Now Watching, Films/ movies discussion Options

[treydog]

Working on the second season of Veronica Mars. It stumbled a bit in the early episodes- not surprising given the roller-coaster that was season 1. But it had picked up nicely.

Black Books for a bit of light relief- enjoyable- but hearing a laugh track again after all these years is a bit disconcerting.

Rationing our Homicide: Life on the Street still- only allowing ourselves one episode per week. Even so, we are into Season 6.

Finally- checked out the first episode of Longmire on A&E. Watchable- with Australian Robert Taylor in the title role as a Wyoming sheriff. We first see him as he is dealing with the first anniversary of his wife's death. There is history- mostly alluded to without explicit discussion- e.g. a conflict with the tribal police on the nearby reservation. Additional cast includes Lou Diamond Phillips and Katee Sackhoff.

[Darkness Eternal]

So I have seen the Avengers. Not really too excited about seeing that one. I liked the character Loki and a few others, but the movie itself was decent. I actually am stoked to watch the Dark Knight Rises! Not the lighthearted movie that the Avengers was.

Last night I saw both Prometheus and Snow White. Prometheus was pretty good. It had some "eh" parts but there was some funny parts too! Such as the moment where David was standing in awe and the epic music was playing and all of the sudden it stopped as the holograms around him vanished. Don't know why, but the entire theater had a few laughs and chuckles. It was like a kill moment for the guy. The movie itself did delve into judeo-christianty and a few questions being asked like "who was man's creator?" and etc. I loved the ending of the movie, however! I rate it a 9/10.

Snow White? Eh, I fell asleep during a few parts of that. Mainly because it was late at night already. But there was a few good parts. It wasn't extravagant or anything. I was totally surprised to watch two movies in a single night with Charlize Theron. She was sort of a mean person in Prometheus and an even meaner person in Snow White.

[SubRosa]

I have been watching The Tudors lately. I am about half-way through season two. I like it. It gets a little confused on history at several points, such as Charles Brandon marrying Princess Margaret, when he in fact married Princess Mary. A princess who does not even exist in the series I might add. I guess somehow they misplaced her during the casting... Then of course neither Princess Margaret nor Mary ever married the King of Portugal, and said King at that time was not a decrepit old letch, but in fact a young man who was already married.

But in spite of the historical inaccuracies, it is still a fun show to watch. The acting is solid, and the characters are all well-portrayed. No one just sits there like a cardboard cutout. Everyone has their own agendas, their own passions, and especially their own egos! Goodness sakes, it is hard to believe they could fit all those people and their egos into just one palace! The latter is something I particularly liked, as an overabundance of pride is one of those things that comes with the positions of power that those people wielded. Not just Henry, but Queen Katherine, Anne Boleyn, Thomas More, Cromwell, Cranmer, etc... None of them are on good terms with a sense of humility. Every one is absolutely certain in that their view/agenda/position is divinely right, and everyone else has to be wrong, and no one will compromise. At least not until the headsman's axe compromises their heads from their bodies...

I really like John-Rhys Meyer's portrayal of Henry (is he related to John-Rhys Davies?). We all think of the King in his later years, as the overweight letch painted by Hans Holbein. But the truth is when he was young, Henry was a magnificent athlete. He played tennis (which was the sport of kings at the time), jousted, hunted, wrestled, etc... He was a man just dripping with testosterone. One moment he could be all charm, the next he could be raging fury. As Thomas Wyatt once wrote - "Around the throne, the thunder rolls". But most of all he was a man with voracious appetites. Especially when it came to feeding his vanity, and his genitals. The Anglican Church was created by his schlong after all. If he could have kept it in one woman England would still be Catholic to this day. They did extremely well in portraying him.

It is interesting to watch the other characters rise and fall around him. Wolsey is the only one I felt sorry for. In part due to Sam Neill's outstanding portrayal of the man who held England in his hands, and in part because he sacrificed so much of his personal ambitions for the sake of Henry. Who of course turned on him in the end, as Henry did everyone sooner or later. Compared to the others, he is also somewhat of a milk-toast. He just embezzled money and lived the life of luxury in palaces finer than Henry's. The ones who followed him were burning people at the stake. Like good old humanist Thomas More. The man who started with burning books, and went on to burning people. After all, we can't have the common people actually knowing what is written in the bible after all! Let alone knowing what the priest is saying during mass. I was not the slightest bit sorry to see his head parted from his vanity.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jun 18 2012, 09:08 PM

[Illydoor]

Django Unchained

Looks fantastic.

This post has been edited by Illydoor: Jun 18 2012, 09:03 PM

[mALX]

Barney's Version - powerful visual insight into one man's lifetime made even more poignient by the tremendous acting portraying each role, even the bit actors were so well chosen that their minute parts became as immersive as the main character's were. Huge work of art.

