Current Watching

[Hot Pepsi]

This is on Showtime, which we have or pay extra for. Is it on regular tv in Canada?

[Amor de Cosmos]

It's on Crave here. Which is a conduit for HBO, Showtime, Starz and other US channels, plus various other on-demand things.

[Hot Pepsi]

That’s handy.

[Ray de Galles]

I was going to list all the movies I've watched during lockdown when the bloody thing was over (as they are what is keeping me sane) but now we're almost twelve weeks in and tonight I've seen my fiftieth so it seems as good a point as any to take stock.

The list includes some movies I've meant to see for years, some classic movie series I've been introducing my boy to, some family films and a few grown-up ones I've watched with just my wife.




Films new to me

Snowpiercer

Annihilation

The Sisters Brothers

Toni Erdmann (got halfway through, gave up)

The Aeronauts

21 Bridges

Knives Out

Sexy Beast

Under the Skin (stopped watching after a while, found it horrible)

The Bourne Identity

The Bourne Supremacy

The Bourne Ultimatum

The Bourne Legacy

Jason Bourne

The Children Act

Boy

Jumanji - The Next Level

San Andreas

The Wife

Upgrade

The Upside

The Hunger Games - Mockingjay Part 1

The Hunger Games - Mockingjay Part 2

Field of Dreams

A Mighty Wind

Layer Cake

Monsters

21 Jump Street

The Gentlemen

Mission Impossible

The Bling Ring

The Vast of Night

Suicide Squad


Films I've revisited


Galaxy Quest

Witness

Mindhorn

Batman Begins

The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight Rises

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

War for the Planet of the Apes

Source Code

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom

Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade

Tag

The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games - Catching Fire

John Wick

[Sits]

It's on Crave here. Which is a conduit for HBO, Showtime, Starz and other US channels, plus various other on-demand things.

Our equivalent is Stan. I don’t know why it’s called Stan.

[Hot Pepsi]

I’m watching Back to the Future again. The Ringer recently did a Rewatchablea pod on it and I’d forgotten how good it is.

[HORN Reborn]

"The Joy of Painting" each weeknight on BBC4.

Bob Ross is like the Mister Rogers of the oil painting world.

[elguapo4]

Country Music by Ken Burns on BBC 4. I'm not a fan of the former, but the latter could make a ten part series about the Detroit sewerage system and make it fascinating.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Films new to me
Field of Dreams

Surprised you've not previously seen this (but that's a whole other thread that we've probably done - and I'll readily confess to not seeing The Goonies until some point in the last 12 months).

We watch it every couple of years and the kids used to predict which scene would set me off.

[Ray de Galles]

It's one of those ones (like Mary Poppins) where I'm sure I've seen all, or pretty much all, of the movie in chunks but have no recollection of ever sitting down and watching it in one sitting until recently.

It's definitely a major omission in my viewing, as was 'A Mighty Wind' which I've had a U.S. DVD of since it was released over fifteen years ago that hasn't worked in any of the players I've had in that time. I've also had a DVD of 'Sexy Beast' for even longer and at least started watching it over a decade ago but somehow never got past the opening twenty minutes or so (I think my wife probably objected to it).

[elguapo4]

It's one of those ones (like Mary Poppins) where I'm sure I've seen and all, or pretty much all, of the movie In chunks but have no recollection of ever sitting down and watching it in one sitting.

It's definitely a major omission in my viewing, as was 'A Mighty Wind' which I've had a U.S. DVD of since it was released over fifteen years ago that hasn't worked in any of the players I've had in that time. I've also had a DVD of 'Sexy Beast' for even longer and at least started watching it over a decade ago but somehow never got past the opening twenty minutes or so (I think my wife probably objected to it).

I've a couple of films like that including Gone with the wind, Escape to Victory and The Empire Strikes Back

[Southport Zeb]

I'm sure I've seen the entire Sound of Music, but never in one sitting

[Wouter D]

Upload on Prime is very enjoyable. It’s a Black Mirrorish thing about a world where people can have their consciousness uploaded into a virtual “heaven.” Created by Greg Daniels, the guy who did The Office and Parks & Rec.

Thank you for that recommendation. We binged the entire first season today, and we're quite happy that it's been renewed. Sometimes it falls into a "Black Mirror did that", but it does take a fresh spin on the resulting dark humor.

Zainab Johnson is a very funny lady.

[Hot Pepsi]

Back to the Future isn’t very plausible, is it? I mean, he comes back to 1985 and his parents, siblings and Biff are completely different people than they were in the timeline he is from, but somehow they live in the same house and he has the same bedroom, the same girlfriend and the same clock radio.

And how did they know the lightning would strike at exactly 10:04 PM. That’s convenient.

I also think it was unnecessary for Doc to read Marty’s letter. I think he would have realized that what Marty was probably trying to warn him about was the Libyans.

I noticed I am the same age as the parents were supposed to be in 1985 and the same age Marty is in 2015 in part II.

