TV/Movies Megathread

[frunk]

So, out of a bout of nostalgia I rewatched both Bill & Ted movies in a row (I probably hadn't watched them since my teenage years). And... they're still pretty great?

Interestingly, this time I liked the second one far more than the first - even though I didn't like it as much when I was a kid. "Dude, hell sucks!".

So, the question is... should I watch the modern sequel?

The new one is fine.  I don't think it's better than the first two, but it's also quite respectful of the ip and has a few good jokes.

The actors do a pretty good job of nailing the children of Bill and Ted impersonations.

[The Larch]

Interestingly, this time I liked the second one far more than the first

Now you understand the 7th Seal homage. 

[celedhring]

Interestingly, this time I liked the second one far more than the first

Now you understand the 7th Seal homage. 

That's part of it, I guess. 

The other part is that now I recognized Primus as one of the bands in the end. Primus are awesome.

Overall, it's obvious they had much more money for this one and it has much more interesting visuals - all the hell scenes, the evil twin robots in the scenes they share together, etc... It's trippy and surreal.  Plus I appreciate that they just didn't rehash the first movie like most sequels would do.

Both movies are certainly "lightning in a bottle". The plot makes no sense and certainly has no intention of making it, some of the jokes are dumb beyond belief., and the two leads could very easily be extremely annoying.. but Reeves and Winter are so charismatic and likeable, and the whole thing is so damn fun, that it just clicks.

[Sheilbh]

Oh RIP Paul O'Grady

[mongers]

Oh RIP Paul O'Grady

Yes, that was unexpected and only 67 years old. 

[Josquius]

I watched Philomena. It was funny. And sad. Quite good.

I've just finished His Dark Materials. Decent. Though the BBCness really shines through with the war. And the core story stuff about the power of eves love makes no sense.

Watching snowpiercer too. Finished series 2. Stupid but fun. Weird such a niche show on Netflix without much advertising was able to recruit star actors.

[Admiral Yi]

Watching Lady Chatterly on Netflix.  Muy steamy.  Chick hott.

[Savonarola]

The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (1939)

Kenji Mizoguchi had two big films from 1936; Osaka Elegy and Sisters of the Gion, which dealt with prostitution and Geisha respectively.  He was "Encouraged" to tone it down by the Japanese government.  I haven't seen his next two films (The Straits of Love and Hate and Song of the Camp), but this one is certainly not as edgy as the the 1936 films (in fact it actually won some sort of family values award from the Japanese government.)

There isn't much of a story (dissolute young man in a Kabuki family leaves home to be with the woman he loves and make it as a Kabuki actor on his own.  He doesn't, she suffers a lot, he becomes a much better actor, reunites with his family and she dies.)  The film is visually amazing, with long very carefully set up shots.  He had done that in Osaka Elegy and Sisters of the Gion as well, but in this case he completely abandons close ups making the film unmistakably Mizoguchi.  He had done that out of necessity; in the early part of the film the actor was too old to be believable as a callow youth.  He had intended to use close ups in the later portion, but liked the effect so much that he did the whole film that way.

[Syt]

Still enjoying the new season of Ted Lasso. Every time I watch it makes me want to start a new career in Football Manager.

Also, I'm not the biggest Leonard Cohen connaisseur (besides Hallelujah and First We Take Manhattan, but it speaks to his memorable voice that the song in the end credits comes on, and I immediately thought, "That's Leonard Cohen, right?"

[HVC]

i think the last episode slipped a bit.

[Syt]

Been watching the first 6 episodes of Fall of Eagles, a 1974 BBC series about the last decades of the Habsburg, Romanov and Hohenzollern monarchies. It's - as usual for the time - more a TV stageplay than grand historical epic (think I, Claudius), with woodcut illustration interspersed where budget wouldn't permit e.g. showing battle scenes. Overall it's more of an anthology series, rather than one linear narrative, with each chapter focusing on one event and/or person of the time.

I find the quality a bit uneven, ranging from overly melodramatic to quite gripping. If you're familiar with the period there will not be much new here, but it's still nice to see history "in action" even if the events are reasonably known to you. The episodes so far:

Death Waltz - Franz-Josef avoiding the arranged marriage to Hélène of Wittelsbach in favor of marrying Elisabeth and her struggles to fit in at court.

The English Princess - in a similar vein, the view of Princess Victoria, mnarried to Crown Prince Frederick William of Prussia. Maybe leaning a bit too heavily into "we'll make Prussia a liberal state like England when we accede to the throne" angle. Also features the German unification.

The Honest Broker - focused on Bismarck and the transition of power to Wilhelm II (who is maybe a bit too exaggerated in his buffoonery). Curd Jürgens is excellent as elderly Bismarck, but both in this and the previous episode it feels more like the makers of the series had him recite his most famous lines in context.



Requiem for a Crown Prince - aka the Mayerling Affair. In 1889, Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and his 17 year old mistress are found dead in the hunting lodge at Mayerling in an apparent double suicide and/or murder-suicide. The episode chronicles the affair with time stamps and how the information disseminates at court and the court trying to cover up the whole affair.

The Last Tsar - showing the struggles of Nicholas II in succeding his larger than life father Tsar Alexander III (excellent small role for Tony Jay - you may remember his voice from various animation, esp. Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame where he was Claude Frollo) and trying to run the country. I think Charles Kay delivers a great performance as the naive and rather out of his depth Nicholas.

Absolute Beginners - IMO so far the best episode, showing how Lenin (excellent portrayal by Patrick Stewart) plotted, schemed and strongarmed his way to being the leader of the Communist revolutionaries in the early 1900s against Martov, Plekhanov and Trotsky (lovely seeing Paul Eddington - from Yes (Prime) Minister - as Plekhanov). SirPatStew makes for an excellently ruthless Lenin.




I found this review online, which so far matches my impressions: https://aelarsen.wordpress.com/2017/06/13/fall-of-eagles-first-thoughts/

I will definitely watch the final 7 episodes - it's a great show to have on while playing Victoria.

[celedhring]

Requiem for a Crown Prince - aka the Mayerling Affair. In 1889, Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and his 17 year old mistress are found dead in the hunting lodge at Mayerling in an apparent double suicide and/or murder-suicide. The episode chronicles the affair with time stamps and how the information disseminates at court and the court trying to cover up the whole affair.

One of my favorite "historical" novels when I was a teen was a Catalan book where Holmes and Poirot team up to solve the Mayerling affair      - I have to check this out.

That book was probably the reason why my first ever EU1 save was with Austria.

[Eddie Teach]

Just saw a Netflix show called The Night Agent. Spy thriller. It's a bit cliche at times but the pace moves well. I found it an easy watch(all 10 episodes in about 2 days).

[mongers]

Just saw a Netflix show called The Night Agent. Spy thriller. It's a bit cliche at times but the pace moves well. I found it an easy watch(all 10 episodes in about 2 days).

Yeah I saw that pop up last night so watched 3 episodes and agree with your assessment; just wondering if it's worth the time to watch the final 7?

[Eddie Teach]

That depends on how valuable your time is I guess. Mine is worthless so the only consideration was whether I was enjoying myself or not. 🤷