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    A few days after it aired, I watched the last episode of The Big Bang Theory. I thought they managed it really well. I liked the symmetry of harking back to the first thing Leonard said when he met Penny and how that played out against the theme of assymetry that has been the underlying theme of this final series.

    It's always strange when a long running show ends and those characters are no longer going to be turning up in your life for half an hour every week.

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      The the second (and last?) season of Killing Eve came as something of a disappointment and the final episode was particularly flat considering the denouement. It all seemed very disjointed and slightly rushed.

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        Dr Strangelove moves at a fair old clip doesn't it? The titular character is only in a couple of scenes as well. It's an amazing film and the cast is brilliant not just Sellars and the main cast but even people with only a handful of lines like James Earl Jones & Tracy Reed.

        First time I'd seen it on a big screen. It's beautiful from the first frame to the last.

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          Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
          I got the extended cut of Almost Famous on DVD. All things being equal, I’d rather own it in the cloud, but it was a lot cheaper on DVD.
          As much as I love the original, the extended cut does add a lot of good stuff.

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            I've been watching a few old films in the last few days, starting with the original Bedazzled (clever idea and Peter Cook was a comedy genius, but it didn't really grip me), Primary Colors (I'm not the biggest fan of John Travolta and Emma Thompson but they were both fine and I really enjoyed it) and then tonight a old film noir, Blue Dahlia, (good fun and I didn't guess the killer's identity until the reveal).
            Last edited by Nocturnal Submission; 28-05-2019, 08:58.

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              Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post

              As much as I love the original, the extended cut does add a lot of good stuff.
              is kate Hudson less shite than I remember?

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                You must have watched a different film. She’s brilliant in it and was justifiably nominated for an academy award.

                Unfortunately, this was really the first big thing she did and she never followed it up with anything nearly as good. Not so much because she’s bad, but because she’s been in bad films.

                The major issue with the film is that it’s implied - though not entirely clear - that Penny Lane is 16 and she’s in a sexual relationship with a guitar player in his mid to late 20’s. I know that was common among rock stars in those days - Cameron Crowe says he met one groupie who was 14 - but that is not at all ok, is it?
                Last edited by Hot Pepsi; 27-05-2019, 23:56.

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                  Started watching Sex Education on Netflix this weekend. It's alright.

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                    Recommend The Virtues on UK Channel 4. A traumatic Shane Meadows 4 part slow burner featuring Stephen Graham confronting some childhood demons (still only hinted at after 2 episodes) in the lead role. Music by P J Harvey a bonus.

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                      Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post

                      As much as I love the original, the extended cut does add a lot of good stuff.
                      See, I reckon the opposite. The original is one of my all time favourite films. But I found the extended cut didn't add anything of any value, upset the pacing and left the film feeling unsatisfying and unbalanced.
                      I'm not against directors cuts per se - Aliens makes the film 50 times better and the directors cut of the first Lord of the Rings turned an complete mess into a coherent structure.
                      But that particular one disagrees with me.

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                        We're a bit late to the party, but enjoying Series 4 of Shetland where the location vies strongly with an excellent cast for top honours.

                        Recently watched Agatha Christie's The ABC Murders; John Malkovich's grizzled, damaged Poirot is a big improvement on David Suchet and Rowan Atkinson(!) but his accent did seem to veer rather close to the "Good moaning" gendarme from Allo Allo.

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                          Originally posted by Sits View Post
                          We're a bit late to the party, but enjoying Series 4 of Shetland where the location vies strongly with an excellent cast for top honours.

                          Recently watched Agatha Christie's The ABC Murders; John Malkovich's grizzled, damaged Poirot is a big improvement on David Suchet and Rowan Atkinson(!) but his accent did seem to veer rather close to the "Good moaning" gendarme from Allo Allo.
                          A pedantic person points out that Rowan Atkinson was Maigret.

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                            Originally posted by hobbes View Post

                            See, I reckon the opposite. The original is one of my all time favourite films. But I found the extended cut didn't add anything of any value, upset the pacing and left the film feeling unsatisfying and unbalanced.
                            I'm not against directors cuts per se - Aliens makes the film 50 times better and the directors cut of the first Lord of the Rings turned an complete mess into a coherent structure.
                            But that particular one disagrees with me.

                            You may be right. I wouldn’t recommend the extended cut over the original to somebody who hasn’t seen it at all, because it drags the pacing a lot. That is, after all, why all of that was cut.

                            But as somebody who has seen it five or six times already, the extended cut was interesting if for no other reason than it offers some insight into how movies are made.

                            The best extra scene is the one with Kyle Gass as the DJ who falls asleep mid-interview, which also sets up the conflict in the band a bit. That’s based on a real thing that happened to Neil Young.

                            There’s also some more with Jimmy Fallon’s manager character that drives home the point about how 1973ish was a turning point in the music business. It was when the enthusiasts and the hippies had to concede power to the sort of people who always get power eventually, but it wasn’t hard to see why the bands felt like that was their only option. It also explains a bit why the band was so willing to throw William under the bus like that. That’s really just interesting to people really interested in the history of rock. It doesn’t add all that much to the main story.

