Naïve Old Fart 4884 Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 All that "softcore erotica" in GOT has me reaching for something, but it's not the remote Link to post Share on other sites
Quintus 5232 Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 Just watch actual porn instead! It's better. Naïve Old Fart 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Naïve Old Fart 4884 Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 Good point. When I get the chance, I'll check the "porn" section, at my local thrift shop. Link to post Share on other sites
bruce marshall 612 Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 Period pieces are best for female nudity. Natural bodies😊 Link to post Share on other sites
JoeinAR 1409 Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 been watching a lot of Night Gallery Link to post Share on other sites
The Big Man 7573 Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 The Undoing Heh, David E. Kelley shows are barely recognisable now from Ally McBeal or Boston Legal. But he still can't resist a good courtroom scene or two. Decent whodunnit. This time, the butler really did do it! Link to post Share on other sites
Popular Post Quintus 5232 Posted January 13 Popular Post Share Posted January 13 Finished the Queen's Gambit. After quickly binging the main brunt of the series, we slowed down almost to a halt for the last couple: once you've seen five chess match montages you've sort of seen them all, and the novelty of the elegantly stimulative though decidedly one note underscore begins to wear off. Still, the score and the handsome filming works hard to make an otherwise boring game seem quite exciting and even a little glamorous, and I think that's actually the biggest most impressive accomplishment of this show. The actor who plays older Beth is obviously the other big main draw (not to play down the earlier scenes of the terrific younger Beth), and she is excellent in this major breakout role; but also, at least for me, a little bit too distracting. See, this girl is beyond strikingly beautiful to look at (doesn't this show's director know it), and in the end I just don't buy it - that a chess prodigy could ever be as impossibly gorgeous and glam as the character depicted in the Queen's Gambit. One could probably build a decent argument that says the whole thing is fantasy drivel based solely on that aspect, but it'd take a real misery guts to do that. It was Madonna who said Rita Hayworth gave good face, but in the later episodes Anya Taylor-Joy takes that concept to a level where every single shot of her could be a Vogue cover, and it actually begins to erode my immersion in the story a little. I've never had my suspension of disbelief broken by outright sheer beauty before, so this was a bizarre first, and I think this somewhat minor misgiving wouldn't have presented itself had they cast a more "convincing" face in the role. This is chess - where the absolute masters have the appearance of serial killers! People no doubt would consider this a strange criticism to make, but I've personally always had this meta problem with small-town America serials whereby the cast look like models. For eg, I couldn't get into The Leftovers for the same reason. With all that said, Anya Taylor-Joy does flex her considerable personal acting talents (including her beneficial aesthetic attributes) to great effect in this series, and she deserves the plaudits for going all in on the role. The climatic shot of her, staring mesmerisingly into the camera as she achieved the clarity she sought, the unrelenting swirl of the music reaching its crescendo, was a wonderful and legitimately cinematic moment. A satisfying end to the grand chess master storyline that would have Rocky Balboa punching the air. But then it carried on after that, the story of Beth's success doubling down, almost to the point of narrative betrayal, on its desire to leave audiences with a sugary sweet aftertaste in their mouths. All her problems apparently just washing away. It seemed a bit odd to abandon those mechanically high effort threads so casually. Ultimately, it was a bit off. Nevertheless, Queen's Gambit is a semi great Netflix effort, one that is very easy to recommend. Because the good parts are as good as anything in seen in TVs best. Jurassic Shark, Darth Wojo and Naïve Old Fart 3 Link to post Share on other sites
bruce marshall 612 Posted January 13 Share Posted January 13 Did Q actually quote Madonna?!😳 Link to post Share on other sites
bruce marshall 612 Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 Check out this haul from my library! Should cut down on my JWFAN posting😅 For awhile. 😎 Link to post Share on other sites
The Big Man 7573 Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 Anyone else watching The Vow about that creepy multi-level marketing sex cult where that nut from Smallville would brand women with her initials? Mum said "notice all these idiots are white?" I said "I dunno maybe black people can't afford to sign up for these scams?" The shit they taught in these groups was really weird and neurotic. Nothing you couldn't get from your K-Mart bargain bin for $4.99 though if you need a little motivation. The United States is a fertile breeding ground for this sort of self-help culture, mainly because it's all designed to make you think you can become a more effective salesperson in the business world, and its crossover into sales culture is notorious. Link to post Share on other sites
