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Post by masterofallgoons on Jan 30, 2021 20:24:30 GMT
Saturday night, the Mrs. went to bed nice and early so I finally watched David Byrne's American Utopia (2020), which is the filmed version of his show that he toured with in 2018/2019 and then brought to Broadway for a residency. I had tickets to see it earlier this year, and obviously that didn't end up happening. I was hesitant to watch it for a while because I fully intended on seeing it live when it returns next year, but I got good and toasted and felt like like immersing myself into a "live" music experience. Let me tell you, this one does not disappoint. If you're a Talking Heads/David Byrne fan and you have HBOMax, then watch this. Seriously, right now, go watch it. I've always liked Talking Heads and Byrne's solo efforts, although I wouldn't consider myself a die hard fan or anything. But the way the music is arranged is just terrific - similar to Stop Making Sense where Byrne starts off slow with just a few people on stage, and slowly more and more people enter while playing an instrument. The construct of the whole thing is truly impressive if you're into that sort of thing. The idea of music performance as art unto itself is very well captured here. Beyond just the music, which is great, there is some palpable catharsis here. I'm a lover of live music, going to as many shows as my hectic schedule allows every year (12 - 20 standalone shows and 2-3 festivals per year if I can swing it). In my younger, responsibility-free days, that number was much greater. It's something I do with my closest friends, most of whom I haven't seen at all since early 2020. So watching this made me truly nostalgic for those days, and made me really miss my friends. The show captures that in a sense too; Byrne openly talks about embracing those around you, about loving your friends and neighbors and enjoying what the world can offer you, even during darker times. Another theme is the idea of making sense of the world. In Byrne's words (and I believe he was quoting someone else at the time), he is "using nonsense to make sense of a world that doesn't make sense." It might be the best encapsulation of how most of us feel about the world today. The show does get a little preachy in a few spots, but it wasn't overbearing and it was only in a few spots. I'd imagine anyone who would watch this show wouldn't mind the message being sent. Putting all my flowery talk aside, the show is just a great time. There are hits and some deeper cuts and overall, it just made me feel good and at the end of the day, isn't that the point of watching these movies and shows? I think so. Watched this the other night. Very enjoyable. I'm a casual fan at best, but this is a great show. The only downside to it is that it makes you feel like you should have been there to see it in person.
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Post by screamingtreefrogs on Jan 31, 2021 0:39:38 GMT
Magic - Anthony Hopkins
Have read the book a zillion times - quite chilling
Hopkins is a ventriloquist who is pretty much batsh*t crazy and talks through his dummy
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Post by screamingtreefrogs on Jan 31, 2021 9:47:30 GMT
King of Staten Island - free On Demand right now
Judd Apatow movie (Knocked Up, Superbad, 40 Year Old Virgin, Stepbrothers, etc)
Lets give it a whirl
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Post by Jep Gambardella on Jan 31, 2021 14:12:42 GMT
Last night I watched the kimchi western “The Good The Bad and the Weird” (2008). It takes place in Manchuria in the 1930s. Different factions are after a map that supposedly leads to buried treasure. The story is a bit confusing at times - it was hard to keep track of which group of people shooting each other was on which side - but I thought it was a blast anyway. I’d say it is a very successful hommage to Westerns, transposed to Asia.
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Post by masterofallgoons on Jan 31, 2021 14:25:13 GMT
Magic - Anthony Hopkins Have read the book a zillion times - quite chilling Hopkins is a ventriloquist who is pretty much batsh*t crazy and talks through his dummy Never saw that, always meant to. The idea of the classy actor and classy director doing an evil dummy movie is funny and weird enough to make it worth a watch. Where can you see it?
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Post by Rey Kahuka on Jan 31, 2021 14:37:44 GMT
The other day I picked up the blu ray of Split Second (1992). Yes, it exists, it's brand new! Watched it last night and it's as awesome as I remember it being. And by awesome I mean laughably bad by today's standards, but so very from that era stretching from the early 80s to about 1993ish.
