ysbreker

Movie/TV recommendations

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The series wasn't so much cancelled as it was completed. I don't think CKs pockets were deep enough to fund a multiple season spanning series. I think it's worth it watching further, I watched 7 episodes. The "not racist"-racist is ultimately a tragic character, though he also has the function of delivering some very inappropriate yet hilarious lines. I especially liked the third episode. It's interesting how the series plays with structure and length.

 

I already have Mommy sitting on my hard drive! I'm not in a haste to get to it, but I'll definitely watch it. Ideally on a Friday, so I have the whole weekend to bathe in my own misery and am ready for work again afterwards. ;)

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I watched the 3rd episode (of Horace & Pete) yesterday, it was really good. I think I'm going to like this miniseries a lot. It reminds me of Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage in some ways, just with a more modern realistic sensibility and more characters.

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Yeah I really liked Horace and Pete, it's the only show I've actually watched weekly as it came out in probably five or more years. Part of that was just that I wanted to support it so I bought the episodes as soon as he put them up, but there was also the whole short production time so the episodes are really current thing going on, similar to South Park. I'm actually curious as to how well that holds up/will hold up, a lot of the stuff in episodes was so current at the time (within a few days) that it was really weird watching it.

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Just finished it. Man, what a devastating ending. Really great show!

 

This show is said by many to be a cross between TV & theater, makes me think I should actually go to theater sometimes... but I don't know, maybe it's not for me, I don't enjoy all the things in theater other than the play itself (e.g. dressing up), so this format kind of works much better for me. In Estonia we actually had a lot of this kind of televised theater kind of thing when I was growing up, just that the length was normally more like 2 or 3 hours, and it was more like someone just put a static camera instead of the audience, but this show actually makes good use of cinematography.

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Saw Amer, an earlier film by the same directors who made The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears. Although perhaps visually less impressive, I actually like this one so much more because it focuses more on the main character, which makes all the other syrrealistic elements work much better, and also the slasher elements are only present in a span of 5 minutes or so... and I just feel very uncomfortable watching slashers.

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I just finished binge watching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  I hadn't seen the show before but the third season was recently released on Netflix so I figured it was a good time to catch up.  I had heard that the beginning isn't so great but honestly I didn't have a problem with it.  It starts out a little predictable and formulaic but quickly becomes a different thing entirely.  I was surprised at how dark and graphic the show got for something that's shown on ABC (unless that's the norm now, I cut cable years ago and haven't watched a network show in ages). 

 

The plot gets really convoluted with all the different factions, betrayals, and characters coming in and out, not to mention the ties to the MCU.  I'm glad I waited until I could watch them all in a row otherwise I think I'd have gotten really lost.  The writing and humor really match up with my own tastes and the action is pretty good so I found it enjoyable almost throughout.  Some of the characters ticked me off but for the most part I didn't have a problem with them. 

 

In general I like the MCU movies but I think Agents is superior to most of them because of the stories and nuance they're able to spend time on that a movie just can't.  My biggest pet peeve is probably the fact that because it has to exist within the MCU but at the same time remain independent of the movies the sense of scale is greatly distorted.  The threats in Agents feel far bigger and more reaching than what the Avengers had to deal with but the movies have to pretend like Agents never happened while Agents has to deal with fallout from the Avengers all the time.

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I saw E.T. on Saturday...with a live orchestra playing the music. It was the RSNO as part of the Edinburgh Film Festival. A really incredible experience, I hadn't seen the film in at least 10 years, The chase scene at the end was really something special.

 

Sorry for the brag.

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Agents of SHIELD has its ups and downs, but the third season was pretty exciting, both halves of it! Looking forward to the fourth season.

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That page didn't work for me. Just in case, here's a different link:

 

http://io9.gizmodo.com/that-black-and-white-version-of-mad-max-fury-road-is-f-1782915891

 

Strangely, either the official description or the Empire article refers to it as the "surreal black and white film version". Perhaps this is a translation hiccup from the German, or b&w films are considered so weird by Hollywood these days they're actually surreal to them, or perhaps Miller has inter-cut a load of melting clocks and ants spewing out of hands and such for this version.

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I'm considering going to the cinema for the new Independence Day, but so far I haven't heard great thing about it. Given the rather hefty pricetag attached to movies (3D and Atmos additional fees) I'm wondering if it's worth it.

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I finally watched Ex Machina, Room, Legend, and Tangerine. Very late to the party.

