ysbreker

Movie/TV recommendations

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I watched the pilot tonight for a new BBC comedy drama called Being Human. I guess it's kind of like This Life meets Buffy. Three flatmates and their lives, one being a vampire, one a werewolf and one a ghost who haunts their flat. It was a just a one off, so hard to tell where it would go, but it was a hell of a lot better than any other british supernatural/sci-fi series of recent years (most of which have been utterly awful X-files wannabes). Here's hoping it gets a whole series.

Yep, I agree with this. Good telly.

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Tsk, tsk -- bad 5k!LLz.

Thanks for the link. I've been avoiding proxies because I generally have trouble finding one with the bandwidth for video, or at least, did last time.

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Just gonna throw this out there now. There Will Be Blood. Fantastic. Holy fuck fantastic.

Yes, and No Country for Old Men. I have to say though, as much as I loved both films, I thought Blood was better. It was extremely powerful, and the music by Jonny Greenwood was spectacular. And it felt so gritty and real. Definitely my favorite film of the year.

What with my mind corrupted by years of video-game violence (:mock: ), I'm hardly phased by the violence in Kill Bill, Sin City, etc. But here, I had to force myself not to turn away during the last scene with the bowling pin. It was the hardest scene I've even had to watch (well, that and Audition, but for different reasons). I don't know what to make of that, but it certainly says something for the power of everyone involved to get you emotionally invested in No Country. Spectacular film.

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Mrs V and I are up to the last episode of Dexter, season 2.

Started off pretty lame, owing to what I expect was a rather large spike in audience figures off the back of the first season. But once the patronising crap was out the way (episode 4 onwards) it really started to pick up.

Not sure if the character Dexter has been twisted too far one way, only to be twisted all the way back again. I'm worried he may snap, metaphorically speaking, along with my interest. I'm hoping there'll be a decent pay-off in the final episode to counter this effect though.

One thing I've noticed; there's not a single character either of us don't find interesting on more than a superficial level. It's a very carefully crafted series. :tup:

Oh and I tried to watch Family Guy's Blue Harvest at the weekend, but was bored rigid about 15 minutes in. Just... what's the point? I could write predictable zeitgeisty crap like that -- really have gone off that series lately. :tdown:

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Yeah, but more than the actual quality of Blue Harvest, I could never justify buying any less than the entire season of a show. Paying full-price for a 1 hour special seems ridiculous to me, and this is coming from someone who unfortunately loves to buy crap.

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I believe it's called "selling out". :frusty:

Anyway, we watched the final episode of Dexter (season 2) last night.

Doakes! NOOOOOOOO!!!

Actually we were genuinely shocked at how brutally despatched the sergeant was. Very grim and sad indeed.

The resolution with Lilah was a rather disappointing anti-climax too and seemed somewhat of an after thought.

Anyway, Dexter still ranks as the best TV - along with the stupendous The Wire - I've watched in the last 12 months.

Don't forget that Battlestar starts up again next week, kids. And the MotoGP 2008 season kicks off with its first ever night race in Qatar (my old stomping ground of yore, fyi) this Sunday night. Can't wait!

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Anyway, we watched the final episode of Dexter (season 2) last night.

Doakes! NOOOOOOOO!!!

Actually we were genuinely shocked at how brutally despatched the sergeant was. Very grim and sad indeed.

The resolution with Lilah was a rather disappointing anti-climax too and seemed somewhat of an after thought.

Likewise, I really respect the writers for not finding a cop out of the situation they'd set up. Though

I thought the resolution with Lila was pretty good, showing not only had Dexter quelled his doubts, but just how far he was willing to go to guarantee his freedom. His pragmatism and self acceptance in the ending to S2 was also a good counterpoint to the ticker-tape fantasies of S1

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I can appreciate why it ended the way it did. But...

--resolving the whole crux of season 2 with a 5 minute post-close-out addendum was disappointing -- especially after the palpable tension, fear and excitement at the aquarium earlier in the same episode.

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Just saw 'The Band's Visit'. Great film. Funny, wistful, calm, happy. It tells the unspectacular story of an egyptian police band that comes to Israel, gets a little lost and thus has to stay one day and night in some province town, where they meet a group of residents who all are similarly lost. Characters unfold, stories get told, odd and funny situations happen.

:tup:

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On the subject of Dexter, I too finished season 2 a few weeks ago and thought it was pretty well done.

The only thing I disliked was the whole adulterous Dexter thing; it just really didn't befit his character and felt somewhat like an error. Loved the whole tension between him and Doakes, with the latter locked away in that cabin. And was it me or was Masuka more comic relief than ever? Not that I'm complaining, I love his horrible double entendres. And him packing that huuuuuge gun when Dexter was assaulted on the parking lot was hilarious.