Conceptually it has a ton of potential, but the script is fairly weak and filled with cliches; and the directing is terrible. It's like they could never decide if the killer should be a man or a creature, so they went with both. Doesn't make a ton of sense, kind of like how nobody believes Stone when he says it's a creature despite the huge claw scars he has or the cast of the teeth they made of the killer which are clearly not human. Still had a blast watching it. As the credits rolled, my wife looked at me and said, "What was it you used to love about this movie?" I laughed and said, "Are you kidding? Everything!"
So yeah definitely more of a nostalgia viewing at this point, but another movie dying for a quality remake. The only downside is if they remade it today, there would be no practical effects, just a bunch of crappy CGI.
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Post by screamingtreefrogs on Jan 31, 2021 16:09:21 GMT
Magic - Anthony Hopkins Have read the book a zillion times - quite chilling Hopkins is a ventriloquist who is pretty much batsh*t crazy and talks through his dummy Never saw that, always meant to. The idea of the classy actor and classy director doing an evil dummy movie is funny and weird enough to make it worth a watch. Where can you see it? I have a cable package - Comcast - they have something called 'On Demand' - i.e. you can get Netflix, Hulu etc through it
I'm always scouring through the 'Horror' section to see what's free. There's movies you can Rent and Buy on it too.
Movie was free via Comcast On Demand. They're free for a bit - then like a week later go to 'Rent/Buy'
It was an OK watch - but if you like reading I loved the book - it's pretty short - a quick hitter - you can read it in a day
Typically when I have off a day in the spring/summer/fall I go to the lake or take a drive down the shore - bring a radio so I can listen to sports talk and bring a book and sit on the beach/lakeside and fish - I always go back to my old favorites - so have read this a lot
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Post by masterofallgoons on Jan 31, 2021 17:25:04 GMT
Never saw that, always meant to. The idea of the classy actor and classy director doing an evil dummy movie is funny and weird enough to make it worth a watch. Where can you see it? I have a cable package - Comcast - they have something called 'On Demand' - i.e. you can get Netflix, Hulu etc through it
I'm always scouring through the 'Horror' section to see what's free. There's movies you can Rent and Buy on it too.
Movie was free via Comcast On Demand. They're free for a bit - then like a week later go to 'Rent/Buy'
It was an OK watch - but if you like reading I loved the book - it's pretty short - a quick hitter - you can read it in a day
Typically when I have off a day in the spring/summer/fall I go to the lake or take a drive down the shore - bring a radio so I can listen to sports talk and bring a book and sit on the beach/lakeside and fish - I always go back to my old favorites - so have read this a lot
I see that it's included with HBO, so I'll try to see it that way, on the app. I'd be into checking out the book. Maybe I will at some point.
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Post by masterofallgoons on Jan 31, 2021 17:31:51 GMT
Watched The Little Things with Denzel last night on HBOmax. It's decent. It's a crime/cop/serial/killer drama. He's good and elevates the script a bit. Jared Leto is appropriately unsettling. Rami Malek is so fucking weird, but he's trying to play it straight, which is hard to deal with but when he is stressed out and sleep deprived it all works.
It feels very formulaic for a while but it does take some interesting turns and it does a few inventive but sometimes annoying things visually.
It's nothing special, but it was worth watching.
It's nice to see a story like this told concisely in 2 hours again instead of needlessly stretched out as a 10 episode series.
