What are you watching?

[bSTAR_182]

Watched Interstellar for the first time last night.
I think I avoided it for so long because Inception (while a good movie) was overly hyped by so many that I didn’t care to jump on the band wagon for the next big Christopher Nolan film.

But what a pleasant surprise this was for me. Not only does Interstellar have those dazzling Nolan effects and a strong cast. It also has a story that truly moves me. Also, what a soundtrack.

 

[tomdela07]

I've started watching Kitchen Nightmares with my fiancee because Gordan Ramsey makes our hearts flutter XD

His swearing makes me laugh so hard. I was watching his new 24 hour rescue thing. I walked out the room and walked back in and i heard him say "she cant even get my fuking couscous right" i immediately died.

 

[KennedyKiller]

His swearing makes me laugh so hard. I was watching his new 24 hour rescue thing. I walked out the room and walked back in and i heard him say "she cant even get my fuking couscous right" i immediately died.

The man truly is a gift XD

 

[KManX89]

I saw The Suicide Squad last night, simply put, it was fantastic. Easily one of WB/DC's better movies and much better than the 2016 film, which is a trainwreck. Great humor and brutal bloody action with some nice set pieces and an amazing ending that had me on the edge of my seat. Unlike the David Ayer film, the humor here actually lands and doesn't feel forced and there's actual character development. From Bloodsports' relationship with his daughter to his interaction with the Squad, you're actually given a reason to care that was completely absent from the first movie. Everybody shines and Margot Robbie isn't forced to carry the film on her shoulders like the 2016 film. The pacing felt kinda off during the middle, but the end more than made up for it.

So glad I saw this in theaters instead of watching it on HBO Max, it was well worth the big screen experience. James Gunn did it again, proving WB made the right call in letting him do what he wanted with little-to-no interference. King Shark pays some nice homages to GotG as well.

 

[Angel]

3rd season of Man Like Mobeen.

That ending near killed me...they can't play with Eight like that...

 

[bSTAR_182]

Just finished HBO’s Chernobyl series yesterday. Highly recommend if you haven’t seen it already. Very tragic and something I’ve always been meaning to research more on (tbh I didn’t realize this only took place in the late 80s, thought it was well before that). A great example of men letting egos and pride get in the way of what’s actually right and just.

 

[Rain611]

At this very moment I'm watching Kitboga scam scammers on Twitch. It makes for a good laugh and is good background noise during the day.

 

[Angel]

The entire boxset of The Goodies. Today is a good day

 

[Ikawaru]

Just got back from Shang Chi and the Legend of Ten Rings.

It was quite good, like a family drama done right. Chalk full of martial arts and Chinese mythology.

 

[Jonipoon]

I watched David Lynch's Dune from 1984 last night, and I must say it was a rather mixed bag of both wonder and confusion. Even though the visuals are quite stunning and hold up well almost 40 years later (in most cases), the story and editing is a mess that feels rushed and disjointed at times. Much of it derives from the fact that the book itself is very complicated in its structure, and features detailed descriptions of characters' inner thoughts. Apparently Lynch didn't get final cut privilege, which could explain some of its faults as well.

The gory stuff gives off B-horror vibes and feels out of place in a film that otherwise features classic sci-fi visuals. It also takes too long before the real conflict of the story takes place, which makes for a dragged out build-up. Even though it picks up at the end it doesn't feel earned.

The saving grace of the film are its many beautiful visuals, the actors' performances (especially the lead), and the amazing soundtrack that still sticks to me after the credits.

I mainly watched the film in preparation for the upcoming adaptation of Dune that is set for release in October. Although some of the dialogue in the trailer has got me worried that they will turn this into some political spectacle, I still have faith in the director Denis Villeneuve. I've loved all of his films so far.

 

[Angel]

Making our way through the Harry Potter films - I've only ever seen the first three before, so today is The Goblet of Fire, when I finish work later.

It's been interesting watching them with someone who has never read the books. I'm sitting there, fuming about all the really key stuff they have just cut or ignored completely, and Steve is just a bit baffled by what's going on and has a million questions that, had they bothered to stick to the books, would be answered immediately.

