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    Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post

    He’s probably the best American comic actor of the last 30 years.

    SNL (Get Off the Shed, Cowbell, Alex Trebec, etc.)
    Anchorman
    Anchorman 2 (underrated)
    Talledega Nights
    The Other Guys
    Step Brothers
    Old School
    Wedding Crashers

    If you can’t find something to like in that run, I can’t help you.

    But he never really carries anything onhis own. He always needs to be in an ensemble and most of his best work was with Adam McKay, who is now off doing political, not-so-comedic films.

    Ashley Schaeffer in Eastbound & Down ("I can feel it...all the way down in my plums.")

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      I never watched Eastbound and Down. Now that I have HBO, perhaps I shall.

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        I went to the cinema yesterday. Which was a welcome development albeit one still very much different from the pre-C19 experience.

        I saw Emma., as it was the only newish release that I was vaguely interested in and hadn't already seen. I went in the late afternoon and was one of only five patrons (the only one wearing a mask) and sat in a seat at the back nearest the door with the two seats to the side and two in front unavailable for booking.

        The cinema staff were, unsurprisingly, very welcoming & attentive, offered free popcorn (which I didn't fancy, what with the mask) and thankfully they all wore a mask and distanced.

        The film's pretty good, they haven't modernised the comedy of manners as much as some reviews I've seen have implied and Johnny Flynn and Anya Taylor-Joy are both engaging leads. All the supporting cast are excellent even if Bill Nighy gives it rather too much Bill Nighy as he is sometimes prone to do. Lovely cinematography and music too.

        As a tester for a return to a small relatively independent cinema I was happy enough to consider going back soon. I have some tickets booked for the local Odeon over the next few weeks (their system was selling tickets for 75p in error on the day they restarted sales so I picked up quite a few knowing I wouldn't lose much if I wasn't comfortable going/staying) to see how they handle it.
        Last edited by Ray de Galles; 09-07-2020, 09:39.

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          Glad to hear it went well. I’m keen to go back but most N East venues remain closed and,from what I can see, the Odeon Silverlink which IS due to open is planning Batman re-runs etc rather than anything I haven’t seen.

          The Tyneside cinema is in deep crisis- not only does its alleyway entrance and narrow stairs make social distancing v difficult but 150+ current and former staff signed a letter about bullying and harassment and the BFI withdrew funding. 6-week independent review just started.

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            Anyone watch Queen of The South? I can't figure out if it's any good. It's very 'off-network soap opera' in a way, but with some interesting storylines. Thoughts? Like a low-budget Narcos, I guess.

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              It's a lower division football (soccer) club from Dumfries. I have a friend who supports them, having grown up nearby.

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                Futbolology is telling me that, on this date fifteen years ago, I saw them draw 1-1 in a friendly against (the now defunct) Leigh RMI at (the now demolished) Hilton Park.

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                  I have just finished watching all 92 episodes of The Larry Sanders Show on HBO. It holds up very well, and the sexually predatory behaviour of all three leading males predicts Weinstein to a degree (although all the sex is consensual, the attitudes of the men are that women are fuck toys and that sex in exchange for screen time is fair game). Beverly is well-written black female character who is usually assertive but sometimes makes bad decisions despite good intentions.

                  Apatow's documentary, "The Zen of Garry Shandling", is moving but too long.
                  Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 09-07-2020, 15:15.

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                    Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                    It's a lower division football (soccer) club from Dumfries. I have a friend who supports them, having grown up nearby.


                    One of my proudest moments was when a friend of mine from SW London told me that she had started going out with a guy from Dumfries and I told her to text him asking if she was his Queen of the South.

                    Yes, "proudest moments." I'm that sad.

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                      Originally posted by WOM View Post
                      Anyone watch Queen of The South? I can't figure out if it's any good. It's very 'off-network soap opera' in a way, but with some interesting storylines. Thoughts? Like a low-budget Narcos, I guess.
                      We watched the first few series (three?) and enjoyed them in a tacky sort of way. It's carried by the two female leads (the wife of the head of the cartel/governor of the state is currently in Perry Mason.) It goes off the boil, and becomes to repetitive when the action moves to Europe.

