Films & TV Shows

[DeVaultSetter]

Not planning to play anything like Bug Fables either. 😛 Another one to watch out for is Dragon’s Dogma, with the sequel just round the corner.
For all the fanfare of La-La Land, the character selection was a bit ordinary, methinks something like a Lizzo interlude could have mixed it up a bit. The tracks were cool, a little bit of the 95 piece studio orchestra vibe got lost in the Protools dubbing/synthing somehow (setup explained in Sound on Sound), otherwise very enjoyable, and worth a second look.
Sex, Lies, and Videotape is a remarkably beautiful film, at the closing credits, a poem detailing the unfolding of the layers on a rare fruit revealing a neatly set, but imperfect kernel. Recommended,- not for a second viewing here though, in case it ruins the experience from the first. 🙂
As for Making Fun, this “grumpy” dude shows us what it is all about:

😛

[Spastic Hamburger]

Saw The Driller Killer yesterday and it was pretty ho hum. I disagree with the reception on that and the categorization as a black comedy. The slasher aspects and the basic plot were only loosely linked together and there was no fanfare at all with the slasher bits, just people getting drilled up for no apparent rhyme or reason. They also overdid the quantity of kills by doing one right after another in a sort of montage scene while upbeat music was, incongruously, playing.

Still haven’t played Dragon’s Dogma yet even though it’s been on the wish-list for years. Really need to change that 🙁

I’ve heard pretty good things about Sex, Lies, and Videotape. It has come up OTA periodically but I just haven’t had the opportunity to watch it. Maybe one day!

Looks great! Reminds me of Adam Savage’s Tested! 😀

[DeVaultSetter]

The categorization of comedy is funny in many of these type of movies, funny in that

• It was either too tragic or not tragic enough not to be tragic, so it had to be comedy.
• As attempts by the movie-makers of light heartedness or jollity in each dramatic event of the movie failed to fire, a critique of the resulting concatenation of the misfired events had to be made in a comical context, in light of the argument that comedy is defined as the whole not being the sum of the parts.
• It was comedy enough for the creators of the movie to even conceive of the notion others would even be discussing this dilemma.

Barbershop: The Next Cut is a no-nonsense movie with a no-nonsense and fast paced dialogue, so very much a comedy. Lots of fun, not all quite to the sweet spot this way. 🙂
Almost to the end of Dark Winds (series 1), disappointed with the scripted decision making of some of the characters, particularly the FBI agent, so the whole thing comes off as a bit hokey. Plenty of Navajo lore in there, and the ominous cloud sequence is a plus.

[Spastic Hamburger]

And then you have Bloody Murder, which was unintentionally hilarious due to how bad it was and the mistakes. YouTube search is bad but there’s a scene where a guy is carrying dodgeballs and then gets a stake through the heart. He then proceeds to wander a ways off before dying off when a dodgeball is spontaneously kicked into view. As soon as I saw the dodgeball being kicked by the set crew, I burst out laughing. 😛

And that wraps it up for slashers on Tubi! Going to poke around the other categories next! They also have Red Dwarf so that should be fun

[DeVaultSetter]

Oh, we get Tubi here too, never knew they had all those slashers, though the question remains as to whether my personality and charisma receives a 100% boost after watching them all. 😛
The second series of Dark Winds was, at least as far as geography and plot went, more expansive than the first. The spooky swirling clouds were replaced in the intro with a more fiery graphic, hopefully the murky umbrae will be re-installed.
Surprised not to have seen In the Heat of the Night before, heady atmospheric feel to it, good mix in cast headed by Poitier and Steiger. Super soundtrack including rhyming Wellerisms in Glen Campbell’s “Bowlegged Polly and Knock Kneed Paul” and Fowl Owl on the Prowl sung by Boomer and Travis.

Rod Steiger was also terrific in The Illustrated Man, a movie wherein the stories of Bradbury succeeded, the screenplay bombed badly. Do recall the opening sequence of “The Last Night of the World” as quite captivating, and memorable, shame it is not currently available, good news it’s due out in the public domain in 2064. 😛

And how can we not forget The Ray Bradbury Theatre, carrying on the great traditions of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Tales of the Unexpected, and Night Gallery.