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Post by screamingtreefrogs on Jan 31, 2021 17:35:51 GMT
Watched The Little Things with Denzel last night on HBOmax. It's decent. It's a crime/cop/serial/killer drama. He's good and elevates the script a bit. Jared Leto is appropriately unsettling. Rami Malek is so fucking weird, but he's trying to play it straight, which is hard to deal with but when he is stressed out and sleep deprived it all works. It feels very formulaic for a while but it does take some interesting turns and it does a few inventive but sometimes annoying things visually. It's nothing special, but it was worth watching. It's nice to see a story like this told concisely in 2 hours again instead of needlessly stretched out as a 10 episode series. Bash me if you must - but I'm a Leto fan - I even enjoyed 30 Seconds to Mars (used to play The Kill on a loop all day)
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Post by screamingtreefrogs on Jan 31, 2021 17:37:29 GMT
Snowstorm of the Century has just started Numbers keep going up and up and up Now it's up to a foot and half of snow expected not ending until Tuesday - those numbers are sure to climb Have Misery, The Thing, 30 Days of Night, The Grey all lined up again
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Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2021 17:51:24 GMT
As Above, So Below
Good concept. Could have been a great film, but they got too silly with it.
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Post by masterofallgoons on Jan 31, 2021 18:17:22 GMT
Watched The Little Things with Denzel last night on HBOmax. It's decent. It's a crime/cop/serial/killer drama. He's good and elevates the script a bit. Jared Leto is appropriately unsettling. Rami Malek is so fucking weird, but he's trying to play it straight, which is hard to deal with but when he is stressed out and sleep deprived it all works. It feels very formulaic for a while but it does take some interesting turns and it does a few inventive but sometimes annoying things visually. It's nothing special, but it was worth watching. It's nice to see a story like this told concisely in 2 hours again instead of needlessly stretched out as a 10 episode series. Bash me if you must - but I'm a Leto fan - I even enjoyed 30 Seconds to Mars (used to play The Kill on a loop all day)
He's a good actor. His Joker performance is awful, but in general his really good in most of what he does. Can't stand his band though.
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Post by Rey Kahuka on Jan 31, 2021 18:23:19 GMT
Watched The Little Things with Denzel last night on HBOmax. It's decent. It's a crime/cop/serial/killer drama. He's good and elevates the script a bit. Jared Leto is appropriately unsettling. Rami Malek is so fucking weird, but he's trying to play it straight, which is hard to deal with but when he is stressed out and sleep deprived it all works. It feels very formulaic for a while but it does take some interesting turns and it does a few inventive but sometimes annoying things visually. It's nothing special, but it was worth watching. It's nice to see a story like this told concisely in 2 hours again instead of needlessly stretched out as a 10 episode series. Liked it quite a bit. The first half dragged, almost as if it were written as a 10 hour series. But the performances carried a generally uninspired script. Denzel and Leto were fantastic. Felt like Malek was a bit miscast, but he did good work in this one as well. It was well worth watching, I felt like it accomplished what it was trying to do.
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Post by masterofallgoons on Jan 31, 2021 18:24:42 GMT
Snowstorm of the Century has just started Numbers keep going up and up and up Now it's up to a foot and half of snow expected not ending until Tuesday - those numbers are sure to climb Have Misery, The Thing, 30 Days of Night, The Grey all lined up again Have you ever seen Storm of the Century? It was a 90s miniseries written by Stephen King, not based on a book, but written as a miniseries. It's pretty good. It centers around a cop on Little Tall Island in Maine (obviously), which is a location that he references in some other stories. Anyway, a strange visitor comes to the island when they're being hit by the worst blizzard in memory, and he seems to know everyone's secrets and wishes to expose them unless they give him what he wants, which he won't reveal until the time is right. Pretty solid story, and very effective in evoking that winter storm atmosphere.
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Post by screamingtreefrogs on Jan 31, 2021 18:32:28 GMT
Snowstorm of the Century has just started Numbers keep going up and up and up Now it's up to a foot and half of snow expected not ending until Tuesday - those numbers are sure to climb Have Misery, The Thing, 30 Days of Night, The Grey all lined up again Have you ever seen Storm of the Century? It was a 90s miniseries written by Stephen King, not based on a book, but written as a miniseries. It's pretty good. It centers around a cop on Little Tall Island in Maine (obviously), which is a location that he references in some other stories. Anyway, a strange visitor comes to the island when they're being hit by the worst blizzard in memory, and he seems to know everyone's secrets and wishes to expose them unless they give him what he wants, which he won't reveal until the time is right. Pretty solid story, and very effective in evoking that winter storm atmosphere. Love it
Own it
Give it a watch once a year or so
Love the ending - and it makes you question what would you do in a situation like that......
