What Have You Watched Recently?

[slikmar]

On 8/16/2024 at 3:01 PM, Ternaugh said:

Finished Batman: Caped Crusader on Amazon Prime. Mostly good, with a few missteps, looking forward to a second season.

5 episodes into this now. It's Timm, so I have some patience with it, but not sure I like all the changes. Writing is still good, as would be expected, but as you said, a few missteps I think.

Spoiler

Penguin as a female works, especially the cabaret thing, but having 2 adult kids didnt sit with me.

Barbara as defense attorney and foil to Harvey was a bit of change.

No Joker, but we still get Harley Quinn. Not to mention both she and Montoya drawn much heavier then normal. The series almost feels like a Woke, not a bad thing, version of Batman.

I preferred the slovenly and semi-lazy but not dirty version of Bullock. The stupid and dirty and not good at covering it up Bullock grates. And no idea about Flass.

 

[Starlord]

I genuinely enjoyed the series.

[Ternaugh]

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: First movie in the series, where we are introduced to Harry and the magical world. This is a rewatch for me, this time on 4K *. Holds up moderately well for a 20+ year old movie. (4K UHD Blu-ray)

 

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: A series of strange attacks strike Hogwarts, and Harry, Hermione, and Ron investigate. I usually rate this one a bit higher than the first. (4K UHD Blu-ray)

 

Death on the Nile: This was the 1978 version starring Peter Ustinov as Poirot, and it's a favorite of mine. Poirot is on holiday in Egypt, and investigates a series of murders on the riverboat. A good watch. (Amazon Prime)

 

Evil under the Sun: Peter Ustinov once again playing Poirot. This time, Poirot travels to a mediterranean island while searching for a missing jewel, and ends up investigating a murder. A good watch. (Amazon Prime)

 

My Adventures with Superman (Season 2): Updated take on the Superman story, done in more of an shonen anime style, and focusing on the dynamics of Clark/Superman, Lois, and Jimmy. I enjoyed it, and hope for a new season. (Max)

 

 

* The move to 4K has made for an interesting phenomenon. Older movies that were shot on film, and with practical effects or physical models, often transfer better than movies featuring a lot of CGI. Part of that is because most movies only processed their CGI in 2K or less--the time it took to process a scene was prohibitive if they tried for higher resolution. Standard 35mm film is usually equivalent to about 6K, limited by the film grain. Additionally, older movies were often shot in Technicolor, which really pops when encoded with HDR10/Dolby Vision. In the case of the Harry Potter movies, there's not a great deal of difference between the standard Blu-ray and the 4K picture quality, and I suspect that the 4K home release is really an upconversion with slightly better color grading. 

 

[Old Man]

Shane (1953).  Oh my god that kid is annoying.  Otherwise a pretty good Western, kind of an Eastwood prototype where the protagonist is less of an antihero.  Slow, but not as slow as some other movies of the era.  Interestingly this was the first film to attach wires to actors to simulate knockback from being shot, thus kicking off a tradition of "graphic" Hollywood violence (there is virtually no blood in this film).  One of those first actors is Jack Palance.  Anyway, it'll be on Prime for another week if you want to watch it.

[Michael Hopcroft]

On 8/22/2024 at 5:27 PM, DShomshak said:

The Boy and the Heron. Miyazaki's last film. Utterly beautiful like the other Studio Ghibli animation I've seen from him, but it seemed incoherent, like two or three partial movies jumbled together. But some of the bits are fairly amazing and could inspire your Fantasy worldbuilding.

 

Dean Shomshak

I spent half an hour trying to explain the movie to my mother after we saw it together. There is indeed a lot going on. form Miyazaki's own experiences as a child in wartime Japan to the very Eastern idea of breaking the vicious cycles of hate, and of life, death, and rebirth. One scene everybody comes back to is the protagonist's self-harm: which looked like it 3was about a lot more than getting out of school. It was indeed a "**** got real" moment. As simeone who has dealt with such ideation my entire, long life, it stuck home,

Spoiler

(as did scenes like Duncan's Suicide at the end of A Star is Born)

 

If you can work through its layers of meaning, The Boy and the Heron is strong stuff.

[tkdguy]

Repeats of Highlander and NUMB3RS on late night TV.