I do wonder where they'll go for the third season. It seems to me they've exploited the 'identity crisis' angle for all it was worth. Either they find something new, or they'll be forced to take a step back and pick up the old 'one victim per episode' formula again. More past revelations might start to feel contrived.

On another note, I loved watching Hustle so much this past year, having downloaded the first three seasons, that I'm considering buying them on DVD. It's just such an excellent and fun show. Wouldn't mind owning it. And it's only fair, seeing how it entertained me so perfectly.

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I saw two movies tonight.

First Paprika, which I think I remember being discussed earlier in this thread. I'd heard some negative things about it but despite a few flaws, I thought it was spectacular. It always pisses me off when movies try to make a dream sequence and it turns out looking like the rest of the movie with a little bloom added in post-production. Paprika nailed the dream aesthetic.

Then I saw Death Proof, which was a huge disappointment. It was just boring :blink: and wasn't worth the time I spent watching it. I love Quentin, but mehh. I felt like if it had been shorter, it would have actually been better.

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Agreed about Paprika. I was recently browsing a Blu-Ray rack at HMV to find something new to watch on the PS3 and saw an HD copy of it. Had to buy. Absolutely amazing.

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Just gonna throw this out there now. There Will Be Blood. Fantastic. Holy fuck fantastic.

Agreed. Best film of the year! :tup:

Also, it may not be as cool as it once was (?) but the new series of Lost is seriously :tup: :tup: :tup:

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Yeah, it is very awesome; with all the Oscars the French movies got this year and the Colbert Push the movie benefited from a few days before the ceremony, I was hoping it would get the Best Animated Feature ... meh, Ratatouille is a very good movie too.

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I haven't yet, so I can't compare.

I just watched Network for the first time. Maybe I've just been oblivious to it until recently, but I don't understand why it doesn't have more notoriety. It's an incredibly profound and prophetic movie that's well worth a watch.

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I just saw No Country for Old Men... :tup:

In a theater where the bass speakers reverbed like crazy, making it difficult to make out most of the low-pitched characters' dialogue, including Tommy Lee Jones. :tdown:

So the ending was even more unexpected for me, since I had to go to the imdb quotes page to figure out what the hell he said. Yeah, the sound quality of the theater was that bad.

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I just saw No Country for Old Men... :tup:

In a theater where the bass speakers reverbed like crazy, making it difficult to make out most of the low-pitched characters' dialogue, including Tommy Lee Jones. :tdown:

So the ending was even more unexpected for me, since I had to go to the imdb quotes page to figure out what the hell he said. Yeah, the sound quality of the theater was that bad.

uh. If it's that bad why the fuck did you sit through the whole thing? When I went to see it for a second time in December the projector had lighting issues. The film was working but it was REALLY DARK, making it difficult to discern anything (especially the early night scenes). Got a refund. I'm not going to put up with that shit.

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I haven't yet, so I can't compare.

I just watched Network for the first time. Maybe I've just been oblivious to it until recently, but I don't understand why it doesn't have more notoriety. It's an incredibly profound and prophetic movie that's well worth a watch.

Amazing movie :tup: :tup: :tup:

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Has anyone else seen Be Kind Rewind yet? It made me laugh a lot with plenty of Gondry's typical silliness, but overall I didn't think it was a brilliant film.

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Has anyone else seen Be Kind Rewind yet? It made me laugh a lot with plenty of Gondry's typical silliness, but overall I didn't think it was a brilliant film.

Was initially intrigued, but really don't like the look of it now I've scratched the surface.

Jack Black still isn't starring in particularly good comedies it would seem, with School of Rock being a rather flukey highlight I think.

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I liked Be Kind Rewind. A lot of people complain that Gondry's movies are too surreal and distant that it's hard to find any real emotion in them, but I love the way he infuses these quirky worlds and situations he creates with real-world messages.

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A lot of people complain that Gondry's movies are too surreal and distant that it's hard to find any real emotion in them

I know what they mean - I'm really 50/50 about it and found Be Kind Rewind tipped over the edge, even though much of it, especially the movie recreation sequences, was absolutely laugh out loud hilarious. It just seemed... to lack structure or commitment.

He seemed to be making points about the intersection and differences between extreme fandom and piracy, but never got really explicit about it.

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Just saw Paris je t'Aime (Paris, I Love You). It is essentially a series of short films by 20 different directors from around the world, each set in a different arrondissement in Paris and each dealing with the theme of love in a very different way. It's really nice, check it out.

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