Now Watching, Films/ movies discussion Options

[mALX]

Holes!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0u4M6vppCI

[Decrepit]

Watched 1917 last night. Fine film. Glad I decided to bite-the-bullet and order it on DVD. I watched it via my PC's DVD drive, despite my living-room A/V receiver having quite decent built-in 1080p upscaling.

Had this movie been released for home viewing pre C-19 I'd have bought it at our local Barnes & Noble, paying via Gift Card. Yeah, the Barnes & Noble that was totaled during a tornado last month. Wonder if they'll re-open? They were, after all, the area's only book store. I'd normally say yes, but with C-19 going strong, who knows?

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Apr 14 2020, 10:34 AM

[SubRosa]

I have discovered some episodes of the old TV show The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau.

I started with Sharks, which I think was the first episode in the entire show. It is still a good documentary. The only troubling thing I found about it was that they tagged a bunch of sharks. Then at the end they went fishing for sharks to recover the tags, and find out where the sharks had traveled by comparing where they had been tagged versus where they had been caught.

They don't show it, but I think they killed all the sharks in the process. In the 1960s there were still plenty of sharks in the ocean. But today they are being killed at a rate of roughly 100 million a year, and will be extinct if this does not stop. Since they are a keystone species, that will be devastating to the rest of the oceans, and our planet.

I also watched The Legend Of Lake Titicaca (yes, I giggled at the name too, since mentally I am still five).

Now I am watching The Lagoon of Lost Ships. This one is set in Truk Lagoon, and the crew are investigating the wrecks of the Japanese ships sunk there in WW2.

The video is old, low resolution, and kind of blurry. But it is still a good show. Some of these are even narrated by Rod Serling! There is also narration by Cousteau himself, which is a real treat to hear. His thoughts come across as deeply genuine mixture of compassion and love for the natural world.

I also forgot how much man-flesh is in this show! It is packed with all these swol dudes, who seem to really, really dislike wearing clothing. They are all walking around wearing bikini shorts and soaking up the sun in every episode.

[SubRosa]

I just finished watching Quigley Down Under for the first time in a million years. As often happens when going back and watching movies that are now old, I recognized someone. The teenage bad guy is none other than Ben Mendelsohn. Yes, Director Krennic himself. What a difference in how he looks!

[SubRosa]

I just finished watching a 4 part series of Cousteau episodes about their expedition to Antarctica. Watching them dive not just under, but through icebergs was both breathaking, and eerie, as the bergs crack and creak around them, and seal call out from the inky darkness below.

To cope with the freezing water, they wore dry suits that they could pump up with air to form a heat barrier. At one point they really pumped them up, which made them look like Hutts!. It was hilarious.

[mALX]

"The Hunt For Red October" = for probably the 100th time, lol.

[SubRosa]

I finished watching Harriet. It is about Harriet Tubman, and is really, really good. The acting is phenomenal in all parts. The story is very strong. It does not shirk from the horrors and evils of slavery. But it does not allow itself to become bogged down in them either. There always remains a ray of hope, centered on Harriet herself. Or radiated from Harriet herself. She is a symbol for how we have the power to change our lives, and the world, for the better.

[SubRosa]

I am watching The Con Shelf Adventure, the very first episode of The Undersea World Of Jacques Cousteau. It is an experiment of six divers living and working at 330 feet below the surface of the sea for an extended period in a small undersea base. They are at 11x the normal pressure at sea level, so are breathing a helium-oxygen mix. Trying to breathe normal air would kill them. So they all sound like Donald Duck.

What really caught my attention though is that they reheat their meals with a microwave. This was in 1965 or so. I had no ideas there were microwaves back then! It must have been like science fiction. So now I am looking them up on the Wiki. It says that the first microwave oven was invented in 1946, using radar technology. But it looks like they were too big and too expensive for regular home use until the late 70s, which is about how I remember. So it really was cutting edge technology for those Con Shelf guys.

The Wiki has a picture of a microwave oven on a Navy ship from 1961, and it is the size of a refrigerator!

Ok, it says Raytheon made a countertop microwave for home use in 1967. It was the equivalent of only $4,000 in modern dollars!

[SubRosa]

I watched Extraction yesterday. It was okay. But nothing special. Mostly just lots of gunfights. I found it to be really bleak, which made it hard to really invest in the characters. Chris Hemsworth does his best with his natural charisma, which he certainly has plenty of. But he alone is not enough to make it a truly good movie. Not that it is a bad one. It is just 2 hours of gun porn.

I watched the first episode of the new Ghost In The Shell series in Netflix today too. Again, I was not impressed, but for different reasons. First off, they are going to 3d animation this time, instead of the classic artwork style the older GITSs were. In this case, it is not an improvement. The animation looks really cheap. Like something that would have been done in the 90s. Seriously Final Fantasy: Spirits Within was better quality, and that is 20 years old.