[slikmar]

1 hour ago, tkdguy said:

Repeats of Highlander and NUMB3RS on late night TV.

My brother in law has a PHD in mathematics and rips apart NUMB3ERS, saying that too many times the math they do is wrong. Sad for a show that supposedly had a mathematician on set.

[Old Man]

27 minutes ago, slikmar said:

My brother in law has a PHD in mathematics and rips apart NUMB3ERS, saying that too many times the math they do is wrong. Sad for a show that supposedly had a mathematician on set.

 

Try being a cybersecurity professional.

[Ternaugh]

So, I just watched the pilot episode of NUMB3RS on FreeVee, and I learned two things:

1. FreeVee has too many d**n commercials.
2. Most of the "math" is cropped or framed at an extreme angle so that you can't see all of it.

The heatmaps were pretty, though.

 

[tkdguy]

5 hours ago, slikmar said:

My brother in law has a PHD in mathematics and rips apart NUMB3ERS, saying that too many times the math they do is wrong. Sad for a show that supposedly had a mathematician on set.

 

I used to know someone who said the same thing about the forensic science on CSI. He did work in that area. He especially was annoyed that DNA results were available in hours on the show. They take weeks in real life.

[slikmar]

Trying to find something on Prime, decided last night to look at older serials. Started watching the Green Hornet from 1940. Saw they have quite a few of the old serials, might have to do some watching.

[death tribble]

You might be aware that this will be a long one because I'm posting but especially because I have the Tour de France to post among other things. So sit back and let's be about it.

 

Maigret

Felice's House. This was not the last one of the series but the last one for me to see as first time around I had to record it and the recording went to pieces so I only got fragments. We start with a dead body of a man who had a wooden leg and we meet Maigret and a young woman called Felice, who was his housekeeper, fencing. After the funeral the man's family find out he has basically disinherited them and left everything to his housekeeper Felice. The law in France at that time meant you could not disinherit your children but his brother, sister and nephew are all fair game. Felice is fencing with Maigret because she thinks the nephew killed her employer but when he ends up shot, Maigret tries to work out why and how the two events are connected. Someone also breaks into the house and hits Felice as she disturbs them while they are looking for something. Nothing is taken which of course makes the police suspicious. The nephew had stayed with the old man previously and in looking at the living arrangements and in light of the break in Maigret works out what happened. The nephew worked with a colleague who was a crook and was sent down for a year after a robbery in which the police did not recover any goods. The goods were hidden in one of two identical wardrobes in the uncle's home. The colleague returned to the home after his release and was disturbed by the uncle and killed him. Maigret finds the loot and lies in wait for the crook to come back for it.

This was one of the stories that both Rupert Davies and Bruno Cremer did. I like both of them as the character as it sticks to the time period and unreservedly recommend to people who want to watch crime dramas. The problems are that Davies stories are all in black and white and that Cremer's require subtitles if you don't understand French.

 

Crime Story

More real life cases given a dramatic going over. Two of these are notorious. One was about a man who killed his sister, her children and the parents who adopted them both. Another was about a notorious poisoner. All cheap and cheerful and wrapped up in an hour.

 

Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense

These are mystery stories unlike the horror stories that Hammer did in a previous series. They usually have an American star in order to sell to the American market. The first has Dirk Benedict who robs a tattooist who manages to leave his mark on him that grows showing the crime in detail on the man's skin. A security specialist (David McCallum) becomes obsessed with his new neighbour while the auction house he works for looks to sell a piece of cursed jewellery. A family find their home is suddenly surrounded by a wall. This is a remake of a Twilight Zone story. A rich man who owns a health corporation begins to suspect his young wife and one of his subordinates of conducting an affair and plotting to do away with him as his health is failing. Made in the mid 80s it has remote working and teleconferances in operation. A couple who are due to leave for a posting in Africa keep seeing someone in the apartment who kills his wife and disposes of the body. The twist here is that the new tenants who will be taking over their apartment are the ones they keep seeing. A painter fakes his death and this allows his widow to sell his work while he continues to work. But the police are suspicious and the gallery owner has designs on the widow.

