Movies and TV, Anyone?

Off-Topic
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Watched the film for Uncharted. It was… not good. I feel like Tom Holland (fine actor, I’m sure) as Nathan Drake is one of the biggest miscasts I’ve ever seen in a movie. Action scenes looked fake, and most of the banter fell completely flat for me. And scene by scene, character reactions and decisions just felt forced half the time. I didn’t feel like Nate and Sully’s relationship developed naturally, and Chloe was definitely one character too many (or perhaps the other villain lady could’ve been dropped).

And please, script writers, stop referencing movies you’re directly pulling from for your own movies. (“Who do you think you are, Indiana Jones?” type lines.) You’re almost never doing yourself a favor lol.

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Fionna and Cake had a fantastic ending despite doing the Endgame style portal that I predicted they would do. It honestly feels like it was a producer’s note, but ultimately it did not take away from my enjoyment of the end. The exploration given to Betty and Simon was surprising given how minimal Betty has been for this entire show, but I loved it. There is a wonderful interplay between the show’s themes of Free Will, Sacrifice and Radical Acceptance that I didn’t expect. It made me want to go back and watch some of those middle episodes and see how the title character’s story reflected these themes. I think knowing where the story is going gives me a greater appreciation for the midsection of the show, but it wouldn’t solve all of my problems.

Fionna and Cake gets a strong recommendation from me to casuals and especially to fans of Adventure Time.

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Watched Jurassic Park yesterday; it had been a while. There were Dinosaurs in it

I mainly remember collecting the dinosaur figures at that age; they all “did” something [swing claw, spit water, flap wings, etc.]. In fact, this is a pretty scary movie; it’s like a horror movie with people screaming, getting mauled, etc… I don’t think I’d want to go to this park. I did remember a lot of the parts, though

I liked Dennis Nerdy and the Hold Onto Your Butts guy; poor guys. And I liked how Dr. Grant didn’t like kids, but then when things got a little ugly he seemed to do his best to protect them. Poor babies…this particular excursion was probably a little much for them, at their age…

And that lovable old man, John Hammond…I would think someone is gonna sue him so hard…

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Watched No One Will Save You last night. I found it to be a pretty entertaining, if somewhat derivative, alien movie. It’s shit really nicely and I enjoyed that the “reveal” isn’t held back for ages like in some other films. The aliens themselves are really cool and kinda cute; I really enjoyed what they did with them. While I’m sure that some filmophiles will ruin their trousers over the fact that there hardly any spoken dialogue in the film it does get a bit too pretentious for its own good at times, particularly at the end.

Still, I had fun with it and would recommend to anyone who enjoyed a good alien flick.

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I’m looking forward to watching this.

Watched Talk to Me last night. Not a perfect film, but it’s a pretty decent little Australian horror flick. There were some seriously intense scenes for anyone who wants upsetting horror.

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I was initially surprised that this has the usual stilted and awkward vocal performances of other Anime dub, despite having the original film performers. But I’ll probably get used to it (or I’m going to watch the version with a Japanese audio, despite how much I love the cast).

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Watched Cobweb last night. Aside from some nicely stylized visuals and a handful of really great shots, it was disappointing. It felt like a hollow pastiche of a number of better horror films with a coat of slick glossy paint to hide the rough stitching.

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Where is Comeau; what have they done with him

It looks like this is going to be sort of a modernized re-telling of the story; that’s cool !

I sort of Envy Scott’s healthy and active social life-- he has a lot of friends; he has a lot of enemies. But it’s been nice sharing some of the news with my colleague; Scott Pilgrim is her favorite movie. I recommended she read the books

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Huh. I thought it was the best horror film I’d seen in a while, but maybe I’m bias. :sweat_smile:

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It was good. It has some exceptional moments. Especially some good disturbing scenes. Good acting. The kid was fantastic. But while I enjoy disturbing horror I also like to be scared, and it just wasn’t really filling me with any dread. That’s mainly why I say it wasn’t perfect. Perfect horror makes me want to sleep with the lights on (unless the film had different aims and nails them). Admittedly there’s very few perfect horror films. I do recommend it though.

