Current Watching

[Mr Delicieux]

He has his schtick, doesn't he. I find it agreeable enough, but he received some flak for not becoming Charlie Chaplin or some such.
He has been a welcome presence in curb your enthusiasm.

[Plodder]

Vaughn was very good in Clay Pigeons, in 1998. I had high hopes for him after watching that.

[Ray de Galles]

also enjoyed the goofy, dippy Queenpins, also on Netflix. Don’t think I’ve even seen a film w Vince Vaughan- he was alright

You should see Swingers, not only is it a great film but Vaughan's entire (frequently misguided) career is based on the promise he showed in it.

[Hot Pepsi]

I wish the first season had progressed the story a bit further. Season 2 might be years away.

[hobbes]

I too finished 3 Body Problem last night.
I enjoyed it, having got bogged down half way through the book. The cast are likeable enough, it had more pace than the book, without jettisoning too much important and it looked quite good.
I’ll stick with it if they do another season

[Hot Pepsi]

I think the boobs were there to show that she didn’t go along with traditional prudish American ideas about women’s modesty and chastity in the 30s.

It’s jarring, but seemed to make sense.

[Sits]

So, Oppenheimer on Netflix then. Yeah, right, whatever. I struggled to give a shit and three hours is a long time. Mrs. S reckoned it was clearly done with the Oscars in mind. Everyone was good of course and it was expertly made but it seemed to me they wanted to try and balance some good old US flag-waving after (spoiler!) the Los Alamos test works, with a heavy dose of hand-wringing from then onwards. Some unexpected and unnecessary boobs too; we are now far enough post-MeToo that this sort of jumps out in a mainstream film these days. If that’s not the wrong figure of speech.

[Cal Alamein]

Got through re watch of Glen Garry Glen Ross on Neffix appreciating it more 32 yrs later after first viewing. Pacino is great, but Jack Lemmon is superb as was Kevin Spacey.

also enjoyed the goofy, dippy Queenpins, also on Netflix. Don’t think I’ve even seen a film w Vince Vaughan- he was alright

[Patrick Thistle]

I watched Top Gun: Maverick on Netflix. I enjoyed it. They could have had fewer gratuitous beauty shots and saved about 10 minutss off the run time. Mrs Thistle's verdict "that was better than I expected".

[Southport Zeb]

I finished 3 Body Problem last night. As a fan of the books I thought that it's a good adaptation - there are changes, but nothing that overly affects the story so far. Intrigued to see where future series go - to an extent they've done the relatively easy bit, with the degree of difficulty set to increase as the story jumps forward in time and across space.

[Sean of the Shed]

Watched All Of Us Strangers tonight. Sad, yet utterly lovely. Highly recommended.

[Hot Pepsi]

I read the first volume of the book, and part of the second.* The cop and the young woman in the mountain observatory were the go-to characters, and it appears to be the same here.

* My SiL bought me vol 1. He's a big sci-fi fan and rated it highly. I'm not, but was drawn by the fact it takes place in the PRC (the TV series has moved modern day events to the UK.) I lost interest waiting 400 years (or what ever it is) for the bad guys to arrive.

I’ve persisted with it and it’s gotten a lot better.

[Plodder]

SALTBURN SPOILERS

Good point, but you're very generous - that whole scenario was completely ludicrous. But then so was the entire plot of this pointless heap of shit (though frau imp really enjoyed it - the English aristocracy is still so very amusing to outsiders). So, you plan to bump off an entire family and take over their estate (sure). Let's start by puncturing a bicycle tire and hope that it leads to me becoming mates with the guy who's bike I've just sabotaged. Let's just hope he doesn't notice he has a flat tyre until he's set off and then fallen off, a minute or two before I cycle by. And let's just hope that by doing him a favour he'll suddenly want to be my best mate. Just for starters. I think all the spunk-slurping and menstrual shagging was just to distract us from the paper-thin plot. Oh, right, there's a pervy element to all this. Why? Who cares, it'll reap tons of discussion online.

I'm not buying the 'brilliant performances' from Pike and Grant either. Which living British actor can't play the role of wacky aristocrat? We've been living with these cunts for centuries, we can imitate them in our sleep. That's always been the problem with Britain. We tease them affectionately instead of cutting their fucking heads off.

That's a fucking great review. Reffing Hell At The Movies might be a profitable next volume for you.

[San Bernardhinault]

SALTBURN SPOILERS

While I agree with all of imp's criticisms of the film - particularly the weirdly high praise for Grant and Pike - I thought the Brideshead/Ripley mashup was perfectly fine and fun. Maybe because of familiarity with the Oxford settings and the kinds of people who are like Felix. The plot is indeed paper thin, and unless you're very slow you know where it's going from early on.

But I didn't care about the flaws all that much. It was fun. It was beautifully shot. I enjoyed loads of the scenes. The only thing that really grated with me was, in the scene before last, when it tediously hammered home everything repeating what we'd already seen, assuming we're idiots. The final dancing penis scene was great fun and I had no objection at all to that.

Not a "greatest film of the year" movie, but a "fun way to spend a couple of hours" movie. For me, at least.

[Amor de Cosmos]

I’ve started 3 Body Problem.