 

Glastonbury 2024

Made a point of trying to see more of it this year as I missed a bunch previously. The BBC iPlayer facility kept the stuff for 28 days so I was able to ration myself to one to two sets (minimum) a day. Most of the Rock, Indie and headliners were what I concentrated on especially what I had not heard much of before. This did mean I missed sets from Cyndi Lauper and Shania Twain. I found artists that I was familiar with beforehand to be ones that I could enjoy more and I could recommend some to others but there were exceptions.

Sleaford Mods. This was minimalist. A DJ and a rapper but this was so dense with British cultural references that it would not fly for an American audience in my far from humble opinion.

Bombay Bicycle Club. Not bad. I was familiar with their work but I would not go out of my way to buy it. Unlike

Two Door Cinema Club. Very good worth buying. I enjoyed this. Also

The Vaccines. Very good. Worth buying.

SZA. She was one of the headline sets but sound problems from the beginning marred the performance.

Sugababes. The original line up and the performance was a lot better than some of the others on the bill. Familiarity with the material was a bonus. Their heyday was in the 2000s so the ladies are heading into their 40s now.

The Last Dinner Party. Winners of the Rising Star Brit award this year. Not bad at all.

Arlo Parks. Soulful and my first chance to hear this Mercury prize winning artist. I liked it and would listen again.

Janaelle Monae. Bright but did not work for me. Sadly.

Dua Lipa. Certainly worthy of her headline slot. Really good. 

Disclosure. The dance act had Sam Smith come in as a guest. It was good.

The Streets. Veteran rap and still good years on.

Kasabian. Now without their lead singer but nice to hear all their old stuff. Still enjoyable.

IDLES. A headline set and this was fun from a group I knew nothing of.

Seasick Steve. Minimalist set and nice to see and hear him again. I have some CDs by him so this was a treat.

Paloma Faith. Frothy but fun.

Avril Lavigne. First time there and she was fun. Again there was a lot of familiarity with the material.

Paul Heaton. Ex-Beautiful South and ex-Housemartins singer. So a lot of stuff I am familiar with and this was good. Fatboy Slim (Norman Cook) who was also in the Housemartins also appeared as a guest. This was the first set I sought out and watched.

Soft Play. Formally known as Slaves I did not know they had changed the name of the band. Minimalist with one drum and one guitar. Frenetic and they still have it. First came across them in 2015.

Aurora. Ethereal stuff from Scandinavia. One of the artists I played last and it was charming.

Seventeen. This is a K-Pop group. There are 13 of them in three groups who come together as 1 (13+3+1). This was actually quiet fun. They kept things moving by doing some numbers all together and then in the three little groups. Slick but not too slick.

Confidence Man. Electro pop from Australia which was really good. This is fronted by a man and a woman doing the singing. One of the last things I watched and I thought I would give it a go. I am surprised that Bazza or any of the other Australians have not brought them to our attention.

Otoboke Beaver. Japanese punks. Energetic. Did not understand it but that did not matter, it was the thought that counted.

Alvvays. Canadian band not bad

Justice. French techno. Just let it play as background.

Mannequin Pussy. They did make a point that the BBC were unhappy with their name. So they emphasised it to make a point.

Kim Gordon. I guess you had to like Sonic Youth to like this and it just did not gel with me.

bar Italia, Blondshell, Fat White Family, King Krule, LCD Soundsystem, Soccer Mummy, Squid and New Dad were all ones I also listened to but they did not make that much of an impression. Unlike

Yard Act. It was alright but I would not go out and buy it.

Jessie Ware. I had heard her stuff before. This was alright but I don't think this would have won me over if I was a new listener.

The National. This was a headline set and I did not know of them. It was ok

James. Familiar stuff from the Madchester era which was the early 90s.

Anne Marie. Bright pop stuff which was cheering.

London Grammer. Good. I already liked them so this was affirming.

The Fontaines DC. First of the rock or indie artists I played and well worth it.

Michael Kiwanuka. Lush and soulful

Jorden Rakei. Pleasant

Declan McKenna. Indie artist.

Black Pumas. Fun listening to the lead singer pronounce Puma. The British say Pugh-man while Americans say Poo-ma

Keane. Celebrating twenty years since their breakthrough album which I have so I loved this.

Bloc Party. I had heard them before and this was good. Again this was a band going back 15 years and more.

