Films & TV Shows

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It’s on the B/W list, and, being a short film, on the shortlist. 🙂
The Patient is an odd piece – especially if one expects canned laughter to follow everywhere Steve Carell goes. It has deserted him here. Cleverly scripted and filmed on a low budget, the rather depressing tale leads to a rather depressing outcome, the more so, as there are a few nudges in the later episodes hinting for the making of a sequel.
Have you seen Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon? Nice pace and cinematography versus dubious morality on a plodding script, the thing for me was the open-ended approach to the finish. It’s such a relief for the viewer not to be bogged down in the minutiae coming from a director’s choice of inserting ridiculous explanations for everything. 😛

There’s plenty of character jostling and contention in Sea Fever while the resolute Siobhan, the lead holds it altogether rather well. Not so much horror as unease with the evolving situation on the boat, and the sense of confinement from the limited possibilities of being on the wide-open sea in the clutches of said company. No hints indicating a sequel were spotted either, so fine with that. 🙂

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Never was a fan of Carell’s comedy, maybe I’ll like his dramas better?

Sadly, none of those are available over here 🙁

Been continuing to watch old Looney Tunes lately and I’m still enjoying them quite a bit. The older ones from the 40s were a lot more creative than the later ones, in my opinion, with the characters being a lot less cliche.

[DeVaultSetter]

Have any YouTube 40’s Looney Tunes links to share?

Plenty of action with twists and turns in Wanted, and its fine direction makes you wonder why the sequel was never released. Recommended.

Reckless runs a very nicely paced plot, script & dialogue, fitting the roles into the provided portrayals came across somewhat like fitting square pegs into round holes – or vice versa. Thus the barebones of the budget could not be concealed, as was the case with the production, and in particular, the sets.
Enjoyable though, so will be here when they come up with series two!

Midsommar starts off in a rather dinky manner, until you get to the location where it slowly evolves into an Ashram garden of muraled weirdness, wailing dirges, crying babies and abrupt scene changes that all end up in some kind of a Jonestown/Wickerman inspired predicament, where the surviving folk coming out of it, well, quite beaming you know. Might have been a while getting into the rhythm of it, once engaged, things seemed to have worked out quite well. Recommended!

On the other hand, there was some difficulty identifying with the slightly less than suave protagonist in Under the Silver Lake gawking round abstruse clues for stuff that really never made a lot of sense. There’s a lot in there that ticks the boxes for a bad movie, particularly the wtf scene transitions and jittery music score. Must have missed something then, so will the pull of the much vaunted mystery ever be enough to encounter the push of the memory retained of it?

[Spastic Hamburger]

There’s one. They also did a series of propaganda shorts for WW2. One had a horse doing a striptease and then getting a bit…excited during its brushing, which was a bit suggestive even for Looney Tunes 😛

Yep, seen Wanted. Been a while, though, so it may be time for a re-watch. 🙂

And, as usual, can’t get Midsommar. 🙁 Will keep an eye out for it!

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Cool there’s a list at Wikipedia too, and a nice little compilation from @warnerbrosclassics:

🙂 There’s a bit of The Draft Horse here:

Somewhat touched by the vibes of Christmess as what transpires is much too real for many these days.

Christmas isn’t just a mess btw, it’s a f*** landfill catastrophe. 😛
Promising Young Woman is one of those movies where anything heard or read about the movie will spoil the payload as it were. Recommended for direction and suspense values at least.
Can’t say Bad Moms is the funniest movies ever made, but it is entertaining enough. Colourful quotes e.g.:

Wow, Gwendolyn, I genuinely think you should just relax a little bit, I mean, have a donut hole. They’re delicious. They’re from a gas station. They’re… Mmmm.

The FTA streaming agent only had series 3 of The Head so after getting through all the throwbacks there was a lot of chasing through tunnels and animated dialog after various murders. There is compensation in that the ending wrapped things up rather well.

[Spastic Hamburger]

Yep, the Draft Horse was a good one

Here’s the entire filmography from the 40s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looney_Tunes_and_Merrie_Melodies_filmography_(1940%E2%80%931949)

Think I hit the 30s the other day.

Can’t get too many holiday specials over these days. Most of them are now coming on at odd times and others are being pickup by streaming services leaving us OTA watchers out of luck 🙁

Been watching Date A Live lately. Started it a few years back and enjoyed it so I decided to pick it up again now that they’ve made more episodes available. It’s pretty fun, if rather weird 😛

[DeVaultSetter]

Skyscraper is an 21C. update on Towering Inferno, never a dull moment means there’s enough to keep one awake until the end is nigh!
FTA are offering all 8 seasons of Homeland, quit after the third, not bad, especially when unadulterated (with a dash of adulteration) spy soap is your thing.
There’s a really tense, well constructed build up to a fairly run-of-the-mill bog standard culmination of events in Playing Nice, other possibilities might have been in the pipeline for the creators, no doubt all the better ones demanding no less than considerable yakka.
The_Thomas_Crown Affair is exciting to watch, with side attractions and divagations a-plenty including this 1898 game featuring the Schliemann Defense to the Ruy Lopez opening.
Soundtrack includes The Windmills of Your Mind, not the Muppets version from the next decade if any were wondering:

It also had the following fine track:

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Need to see The Thomas Crown Affair. Been on the list for years, just haven’t gotten there yet. Still reading a lot! 😛

But the Muppets are wonderful!