Bespin 4436 Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 Sex cult, sorry I received an alert. What? KK 1 Link to post Share on other sites
rough cut 899 Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 The Terror S1 https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2708480/ Some time ago, I read the book by Dan Simmons and it’s a good read if you have the patience for it (it’s 784 pages long!), and now I finally caught up with its cinematic interpretation produced by Ridley Scott. The show has a lot of people praising it for various reasons, and I can agreee: good actors, a well written script and beautifully filmed. It has some fantastical elements and is a bit of an adventure but it’s a drama more than anything else and it moves slowly in terms of story development. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, just how it is. So is it worth seeing? It depends. It’s amazing to consider the aspects of the story that are true (how the hell did they go to the arctic 150 years ago, on those majestic shops, carrying 133 men, equipment, food, whisky and rum!). It doesn’t follow the book beat-for-beat, but the broad strokes are there. Some omissions I really missed and I don’t agree with all the changes but it was done well enough. Especially the ending had a different spin to it that made more sense in the book (as did any ‘supernatural’ elements). But I guess that if you haven’t read the book you don’t know what you’re missing so you’ll be the none the worse off from it. My guess would be that if you’re a fan of submarine movies, then this is right up your alley. Soldiers trapped in a tight place with no where to go. It’s claustrophobic, lots of human drama and is a constant fight with the elements - all the while being visually pleasing. Link to post Share on other sites
Quintus 5232 Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 Really good slow burner. Although I never bothered to watch the second series. Link to post Share on other sites
rough cut 899 Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 No, I haven’t come round to that one yet either, I hear it’s a much more “surface level” story (cash grab spin off on the heels of the success of its predecessor?) compared to S1. But I’m curious to check it out. Link to post Share on other sites
AC1 2637 Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 I really liked The Terror S1 but S2 (which is a different thing altogether) is pretty bad. Ridley Scott and I were particularly impressed with the 'The Dive' scene. Link to post Share on other sites
Quintus 5232 Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 Yeah I saw you chatting about it together over zoom. Link to post Share on other sites
Marian Schedenig 3207 Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 2 hours ago, rough cut said: The Terror S1 I checked that out, among other things, by watching the first episode when I had a Prime trial subscription. It was one of several series I've found that I'd very much like to watch in full and would be happy to buy on Blu-ray for a reasonable price. Apparently there's an R1 release, so perhaps there's hope for a European version as well (I can play R1s, but I usually watch series on my TV in bed, and I'd have to move & reconnect the R1 player for that). (Un)availability for non-subscribers is one of my main worries about the fragmented world of streaming platforms. Link to post Share on other sites
rough cut 899 Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 Just get Prime for a month or two and then unsubscribe. It’d be about the same price as a BD-disc and I doubt you’d ever watch this again, considering how much content we have nowadays - both current and old. Link to post Share on other sites
Marian Schedenig 3207 Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 2 hours ago, rough cut said: Just get Prime for a month or two and then unsubscribe. It’d be about the same price as a BD-disc and I doubt you’d ever watch this again, considering how much content we have nowadays - both current and old. I find the Prime interface (on the PS4 at least, which is the only version I have hooked up to my TV) horrible, and I sometimes take a break in the middle of watching a series when I get distracted by another shiny thing, so I'd feel stressed if I had to watch something on a deadline - plus on some days the quality is noticeably worse than usual (and it's never that great to begin with). And while you're right that there's no time to watch and re-watch everything that's interesting, unfortunately I do tend to re-watch stuff (and with a streaming platform you can't even be sure it's still there when you want to watch it again, although admittedly that's probably a small risk for stuff produced by the platform providers themselves). I'm unhappy enough to be "dependent" on Netflix, and I'd rather buy stuff if I know I like it - I've got both Fringe and STTNG on Blu even though I could stream it. I've got a price watch set for a complete Mr. Robot box set (another one I've watched one episode of). Link to post Share on other sites
