What are you currently watching?

[JamesRobot | 5,798]

Just got back from a trip to NM and went through Roswell.

[G-type | 2,480]

Just watched:
13 lives (Thai cave rescue movie)
Dude Bro Party Massacre III (Slasher spoof) https://t.co/1R8nS3qBmK

my current appointment TV viewing consists of:
Better Call Saul
The Rehearsal

[avatar! | 1,809]

On 8/9/2022 at 10:37 AM, G-type said:

Just watched:
13 lives (Thai cave rescue movie)
Dude Bro Party Massacre III (Slasher spoof) https://t.co/1R8nS3qBmK

my current appointment TV viewing consists of:
Better Call Saul
The Rehearsal

How was 13 lives? I'm not sure about Better Call Saul. As a fan of Breaking Bad... well, let me know your thoughts?

[G-type | 2,480]

13 lives was good.

Better Call Saul was great. Seasons 4-6 have a lot of crossover with Breaking Bad

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

15 minutes ago, avatar! said:

How was 13 lives? I'm not sure about Better Call Saul. As a fan of Breaking Bad... well, let me know your thoughts?

I thought Breaking Bad was good, but a bit overrated. In my opinion, Better Call Saul is the better show. I think Jimmy's journey is a lot more interesting than Walt's.

[DefaultGen | 5,401]

On 8/9/2022 at 10:37 AM, G-type said:

The Rehearsal

This show is art. I can't stop thinking about it. I'm not even a big Nathan For You fan. The Criterion Collection is going to have to get the rights to it and release a blu ray box set so film bros can study the most transcendent TV show ever made.

[G-type | 2,480]

3 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

This show is art. I can't stop thinking about it. I'm not even a big Nathan For You fan. The Criterion Collection is going to have to get the rights to it and release a blu ray box set so film bros can study the most transcendent TV show ever made.

I was a huge Nathan for You fan, but I greatly appreciated The Rehearsal for different reasons. I think my favorite episode was the one about The Fielder Method.

If you like his stuff, you should also check out How To with John Wilson

[Brickman | 3,983]

On 9/1/2022 at 6:51 AM, DefaultGen said:

This show is art. I can't stop thinking about it. I'm not even a big Nathan For You fan. The Criterion Collection is going to have to get the rights to it and release a blu ray box set so film bros can study the most transcendent TV show ever made.

I had never heard of Nathan for you or the rehearsal but I figured you and I are agreeing on things so much lately and Gtype is a smart dude, so what do I have to lose?

I just finished the first episode of the rehearsal and loved it! Great recommendation.

[DefaultGen | 5,401]

2 hours ago, Brickman said:

I had never heard of Nathan for you or the rehearsal but I figured you and I are agreeing on things so much lately and Gtype is a smart dude, so what do I have to lose?

I just finished the first episode of the rehearsal and loved it! Great recommendation.

[Brickman | 3,983]

On 9/3/2022 at 1:20 PM, DefaultGen said:

I finished the series last night and holy crap what a ride! So much to unpack. I can’t decide which is my favourite episode, they were all so good for different reasons.

The Fielder Method was a brilliant episode but then I think about the absurdity of the episode where the guy helps the “grandpa” search for his hidden gold 

I’m going to check out Nathan For You next. Great recommendation Gtype & defaultgen.

[avatar! | 1,809]

Love it! Kinda reminds me of myself...

[Daniel_Doyce | 470]

Today is the 35th anniversary of the release of Penitentiary 3, a Cannon film and one of the greatest achievements in the history of mankind. It features the greatest batshit-crazy prison fight scene ever, between Leon Isaac Kennedy and the Midnight Thud, a crack-smoking, porn addicted midget who is released from his dungeon in order to bite the genitals off of inmates, but who is easily distracted by citrus fruits.

The fight scene and the full movie are on YT.

