I think my personal ranking is 5 > 4 > 6 = 3 = 8 > 2 = 7 > 1.
1 Like
Star Wars has never done it for me. I’ve not seen all the films, but those I have I found rather boring.
1 Like
Finished the first season of Twisted Metal. Really enjoyed it. Given what it’s based on, it has a surprising amount of heart. All of the characters are great and the performances are really fun. Can’t wait for the next season!
1 Like
5, 4, Solo, 7, 6, 9, 8, 3, Rogue One, 1, Clone Wars movie, 2
I think Empire is my favourite SW film. interesting to see your ranking though.
Tár reflects on toxicity and cancellation through a phenomenal performance by Cate Blanchett. While the film is overindulgent, especially in its cinematography, its mix is just perfect. You really contemplate the question of this film when the music is enormous.
4/5 stars
On that ending: What is being said here? The video game audience is the least discerning? I’m not bothered by it, but I was surprised by the movie ending on Lydia Tár (sorry, Linda Tarr) conducting Monster Hunter.
Yeah dude video games suck.
What did you make of the ghost bit?
Tár’s haunting is one of the mind or at least it doesn’t have to be more. She’s done all this awful stuff and lies to herself about it that she can’t really contend with her feelings about her actions (like Bernstein says music helps with in Tarr’s VHS). It’s just this negativity that follows her. I guess I could further my interpretation by saying there isn’t a haunting after she confronts how terrible she has become (vomiting at the idea of paying for sex with a minor), but there is one scene after that sequence so who is to say she isn’t still haunted. What did you think?
Just watched Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves. It was a hell of alot of fun; had some great action and wonderful humour. The overweight dragon was a highlight. Really wish I’d been able to catch it on theaters but it was on here for a really short amount of time.
1 Like
Good primer for Baldur’s Gate 3 
1 Like
I finished the Midnight Club. I started it when it first came out, but was fairly reluctant to return to it as the subject matter is a youth hospice. Pushing through some of my discomfort was worthwhile as I did ultimately enjoy the show and find it cathartic. That being said, I did find it to be the weakest of Mike Flanagan’s output that I’ve seen (all of his shows and a couple movies). Part of this may have to do with me not being the target audience. The show has very adult themes (death) but is told basically entirely from the perspective of high schoolers. I’m half my life away from that age, but I do remember the feeling. At least on a conscious level, my issue with the show is not the result of its perspective but in its execution. Flanagan often engages in theatrical dialogue which is sold by hammy yet endearing performances. A lot of the young cast don’t seem to know how to handle the dialogue, and I found some of the scenes cringey. Even cringe isn’t necessary bad. There is a wonderfully sincere yet funny musical moment in the back half of the episodes that falls flat, and on a different level it flies. But when you mix the embarrassing with a budget you can smell, I found some of Flanagan’s normal magic lost. This show has awful effects and make up compared to Flanagan’s previous outings. There are even a few moments where the recording seemed damaged by the wind outside and they didn’t ADR the dialogue. Maybe it is best that Flanagan is no longer at Netflix if this is how they funded his work. Will he have similar issues at Amazon Prime? We’ll see!
Anyway, I overall really enjoyed the Midnight Club, but I would recommend it last out of Flanagan’s shows. My ranking would go:
- Midnight Mass
- Haunting of Hill House
- Haunting of Bly Manor
- Midnight Club
Excited for Fall of the House of Usher, and I will almost certainly check it out next month unless the subject matter makes me soooooooo scared!
1 Like
Fascinating, I think that’s it’s potentially his strongest work to date, despite its flaws, partially because of its stellar cast. But I’m no Flannigan fan and I think that he got lucky with a story and cast that transcends what I view as his usual shortcomings as a storyteller.
I’m not certain some of the VFX and SFX choices were due to budget constraints. He has a pattern of using hacky effects, and I think the desire for the aesthetic of analogue media at certain junctures throughout the show were met with his tendency toward a “just good enough” approach.
