Films & TV Shows

[Spastic Hamburger]

Sorry! Been a bit preoccupied with catching up on sleep and pouring over the site’s update issues 😛

The list for 100% is much longer! I’m also a fan of this article 😀

The Death Wish films had very similar plots, too! Probably need to watch them again just to make a more modern critique 😛

Sounds terrible. Of course, that means I need to watch it. 😛

Watched the annual Mythbusters marathon with my mom the other day and she wasn’t a fan of it! It’s a lot of fun! Of course, they never did take the change of gravity into account when the things they’re testing don’t occur on Earth. That would greatly affect things!

[DeVaultSetter]

The Mythbusters are fantastic in everything they say and do, which of course becomes tedious if one hearkens to content which isn’t so fantastic. Like me, and maybe others, she is not a fan of tastic in excess. 😛
“They Saved Hitler’s Brain.” Really? Must watch it, along with the one about Santa Claus and the Martians. Do they turn into elves at the end?
Have you seen The Golden Compass? No problems with motifs, acting or cinematography, just a very awkward transposition of the stunning ideas from the book to screen, in contrast cf. the Peter Jackson trilogy. Amidst the background of a predictable outcome, the scene transitions jerk around and through the plot development, and despite the cast, most exchanges of dialogue come off as rather wooden.
It was an exercise in the management of self-torture to view the entire one hour fifty minutes of Nekrotronic on FTA. And, spoiler alert for any seeking palliative relief: this film will not cure headaches! 😛

[Spastic Hamburger]

Haven’t seen Santa v Martians in a decade but, as I recall, he simply teaches them a holiday lesson. I had an old writeup on the Lab about it. It was horrendous 😛

Nope, haven’t seen it. When it came out, I had just started my TCM phase so I missed it (along with a lot of other films released since :P). Will try to rectify it though

Saw Bloody Birthday yesterday and that was quite fun. Definitely will watch again!

• This reply was modified 10 months, 3 weeks ago by Spastic Hamburger.

[DeVaultSetter]

Still on the slashers? Nothing like that over here – FTA did play a rerun of The Negotiator which rates for me a fair bit more than RT & others. Particularly for the pace and storyline, so recommended.
Also streaming Something Undone, a fictional account of a true crime podcast duo, which sounds more interesting than it actually is.
Here’s some more Portlandia:

[Spastic Hamburger]

Yep! I really enjoy the awfulness of them 😛 About ten years ago, I watched The Star Wars Holiday Special. It was quite memorable, especially when the Wookiees were given the equivalent of porn 😛

Yeah, I really need to watch Portlandia one of these days!

Eventually, I’ll get back to anime and other stuff. Don’t know when but I will!

[Spastic Hamburger]

Well, finally got the external speakers hooked up to the TV (better late than never!) so no more garbled dialogue! 😛

Took my dog a bit to get used to it. Going to need to give things a bit of a whirl! Still need to tweak the sound settings to my personal preferences but that’ll come 🙂

May turn off HDMI-CEC though as it’s just as finicky as ever. Good idea but it tends to get confused about devices as it tries to turn them all on and then it cycles through them all as it’s not sure which one to use even though I only pressed the button for one. Had the same issue twenty years ago 😛 May just do everything manually again 🙂

• This reply was modified 10 months, 2 weeks ago by Spastic Hamburger.

[DeVaultSetter]

Little experience of HDMI-CEC over here, did it inherit some of the slightly ding dong behaviours of the universal remotes? Like the Prestigo purchased from the now defunct local electronics shop back in 2013 or thereabouts, which turned out to be something of a battery hog. Seemed to wear more when not in use, so the only option was to remove the batteries after each operation.
It was subsequently returned to the vendor. 😛
The Craft was on last night, the fantastical sequences were entertaining enough, the girls were fine, the storyline being of dubious quality made it best for a one-time viewing only.
Finished up with Something Undone which started out a bit flat and developed into rather interesting, yet unsatisfying conclusion. The rattles and bumps in the night were never explained.
Started with Suspect starring James Nesbitt, 100% B-grade according to most, so it’s my cup of tea, and, as with Something Undone, the episodes go only for 28 minutes.

[Spastic Hamburger]

You’re not missing much! One feature of CEC is that it’s supposed to sync up the video modes to help them play nice. I have my TV set to a specific mode for eye comfort and at 4k but the Roku, which I had manually set to 4k as I didn’t like the look of how my TV presents 4k HDR, keeps wanting to flip back to Automatic which sets it to 1080p Dolby Vision when CEC is on. Definitely a Roku software bug but CEC doesn’t work all that well. And you still need all of the remotes since they still don’t come up with the ability to control the other devices in full even though they include the buttons. 😛

Rewatched Star Wars: A New Hope to test out the speakers and the more I watch it, the more the nonsensical things in it bother me. All of the plot holes, the British accents nowhere near Earth, the use of distance for time….The list goes on! 😛

[DeVaultSetter]

😛 New tech innovations = New square pegs for old round holes!