There is a lot of switching to parallel storylines in the 2000 movie Traffic, which requires the viewer glued to the seat for the 147 minute duration. The mini-series are bound to take it at a slower pace.

There were a lot of things to like about Jackie Brown, colour, suspense, and soundtrack. The plot, like an overlay against the raw brutality of the characters, came off as somewhat artificial, a typical Tarantino hallmark.

[Spastic Hamburger]

Not sure about those stats but Constitution definitely does! 😛

Moving on to the Cult Films category 😀

Yeah, haven’t seen In the Heat of the Night either but I’ll add it to the list.

Yep, the Ray Bradbury theater is quite fun! All of those series are fun and let’s not forget Thriller with Boris Karloff!

Saw this gem yesterday that I’ve been wanting to see for years. Definitely worth it!

Tarantino films are always fun. Big fan of them!

[DeVaultSetter]

Definitely checking out the next codpiece, and oh yeah, Roddy Piper was a true artist! 😛

A first glimpse of the lead in Taxi Driver and Robert De Niro may not come to mind, from what we know of his later work. Scorcese wrung all the changes well from the shock ending revelations of the film, which, although very watchable, comes off as slightly “dated” – do hate that word. 😛
Our own satirical news show, The Weekly includes reviews on TV shows, the latest from Reality is House of Villians:

• This reply was modified 7 months, 1 week ago by DeVaultSetter.

[Spastic Hamburger]

😀

Saw the Halloween remake yesterday. Haven’t seen the first one so I don’t have much to compare it to but it came off as a rather run of the mill slasher. We had to sit through a good half hour or so of build-up before the story actually started, showing Michael in the asylum. While it was good to give them a backstory, I felt they overdid it by making it the primary focus of the film. While the franchise is supposed to be a slasher, they turned the first bit into a drama with that bit. It didn’t exactly move things along by showing endless counseling sessions. It could have worked better if they had shown some development in Michael’s personality but they only focused on the therapy sessions and his mother’s responses before killing her off at the end of the sessions. A redeeming feature of the film was that they did try to make it feel more timeless than most horror remakes by limiting the inclusion of modern technology. I don’t recall seeing a single computer and a cell phone only showed up once, for example.

Huh? SyFy is broadcasting a reality show that has nothing to do with science fiction…? They’ve really fallen! I remember back when they used to show reruns of nothing but science fiction! They would also produce in-house films that were often terrible and some were just cheap knockoffs. They’re the source of the Sharknado franchise, for instance 😛 Roger Corman was one of their main producers!

[Spastic Hamburger]

The sequel isn’t much better. It spends nearly two hours focusing on his sister’s PTSD. It does have a redeeming feature: Weird Al makes a brief appearance. Still have half an hour left. Ugh but I’ll finish it. Once I start one, I force it through. I got through Plan 9! 😛

I need a good creature feature. I haven’t had a good one since Humanoids of the Deep!

[Spastic Hamburger]

Saw Demon of Paradise yesterday. It was a rip-off of The Creature from the Black Lagoon but was still pretty fun. It did have some hilarious moments, such as when the creature, in the water, jumps up and pulls down a helicopter. That shouldn’t even be possible unless it’s a few thousand pounds or is anchored to the bottom of the seabed!

[Spastic Hamburger]

Started watching Red Dwarf the other day and it’s wonderful!

[DeVaultSetter]

Well, for sci-fi reality, we want REAL flying saucers please! 🙂 The Syfy Wire site is updated frequently with what you might say middle of the road content spiced up a little for a target audience of upper middle nerds. 😛

Yep, for some movies and remakes like that Halloween where you know exactly where things are going to be in 30 minutes, including the effects of the extra exertion on your part, if a quick snooze doesn’t appeal, time to switch channels!