The Breeders. They did one Pixies track which was nice.

Remi Wolf. Not bad.

Olivia Dean. Not bad

P J Harvey. She has an extensive back catalogue and eclectic selection. And it appeals to me. 

Corinne Bailey Rae. Back after a while and less poppy and sunny stuff but still worth a listen

Nitin Sawhney. Very much new world material but I was happy that I listened to the entire set.

Camila Cabello. This was enjoyable

Kenya Grace. More of a DJ set

James Blake. Ambient stuff which was ok

Romy. Singer from the xx. This was ok. I have the first album by the xx and so am predisposed to like it. 

Brittany Howard. Alabama Shakes vocalist does a set. I do not know if anything she did was from the Alabama Shakes back catalogue but I liked it.

Coldplay. Very good and a lot of sing along. This was their fifth time headlining 

Nothing But Thieves. This was one of the first things I listened to or watched. And as I was unaware of them, we were off to a good start.

Jungle. This was good. Dance music

Little Simz. British rapper. I have missed her entire output but this set was ok

Sampha. Soulful R+B

Burna Boy. Another artist whose output I have missed but this was alright.

Ayra Starr. Nigerian star. It passed the time.

And lastly and leastly Baxter Dury. This was indie stuff. Did not see the point. Swearing does not make up for verbiage

 

Copshop

We are in B movie territory with Frank Grillo and Gerard Butler. Frank plays a guy who has betrayed the Mob and Gerard is one of the hitmen sent after him. Frank attacks a police officer and is thus locked up.

Gerard works out what he is up to and deliberately runs into a cop car almost running over two cops so he can locked up as a DUI. Things get complicated as another assassin comes after Frank and a traitor in the police station (Cop Shop) helps him. This is an out of the way place so it is small and away from other parts of town so gunfire won't be noticed as much. This is worth looking out for but don't expect a great film.

 

Marauders

Set in Cincinnati so I was disappointed not to see Cygnia in person. Bruce Willis owns banks that are suddenly targeted by a ruthless bunch who seem to have military training. The FBI fronted by Christopher Meloni and Dave Bautista investigate but are also plagued by the local police who they have doubts about. There is a motive for the attacks and this would work well for Champions or Dark Champions as well.

Not bad at all.

 

Defiance
Finally able to see and watch this down. Based on the true story of Belarussian Jews who took to the forests to escape the Germans it has Daniel Craig as the older brother in charge. They co-operate with the Russian partisans and stage minor raids on the Germans while also increasing the numbers of Jews hiding. It does not have a lot of action but the fact that it is based on real people and the 1.200 who survived now have over 10,000 descendants. Worth finding and seeing.

 

Enemy at the Door

The first season of a British TV series set in Guernsey during the occupation by the Germans during World War II. The first episode deals with the arrival of the Germans and how they try to work with the local populace. Apart from the German officers in charge the series deals with a local doctor, and his family, who works with the local liaison group working with the Germans. The series dealt with collaborating with the Germans and active and passive resistance. In one instance a librarian is imprisoned as in a struggle with the SS officer over banned books she knocked him to the floor. The black market thrives despite the Germans attempts to shut it down but a thief is allowed to escape to France so that the local doctor will not be arrested as some pills he needed were stolen by the thief so that a patient would live. A German pilot dies after being hit by a stone on a beach thrown by the doctor's daughter and he subsequently drowns. A German soldier is executed for raping one of the local girls after a military trial. A raid on the island fails and the soldiers are captured. One of the local girls becomes pregnant after a romance with a German soldier who dies on the Russian front. The SS officer is baited by another office after the latter finds out that a woman they both knew in Paris is working in the local brothel. The local doctor is allowed to go to France but unbeknownst to him is smuggling film of a new type of German vessel. He is arrested and sent to a French prison for 6 months.

 

The Olympics

The Opening ceremony had the river Seine used as a backdrop so the athletes travelled down it while in boats. I forgot that Greece is always introduced first and as the USA and Australia are running the following two Summer games they were last. Germany were one of the first teams introduced as France calls Germany Allemagne. We had singing from Lady Gaga, the heavy metal group Gojira performing by the river side, the flame being carried by a strange figure (who was that masked man or woman ?) dashing over roof tops, the Minions trying to steal the Mona Lisa, a warrior riding down the river with the Olympic flag, Celine Dion singing from the Eiffel Tower and a selection of European hits (especially French).

