TV/Movies Megathread

[Savonarola]

Lèvres de sang (Lips of Blood) (1975)

A heterosexual female vampire?  Why, I've seen zany stuff in low budget vampire movies before, but this one tops them all.  What is this world coming to?

So a man named Frederic is at a perfume release party and sees a photograph of a castle by the sea; which reminds him of a time as a boy he met a young woman in a similar castle.  His mother tells him there was no such woman.  Regardless Frederic becomes obsessed by returning and finding her.  Then the young woman, looking as she had in his memory starts appearing to him and staring at him for an uncomfortably long period of time.  Then he unwittingly releases four female vampires in sheer gowns who casually stroll about and... cause havoc?  Terrorize people?  I'm not really sure.  Then he finds the castle by the sea and discovers the young woman is actually a vampire who, his mother explained, was terrorizing the village.  His mother, and her group of vampire hunters destroy the four other vampire girls and his mother tells him to kill the young woman vampire; but can Frederic turn his back on his obsession or will he follow the course of love?

This is yet another Jean Rollins classic.  This one is more "Atmospheric" than Requiem for a Vampire, although the "Atmosphere" is built up by very long shots of buildings for seemingly no reason.  Most of the characters are there to either provide exposition or to look like they just stepped out of a Goth night club.  Frederic's job in the film is to stand in for the audience and look as confused as the audience.  The vampire doesn't do anything but stare for a very long period of time.  Maybe this was spooky in the 70s, but it falls short today.

I did wonder if Rollins took any inspiration from Poe's Annabel lee.  There's a castle by the sea, if not a kingdom, children (well a child and a young woman), and a love stronger than death.

[Syt]

Finished Season 5 of Only Murders in the Building. I generally liked it (better than 4 or even 3), but more for the character stuff than the mystery which was just all kinds of meandering, with red herrings and dei ex machinae.

Though bonus points for Christoph Waltz's character referencing the battles of Aspern-Essling and Wagram.

[Norgy]

The fourth season episodes available of The Witcher on Netflix are... well. Not great.

It has less to do with the change of leads as Geralt than to do with the writing.

While the stories of Sapkowski might be hard to translate into watchable TV, this is sort of a low. Lots of DEI, though. 

[Josquius]

The fourth season episodes available of The Witcher on Netflix are... well. Not great.

It has less to do with the change of leads as Geralt than to do with the writing.

While the stories of Sapkowski might be hard to translate into watchable TV, this is sort of a low. Lots of DEI, though. 

Worse even than the last series?
That was a struggle as was.
It's sad as the first series was rather brilliant.

[viper37]

A heterosexual female vampire?  Why, I've seen zany stuff in low budget vampire movies before, but this one tops them all.  What is this world coming to?

Well, there's Innocent Blood a couple of decades later, but yeah, in the 70s, that might be a first. 

[crazy canuck]

The fourth season episodes available of The Witcher on Netflix are... well. Not great.

It has less to do with the change of leads as Geralt than to do with the writing.

While the stories of Sapkowski might be hard to translate into watchable TV, this is sort of a low. Lots of DEI, though. 

Yeah, stopped watching in the first episode.  Terrible

[Sheilbh]

It is bad and I think the cast change does matter a bit.

I've not really "got" Henry Cavill - he seemed a bit like a British Armie Hammer (minus the cannibalism) in being plausibly, standard-grade handsome with big roles but (for me) never really making an impression. But seeing someone else do the role I think he did bring some sort of charisma to it that made the ridiculous work a bit more - which I'm not sure this Hemsworth has managed.

Or it may just be that Cavill's a massive nerd so this was his passion project

[Bauer]

I'm only a few episodes in but doesn't seem that bad.  But what made the show work for me before was when Geralt was a traveling knight figure with cool monster fights.  Hasn't been the same since it left that focus.

I really dislike the Ceri storyline this season.

[Bauer]

Are the Witcher books worth reading?

[celedhring]

Are the Witcher books worth reading?

I like them. If anything, they're all quite idiosyncratic, which is part of their charm. Good thing about them is that the first two are just collections of short stories, so you can read them, see if you dig the writing/characters, and if you don't, you aren't left with an unfinished story.

Several of those short stories have been adapted into the best episodes of the show, imho.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Netflix Witcher beyond season 1 is trash. Written by people who are apparently proud about the fact that they either don't know, understand or dislike the source material.
Larded with a big dose of 'the message' but as understood by fools andctheir checkboxes. Because the source material already deals with all the relevant topics for the modern audience. It even has strong women.
But no, they had to fuck it up.

Bah.
Read the books instead. They're quirky, you see that they're not written by a western european/generic American. But i enjoyed them and the way the themes were brought.
And if you want more: Witcher games, especially 3.

[Norgy]

The fourth season episodes available of The Witcher on Netflix are... well. Not great.

It has less to do with the change of leads as Geralt than to do with the writing.

While the stories of Sapkowski might be hard to translate into watchable TV, this is sort of a low. Lots of DEI, though. 

Worse even than the last series?
That was a struggle as was.
It's sad as the first series was rather brilliant.

It is kind of non-sensical, and with three stories to tell, rather messy.
I would say the series are pretty much done for after this.

Hemsworth or whatshisname is not so bad as Geralt, but the pacing and story-telling is Netflix.

[Norgy]

Are the Witcher books worth reading?

I would say yes. I have read all of them.

I believe they were written as part fantasy, part satire of the politics of Europe.

Reading the novels will make you balk at the series, though. Fair warning.

[viper37]

Netflix Witcher beyond season 1 is trash. Written by people who are apparently proud about the fact that they either don't know, understand or dislike the source material.
Larded with a big dose of 'the message' but as understood by fools andctheir checkboxes. Because the source material already deals with all the relevant topics for the modern audience. It even has strong women.
But no, they had to fuck it up.

Bah.
Read the books instead. They're quirky, you see that they're not written by a western european/generic American. But i enjoyed them and the way the themes were brought.
And if you want more: Witcher games, especially 3.

#2 wasn't so bad.  Even if it deviated from the books, it was ok.  Suffered a bit from pacing, IIRC, but ok.

#3 haven't had the courage to see it yet.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

It totally mishandled the relation between geralt, ciri and yennifer.

And the nonsense with the elves of dol blathanna (iirc) in that weird alliance with humans.

And the sillyness at kaer morhen.

*scoffs*

Jeez.