Movies and TV

  • Start date
  • Replies 13,722 Comments
  • Views 927,451 Views
Black Panther (2018)

I wouldn't have watched this if not for the Best Picture nom. I have been Marvel'd out for awhile now. I jumped off that bus roughly the time of the first Avengers movie, I'd say?

Hard for me to rate. If I had never seen a Marvel movie, I'm sure I would have liked it more. But it's all the same stuff: superpowers and fights from the WWE and impossible threats being miraculously overcome. Inconsistent CGI. This one certainly has some thoughtful elements in it - but most of them do. Marvel movies are not bad. There's just so damn many of them and they are so repetitive.

I dunno. 6 out of 10 ?

iu
 
I’ve walked/biked similar routes throughout Manhattan. Highly recommended.


MrX, please tell me you like High Maintenance.

That show has your name written all over it.

I haven't seen it. I'll check it out.
 
Blitty lived in NYC for 1/10th the time I lived there and hes experienced 10,000 more that could ever hope to in the big apple.
 
^^ Good say. Blittster knows what's up.

Started watching the Ted Bundy Tapes on Netflix. I'd heard of Ted Bundy before but having all the facts thrown at you like that, combined with all the footage they had of the guy, is fucking wild. Mesmerizing levels of evil.
 
I had an awesome stay in NYC with the Blittster 3-4 years ago. He certainly knows where the good stuff is. :10:
 
I was not drunk @ 9am this morning. I'm a family man now.

On topic, I just finished what's available for the HBO series Luck. It's a mob story with the vehicle being horse racing in Southern California. The show was canceled years ago and as the 2nd season was filming - owing mostly to the horse deaths related to filming. I had watched the first episode with my wife years ago but she gave up because of some (fictional) equine gruesomeness in that pilot. I never returned to it until now.

I can say that the racing shots are hands down THE best video of "racing" I've ever seen. Better than the derby cams, jockey cams, whatever. The story is okay, standard mob story and a better degen storyline as well. The first racing sequence in the final episode (episode 9) is about as close as you can get to the real feeling of having a stake in one of the animals, a winning one.

Would have liked to see where the show went but we cant have these wonderful animals dying for our entertainment... unless that entertainment is the entertainment this was based on... then its fine.

Show (acting, plot, etc) - 7/10
Technical - a biased 9/10
 
hmm, I remember being disappointed when Luck was cancelled.
🤔 Don't remember it as a mob story per se, although one of the main story lines revolved around the ex-mobster character of Dustin Hoffman.
I was more intrigued by the portrayal of the gamblers/jockeys/race track life etc..
 
The Wife (2018)

My second sigplay on these Oscars is decided. Glenn Close for Best Actress. It is so appalling to me that there are people who will argue with a straight face that Lady Gaga should win this when there is a real actress like this in the field.

I'm not even a big Glenn Close fan - there has always been something I have found a bit off-putting about her - but I can't help but recognize the talent and range she has delivered for so long - and she is flawless in this.

(I realize that does not, by any means, guarantee the Oscar. Julia fucking Roberts won over Ellen Burstyn in Requiem for a Dream. But I also factor in the odds and award season results-to-date. I feel pretty solid on this and kind of expect the line to move so I'm grabbing it now.)

I like the movie. It depicts an interesting situation. It's thoughtful and a bit gut-wrenching. At least that's how I feel at this moment. I wouldn't be surprised if I wake up tomorrow and decide the story is weaker than I am able to recognize right now. But that performance is fresh in my mind and so compelling.

7.6 out of 10.

iu
 
At Eternity's Gate (2018)

Pretty much a piece of crap as far as I'm concerned. Dull and pretentious biopic of Vincent Van Gogh (who, along with Paul Gaugin, speak with American accents - but we'll just let that go.) As it was going along I started wondering if it was directed by Terence Malick - which, coming from me, is about as far from a compliment as it gets. Chock full of cheesy voice-overs and zit-squeezy directorial self-indulgences. Turns out it is Julian Schnabel. That's not a huge surprise either.

I already knew the story of Van Gogh and this didn't add anything. But Willem Dafoe has an Oscar nom (Best Actor) so it becomes part of my yearly Oscar mission so I had to get through it. I have no idea what the nominators are seeing in that performance and apparently the betting gods agree as his odds currently sit at +10593.

As for the movie, I can't go any higher than 2.9 out of 10.


iu
 
Cold War (2018)

Very weak. I don't know whether to blame the acting or directing or writing - but at no point does what we see match the words being spoken. i.e. - he says she is the love of his life but we see nothing that looks remotely like that. Dramatic stuff happens with no appreciable reactions. There is nothing believable at any point. There are a few redeeming bits along the way but for the most part it is a dull and lacklustre chore.

It is nominated for Best Director and Best Foreign Language Film but has no chance. It's actual crappiness does not seem to be an obstacle - critics seem to love it - but it's up against Roma which is the favorite for Best Picture in the main category - so ferget it Cold War.

3.4 out of 10

iu
 
Can't temember the last time I've autotuned a network TV show, but You're the Worst just got the nod. Very dark, sarcastic silliness.

Well played I say.

8.0 Maxipads
 
Here's something from movies/TV that I have seen a million times that I find just incredibly stupid.

Okay so shit happens and someone gets gagged. Like this:

iu


So maybe there's someone on the other side of a door who could help - but the hostage can't get their attention because they're gagged.

But it's so toadally retardo because you can make a helluva lot of noise when you're gagged that way. You can draw all kinds of attention to yourself. Just make a bunch of noise.

Go ahead, try it.
 
Dead on Campus (2014) - A harmless prank involving a sorority girl picking up a dude, her sorority friends slipping him some drugs and then sneaking up on him and videotaping them putting make up on him turns DEADLY when he crashes his car on the way home.

A lot of betrayal amongst sorostitutes here, some really awful acting and total lack of suspense makes this an utter waste of time except for one thought - what would YOU do if you suddenly realized you were BLOTTO stoned right as a bunch of sorostitutes were putting make up on you, laughing at you and taping you?

That fascinating thought earns this masterpiece

2.8 maxipads
 
I completed my rewatch of Battlestar Galactica.

Lotta episodes. I would have guessed something like 45 but it was 73.

Anyway, all I can say is this:

It has a helluva lot of ideas

But a lot of holes

But a lot of ideas

But a lot of holes

But a lot of ideas
 
Ray Donovan continues to be the best current show on television. It's not up there with the all time classics but compared to what's out there right now, I can't think of anything that's close.

8.9 pads