rough cut 899 Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 Yeah, I get what you’re saying, I am also one for re-watching stuff I like (and sometimes re-watching stuff I don’t like, just to be sure. I saw TLJ three times, hated it every time!), but all I am saying I’s that this show might not be one to re-watch. The Terror is good. But it’s not that good - I think. Others might disagree of course and then my whole argument falls apart. ; ) But from that point of view, it might be worth forking up 10 dollars - horrible interface or not - to see a thing you really want to see. But I do understand your evaluation of the situation. Marian Schedenig 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Arpy 3761 Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 Caught WandaVision the other day - so far it's OK, if anything is praiseworthy, it's how faithful a reproduction it is to the sitcoms of the 50's, with the tropes, sets, effects all largely done in the same vein. Yet, beyond that - and I know it's only two episodes so far - they flew by without anything meaningful happening until the end of the second episode. Some elements reminded me of the film Pleasantville with colour returning with the growth of the characters beyond their scripted, B&W TV lives. Wanda and Vision are perhaps the least interesting MCU characters along with Hawkeye- woefully underdeveloped in their films to the point Thanos's quip in Endgame is kind of a meta jab at how bland and forgettable Wanda is. Hopefully this show can retroactively correct this and give these characters a fair go, and to be honest, how could they compete in an Avengers film with fifty characters all struggling for equal screen time? Link to post Share on other sites
bruce marshall 612 Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 Seven eps into SAUL. I hate all the characters which makes it hard to enjoy, no matter how well made. That story arc about Mesa Verde and Barry Corbin was WTF? . I enjoy the show EXCEPT for the scenes with Kin and Jimmy. Never bought her going with him. Like her boss said " She could do much better"..Still.... Must watch tv despite the flaws. Link to post Share on other sites
The Big Man 7573 Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 14 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said: I find the Prime interface (on the PS4 at least, which is the only version I have hooked up to my TV) horrible This sentence is horrible. Why do people feel the need to interrupt their sentences with obtrusive brackets instead of just saving that shit for the following sentence? bruce marshall 1 Link to post Share on other sites
rough cut 899 Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 Wandavision - Probably, a lot of people ”caught” it. 😉 So the first two episodes... It was well made, but interesting only because you know the characters from the MCU. There was no plot, no story. No propulsion. If it didn’t have MCU-characters in it, I probably wouldn’t have made it past E1. And people will say, “yes, of course it had plot, of course it had story”. No, not really. Spoiler The radio blurting out “Wanda, who’s doing this to you” and crazy bee-man showing up is not plot, those are merely plot-elements. I mean, we get it because we not morons, she’s trapped in a coma or something and somebody has her trapped in her mind to extract information (or she’s doing it to herself to protect her mind). I could be wrong, I’m only guessing. Which is a problem. Because even after one hour I (or any body else) still has no idea what the show is about or what the story is. Compare it to Mandalorian. First two episodes set up character and story and drama. Who is Mando? Will he find the “asset”? Why is the asset a kid? What will they do to him? What will Mando do with the kid? Or how about comparing it to plain old classic story telling, get from point A to point B to achieve X. Very linear. And very compelling for the audience. Propulsion. Wandavision had none of that. The sitcom bits didn’t really hold up in my opinion, it wasn’t really funny as I kinda think they meant it to be. Not ironically, as a parody or at face value. So what’s left? Not much. But we kinda know where it’s going. And I like the MCU, I am invested in it after seeing a bazillion movies, for good or ill, so I’ll keep on watching. I just hope it picks up some pace. It might very well come together in the most awesome way, and the pay off will blow our minds, and it’ll be groundbreaking storytelling and TV, but it’s impossible to say after two episodes. Link to post Share on other sites
Bayesian 670 Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 On 1/17/2021 at 1:51 AM, rough cut said: Wandavision - Probably, a lot of people ”caught” it. 😉 So the first two episodes... It was well made, but interesting only because you know the characters from the MCU. There was no plot, no story. No propulsion. If it didn’t have MCU-characters in it, I probably wouldn’t have made it past E1. I agree with you about the propulsion aspect, but for now it doesn’t bother me because the show’s setup is so different from anything I’ve watched in a long time and that’s been enough to keep my interest. If E3 doesn’t start getting into the plot, my interest might wane. The novelty of 60s era TV sitcoms in a present-day show will start wearing thin. But I don’t think that’s going to be a worry; I just remember the trailer and the action-y bits it teases. Link to post Share on other sites