I don’t think I saw part II or III in a theater. Not sure why not. They’re pretty good. Even though they had to recast Jennifer.

I especially like the Cafe 80s in part II. People in 1989 trying to imagine how people in 2015 would do nostalgia for the 80s. They got it about right.

[Nocturnal Submission]

The new Celebrity Gogglebox was very good. A nice mix of participants and programmes viewed, featuring some outrageous manspreading from Harry Redknapp and the more-unhealthy-every-time-you-see-him Shaun Ryder.

[WOM]

And how did they know the lightning would strike at exactly 10:04 PM. That’s convenient.

Because that's what time the town clock stopped, innit?

What was the story behind the recasting of Jennifer? I've heard it, and I know they had to reshoot the last scene of I to make II or something.

[Hot Pepsi]

Yeah, but 10:04:00 is handy. (though in the film, it’s like 10:04:01). Just looking at the stopped clock, it could have been any time in that minute. It doesn’t have a second hand, but the lady collecting money to save the tower in the beginning knew it was exactly 10:04. Perhaps somebody had figured that out by looking at the internal gears.

Claudia Wells couldn’t do the second or third films because her mom got very sick and I guess they just couldn’t wait for her. As it is, the first sequel was four years after the first. I’m sure they would have liked to have done it sooner. Anyway, they got Elizabeth Shue to be Jennifer.

The bigger change was that they started shooting the first one with Eric Stolz as Marty McFly. Michael Fox was the first choice but he couldn’t get out of his Family Ties commitments. So they started with Stolz. But after five weeks it just wasn’t working with him. He just didn’t have the comic sensibility for it. But in the meantime, they found a way to get Fox, so Zemeckis got the studio to give him enough more money so the could start over with Fox. Stolz said he’s not bitter and he learned a lot from the experience.

Also, in the second two films, Crispin Glover doesn’t play George McFly. They got another guy. He’s barely in it and usually only seen out of focus a bit.

[elguapo4]

A little known actor called Jeffrey Weissman replaced Crispin Glover. Glover was as method as Stolz, but a much better fit for the character, so they stuck with him. For the second film, not only did he want as much money as Fox and Lloyd, he also wanted to rewrite the character. They couldn't come to an agreement so they re cast George Mc Fly, that's when the problems started.

Weissman said when he first turned up on set dressed as George Mc Fly, Michael J Fox whistled and said "Crispin isn't going to like this ". He was right, Glover sued them, saying saying his portrayal of the character was a form of copyright. He won a large amount of damages, and film companies were no longer allowed to impersonate one actor with another, without giving credit to the original actor.

[matt j]

Weird he may be, but Crispin Glover was ridiculously good in the first one.

[Hot Pepsi]

A little known actor called Jeffrey Weissman replaced Crispin Glover. Glover was as method as Stolz, but a much better fit for the character, so they stuck with him. For the second film, not only did he want as much money as Fox and Lloyd, he also wanted to rewrite the character. They couldn't come to an agreement so they re cast George Mc Fly, that's when the problems started.

Weissman said when he first turned up on set dressed as George Mc Fly, Michael J Fox whistled and said "Crispin isn't going to like this ". He was right, Glover sued them, saying saying his portrayal of the character was a form of copyright. He won a large amount of damages, and film companies were no longer allowed to impersonate one actor with another, without giving credit to the original actor.

Glover disputes the claim that he wanted that much money for the sequel. He says he just wanted as much as Leah Thompsen and Tom Wilson and was offered less. He also didn’t like the ending to the first one and was adamant about that.

He may have just been a pain in the ass to deal with. Zemeckis knew that he could make the sequels without much screen time for George, so he low-balled him.

But they didn’t just dress up a new guy as the character. That’s common and actors can’t stop it unless they have a contract saying so. They used the mold of Crispin Glover’s face that they had from the first one - needed it to do his make-up in the scenes where he’s older - to make Weissman look like him. So they were using his likeness, really, and that was the basis of the lawsuits.


It doesn’t really make sense that pictures and newspapers change when the timeline changes but the people who’ve travelled through time remember the old timeline as it happened to them. But maybe pictures and newspapers have special quantum properties.

And they’re films for kids, mainly.

There’s a West End musical of it now. Not sure how that went.

[Ginger Yellow]

Not sure how that went.

You could check the almanac.

[Hot Pepsi]

It appears that it never actually made it to the west end. It started in Manchester right before the pandemic.

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/20...er-opera-house

[Fussbudget]

Just finished watching series 2 of Homecoming. I loved the first series but this one was a complete car crash, the plot felt half-finished and all the actors looked like they were struggling with the totally unplausible characters and dialogue they were given. It also did some irritating retconning of series 1 which means I probably won't even enjoy rewatching that one now. Though on the plus side, it was very short.

[Hot Pepsi]

I didn’t like season 1 enough to prioritize watching season 2, and nobody seems to be too excited about it so I don’t know if it’s worth it.

[Fussbudget]

I wouldn't bother unless you've run out of everything else. It really felt like they were scrabbling around for a story to tell.