Now Watching, Films/ movies discussion Options

[SubRosa]

Well, everyone there looks like a vampire!

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

Well, everyone there looks like a vampire!

The Nosferatu guy is really into it, lol

[WellTemperedClavier]

I started watching The Orville. It's fun, but slightly uncanny for how closely it resembles Star Trek: TNG in look and tone. Can't shake the feeling that I'm watching some parallel world's equivalent of Star Trek.

[Decrepit]

I haven't watched a feature-length big-production movie in ever so long. Youtube continues to offer a better product, imo, though admittedly it's getting harder to sift grains of gold from mounds of dirt. The gold is still there, just not as often promoted as it used to be.

Which brings me to the gist of this post. I discovered another YouTube Channel of interest. It's devoted to "ancient" Rome. The several videos I watched earlier today were well-made, informative, and entertaining. Here's the first episode I saw, the one that drew me to the channel when it mysteriously appeared among today's recommendations: The Last Pagans of Rome.

[Decrepit]

Yesterday evening I watch, complete on YouTube, the 1951 Alastair Sim "A Christmas Carol", a long-time fave of mine. So long as I don't watch it too frequently, this movie tends to warm the cockles of my heart, which takes a lot of doing. I unashamedly cried time and time again throughout the film. A Christmas Carol is lucky in having a decent number of top-notch film adaptations, but this one, for me, is best.

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

I don’t know if any of you are interested, but the MiL wanted the family to go see the new Avatar movie for her b-day yesterday. Now, being kinda “meh” about the first one, I didn’t have many feelings about this one. We saw it in 3D, so all of the problems associated with that apply.

A few comments:
1. The movie is just as beautiful as the first. That being said, some people might think that it’s “more of the same”. Frankly, coming out of it, I was thinking that the visuals were all there is to this movie.
2. The plot is a little too much like the first. The main guy, Jake is back, and this time he has a Naavi family, and through circumstances he and his family have to leave the forest and learn the ways of the aquatic Naavi tribes. That’s all I’m going at say about plot, but it’s very similar to the first, and the first one did it better, imo.
3. It’s suuuuper loooong! Like 3+ hours long. It’s probably 2 hours of visual eye candy scenes and one hour of actual plot points. Could’ve definitely trimmed it down a bit, but Cameron was definitely going for spectacle rather than substance.
4. The water Naavi are beautiful, as is their environment, but they felt like they were basically just the Pandoran version of the Māori people of the southern Pacific Ocean. Really missed an opportunity to do something unique with their culture, plus it’s a little jarring to see alien creatures on an alien planet do the Māori war face (haka).That said, the forest people of the first film could’ve been taken from any number of forest dwelling cultures of Earth, so maybe this would be expecting too much.

In conclusion, I’d say if you wanted to go to see this movie in the theatres, be prepared as it’s really long and know that you will be primarily going for the visuals, which are probably worth the price of a matinee maybe. I didn’t pay for my ticket, but I wouldn’t have liked paying full price as I do prefer having a decent story to go along with visuals.

[mirocu]

As for me I'd rather just watch Terminator 2 again

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

As for me I'd rather just watch Terminator 2 again

This post has been edited by TheCheshireKhajiit: Jan 3 2023, 07:47 PM

[SubRosa]

Thanks Khajiit. I had no idea the new Avatar movie was even out already. That is about what I expected from it.

I watched News of the World last night. It was a good movie, I would stay the opposite of Avatar. It is substance over style. It is a Western starring Tom Hanks, who plays a man who travels around Texas and reads the news to people from world wide newspapers. By accident he ends up in charge of a young white girl who had been taken by Native Americans and raised in their culture as one of them.

Most of it is a road movie where they are traveling the roads as he is taking her back to her aunt and uncle, who are still alive across the state. Like all road movies, it is a series of vignettes all strung together as they meet various unsavory types and try to survive. Then finally it all wraps up with some character development as both he and her find their places in the world.

It is a good, simple movie, with strong performances by all involved.

[Grits]

Gosh, I love a road movie. News of the World sounds like just what I've been looking for. I have been in a viewing drought lately.

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

Thanks Khajiit. I had no idea the new Avatar movie was even out already. That is about what I expected from it.

I watched News of the World last night. It was a good movie, I would stay the opposite of Avatar. It is substance over style. It is a Western starring Tom Hanks, who plays a man who travels around Texas and reads the news to people from world wide newspapers. By accident he ends up in charge of a young white girl who had been taken by Native Americans and raised in their culture as one of them.

Most of it is a road movie where they are traveling the roads as he is taking her back to her aunt and uncle, who are still alive across the state. Like all road movies, it is a series of vignettes all strung together as they meet various unsavory types and try to survive. Then finally it all wraps up with some character development as both he and her find their places in the world.