Been watching That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime. It’s not bad but I can’t seem to really get into it so I may move on soon

Wasn’t able to finish Date A Live: the mid-series OVAs weren’t dubbed and they cover critical aspects of the plot for the final season. 🙁

[DeVaultSetter]

Date A Live banned in China? Did they even get to see any of the trailers? This one is for Ren Dystopia:

They have all fallen prey to the Ken Burns effect! Series 6 will be the last? Funny, the following trailer for series 4 is not available in the US and Japan, China is okay though. 😛

Now streaming Sherlock & Daughter, an American production gone very Britsh with a top notch cast on a rather spiffing adventure line. Did notice some odd pronunciations such as zeenith for zentih, debew for debut and insulate for insolent. Recommended all the same!
A Matter of Life and Death (or Stairway to Heaven) is a jolly bit of good-hearted sci-fi fluff with extra zing in the production and direction. The highlight for me was the Sofaer’s recitation of Scott’s short poem here:

In The Silent Partner there’s an interesting twist on gaslighting post bank heist. More of historical interest now, as banks, as we knew them then, are becoming less and less. Recommended!
You’ll never see much light from the sun in The Doll Factory until (spoiler alert) the closing scenes. The music is dark and persistent, the episodes all playing to a rather gloomy horror motif. Despite the efforts from the cast, things fell away towards the end, expected an ending that could have plugged a few more holes contextually perhaps.

[DeVaultSetter]

Oh, all the old Evil Touch episodes have been posted on Youtube. Nothing too special though, and the poor resolution is another minus. They did make fun late night viewing back in the day, this one with Leslie Nielson was a favourite:

And, as Anthony Quayle used to say, “Pleasant Dreams.” 😛

[Spastic Hamburger]

Spent the last few days watching old Addams Family reruns while recovering from the sinus issue. Was quite fun. It’s a shame the show didn’t go on longer as it had a lot of potential.

Also taking a break from Reincarnated as a Slime to watch How Not to Summon a Demon Lord. It’s another in the goofy anime genre that I really enjoy (Slime just wasn’t cutting it).

Probably should go back to watching old films and/or B-movies at some point but we’ll get there! Got a lot of good quality classics that I want to watch again, such as the Basil Rathbone Holmes films. Those were always enjoyable.

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And started watching Spongebob the other day just for fun. As bad as it is, it’s a lot of fun 😀

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Censored over here – does it really come across that strong?
The old Sherlock Holmes films were fabulous as were those with Margaret Rutherford. 🙂
Yep, Spongebob, like The Simpsons along with a host of like others do not lend themselves to filigree cartoonery. 😛
Enjoyed Showtrial (both seasons) more than some of the critics it seems. Enough pace, drama and tension to allay the jaundice from many an eye methinks – but not all!
Something about the scripted character of Mia (and some others) didn’t quite convince in the first few episodes of Little Fires Everywhere (miniseries), happily not so much the case once into the swing of things. The exposition of racial themes, together with those arty and poetic as expressed by boisterous teenagers also add to the mix. A busy plot including multiple flashbacks keep the fires of interest smouldering at least. 🙂

[Spastic Hamburger]

It’s not that bad. It’s really no worse than what would be a PG-13 film here in the US. Unlike others of its ilk, there’s no nudity. Just sexual jokes and references.

Now, High School DxD is a lot worse than that. They actually censored the fourth season over here due to the content (other seasons are uncensored). That said, it’s a lot of fun but definitely not for everyone.

I’m mostly catching up on stuff I missed over the years. 😛 Tried watching the old TMNT cartoon but found it a bit too hokey. Rewatched ALF, which is always fun, and caught up on some of the later seasons of Murder She Wrote. All good stuff but the final episode of ALF can be skipped: the series ends when he’s captured for dissection because it had just gotten cancelled.

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SpongeBob’s splinter episode makes no sense! It was already canon that he could remove his arms and regrow them instantly without issue and does this several times throughout the series. So, instead of worrying about the splinter in his hand, just remove the limb!

[Spastic Hamburger]

Can’t get any more episodes of SpongeBob past season six. But that’s okay: I wasn’t really enjoying it anyways 😛

So I started watching Friendship is Magic again, along with the Super Mario Bros Super Show.

[DeVaultSetter]

Here’s the trailer:

After watching the complete set one gets awarded the bronie tag. Will consider it! 🙂
If one can’t feel super after watching an episode of Super Mario Bros Super Show then King Koopa has won, and therefore should be accorded the title Super Koopa, King of all Super Bloopahs!
Body Heat kind of worked, with steamy shots of the Everglades, moody music from John Barry and a good cast including a rather dashing Ted Danson. The only thing that spoiled it was memories of viewing Double Indemnity years ago – a masterpiece in fact, thus the thing to do really is to watch Body Heat first, then Double Indemnity.
Black Bear is a nuanced affair, the progression of the plot is something I didn’t quite get so it’s pencilled in for an encore viewing down the track.

[Spastic Hamburger]

FiM is a wonderful show! Been watching it from the start and this will be my third viewing. Definitely worth it! 🙂

And a lot of guest appearances, too! Weird Al even makes an appearance doing his polka act.

The Super Show is a blast! It’s so goofy that you can’t help but enjoy it 😀

And let’s not forget to do the Mario:

And Happy MAR10 Day!

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