Now Watching, Films/ movies discussion Options

[Dark Reaper]

Badgers.

[SubRosa]

Just watched 10 Cloverfield Lane. I have avoided it up until now because it is not really a Cloverfield movie. The rights to it were bought by JJ Abrams, and for some bizarre reason he decided to slap the Cloverfield name on it, even though it has nothing at all to do with the original Cloverfield movie, or the Netflix Cloverfield Paradox movie. All of that just put a bad taste in my mouth.

But I have seen good reviews of it, so I decided to give it a chance, and judge it simply on its own merits. I am glad I did. It is really good. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is, well, Mary Elizabeth Winstead She is such a talented actress, I don't know why she has not gotten bigger roles. John Goodman is outstanding as the crazy survivalist who kidnaps her. He is ultra creepy.

It is basically just her, Goodman, and one other dude locked up in a bunker. Goodman's character claims the world has ended. Nuclear war, chemical weapons, aliens, could be anything. So he is keeping everyone inside, and he is clearly a psychopath. I am not going to get spoilery, because there are some big plot twists. But just forget the Cloverfield name, and it is an excellent suspense thriller.

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

I’m Mary Poppins, y’all!!!

Khajiit has never gotten into comic books, and has never been an overly big fan of Marvel. Growing up, this one occasionally watched the X-men cartoon when it was running, and later the movies that came out in the early/mid 00’s. Yesterday, Khajiit watched both of the Guardians of the Galaxy films, and found them to be enjoyable, fun flicks. The plot of the second one was a bit “out there”, but it was still enjoyable. Absolutely love Dave Bautista’s character in this series. Dude is hilarious!

This post has been edited by TheCheshireKhajiit: Mar 3 2018, 04:55 PM

[SubRosa]

I finished Hitler's Circle of Evil today. It was really good. A solid view of the intense rivalries, plots and counter-plots that took place within Hitler's inner circle of henchmen.

I never quite realized it until now, but almost every one of them committed suicide in the end. Hitler of course did. Then Goebbels and his wife killed their children and themselves. Then Borman tried to escape Berlin, but when facing possible capture by the Soviets, he killed himself. Himmler killed himself with cyanide after being captured by the British. Goering likewise went into captivity, but after being sentenced to hang at Nuremburg, he too took cyanide. Rudolf Hess spent most of the war in British custody, and remained in prison for the rest of his life. Until he too killed himself by hanging. Only Albert Speer did not take his own life, but instead spent 20 years in prison.

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

I finished Hitler's Circle of Evil today. It was really good. A solid view of the intense rivalries, plots and counter-plots that took place within Hitler's inner circle of henchmen.

I never quite realized it until now, but almost every one of them committed suicide in the end. Hitler of course did. Then Goebbels and his wife killed their children and themselves. Then Borman tried to escape Berlin, but when facing possible capture by the Soviets, he killed himself. Himmler killed himself with cyanide after being captured by the British. Goering likewise went into captivity, but after being sentenced to hang at Nuremburg, he too took cyanide. Rudolf Hess spent most of the war in British custody, and remained in prison for the rest of his life. Until he too killed himself by hanging. Only Albert Speer did not take his own life, but instead spent 20 years in prison.

Yeah Khajiit watched a bunch of the episodes but hasn’t finished them yet. It is quite an interesting series.

[SubRosa]

Thanks to Hitler's Circle of Evil, I am now watching Conspiracy. Or rewatching, as I have seen it several times already. I was delighted to notice who had a tiny part of a radio operator with only two lines of dialogue - Loki! Yes, Tom Hiddleston himself, looking younger than ever.

[SubRosa]

I finished AICO on Netflix. It was good. A solid anime sci-fi with strong characterization and action. It has a few plot holes, and the very large cast of characters got a little confusing at times. But none of that was deal-breaking. If you are in the mood for anime, I highly recommend it.

With that out of the way, I am going back to Dark Matter. I watched the first two seasons over the last month and a half, then got sidetracked with other things. Now I am starting season three, which I just read is sadly the last. This is such an excellent show. The Sci-Fi channel has not done anything of this quality since Farscape, which it resembles in some ways (a band of anti-heroes thrown together on a spaceship vs. the rest of the galaxy).

I discovered that my favorite character of Five/Emily is played by Jodelle Ferland. Not a name that immediately jumps to mind I know. But she played the little girl Sharon/Alessa in Silent Hill. Now I might have to go back and watch that again.