I could forgive that, but the actual plot looks pretty meh. The show seems to take place after Standalone Complex. But the whole GITS continuity is just a mess. They seem to just be making things up as they go along, and gleefully ignoring everything they did in the past every time they put out something new. So who knows? Once upon a time it was a show about action that questioned the nature of humanity and the soul in a trans-human age. Now it just seems to be about shooting things. So basically 30 minute episodes of gun porn with poor animation.

[SubRosa]

I watched Saving Private Ryan again. The first time in a long time. It is a really emotionally resonant film, filled with lots of good characterizations. I noticed some glaring historical errors however, thanks to recently reading Max Hasting's book Das Reich. The German troops they face in the big battle at the end are said to be from the Das Reich division (2nd SS Panzer). The date on the tombstone for the Captain in the modern day scenes is June 13th. So we know the battle happened then.

Well, the Das Reich was not in Normandy on June 13th. Or anywhere near that date. They were busy massacring civilians in southern France. They would not show up in Normandy for at least another week. And then it would be at the opposite end of the line, against the British.

Furthermore the attacking Germans had Tiger tanks. The Das Reich did not have Tigers. They turned them all in when they left the Eastern Front months before and were moved to France. Once in France they were re-equipped with brand new Panthers, Mark IVs, and Stug IIIs.

That is just the tip of the iceberg of poor research.

[SubRosa]

Today I watched The Half Of It. It was a nice, enjoyable retelling of the old Cyrano de Bergerac tale. It follows the traditional beats until the end. Where it changes things up by not tying everything together into a nice little bow. Which you know, every romance always does. Love is messy is pretty much the theme of the story. That and bold strokes. I liked it a lot.

I also found another future character for the Stormcrow fic in Leah Lewis. She is exactly what I have been looking for for some time now.

[Decrepit]

Earlier today (and again now) I watched a shortish YT video of a train ride in Britain, a type of video I watch with some frequency. Which in and of itself wouldn't necessarily make it post-worthy. However, while watching I happened to hover my mouse cursor over the view window, bringing up the 'info' at video bottom. There I noticed something I've never seen before. The time-bar is segmented. Every time red advances into a new segment, a short text description appears just to the right of the time watched / total time numeric indicators. Has anyone seen these bar-segments-with-text before? Does anyone know how it is accomplished?

(YouTube Video) Cromer to Sheringham and Holt - Hastings DEMU cab ride - 23 July 2016 (YouTube Video)

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

They released Rise of Skywalker on Disney+ so I’ll probably try to watch that tonight while sitting around at work.

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

Watching this show on HISTORY called “Eating History”. These two guys get their hands on sealed up food from the past, open them, and if they don’t see or smell any obvious reasons not to, they eat it! It’s sooo stupid but also somewhat fascinating!

[SubRosa]

A long time ago they had a show called American Eats. It did a deep dive into some form of American food, and talked all about its history. Things like Chef Boyardee, potato chips, pop (or soda), barbecue, and so on. I really miss that show. It was really cool.

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

A long time ago they had a show called American Eats. It did a deep dive into some form of American food, and talked all about its history. Things like Chef Boyardee, potato chips, pop (or soda), barbecue, and so on. I really miss that show. It was really cool.

I remember that show. It was interesting!

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

Normally I don’t watch zombie movies, buuuut . . .

I got suckered into The Kingdom by the Korean court intrigue - by the time I realized “Oh, this is a ZOMBIE series!” I was too invested and kept watching. The second season just came out and I had to watch the first one all over again to refresh my memory. Well worth watching, zombies or no.

I’m watching this now too! I think it’s really well done. The mix of horror, drama, action, and comedy is perfect! One minute I’m chuckling at the reactions of some of the more expressive characters, another minute I’m cringing at the evil plots of some of the nastier characters, and then I’m in suspense as a flood of undead threaten to overwhelm the heroes fighting valiantly to stop them. Good show. Definitely recommend, especially if you like history and/or epic Asian action films (Red Cliff and Seven Samurai came to mind).

[SubRosa]

I have been watching the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Just finished the second one. Every time they said Kraken, I kept hearing "Butt-Kraken"... As if a giant plumber was going to come and sink their ship.

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

I have been watching the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Just finished the second one. Every time they said Kraken, I kept hearing "Butt-Kraken"... As if a giant plumber was going to come and sink their ship.

What is your overall opinion of those movies?

[SubRosa]

The first 3 were fun. Lots of excitement, lots of adventure. I especially enjoyed that all the main characters had their own agendas, and were often quite willing to stab the others in the back to fulfill said agendas. Fun movies.

The latter two were pretty much just cash grabs by Johnny Depp and Disney. Nothing really special to be honest.