved from the DVD, and this version allows choosing the DVD's ending, or randomly choosing one of the three (like when it was released in the theaters). It's a good watch. (4K UHD Blu-ray)

 

My Cousin Vinny: Two youts traveling through Alabama are accused of murder, and reach out to a family member to help with their defense. It's a good watch. (Blu-ray)

 

 

 

 

*Too late!

It's too bad the death of Fred Gwynne didn't allow them to do the follow up. Rumor had it that the Judge reached out to Vinny when he had legal problems. Pesci and Gwynne's on screen chemistry was so good and played off each other so well, would have loved to see it.

[DShomshak]

Star Trek: Lower Decks, Season 3. Not as much pure silliness this time. Some episodes are actually quite dark. But still funny overall, still excellent and recognizable Trek, plus delving deeper into the characters. Rutherford's past explained, Mariner recognizes her commitment to Starfleet, Tendi gets her pirate on, and Boimler gets Bold.

 

Subtler toss-off bit: Boimler and  Picard both come from families of vintners. But the Picards make wine in France, while the Boimlers make raisins in California. I wonder if they'll do anything more with this?

 

Once again, though, the funniest "bit" was a toss-off call-back to a past series. "We've got *another* ancient mask situation..."

 

I hope my library gets Season Four soon.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Pariah]

12 hours ago, Ternaugh said:

Clue: To make a long story short*, this is usually a regular re-watch for me. I'd had a DVD for ages, but found out that Shout Studios had recently put out a 4K version. Picture and sound are both improved from the DVD, and this version allows choosing the DVD's ending, or randomly choosing one of the three (like when it was released in the theaters). It's a good watch. (4K UHD Blu-ray)

 

*Too late!

 

Have you ever seen Murder By Death? It lampoons murder mystery tropes in much the same way.

 

 

52 minutes ago, DShomshak said:

Star Trek: Lower Decks, Season 3. Not as much pure silliness this time. Some episodes are actually quite dark. But still funny overall, still excellent and recognizable Trek, plus delving deeper into the characters. Rutherford's past explained, Mariner recognizes her commitment to Starfleet, Tendi gets her pirate on, and Boimler gets Bold.

 

Subtler toss-off bit: Boimler and  Picard both come from families of vintners. But the Picards make wine in France, while the Boimlers make raisins in California. I wonder if they'll do anything more with this?

 

Once again, though, the funniest "bit" was a toss-off call-back to a past series. "We've got *another* ancient mask situation..."

 

I hope my library gets Season Four soon.

 

So far, I feel the best bit of Lower Decks was the crossover episode with Strange New Worlds. Especially Commander Ransom's comment about Number One being "the hottest First Officer in the fleet". 

[wcw43921]

Hottest female First Officer.  I think Janeway would concur that Chakotay was thoroughly hot.

 

(I'm secure enough in my masculinity to say that.  Ladies--doesn't that turn you on?)

[Lord Liaden]

No hotter First Officer than Spock. Even Jadzia Dax affirms that, and she/he must have seen lots of them.

[Ternaugh]

1 hour ago, Pariah said:

 

Have you ever seen Murder By Death? It lampoons murder mystery tropes in much the same way.

 

I have an old DVD copy that gets played occasionally, I usually get the urge after watching movies from the Thin Man series.

 

Shout Factory has it remastered on Blu-ray for about $13, so I might upgrade soon.

[tkdguy]

2 hours ago, Pariah said:

 

Have you ever seen Murder By Death? It lampoons murder mystery tropes in much the same way. 

 

Murder Can Hurt You is another good one. It lampoons TV detectives from the 1970s the way Murder By Death spoofs literary sleuths.

[slikmar]

I liked Steve Martin's Dead Men don't wear Plaid too. the interspersing of the noir scenes if fun, especially as I recognized all of them.

[Old Man]

First episode of Shogun, the FX remake of the '80s miniseries based on the book by James Clavell.  I never read the book, and I only dimly remember the Richard Chamberlain miniseries, but so far this iteration is really good.  From what I recall, the last miniseries was almost entirely from Blackthorne's POV.  This one shows a lot more of what's going on among the nobles, which is perfect for Game of Thrones fans who are literate enough for subtitles.  Also I remember that in the first miniseries, Toranaga was basically a bad guy, whereas in this version his story is much more nuanced.  It's a nice change for Hiroyuki Sanada, who in most U.S. productions has been cast as a bad guy.

 

I'm able to get to FX on demand through my Spectrum cable subscription, but it might also be available on Hulu or something.

[Bazza]

Also on Disney+

[BoloOfEarth]

On 2/28/2024 at 7:03 AM, mattingly said:

Just finished rewatching the first two seasons of Resident Alien.

It was the wife's first time watching. She loved it.

 

Based on your recommendation (at least, I'm assuming the above was a recommendation), I've started watching Resident Alien. I'm up to episode 4 of the first season.  Rather enjoying it.  

[Ternaugh]

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom: Thor must team up with his brother Loki Aquaman must team up with his brother Orm to defend the Nine Realms to defend Earth from Dark Elves an ancient evil that has possessed Jane Foster Black Manta. It's not something I need to watch again. (Max)

[L. Marcus]

11 hours ago, Old Man said:

First episode of Shogun, the FX remake of the '80s miniseries based on the book by James Clavell.  I never read the book, and I only dimly remember the Richard Chamberlain miniseries, but so far this iteration is really good.  From what I recall, the last miniseries was almost entirely from Blackthorne's POV.  This one shows a lot more of what's going on among the nobles, which is perfect for Game of Thrones fans who are literate enough for subtitles.  Also I remember that in the first miniseries, Toranaga was basically a bad guy, whereas in this version his story is much more nuanced.  It's a nice change for Hiroyuki Sanada, who in most U.S. productions has been cast as a bad guy.

 

I'm able to get to FX on demand through my Spectrum cable subscription, but it might also be available on Hulu or something.

I'll have to figure out how to watch this. Sanada played the lead in one of my favourite movies: Tasogare Seibei (The Twilight Samurai), a jidai geki about the life and tribulations of a low-ranking samurai in the tail end of the Edo period.

[Old Man]

6 hours ago, L. Marcus said:

I'll have to figure out how to watch this. Sanada played the lead in one of my favourite movies: Tasogare Seibei (The Twilight Samurai), a jidai geki about the life and tribulations of a low-ranking samurai in the tail end of the Edo period.

 

That was his best film IMO. 

 

Shogun also has Tadanobu Asano, if anyone was wondering what he'd been up to since Hela killed him in Ragnarok.

[Scott Ruggels]

18 hours ago, BoloOfEarth said:

 

Based on your recommendation (at least, I'm assuming the above was a recommendation), I've started watching Resident Alien. I'm up to episode 4 of the first season.  Rather enjoying it.  

When we are done with James Spader's Blacklist, we are going on to Resident Alien, as well. I liked the two or three episodes I saw a couple of years ago.

[Pariah]

Last night I watched the classic Star Trek episode "By Any Other Name". A quick internet search reveals that the shape into which the Kelvans transformed the Enterprise crew is called a cuboctahedron.