 

Legend - fun performance from Hardy does nothing to illuminate the Krays and fails to really delve into the impact they had on London. They were murderous, nasty people and the film never really goes there.

 

Ex Machina - Liked it a lot, it was a Sci-Fi retelling of 'In the Company of Men'

 

Room - Really like both performances in it and it was great to see Sean Bridger in a big film after his stellar performance in 'The Woman'

 

Tangerine - My favourite of the lot. Reminded me of early Linklater stuff the central friendship is so awesomely convoluted but I do like that final scene as it gives you hope for them.

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\

 

Tangerine - My favourite of the lot. Reminded me of early Linklater stuff the central friendship is so awesomely convoluted but I do like that final scene as it gives you hope for them.

 

One of my first thoughts walking out of the theater was "This must have been what it was like to see Slacker back in 1991."

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Am I becoming allergic to color movies?

 

Just saw Raging Bull and it is the first Scorsese movie that I really liked without any qualifications.

 

I recently updated my favourites list and the top 10 has only 2 color movies now: The Road Warrior and Fury Road. And maybe the latter doesn't even really count...

 

Sometimes I find black & white movies much easier to watch, color seems kind of distracting in some cases.

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During the week I just finished House of Cards season 4. Overall, I stick with my opinion that the finale of season 3 was a great ending to the show. 4 is still fun and exciting drama, but the character arcs really ended on a great note in 3. I didn't care about any loose ends because I could imagine where they went and what went down next.

 

More specifically

I'm really bummed that Claire leaving Frank wasn't just let stand. It ended up being a move in the political game, just a way for Claire to show her necessity to Frank. I wanted the season 3 ending where Frank had eroded his relationships with so many around him. To the point that he turned his wife from primary partner and sharer of everything, to abandon him. They had signposted that without her his campaign would fall apart. And to me it seemed a good fall, that he could lose not because of specific law breaking or corruption, but because he couldn't maintain a good relationship with anyone in his destructive quest for power.

 

Instead, we get the Underwoods being a power couple, and a "here we go again" finale where they're just setting up who the antagonist is for the next season. It was fun, I liked seeing Claire in real control again and demonstrating her skill alongside Frank. But I just much prefer the ending I read to season 3 and don't think anything Season 5 has to bring will change my mind at all.

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I saw that and need to watch that as soon as possible! Watched M last night on Criterion via Hulu. Was hoping to watch one criterion pick a week but may not keep up with it very long.

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I don't know if anyone has been talking about it but me and my partner have been watching UnREAL a lot recently and the trappings are quite generic but the writing is real sharp.

 

The premise is that it is a drama about people working onset on the a TV show that resembles 'The Bachelor' (the creator worked on that series) and it is how cold blooded the producers are so as to make reality television 'pop'.

 

Our housemate has worked on reality TV and she said that the atmosphere and the scenarios are accurate but anyone that ambitious would be working in scripted shows.

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Lone Star is not really a western, really, but in fact a merging of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Citizen Kane and Do the Right Thing. It's every bit as ambitious as it sounds and it pulls it off perfectly. Way more affecting and meaningful sort of "multiple intersecting stories" film than Crash or the work of Iñárritu or even Magnolia. Definitely one of the great American films of the 90's.

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I'm also seeing the new Star Trek movie on Tuesday. I can't believe I'm seeing two new movies in a week, what a time to be alive!

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I just discovered that SAM has hie ello in his sig when i accidentally clicked it and said ello, wtf is this.

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I just discovered that SAM has hie ello in his sig when i accidentally clicked it and said ello, wtf is this.

 

I totally forgot about that.  I should get rid of it.

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I just watched Hardcore Henry (the entirely first person movie) and it's basically a 90 minute call of duty level interspersed with far cry style first person cutscenes.  As you can imagine it's equal parts absurd and fascinating, but if you decide to watch it make sure to do so on a large screen a good distance away, particularly if first person games give you motion sickness.

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I just watched Hardcore Henry (the entirely first person movie) and it's basically a 90 minute call of duty level interspersed with far cry style first person cutscenes.  As you can imagine it's equal parts absurd and fascinating, but if you decide to watch it make sure to do so on a large screen a good distance away, particularly if first person games give you motion sickness.

 

as a fan of over the top action movies, i thought this totally earned it's conceit. constant escalation right to the end, and a few moments of charm, mostly through his friend, my fiance almost blasted a puke once or twice, so i'll cosign the motion warning. 

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