What do you guys see for the future of movies/cinema? How soon do you think the theaters will come back, if at all?
Also, they're having a series of pop up drive in movies in the parking lot of a nearby sports arena, but it's like $30 a car. $50 for a "preferred location", whatever that means. Not worth it just to watch The Goonies.
And of course, what have you been watching?
Watched two of Benson & Moorhead's films Resolution and The Endless, which are borderline horror flicks.
Nice to see Adventure Time back (sort of) -- the first episode of Distant Lands was pretty cool.
The Great Debate on SyFy looked promising, but in spite of the interesting guests, it's so reigned in that it loses its promise.
I'm one of those people that I guess some others would envy: I've never experienced Firefly and know next to nothing about it. It's just the series and a couple of movies, right? Nothing else to watch before that?
1 season of the series and 1 movie.
Take a long break (6 mo. or more) between the series and the movie for the movie to land right.
this.
I was a regular Castle viewer. They seemed to work in sly Firefly or Buffy references on the regular to the dialogue.
I noticed this early on, especially the Halloween scene, but don't recall many at the end.
I watched the movie first- thanks to it being before streaming was so widespread, it was easier to get the movie than to find a DVD set.
It worked OK for me, but I can see how Philo's setup would have been better.
I watched the movie first as well, but that's because it had just come out on DVD and I didn't know what Firefly even was so I didn't know it was a continuation of that. But I loved the movie, so I watched the series and loved that as well.
enjoy!
We caught up with Superstore. Still uneven and some of the plots get repetitive and the only character that grows even a little bit is Amy. But it's comfortable and I get a few good laughs per episode, sometimes more. I would be fine if Carol never came back.
Winter's Bone: well acted, well-shot, depressing
I see you all going back to the theaters, frequently. Because my kid's gotta eat.
We all have subscriptions to... everything...I hope this means he'll get paid for making cool stuff!
Was thoroughly charmed by the first season of Lovejoy, a BBC offering from 1986, featuring the adventures of Ian McShane as a roguishly charming antiques dealer and his circle of confidants, including the wealthy socialite Lady Jane, as played by Phyllis Logan. That McShane and Logan are almost unrecognizable (other than their voices) from the characters with which they would later achieve worldwide fame—Deadwood’s Al Swearengen and Downton Abbey’s Mrs. Hughes—is due in equal parts to their fine acting and their youthful good looks. And there's five more seasons. Yay! On AcornTV
I watched Lovejoy on A&E in the 90s, back when they used to show a lot of British mysteries (Poirot, Inspector Morse, Midsomer Murders) instead of whatever it is that they show now. I really enjoyed it and wouldn't mind seeing it again.
I'm watching via Acorn TV on Prime, for which I pay 6.99 a month. Mainly got it so I could watch Foyle's War, but decided to stick around. (Glad I did.) You might be interested in Acorn, Padre, which bills itself as "World class TV from Britain and beyond."
Foyle's War was good television. I thank Craig Ferguson for that tip.
all caught up with Dr. Who and Agents of Shield. Finished Watchmen (wow! that was great).
I'm now rushing to binge as much of Battlestar Galactica as I can off of syfy.com before they take it off of free availability in july. I recorded 50+ episodes when they had a marathon running a month or two ago, but didn't get Season 1. I am three episodes in so far.
Just stop now on BSG. So much wasted potential.
I mean, the first two seasons are excellent. The third season is.....fine, if disappointing. I only made it about five episodes into the fourth season.
If viewed as seasons, you might well be right. I watched it straight through, as a whole story, and it was so completely frustrating that way that I cannot in good conscience recommend it to anyone.
It is interesting how binging a show versus watching in chunks changes the viewing experience. I always remember The Walking Dead's second season. When all viewed as one giant chunk, it's not great by any means, but there is a slow flow to the story.
Watched weekly, it was agonizing. How many MONTHS did they stay on that damned farm???
Well that's a strange crossover.
Less so, if you're aware of all the time travelling AoS has been doing lately...
Yeah...we watch the Flash from time to time. There’s so much “speed force” this, “quantum” that, multiverse, time-travel shenanigans, that even my kids aren’t buying it anymore.
"What do we want?
"Time travel!
"When do we want it?
"It doesn't matter!"
Newbish has suddenly become obsessed with Angry Birds, so he naturally needed to see the movie. Questionable concerns over a xenophobic message aside, it really is just a terrible movie. I don't know if Jason Sudeikis is a bad voice actor or what, but everything about all of it just annoyed me. The best case scenario for an Angry Birds movie would be watching birds slingshot themselves into buildings. That's the point.
The movie doesn't get there for nearly an hour and a half.
Newbish loved it, of course.
The Wife and I have been watching Schitt's Creek. We're on the final season, and damn, I love that show. The character humor is fantastic and there are at least two or three laugh out loud moments in every episode.