[G-type | 2,480]

6 hours ago, Brickman said:

The Fielder Method was a brilliant episode but then I think about the absurdity of the episode where the guy helps the “grandpa” search for his hidden gold 

he's worried about convincing his brother his girlfriend isn't a gold digger and then he gets roped into a convoluted plot to literally go gold digging!

[PII | 1,884]

1 hour ago, Daniel_Doyce said:

Today is the 35th anniversary of the release of Penitentiary 3, a Cannon film and one of the greatest achievements in the history of mankind. It features the greatest batshit-crazy prison fight scene ever, between Leon Isaac Kennedy and the Midnight Thud, a crack-smoking, porn addicted midget who is released from his dungeon in order to bite the genitals off of inmates, but who is easily distracted by citrus fruits.

The fight scene and the full movie are on YT.

Ok, I watched the fight scene and I can't not say it.  Roddy Piper VS Keith David in "They Live" is still the greatest fight scene in any movie ever, but this was also definitely........            something.  I'm still not quite sue what, but it was definitely something.  Ah yes, batshit-goofy; that's it.  

...Good God Man!!  Don't willingly put your fingers in your cannibal penis-chomping adversary's mouth!

Edited September 5, 2022 by PII

[Daniel_Doyce | 470]

1 hour ago, PII said:

Ok, I watched the fight scene and I can't not say it.  Roddy Piper VS Keith David in "They Live" is still the greatest fight scene in any movie ever, but this was also definitely........            something.  I'm still not quite sue what, but it was definitely something.  Ah yes, batshit-goofy; that's it.  

...Good God Man!!  Don't willingly put your fingers in your cannibal penis-chomping adversary's mouth!

The whole movie is really something else. Anthony Geary (aka Luke from General Hospital and Philo from UHF) is really camping it up, Danny Trejo is a boxer in his first credited acting role, and Rick Zumwalt (Bull Hurley from Over the Top) is in it too. Plus the Midnight Thud morphs from junk-biting monster into Too Sweet's zen trainer by the end, slamming a dungeon door into Too Sweet's stomach over and over again while shouting "GUTS! GUTS!" and repeats other helpful mantras like "OAK TREE! OAK TREE!" during the final fight.

[PII | 1,884]

1 hour ago, Daniel_Doyce said:

The whole movie is really something else. Anthony Geary (aka Luke from General Hospital and Philo from UHF) is really camping it up, Danny Trejo is a boxer in his first credited acting role, and Rick Zumwalt (Bull Hurley from Over the Top) is in it too. Plus the Midnight Thud morphs from junk-biting monster into Too Sweet's zen trainer by the end, slamming a dungeon door into Too Sweet's stomach over and over again while shouting "GUTS! GUTS!" and repeats other helpful mantras like "OAK TREE! OAK TREE!" during the final fight.

Wow, this def. seems like a "with friends, pizza and plenty of beer" kind of movie.  I think the last thing I saw that was on this level was "Kung Fu Zombie..."

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

I watched Jurassic World: Dominion last night and it was about as bad as I expected. We get a few enjoyable scenes thanks to the chemistry of Dern, Neill, and Goldblum along without a couple good looking dinosaur attacks, but everything else is really quite terrible. The movie could best be described as a bad James Bond movie with dinosaurs. The plot is non-sensical and all over the place with an antagonist who is played up as yet another painfully bad Steve Jobs imitation. It wasn't quite as bad Fallen Kingdom, but that's not saying much as I consider FK among the ten worst wide-release movies I've ever seen. 2/5 for me.

[avatar! | 1,809]

Watched the first episode of The Rings of Power...

Well, apparently 'ole Elon is not a fan

Honestly, can't blame him. My wifey and I both thought it was lame. Galadriel is NOTHING like in Tolkien's books. She's basically a superwoman/Mary Sue. All the other characters so far appear boring as dirt. The writing is so cringeworthy it's actually amusing. They introduce a BUNCH of new characters - all at once. Also, every race now is full of token characters ..."diversity". While diversity in itself is a wonderful thing, Rings of Power got it wrong. So much so, that people have argued (and I can understand why) that it is borderline racist.

