What are you watching?

[richietog]

Watched Earth at Night, and also finished Long Way Down, which completes the series for me. Long Way Up was the first I saw. Intriguing series to be honest

[Jezreel]

I've watched so many films since we all last met it's ridiculous.

Here's the last films I watched (according to Plex in the last 14 days) and a rating.

Aliens - 9/10
The Social Network - 8.5/10
The Hobbit : An Unexpected Journey - 7.5/10
The Birdcage - 7/10
Star Trek IV - 7/10
About Time - 7/10
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - 8/10
Anatomy Of A Murder - 7.5/10
WW84 - 6/10
Bruce Almighty - 7.5/10
Crank - 7/10
Bad Santa - 6/10

I've been watching the series "Inside No.9" which has some great moments, some flashes of League of Gentlemen, some dark things, some funny, some scary. It's worth watching because it's a bit different as an antidote to our other normal background TV "noise", that she likes to watch, NCIS etc.

[Wooster]

I once watched Aliens on Acid.
I think I looked like a Labrador that had been asked a question, I couldn't really figure out what I was seeing for most of it.

[Jezreel]

I was marvelling last night (the rewatch was due to finding a much higher bitrate copy online) with the largely disinterested partner, at how you could actually make everything out on screen now, as the film maker intended much more no doubt, and it did have confusing parts in the fast action when the clarity wasn't there, it gets better with age, so many iconic moments and lines. Proper good liek.

[Wooster]

I hadn't thought about that, I should watch it again. 

[richietog]

I've had enough with wildlife programmes

Currently streaming my fave musical...Grease. Yes, the acting is corny, but that is because the 50s/ early 60s USA was exactly like that, fucking corny

[Jezreel]

Nothing wrong with that, for a similar reason I absolutely love the Pitch Perfect films, cheesy feel good trash, it's amazing

[keasy]

I watched For A Fistful Of Dollars tripping on acid with my parents present when i was sixteen.
Purple deserts and cellophane cowboys are sight to be seen. As was my mum and dad's faces, they knew something want right 

[Jezreel]

You know you fucked up when you get up to leave the room and try to shake everyone's hand. "too far?" "Too Far".

[richietog]

The Great

[Jezreel]

Rushmore - Widely regarded as a masterpiece, taken with no context to all that or the provenance of directors or cast it was engaging in parts but so bizarre in some as to be on the edge of jarring. In context it's probably a deliberate thing. You don't really connect with any of the characters and the plot/story is outlandish, the humour kind of trickles in when it feels like it then reprimands you for laughing, it's a bit of an autisitc experience as a film. Therefore it only gets 7/10 from me.

White Men can't jump - Soft spot film, dated but with arguably one of the greatest odd-couplings on screen in a buddy movie. Definitely situated "in it's time", some of the humour or cultural observations are now flat-falling, but if you like basketball, or even fast paced sports and an odd couple quipping and having great on screen chemistry, splashed with a distinctly and unmistakably early 90's cologne (a good whiff of Old Spice inserted here), then you won't fail to like this. There is character development, an arc, a payoff and a mild "lesson". Solid 8.5/10 from me.

[Wooster]

I'm uncertain about Wes Anderson films, half the time I feel like I don't know what's going on.

[Splinter]

We've almost finished Roots (1977), tempered by the fact that Alex Haley may have stretched the truth somewhat.
Still, it's a good yarn and it makes you think about how the negros have been treated over the years, chained up like sardines when being shipped from Africa for example and then being bought and sold like old furniture.

[keasy]

I remember Roots from when I was a wee boy watching it with my parents and sister in the living room in front of a big roasting coal fire.

I often wonder if the racial slur 'coon' comes from it as in Kunta Kinte?

[Jezreel]

The Second Best Marigold Hotel.
Cast - Stellar
Plot - Paper thin but plays the right movie notes
An emotional and at times thought provoking follow up to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Explore relationships in a farily 2 dimensional way with the odd glimpse of depth and thankfully not resorting to too many glib empty platitudes which a film like this could, strikes a decent balance and finds screen time for all the talent. It's messy at points where locations spread but comes back neatly, ignoring some elements a longer film or series might have got it's teeth into (the jealousy of Sonny for example). We loved the first one and this was not much worse for being a sequel. 7.5/10


Romancing the Stone
Aged aged aged, this has lost all of it's shine and has not stood the test of time at all. What was regarded as a bit of an Indiana Jones clone, despite really being it's own "thing", this has faded, and it's the best one of the two (War of the Roses isn't a true part of it) by a way. Kathleen turner and Michael Douglas only have chemistry in the way that a predator eyes its lunch, her character is there to be funneled and pushed into everything rather than feeling like she has much real stake in anything that's happening, the men do it all. It attempts some humour which falls way flat nowadays and some of the laughable action feels over extended in order to fit some hidden criteria for how much run time is attributed to certain things. It (like her characters novels) is trashy romance comedy, and at least it nods to sending itself up slightly on occasion as exactly this. I was hoping for a bit of nostalgia and received a boring cheese fest which was excruciating at times. 4/10

[Jezreel]

Cosmos (2014) first three episodes of Season 1. Neil De Grasse Tyson condescending us through the cosmos. Not as good a communicator as his idol Carl Sagan or a shade on David Attenborough, but the content itself is interesting enough, although even in just three episodes we've had a lot of repetition. Made for America maybe? Fuck me they must be dim or the producers of this just have a very dim impression of their intended audience. I'll stick with it for another three at least as the content itself once you wade through the way it's presented, is fascinating (naturally (lol) ).

[Wooster]

https://archive.org/details/ConnectionsByJamesBurke

Surprising how well they still stand up despite being made about 40 years ago.

[keasy]

Cosmos (2014) first three episodes of Season 1. Neil De Grasse Tyson condescending us through the cosmos. Not as good a communicator as his idol Carl Sagan or a shade on David Attenborough, but the content itself is interesting enough, although even in just three episodes we've had a lot of repetition. Made for America maybe? Fuck me they must be dim or the producers of this just have a very dim impression of their intended audience. I'll stick with it for another three at least as the content itself once you wade through the way it's presented, is fascinating (naturally (lol) ).

US docus are rarely as good as UK productions.
Can't beat a bit of Professor Jim Al-kalili or even lovely,l ovely Brian Cox when it comes to physics and cosmology. They defo don't treat their audience with assuming detriment like US presenters and narrators.

I hate what the BBC has become, a state sponsored UK national media propagandist outlet that cowers in fear of conservative scalding, but they still makes the best documentaries by far. Horizon is probably my favourite show off all time.

[Wooster]

US science documentaries are mostly primary school level ("Did you know our Sun is a star?")
Those James Burke ones whoever, have the odd bit of nudity.

[keasy]

]"Did you know our Sun is a star?"[/i])

[Wooster]

😂😂