Prisoner of Azkaban started out fairly well and then as soon as they got off the train, the whole thing went downhill from there. I already know that Neville is sidelined to the nth degree, courtesy of a warning from my friend, so I'm trying very hard to pretend I've never read the books so I don't rage when we get near the end of it all.

It does feel a bit like the idiots who directed it tore out whole chunks of essential elements for the sake of having the option of some characters mildly swearing. Like that's the thing that matters. I mean, who cares that we're three films in and we still have no real character creation? Or that things just randomly change without explanation? Just so long as Ron can squeeze in fifteen "bl**dy hells" before dinner, eh?

At this stage, I'm rooting for the third candle on the left in the Great Hall...

 

[UniqTeas]

I understand the horror of not having all the expectations of the books versus the movies met, but if they added all of the plot points and details, the movies would be about 8-9 hours apiece! I would not mind it myself, but it would not sell as well. That is why I personally would love if Netflix adapted the Harry Potter books and give us 21 episodes a season to really be able to see all of those missing character and details.

Imagine having people know who Peeves is and all of his sassy malarky exposed!

 

[Jonipoon]

Netflix should stay the f away from Harry Potter.

 

[Angel]

I understand the horror of not having all the expectations of the books versus the movies met, but if they added all of the plot points and details, the movies would be about 8-9 hours apiece! I would not mind it myself, but it would not sell as well. That is why I personally would love if Netflix adapted the Harry Potter books and give us 21 episodes a season to really be able to see all of those missing character and details.

Imagine having people know who Peeves is and all of his sassy malarky exposed!

It's not that I expect everything to be added - because that would be insane. Like, I'd sit through it and all, but my gosh, they'd bankrupt themselves making it. But there were sooooo many REALLY important things that they just either omitted entirely or played down that it made the whole set of films (now that I've seen them all) kinda crappy. Snape comes off as just a bit of an irritated teacher for no discernible reason, Neville is utterly sidestepped, they never really seem to be able to establish the friendships properly, there are too many directors spoiling the broth and it's so rushed and hurried, it just doesn't make sense in places. I found myself constantly having to say to Steve "I've got no idea why such and such is happening - it didn't go like this in the books". The casting was...interesting, to say the least.

Even Dobby got ripped off - and Kreacher, to a degree. I genuinely didn't care for any of the characters, not a one, which is very unusual for me. Every time a character died, I didn't care. They didn't spend enough time making them matter - the script was just barrelled through as though they were all in a tremendous hurry. And Dumbledore's behaviour once they brought in Michael Gambon was so out of character it was unreal. The whole thing was patchy and inconsistent, and if you've never read the books or heard anything about Harry Potter, I think you'd be hard-pressed to want to stick it out with the films.

And yeah, where was Peeves??

P.S. Seriously, Neville - they really screwed up with that one.

P.P.S - We started counting how many times Ron swore. It was a lot. Like, a LOT.

 

[Ikawaru]

Just watched Malignant.

I enjoyed it as a horror film on its own right, the plot twist was obvious a mile away though, but all-in-all it was worth the watch, though the ending was a bit weak for my liking, but not a major deal breaker.

Resident Evil is so subconsciously embedded inside of me (no pun intended, as those who have seen the film could take that as a pun for the film), that whenever I see a a house with a thick brown wooden staircase and lots of artwork of mansions and woods hanging on walls in a low light setting I get instantly reminded of RE, as the protagonists house is just that.

Also, some Parasite Eve resemblances as well, but people who aren't fans of survival horror games wouldn't be actively looking for those elements in the film, as I always try to look for those elements in horror movies such as this and get an emotional satisfaction when I can reasonably compare them to the film in question.

 

[Ikawaru]

The Night House

I would recommend avoiding this movie like the plague, I went in expecting a semi-decent/watchable horror movie but instead got some kind of dark and garbled chick flick riddled with plot holes and inconsistencies, leaving the viewer bewildered at the ending. I'm sorry, but most people like some kind of zing at the end where's it all hits you like a ton of bricks. I mean in some movies leaving a thoughtful ending works but in most movies it does not, and this is certainly one of those movies.