How The Rings of Power got diversity wrong (and House of the Dragon got it right)

https://robert-b-marks.medium.com/how-the-rings-of-power-got-diversity-wrong-and-house-of-the-dragon-got-it-right-b74599421f45

One of the truly remarkable things about Amazon’s The Rings of Power is not so much its focus on diversity, but the degree to which it managed to botch it. Far from being an example of diversity and representation in television, it stands as a shining example of how not to do it, and even crosses the line at times into accidental racism.

The Rings of Power uses a specific formula for diversity that appears to be based on the ethnic makeup of Southern California. This formula — or a variation of it — is applied to every single race on a meta level, and every single crowd scene when it comes to the humans or Harfoots. It is even applied in scenes with small numbers of extras.

This formula is applied so consistently, in fact, that it is possible to reverse engineer it (and, once one is aware of it, it becomes impossible to ignore). Based on the first two episodes, the formula is:

• At least 50% white people
• Between 35–40% people with light brown skin (these are optional)
• Between 10–15% black people (at least one black person is mandatory regardless of percentages).

The problem with this is that diversity does not work this way.

It is once one starts to look at the unintended consequences of this universal application of the formula that one starts to see the degree to which The Rings of Power’s presentation of diversity falls into near- or even outright racism.

Assuming that the human community that has taken centre stage in the first two episodes are indeed the Easterlings they are implied to be, and that the Harfoots are indeed to be interpreted as being shades of brown, at least half of these peoples have now been whitewashed. Their ethnicity has been erased to fit the formula.

Even worse, the show has presented people with black or brown skin as only ever existing in cultures with a majority population of white people. They are condemned to be perpetual minorities. This was never a problem in Tolkien’s work. This also means that you never see any crowd scene without white people. The only character of colour who is allowed to stand on their own in this series thus far is a black elf, and to a much lesser degree a brown Easterling — all the others are, for all intents and purposes, decorative window dressing. One could remove almost all of them from the show without changing the story.

Thoughts?

[guitarzombie | 924]

Here's my thought, who cares haha

[TDIRunner | 2,733]

Finally got around to seeing Top Gun: Maverick.  I highly recommend it.  I'm not big on going to the theater to see movies, but this is a movie that is really meant for the big screen.  

[Brickman | 3,983]

1 hour ago, avatar! said:

Watched the first episode of The Rings of Power...

Well, apparently 'ole Elon is not a fan

Honestly, can't blame him. My wifey and I both thought it was lame. Galadriel is NOTHING like in Tolkien's books. She's basically a superwoman/Mary Sue. All the other characters so far appear boring as dirt. The writing is so cringeworthy it's actually amusing. They introduce a BUNCH of new characters - all at once. Also, every race now is full of token characters ..."diversity". While diversity in itself is a wonderful thing, Rings of Power got it wrong. So much so, that people have argued (and I can understand why) that it is borderline racist.

How The Rings of Power got diversity wrong (and House of the Dragon got it right)

https://robert-b-marks.medium.com/how-the-rings-of-power-got-diversity-wrong-and-house-of-the-dragon-got-it-right-b74599421f45

One of the truly remarkable things about Amazon’s The Rings of Power is not so much its focus on diversity, but the degree to which it managed to botch it. Far from being an example of diversity and representation in television, it stands as a shining example of how not to do it, and even crosses the line at times into accidental racism.

The Rings of Power uses a specific formula for diversity that appears to be based on the ethnic makeup of Southern California. This formula — or a variation of it — is applied to every single race on a meta level, and every single crowd scene when it comes to the humans or Harfoots. It is even applied in scenes with small numbers of extras.

This formula is applied so consistently, in fact, that it is possible to reverse engineer it (and, once one is aware of it, it becomes impossible to ignore). Based on the first two episodes, the formula is:

• At least 50% white people
• Between 35–40% people with light brown skin (these are optional)
• Between 10–15% black people (at least one black person is mandatory regardless of percentages).