We were choosing between that and Cobweb and I chose Talk To Me because I said it looked better. Then, when it started I said “oh it’s Australian horror? It’s definitely going to be the better film.” I was right :wink:

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Watched Jurassic Park: the Lost World the other day too. I felt like it wasn’t as “fun” as the first one. I saw it at the time and remembered bits and pieces

There were Dinosaurs in it

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The original Jurassic Park is a god-tier movie. Excellent script, excellent cinematography, excellent score, excellent blend of practical and digital effects, excellent acting (from all the characters), excellent pacing, excellent blend of tones and themes… Easily my favorite Spielberg flick (from what I’ve seen of his filmography).

Sadly, I thought JP2 was bad, and I thought JP3 was bad. (I’d say there’s perhaps one memorable scene in both.) And then Jurassic World was so bad I didn’t even bother watching that one’s two sequels.

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It was fun to re-visit 1 at this age, where I can appreciate it better. At the time, I was more interested in collecting the dinosaur figures they made. I think this is a pretty scary movie for a kid, anyway; that may have been why I kind of avoided them

I’ve never seen any past 2, but I might see 3 at some point because I have the trilogy now so I might as well

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Lately I’ve been watching an animated series called Bojack Horseman on Netflix. Was probably recommended it years ago… At any rate, just finished the second season of it (out of six, it looks like). Really great stuff – feel like I’ve never seen a show on TV quite like this before. And if I were to start explaining the plot, it’d sound like complete nonsense lol.

But it’s a clever blend of zany jokes and genuine heart, of the cynical real and the wild surreal. The art style and animation isn’t really up my alley to be honest, but making up for that would be the excellent voice acting for each and every one of the main characters. For most comedies there’s at least one character I’m meh on, but I like everyone in this. Hope the show can hold up for the remaining seasons, but even if it doesn’t I can at least recommend these first two.

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Oh man, I gave at least the first three seasons, maybe four, a shot and I gave up. I don’t want to spoil anything, so let us know what you think further on. :wink:

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That series has some really experimental episodes that work quite well IMO. We finished it probably the year of the last’ season premiere. The show was a big hit where I was living.

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My wife tried to get me into it. I watched a handful of episodes but it just didn’t click with me.

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Bojack rules. PFT’s Mr Peanutbutter is inspired.

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I realized I never shared my thoughts on the Star Wars sequel trilogy. It was my first time watching them, and my general feeling for them is… (drumroll) …not great?

The Force Awakens – Pretty bad. Felt too much like a rehash of stuff I’d already seen before. Didn’t do enough to make me care about the new characters.

The Last Jedi – Pretty bad. For each really interesting idea it explored, it had two rather boring subplots. And then by the end, it didn’t feel like it truly committed to breaking away from tradition. Of the three, this is the one I wanted to like the most, but it mostly fell flat for me.

Rise of the Skywalkers – Pretty bad. A lot of spectacle to be had, but in the end it felt like all flash and no substance. And again, it fell into the familiar beats of past films.

I did think there were some cool lightsaber battles and whatnot in these films. But the story was a really jumbled-up mess, and every time I thought they were going to go in an interesting new direction for the leads (namely Rey and Ren), the rug always got pulled out from under me.

It’s been interesting to look at reviews for these films now that I’ve seen them! It really seems the general consensus is something like “great fun” for 7, “extremely divisive (love or hate)” for 8, and “the worst film ever” for 9. But I ended up finding them all about the same level of quality. I would say the lows of these sequels are not as bad as the lows of the prequels, but I’ve interestingly ended up feeling the prequels are overall more memorable – they were generally a swing and a miss, but at least they were doing something different.

If I were to pick one main fault for the sequels, it’s that they always had one foot stuck in the original trilogy. The new characters were always in the shadow of the old ones. Which is too bad! As I thought the acting overall for these new characters was perfectly fine.

At some point I’ll give Solo and Rogue One a watch. I’ve heard mixed reactions to both of those, but I’m down for more low-key self-contained adventures within the Star Wars universe.

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Anyone watched Fall of the House of Usher on Netflix? It looks kinda interesting and I really enjoyed Haunting of Hill House but couldn’t get through two eps of The Haunting of Bly Manor and found Midnight Mass to be pretty forgettable.

Oculus was alright, despite having to listen to Karen Gillan with an American accent, but Mike Flanagan’s stuff is much more miss than hit for me.

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