The Movie Thread Reloaded

[Lurkndog]

I'm rewatching The Big Bang Theory. I know that many despise the series (which is normal when something is succesful) but to me every episode is like hanging out with a group of friends.

Also, I disagree with those who think that the series derides man-childs who still play D&D and debate about Wonder Woman vs. Spock. First, every time the characters do something "nerdy" I immediately want to do the same thing. Second, you can see TBBT as a series that either offends nobody or that offends everybody - Penny and the rest of the girls included - thus showing how, actually, it is important for each one of us to be different is his own way.

BBT is one of the few sitcoms I can stand.

Most sitcoms straight-up trigger me when I see the plot points about to arrive, and I always see them before they occur. It's not so much intelligence on my part, as simple pattern recognition.

BBT hits differently enough that I don't get triggered. I also like that most of the characters are fallible, but still likeable.

I do wish they had worked in some more of the geek social fallacies, like wanting to live like a college student forever. In particular, I think if Howard had shifted more towards focusing on his kid instead of his own interests, and grown into the role of a dad, it would have given him a better story arc. (It's possible they did some of that, I only watched a sprinkling of the last couple of seasons.)

[Trond]

I'm rewatching The Big Bang Theory. I know that many despise the series (which is normal when something is succesful) but to me every episode is like hanging out with a group of friends.

Also, I disagree with those who think that the series derides man-childs who still play D&D and debate about Wonder Woman vs. Spock. First, every time the characters do something "nerdy" I immediately want to do the same thing. Second, you can see TBBT as a series that either offends nobody or that offends everybody - Penny and the rest of the girls included - thus showing how, actually, it is important for each one of us to be different is his own way.

I loved the first season but lost interest fairly quickly after. My wife watched all the seasons even though she hated that Sheldon-girlfriend woman.

Anyway, I think the nerd humor is good fun. Never understood people who got offended (and I think they came in two varieties; people who felt like it made too much fun of geeks, and people who felt that the characters were -ists and -phobes)

[Thornhammer]

Anybody else watching Twisted Metal? I'm 1.5 episodes in, and I like it enough that I'll keep going tomorrow.

[Lurkndog]

I'm finally getting around to watching Stranger Things Season 4. They've still got it.

The trailers coming out for Ahsoka have definitely grabbed my attention. Live action Star Wars Rebels seems like might be even better than it was in animation. Rebels had budget limitations that at times held them back,  particularly in areas like music and sound engineering.

[Thornhammer]

RIP Johnny Hardwick, King of the Hill's Dale Gribble.

This one hit a hell of a lot harder than I expected.

[oggsmash]

I'm finally getting around to watching Stranger Things Season 4. They've still got it.

The trailers coming out for Ahsoka have definitely grabbed my attention. Live action Star Wars Rebels seems like might be even better than it was in animation. Rebels had budget limitations that at times held them back,  particularly in areas like music and sound engineering.

   I thought season 4 was sort of trash.   I enjoyed Eddie, but the idea of the alternate dimension being created by another version of 11 sort of fell into a very tired, very old very dumb trope of having the super hero face a version of themselves with same powers but opposed world view.  Damn near EVERY super hero origin movie/comic has this as a trope and I thought it was pretty bad turn of story.  Now having someone like that allied with whatever runs the dark dimension I think would be a much better story.   The other trope...hero loses powers must regain them...is also a tired, old and stupid arc.   11's arc is learning to be around people and control her powers to not mash anyone who annoys her, not to lose and regain them in some weird attempt at a classic hero arc (her arc is already done on that end with her time spent in the institution). 

    I feel like season 4 was a bit of retcon and smelled a whole lot like a path someone like JJ Abrams would take instead of using the creativity the show started with and running with it (a true alternate dimension where real evil exists and attempts to penetrate our world).    I will watch season 5 because I  have seen all the other seasons...but I can not help but feel the writers and creators turned a good deal of their story choices strongly towards decisions by committee (we have to have a mixed race relationship, we need a lesbian, we will shoehorn a character into being a closeted gay boy in love with his childhood friend, etc) that is ruled by Rules of Current Year instead of just creative energy.   

