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Post by Mako on Jan 10, 2020 15:26:22 GMT -5
Honestly, I mostly watch HBO video on demand. Not sure if it's just my cable company or HBO overall, but they don't really have any of the older shows available on it. I'd love to watch The Wire, Boardwalk Empire, and a couple of others. May have to try their app to see if I can watch older shows on that...
As for newer ones, you're already watching GoT. That's the best by far of the recent ones. Though I'm sure you've heard many didn't like the ending I still really liked the series overall.
Westworld is very good, too. Some great plot twists in it. I usually can see plot twists from miles away, but I've been surprised more than once. Looking forward to season 3.
I watched the first couple of episodes of Watchmen. I just couldn't get into it so gave up. But that could just be me.
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Post by Taibi on Jan 10, 2020 16:14:43 GMT -5
All the shows on the list I linked are currently available on HBO Nordic, which is our service. We have 4 episodes left of GoT.
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Post by Tig on Jan 10, 2020 18:59:59 GMT -5
Holy crap Dracula sucks. It's a watery amalgamation of the stereotypical vampire elements rather than anything original or historical. It's disappointing because the movie opens with "based on the novel by Bram Stoker" but it's an outright lie. They took Stoker's characters' names and turned them into cartoon characters then butchered their roles in the first 30 minutes. The acting is piss poor with modern mannerisms and sarcasm rolled in cheap theatrical accents. Just dreadful.
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Post by Tig on Jan 11, 2020 20:33:40 GMT -5
Took the wife to see Little Women. For an ultimate chick flick it really wasn't the worst. I'd say Bridesmaids, 27 Dresses, and Les Miserables are tops for my worst theatre experience ever above seeing this. The acting was rock solid and the period costuming was fun. Take your chick to score brownie points.
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Post by Taibi on Jan 12, 2020 3:14:10 GMT -5
Thanks for the suggestion. I am going to see Apocalypse Now ( Remastered Final Cut) this afternoon. First time, so really looking forward to it. The wife and I are going to watch the Wire next. We decided it was time for a dose of reality.
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Post by Tig on Jan 12, 2020 16:30:18 GMT -5
I don't care for the redux versions of Apocalypse now. They originally filmed Robert Duval's character as a raving lunatic that Martin Sheen had no respect for, then edited it out to make him the the highly motivated cavalryman in the original theatrical cut. The redux versions put all that back in and, in my opinion ruins it. That only matters to me because it's my most favorite part of the film. Beyond that I love Apocalypse Now. I have a lot of Vietnam Vet friends that can't stand it and I respect that. To them it's like Saving Private Ryan for WWII vets or Hurt Locker for modern combat vets, it's just pure fiction nonsense. Still, it's an epic tale in a modern setting of horror.
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Post by Tig on Jan 12, 2020 18:33:38 GMT -5
We just started The Last Kingdom back up again. Re-watching the first season before jumping into 2 and 3. I forgot how good this was.
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Post by WickedCrustacean on Jan 13, 2020 11:54:54 GMT -5
Appocalypse Now is actually based (very closely) on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. I think the point of the book was when you take a brilliant genius and make them come face to face with the problems of the real world, they can easily turn into some sort of insane dictator figure. The Kurtz character in the book (he had a different name I think, been a long time since I read it) had all these noble ideas, but when faced with the realities of the locals, he became something else entirely. It kinda reminds me of what happened with Lenin and Bolsheviks in Russia. They too started out with this idea of people's democracy (soviets were people's elected reps), but then, when they ran into problems (civil war, lack of organization, disagreements), they quickly turned it into an iron grip dictatorship, further tightened later on by Stalin.
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Post by WickedCrustacean on Jan 15, 2020 14:52:49 GMT -5
So I watched The King on Netflix, a "historical" movie about Henry V. The good news is that it's way better than Outlaw King, that movie we all hated about Robert the Bruce. So I think they are getting better over time.
The bad news is that it's still not that good. They mix history and Shakespeare (for example Flagstaff was shown as a historic character), there are some silly combat scenes (at one point during Agincourt, the young Henry rolls around on the ground with a dagger, taking out anywhere between 20 and 40 French knights and men-at-arms single handedly, while having the figure of an annorexic young woman mind you), and so on.
Still, if you are looking for something to watch, it's not bad, maybe 6-7/10. Plus you get to watch Robert Pattinson of Twilight Vampire fame make an utter fool of himself as the Dauphin, in case you harbor represses rage at any of those movies.
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Post by Tig on Jan 15, 2020 19:04:41 GMT -5
I enjoyed it. I thought the big battle was handled well but, yes, it's a modern telling of Shakespeare's play rather than an historical account. Sir John Falstaff was based off a real drunkard knight but it's doubtful they even came close to the truth of him.
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Post by WickedCrustacean on Feb 7, 2020 10:53:32 GMT -5
Plugging along with Boardwalk Empire on Amazon Prime. I saw the whole thing years ago, now re-watching. It actually starts out pretty well, but boy, by the middle, really slows down to a crawl. Everybody becomes so unlikeable, bleh.
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Post by Tig on Feb 7, 2020 12:04:05 GMT -5
Yeah I gave up on that after the first season. It kind of felt monotonous to me. Oh hey, that guy is corrupt and a double-crosser. Shocker!
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Post by Taibi on Feb 7, 2020 13:51:46 GMT -5
We are about midway through season 3 of The Wire.
Enjoyable, though also somewhat all over the place by now, lacks a bit of focus.
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Post by WickedCrustacean on Feb 10, 2020 10:34:52 GMT -5
Watched 2 movies this weekend on Netflix:
Blade Runner - first time! Mixed feelings about it. I kinda get how they tread in a lot of philosophical waters with the story, and I did enjoy the setting, but overall, just didn't grab me. I feel like they didn't go deep enough to really feel like more than a hard boiled detective story.
Blow - watched this one before, it doesn't get much respect with critics, but I always liked this movie.
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Post by Tig on Feb 10, 2020 12:44:45 GMT -5
Did you watch the 1982 Blade Runner or the recent sequel? The '82 Blade Runner is famous for being avant garde and being one of the first "the future sucks" movies as opposed to the glossy worlds of Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Logan's Run, etc. The dialogue and plot itself is choppy and ham-handed. Phillip K Dick's book "Do Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?" is much, much (much!) deeper. It's so deep that I had trouble following it but Decker is nowhere near the tough guy Harrison Ford portrays, Rachael is a psychotic robot, and the world is even crappier than the movie shows.
2017's Blade Runner 2049 is better put together and carries a greater vessel of philosophy. The movie has a special place in my heart as I identified so readily with both Decker and Ryan Gosling's character. The ending made me cry but it would take a day to explain to you why. I get the criticism of the slow pace but I feel it's one of the greatest movies ever made.
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