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                        Yeah, I get the 'tacky sort of way' vibe for sure. I love the leads, but literally nobody can act. Scowling does about 60% of the lifting, and I can finish most of the sentences by about the half-way point. It has a cable network sort of feel, like it was a CW show or something.

                        [USA Network, apparently, which feels about right.]

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                          Originally posted by WOM View Post
                          Yeah, I get the 'tacky sort of way' vibe for sure. I love the leads, but literally nobody can act. Scowling does about 60% of the lifting, and I can finish most of the sentences by about the half-way point. It has a cable network sort of feel, like it was a CW show or something.

                          [USA Network, apparently, which feels about right.]
                          Yeah if you're looking for hilariously lo-rent OTT action frolics, then Warrior Nun and Snowpiercer are better bets.

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                            I watched Disney+ documentary series on the making of Frozen 2. I thought the film was beautiful and well-made, albeit not targeted to people like me, of course. I generally like animation for its own sake.

                            The film kinda made me sad - in a “comparison is the thief of joy” kinda way - because it showed a group of people who are all very good at their job and all very excited about their work. I am not very excited about my job and am routinely disappointed with the effort and output of some of my coworkers. Lately, I'm really disappointed with my own output since my brain doesn't work any more.

                            On the other hand, it appears that making animated films is a very hard job with an uncertain payoff. The main three directors worked up to 100 hours a week for about four years on the film. Continuous meetings and rewrites and redos. Disney’s animation facility in Burbank is really nice and they seem like good people, but I wouldn’t want to have to be there 15 hours a day talking to the same handful of people every damn day. (Although the main songwriters, the Lopezes, live in Brooklyn and only show up in person occasionally) I guess the top people can afford to live nearby, but most of the low-level animators and technical people probably have a bit of a commute.

                            Most animators only work on one scene or character, which could be a bit tedious, I imagine. And it’s not uncommon for them to see weeks of their hard work get cut or have to be redone for reasons completely out of their control.

                            The actors just pop in for a day or two of work every few months, and yet they get all the glory. Of course, doing all the press and what not is actually kindof a shitty part of the job. Not shitty compared to doing actual work, but not nearly as much fun as it appears.

                            At least, for the creators’ sake, Frozen II was not only a massive hit but it was all but guaranteed to be a massive hit so they could be confident their work would be well-received as they were doing it. Still, a lot of critics didn’t like it. And a lot of animated movies don’t really do much and are quickly forgotten. I can’t imagine what it would feel like to give years of one’s life to something and have the world collectively shrug at it.

                            I find it very frustrating when I work on an article for five to 20 hours and only a few dozen people read it. Even if it gets more attention than that, I get sick of anything that takes more than a few days.

                            So I can’t fathom spending 10,000+ hours on one project. I don’t understand how people write books. There is no one idea I want to spend that much of my life thinking about. But that’s how everything gets done so maybe I should? It’s frustrating to consider.

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                              I don't know if Northern Soul (2015) was recently added to Prime (maybe only in the US) or if it just appeared as a recommended viewing for me. The film mirrors Quadrophenia in a lot of ways: angsty young men, drugs fueling that angst, a commitment to music as subcultural lifestyle, working class kids trying to make their way. In some sense there was actually more of a story in this film than Quadrophenia and the characters were more likeable. The soundtrack was great and there were some really beautifully shot scenes in dancehalls.

                              I put the date above because this was released awhile ago and other folks have probably seen it. Does anyone know where the exterior scenes were shot? The production crew certainly did a good job shooting in a current scene and creating a 1970s England vibe.

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                                Bury, Blackburn and Burnley according to IMDB. I'll have to watch it,my brother did and recommended it.

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                                  Originally posted by elguapo4 View Post
                                  Bury, Blackburn and Burnley according to IMDB. I'll have to watch it,my brother did and recommended it.
                                  Thanks for that info. I was in Bolton a few years back and it was bleak but nothing like the urban scenes in this film. Granted, the shooting and editing could use filters to mimic the look of film and spaces captured on film from the early 70s.

