Films & TV Shows

[Spastic Hamburger]

So that’s what it’s called! Here’s a bit of a list of credits for what the piece is used in: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006309/ It’s used a lot!

Will see if I can catch them over here!

Still making my way through the Bond films. Hit the Roger Moore era the other day. It’s quite different from the Connery era but I like it for its cheesiness. The critics didn’t like it so much but they’re looking at quality, I’m not. I’m looking at fun value 😛

[DeVaultSetter]

Nice list from the other thread, hovercraft were all the rage in the 60s and 70s, not so much in the later Bond movies. The Griffon 2000TD operated by Brosnan in Die Another Day wasn’t listed, wonder why.
About an hour into The Voyeurs, changing the channel was very tempting, so equipped with the desire for absolute martyrdom persisted with it, and, well, was somewhat rewarded with the inclusion of this fable. The FTA described had the film as a drama, so expected a mild, yet interesting convolution in the plot. Wikipedia has it as erotic thriller, so not surprisingly, spoiler alert yet unbelievably a death.
The critics are right about the characters, they want a lot more oomph if you like, could be an issue with the script as well. Someone from RT called it “Gussied up smut,” wouldn’t go that far. The redeeming features were the easy pace, some of the characterizations, that warm “B” grade feel, and the revelations at the end. 6.5/10 here.

[Spastic Hamburger]

Didn’t even notice that omission. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it. It’s too bad hovercraft never took off, they were quite useful. The issue with wind was probably too big of a problem for them to have good staying power, though. Lakes and such get a lot of wind!

Just went on a Wiki journey and found out the DC did a Superboy TV show that I never heard about. Interestingly, it had quite a few Bond actors involved. Some of them aren’t listed on the main Wiki page, though, such as Richard Kiel. Totally different genre, too.

Yeah, the services over here have been trying to get me to watch it as well. I’ve got Cannonball Run on the list now. Watching Bond has me in the mood for Moore’s parody version 😛

[DeVaultSetter]

All right, went and suggested it. They do that over here, a continual succession of James Bond, Lara Croft, Harry Potter, Night at the Museum, Indiana Jones etc. etc. reboots. Fair to say that most JB movies are worth a second look. 🙂
Kiel was truly a giant of television, this guy is a monster! 😛
For fans of movies with female heroines, Haywire is a slick piece, David Holmes’ score has a clangy sixties feel and the direction necessitates tight action sequences and cool chases. Stellar cast. It’s also viewable on YouTube. 🙂

[Spastic Hamburger]

The only one I’ve really avoided is On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Not sure why I keep skipping it but I should really watch it at some point. For Your Eyes Only was pretty fun. It has the best anti-theft system you’ll find:

And let’s not forget the legendary Andre!

Ooh, good cast. Not available in the US, sadly, but will keep an eye out for it. It’s bound to make it here eventually!

[DeVaultSetter]

Ouch! Roger Moore had the nicest voice of all the Bonds IMOP. 🙂
Recently came across two “placeholder” films on offer by fta 9Now, Death She Wrote (TV Movie 2021), and Deadly Influencer (TV Movie 2019). There are literally thousands more like these made every year. The movie production teams do all the right things required to make the movies watchable, problem is, the directors think it’s enough to build a up a believable female character lead from a stock psychotic bipolar serial murderer template possessing the tenderness, panache and geniality of the Red Hulk, in order to plug any gaping holes in the movie’s plotline. The prerequisite for viewing is a single digit IQ, which should be noted in any Wikipedia Articles that will never be made for them. 😛
Completed Paris Has Fallen, the French spoken scenes necessitated switching on the subtext which is a little cumbersome and unreliable on this unit. Enjoyed it, very suspenseful and well paced, though lags a bit with a predictability factor towards the end.
Starting on The_Consultant_(TV_series), looks to be more than just the life and times of a fruitcake with a screw loose – all will be revealed – along with a colourful mix of nuts and bolts, no doubt. 😛

[Spastic Hamburger]

Yep, we get those too! Most of them are shown on the Hallmark Channel. The ones on streaming are a bit…worse 😛

Finished up Fallout yesterday. It was pretty fun at the end but still left me wanting for more. They did a good job of showing more of the varying vault personalities and the strife between factions. Fortunately, we’re getting another season at some point 🙂

[DeVaultSetter]

Isn’t that what they want want – keep on filling Bezos’s moneypot ’til season 2?
Old is unbalanced, with an intriguing predicament for its leads. Even though not recommended for the list, it should be watched for the ideas, and the ways they could have better formed the movie. Running past full time, yet the myriad of unanswered questions at the end makes it incomplete, while a lot of stuff can be edited out. Fun fact, it’s actually based on a French comic:

[Spastic Hamburger]

Started on the Dalton films yesterday with The Living Daylights. Really enjoyed the more serious tone. Some of the critics complain about the lack of humor but there was plenty! Bit of a shame that Dalton only did two films.

[Spastic Hamburger]

So there’s a huge plot hole in the Futurama episode “The Devil’s Hands Are Idle Playthings”. At the end, Robot Devil reveals that his contract says he gets to marry Leela. However, in Season 6 Episode 4 “Proposition Infinity”, it becomes apparent that robosexual marriage isn’t legal until the end of that episode. With that in mind, it makes his contract illegal and can’t be enforced. If known at the time, Fry would have been able to ignore Robot Devil’s grandstanding and continue the opera and we would have had a whole different ending.

[DeVaultSetter]

From The Devil’s Hands Are Idle Playthings:

Playing an improvised finale, Fry produces crude, cartoonish images of himself and Leela. To a simplistic yet sweet bansuri tune, the created Fry and Leela kiss and then walk into the distance hand-in-hand.