We've also been watching Parks and Recreation as kind of background noise while we work in the kitchen or in the garage, but the "Comeback Kid" episode is one of the funniest things ever broadcast. It doesn't work as background for projects at all.
We are down to the last four episodes of Schitt's Creek and I don't want it to end. Trying to plot out what our next show will be and want to stick with short episodes and so far put Community and The Good Place on the list of options.
Those are 3 of my favorite shows right there.
Almost forgot -- season two of What We Do in the Shadows just finished on FX, and Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi continue to pump laughable ideas into it. Got think that Collin Peterson is both the most out of place character and the most recognizable
We're continuing through BBC's Top 100 Comedies.
Just watched Mean Girls and it is still very funny. Harold and Maude is just so beyond bizarre. I did laugh out loud during a couple of his "dates." Plus, it got Cat Stevens stuck in my head for about two weeks. Hot Fuzz was much funnier than Shaun of the Dead, especially once I realized Yarp was the Hound. Somehow I had never seen either. What We Do In the Shadows is the rare movie we had both seen recently but decided to rewatch because it's so ridiculously funny. And yes, it's still ridiculously funny. Ninotchka was ok. It was clearly the grandfather of all the fish out of water stories made subsequently (like Mork and Mindy). Toni Erdmann, I believe, is considered the funniest German movie of all time. Of course, Germans are known more for their ruthless efficiency than comedy, so it was more awkward than anything. Plus, like pretty much every German movie I've ever seen (including ones we watched in high school), it had a completely bizarre sex scene.
Anyone watching Tales from the Loop on Amazon Prime? Very moody and atmospheric. Kind of a slow burn. Not necessarily a story arc but individual standalone episodes set in same place with tenuous links to one another.
Yep, watched it when it came out. Very interesting how the characters virtually take for granted the weird stuff that can happen around them, which leaves the stories more open to the human interactions that result from it. Have you checked out the Simon Stålenhag artwork that inspired the series?
A little bit, I googled and pulled up a few of the pieces.
Sooooo much standup comedy of late.
I just watched the first three episodes of “Snowpiercer” and I’m in love. Otherwise, still working through “Schitt’s Creek” and “Better Call Saul” in a hopeless attempt to finish/catch up.
Huh. I am surprised. The Boy was pretty dismissive, based on what he knew (or thought he knew) about the development of the series. (and he loooooovved the film)
Eric Deggans was skeptical going in.
Slate panned it.
Rotten Tomatoes is "meh" both on the critical consensus and the popular consensus.
Now, I'm not one to overly criticize others' appreciation for scifi entertainment. I have a low bar for being entertained by that genre, which I love.
What about it is catching your eye?
I loved the movie too, but have absolutely zero desire to see the series.
Diggs and Connelly, primarily. And I’m a sucker for a mystery.
It’s a pretty wild left turn from the film; this is less a Snowpiercer story than a murder mystery that happens to take place on Snowpiercer. So far, so good; I don’t need it to be all that tied to the film, which I would call my favorite (or in the top two) of the last decade.
There’s plenty of time for it to lose me, and I also went in with manageable expectations, so that helped.
I finally caught up with Uncut Gems. It was pretty frentic and tense. I kinda saw the ending coming but I thought it would be someone else who did the deed. KG was great, he has some acting chops.
You know we need a KG/LeBron buddy comedy of some type now.
Hamilton was a work of art.
Aye.
Lots of hints at real history, even if the history in the show is not all accurate or non-controversial. I hope that it spurs a lot more people to read and better understand our actual history, warts and all.
Also, Aaron Burr, still a dick.
Fun fact that I uncovered about Mr. Burr: he was a widower for 10 years when he killed Hamilton. Later in life (1833), he married a second woman. They only lived together for about 4 months because apparently, she had money and he was grubbing her money. Their divorce was finalized in 1836 on the day he died. The name of her attorney? Alexander Hamilton, Jr.
Aah, the good old days when rivalries were rivalries...
Thanks for bringing this up, though. The quick wiki-read through AHjr's bio is impressive, or at least interesting. Fought the French with Wellington, then came back and fought in the War of 1812. Was US Attorney in Florida for a while, once met Abe Lincoln on a road trip out west...
I also perused his bio and you cut off the best part about him meeting Lincoln.
This Lincoln fellow sounds pretty interesting. I hope he makes something of himself someday!
legendary vampire hunter.
I didn't want to oversell it.
!!
My 16-year-old and I watched The Hate U Give. I had just read the book and found it pretty excellent. The movie wasn't bad, but naturally it pales in comparison to the book. My daughter is going to read the book now. Anyone else have thoughts on the movie or book?
One nice outcome of the pandemic for me personally has been a friend and I watching a movie together every 2 weeks. Up until June we would start a movie at the same time and text – like we were in a long distance relationship. Since June we've been watching at distance outdoors (TV on the deck) or, if it rains, distanced in an empty garage. Here's what we've watched so far:
Sorry to Bother You – So wild and surreal. It's hard to rate it, really, but it was unlike anything I'd ever seen before.
