The "I'm watching/just watched *movie title* thread....

[UnscreenedCaller]

Write back after you finish.  I'm curious where you come out on the brilliant vs. wtf debate.   

Ok there's 2 hours and 52 minutes I won't get back. It could have been brilliant. It SHOULD have been brilliant, but it was derailed by throwing in everything from the mad scientist to the red shirts, wormholes, black holes, the 5th dimension, parallel universes, slingshotting past a planet, and the most improbable plot ever. Quantum physics doesn't imply anything goes. It doesn't imply someone will pass through a wormhole and end up in a dimensional antechamber where he will pass morse code to his daughter, and then just happen to be floating in space at the right time, literally. That's just taking the beauty of science and the math behind it and brutalizing it, not to mention killing the suspension of disbelief.


And, I'm just a wee bit tired of that one note cooler than thou persona that seems to be McCoughney's fallback position too often. It worked for The Right Stuff because, well, Chuck Yaeger IS cooler than thou, but it doesn't work here, nor the premise that a huge mission was just waiting for him to pull up at the gates. That could've been written by Hoagland.


Here is what I did respect about the film, that according to them,  they used minimal green screen cgi. I didn't object to the worlds, although they seemed one note. The wave was cool, but they didn't see it coming? Come on.  :


I think i'll rewatch Contact. Small steps, Ellie.

[yumyumtree]

just put myself through  "North-South" a a  mini series from the 1980's. Lots of cameo appearances by many great stars at the ends of their careers. A rather plodding plot that moves from 1840's to 1866  Seems to have been 3 seasons of it as it was based on 3 books.So that should not have did die like maybe they wanted more money so a quick death rewrite. . Somehow they got about every old star from the 40's-50's and 60's into it while they still breathed.me characters that should have died early did not some that died too soon. . Lot's of war scenes,Mexican War, Civil War. Seemed like some sub plots began and then sort off dangled into oblivion with out a finish. While some seem to plod on. Anyway, the whole damn thing can be found on You Tube. What the hell were women subjected to hoop skirts for.

It must have been good.  I still remember stuff from it. Elizabeth Taylor played a madam. Kirstie Alley was in an interracial relationship. Wayne Newton played a nasty officer at a confederate POW camp(I'm also reading Andersonville now.) This was the golden age of the miniseries. Have you seen Winds of War?

[zeebo]

Ok there's 2 hours and 52 minutes I won't get back. It could have been brilliant. It SHOULD have been brilliant, but it was derailed by throwing in everything from the mad scientist to the red shirts, wormholes, black holes, the 5th dimension, parallel universes, slingshotting past a planet, and the most improbable plot ever. Quantum physics doesn't imply anything goes. ...

Haha great review UC!  My fave wtf moment was when this supposed amazing astronaut who's perfect for an interstellar mission, gets taught on-the-way what a wormhole is - in a fifteen second demonstration using a pencil and a folded piece of paper.

[analog kid]

Believe it or not, yep, quite a few of them.  You can find them in imdb comments, sprinkled in amongst all the ones who hated it.  I personally found it a tortuous experience and would like to drop into a time-warp wormhole so I could go back and un-see it.

That's Nolan fans. They fawn over everything he does. Those are the people who watched The Dark Night a hundred times and think it's the greatest movie of all time.

[analog kid]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJNZF3LR0VM

It's TV, but the first episode is pretty amazing!

Holy crap that was good. Can't believe that's on a network.

[chefist]

Holy crap that was good. Can't believe that's on a network.

USA Net. has Suits too, which is pretty good...

[Camazotz Automat]

Another Saturday night with Star Trek and Svengoolie. As usual, the commercials will be painful, but I've got a first aid kit at the ready.



Until next weekend, you godless radio talk show addicts.

[zeebo]

USA Net. has Suits too, which is pretty good...

Yeah I watched that one for awhile.  Also Burn Notice, which I thought was fun for the first few seasons.

