Movies / TV Shows - I Have Watched / Plan To Watch

[josie]

Just finished watching episode 1 of PBS's Vietnam.  Alot there that I never knew.  I think this is going to be a whale of a series.

 

It isn't hard to believe that we've been making the same mistakes since the 1940's.  But still, wow.

I cannot wait to dig into this. The Vietnam in HD series is very good, but Ken Burns always does an incredible job. 

 

I think the CNN decade series is supposed to be dropping the 90s soon too. Doc heaven. 

 

And yeah- you're right... every time I watch any doc, it truly is incredible how cyclical everything is. 

[ubkev]

I cannot wait to dig into this. The Vietnam in HD series is very good, but Ken Burns always does an incredible job.

 

I think the CNN decade series is supposed to be dropping the 90s soon too. Doc heaven.

 

And yeah- you're right... every time I watch any doc, it truly is incredible how cyclical everything is.

I've seen Ken Burns's Baseball. That's all I need to know. I'm sooo down for this.

[Norcal]

Watched Unabomber, just finished finally. Pretty good.

[bunomatic]

Been watching that series ' American Ripper " on the History channel. Very interesting. H.H. Holmes was a real piece of work. 

[LGR4GM]

Been watching that series ' American Ripper " on the History channel. Very interesting. H.H. Holmes was a real piece of work.

Created a murder palace... Guy was Cray

[bunomatic]

Created a murder palace... Guy was Cray

I think the chick helping with the investigation called him the Henry Ford of serial killers. Seems apt.

[WildCard]

Got bored, watched The Village. What a terrible movie

[qwksndmonster]

Got bored, watched The Village. What a terrible ###### movie

:lol:

[sodbuster]

I just finished binge watching American Vandal. So stupid, yet so incredibly brilliant.

[Thorner]

Got bored, watched The Village. What a terrible ###### movie

You should watch The Happening. You'll love it.

Edited September 21, 2017 by Thorny

[Lanny]

Got bored, watched The Village. What a terrible ###### movie

I liked that movie, maybe I'm the only one? I was truly surprised at the Shyamalan moment. 

[ubkev]

Off from work on a Friday night. Bar? Nah, I'm watching Willow! 

 

If my kid doesn't love this movie i think he's sleeping in the yard tonight. 

[qwksndmonster]

I know this is a little late but mother! is a courageous film.  For Darren Aronofski to bare his soul on the screen like that is both impressive and weird af.  Giving it a wide release and marketing it as a horror film was bad and greasy, but I can't blame Aronofsky.  I think it's kind of amazing that he was able to get away with that.

 

That said, mother is still an atrociously bad film.  It's 2 hours of unprocessed raw emotion.  There's no effort put into the characters or the storytelling.  Aronofsky is clearly focusing on metaphorical meanings that are near and dear to his heart.  It's a 30 million dollar movie made for more or less one person.

 

I think there's an alternate universe where I enjoyed mother because:

-It got an indie release

-It's 90 minutes long

-J-Law and Aronofsky aren't dating

-It's a completely different film altogether.

 

Whelp. Maybe not.

 

 

I saw American Made on Friday night and fell asleep in the theater.  It's a lot of copying the style of The Big Short/Wolf of Wall Street without grounding anything.  It's a little nice to see Tom Cruise in something he doesn't clearly hate, but it doesn't come close to the legendary performances of the 90s.  Why'd you have to steal his soul, Scientology?

[qwksndmonster]

I've been watching The Good Place with Kristen Bell and Ted Danson on Netflix. It's a good show, I like it a lot so far. It's a comedy about morality, ethics, and the afterlife and it's really sweet.

 

I've been LOVING American Vandal. I never realized how much I needed a satirical true crime mockumentary. It's incisive and hilarious, also on Netflix.

 

Thirdly, Raw just hit Netflix. It's a pretty gory french horror film. One of my favorites of 2017. Stunning.

[qwksndmonster]

Was not impressed by It. Found it pretty boring. The score was atrocious, an insult to the audience.

 

Battle of the Sexes was pretty good. Emma Stone and Steve Carell are both great.

[qwksndmonster]

Thoughts on It:

 

-Bill Skarsgard was pretty great as Pennywise.  Those dang Skarsgards are so awesome.

-I liked all the kid actors except Stan and Mikey.

-The score wasn't as bad as I mentioned in the previous post, it was the implementation of the score.  There wasn't a single scare that was free of the sound effects making sure you understand that you're supposed to be scared.

-In general every single scary scene was constructed the same way: A cut to the scary thing.  There was never a slowly constructed scare where the audience was allowed to be frightened at their own pace.

 

It was a very lousy attempt at an adaption.  It is a 1400+ page book and they took the Game of Thrones path of more or less copying the events of the story without capturing the themes or the deeper meanings.  I think the movie would've been much better served by writing Mikey and Stan completely out of it, that way the rest of the characters could've gotten more screen time to be characterized.

 

I also complained about the story not being grounded at all.  Over half of the screen time is fear-fueled fever dreams, but there was never enough time in normal ordinary Derry for the fever dreams to have any effect.  There also weren't enough normal denizens of Derry to fill in the atmosphere.  This meant that all the world-building and lore-keeping were solely laid at the feet of Ben (who's not even freakin' from Derry!).