There was always something about the whole Star Wars brand that came across as rather dinky, if not hokey. Might have been the overplay of the disco version of the theme at the time:

It was all right as far as disco-dent themes go, the novelty wore out pretty quick.
Completed Suspect, B grade budget, backdrops and effects, the story, screenplay and actors were the outright winners. Recommended!
And National Lampoon’s Vacation is pretty ho-hum for the first two thirds or so, the finish at the Walley World theme park is worth the wait. So recommended! 🙂

[Spastic Hamburger]

Well, a disco ball would go perfect in the Falcon! 😀

I think I’ve seen some similar films that used disco for the soundtrack. It was pretty fun in a campy sort of way

The original three films felt like they were being made up as they went along. All of the later prequels and sequels had to retcon so many things 😛

Yeah, the first Vacation film is rather slow but the rest of the films in the series are fabulous! Just finished rewatching them recently. Haven’t seen Vegas Vacation, though, so I can’t give an opinion on it

[DeVaultSetter]

The series currently screamed is Bang!, comes with a slow burning drag on for a bit too long kind of vibe, watchable though. There is a bug in the streaming channel where the option for (English) subscripts doesn’t work if there is multilingual content, fortunately there is not a lot of (English) mumbling so we are good.
The critics were rather harsh with Year One, perhaps rightly so. Things move at pace, the dialogue isn’t all that bad, the film length is mercifully short, and you might get a sense they had fun doing it.
One of the related links on the Wikipedia SCP page was CreepyPasta, with a lead onto Channel Zero. Hope that makes it over here!
And, in chatting with Mum tonight, she recalled Donovan’s Brain with Orson Welles, one that never got around to the FTA channels here either, consequently all memories of it vanished over the horizon. Right now, high priority in the viewing list. 🙂

Note BBPress clams it recognizes Wikimedia webm format, but will not embed the trailer video here apparently.

• This reply was modified 10 months ago by DeVaultSetter.

[DeVaultSetter]

Remember well the Ripping Yarns a hoot when they were first released:



Another dose of Portlandia for good measure:

[Spastic Hamburger]

Twice Dead was a fun one, if a tad slow. Usual horror plot holes but the acting was surprisingly good!

Yeah, I skipped Year One as it looked a bit silly 😛

Ooh, Donovan’s Brain looks right up my alley. Really do like those types of films. Speaking of, I still need to rewatch the Brain that Wouldn’t Die. That was a fun one!

Yeah, we can add the WebM stuff to the list to look at once we get some of the other kinks worked out (still hoping to see some of our specific fixes in the style pack’s release notes). 🙂

[DeVaultSetter]

The Children Act is a classy piece bringing to sharp relief the folly of adhering to rules of religion, and, spoiler alert, it has a rather depressing outcome.
OTOH, the opposite effect tonight after the screening of Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, a cracking cast and script (highlights).

The extra spice was Rip Torn, well known for his on-set conflicts– no American Dream on that occasion but a no holds barred American Light’s Out for Mailer!

[Spastic Hamburger]

Shallow Grave was a fun one. Acting was hilariously bad, which gave it a certain charm. It also focused on the two dudes just driving around a lot even though they played no role in the film 😛

Yep, Dodgeball was fun!

Going to plan to see Night of the Lepus soon. Should be fun! 😀

[DeVaultSetter]

Yep, such actors get a rep as leading lights in their own unique way – typically when they score much coveted roles on offer like Lamp Post #1. 😛
Yet, Shallow Grave gets a fairly positive rap from the viewers, so on the list – as does the (unrelated) 1994 movie. 🙂
Have you seen A.I. Artificial_Intelligence? Much investment in time and resources for this classic idea from Kubrick to happen in a movie, Spielberg waves his directorial magic wand in smoothing out the major bumps and jumps, so very watchable. For me, something tries to spoil it – perhaps the beginning is slow and muted, some scenes a little too maudlin, the end dragging on a tad too long. Certain scenes are glue to the memory – such as Rouge City:

Edit: Oh, The Walk-In being a 5 part series never reached the magic six (based on fact, so relevant with info on proscribed Far Right movements) – hence now streaming crime drama Cardinal, four seasons, each of six parts, guaranteeing this one “busy” for the while. 🙂

• This reply was modified 9 months, 1 week ago by DeVaultSetter.

[Spastic Hamburger]

Haven’t seen Artificial Intelligence yet but it’s been on the list for years. Just haven’t gotten around to it 😛

Watched Mortuary yesterday and that was quite good. The first half is mostly a mystery film and then the killer gets active for the second half, with a few unexpected twists to it. Very well done even if a couple of the facial expressions looked artificial 🙂

[Spastic Hamburger]

Need to share this one again:

It’s a classic! They show it on TCM periodically 😛

[DeVaultSetter]

🙂 Jeepers, the “needle jumps” 50 secs in. Someone over there mentioned Lord of the Flies/Children of the Corn/Planet of the Apes, thus the moral of the story is: Fat wins the day? 😛
Yes, and newsflash read all about it, all those great slasher films will never make it over on any of the umpteen fta channels over here. 🙁
Don’t recommend watching The One while preparing/consuming dinners in the event of missing out on a short but critical dialogue that precedes ten minutes of non-stop wham bam action. Consequently, the process of catching up on the plot description in the Wikipedia page turns more or less tedious and fruitless. 😛

[Spastic Hamburger]

😀

That’s a real problem! We get slasher marathons from time to time OTA and Tubi has a dedicated category for them.

Yep, seen it. Thought it was really just a random combination of action scenes with a frivolous plot. Of course, my dad loved it. He just likes action in his movies, plot be damned. 😛

Saw this one yesterday and it was…interesting. It was under the slasher category but was definitely not a slasher. It was a thriller but it also had a few scenes close to softcore porn in it. You wouldn’t have been able to figure that out from the description. Good overall B-movie and pretty entertaining if for the silliness alone. 😛

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