Ready Player One (2018).  What a steaming pile of shit.   There's so many things wrong with this movie I could fill a book with them.  The worst offender is what they do to The Shining.  

^^^ Sadly I agree.  There was just so little good about it, even when I was able to disconnect myself from how good the book was.  It was rushed, compressed, poorly executed, blah blah blah.

It was shallow. I think somewhat by necessity as there's just too much backstory (all the 80s trivia) to shove in for a current audience. Watched it with my kids and they were like "cool effects, middling story, terrible Dad music."  

The book was entertaining enough, the movie sucks. Late career Spielberg makes me sad.

On 6/12/2019 at 4:00 AM, MexicanDragon said:

Had a long weekend, and randomly started watching The Wire. I've never seen it, but I'm ~15 episodes in and loving it.

I've also started watching Letterkenny which is a pleasant surprise. I'm a couple seasons into that as well. Was funny enough after randomly sitting in on an episode that I watched 3, then went back to beginning to start it. It's a nice palate cleanser coming from The Wire. I also am interspersing with a pinch of How I Met Your Mother as I went to show a friend something from an episode, and then it just started playing, and I watched more of it.

Time for 3 more episodes of The Wire at 4am as I'm attempting to stay up the rest of the night.

OK, so finished The Wire, and it lived up to the hype. IDK if I'll re-watch unless I watch with someone else, but it was great.

Letterkenny - I started on 6/11, and as it seems I posted the above at 4am on 6/12, I finished Letterkenny (6 seasons) sometime in the afternoon on the 12th, completing the final four seasons in one sitting. Such a witty show, and ridiculously progressive; not what I expected from the protagonists being self-identified "hicks."

Chernobyl - I had to break this one up into 2 sittings, as after 4+ hours (80% of the way), I realized I needed to get a nap in before work Wednesday. I finished it up before work tonight and I definitely appreciated the story. I'll probably go back and look through what other people were talking about with related videos and articles posted to get some more information; fascinating stuff.

Oh, I also watched S3 of Handmaid's Tale. I did that in a sitting up through S3E8, when I realized that S3E9 wasn't coming out until the next day. I didn't realize it wasn't all out there, so now I'm just bored and waiting around for the next 4 episodes. Feels like I'm watching it just for completion's sake, but after a... different... E9, I'm hoping it'll pick up; they have some room to move, I feel.

Almost forgot about Stranger Things S3. Another enjoyable romp that wasn't quite as good as S1, but was squarely ahead of S2. I'm a bit frustrated with all of the anti-smoking tirades lobbed at the show, but it's a period piece, and as much as I hate cigarette smoke, it was still quite prevalent in the 80s. It's funny, as Letterkenny above is riddled with it, and it's even part of a tertiary plot during one of the seasons, and this is set in modern times (well, as modern as Canada can be...)

I've re-watched Letterkenny a couple times, finished re-watching HIMYM as mentioned above, and I'm sure I started something else. I mean, it has been 5 weeks; making it through ~15 seasons of TV seems light.

Oh, saw first showing of the new Spiderman, along with Spiderman: Into The Spiderverse. I caught the first showing of the former, and enjoyed the Tom Holland fronted reimagination, though the latter was easily the best Spiderman movie I've ever seen.

9 hours ago, MexicanDragon said:

Chernobyl - I had to break this one up into 2 sittings, as after 4+ hours (80% of the way), I realized I needed to get a nap in before work Wednesday. I finished it up before work tonight and I definitely appreciated the story. I'll probably go back and look through what other people were talking about with related videos and articles posted to get some more information; fascinating stuff.
 

The podcast that Ric mentioned is worthy

I'm a huge fan of Frank Lloyd Wright.

I stumbled across this excellent program produced by KCET in LA and I thought it was awesome.

 

thanks Steve, big flw fan. i will watch.

The Good Place 

Laughs aplenty 

I am also a FLW fan except for when I have jury duty at the courtrooms at the Marin county civic center (which he designed). The courtrooms have no right angles anywhere. That triggers me.