The suspense needed a good conclusion and we didn't get one, and that's on top of what I felt was a lackluster screenplay (the latter being of course my personal opinion).

 

[KManX89]

I just started binge watching Chappelle's Show on HBO Max on my PS5. It was hilarious as I remember, but also bittersweet. As great as it was to relive my younger years watching and el oh el'ing at Chappelle's unique and FAF sketches, I also can't help but balk at the wasted potential (that was sadly his own doing for understood reasons). We could've had many more hilarious seasons and possibly other sketch comedy shows take off from it, but it just wasn't meant to be. If people wouldn't keep harassing poor Dave to do his Rick James impression everywhere he went, his show wouldn't have been cancelled so prematurely, but these annoying kiddos had to ruin it for everyone, and hearing "I'm Rick James, bitch" got annoying after a while.

My favorite skits are Clayton Bigsby, the Playa Hater's Ball, all the Tyrone Biggums skits, Fisticuffs ("Turn my Headphones up!") and of course, Rick James.

I also watched Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in 4K last night. Not as good as the first, but it gets the job done. The titular temple scene is both one of the better and more detailed action scenes in the franchise as well as the most controversial, which has been well-documented. It's not as well-paced and Harrison Ford doesn't stand out quite like he does in the first movie, but you could do so much worse, especially Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

 

[UniqTeas]

My co-worker Romaine had never heard of the Clayton Bigsby sketch so we watched it the other day together. He is probably like 22 and Jamaican and he absolutely died when he watched it. It was fantastic. My Aunt Nancy who is also our corporate chef does a lot of quotes from the show too. Very nice.

 

[Ikawaru]

Copshop

I enjoyed it for the most part. 90% of the film takes place inside a police precinct. It kind of reminds me of Reservoir Dogs but a "cop" version instead of a criminal one. There's a Hell of a lot going on in the movie but everything is explained inside the police station and you never really are taken outside and shown on camera what the backstory is, as with Reservoir Dogs where's you never SEE the robbery, but everything about it is explained inside a dropoff warehouse.

Overall I enjoyed the plot and there's plenty of good action, dialogue, and characters to keep it interesting. 7.5/10 (Only because it doesn't do anything truly remarkable, but I think that's normal for most films these days).

 

[Jonipoon]

Just watched all nine episodes of Star Wars: Visions on Disney+, and they were of mixed quality ranging all the way from viciously good to painfully bad. I was previously quite excited about this series since I like both Star Wars and anime, and the fact that all episodes would be 100% written and animated by Japanese studios seemed like a good sign.

None of them are supposed to be canon, but rather "imaginations" of Star Wars in alternate universes, and I'm both disappointed and relieved that Lucasfilm went for this route. Because at one hand, you've got these great stories that introduces new concepts and unique ideas that's never been done in Star Wars before. However, you've also got stories that break more lore than a 12 year old fanfic writer, and they don't feel "Star Warsy" at all. What all episodes have in common is that they're all deeply influenced by Japanese culture and aesthetics, and some episodes pull this off better than *ahem* others. What I mean by that is that you can mix Japanese stuff with Star Wars, they actually go pretty well together, but some episodes feel more like random Japanese anime shows where some fan decided to photoshop Star Wars elements into the background. It's like putting lightsaber effects on the pirates' swords in Pirates of the Caribbean - it may look like Star Wars but it's clearly not.

The best episode is ironically also the first one, "The Duel" a black-and-white animation using a sketchbook aesthetic that sets a bold and grounded tone. The characters are fascinating and reckless, it introduces new interesting ideas, and the fight scenes blew my mind away. I also really enjoyed both "The Village Bride" and "The Elder", the first one manages to blend Japanese culture with Star Wars in an excellent way, the latter manages to feel like a believable canon prequel story to The Phantom Menace.

The worst episode is either "Tatooine Rhapsody" which is silly, unfunny, and poorly animated, or "T0-B1" which is just a mish-mash of stuff that makes no sense.