The Movie Thread Reloaded

[hedgehobbit]

Yesterday Netflix got rid of Scott Stuber, the head of Netflix original movies. He was the guy that greenlit Rebel Moon and later allowed Zack Snyder to stretch his story into two movies. Seems that Netflix is moving away from their "A new movie every week" plan from just a few years ago because today they announced a $5 Billion, 10-year deal with the WWE.

I'm not sure if this is good or bad for movies in general but it is funny that Zack Snyder has destroyed two different movie studios so far.

[DocJones]

My recommendation of the week:

[Lurkndog]

The second season of Reacher wrapped up last week. I liked it even more than the first season. In particular, the supporting cast was way stronger in the second season. They all knew Reacher, so the show didn't waste a lot of time establishing that Reacher was trustworthy. You do not mess with the Special Investigation Unit!

And despite the fact that the last episode was clearly set up as The Big Fight, they held back some surprises and kept the tension up. It was a satisfying conclusion for our heroic murderhobo.

I'll be looking forward to a third season of Reacher, assuming they can get Alan Ritchson back. His star is definitely on the rise, and he has like six movies lined up.

[Brand55]

The third season has already been greenlit, and Ritchson has talked a little bit about it in interviews. Plus he loves playing Reacher, so I doubt they'll have trouble from him for season 3. The real question is how long they can go and if we'll ultimately getting a satisfactory end to the story. There are so many books that we'll never see half of them adapted, so I hope the showrunners have some sort of road map worked out.

[Omega]

My recommendation of the week:

That used to show often on HBO.

Beauty and the Beast... in space... as a softporn...

[Omega]

Dug out my old copy of "The Wicker Man" (there was no remake!!!) and sat through it.

Mine is a rare find on VHS. The unedited version. So it has all the songs and some other clipped segments.

It is surprisingly well put together and has the feel of Call of Cthulhu investigation as things slowly get weirder and weirder.

Also sat through my unedited DVD of the original Dunwitch Horror movie with Dean Stockwell in it. The movie takes several liberties with the book. But it gets the mood and overall plot across.

[I]

Dug out my old copy of "The Wicker Man" (there was no remake!!!) and sat through it.

Mine is a rare find on VHS. The unedited version. So it has all the songs and some other clipped segments.

It is surprisingly well put together and has the feel of Call of Cthulhu investigation as things slowly get weirder and weirder.

The old Grenadier Models adventure for CoC, "The Horrible Secret of Monhegan Island," is basically "The Wicker Man" with Deep Ones.

[Thornhammer]

Watched True Detective Season 1 with the missus. As a Delta Green fan - nectar, sweeeeet nectar.

Watched True Detective Season 3 with the missus. Also very good, and subtle references to Season 1 indicate it was covered up.

Watched 30 Coins, Season 1. Entirely in Spanish with subtitles (it has "English subtitle description" but don't do that, it is incredibly distracting). Worth the effort, though - a badass Spanish priest and a couple of other folks trying to prevent the capture of the thirty pieces of silver Judas was paid to betray Jesus.  Episode 4 had a great "wait, was that..." moment, and episodes 5 and 6 had some other outstanding assets. Looking forward to getting stuck into Season 2.

[aganauton]

I've been on an old movie kick recently, so I would recommend "Quest for Fire"

Warning:  There is language in it, but nothing anybody would understand, and AFAIK, there is no subtitle track.

On the plus size you get to see a very young Ron Pearlman (in his first role I believe) and a very young Rae Dawn Chong (ditto, plus she runs around half naked for the better part of the film).

It's a good watch.

[Omega]

Quest for Fire was certainly an odd one.

[aganauton]

It is, isn't it.

I saw it in a theatre when it first came out.  My uncle (who took me to see it) caught unholy hell from my stepmother.

It struck a chord with me.  Both the story and the acting.

[Omega]

Anyone heard of this new D&D Stage play? A theater group apparently licensed D&D to use in their presentations title? So someone outside wotc taking initiative.

Does not sound like a play? More like interactive theater. Seems to be using a voting app much like some experimental interactive movies tried years ago.

[Bedrockbrendan]

Saw Raining in the Mountain recently by King Hu. Less focused on martial arts and more focused on a cast of scoundrels. I quite liked it. The basic plot is respected patrons of a Buddhist monastery are invited by the abbot to help him select his replacement, but most are using the opportunity to steal an ancient sutra (and each person wants to steal it for different reasons: monetary value, historical and aesthetic significance, spiritual value, etc). Because it occurs in a monastery, the conceit is they can't have direct conflict with one another on those grounds so stealth, intrigue, and chicanery are mostly how they achieve their goals. But it ends with a solid amount of chasing and fighting.

[Omega]

Came across From Beijing With Love, a completely bonkers spy movie from the same guy as did Kung Fu Hustle, which I still have on VHS from way back. 

[Bedrockbrendan]

Came across From Beijing With Love, a completely bonkers spy movie from the same guy as did Kung Fu Hustle, which I still have on VHS from way back.

I like that one. King of Comedy was pretty good too