I posted regular updates as I was keeping an eye on Britain's medal tally as the target was between 50-70 medals. And Britain got more than in Tokyo overall there were less golds. Some were a surprise like the trampoline and the climbing but one was a stout defence of a title won in Tokyo by Tom Pidcock. The rowing went better for Britain after underperforming in Tokyo. Local boy Tom Daley came out of retirement and won silver in synchronised diving. There were disappointments as our world class pole vaulter did not get to the final opting to go for a higher height and failing each time. Plus two taekwondo athletes were knocked out early or were injured. One of the sailors was disqualified so could not feature in the yachting events.

And of course I was following things that were interesting to me like the outdoor cycling featuring a number of racers who were in the Tour de France but not the winner who cited exhaustion after winning the Giro as well and the fact that his girlfriend was not selected to compete for her country. The two reigning men's Olympic champions for the Time Trial and Road Race were also not present due to injury in the former case and non-selection in the second case which irked him.

Simone Biles returned and went on to triumph in the gymnastics. A Brazilian surfer came out of a wave and photograph of him went viral.

The French had their best games since 1900 bagging over 60 medals but they had not got over 50 since 1900. One of their rugby players dropped out of the national squad to concentrate on Rugby 7s and helped his country to the Gold medal. And they had a new superstar Leon Marchand who was the most decorated athlete of these games in any sport. He also won two golds in one night which had not been done in the pool this century and not since 1976. Teddy Riner won gold in Judo giving gold medals in four consecutive games.

One of the BBC presenters was a French guy called Fred Sirieix and his daughter was competing in the synchronised diving for Britain and retained the bronze she won in Tokyo. So he got to congratulate her live and later on commiserate after she did not get a medal competing in the solo competition. She is Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix which is a magnificent name.

A Cuban wrestler landed his 5th consecutive gold in 5 consecutive games before announcing his retirement.

Katie Ledecky also became an Olympic legend with her performances in the pool.

Novak Djokovic finally attained the Olympic Gold medal that he wanted taking out Nadal and the world No 1 to do it.

There were delays in a couple of events due to concerns about the river Seine's quality but the triathlons and marathon events took place with good results for Britain and France.

Snoop Dogg was everywhere and looked to be having a whale of a time, being enthusiastic about a lot. Tom Cruise was also spotted which inevitably lead to discussions over whether he would be involved in the closing ceremony.

Two women boxers who the IBA would not let compete were OKed by the Olympic committee and both won Gold.

The Closing ceremony had Marchand go to collect the flame to transfer it to the USA and up pops Cruise to take it through Paris and to the States where it is carried to the beach were the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre perform. The Canadian athletes were having a whale of a time.

The French put on a great show and the Games will be fondly remembered.

 

 

Tour de France 2024

You all knew this was coming and yes it will be long so strap in. The race would not be finishing in Paris due to the Olympics so there would be a time trial finishing in Nice. Going in to this year’s race Tadej Pogacar had tried to compete in both this and the Giro to take both in the same year which had not been done this century but had been last done in 1998. Three of his main competitors had all been injured in a crash in the Tour of the Basque Country. Evenepoel and Roglic had not been as badly injured as Vingegaard who was out longer but would race in the Tour.

Vingegaard’s team Visma also got struck with the bad luck bug with Sepp Kuss out of form and two of the team who would have supported Vingegaard taken out in the Criteriu du Dauphine race.

Mark Cavendish was also coming into the race to win a 35^th stage which would make him the all time leader for stage wins at the race. The Astana team was built around him.

The Tour was starting in Italy as it was the 100th year since an Italian first won the Tour and that was Ottavio Bottecchia. The first four stages would be in Italy and would also pay homage to the two other great Italians of the Tour, Gino Bartoli and Fausto Coppi.

The first stage looked ominous for Mark Cavendish’s chances as he had to be helped all the way through. It was won by Roman Bardet in his last Tour and finally he got to wear the Yellow Jersey which he had never done before. A break close to the end with one of his colleagues sealed it as the peloton were unable to reel them back in.