[SubRosa]

I have been watching Violet Evergarden on Netflix. It is just outstanding. The main character Violet is described as a weapon. I think she is a robot. Even though we see in some episodes that she has red blood. No one really says what she is. But she clearly is not human. It is not really a key point though, because the show is not about what she is, but who she is becoming.

It is set in a land similar to Europe, at the end of the equivalent of WWI. Violet was a soldier in the war. The show starts at the end of the war, and Violet - who has never known anything else - must learn to how to simply live her life, and choose who she is going to be. She becomes a scribe, writing letters for hire. It seems in this land writing is not so common, but even people who can write hire people like Violet to help them express their feelings in writing. Or just to perform the task of typing while they dictate - for example Violet spends some time doing the typing for a playwright who is working on a new play. She also assists an astronomical observatory translate old books that are falling apart into new editions -saving them from being lost.

Many of the episodes are told from the pov of the supporting characters. I liked this a lot, as it shows how Violet touched these people lives, and changed them forever. Along the way Violet herself grows as a person, learning to feel, to face her feelings, and face her future. It can be very sweet and sappy, but also very sad. There is a little bit of action in spots, but mainly it is about character development. Definitely a chick flick all the way, and a really good one.

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

I have been watching Violet Evergarden on Netflix. It is just outstanding. The main character Violet is described as a weapon. I think she is a robot. Even though we see in some episodes that she has red blood. No one really says what she is. But she clearly is not human. It is not really a key point though, because the show is not about what she is, but who she is becoming.

It is set in a land similar to Europe, at the end of the equivalent of WWI. Violet was a soldier in the war. The show starts at the end of the war, and Violet - who has never known anything else - must learn to how to simply live her life, and choose who she is going to be. She becomes a scribe, writing letters for hire. It seems in this land writing is not so common, but even people who can write hire people like Violet to help them express their feelings in writing. Or just to perform the task of typing while they dictate - for example Violet spends some time doing the typing for a playwright who is working on a new play. She also assists an astronomical observatory translate old books that are falling apart into new editions -saving them from being lost.

Many of the episodes are told from the pov of the supporting characters. I liked this a lot, as it shows how Violet touched these people lives, and changed them forever. Along the way Violet herself grows as a person, learning to feel, to face her feelings, and face her future. It can be very sweet and sappy, but also very sad. There is a little bit of action in spots, but mainly it is about character development. Definitely a chick flick all the way, and a really good one.

This sounds cool!

[SubRosa]

I just finished the second episode of the new Lost In Space. So far so good. It is a huge improvement over the Lost In Space movie from the 90s.

The characters are good. They mixed things up a little by making John Robinson the military war guy, Maureen the scientist, and Don West a mechanic. Toby Stephens is great as usual as Daddy Robinson, and his wife Maureen is played by Jackie Sharp from House of Cards. The robot is really cool. It was built by aliens, and it looks like it was responsible for destroying the character's mother ship. Whether it is friend or foe remains to be seen. I just love Penny the most though. She has an everyman quality, that makes her stand out all the more when she rises to the occasion.

[Dark Reaper]

I'm watching a LP on Ultima 5 on YouTube.

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

I just finished the second episode of the new Lost In Space. So far so good. It is a huge improvement over the Lost In Space movie from the 90s.

The characters are good. They mixed things up a little by making John Robinson the military war guy, Maureen the scientist, and Don West a mechanic. Toby Stephens is great as usual and Daddy Robinson, and his wife Maureen is played by Jackie Sharp from House of Cards. The robot is really cool. It was built by aliens, and it looks like it was responsible for destroying the character's mother ship. Whether it is friend or foe remains to be seen. I just love Penny the most though. She has an everyman quality, that makes her stand out all the more when she rises to the occasion.

Khajiit has been meaning to give this a try. This one likes the two leads a lot; Parker from Deadwood and Stephens from Black Sails.

[SubRosa]

The shipping shoggoth brought me something today

The Testimony of Randolph Carter

It is one of the earliest works of the guys at HPLHS. From back when they were students I think. It was shot in vhs, so the picture and sound quality is pretty poor. But for a hardcore Lovecraft nerd like me, it is pretty fun. It is especially fun seeing Sean Branney back when he was a strapping young lad. I think I am going to send him an email suggesting they do a Dark Adventure Radio Theater of some of the collected stories about Randolph Carter. I always loved the Statement of Randolph Carter and The Unnamable.

[SubRosa]

I just finished watching Batman vs Superman again, and this time I noticed something at the end. When the army goes to the Kryptonian ship and arrests Lex Luthor they find him in the amniotic chamber. He seems to be communicating with a figure with an elaborate head piece or horns, and three cubes are floating in front of him. I am guessing this is Steppenwolf Although he looked slightly different in Justice League. So that was a nice setup.

