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Offline Snupes

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Re: Just Watched
« Reply #1820 on: September 07, 2017, 07:36:42 AM »
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Season 4, Episodes 7-11)

So I finally decided to return to this series and man it's gotten good. I like this season's layout. Episodes 1-8 are one arc and storyline, 9-something are another, and then there'a a third arc for the last third (I'm not spoiling myself on when the second ends and the third starts). It seriously keeps the story from growing stale or feeling too dragged out and feels more like getting a few seasons of the show in a more condensed format. The LMD (Life Model Decoy arc so far (started with 9, I just finished 11) has been fantastic with the sense of paranoia and conniving it conveys is fantastic; I'm watching every character closely, speculating about their motivations, it feels like watching a really good spy thriller where you don't know who or what you can trust, but with characters you've come to know over the years. It's breathed some nice new life into this show for me. They're also just doing a really good job of avoiding character clichés. So yeah I'm excited to catch up finally.
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Offline rooster

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Re: Just Watched
« Reply #1821 on: September 07, 2017, 01:21:12 PM »
I've been binging Grey's Anatomy, which I have never watched before.
I love binging shows and figured since it has 13 seasons I would give it a try.

It is surprisingly good. Each episode has a theme about life or personal relationships. There is more focus on the surgical aspect than I originally thought there would be, but maybe that will start to shift as the show grows (I'm only in the second season). Most dramas tend to get more ridiculous in order to keep interest, but I'm hooked so I'm sure I'll be fine with it turning into a full-blown soap opera if that's what happens.

I don't care much for either Ellen Pompeo or Patrick Dempsey, and yet they have enough chemistry for me to like them together.

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Offline juner

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Re: Just Watched
« Reply #1822 on: September 07, 2017, 02:05:01 PM »
Most dramas tend to get more ridiculous in order to keep interest, but I'm hooked so I'm sure I'll be fine with it turning into a full-blown soap opera if that's what happens.

Don't worry, the ridiculous stuff is coming. Along with with terribly, horribly sad things. Then massive shark jumping.

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Offline Lord Dave

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Re: Just Watched
« Reply #1823 on: September 07, 2017, 05:24:09 PM »
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Season 4, Episodes 7-11)

So I finally decided to return to this series and man it's gotten good. I like this season's layout. Episodes 1-8 are one arc and storyline, 9-something are another, and then there'a a third arc for the last third (I'm not spoiling myself on when the second ends and the third starts). It seriously keeps the story from growing stale or feeling too dragged out and feels more like getting a few seasons of the show in a more condensed format. The LMD (Life Model Decoy arc so far (started with 9, I just finished 11) has been fantastic with the sense of paranoia and conniving it conveys is fantastic; I'm watching every character closely, speculating about their motivations, it feels like watching a really good spy thriller where you don't know who or what you can trust, but with characters you've come to know over the years. It's breathed some nice new life into this show for me. They're also just doing a really good job of avoiding character clichés. So yeah I'm excited to catch up finally.

Literally better Ultron than Ultron.
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Offline rooster

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Re: Just Watched
« Reply #1824 on: September 08, 2017, 01:16:20 AM »
Most dramas tend to get more ridiculous in order to keep interest, but I'm hooked so I'm sure I'll be fine with it turning into a full-blown soap opera if that's what happens.

Don't worry, the ridiculous stuff is coming. Along with with terribly, horribly sad things. Then massive shark jumping.
I already know about sad things thanks to all the fangirls online when it happened. But I kinda like sad things.

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Offline Roundy

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Re: Just Watched
« Reply #1825 on: September 08, 2017, 01:33:57 AM »
Mcdreamy  :'(
Dr. Frank is a physicist. He says it's impossible. So it's impossible.
My friends, please remember Tom said this the next time you fall into the trap of engaging him, and thank you. :)

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Offline Snupes

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Re: Just Watched
« Reply #1826 on: September 08, 2017, 03:43:21 AM »
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Season 4, Episodes 12-15)

I don't know if four episodes really should have its own post but these past few episodes have been amazing episodes of S.H.I.E.L.D., but amazing episodes of television, period. Episode 14 and 15 alone are just...holy shit. The LMDs have proven to be a massive boon to this show when I was originally worried they'd drag it down, and there's a level of peril and uncertainty that this show has been missing for a long while. Tension is through the roof and I'm never certain what's going to happen and who's really who they say they are. I want to gush more but I'd rather continue on watching so I guess that's all I'm gonna say. This show officially has me hooked again and I seriously regret stopping with watching it...though, well, maybe not, since now I get to binge all this glory and it really does not take away from it at all.
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Offline rooster

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Re: Just Watched
« Reply #1827 on: September 08, 2017, 12:43:24 PM »
I'm more upset that Meredith Grey slept with George O'Malley and ruined their friendship. George was my favorite.