An alternative ending is for Fry to walk into the distance hand-in-devil robot hand? Like the idea, and the wealth of possibilities abounding for an appropriate operatic motif. 🙂
Now streaming another more recent spy drama in the Bond tradition is The Night Manager. Although Le Carré may not approve of the Bond association (as he referred to him as an international gangster), the protagonist often succeeds by engaging in rather thuggish activities, if you don’t mind. Like a Bond film it flicks around various worldly locations, as well as stitching important events in the story through flashbacks. The finery, competent acting and stunning locations sometimes reveal a rather bony lattice of plain in the screenplay, which takes the edge off a fabulous show, still recommended, and can’t wait for the second series. 🙂

[Spastic Hamburger]

Yep, Fry would have kept the Devil’s hands and probably still gotten with Leela. And Robot Devil would have been very unhappy 😛

Watched Rain Man again yesterday. Wonderful movie and highly recommended 🙂

[DeVaultSetter]

Great movie, slight issue with the ages, in RL Cruise is 25 years younger than Hoffman, so younger brother is a bit of a stretch. OTOH under appropriate lighting Hoffman could have passed for 45 and Cruise 30, otherwise the make-up folks appeared to have little concern. Like most, one suspects. 🙂
Watching Guilt Series 3, spicy dialogue and intriguing character interplay, and all very Scottish, recommended.

[Spastic Hamburger]

Yep, that sort of thing is very common in film. At least they had the same hair color! 😛

Oftentimes, the supposed family members don’t look a thing alike! It’s always a breath of fresh air when they get actual family members to play families. They did that for the farmhouse scene! That was an actual family!

Watched the uncut version of the Blues Brothers yesterday. Extra ten minutes in length, which brought it to almost 2.5 hours long. Very much worth it, though!

[DeVaultSetter]

Seen that twice already, it’s in my top 10 of all time! Often pondered if there was ever going to be a cinematic melding of Blues Brothers and Men in Black, well, ahem, it all eventually came to pass as Men in Blues:

Deep Blue Sea declared itself a crock five minutes in with the crappy ocean caustics lapping around the Aquatica facility, turning out (contrary to some opinions) to be a bloody disgusting free for all mess with bloopers abounding throughout thick and fast. Yet, the sound effects and the shrieking and freaking kind of held you to the watery and jaw-zy action willy nilly. 😛
Death Proof is a highly unbalanced movie, the first half or or so there’s a terrific evolution of character and dialogue leading up to the lap dance, and then all of a sudden things go blech. Then (spoiler alert) there’s a new set of girls to adjust to, but their ship’s masting turns out to be a winner. 🙂
Edit: Funny how the smiley pokes its way out of the spoiler. 😛

[Spastic Hamburger]

Sorry, not a whole lot I can do about the smiley in the spoiler. It’s due to there not being a semantic spoiler tag on the web so browsers don’t understand it’s supposed to be hidden. Maybe one day!

Yeah, a lot of Tarantino films are a bit rough but they’re generally pretty fun. Pulp Fiction will always be his best, though.

[Spastic Hamburger]

Fred Flintstone is so abusive, it’s a wonder that Barney and Wilma put up with him!

[DeVaultSetter]

Back in the day, The Flintstones was a favourite just before dinner time. In terms of finely crafted animation, could we ever call it a Stone Age version of The Simpsons?
Completed The Consultant, kind of hit and miss really, a curio, as you never would guess how it ends until well over half way.
FTA are having The Oscar Goes To selection once again. TV Tropes never mentioned the original and best in their Are We There Yet collection, this very one from Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,

Despite the massive plot and cast in LA Confidential didn’t quite tick all the boxes here. Things always take a brighter turn every time Danny De Vito enters the dialogue, the movie has a spicy quote base:

Stomach of the week. Unemployed actor had frankfurter, french fries, alcohol, and sperm. Hell of a last supper, don’t you think?

Another one of interest is Dog Day Afternoon, tonight it was One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest which is recommended. Spoiler: Funny how Randle doesn’t realize that many of the other inmates are admitted voluntarily until completion of a good stint in his internment, in reality one would pick it up pretty soon. Or is that part of his feigning – probably wants more exploration of the book. 🙂

[Spastic Hamburger]

Unlike The Simpsons, The Flintstones doesn’t contain a whole lot of satire so I’m not sure that is entirely accurate. It was a carbon copy of The Honeymooners at first, however. Fred definitely starts to mellow once he decides he wants a child in the third season but his abusiveness still rears its head from time to time. Interestingly, the animators couldn’t decide on the color of Dino. Early on, he was red, while he was blue in the title sequence before they finally settled on purple.

So someone screwed up recently and accidentally put the unedited Star Wars up on official streaming services: https://gizmodo.com/original-star-wars-streaming-roku-george-lucas-2000572064

Sadly, I wasn’t able to catch it. 🙁

[DeVaultSetter]

Like the Simpsons, the voices of the leads, particularly Fred, massage the senses with the subtlety and finesse of a cheese grater. Enhanced back in the day by bad reception and the crackly static of the speakers on the old cheap black and white TVs. 😛
Wonder if it was a stipulation of Lucas himself that the unedited stuff should never be released?
The Swimming Pool is a mood piece of elegance and style punctuated by rather surprising events and outcomes, and an almost Mona Lisa like enigma at the end. Think you might like it. 🙂
Despite it’s humongous Oscar Awards, the lead character of Driving Miss Daisy wielded an irritating dialogue, depiction and demeanour with force enough to make one reach for the off-button. Stuck with it through and through, found there were a lot of other good things about the movie, not enough for a re-viewing in the foreseeable future unfotunately.
Ooh, and in memory of David Lynch 10Play are streaming Twin Peaks, it’s a cracker! 🙂

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