[Darkness Eternal]

HBO's "Rome". Good show! Great characters, sad scenes and wonderful story that mostly stays true to history! Very realistic, so much so that it had to be cancelled because of the budget

[Lord Revan]

I just saw the 2 hour pilot for tthe new series of Dallas. Never seen the original. It's got some of the trappings associated with Soap Operas (conflict rears its ugly head at every turn), but the characters are interesting. I also live in the Metroplex, so it's nice to see some familiar landmarks.

JR is gives me the creeps how he can look old and kindly without betraying how he's planning to screw someone over. Looking forward to the next episode.

[Rihanae]

I don't really watch a lot of television but the last movie i watched was 'Meet Monica Velour'. DEFINITELY one of Kim Catrall's finer projects. It was a truly amazing movie. Very moving.

Anybody else seen it?

EDIT: OH! and I've been watching Desperate Housewives season one on DVD. Good god I love that show!

This post has been edited by Rihanae: Jun 26 2012, 07:58 PM

[Darkness Eternal]

Dark Knight Rises. I had a Batman marathon and watched all three movies in one day. It was great!

Ra's Al Ghul and Bane were my favorite characters! I also love Miranda Tate and Selena Style too! Such a quality film, better than that Avengers thing.

[mALX]

Teeth - possibly unintentionally hysterical !!

[Illydoor]

Dark Knight Rises. I had a Batman marathon and watched all three movies in one day. It was great!

Ra's Al Ghul and Bane were my favorite characters! I also love Miranda Tate and Selena Style too! Such a quality film, better than that Avengers thing.

Seen this today as well.

And whilst I don't think it was quite as good as The Dark Knight, still a great conclusion to possibly the greatest portayal of a superhero ever.

My favourite was Bane, he is an absolute beast of a villian!

[mALX]

The Last Hard Men - not what I thought it would be at all. Thumbs down.

[Grits]

I can’t imagine how I managed to miss this show, but I never got around to watching How I Met Your Mother. Netflix to the rescue. Oh my gosh, it’s funny. I'm still in season one.

[McBadgere]

Pixar's Brave...Lovely film...Brilliant...

[haute ecole rider]

Oooh, I really want to watch this one, if only for the amusing Shire horse I saw in the trailers!

In between Korean dramas and samurai movies on Netflix, I've been watching reruns of Adam-12. You have to be a certain age (or older) to remember this series, but I enjoyed it without closed captioning when it was originally broadcast. I'm enjoying it even more now that it has subtitles.

It's the classic concept of gruff veteran/idealistic rookie that drives so many of the older television shows, and Martin Milner is perfect as the older cop. One thing that escaped me the first time around (and surprised me this time) is that he is the consummate bachelor ("I ain't the marrying kind."), while Kent McCord is the happily married one. I get a kick out of the young'un trying to match the old vet up with some lady - typical of most happily married people I know. And *I* ain't the marrying type, meself!

[SubRosa]

I remember Adam 12! I was a huge Kent McCord fan back in the day. I was so tickled when he played John Chrichton's dad in Farscape.

I wrapped up my annual viewing of Sharpe's Rifles last week, and have gone though most of my Horatio Hornblower's as well. Today I took a break and watched The Hunger Games. It was decent. The shaky hand-held cam it was all shot in nearly made me puke near the beginning though. After a while I either got used to it, or they found a cameraman with a steadier hand.

I would not say it was very original. It borrows ideas (and names) from classic gladiator stories, Metropolis, and even mixes in a little bit of The Truman Show with its arena. There is a Japanese movie called Battle Royale that does the same thing, only with much greater intensity. Still, the characters are interesting, and the main character is very cute. So was Lenny Kravitz, and coming from a lesbian, that is saying something! But I have always been a big Lenny fan.

The ending felt very anticlimatic. It is obviously just the first entry in a series (there are 3 books after all), so I am sure they will follow with more films. The world they give us is a classic utopia for the select few, built upon a dystopia of the lowly masses. The first movie is plainly just the first act in a larger revolution that one expects to see played out in the sequels.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Aug 18 2012, 10:54 PM

[haute ecole rider]

Yes, I loved Kent McCord myself too!

[McBadgere]

My only...Um...Exposure to Kent McCord was Galactica '80... ...*Shudders*...Oh, and his minute role in Airplane II...

The horses in Brave are soooo lovely...As is pretty much everything else too...No...No I didn't cry...No...

[McBadgere]

The Bourne Legacy...Ummm...It was alright...Bit slow in places...Odd film...Good though...

[SubRosa]

The Bourne Legacy...Ummm...It was alright...Bit slow in places...Odd film...Good though...

That is the new one without Matt Damon right? It seems weird to me to have a Bourne movie without Jason Bourne.