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My god, I simply forgot Castle Rock existed! I have to go back and catch up.

Good luck to your nephew, @mckindog! Does he play the main character? Oh, sorry, just saw you said "starring role".
 
Ariana said:
My god, I simply forgot Castle Rock existed! I have to go back and catch up.

Good luck to your nephew, @mckindog! Does he play the main character? Oh, sorry, just saw you said "starring role".
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Yep, he plays the dumb, sweet jock. Movie has more heart than the trailer might lead you to believe.
Reviews have been good. Hope it sets him well for future roles. He’s been working so hard.
 
I'm planning to watch Promare! It's going to be my first anime of any kind, even if it is a movie. Oh, and I'm watching the dub.
 
My GF surprised me the other day by saying she wanted to watch The Godfather Trilogy. It suprised me, because I thought she would consider them too long (each movie is about 3 hours), too slow, boring ,etc. But she stuck it out even through the third installment. We paused the movies several times to talk about all the different mass migrations to the U.S, who came when, why, how well off they were financially or how desperate they were. The relationship between organized crime and their neighborhoods, politics and the church. The Cuban revolution, why it occured, the sad aftermath and the repurcussions felt to this day.

We all know how good Part I and Part II are, but I don't understand the hate for the Part III. Sure it isn't as great as its predecessors, but it isn't a BAD film in any way. I think the Godfather Part III suffered the way the Star Wars Prequels suffered. It came out 10 years after Part II, Michael is old and weak, Everyone we loved from the first two are dead or not brought back for whatever reason. The new characters are not charismatic enough for us too care. Andy Garcia does a very poor James Caan as Sonny impression. Joe Magneta isn't menacing enough as the new upstart. Suprisingly, for all the crap Sophia Coppola has gotten for her role, she wasn't THAT bad and really not what was wrong with the movie.

The original Star Wars was high fantasy and adventure, a fun ride. The Phantom Menace? An economic blocade by the Trade Federation. The Godfather Part I is Michael going from Anakin to Darth Vader in 3 hours in spectacular fashion. Part II is a prequel and sequel IN ONE! Part III? Oh, we're doing a shady business deal with the Catholic Church for a furniture company.... how.... not compelling. I think the last act of the movie encapsulates exactly what it is. We see them attend Michael's son first Opera and much like with the baptism in the first movie, all the killing happens during the Opera. Opera is over the top, very dramatic, takes itself too seriously, and that is what Part III did. Still a good movie, far from a masterpiece, but not the disaster people make it out to be.

Simply an amazing Trilogy. Incredibly structured and thought out (except for the oranges lol), how each film starts with a party, when everyone kisses Brando's hand, then Michael's, then Vincent's, the soundtrack, etc. Also, for the first time the movies LOOKED old to me, they've aged. The make up, Brando's prosthetics, the cinematography, which I thought elegant and classic as a kid, now look... well... old.
 
Saw the Jeffrey Epstein doc on Netflix. It's... competent, but I feel it gives a big pass to all known associates of this guy and also goes light with the biggest question, did he or did he not kill himself? Sure they mention the autopsey ordered by his brother which concludes foul play, but... WHO, who among all his rich and powerful ex-associates pulled the trigger on the decision? One of them? ALL of them? We'll have to wait for season two.
 
Just read back on this, how in the world do u pay 120 for prime? We pay 40 for students or 70 for regular the whole year
 
FTB said:
Just read back on this, how in the world do u pay 120 for prime? We pay 40 for students or 70 for regular the whole year
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That's the last price I saw in the US. Can't speak for the rest of the world. For example, our wonderful government here in Mexico decided to add an 18% tax to all online services like Netflix, prime, Xbox gold, etc. Sure enough, my Netflix went up, but Microsoft decided to pay for the tax themselves and left prices stable.
 
Started watching Comrade Detective (Amazon). 1 Season so far was made in 2017.

A bizarre, but funny and interesting show. The plot is that there was a famous Romanian Communist Buddy Cop show in the 1980s that was uncovered, upscaled to HD and dubbed in English

Reality is that they shot the show in Romania, in Romanian, with Romanian actors, then dubbed the voices with Channing Tatum, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Daniel Craig, Nick Offerman, Fred Armison, Kim Bassinger and a host of others.

Good show.
 
We moved on to the Lord of the Rings trilogy this time. It was surreal for me to watch. I saw these movies in theaters as they premiered a year apart. I remember thinking, "WOW, this has revolutionized film!" Aaaand... no. Not really. Yeah, most studios are using WETA over ILM for VFX, but movies went back to normal. What I mean is, massive movies being filmed as one to save time and costs. The time and care placed on the CGI and practical effects and costumes are a watershed! Again... nope, so much nope, in fact, The Hobbit was a huge step BACK in all of those regards. It was also weird, because while, for whatever reason, Jurrasic Park still looks amazing to me (some effects are starting to look dated to me), the LOTR looks REALLY dated.

The story itself is high fantasy at its finest. The GF and I had a great chat on how while Tolkien didn't INVENT elves and dwarves, trolls, and other high fantasy elements, he did crystalize them into what we know them today. In short, he did for high fantasy what Bram Stoker did for the Vampire and Mary Shelley did for Sci-Fi. The massive influence on the genre and beyond is incredible.

That being said, I was almost bored by this reviewing. The only protagonist that dies is Boromir. No one, aside from maybe the hobbits, is ever in any REAL danger. It is definitely a PG-13 movie with the violence being very tame and almost cartoonish. For example, Gimli AXES an orc and dude gets knocked back like being hit with a BAT, not an AXE No visible injury on the orc, no blood on the axe. The only truly grim scence I can recall is when the orcs catapult the decapitated heads of the Gondor soldiers back at them.

Great set of movies, definitely a product of their time.

Following our trilogy viewings we moved on to Indiana Jones. Oh man, if i thought the violence in LOTR was cartoonish, this one was worse, I felt I was watching a live action Looney Tunes. To be fair Indy does take on his fair share of beatings, gets bloodied, cut, tired, etc. He does get placed in fairly real peril which is only offset due to the aged effects. I can also see how parents went ape shit from Raiders to Temple of Doom for the above stated. Temple is DARK in comparison.

Also, not I said the indiana Jones trilogy, yup, we skipped Crystal Skulls... fuck dat shit.
 
Onhell said:
LOTR looks REALLY dated.
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I watched The Fellowship of the Ring on TV last weekend and one of my first thoughts was that it seems to have aged well! :lol: The CGI for the Balrog looks a bit sketchy now but overall it's help up well over the last (nearly) 20 years.
Onhell said:
t is definitely a PG-13 movie with the violence being very tame and almost cartoonish. For example, Gimli AXES an orc and dude gets knocked back like being hit with a BAT, not an AXE No visible injury on the orc, no blood on the axe.
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The dumbest part is when Legolas uses a shield to surf downstairs at Helms Deep. That was really, really stupid.
Onhell said:
Following our trilogy viewings we moved on to Indiana Jones. Oh man, if i thought the violence in LOTR was cartoonish, this one was worse, I felt I was watching a live action Looney Tunes. To be fair Indy does take on his fair share of beatings, gets bloodied, cut, tired, etc. He does get placed in fairly real peril which is only offset due to the aged effects.
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I thought Indiana Jones was supposed to be cartoonish. :huh:
 
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