Darth Wojo 2418 Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 I have zero interest in Wanda vision. Neither character is interesting enough to carry a show on their own. Link to post Share on other sites
Quintus 5232 Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 On 1/17/2021 at 9:40 AM, The Big Man said: This sentence is horrible. Why do people feel the need to interrupt their sentences with obtrusive brackets instead of just saving that shit for the following sentence? I do it all the time, it's a deliberate stylistic choice useful for staying on track while providing [hopefully] snappy extra details. It's my forumite prose. I can't speak for Marian's reasons though. Link to post Share on other sites
Darth Wojo 2418 Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 On 1/16/2021 at 1:49 PM, Marian Schedenig said: I find the Prime interface (on the PS4 at least, which is the only version I have hooked up to my TV) horrible The Prime interface on my 8 year old blu-ray player is absolute garbage. But on my three year old smart TV, it's very nice. Not as good as Netflix but close. The Disney+ interface is still hot garbage. The continue watching menu is buried many rows down, and even clicking on a show on the front page takes you directly to the next episode itself, not the menu for the show itself. Sometimes Disney+ forgets what episode you are actually at, and starts you several back. So you need to hunt for the menu for the show to reevaluate where you are. Link to post Share on other sites
Quintus 5232 Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 On my 3 year old Sony Bravia the Prime app is fiddly crapola, especially compared to the slick Netflix app. Actual streaming quality on Prime blows Netflix away though. I can't fault Amazon's fidelity. Link to post Share on other sites
publicist 3859 Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 The Amazon 4k fire stick solved a lot of problems for me, especially with the malfunctioning apps on my Samsung tv. Link to post Share on other sites
KK 2932 Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 The interface with duplicate entries and shoddy labelling around what's actually available with Prime membership and what isn't really blows though. Quintus 1 Link to post Share on other sites
publicist 3859 Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 Hmm? That's very clearly labeled in my menu bar above the content. Link to post Share on other sites
Koray Savas 1809 Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 13 minutes ago, KK said: The interface with duplicate entries and shoddy labelling around what's actually available with Prime membership and what isn't really blows though. This. I don’t know why they have a separate listing for 4K content. I’ve watched a couple things I thought were 4K but ultimately weren’t. Link to post Share on other sites
KK 2932 Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 4 minutes ago, publicist said: Hmm? That's very clearly labeled in my menu bar above the content. The tiny "Prime" vs "$" labels only popped up this last year, and even then aren't particularly useful. When I search up a film like, say, "Empire of the Sun", I might 3 options (Prime and non-Prime), promoting different providers or 4K content, etc. There must be a more efficient way to organize this content without being misled about availability. The Netflix algorithm is also far superior at leading you to other options when what you're looking for isn't available. I also don't like how Prime lists every season of a tv show as a separate entry. Lots of unnecessary clutter. Link to post Share on other sites
publicist 3859 Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 6 minutes ago, KK said: The tiny "Prime" vs "$" labels only popped up this last year, and even then aren't particularly useful. I only had the Prime app on my tv before and that clearly wasn't a better option. Especially since Samsung doesn't lavishes updates on tv's older than a year and some apps just froze on start-up. I couldn't even install an Apple TV app for my free account that came with the new phone. At least this the stick solved, so I'm grateful (for 19€). Link to post Share on other sites
Marian Schedenig 3207 Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 1 hour ago, Quintus said: I do it all the time, it's a deliberate stylistic choice useful for staying on track while providing [hopefully] snappy extra details. It's my forumite prose. I can't speak for Marian's reasons though. I know I usually go overboard with it, but in this case I probably ended up writing a different sentence than the one I started with on top of that. 1 hour ago, Quintus said: On my 3 year old Sony Bravia the Prime app is fiddly crapola, especially compared to the slick Netflix app. Actual streaming quality on Prime blows Netflix away though. I can't fault Amazon's fidelity. Both my Grundig TV and my Sony Blu-ray player have Netflix apps, but no Prime, so the PS4 is my only option if I don't want to watch at the computer desk. I don't have any of those fancy streaming sticks (I've been considering setting up a Raspberry Pi for that purpose, but so far I'm shying away from all the necessary work). For me, Prime has noticeably worse blacks and much stronger banding than Netflix (which is probably made worse by my not so great TV, but that's why I don't watch films on it, it's just for series and gaming). On top of that, a lot of non-original content is not even available without paying extra (but at least the PS4 app doesn't have a search that filters out all the stuff that's not included in the standard membership), and some of that is low quality - 720p or less, I've seen stuff that was clearly transferred from a poor VHS tape. On top of that, they seem to be incapable of managing multi-language content - with a German membership, you have to use different entries for German and original language versions, plus every season of a series is again its own entry. That at least is something Netflix consistently gets right. Link to post Share on other sites