    I also guess coming out on top over the Russian Terminator must have been worth 1000000 xp for Hopper, because he leveled up like a big boss being able to now kill a monster that  battle rifle armed squads of men couldnt deal with in melee combat. 

[Thornhammer]

Took kids to see The Meg 2.

It is about two hours long. Multiple megalodons, a kraken, and some other lizard dinosaur thing.

Underwater power exoskeletons, but they don't see a lot of fighting action.

A good deal of silliness - you're going to have to handwave concerns about descent time, ascension time, decompression. But this is a movie about zillion year old giant sharks, if you go in expecting hard science you're going in with the wrong attitude.

Starts out fun, gets dull, then improves. When you hear Wu Jing mention the words "roughly translates to Fun Island" it kicks up into high gear for the rest of the movie.

Critics are savaging it. I'm not going to claim it is a masterpiece. But my kids had a blast, and I thought it was fun. Lot of people get et by sharks, or a giant squid, or small dinosaurs, or having a suit breached at a depth of Holy Shit That's Deep. The plot is fairly predictable. Wu Jing isn't bad (and his filmography sounds like something I need to check out), Page Kennedy is pretty good, Sergio Peris-Mencheta is entertaining, and Jason Statham is always fun.

If you like giant shark movies, this one is fun.

[Lurkndog]

That's pretty much how the first Meg was, and I enjoyed it.

It was nice seeing Masi Oka getting some work, he was also in Bullet Train recently, which is similar entertaining nonsense.

[Thornhammer]

Watching Day Shift on Netflix.

Jaime Foxx is a part time pool cleaner, part time vampire hunter. With Snoop Dogg.

Do you like John Wick? Because this isn't "kinda like" John Wick, this is John Wick plus vampires (even has Peter Stormare) and minus a little taking itself seriously.

It works. It works well. It does not fuck around before getting to a good vampire fight.

[Omega]

Book related this time:

Cleaning out storage and came across not one, but two collections of Lord Dunsany stories. One being a collection of 50 short stories and the other being at least 20 more with illustrations by Sime. Published in the early 70s.

Quite an interesting collection and I see now why people compare his and Lovecraft's writing. They both have a very evocative way with prose. Difference being Dunsany seems to favor fantasy settings in the ones I am reading so far. Some are hyper-short covering only a page or two. Others are far longer.

And one of the stories is "How Nuth would have practiced his art upon the Gnoles"

[Thornhammer]

I remember a collection of various weird short stories, one of which was "The Hoard of the Gibbelins." That has stuck with me for decades.

Lord Dunsany does not fuck around.

[Thornhammer]

On another topic: Knock at the Cabin. Didn't go quite as I had thought. Red herrings abound. Still worth a watch!

[Omega]

I remember a collection of various weird short stories, one of which was "The Hoard of the Gibbelins." That has stuck with me for decades.

Lord Dunsany does not fuck around.

That is in the collection as well. Just finished reading it.

[Lurkndog]

Dunsany sounds pretty great. Any suggestions for a good edition? Are the Penguin Classics editions from before they started doing woke edits to the texts of books?

[Omega]

Dunsany sounds pretty great. Any suggestions for a good edition? Are the Penguin Classics editions from before they started doing woke edits to the texts of books?

The two I have are "Gods, Men and Ghosts. This one is 34 of his longer pieces including The Hoard of the Gibblins and How Nuth Would have Practiced his Art upon the Gnoles. And "The Distressing Tale of Thongobrind the Jeweler and the Doom that Befell him" This one I liked alot as it feels like a high level Thief in action.

The other is The Food of Death, which is 51 very short stories. Many about a page long.

Of the two I'd say go for Gods, Men and Ghosts as it has the more meaty reads, I have only glanced through Food of Death so far. Kat had "The Mist" bookmarked in Food of Death.

THE MIST
The mist said unto the mist: "Let us go up into the Downs." and the mist came up weeping.

And the mist went into the high places and the hollows.
 
And clumps of trees in the distance stood ghostly in the haze.

But I went to a prophet, one who loved the Downs, and said to him: "Why does the mist come up weeping into the Downs when it goes into the high places and the hollows?"

And he said "The mist is the company of a multitude of souls who never saw the Downs, and now are dead. Therefore they come up weeping into the Downs, who are dead and never saw them.