What Are You Watching?

[The_Prowler]

A good friend of mine has been horribly deprived of movies over the years. Over the last two weeks I sat her down to watch The Blues Brothers, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and 1776 for the first time. Next up is going to be This Is Spinal Tap, and I've got a whole list of things she needs to see (including a bunch that she's always wanted to watch but never did).

[ziltoid]

[thevoid99]

[thelastdisciple]

Force Awakens teaser.

over and over and over again.

[Substance242]

22 years since I saw it at cinema, I watched Last Action Hero tonight, starring famous comedian Arnold Braunschweiger^*1. :-) IMDB 6.2, tomatometer 37%, csfd.cz 59%, but I must say I quite enjoyed it today, maybe even as much as 8/10. Lots of little nice jokes like T1000, Stallone in Terminator 2, trained dogs, falling from elevator, "Two days to retirement", "Look! An elephant!", Hamlet... Arnold doing his best trying to act as a normal person, self-irony, something to think about ("I said, I have murdered a man and I want to confess!"), beautiful women, explosions and stunts, rock music, Ian McKellen as Death (needed to confirm this), Anthony Quinn... 1993 was a good year! :-)

^*1

[Maul]

Watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Watching it makes me realize how full of hate the internet is. In my honest opinion, this is a pretty good movie and I really don't get why people complain about excessive slapstick and ridiculous comedy in an adventure movie. (Considering all of that is forgiven when watching Temple of Doom). I love both movies to death btw.
Also, really enjoying Daredevil, the Netflix series. Highly recommended, pretty good stuff and much needed dark tone.

[allegro]

See, I'm on the other side of that. Scientology is a modern day cult. They've figured out a way to have these folks semi-integrated into society while still controlling their minds. I totally see that auditing being just another form of therapy that give the person a bio-feedback to feel good about themselves. You keep going up that bridge because you become addicted to the endorphin high.

LRH was batshit insane full stop.

I thought the doc did a descent job of being impartial. Except for the clips of the Tom Cruise interview where he starts laughing. The narrator sort of feed you this line about how crazy he was.

Whether it's soon or 50 years from now, it won't end well. It'll be another Jonestown, Waco, or Children of God finale.

But Scientology is all about one guy at the top getting REALLY REALLY RICH. G and I watched Going Clear the other night. Holy shit, I was a lot more shocked than I expected. We actually knew a few Scientologists, our former dentist, now retired, and his wife, both REALLY SMART PEOPLE. We didn't find out until after our current dentist took over the practice. Then I learned some weird thing about dental practices and new dentists being infiltrated by Scientologists, who offer to "help them get their practice going" ... for a price. It's all creepy fucking shit. That Miscavige guy is a PRICK and Tom Cruise is an idiot.

The Tom Cruise laughing clips were intended to show that final state of brainwashing that happens, they had a name for it that I forget.

[elevenism]

yeah @allegro , that doc was fucking nuts

[Millionaire]

Utopia(the British Channel 4 show, not the shit US reality show) is awesome. The first season is one of the best seasons of television I've ever seen. Tense and dark as hell, its a tightly plotted conspiracy tale with almost no filler. Almost every scene is propulsive and interesting, which is hard to do in a TV series. It also has amazing cinematography, taking influences from Kubrick, Chan Wook-Park, Gilliam, and Tarantino.

The second season isn't quite as successful; I don't think the writers knew exactly what to do with it after season 1. Some of the plot and character decisions seem less grounded in reality than before, but its still quite good. Overall its highly recommended.

[RocketScience]

To the Wonder, wow…

[Deadpool]

To the Wonder, wow…

I love that movie deeply. That line from Javier Bardem, "You shall love whether you like it or not", is just essential, brilliant Malick and it brings me to my knees.

I finally saw Ex Machina tonight and it totally delivers. The 3 lead performances are phenomenal, particularly Oscar Isaac and Alicia Vikander (the latter joining the pantheon of great robot/AI characters/performances), and the atmosphere is thick with paranoia. A very sexy, scary, and creepy film. It's also surprisingly funny. It's worth the price of admission for Isaac's dance scene alone.

I'll be unpacking all the subtext and thematic material for weeks and it's gonna keep me up all night

[bgalbraith]

Just recently watched Logorama. It's an Academy Award-winning, 16 min animated film using nothing but brand logos and trademarks. It's pretty great. Plus you can see it here right now:

[allegro]

WOLF HALL, oh my God, totally addicted, so awesome.

[miss k bee]

Jane The Virgin.... sweet, soapy and twee and not my cup of tea.

[Space Suicide]

[Bachy]

Absolutely beautiful film.

[allegro]

Jane The Virgin.... sweet, soapy and twee and not my cup of tea.

Funny, it's my favorite show. I love the campy telenovela nature of the show, but I watch them on Univision and I dunno if you guys have them, there.

[Dra508]

WOLF HALL, oh my God, totally addicted, so awesome.

You think? Everything I've ever seen or read about Cromwell, he came off as a ruthless dick. This characterization is so quiet and ruthless, not dickish.

Anne Boleyn is only one, was she a witch or wasn't she? When you look at the time line of how quick she was in then she was out it's amazing. I have underwear that has lasted longer than her reign.

[allegro]

You think? Everything I've ever seen or read about Cromwell, he came off as a ruthless dick. This characterization is so quiet and ruthless, not dickish.

Anne Boleyn is only one, was she a witch or wasn't she? When you look at the time line of how quick she was in then she was out it's amazing. I have underwear that has lasted longer than her reign.