The second stage finished in Bologna with Kevin Vauquelin from Arkea B+B winning his first ever stage and the team’s first ever. The stage also saw Pogacar try to put pressure on Vingegaard and others but they responded with Evenepoel bringing another rider Richard Carapaz up to the two front runners. So France had two winners in the first two days which they had not done since the late 1960s.

The third stage was the first for the sprinters to strut their stuff and a crash near the end stopped one of them but Biniam Girmay of Intermarche from Eritrea ended up taking it and he was the second choice sprinter of his squad. He is the first black African to win a stage at the Tour. It was also Intermarche’s first win at the Tour, Girmay had won a stage at the Giro in 2022. Pogacar slowed down crossing the line allowing Richard Carapaz to claim the yellow jersey.

Jonas Abrahamsen of Uno-X went hunting mountain jersey points in the early stages but also had the points (sprint) jersey as well.

The fourth stage had the Tour leaving Italy and entering France and here Pogacar attacked as they went up the Col du Galibier so that he won the stage with Vingegaard and Evenepoel coming in behind. Cavendish was again being shepherded as the climb could have seen him outside the time limit.

The fifth was back on the flat and out came the sprinters ominously this was an area where Cavendish had won before. The team steered him most of the way but he followed his own line in the finale and took the stage, his 35^th breaking Eddy Merckx’s record with whom he had been tied since 2021.

The sixth stage was also on the flat and the sprinters tried to get organised again with Dylan Groenewegen taking it on the line in a photo finish.

The next stage was an individual time trial which Remco Evenepoel won from Pogacar and Vingegaard.

Stage 8 visited the home of Charles de Gaulle and here Girmay won again as this was a sprint stage.

There was art of the former President in the fields nearby.

The last stage before the rest day so Anthony Turgis of Total Energies win as he broke from the field close to the end and a chase could not gather to reel him in. This was raced on gravel and that was something to see but it also saw brinksmanship between Pogacar, Vingegaard and Evenepoel who caught up with the break but then decided not to do anything else.

Stage 10 was another sprinters stage and Jasper Philipsen who won the Green Jersey in 2023 finally got organised and won the stage.

Stage 11 took the race into the Massif Central and Pogacar tried to break Vingegaard again but in a cat and mouse battle between the two, Vingegaard won with a sprint to the line, the first time he had vanquished Pogacar like this. Roglic crashed on this stage close to the finish so got the same time as Evenepoel with whom he was with at the time as they were within the 3 km limit.

Stage 12 was a sprint stage and Girmay won his third stage with Philipsen winning stage 13 the next day also a sprint stage. Roglic had however crashed on stage 12 and after the crash on stage 11 that was him out of the race.

The next two stages were in the Pyrenees and Pogacar took both stages launching late attacks that Vingegaard and Evenepoel were not able to keep up with.

And then another rest day with the catch up show showing the best of the week’s action and also mentioning the last time the Tour ended in a Time Trial in 1989 when it was won in the closest finish it has ever had.

The last sprint stage was on stage 16 and Philipsen won his third stage but because Girmay had kept up with points on the intermediate sprint, he was the Green Jersey. Meanwhile Richard Carapaz had started a campaign for mountains points and he went earlier in stages to catch some mountains before Pogacar and the others caught him up.

This enabled him to win stage 17.

The next stage also went to a breakaway with Belgian rider Victor Campanearts of Lotto Dstny taking the win. It was his first win at the Tour and his first win that was not something like a time trial. It was also his last year with the team who all came out to celebrate his win when he was called to the podium.

The next two stages were in the Alps and here Richard Carapaz won the Mountains jersey while Pogacar took both stages.

The last stage was a bit of a non-event as Pogacar had that much of a lead over the others and he managed to win this as well mirroring the six stage wins he had in the Giro. Mark Cavendish went out first and did not race the course. Having broken the record he wanted to finish the race and have a meal in Nice as he put it. He had a special presentation for his record breaking win.

What might have happened if Visma had a team that was fit is a matter of conjecture.

Pogacar won overall and his team won the team competition, Biniam Girmay won the sprint competition, Carapaz won the Mountains jersey and also the overall Combativity prize, Evenepoel won Best Young Rider.