It is a good, simple movie, with strong performances by all involved.

I remember seeing a trailer for that and thinking it looked interesting! I’ll have to check it out!

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

Just got done watching the 2 seasons available of a Netflix documentary show called Rise of Empires: Ottoman. The first season covers Sultan Mehmed II’s conquest of Constantinople while the second season covers his initial war against Vlad III Dracula in Wallachia. The series didn’t go into a lot of the detail that I would’ve liked (mainly talking about the Dracula content as it’s a story I am fairly familiar with), but I thought, as a whole, it was pretty well done and enjoyable.

[Decrepit]

The other day I again watched one of my favorite war movies, the 1970 Waterloo, after discovering that it can now be seen in full on YouTube at 1080p in what is termed a "Fan Cut", containing the "long" version of the film plus some inserted stills from segments that never saw release.

[SubRosa]

I watched Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves today. It was good! I recommend it to anyone who has played D&D, and anyone who has not. The acting was good. The story was good. The characters were interesting. It had humor.

It was also firmly set in Faerun, starting out with a small bit in Icewind Dale, then moving to the main part of the story in Neverwinter. It has lots of D&D critters and factions, like the Harpers, and Red Wizards of Thay. There are Displacer Beasts, a Gelationous Cube, and even a Mimic.

All in all it was a fun ride and a delight.

[Renee]

I watched Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves today. It was good!

Is this hosted on a channel or service? Hmm, guess I'll just do a search. Wow, 4.3 out of 5 iMDb "Customer ratings". Google says DnD: Honor Among Thieves is hosted on Paramount +. Not sure if we have that. Maybe my mom's got P+.

Has anybody here has ever watched the Black Mirror series? The new season is out. Watched the first 4 episodes (out of 5) and was like "meh".

The older Black Mirrors were all pretty advanced (in my opinion) creatively. Usually with heavy technological themes, such as the wife who brings her dead husband back to life through a paid service, which uses AI to reanimate the dead (Be Right Back). Or the gaming CEO who manages to capture likenesses of real-life employees, forcing them into his instance of a multiplayer game (U.S.S. Callister) except the likenesses also contain the emotions and thinking of their real-life counterparts. Which means the likenesses KNOW they're stuck in this stupid MMO! Or the little robot doll which is powered by AI taken from the brainpower of Ashley O {played by Miley Cyrus}. But it's discovered Ashley is being held a slave, and that the AI in the doll is limited to only a portion of the real Ashley O's thoughts.... (Rachel, Jack, and Ashley too).

Anyway, all of those episodes really captured my imagination. They all seemed original, even though their storylines are probably derivative of some other stories in literature. The new Black Mirrors just aren't as unique, or even creative as the old ones.

Guess you'd have to have viewed the other Black Mirrors. Not sure if anyone's seen this series... Would love to hear the impressions of anyone who has.

This post has been edited by Renee: Jun 19 2023, 05:34 PM

[SubRosa]

The D&D movie is on Amazon as well, though you have to pay for it.

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

Khajiit has a weird schedule this week, and so has today off. Currently watching Conan the Barbarian (80s). Fun!

This post has been edited by TheCheshireKhajiit: Jul 14 2023, 04:02 PM

[treydog]

Just watched the first episode of "Justified: City Primeval".

We saw the original iteration- based in Kentucky (so close to home) when it was first out. The first 2 and the final seasons were quite strong.

So far, City Primeval is looking good. Set in SubRosa's very on Motor City, our favorite Stetson hat-wearing US Marshal is going to be going up against a wonderfully psychopathic bad guy.

Better still, Timothy Olyphant's actual youngest child is playing his on-screen daughter. You can definitely feel the connection.

[Renee]

Just watched the first episode of "Justified: City Primeval".

I read about this, sounds interesting. AND it's on Hulu YES! I'm gonna check Justified out.

[Burnt Sierra]

Just watched the first episode of "Justified: City Primeval".

We saw the original iteration- based in Kentucky (so close to home) when it was first out. The first 2 and the final seasons were quite strong.

So far, City Primeval is looking good. Set in SubRosa's very on Motor City, our favorite Stetson hat-wearing US Marshal is going to be going up against a wonderfully psychopathic bad guy.

Oh, I hadn't heard about this! Really enjoyed Justified, so will be keeping an eye on this when it becomes available over here. I remember the original City Primeval book by Elmore Leonard, wonder how close they stick to it. I do miss the excitement I used to feel when he released a new novel, I got hooked on him when I was a teenager and read Swag and then Stick, he was so, so good....