“The boys” on amazon

Think “nega” watchmen. On episode 2 and diggin’ it

For the Frank Lloyd Wright fans there’s an out of print pop-up book titled, you guessed it, Frank Lloyd Wright in Pop-Up, that has plenty of used copies on Amazon right now for under $10. We bought a few years back for Esmé. It’s kinda fun to have around. 

“The boys” on amazon

Think “nega” watchmen. On episode 2 and diggin’ it

Well, since swimming season is over, no more A/B meets and kids are up in camp, what does that mean? Cycling, movies and tv binge.
Finished the above 8 episodes, holy F. This is dark and intense. can’t wait for more of this. Loved it

Watching it too. I readed the original comics many moons ago.  Am happy they didn’t tone it down (yet, on episode 2).

Unholy carp, this is so good...even the music...they just played the Billy Joel song, “Bigshot”, and it was so perfect on so many levels.  I haven’t seen good use of music cues like this since “Action!”

Right? And the casting also gets a huge A+
E Shue, A Starr, that plays Homelander, he was the lead in Banshee, good choice as well and K Urban. Really great cast.
The attention to detail in the show is superb. For instance, homelander’s attention to his cape does not go unnoticed.The flag is not to touch the ground let alone be sat upon.

Interesting stuff from the motherland (the article referenced in the comments on Japanese Music Coffeehouses is worth a glance too).

 

On 7/30/2019 at 10:22 PM, Dusty Chalk said:

Unholy carp, this is so good...even the music...they just played the Billy Joel song, “Bigshot”, and it was so perfect on so many levels.  I haven’t seen good use of music cues like this since “Action!”

In the history of the Universe Bigshot has never been perfect. 

1 hour ago, blessingx said:

In the history of the Universe Bigshot has never been perfect. 

Hey, don't you ever besmirch Billy Joel...

Or do.

Do what you want what you really really want...

Yeah, the use of the Spice Girls music cue was just as brilliant.  Even if you hate the Spice Girls.  In fact, especially if you hate the Spice Girls.

Ha.

Finished off the second season of Big Little Lies. In my younger days I would have taken great pleasure in ripping on that awful ending. 

It probably wasn’t the directors fault. 

Edited August 7, 20196 yr by blessingx

Tales of the City (1993)

I am surprised how much I liked this. Great characters, great writing, and the city looks as amazing as it always does.

Hard to believe PBS had the guts to air this in the early 90s. 

Watched this morning: Eroica. A BBC film about Beethoven and the first rehearsal of his 3rd. Wonderful rendition of the symphony by Gardiner, by the way.

It's on Youtube, you have it as a 9 part watch list

 

or a version with Spanish subtitles. They're not very annoying

 

 

Just finished "The Boys". Still not sure how much I like it or even my feelings about it. It surely is fucked up, but probably more real in its portrayals.

6 hours ago, morphsci said:

Just finished "The Boys". Still not sure how much I like it or even my feelings about it. It surely is fucked up, but probably more real in its portrayals.

I've read the comics a couple times.  I am hesitant to watch the show (I still haven't finished Good Omens, and I love that book [I mean, shit, I have a Neil Gaiman tattoo], and the Amazon adaptation is VERY good, but it's still weird to see it on a screen when I used to just have it in my head).

I really, really like Garth Ennis, but I refuse to watch Preacher. So take that for what it's worth.

Edited August 16, 20196 yr by EdipisReks1

On 8/10/2019 at 2:32 PM, Torpedo said:

Watched this morning: Eroica. A BBC film about Beethoven and the first rehearsal of his 3rd. Wonderful rendition of the symphony by Gardiner, by the way.

It's on Youtube, you have it as a 9 part watch list

 

or a version with Spanish subtitles. They're not very annoying

 

 

How did I not know that this movie existed? Gardiner is my favorite Beet conductor: those metronome marks that Beet put on the page were important! 

Edited August 16, 20196 yr by EdipisReks1