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                                    Originally posted by danielmak View Post
                                    I don't know if Northern Soul (2015) was recently added to Prime (maybe only in the US) or if it just appeared as a recommended viewing for me. The film mirrors Quadrophenia in a lot of ways: angsty young men, drugs fueling that angst, a commitment to music as subcultural lifestyle, working class kids trying to make their way. In some sense there was actually more of a story in this film than Quadrophenia and the characters were more likeable. The soundtrack was great and there were some really beautifully shot scenes in dancehalls.

                                    I put the date above because this was released awhile ago and other folks have probably seen it. Does anyone know where the exterior scenes were shot? The production crew certainly did a good job shooting in a current scene and creating a 1970s England vibe.
                                    Saw this when it came out in a special screening locally, with the lead actor doing a Q&A afterwards, that I think I'm right in saying was funded by the BFI. It was a full house and the venue put several screenings on (though think we got the only one with a Q&A). IIRC there was a large groundswell campaign going on to get local cinemas and venues to screen it, and fans hosting and underwriting screenings. To this day there are still regular Northern Soul nights around here (and would expect even more so in the heartlands of the movement around Blackpool / Wigan / Stoke etc) that largely act as reunions for the older heads, so I suspect the dancefloor moves are a bit more modest than those portrayed in the film. The whole scene remains a compelling and enigmatic story, and pre-dated the more feted rave scene by some distance.

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                                      Watched the first two episodes of the latest version of War of the Worlds. Okay, but not many characters you could sympathise with. Selfish bunch who by my count have killed/got killed about half a dozen people thus far.
                                      Last edited by Uncle Ethan; 10-07-2020, 01:25.

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                                        Originally posted by Satchmo Distel View Post
                                        I have just finished watching all 92 episodes of The Larry Sanders Show on HBO. It holds up very well, and the sexually predatory behaviour of all three leading males predicts Weinstein to a degree
                                        Good to hear it holds up well, Satch. Haven't seen it since it came out. Jeffrey Tambor has, of course, been accused of sexually predatory behaviour in real life.

                                        I have just binge watched all three series of This Country which I absolutely loved. Really funny but it's got real heart too, and doesn't ridicule the characters like you sometimes get in mockumentaries. I especially love the relationship between Kerry, Kurtan and the vicar.

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                                          We gave the series The Politician a try. It has some good moments, with a good cast, and it could have been quite good, but it's a smug mess overall. If we invest into a series, we usually aim to watch a season to the end. We didn't bother doing so with this show.

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                                            Finished Dark. I think the show really jumped the shark this season, and it was even harder than usual to follow, but at least they did give it a proper resolution.

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                                              I watched Les Miserables the night before last. That was hard going. I'm not that keen on musicals but they're OK as long as the songs are just interspersed amongst the dialogue. But when it's songs and sung dialogue - sheeeeeeesh!

                                              For a radically different experience, last night I watched Welcome to Chechnya which had been on Storyville. Another hard watch but for a different reason - some of the anti-LGBTQ+ cruelty was unbearable. But the courage of the victims and the bravery of the group that tried to rescue them, keep them secure and ultimately spirit them out of the country, was inspiring.

                                              Incidentally, the facial replacement technique that the film-maker used to disguise identities was astonishingly good, giving people different but utterly believable images.
                                              Last edited by Nocturnal Submission; 10-07-2020, 18:59.

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                                                Sung through musicals are some of the best there are, Les Mis being one example (and the 2012 moviel which is what I presume you watched is what first introduced the show to me) while Hamilton and Hadestown are more recent ones.

                                                I did struggle with the Evita movie but wonder if that was the fault of the adaptation and if it worked better on the stage.
                                                Last edited by Ray de Galles; 10-07-2020, 23:15.

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                                                  Yeah. lately, I cannot stomach watching intense cruelty or violence. I feel like I'm constantly on the edge of despair as it is. I don't need anything else.


                                                  I think I prefer "sung-through" than the awkward transitions from normal drama into a song.

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                                                    Completed the much maligned Season Four of (The) Twilight Zone - most of the stories actually stand up ok, but the hour long format somewhat spoiled the execution.

                                                    In the final episode, The Bard (featuring a young Burt Reynolds doing a parody of Marlon Brando), there was a line which went "....you and this idea go together like the Black and Tans an Irish Republican Army picnic".

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