[chefist]

Yeah I watched that one for awhile.  Also Burn Notice, which I thought was fun for the first few seasons.

Haven't seen BN...I'll have to check it out! thanks...

[onan]

Haven't seen BN...I'll have to check it out! thanks...

Burn Notice was fun but a bit cheesy. I quit watching after the writers put a Hyundai ad into the dialogue... no joke... explained how much horsepower and rear real drive.

[zeebo]

Burn Notice was fun but a bit cheesy. I quit watching after the writers put a Hyundai ad into the dialogue... no joke... explained how much horsepower and rear real drive.

Ha I missed that one.  Yeah it started out cool, kind of reminded me a bit of Rockford Files, in that he tried to survive more on his wits rather than over-the-top confrontations, but in later seasons this sort of switched around.  Still a pretty clever show at times, if you can tolerate a little MacGyver streak in there.

[ItsOver]

Another Saturday night with Star Trek and Svengoolie. As usual, the commercials will be painful, but I've got a first aid kit at the ready.



Until next weekend, you godless radio talk show addicts.

Faith Domergue tonight. 

[SciFiAuthor]

Yeah the frozen cloud was more than bothersome. But overall, I liked the movie, remember it is a movie. If the representation of scientific theory in Interstellar is bothersome, most other sci-fi movies must make for thought of suicide.

It's how it presented itself. They went out and got the foremost authority on black holes in the world and made him a producer so they could use the accuracy angle as a selling point and then didn't bother to bring in a planetary scientist to moderate the scientific accuracy of the planets. I can totally suspend my disbelief for movies, but when certain ground rules are laid before release then I hold the movie to those when it comes out and this was a stinker on that count. It has "intervention by Hollywood executives" written all over it. They took a look at the screenplay and said "People don't want to see accurate planets. They want impossible action sequences and wild CGI landscapes and we gotta get Matt Damon in there! Our focus group told us so! Change it, or else."

But I shouldn't totally pan it, it was an alright story, a little slow, but well-acted.

[pate]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYgKrVaECok

[Treading Water]

Ha I missed that one.  Yeah it started out cool, kind of reminded me a bit of Rockford Files, in that he tried to survive more on his wits rather than over-the-top confrontations, but in later seasons this sort of switched around.  Still a pretty clever show at times, if you can tolerate a little MacGyver streak in there.

I liked the first couple of seasons also.  It started to fall apart for me when they added the macho sidekick. I found him, um, unwelcome. I loved the back and forth between Bruce Campbell and Sharon Gless.


I also enjoyed Mr Robot.  I'm looking forward to more of that.

[ItsOver]

It's how it presented itself. They went out and got the foremost authority on black holes in the world and made him a producer so they could use the accuracy angle as a selling point and then didn't bother to bring in a planetary scientist to moderate the scientific accuracy of the planets. I can totally suspend my disbelief for movies, but when certain ground rules are laid before release then I hold the movie to those when it comes out and this was a stinker on that count. It has "intervention by Hollywood executives" written all over it. They took a look at the screenplay and said "People don't want to see accurate planets. They want impossible action sequences and wild CGI landscapes and we gotta get Matt Damon in there! Our focus group told us so! Change it, or else."

But I shouldn't totally pan it, it was an alright story, a little slow, but well-acted.

Hollywood would do much better by replacing the suits with some homeless folks.  At least we'd get some original ideas.

[zeebo]

I liked the first couple of seasons also.  It started to fall apart for me when they added the macho sidekick. I found him, um, unwelcome.

Ha yep that was the unofficial end of the show for me too.

I loved the back and forth between Bruce Campbell and Sharon Gless.

Yes totally, those two are great.  There were some outtakes I saw where Bruce was trying to crack her up which were really funny and you could see how much fun they had making the show. 

[3OctaveFart]

Game Over, a fascinating documentary about Atari.

http://www.avclub.com/review/atari-game-over-nostalgic-excavation-video-game-hi-217925

[zeebo]

Game Over, a fascinating documentary about Atari.