Hmmm (bloopers notwithstanding), Demon of Paradise is not listed in the Cultural Impacts …, should a reference be inserted in there?

Oh yes, along with Hitchhikers Guide, Red Dwarf is the the best sci-fi laugh-in out there, definitely go to see the repeats. Canned laughter provides extra vibrancy in outer space, too. 🙂

Much of the mystery of Red Riding Hood Trilogy was lost after viewing Part Three first, being under the mistaken allusion the stories in the trilogy could be seen in any order. The obvious analogy is reading a book backwards chapter by chapter, the extra cognitive power required to sort out events from the beginning have the effect of cementing the plot into memory rather well. 🙂

Blue Lights is a procedural modelled to a large degree on The Bill, with a greater focus on crime gangs. Sharp and perky interchanges keep you glued on what’s coming around the corner for these young, brave heroes.

Enjoyed Drive, consisting of a very earthly palette of themes underpinning a space electro pop driven score, the cinematography imbued with a style reminiscent of period and rather stylish sci-fi shoots.

If you like Jennifer Lawrence, you’ll like Red Sparrow, amazingly the full movie is free at Daily Motion: – fun fact, when embedding it here, it starts playing!

The TSA red carpet scene is on TikTok only it seems, and the full screen function opens a new tab to the source video, detracting a little from the full red carpet experience of viewing the vid!

@port_landia

Off Ya Go! #portlandia #fyp #fu #portland #portlandoregon #airport #portlandairport #air #fly #tsa #tsacheck #offyago #airline #flight

♬ original sound – PortLandia

Alternately, to view it here, turn up the resolution (ctrl mousewheelup) to suit, here it is around 200% in maximised window. Good luck in removing the pesky icons/symbols in front of the video, no hotkeys available for the job, might be something on the phone though.

• This reply was modified 6 months, 3 weeks ago by DeVaultSetter.

[Spastic Hamburger]

I generally have a policy of sitting through a film, no matter how bad. I’ve survived many a B-movie and have lived to tell the tale! 😛

Probably should be mentioned there!

Loved Hitchhiker’s Guide! Also enjoyed Dirk Gently but, sadly, it was cancelled before they actually wrapped up the story. They were just about to start exploring Blackwing in more detail when the plug was pulled. 🙁

Done that before! Recently, I had thought I had seen Maniac Cop 2 so I watched the third one only to be mistaken so the events in 2 were spoiled for me by already having been revealed in 3. Usually, in slashers, the order doesn’t matter but it did in that case 😛

Finished Dragon Ball yesterday and that was fun. May rewatch Kill La Kill soon but I’m kind of in the mood for some good science fiction. Not really sure what’s available. Will need to look but good science fiction is often hard to find! Especially spacey stuff. Most of it is low budget Alien knockoffs or Star Wars/Trek knockoffs. Not much to go by 😛

[Spastic Hamburger]

They Live was pretty ridiculous but an absolute blast. Highly recommended!

• This reply was modified 6 months, 2 weeks ago by Spastic Hamburger.

[DeVaultSetter]

Something about the Dirk Gently series that came off a little flat on first spec, perhaps a liberal dose of Red Dwarf corn for a lift. The book is certainly on the list, in fact someone from Goodreads said:

And a good knowledge of the content and historical context of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Kubla Khan and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is essentially required to understand many of the jokes and much of the plot.
Because, as it turns out, the linchpin upon which history turns, upon which depends the whole of human history before and to come, is the fact that Coleridge never wrote the second “altogether stranger” part of Kubla Khan.

And:

The book started life as a Doctor Who script.

Dr. Who’s Tardy Detective Agency anyone? 😛
Yes! Did the comic ever make it to Wayback? Anything that riffs well on the Invasion of the Body Snatchers is definitely on the list again. 🙂
Despite superficial inconsistencies in plot, Light Sleeper is engrossing, enveloped in an aura of seamy, smoky, and semi-sickly NYC corruption, with the beguiled viewer asking the question at the end of every scene where the hell (Spoiler Alert) it is going! Recommended.
Still in recovery from the kicking and screaming all the way from the front seat for not ever having seen The Wicker Man previously. Stunning cast, cinematography, backdrops and music, and without a doubt the best opening scene for Christopher Lee in any set he has graced. Strongly recommended.