Yeah, and Cromwell's CUTE, even!!! And OMG, I think this is making Boleyn come across as a TOTAL CALCULATING BITCH. She has mostly been characterized as used and played as a pawn, but this is making her seem like she is using THEM as pawns, holy crap. But I keep looking at her, pregnant, and that baby, and thinking THAT'S ELIZABETH THE FIRST OMG, hahaha.

Yeah, there is a LOT of controversy about Mantel's depiction of Cromwell vs. her depiction of Thomas More, and usually More is the martyr but the Catholics think that More looks like an asshole in this depiction but I don't think so, I think it's pretty accurate, although they do kind of gloss over Cromwell's alleged involvement in More's "confession" at the Trial which was supposedly a setup by Cromwell in real life just to fry More. Although, More knew he was gonna die, anyway, for not taking the oath.

I kept looking at the actress playing Boleyn (Claire Foy), thinking WHERE HAVE I SEEN HER BEFORE? and then it finally occurred to me!!



And we see Cromwell eying Jane Seymour and we just KNOW he's setting her up for the NEXT WIFE, lol. Here is ol' Harry, now, eying Jane (preview of this Sunday's episode) ...



Sadly, she croaks really fast after giving birth to Harry's long-awaited male child, then that bitch Anne of Cleves shows up, AND SHE ONLY LASTS SIX MONTHS hahahahahahaahahahaha.

[aggroculture]

Been enjoying Pompidou. It's frequently hilarious. I really hope BBC commissions more and looks beyond the negativity: this has cult status all over it.

[Pillfred]

Tried watching American Ninja Last night, it was pretty bad. Im still gonna watch the 2nd and 3rd though.

[fillow]

I've been defending The Walking Dead for so long... until I started catching up with Season 5 second half recently.
Who the hell is in charge for writing dialogue in it?
It's like the characters just walk around for weeks never saying a word to each other, and when they finally do, it's always some deep words of wisdom, or some comfort/consolation words remembering events that happened weeks and months ago. The are the waking dead indeed.

[eversonpoe]

just started watching Elementary and, honestly, i think it one-ups the BBC's Sherlock. jonny lee miller is considerably more enjoyable to watch live inside the character, and lucy liu is fantastic as watson. not that i don't love martin freeman; i think the two of them are tied. but the format/style of the show is much more subtle and fun to watch.

a while ago, i saw that live theater broadcast of Frankenstein with both jonny lee miller and benedict cumberbatch (there were two versions wherein they switched who played the doctor and who played the monster; we saw the one with benedict as the monster).

[elevenism]

FINALLY.
This is a must see if you grew up with Navarna.

" It is the first documentary about Kurt Cobain to be made with the cooperation of his family. Morgen and his team were given access to the entirety of Cobain's personal and family archives. The documentary includes footage from various Nirvana performances and unheard songs, as well as unreleased home movies, recordings, artwork, photography, journals, demos, and songbooks."

i am so happy, and cannot BELIEVE, that courtney let this happen.
some of it is SOOOOOO intimate. it's priceless.

between this and the book Heavier than Heaven, i finally feel like i know a bit about the man.

[allegro]

i am so happy, and cannot BELIEVE, that courtney let this happen.

Kurt's daughter was an Executive Producer of the documentary and is in charge of Kurt's estate and the rights to his image. Courtney first approached the film's director for the project in 2007.
You really should read Kurt's journal, though, it's great.

[implanted_microchip]

Got HBO in the house recently. Been binging on this almost every night. Currently into the fourth season. Adoring it as expected.

[Exocet]

It would be good if they did a Kurt Cobain film, in the vein of the film Control, the Ian Curtis biopic. Anton Corjbin directed it, he also weirdly did the video for Heart Shaped Box. The Kurt film has been rumoured for years though,, loads of names have been attached to play Kurt in the past, James Mcavoy, Ryan Gosling, Jared Leto...i think Dan Stevens would be the perfect choice to play Kurt. Dan is like a smartly dressed better groomed doppelganger of Kurt. I wonder who would play the nutcase Courtney?
I really really liked the Gus Van Sant movie Last Days..but that was a different thing really.

[elevenism]

Kurt's daughter was an Executive Producer of the documentary and is in charge of Kurt's estate and the rights to his image. Courtney first approached the film's director for the project in 2007.
You really should read Kurt's journal, though, it's great.

i noticed that frances was a producer when i saw the credits. oh so FRANCES is in charge now? BADASS! did you watch the doc yet, @allegro ?

but...surely she wasn't behind that 20th anniversary in utero release. Kurt was rolling over in his grave. it was the original cd, an unnecessary remaster, a concert dvd we all already had seen over and over and a cd of other stuff we already had, at an exorbitant price.
it was the antithesis of nirvana.

but anyway, back to what i'm watching.

i found these two russian movies, Nightwatch and Daywatch from 04 and 06 i think. they look fucking AMAZING. i'm gonna watch them this evening.
has anyone ever seen them?

[fillow]

^^
These two films were pretty big deal in Russia, being big budget adaptations of two best selling Russian sci-fy/fantasy novels, directed by Timur Bekmambetov (who later did Wanted).
I saw them and liked both, although I have no idea if they would appeal to western audience.

[elevenism]

^^
These two films were pretty big deal in Russia, being big budget adaptations of two best selling Russian sci-fy/fantasy novels, directed by Timur Bekmambetov (who later did Wanted).
I saw them and liked both, although I have no idea if they would appeal to western audience.

well the trailers look incredible.