The Conversation – Gave us a lot to talk about afterwards. Lots of good scenes to make film geeks take note. (I literally took some notes.)
Aguirre, The Wrath of God – It's my first Werner Herzog. I'm still unsure what happened there. We were laughing at the dark humor at times, unsure if there was actually supposed to be dark humor. We appreciated watching it for its place in history, but not going to recommend it.
Once Upon a Time in the West – Some amazing lines in this movie. At times it felt long for the sake of being long, but I'm sure I'm just having a modern reaction to it.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – I made the mistake of not reading anything about this movie before viewing. I thought it was decent in real time, and then pretty genius after learning more about it after the fact. I don't have a lot of Manson Murders knowledge in my head, nor did I know the movie was to be telling a story about the murders, so I really would have benefited from understanding the angle the movie was taking before watching it.
Rebel Without a Cause – Can't say I enjoyed this. But now I can understand the pop culture references!
12 Angry Men – I quite enjoyed this one. It is a product of its time, sure, but it wasn't a huge leap to draw parallels to national events today.
Drive – We … really didn't think this was great. I feel kind of bad. Ebert loved it, and I usually jive with him. I didn't find the long Gosling stares to be effective filmmaking. We laughed numerous times throughout this non-comedy. We still had fun!
We also have put up a decent outdoor movie setup for our backyard. With friends and neighbors, we have watched Incredibles 2, Big Hero 6 (still great), Back to the Future, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Hamilton.
I thought they did an outstanding job on filming Hamilton. I've seen the musical, and they captured it pretty darn well. I really only have one tiny little complaint, but it's spoiler territory, so be warned
What's your outside setup like?
I have a projector, which I connected up to a class- t amp and speakers, which were collecting dust. Add a blu-ray player or Roku for the spice. Due to much free time, I built a rolling cart to put it all in for rolling into the yard.
It would have been fine to project onto the side of the house, but we have ridged vinyl siding. That got old fast so our one new purchase was a ridiculous blow up screen - kind of like the screen version of a bounce house with its own fan.
That sounds awesome, I've used our white garage door as a screen a couple times mostly just for novelty purposes--having the Vikings game playing on Halloween night 2 or 3 years ago was a big hit in the neighborhood.
How small does the screen get when not in use? Wondering about storage since it is something that will be put away the vast majority of the time.
The game sounds like a good time!
I’d say the works gets to about a 3’ cube. Plus the little blower, which is maybe 12” x 12” x 18”. Those are guesstimates.
Caveats - I bought the biggest screen my projector could support. 200” is a bit obnoxious (but I’m very happy with it). And there is definitely a pandemic tax as supply is tight.
I remember in middle school going to see King Lear and our tiny, not-old but I think technically dwarfism, memorably eccentric teacher had to warn us about the spitting. Richard Ooms was spraying down the first couple rows. I think it was part natural and then accentuated, or at least not inhibited, for effect.
No idea. Just watched a Zoom interview with cast today and Lin commented on this.
You will probably enjoy this article on the same subject.
https://slate.com/culture/2020/07/hamilton-movie-ending-explained.html
Thanks! That’s a good crack at talking about all that’s wrapped into the final shot.
Non-spoilering: My younger brother-in-law is a professional set designer, mostly for opera. He has no shortage of ego, and frequently expresses disdain for others' sets. He fanboys over this set.
I have never quite understood the James Dean phenomenon. I've only seen a couple of his notable films, but the main impression I recall taking away was that his characters were kind of whiny Luke-Skywalkers-on-Tatooine in the original episode.
I mean I’m sure he would have gotten better, right? Probably. But I had assumed they infatuation with him had something to do with some already-exhibited notable talent, not just his looks.
The Drive soundtrack is amazing
That’s interesting. During the movie the music was mastered so hot that we’d have to turn it down whenever it came on. Granted I was watching on tinny TV speakers outdoors so maybe it was the setup, not the soundtrack.
Maybe I should listen to the soundtrack on its own.
I felt the same after watching Rebel Without a Cause, but now I already forgot the references.
I've been rewatching Fargo. Season 1 is great, but I forgot how Season 2 knocks it out of the ballpark. Nick Offerman's character should have had a stand alone tv movie.
Im going to get to Hamilton in the near future.
I think Patrick Wilson’s Lou Solverson might be my favorite character in the entire franchise.
Lou Solverson’s character in both seasons were great.
Watched Unorthodox (series of 4) on Netflix - about a married woman's escape from the Hasidic community in the Bronx. Gripping.
Also have been binge-watching Shtisel - an Israeli series (up to 4 seasons now) about a Haredi family in an Ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem. 14.1 on the NBB scale - be careful not to start chain-smoking when you watch it.