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Offline Snupes

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Re: Just Watched
« Reply #1828 on: September 19, 2017, 03:28:22 AM »
It (Andrés Muschietti, 2017)

I was pretty excited for this, and even with that it blew my expectations out of the water. Weirdly, the movie really isn't that scary, per se (though the atmosphere is amazingly dark and suspenseful), it feels like more of a supernatural thriller. And that's not a bad thing at all. The movie is bizarrely beautiful, the cinematography absolutely stunning and the music lending to the remorselessly twisted menace of its world. I loved it, and Bill Skarsgård was fantastic as Pennywise despite my worries. I'm excited for chapter two.

Also the last movie I expected to make me cry.

Related, though, the movie not scaring me whatsoever triggered the wonder and worry that horror movies don't scare me anymore. This prompted my investigation into horror movies that are supposed to be terrifying, to see if I can still feel fear and horror from them...


It Comes at Night (Trey Edward Shults, 2017)

Stop one on my journey to get scared. Again, this film was great, tense, and beautifully-shot...but I was never scared. This, too, felt more like a thriller. Is that the film, or is that me? Hopefully we'll find out!


Predestination (Peter & Michael Spierig, 2015)

Okay, this really isn't a horror movie but I was in the mood for a concept film. It wasn't amazing, but it was enjoyable. A time travel mystery/thriller that's a bit absurd (in a good way) and has enough surprises up its sleeve to keep it interesting...even if I did figure out the entire timeline about halfway through and pretty much spend the rest of it watching that unfold.


The Double (Richard Ayoade, 2014)

Someone said this movie spooked them but apparently they didn't mean in a terrifying way. Another concept film, this one based on a short story by Dostoevsky. The sets are bizarre and it's really not clear what kind of strange world this one takes place in, but further explanation probably would've marred the plot. Again, good, but not scary and not amazing.


El Orfanato (J.A. Bayona, 2007)

Alright, this one I checked out 'cause I was told by a coworker that it's the scariest movie they've ever seen, and the internet seemed to agree it was spooky. While it was atmospherically dark and I could see why it would scare people...once again, nothing out of me. It was beautiful, though, and I was sobbing by the end. This search isn't going well so far and I seem to be getting every reaction but the ones I want...


If anyone has any recommendations for any truly terrifying films (ideally more terror than cheap jump scares), let me know.
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Offline Roundy

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Re: Just Watched
« Reply #1829 on: September 19, 2017, 03:37:32 AM »
Candyman is one of the few movies that really scared me.

I also thought It was really good. After the disappointment of The Dark Tower it's nice to see a Stephen King movie come out that's really good and getting acclaim.

I was never sure if anyone could fill Tim Curry's shoes as Pennywise. Skarsgard was just as good if not better. I was blown away. He played it perfectly.
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My friends, please remember Tom said this the next time you fall into the trap of engaging him, and thank you. :)

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Offline Dither

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Re: Just Watched
« Reply #1830 on: September 19, 2017, 08:07:15 AM »
I was blown away. He played it perfectly.

I'm guessing Pennywise will be even better in chapter 2 now the plots established.
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Offline Ghost Spaghetti

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Re: Just Watched
« Reply #1831 on: September 19, 2017, 10:55:15 AM »
IT

I loved the way this film made my feelings change  as I watched it. I've never seen the Tim Curry version, or read the book, so I was going into this fresh. Like the children I found myself more confused and creeped out than actually scared. As the plot built and It started deliberate building menace and fear, I found myself jumping and dreading what was likely to come next, then as It's weaknesses and vulnerabilities started showing through I started getting angry with the games It was playing. I started to see it less like a malevolent supernatural monster, and more of a petty bully, preying on weaker kids for its own amusement.
By the time of the finale, like the kids themselves, there was no longer any residual fear, and just a visceral loathing of Pennywise and all It's tricks.

Thoroughly enjoyed it.

