The Movie Thread Reloaded

[Adeptus]

I watched on Netflix "Mr. Car and Knights Templar". It is adaptation of one the adventure books about Polish "Indiana Jones" and I watched it because I am Pole and read the books as a kid. So... totally not recommend. For not-Polish viewers fact that it is next "in name only" pseudoadaption is probably not important - but it is just very weak movie in itself.

[Omega]

eh. It happens all to often. Sometimes all an "adaption" retains is the title and maybe a few place names or character names.

[Ratman_tf]

Well... Hollywood lives down to my expectations yet again and ruins a glimmer of hope.

Saw season 2 of ST: Strange new Worlds and its just progressively unwatchable. For me the final breaking point was the crossover with Lower Decks which proves just how much contempt they have for the franchise.

After 14 years of terrible Trek, anyone still watching has no one to blame but themselves.

Eh. The first season of Strange New Worlds was overall pretty good. Some low points like all the Gorn nonesense. But otherwise pretty watchable. Season 2. No.

I've heard Season 3 of Picard was fairly good too. But I'm at the point where I don't want to wade though a bunch of garbage for a few passable episodes. I haven't watched any Trek since the 09 film, except out of the corner of my eye when my brother watches something. He seems to enjoy this season of SNW so that tells you something about his taste in entertainment. 

[Rhymer88]

I've heard Season 3 of Picard was fairly good too. But I'm at the point where I don't want to wade though a bunch of garbage for a few passable episodes. I haven't watched any Trek since the 09 film, except out of the corner of my eye when my brother watches something. He seems to enjoy this season of SNW so that tells you something about his taste in entertainment. 

Season 3 is certainly better than Season 1 (I didn't even bother to watch Season 2). It's not spectacular, but I generally found it in keeping with TNG, although I must admit that I'm by no means an expert on that series.

[Shrieking Banshee]

I've heard Season 3 of Picard was fairly good too. But I'm at the point where I don't want to wade though a bunch of garbage for a few passable episodes.

That is a good attitude. Picard wasn't just bad. It was a concerted insult. Is season 3 the most spectacular apology in fiction? Is it so good it makes seasons 1-2 vital because they are a requirement to now apreciate an even better show?

If not, it's returning to the restaurant that spits in your food in front of you as long as the refrain from doing it every once in a while.

Media fans are addicts.

[Omega]

I've heard Season 3 of Picard was fairly good too. But I'm at the point where I don't want to wade though a bunch of garbage for a few passable episodes.

Its pretty good in the same way Jaws 3D is pretty good compared to Jaws 2.

[Lurkndog]

Old movies are often extremely informative for creating pulp-era settings. One example I found recently is the Chinese movie Street Angels from 1937. I was a bit surprised that it contains a reference to the Three Stooges. There's also a bouncing ball above the lyrics of the female lead's first song. Was the audience expected to sing along?

Humphrey Bogart made a movie called Tokyo Joe in 1949 that is in most ways a Casablanca knockoff: worldly American winds up in exotic postwar Tokyo to pick up the pieces of his prewar life, encounters old friends and enemies, etc. But the location footage they shot of Tokyo in 1949 is fascinating. Tokyo is still rebuilding from being firebombed and knocked flat, but here and there you can see bits of modern Tokyo emerging from the ruins. Like there is a brief shot of the grassy field by the side of a canal that every anime character goes to after school.

Great reference for a 1950s game.

[Lurkndog]

Justified: City Primeval isn't getting better. It has moved to Tuesday nights now. It's an eight episode season, so only four more to go. I might as well keep watching, but I can already see the future plot twists coming (act surprised when Raylan's daughter returns).

[Thornhammer]

Maybe she brings some acting ability back with her.

[Thornhammer]

The Righteous Gemstones season finale was damn near perfect.

Baby Billy's Bible Bonkers was everything I hoped it could be.

[Lurkndog]

Maybe she brings some acting ability back with her.

This is her first real acting job, she's been OK. I do wish she could have kept her accent from wandering.

[Reckall]

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.

[Omega]

I didnt like it because I just did not find it funny. I didnt like Seinfeld either. I really do not like Lower Decks or Vox Machina.

[Ratman_tf]

I liked BBT. Like all shows, after a while, the schtick gets old, and the writers run out of good ideas and so I kinda just drifted away. But it was fun while it lasted.
Show wasn't perfect, some of the "jokes" were just "Aren't nerds silly?" but some were great and I enjoyed it just fine.

[Reckall]

I liked BBT. Like all shows, after a while, the schtick gets old, and the writers run out of good ideas and so I kinda just drifted away. But it was fun while it lasted.
Show wasn't perfect, some of the "jokes" were just "Aren't nerds silly?" but some were great and I enjoyed it just fine.

I think that the stories went South in the final seasons but I still liked some of the writing and the performance of all the actors - including guest stars.

The "Sheldon and Amy get married" storyline, for example, dragged and dragged - but the episode of the actual marriage was a display of fireworks. Kathy Bates, Teller, Mark Hamill out of the blue... and no one was there to simply collect a paycheck (it was Hamill's idea to show that he is clueless about Star Wars, because this is true IRL).

Recurring characters like the head of Caltech were always sparkling ("I can't wait to know nothing about this" - a line that has become part of my vocabulary )

And, looking at the dialogue structure with my screenwriting eye I can only admire how they made stale gags fresh again because most of the humor was based on the unexpected. An example I think I'll use in my next seminary is this one between Amy and Sheldon:

AMY: I can't believe how Theoretical Physicists of their intelligence can behave like children.
SHELDON: Come on! It happens everywhere, even between you Neurobiologists!
AMY: Why... you know the name of some Neurobiologist?
SHELDON: Er... No...
AMY (furious):NOT EVEN MINE?!

...Which is an arrow which strikes from an unexpected direction - and yet it arrives after a logical build up. Everything is interlocked, sometimes across a whole episode.

And the actors did their best until the end. As I said, it was like hanging out with a group of friends, even if not every evening was perfect.

Anyway, while rewatching it I started to think how it was one of the last shafts of light before wokeness hit. As I said, you can see TBBT as a show that offends everybody. Today it would have no hope.