                            And there’s a really nice scene toward the end where Jeff Bebe and Russell Hammond come to the beginning of a reconciliation. It’s well-done and it makes the ending feel a bit more “earned,” which we’re all apparently very concerned about in these fraught post-GOT season 8 times.

                            There’s a bit more to the scene at those random Topeka kids’ house which is funny, though not necessary for the story.

                            Surprising that the short semi-nude scene was in the extended version where Penny Lane and Russell Hammond are playing board games. I read somewhere that if something like that isn’t in the movie, it’s deleted altogether to be fair to the actress. There were a few other extra scenes intended to develop that romance and chemistry a bit more, to show that none of this “casual sex” going on was really all that casual. But that extra development wasn’t really necessary. Kate Hudson does such a good job showing her pain in that scene where she asks “what kind of beer” and all the subsequent scenes, that the substance of their relationship didn’t need any further explanation.

                            The extra stuff in the Rolling Stone offices doesn’t add much, though there are some funny bits. Instead of that, I would have preferred a scene where the asshole fact-checker has to apologize to William for doubting him.

                            There’s a scene on the dvd extras, but not in the extended cut, where William convinces his mom that rock and roll is respectable by having her listen to Stairway to Heaven. The sister’s boyfriend, his guidance counselor and journalism teacher are also there. That doesn’t add much except it’s amusing to see the dufus boyfriend get way into it and it does make the whole premise a bit more believable by showing that William’s teachers were encouraging her to let him go on this crazy adventure. But it drags and isn’t really at all necessary and clearing Stairway to Heaven on top of the other LZ songs they got for the film would have been expensive.


                            I also recommend the commentary by Cameron Crowe and his real mom, who also usually has a cameo in each of his films.* Frances Macdormand’s character is closely based on her, including the fall-out with Crowe’s sister. The main difference between his real family dynamic and the one in the film is that his dad died in the late 80s, whereas in the film in 1973, he’s already gone and it’s not discussed much.



                            *Perhaps her most memorable moment is in Jerry Maguire when she gets a big cheer from the women’s support group for finally getting in touch with her anger. I always loved that moment.

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                              Originally posted by elguapo4 View Post

                              A pedantic person points out that Rowan Atkinson was Maigret.
                              A pedantic person is of course spot on. I always do that. Malkovich's Poirot is still better than Atkinson's Maigret though, even with the weird accent.

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                                Originally posted by San Bernardhinault View Post
                                Episode 3 of Chernobyl was bleak as hell, but I'm not sure it had the narrative drive that the first two had and I found it marginally less compelling.

                                Watched episode 4 tonight. The clean-up of the plant, the "cleansing" of the surrounding area and the investigation into what caused the explosion were the main narrative strands. As from the start of the series, the gloomy, industrial soundtrack is excellent at maintaining the sombre mood.

                                Secrecy in the USSR and it's direct impact upon the accident is fascinating and impressive indeed were the resources which were directed to the area to meet the challenge of the clean-up. There's a terrific scene in which we see men being used to move the highly radioactive debris on the roofs near the core when no mechanical or other means were available to do the job.

                                Warning - if you're sensitive to images of animal harm you may need to avert your eyes at certain points, as the destruction of pets in the affected areas is a big part of the programme.

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                                  On a totally different note I watched two episodes of the rebooted She-Ra cartoon on Netflix. They've given her an interesting back story - kidnapped as a child and raised as a soldier for the Evil Horde, she finds the ancient sword of power in the woods and realises she is something more than just a Horde soldier.

                                  I mean, it's not great. But I did quite enjoy it as some stupid fluffy TV.

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                                    Originally posted by Amor de Cosmos View Post
                                    The the second (and last?) season of Killing Eve came as something of a disappointment and the final episode was particularly flat considering the denouement. It all seemed very disjointed and slightly rushed.
                                    I agree. I think I will be shocked if it gets another season.

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                                      Last weekend I binged Lucifer season 4 on Netflix. The first three seasons had been on Fox, but they cancelled it, so fans rallied and petitioned Netflix to pick it up and they did. I don't know how they can say that it's a "Netflix Original Series" though, because it isn't. The continuity was flawless from season 3. But I really don't care, I was just happy that they rescued it.

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                                        I'm looking forward to watching this

                                        https://twitter.com/NOS4A2_AMC/status/1134142480109264904

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                                          I was looking on All4 last night to see if the Electric Dreams series was still available. It's not, so I ended up watching 4 episodes of Robot Chicken back to back and then an episode of We Bare Bears on Cartoon Network, which was actually pretty funny.

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                                            I'll be diving into Good Omens later on this afternoon. As a massive fan of the book, I'm braced for disappointment.

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                                              I've seen the ads for it but I don't have Prime. David Tennant is usually good value though. I'm really interested to know if it's any good, particularly from a fellow fan of the book.

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                                                I've yet to see a particularly positive review for it, so I'm putting it on the backburner until the buzz improves

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                                                  Two episodes in. It’s a very faithful adaptation. Loving it to be honest.

                                                  If you haven’t read the source material, I don’t know how it will go down.

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                                                    Just finished The Bay, a solid and gritty if not groundbreaking British cop drama. Looks like a second series has been commissioned.

                                                    We have the final Killing Eve recorded and based on what I've read here I don't have great expectations.

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