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Offline Dither

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Re: Just Watched
« Reply #1832 on: September 19, 2017, 09:24:40 PM »
Man there's some good movies out at the moment.
IT was fantastic, Toms new one looks great (American Made)

I remember in the seventies my mother returning from seeing "The Exorcist"   
We were only young, but she had nightmares for weeks afterwards.
She liked horror movies too, but that one nailed her.

So has anyone caught "Mother" yet? 
A lie will make it around the world before the truth has time to put on its shoes.

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Offline rooster

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Re: Just Watched
« Reply #1833 on: September 21, 2017, 01:53:53 PM »
If anyone has any recommendations for any truly terrifying films (ideally more terror than cheap jump scares), let me know.
The truly terrifying ones are the real life stories.
I believe it was Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer that has scared me the most. If this is the one I'm thinking of, it has a super fucked up scene of the murder of a mother and daughter. I think I may have stopped watching around that point. Horror movies are my favorite, so I don't get terrified anymore with those - but real life shit? Yeah that's just hard to watch.

Maybe you'd like Hush. It's a good edge of your seat kind of movie. It is well done, but it didn't get me too much. A lot of other people seem to really like it though.

Old people really freak me out, so I liked The Taking of Deborah Morgan and The Visit.

Recently, I've watched The Void which is pretty Lovecraftian. I enjoyed the first half, but then there were so many tropes that I got a little bored. Also, Annabelle: Creation got me more than I thought it would. The other Annabelle movies were pretty shit so I didn't have high hopes, but there were some legitimately freaky moments.

The V/H/S movies are fun. OH! And I for some reason always forget this one, but The Invitation is one of my favorites. No jump scares from what I remember, just disturbing with a good pace.

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Offline Crudblud

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Re: Just Watched
« Reply #1834 on: September 22, 2017, 07:55:28 PM »
Warren Ellis's Berserk Castlevania

Trevor fucking Belmont is fucking drunk and he fucking walks the fuck around shitty fucking places and fucking kills shit bastard fucks because fucking Dracula fucking unleashed a fucking army of fucking demons from fucking hell when the fucking bastard cunt fuck shits from the fucking church decided it was a good fucking idea to fucking kill Dracula's fucking wife. Premise, plot, and tone all present and accounted for. Warren Ellis, the edge-tastic comic book writer behind titles like Transmetropolitan, wrote the as yet four episode series (a second instalment of eight episodes is in the works) and it shows. Violence and gore are prolific, almost every line of dialogue is laced with profanity, and the humour ranges from bestiality to the scatological. The Mediaeval setting is used to criticise, mock, and otherwise attack organised religion, which is also a recurring theme in Ellis's work.

The series is based on Dracula's Curse, the third game of the main series. To me, the Castlevania games always seemed like goofy monster mashes in terms of their settings and art style, and fairly light-hearted in their overall execution. The "horror" in those games is almost entirely to be inferred, and the challenging action adventure gameplay is always the main draw. This show definitely moves more towards that territory as it goes on, but the general feeling is closer to a watered down, westernised, and on some level even Disneyfied take on the Black Swordsman arc of Kentaro Miura's Berserk manga. Berkserk began publishing around the same time Castlevania III came out, or a little earlier, and matches extreme gore and grotesque supernatural images with rich psychological horror, the latter being an element that is missing from Ellis's script. It's a shame, because initial attempts to humanise Dracula point towards a psychological approach, but this falls by the wayside and we end up with all of the violence and none of the impact.

The art and animation shine in places but the overall direction is uneven. The characters designs are robust and memorable, drawing on anime but retaining a western feel. Action sequences have a kinetic quality with smooth animations and fairly imaginative set pieces. It's not as grimy as it could be; Trevor Belmont is supposedly sleeping rough and wandering the land getting drunk in dive taverns, but aside from some stylised facial stubble he always looks very clean, as does everyone else. This is at odds with the script's coarse dialogue and results in a tonal imbalance where nothing seems quite believable. For this reason the heavy gore also falls flat, and violent on-screen deaths have little impact, seeming like exclamation points at the end of otherwise nondescript sentences.

I think my favourite part of the show is the voice acting itself. While there are some US actors in the cast, it was very refreshing to hear mostly (either natural or very well studied) English and continental European accents. Richard Armitage is particularly good in the lead role of Trevor Belmont, dexterously negotiating and adding weight to the awkward rhythms of sometime cringe-inducingly juvenile swear-laden dialogue. In addition Graham McTavish tries to deliver on the promise of a nuanced Dracula, although the script is not quite there, and an appearance in the finale by James Callis as Dracula's very originally named son Alucard also shows promise. Maybe I'm overstating things a hair because it's a refreshing change to hear extensive British voice talent doing authentic accents in a US animated production, which would normally feature generic North American accents exclusively, but it was really cool to see characters with accents I hear on a daily basis in real life doing cool things with swords and whatnot. Of course, the story is set in Wallachia, so it's about as accurate as using American accents, i.e.: not at all.