 

They also seriously ###### with the central theme of the story by having the kids be skeptical of one another.  The entire point of the story is that all these kids implicitly trust one another.  There's a deep evil in the town that the adults just aren't privy to.  The central metaphor for child abuse takes a huge hit and at the end of the day there's really nothing left at the core of the film.

 

It's an empty shell that sort of depicts the events of the story, but it's not about anything.

Edited October 10, 2017 by qwksndmonster

[qwksndmonster]

(I'm getting lonely in here)

[Thorner]

^ sorry qwk, I really liked IT. :p

[qwksndmonster]

^ sorry qwk, I really liked IT. :P

Haha lotsa people liked It, It crushed a buncha box office records. I just wanna talk about It!

 

I really liked the kids dropping f-bombs all the time, a lot of the jokes landed for me. My favorite moment was when Eddie drops the Pills in front of the house and starts muttering " "

[Thorner]

Haha lotsa people liked It, It crushed a buncha box office records. I just wanna talk about It!

 

I really liked the kids dropping f-bombs all the time, a lot of the jokes landed for me. My favorite moment was when Eddie drops the Pills in front of the house and starts muttering "###### ###### ######"

Haha ya.

 

I'm going to have to watch it again and pay specific attention to the score.

 

I loved the film tonally. Reminded me a little of Stranger Things at times. I really liked the relationship dynamic between the kids. It felt real, they felt like real people. I didn't get the feeling you mentioned, about the relationships between the kids being the weaker for them not always initially being on the same page, and not always trusting each other. For me it felt more natural that way.

 

In the end, the movie still stressed the importance of their loyaly and friendship. It wins the day.

 

Upon first view, I was impressed by the pacing of the movie. Can't remember a single "filler" scene.

 

I should mention I have not read the book.

 

---

 

On another note, Flatliners was among the worst movies I have ever seen.

 

Bladerunner 2049 was good. A visual feast. Exceptionally slow paced - it's a slow burn, but it pays off.

Edited October 10, 2017 by Thorny

[qwksndmonster]

Haha ya.

 

I'm going to have to watch it again and pay specific attention to the score.

 

I loved the film tonally. Reminded me a little of Stranger Things at times. I really liked the relationship dynamic between the kids. It felt real, they felt like real people. I didn't get the feeling you mentioned, about the relationships between the kids being the weaker for them not always initially being on the same page, and not always trusting each other. For me it felt more natural that way.

 

In the end, the movie still stressed the importance of their loyaly and friendship. It wins the day.

 

Upon first view, I was impressed by the pacing of the movie. Can't remember a single "filler" scene.

 

I should mention I have not read the book.

 

---

 

On another note, Flatliners was among the worst movies I have ever seen.

 

Bladerunner 2049 was good. A visual feast. Exceptionally slow paced - it's a slow burn, but it pays off.

Totally agree about the pacing.  It was a long movie that didn't feel long.

 

I'm not talking about the kids not being on the same page, I'm talking about when they outright don't believe Beverley about one of her experiences.  That basic primal understanding and acceptance of one another's experiences is so intrinsic to the plot and central theme of the story. It's how and why the Losers Club is formed.

[Thorner]

^ That's fair.

 

My reading though wasn't that it was a lack of understanding - I think they all knew it to be true, deep down. I think they were just hesitant to admit it out loud- an afraid to "speak it into real existence" type of deal. That was my reading anyways.

 

It's certainly deviates from the original story, from what you are saying though.

[drnkirishone]

Bladerunner 2049 was ok. I didn't think it was great. But I also am not a fanboy of the original

[WildCard]

It was a very lousy attempt at an adaption.  It is a 1400+ page book and they took the Game of Thrones path of more or less copying the events of the story without capturing the themes or the deeper meanings.  I think the movie would've been much better served by writing Mikey and Stan completely out of it, that way the rest of the characters could've gotten more screen time to be characterized.

I thought it was a very good attempt at an adaptation. That book, in no way shape or form, needed to be that long. Sure, there are deeper meanings, but King repeats them 7 times for every single child. Not only that, but they're blatantly obvious, yet he still finds the need to ramble on an d explicitly spell them out for you. There are better ways to get your message across, and to make the read more enjoyable, than having 7 loops of the same thing

 

Not sure how you can cut out Mike and Stan and yet still say the movie was a bad attempt at an adaptation. Stan maybe, but Mike is such a key part of the story, especially when they're adults. And I'd still keep Stan because the number 7 is crucial to the book, and so is what happens to him as an adult.

Totally agree about the pacing.  It was a long movie that didn't feel long.

 

I'm not talking about the kids not being on the same page, I'm talking about when they outright don't believe Beverley about one of her experiences.  That basic primal understanding and acceptance of one another's experiences is so intrinsic to the plot and central theme of the story. It's how and why the Losers Club is formed.

What part in the movie did that happen? 

[qwksndmonster]

To adapt something really long to the screen you have to cut some fat. Cut out the worst actors and just give somebody else Mike's role. His entire arc was rushed in the film anyways.

 

As for Stan. Who needs him?

 

And I'm pretty sure it was before the bloody bathroom that ritchie was calling out beverley.