[DShomshak]

On 8/27/2024 at 5:30 AM, Michael Hopcroft said:

I spent half an hour trying to explain the movie to my mother after we saw it together. There is indeed a lot going on. form Miyazaki's own experiences as a child in wartime Japan to the very Eastern idea of breaking the vicious cycles of hate, and of life, death, and rebirth. One scene everybody comes back to is the protagonist's self-harm: which looked like it 3was about a lot more than getting out of school. It was indeed a "**** got real" moment. As simeone who has dealt with such ideation my entire, long life, it stuck home,

  Reveal hidden contents

(as did scenes like Duncan's Suicide at the end of A Star is Born)

 

If you can work through its layers of meaning, The Boy and the Heron is strong stuff.

I'll try to give it another watch sometime, because Miyazaki deserves it. It seemed disjointed because of the way things that seemed like they would be important got dropped, such as the fenced-off tomb, or where the tower came from. Possibly I am in the same position as the great-uncle stacking his blocks, trying to build a coherent world from fragments. It wouldn't be the first time -- I had the same difficulty with T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land, until I realized the point of Eliot's dense (or turgid) literary allusions (with footnotes, gad) is that they do not add up to anything; they are another "heap of broken images," another expression of the poem's theme of a disillusioned and despairing mind at the end of its tether. So I will try to re-watch The Boy and the Heron with an eye toward, hm, unconventional ways of telling a story.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Ternaugh]

Just got back from watching Rear WIndow at the movie theater for its 70th birthday. It's a great classic, made for a huge movie screen. (Fathom Events)

[Ternaugh]

Colossus: The Forbin Project: Movie thriller from 1970 about a supercomputer that is built to run the defenses for the United States, but ends up finding a similar computer in the Soviet Union, and working with it to take control.  Thankfully, nobody would be stupid enough to build a supercomputer for AI and name it Colossus. The movie's a good watch. (Blu-ray)

 

Batman Returns: Sequel to the 1989 Batman, it's a complicated story involving a power-hungry department store owner,  his assistant - Selina Kyle/Catwoman, and the Penguin each trying to make their mark on Gotham. It's been a very long time since I last watched it, and it's not quite as good as I had remembered. This was on 4K with Dolby Atmos, and the picture and sound were very clear. I couldn't say that the HDR10 color made a difference, however, as it's mostly in shades of grey, with occasional bursts of flame. (4K UHD Blu-ray).

[Rich McGee]

6 hours ago, Ternaugh said:

Colossus: The Forbin Project: Movie thriller from 1970 about a supercomputer that is built to run the defenses for the United States, but ends up finding a similar computer in the Soviet Union, and working with it to take control.  Thankfully, nobody would be stupid enough to build a supercomputer for AI and name it Colossus. The movie's a good watch. (Blu-ray)

The novel it's adapted from is a decent read as well (and shares a 1966 birth year with me).  The two sequels though...man, that series nose-dived harder than Highlander, and that's saying something.  If you haven't read them, don't.  You'll have better memories of the film that way. 

 

I gave a half hour to an episode of Scooby Doo and Guess Who guest starring Cher, mostly out of nostalgic curiosity stemming from the old 70s episode where she and Sonny Bono made an appearance.  The writers leaned hard into referencing the original (carefully avoiding all mention of her deceased ex-husband) complete with reviving the shark-man monster for another outing, but it really didn't work at all.  Cher is a dreadful voice actress, there seems to have been a contractual obligation to portray her as an ultra-rich environmentalist who's really into beading and fitness training (which may well be true IRL for all I know, but it's not what I know her for), there aren't enough other characters in the show to make the "mystery" even vaguely mysterious, and its extensive use of "classic" Scooby franchise tropes feels very formulaic and forced.

 

On the plus side, I at least recognized the guest star here.  My grand-nephew-in-law watches this show often enough that I've seen snippets of many episodes in passing and I usually have no idea who the supposed celebrity guest is.  Doesn't seem to just be my age either, since the kid usually doesn't know who these people are either.  Although he did know Cher - as a "sad old has-been like Madonna" (his words) - which I thought was hilarious.