Good to hear, I've got this on my netflix queue.  Another interesting vidgame doc btw is King of Kong if you've never checked that out.

[Laurakinch]

Eddie Coyle's new avi reminded me of one of my favourite movie scenes ever:


http://www.joblo.com/videos/movie-clips/boogienights-sisterchristian

[3OctaveFart]

Zeebo, King of Kong is a scream. Wife and I loved it.

This is the gist of the Atari doc. I am old enough to have been disappointed by the E.T. video game. The worst thing about it was it was just not fun to play.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_video_game_crash_of_1983

[21st Century Man]

Wild (2014) with Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern. I was sooooo looking forward to this and was utterly let down after watching it. I was hoping this movie would be more about the scenic beauty and struggles that occur while walking it.  I was not expecting a story that focused on Reese's promiscuity and drug use.  I get the story.  A young woman is unable to cope with her mother's death and slips into promiscuity and drug use to numb the pain.  Realizing that such behavior is not helping her make peace with herself, she decides to walk the Pacific Crest trail with 12 condoms in her backpack just in case.  Really?  There is no redemption in this story.  The only characters I like are Laura Dern as the mother and the little kid who sings "Red River Valley".  Also there were a couple of nice shots of the scenery around her but there should have been more. I wanted more scenery and less depravity. I'm not a prude as I can get into some really trashy exploitation films but I was not expecting or wanting it in this film. I was hoping it would be something more along the lines of Annaud's The Bear from 1988.  Its hard to like a movie where you can't empathize with the main character.  Also she should have been quite tan after hiking for 94 days, some of it in the desert. There should have been more suspense. I wish I didn't buy the Blu-ray because I won't watch it again. 1 and a half stars out of 5 for Wild.

Sorry, yumyumtree. Maybe I'm being too harsh on the film but I had heard great things and had such high hopes.

[paladin1991]

Hollywood would do much better by replacing the suits with some homeless folks.  At least we'd get some original ideas.

Shit.  Let's just let Cam and Stellar go back and forth for a while.  (Redacted) keeps notes.  QK and I blow things up, Onan and Cheftist do the smart guy stuff, Aldous zens it up a bit......  Felchie wanders thru for comedic relief.
Who else wants in on the new show?

[pate]

I will listen/watch in the corner with my favorite comfort food:  Mayonnaise...

[Camazotz Automat]

The Mentalist Season 6

Faith Domergue tonight. 

I cannot effectively comment on how beautiful she was in Cult of the Cobra (1955) this last Saturday night.

What I can say is that when she was killed and then shape-shifted back into human form, I was like, "What's with all the clothes, dammit?!"

[Eddie Coyle]

Eddie Coyle's new avi reminded me of one of my favourite movie scenes ever:


http://www.joblo.com/videos/movie-clips/boogienights-sisterchristian

   Damn, I wish I'd seen this post earlier and wouldn't have to changed my "old hippie who thinks Kayne West sucks" avatar. Alfred Molina, as he often does, stealing a scene.

   "That's Cosmo...He's Chinese" was my most oft used phrase in 1998-99.

[pate]

Not Sure why, but the youtube auto-play thingy has me watching:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNNU8wFLPlo

I think it is sub-titled in some Asian language...

I've seen it before, but dang that Milla is a cute Ukrainian...

[Camazotz Automat]

I've seen it before, but dang that Milla is a cute Ukrainian...

I liked her a lot in The Fifth Element. I'm going to have to watch this.

[Sardondi]

Holy crap that was good. Can't believe that's on a network.

I was interested as well, but halfway into the first one I got tired of the Occupy Whatever bias and ditched it. My life has enough indoctrination.

[onan]

I was interested as well, but halfway into the first one I got tired of the Occupy Whatever bias and ditched it. My life has enough indoctrination.

Reported.