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Post by masterofallgoons on Jan 31, 2021 18:33:16 GMT
Watched The Little Things with Denzel last night on HBOmax. It's decent. It's a crime/cop/serial/killer drama. He's good and elevates the script a bit. Jared Leto is appropriately unsettling. Rami Malek is so fucking weird, but he's trying to play it straight, which is hard to deal with but when he is stressed out and sleep deprived it all works. It feels very formulaic for a while but it does take some interesting turns and it does a few inventive but sometimes annoying things visually. It's nothing special, but it was worth watching. It's nice to see a story like this told concisely in 2 hours again instead of needlessly stretched out as a 10 episode series. Liked it quite a bit. The first half dragged, almost as if it were written as a 10 hour series. But the performances carried a generally uninspired script. Denzel and Leto were fantastic. Felt like Malek was a bit miscast, but he did good work in this one as well. It was well worth watching, I felt like it accomplished what it was trying to do. I agree. They don't really make these kinds of movies anymore. They usually end up as 10 episode series, but I prefer this. Leto is fucking creepy as hell and Denzel looks like absolute shit the whole time from stress and sleeplessness. Rami Malek is doing his best, but I do think he's miscast because he's kinda playing the slick good guy, but he's so naturally weird that making him the regular guy is unnatural. The script was kinda by the numbers, but I appreciated where it went ultimately. It covers familiar ground, but I have to admit that I didn't see it coming. Not exactly the way it played out at least.
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Post by masterofallgoons on Jan 31, 2021 18:37:06 GMT
As Above, So Below Good concept. Could have been a great film, but they got too silly with it. I've heard some people really like this one. It always looked like a typical, lame found footage movie to me. I was never compelled to watch it.
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Post by Rey Kahuka on Jan 31, 2021 18:41:04 GMT
Liked it quite a bit. The first half dragged, almost as if it were written as a 10 hour series. But the performances carried a generally uninspired script. Denzel and Leto were fantastic. Felt like Malek was a bit miscast, but he did good work in this one as well. It was well worth watching, I felt like it accomplished what it was trying to do. I agree. They don't really make these kinds of movies anymore. They usually end up as 10 episode series, but I prefer this. Leto is fucking creepy as hell and Denzel looks like absolute shit the whole time from stress and sleeplessness. Rami Malek is doing his best, but I do think he's miscast because he's kinda playing the slick good guy, but he's so naturally weird that making him the regular guy is unnatural. The script was kinda by the numbers, but I appreciated where it went ultimately. It covers familiar ground, but I have to admit that I didn't see it coming. Not exactly the way it played out at least. Yeah I think that's what I appreciated about it, that they don't really make movies like this anymore, so it was good to see some serious star power in a murder mystery that isn't a netflix series. My only real problem is how the end plays out. There's no reason Malek's character would do any of that. He wouldn't bother getting in the car with him without telling Denzel, he wouldn't dig all those holes himself. He'd just make Leto do it. And then he just snaps. Meanwhile, what was Leto's motivation? He knew they were closing in so he made it into a suicide mission? Is there any doubt he was trying to get Malek to kill him? Just seemed too random. And they took too long to introduce Leto's character, so his entire arc felt rushed. Still good stuff overall. I did like the twist on top of the twist. They set up an ambiguous ending, then the barrette scene sets up a quasi-happy ending; then the barrette reveal makes it ambiguous again.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2021 18:42:25 GMT
As Above, So Below Good concept. Could have been a great film, but they got too silly with it. I've heard some people really like this one. It always looked like a typical, lame found footage movie to me. I was never compelled to watch it. They sold it as a horror... It's not really.
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