[Spastic Hamburger]

And one of the characters from the book is a Time Lord himself. The book is pretty fun!

Not sure on the comic but will look! I still haven’t seen the Body Snatchers even though it’s been on the actual watchlist for years (not sure which version). I really need to change that 🙁

Will check it out! Been a while since I’ve watched some of the old crime films from the 40s. Probably need to fix that as those were quite good. Sometimes, I really miss cable simply for TCM 😛

Yep, saw the Wicker Man last year! Was quite enjoyable 🙂

Caught up with some more Troma films the other week and that was fun. Always do enjoy Troma films. Also got this gem lined up. Olen Ray films are fun! They remind me a lot of Roger Corman’s films 😛

Also started up the remaster of DBZ. It’s so much better than DBZ Kai since it’s just not fight after fight. It actually has world building!

[DeVaultSetter]

Put White Heat on the list, it’s a classic!

Saw Poultrygeist some years ago, memories of fun but copious amounts of eggsplosive diarrhea were insufficient to warrant a second viewing. Love the Troma titles:

• Poultry in Motion: Truth Is Stranger Than Chicken
• Vegas in Space
• A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell
• Dolphinman Battles the Sex Lobsters
• Heart of Fartness: Troma’s First VR Experience Starring the Toxic Avenger

There’s a brief debate about DBZ/Kai here, seems like if you just want pow-pow, go for Kai. 😛

Despite the performances in The Nest, some aspects of the story and screenplay didn’t quite convince, and the reasons for the occurrence of certain events wanted more unpacking (without making the film any longer 😛 ).

Enjoyed Mindscape, especially the “dream” sequences, and the pace of the film was such that small holes in the story were never quite stitched up. Probably explained the user score at RT, fine with most critics though. Surprised there were no spinoffs, sequels or series made from the idea.

With Bill Murray in Wild Things, there was a high expectation of a comedy element, and so there was, before it got clobbered by the violence. Lots of twists and turns on the way to easy street, if that’s your bent.

[Spastic Hamburger]

Will do!

And let’s not forget Surf Nazis Must Die! Sure, their films are pretty bad but that’s part of their charm! The thing is, they know they’re bad and run with it. They’re a lot of fun! 😀

Haven’t seen any of those yet. Murray can be good in semi-dramatic rolls, such as in Scrooged. Granted, he’s not in many though.

Looks like we lost Roger Corman this week. 🙁 May need to rewatch some of his films in tribute.

Unrelated to the above but I really need to watch this one again. Been too long and it’s a lot of fun!

[Spastic Hamburger]

Saw The Crawlers yesterday and that was fun for its absurdity. In the beginning, they have a kid playing with a model of Aubrey II, which was cool. The final battle against the trees was pretty silly. One character uses an ax on a root only to leave it and everyone to get strangled. No one else picks it up. Take it with you! Seriously 😛

[DeVaultSetter]

Metric over here, so Attack of the 15.24 Woman. 😛
Anything from the Little Shop of Nuclear Plant Horrors is sure to take one off-piste, even if you happen to be a script writer for the film!
Kill the Messenger was on again, do remember seeing at least a part of it before, funny how the guy in real life was later found shot in the head twice, explained away as suicide.
Another film based on RL, The Whistleblower, doesn’t hold back in realism. Again, a confrontation of David against Goliath where David scores a momentary win before sinking into uneventful obscurity.
Nightmare Alley is a slick production, have to say, with a sprawling and fascinating story. The original movie with Tyronne Power is available at Wayback, also on the list for later.
Tonight there was Gunpowder Milkshake, another neo-noir styled affair with mood lighting and stagey sets, turns out great for a completely brain dead fiesta of girl power and gore. 🙂

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