1 Like
I remembered that you liked this one better than the others. I did enjoy it, just not as much. I do think some of the kids gave great performances- specifically Sauriyan Sapkota (Amesh who is gunna be in House of Usher) and Annarah Cymone (returning in a similar role as Midnight Mass where she was also the goodie-two-shoes-Christian). Sadly I didn’t love the main actress who played Illonka. That being said, the main cast is all fine but not as charming as previous entries. I think the added scope of a show that features varied ghost stories may have overstretched the budget. The suspended disbelief is extended during during the ghost story sections because they are not reality, but the cheap sets in the woods and the damaged audio seem uniquely rough in this show. Maybe I’m wrong. I will say this element of the Midnight Club will color my viewing of House of Usher.
Despite your taste not aligning precisely with Flanagan’s work, are you going to check out House of Usher next month?
I think Iman Benson was competent but Ruth Codd was superb. Personally I think most of Flanagan’s regular acting crew are awful. The fewer things Carla Gugino, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Henry Thomas and especially Flanagan’s wife, Kate Seigel, are in the happier I’ll be. The Haunting of Bly Mannor was partially saved by the stellar T’Nia Miller, but even she couldn’t carry the weight of what I think is Flanagan’s simplistic writing and potentially well meaning but ultimately cliché directing as well as the lacklustre performances of his other actors.
We might, but I really quite dislike his work so I’m not in a rush. Plus he brought back most of the actors I’m not excited about. Maybe Gugino will do another painful accent.
Sorry, I appreciate that people enjoy his work but it’s just not for me.
I finally watched the first Spiderman film from 2002. Thanks to everyone who helped me figure out where to start my adventure into superhero stories.
A nice teen drama/comedy that shows its age a bit, but was still fun to watch. I now understand that Spiderman is more of a family friendly superhero when I compare it to the only other hero movie I have seen: Deadpool 1.
The tiny bit of wet, still heavily covered breasts made me laugh. I am sure in 2002 it was a breathtaking moment for many younger viewers in the US.
The comedy/slapstick bits were great, I loved the cage fight and the first dress. The drama… I wasn’t the right audience for that.
Spiderman would be really boring in Germany with barely any high buildings, I also wonder if NYC is full of spiderwebs, do they have a spiderweb cleaning service or do these webs dissappear after a while?
Now I have two more questions:
If “The Human Spider” - sorry Spider-Boy - I mean Spider-Man is part of the Marvel Universe, does that mean he exists in the same world as other Marvel heroes or does “Marvel Universe” just mean “owned by Marvel” or the original comics were Marvel comics? Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I really am that uninformed about the world of superheroes.
There’s this meme of Uncle Ben dying that I’ve never understood and I still don’t think I get it. I mean, him dying/being murdered is not funny in itself, so why is it so funny that at Comicons Uncle Ben falls in front of Spiderman and pretends to die? Wasn’t that part of the original comic book story, or did I miss something?
1 Like
My understanding is the Marvel superhero comics generally imply all the series are set in the same world. I can only imagine there are plenty of exceptions and “alternate timelines” or what have you, since there have been so many different series and retellings over the years. When it comes to movies, that’s also complicated because film rights for various series have belonged to different companies over the years. I believe Disney more or less now has the rights to everything Marvel for films? I am not 100% certain on the situation for Spiderman (as there are still the Miles Morales [technically a different Spiderman] animated films from Sony Pictures, for example), or for series like Fantastic Four or the X-Men. My understanding is Disney’s buyout of 20th Century Fox a few years ago would bring those under their wing now.
I don’t know if I’d call the death of Uncle Ben a meme, but it is the central aspect of Spider-man’s origin story, so every time there’s a reboot you can expect Uncle Ben to die (and in turn, Peter Parker feels guilty for it, since he chose not to stop the robber when he could have). I’m sure it’s been parodied a thousand times despite not being a funny scene, much like, say, Darth Vader revealing he’s Luke’s father.
2 Likes
Yea all good. But FYI T’nia Miller and Ruth Codd are in House of Usher.
2 Likes
Me pitching the next Despicable Me movie
2 Likes
I mean, in a nutshell, an overly literal gimmick?
1 Like
That comparison makes a lot of sense, thank you!
I see. On one hand that’s great for the normal people in the world, because they are protected, on the other hand poor normal people with all these explosions everywhere all the time. 