The soundtrack is... not terrible I guess? It tries to combine a certain period style (although not Mediaeval) of ecclesiastical choral music with a modern pulsating electronic action movie type score, and it ends up feeling like a chair with random bits of stuff cut off other chairs stuck to it, you can sit in it but you wonder why they bothered attaching things which are neither functional nor aesthetically congruent to it.

In conclusion, Castlevania has a lot of problems. Warren Ellis has a reputation which is not always borne out by his actual work, and his catalogue of respected science fiction, superhero, and mystery writing sits atop a mountain of really dumb and mediocre tripe with very little redeeming value. This is somewhere in the middle, though probably more of the mountain than of the snow resting on the peak. I think the main thing is it doesn't really last long enough to be properly grating, and the parts where it shines can sort of make up for its considerable shortcomings.

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Offline Crudblud

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Re: Just Watched
« Reply #1835 on: September 25, 2017, 11:09:28 AM »
And now, first impressions of various HOT ORIGINAL CONTENT things sampled on Netflix...

F is for Family
Hey guys it's a cartoon about a dysfunctional family. Remember those? Bill Burr remembers. Bill Burr remembers the '70s. I have seen it, and now all I want is to forget.

Haters Back Off!
Apparently this is based on a popular YouTube channel called Miranda Sings, but I'd never heard of it before I watched this. I thought it was pretty funny, lots of awkward cringe stuff which is my kind of thing, and generally making fun of the concept of the internet celebrity.

GLOW
I like wrestling. I like women. I like coked-out Marc Maron. I don't like sex scenes inserted (huhuhuh) for no reason. Mixed bag but generally decent. Getting real wrestlers like Awesome Kong in the cast was a good decision.

Bojack Horseman
Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return
I kind of appreciate this on some level and it definitely isn't terrible, but with the all new cast and writers there is definitely a different tone. I'm not too keen on the production design either. Perhaps the most perplexing choice was to keep the spaces for ad breaks that were a necessary part of the original show's format, but fill them with movie trivia slides or whatever. It's really jarring and like the rest of show it just doesn't quite work.

Designated Survivor
Self-serious show in which Kiefer Sutherland becomes @POTUS after a devastating terrorist attack. I was not interested enough by the first episode to continue. It all seems very bland. Kiefer's performance almost made me want to watch more, but I just don't care.

Dear White People
Are you ready to get woke?! Good, because I'm about to fall asleep.

Rama Set

Re: Just Watched
« Reply #1836 on: September 25, 2017, 07:10:54 PM »
And now, first impressions of various HOT ORIGINAL CONTENT things sampled on Netflix...

Designated Survivor
Self-serious show in which Kiefer Sutherland becomes @POTUS after a devastating terrorist attack. I was not interested enough by the first episode to continue. It all seems very bland. Kiefer's performance almost made me want to watch more, but I just don't care.


I played Major Scott Cameron, who briefed the president on the Nuclear Football and the made a jibe towards him. You watched the best episode, obv.

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Offline Crudblud

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Re: Just Watched
« Reply #1837 on: September 25, 2017, 09:38:02 PM »
I played Major Scott Cameron, who briefed the president on the Nuclear Football and the made a jibe towards him. You watched the best episode, obv.

Oh right, I forgot you were an actor. That's really cool. I actually skimmed through the episode again to find your scene. Kief got told.

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Offline Dither

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Re: Just Watched
« Reply #1838 on: September 26, 2017, 11:24:17 AM »
I played Major Scott Cameron, who briefed the president on the Nuclear Football and the made a jibe towards him.

I second that as being really cool,   8)

Secretly I think most of us would love to be actors, what an interesting Career.
We have Netflix in Australia and I'll have to check it out, hopefully its on the Aussie playlist.

 
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Offline Jura-Glenlivet

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Re: Just Watched
« Reply #1839 on: September 26, 2017, 03:28:41 PM »

The Motherfucker nailed it! I have him on my bedroom wall.
Just to be clear, you are all terrific, but everything you say is exactly what a moron would say.