[Kane]

Infinity War is one hell of a movie.

[Darkness Eternal]

Infinity War: Began with an applause from a crazy crowd of eager fans. Ended with nothing but silent murmurs as we all exited the theatre room in quiet contemplation.

Sorry, had to be dramatic but that’s exactly how it was. I was left speechless by the end of
The movie. It was a phenomenal film with such a vast array of characters that left me surprised at how well the pacing and control was. It was an amazing, relentless movie! Definitely the movie of the year, if not the decade!



This post has been edited by Darkness Eternal: May 3 2018, 02:09 AM

[Kane]

Infinity War: Began with an applause from a crazy crowd of eager fans. Ended with nothing but silent murmurs as we all exited the theatre room in quiet contemplation.

Sorry, had to be dramatic but that’s exactly how it was. I was left speechless by the end of
The movie. It was a phenomenal film with such a vast array of characters that left me surprised at how well the pacing and control was. It was an amazing, relentless movie! Definitely the movie of the year, if not the decade!

[SubRosa]

I am in the middle of Please Stand By. Dakota Fanning is fantastic! She plays an autistic girl who runs away from the group home she is living at. She is on her way to Los Angeles with the Star Trek script she wrote, to enter it into a contest at the film studio. Naturally trials and tribulations ensue. Dakota Fanning's portrayal of an autistic person is so like what I am familiar with from a person I once knew with Asperger's Symdrome. She did an incredible job making the character come alive in a way that is both lovable, but also does not pull any punches when it comes to the real difficulty it is having an autistic person in your life.

[SubRosa]

I saw Black Panther yesterday. It was good. Better than most Marvel movies, especially lately. The characters are good, the plot is well done, and for once the villain is solid. He - Killmonger - is not only threatening, but also well-rounded and realistic, with a back story that makes his goals and actions not only make sense, but also something I could agree with on a certain level. His problem however is that he is solely bent upon tearing down, and he is not thinking about the world his actions are going to create.

The effects were only so-so. It probably looked better in the theaters, but on my 4k at home I could see places where the background was clearly a matte and not real, or where a car flying through the air was cgi, and so forth.

The other thing I did not like was that it seemed like there was a lot of wish-fulfillment going on with Wakanda, and especially Vibranium. Instead of a being just a near-indestructible metal, it is now a wonder element that now heals spinal injuries, absorbs and redirects energy, shoots out energy (without absorbing it first), enables flight? (maybe not sure, but I think the Wakandan Super Planes use Vibranium to fly), and whatever else the writer wants it to do at the moment. It kind of went past being a cool explanation for why Cap's shield doesn't break, and crossed over into Deus Ex Machina land for me.

Wakanda itself is also a bit too Utopian for my tastes. But I might be unfair on that. The whole hidden city I can handle. I think it worked just fine with Themiskyra in Wonder Woman. I think it is that Wakanda is so ridiculously technically advanced compared to the rest of the Earth that bugs me. I kind of wonder why Wakanda has not colonized other galaxies and alternate universes already. In contrast the Amazons in Themiskyra were still using bows and arrows, and had never seen a rifle before. That helped bring them down to earth, in spite of being magical immortals created by the gods living in a fantasy utopia. Because in spite of all that they weren't ridiculously overpowered.

But nit-picks aside, Chadwick Boseman was outstanding at T'challa. So was Michael B Jordan as Killmonger. They feel like real people with real goals, real issues they grapple with, and real lives. The supporting cast is solid too.

I did like the mysticism they wove into the story as well. The spirit world is a place we see several times, and was very well done. How it appeared even varied according to the person projecting there. I also liked that instead of simply "The Panther God", the Wakandan's worshipped Bast, a real goddess. I also watched a bit of Avengers Civil War, and T'challa name drops Bast and Sekhmet when he is talking to Black Widow after his father's death. Again, a both real goddesses.

All in all a really good movie. I highly recommend it.

[SubRosa]

I am watching the first Captain America movie, and once again I recognized someone. The English Howling Commando with the mustache is JJ Field. I know, who? He was Major Andre in Turn: Washington's Spies.

So he is yet another of the "little people" in the film that went on to other things, like Natalie Dormer (the private who kisses Steve), and Jenna Coleman (one of the double date girls from the World's Expo). And wow, looking at IMDB right now I see that the German spy who shot Dr. Erskine is Richard Armitage! Does he look different without a beard.