Edited September 8 by Rich McGee

[csyphrett]

Two discs from the Justice League are up with Grodd forming his secret society of super villains, Superman teaming up with Vandal Savage, The Flash and Ultrahumanite save Christmas, The Joker forms the Royal Flush Gang to turn people insane, and Hawkgirl's people show up to try to blow up the Earth for a faster than light spaceflight tunnel in the first disc.

 

The second disc opens with the recruitment of Green Arrow and helping China with a version of Brimstone, a retelling of the man who has everything, the Hall brothers helping Wonder Woman deal with Ares, The Question and Green Arrow help Supergirl deal with her clone Galatea, Mordred banishes adults from the planet and his mother makes members of the League kids to deal with it, Wonder Woman gets turned into a pig, Amazo arrives back on Earth after his galactic flight, Booster Gold gets confused with Green Lantern, and the Ultimates show up and learn they are clones destined to die.

 

There were a lot of things going on that were cool and strange at the same time. The actors who played the original cartoon Titans played the Royal Flush Gang. The scene in Initiation where the unlimited League are assembled has the Seven Soldiers, members of the JSA and Infinity INC, The second Ray, and Ditko's Starman. The Booster Gold story has Mordru attacking the present just like the first story from Robison/Goyer/Johns JSA except he is wearing his Legion stomping gear. This season hints at Cadmus and Task Force X with Amanda Waller on the scene.

CES        

[mattingly]

7 hours ago, csyphrett said:

The actors who played the original cartoon Titans played the Royal Flush Gang.

 

I never realized that!

[csyphrett]

Robin is the fireball King, Cyborg the tough Ten, Beast Boy the stretchy Jack, Raven the magentic Queen, Starfire is Ace.

CES 

[Michael Hopcroft]

Speaking of DC comic characters, I  managed to complete watching the first episode of Batman: Caped Crusader during my lunch hour. With Bruce Timm as showrunner I knew it would be interesting. Just how interesting, though, I was not prepared for. The entire episode review has to be a spoiler, so don't read this further if you have not seen the new series but want to.

Spoiler

At the start of the episode, Batman is a rumor, a ghost-like figure spoken of only in whispered fear -- especially in the criminal gangs. Rupert Thorne is the master of crime in Gotham, but his mastery is not unchallenged. For another crime lord, the Penguin, wants his turf. Now in most versions of the Batman saga, Penguin is a semi-tragicomic character whose airs and graces are viewed without much respect in organized crime circles. This Penguin, though, is different. For one thing, she's a woman, tall, corpulent, and surprisingly strong with an iron will and no conscience. From her yacht, she has the means to deliver vengeance to Thorne's enterprises, and she has half the Gotham police in her pocket.

 

When she finds out one of her two grown sons has betrayed her to Thorne, her response is ruthless in the extreme. The scene where she confronts them is one of the most frightening I've ever seen in a Batman series because the capacity to do what she does is almost unimaginable.

 

Minnie Driver (Jane Foster from Tarzan, Lady Eboshi in the Princess Mononoke dub) knocks this role out of the park, showing many sides of the character in only eight or so minutes of screen time. She can be ingratiating, seemingly friendly, and even vivacious. Yet the monster is underneath, beneath her thin facade.

 

Hamish Linklater is not Kevin Conroy, and to his credit doesn't try to be. His Batman is perfectly capable of laying on the billionaire playboy charm when he wants to, but when in the suit he becomes a hard-nosed dealer in terror. when he threatens a thug or patsy with death or severe injury, it's clear that he can do it -- and will unless the unfortunate soul cooperates. You have to wonder whether Gordon will determine that Batman is just as dangerous as those he fights.

 

This is a reimagining worth your time. If you set aside your preconceptions about the Batman saga, it's really rewarding. The one crime is that it only eight episodes in the first season (although Amazon has renewed it for 2025). I hope that gives characters like Barbara Gordon and Harvey Dent time to grow and develop.

[Old Man]

I watched the debate, you guys.

 

Hold me.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

[Bazza]

Sadism? 

[L. Marcus]

10 hours ago, Old Man said:

I watched the debate, you guys.

 

Hold me.

There there. It's over now. Unless Harris gets that second debate she asked for.

[Starlord]

11 hours ago, Old Man said:

I watched the debate, you guys.

 

Hold me.