bruce marshall 612 Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 People actually read Marians longggggggggg posts.!😳 😉 Link to post Share on other sites
The Big Man 7573 Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 7 hours ago, Quintus said: I do it all the time, it's a deliberate stylistic choice useful for staying on track while providing [hopefully] snappy extra details. It's my forumite prose. I can't speak for Marian's reasons though. An asterisk is another option without being obtrusive. Link to post Share on other sites
Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6354 Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 6 hours ago, Koray Savas said: This. I don’t know why they have a separate listing for 4K content. I’ve watched a couple things I thought were 4K but ultimately weren’t. I had to buy several digital copies of movies because I wanted the 4K version. The UHD logo in the corner of the art is tiny when I need to find the right one and I only realized after purchasing standard versions that UHD versions were on there and you just had to search it. I quite like Amazon's streaming quality but their interface is atrocious. Link to post Share on other sites
Edmilson 1925 Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 The first two episodes of Wanda Vision were pretty good. I'm curious to where the show is headed. Link to post Share on other sites
Koray Savas 1809 Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 The Madalorian Season 1 Started out really strong with the first three episodes, then takes a nosedive with Bryce Dallas Howard’s awful episode. Picks back up towards the end and finishes nicely. Gina Carano can’t act. Didn’t even realize she became an actor after Haywire. Thought that was an action one-off. What stands out the most to me are the wonderfully grounded special effects. The world feels tangible because of them. The score has some awful electronic action music here and there, but that main theme is so good. Loved each episode opening up with it. Pedro Pascal, Werner Herzog, Nick Nolte, Carl Weathers, Taika Waititi, and Giancarlo Esposito are all a plus. GerateWohl 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Mephariel 67 Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 Succession. What a damn good show. bruce marshall 1 Link to post Share on other sites
The Big Man 7573 Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 I couldn't stand it. bruce marshall 1 Link to post Share on other sites
AC1 2637 Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 2 hours ago, Koray Savas said: The Madalorian The score has some awful electronic action music here and there, but that main theme is so good. It always reminds me of Bill Conti's Going The Distance. GerateWohl 1 Link to post Share on other sites
GerateWohl 435 Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 21 minutes ago, AC1 said: It always reminds me of Bill Conti's Going The Distance. Yes! Thank you. That was it somewhere deep in the back of my head and I couldn't figure it out. But Bill Conti's is much better. I find the Mandalorian main theme somehow cheap. Same issue I had with the main title from Game of Thrones. Both habe some simple childish innocent quality to them but also the same level of maturity. Big difference, in GoT I liked the rest of the score apart from the main theme, in The Mandalorian I don't. Link to post Share on other sites
Jurassic Shark 6520 Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 On 1/17/2021 at 10:40 AM, The Big Man said: This sentence is horrible. Why do people feel the need to interrupt their sentences with obtrusive brackets instead of just saving that shit for the following sentence? I love it. bruce marshall 1 Link to post Share on other sites
The Big Man 7573 Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 4 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said: I love it. Freak Link to post Share on other sites
Jurassic Shark 6520 Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 5 minutes ago, The Big Man said: Freak What kind of sentence is that? bruce marshall 1 Link to post Share on other sites
The Big Man 7573 Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 8 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said: What kind of sentence is that? Über freak Link to post Share on other sites
Jurassic Shark 6520 Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 1 minute ago, The Big Man said: Über freak I imaging you're wearing a Godzilla costume while writing that. bruce marshall 1 Link to post Share on other sites
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