The problem with this is that diversity does not work this way.

It is once one starts to look at the unintended consequences of this universal application of the formula that one starts to see the degree to which The Rings of Power’s presentation of diversity falls into near- or even outright racism.

Assuming that the human community that has taken centre stage in the first two episodes are indeed the Easterlings they are implied to be, and that the Harfoots are indeed to be interpreted as being shades of brown, at least half of these peoples have now been whitewashed. Their ethnicity has been erased to fit the formula.

Even worse, the show has presented people with black or brown skin as only ever existing in cultures with a majority population of white people. They are condemned to be perpetual minorities. This was never a problem in Tolkien’s work. This also means that you never see any crowd scene without white people. The only character of colour who is allowed to stand on their own in this series thus far is a black elf, and to a much lesser degree a brown Easterling — all the others are, for all intents and purposes, decorative window dressing. One could remove almost all of them from the show without changing the story.

Thoughts?

I don't really care what Elon has to say because I can't stand him and he'd be one of the last I take advice from, but in regards to the actual show I found it to be meh so far. I'll continue on for a few episodes to see how it goes but it didn't grab me right from the start like say The Fellowship of the Rings or Game of Thrones. I'd give it maybe like a 6.5-7 so far.

What I did like:

Beautiful scenery shots

For the most part good costumes and sets

CGI was definitely better than the awful Hobbit monstrosity. Hopefully they don't lean too much on CGI though.

What I didn't like:

The story is a little boring so far. I haven't read the source material for this story line, so maybe that's how it starts, but I need a good story to keep me interested, so hopefully it picks up.

The acting for the most part is pretty bad. It definitely feels like a lot of the budget was spent on CGI/Helicopter wide shots. The hobbits are probably the worst and a lot of the human characters weren't much better.

[avatar! | 1,809]

1 minute ago, Brickman said:

What I did like:

Beautiful scenery shots

For the most part good costumes and sets

CGI was definitely better than the awful Hobbit monstrosity. Hopefully they don't lean too much on CGI though.

What I didn't like:

The story is a little boring so far. I haven't read the source material for this story line, so maybe that's how it starts, but I need a good story to keep me interested, so hopefully it picks up.

The acting for the most part is pretty bad. It definitely feels like a lot of the budget was spent on CGI/Helicopter wide shots. The hobbits are probably the worst and a lot of the human characters weren't much better.

Jackson's Lord of the Rings came out over 20 years ago (sheesh) and in my mind the cinematography is better than what I saw in the Rings of Power. Granted, nothing is as bad as the atrocious money-grabber that is The Hobbit. Still, was not impressed with the first episode in any way. I also agree that the story is boring, and I would add, muddled. You never know, might pick up, but seems like House of the Dragon will be good. I don't bother with critics, but on RT House has an 85% approval rating with audiences, while Rings is under 40.

[Brickman | 3,983]

18 minutes ago, avatar! said:

Jackson's Lord of the Rings came out over 20 years ago (sheesh) and in my mind the cinematography is better than what I saw in the Rings of Power. Granted, nothing is as bad as the atrocious money-grabber that is The Hobbit. Still, was not impressed with the first episode in any way. I also agree that the story is boring, and I would add, muddled. You never know, might pick up, but seems like House of the Dragon will be good. I don't bother with critics, but on RT House has an 85% approval rating with audiences, while Rings is under 40.

Yeah I definitely found the story to be muddled. I've read the trilogy and the hobbit, but I was honestly a little lost in some parts of this show.

I normally give a show 2-3 episodes max. If I'm not at least semi interested by the third episode I'll be dropping it. There's so many quality shows to choose from these days, so I can't be bothered waiting to see if it will get good.  

I've heard HoD is good but I'm waiting until it reaches about half way through the season so I can just spend a few days watching them back to back

 

[Tabonga | 2,317]

More than a person ever wanted to know about Spam.

 

[avatar! | 1,809]

A+