I fear it’s going to be one of these shows where a bunch of crazy shit happens but none of the characters feel like real people apart from advancing the plot.

I read the first volume of the book, and part of the second.* The cop and the young woman in the mountain observatory were the go-to characters, and it appears to be the same here.

* My SiL bought me vol 1. He's a big sci-fi fan and rated it highly. I'm not, but was drawn by the fact it takes place in the PRC (the TV series has moved modern day events to the UK.) I lost interest waiting 400 years (or what ever it is) for the bad guys to arrive.

[Sean of the Shed]

I think all the spunk-slurping and menstrual shagging was just to distract us from the paper-thin plot. Oh, right, there's a pervy element to all this. Why? Who cares, it'll reap tons of discussion online.

Absolutely. There's been more chatter about his dancing penis at the end of the film than most of the rest of it. The actual plot of the film has become irrelevant.

[Hot Pepsi]

True to life then.

Exactly.

She was a good student, but what the company was trying to do was impossible, at least the way it was doing it.

[imp]

I've remembered a nitpick about Saltburn, which I'll try to describe without spoilers - when they are driving to a certain place you'd need to get quite close to that place to see it on a road sign, and so yer man should have sussed where they were heading a lot earlier than he did.

SALTBURN SPOILERS

Good point, but you're very generous - that whole scenario was completely ludicrous. But then so was the entire plot of this pointless heap of shit (though frau imp really enjoyed it - the English aristocracy is still so very amusing to outsiders). So, you plan to bump off an entire family and take over their estate (sure). Let's start by puncturing a bicycle tire and hope that it leads to me becoming mates with the guy who's bike I've just sabotaged. Let's just hope he doesn't notice he has a flat tyre until he's set off and then fallen off, a minute or two before I cycle by. And let's just hope that by doing him a favour he'll suddenly want to be my best mate. Just for starters. I think all the spunk-slurping and menstrual shagging was just to distract us from the paper-thin plot. Oh, right, there's a pervy element to all this. Why? Who cares, it'll reap tons of discussion online.

I'm not buying the 'brilliant performances' from Pike and Grant either. Which living British actor can't play the role of wacky aristocrat? We've been living with these cunts for centuries, we can imitate them in our sleep. That's always been the problem with Britain. We tease them affectionately instead of cutting their fucking heads off.

[Sean of the Shed]

Watched the new Road House last night.
It wasn't a great film, obviously. It's a remake of something that didn't really need remaking, the lead actor Jake Gyllenhall seems less interested with each film he makes, the plot (rich bad guy wants to own every property on a plot to build a huge complex and one last owner is standing their ground) was the same as so many other films have used before.
I didn't have great expectations of it but it was free, so we thought why not. It was plodding along quite averagely doing what action movies do, then along came Conor McGregor. Fuck me, I have never seen a person so obviously unsuited to the job they have been given. He was fucking awful. He delivered every line in the same manner, a weird monotonous drone in a weird incoherent Irish accent. He spent the whole film wearing a stupid shit eating grin with that mouthful of teeth that were rejected by Jurgen Klopp. He holds a pose in the style of a roll of carpet under each arm that bodybuilders do when they want everyone around to know that they are a bodybuilder, but below the waist when he walks it's in the manner of someone who has only just learnt to do so. Conor McGregor cannot act. His mere presence on screen makes your ears itch and your eyes throb. He makes Steven Seagal look like Laurence Olivier. Having watched him perform has given me a true understanding of how Southampton fans in the mid-nineties felt when the easily duped Graeme Souness introduced Ali Dia on to the pitch. His obvious lack of ability should have been spotted long before it got that far and everyone, including him, has ended up been made a fool of. I suppose, in the end, who's brave enough to tell Conor McGregor that he's rubbish.

[diggedy derek]

Yes, that’s true. The way it portrays her college is perplexing. As if she was a brilliant student, but left and then was absolutely clueless scientifically. Maybe that’s accurate it just reads strangely

[Ginger Yellow]

There's not enough science in it

True to life then.

[diggedy derek]

I'm watching The Dropout, with Amanda Seyfried playing Elizabeth Holmes, the CEO of Theranos.

It's decent enough but nothing special. A great story told capably. There's not enough science in it, and a bit too much staring at a computer screen waiting to see if it reports an error, or whether the machine flashes a green light or a red light. Stephen Fry is in it as an older engineer, which should have warned me off, but he's actually OK in it

[Hot Pepsi]

I’ve started 3 Body Problem.

I fear it’s going to be one of these shows where a bunch of crazy shit happens but none of the characters feel like real people apart from advancing the plot.

[Hot Pepsi]

They’re working on bringing that Daredevil into the MCU. According to IMDB, Bernthal’s Punisher will be on that show.

However, that show is also undergoing a massive rewrite, so who knows what it will look like.

[Eggchaser]

Just started watching The Punisher on Disney +, the extended Daredevil universe with Jon Bernthal.

Holy. Fuck.

There is zero chance he gets brought into the MCU.

Although I always enjoyed the comics when he and Daredevil threw hands, there's a great Nocenti/Romita Jnr issue where they go at it like maniacs. Pic from author's collection (Daredevil Legends Vol 4).