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Idle Chatter / Re: What is the best thing you did yesterday?

« Last post by 1SO on Today at 12:29:57 AM »

Entered a Poker Tournament for my Birthday and I Won! I also got two nicknames. First, after my Pocket Jacks beat Pocket Sevens on a board of J-7-K, the person I beat kept calling me Captain Marvel because I was wearing a Marvel ball cap. As the tournament went on, I frequently won with a Jack in my hole cards and the players took to calling me "Jacks".

My wife was at the casino Starbucks because she didn't want to watch me bust out - just playing the odds - but once I was in the money, one of the spectators was nice enough to go over and tell her so. He came back to tell me she had the biggest smile and was breathing a sigh of relief. Once in the money people started dropping fast and it was all over about 45 minutes later when I put the other person all in with an A-8. They had 7-7, and an Ace came up on the flop.

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Television & Sports / Re: General/Random Discussion and Thoughts (TV & Sports)

« Last post by The Deer Hunter on Today at 12:29:02 AM »

Disney+ was delayed here a week for some reason and it won't let you sign up until it's out.

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No Movie Talk Allowed / Re: Theatre - The last play you saw, or are about to see

« Last post by 1SO on Today at 12:16:18 AM »

Ka
Cirque du Soleil show at Las Vegas' MGM Grand had my jaw on the floor for pretty much the entire 90 minutes. It does things I didn't know were possible in a theatrical production, including a double-decker stage that is completely detached from the floor, moving around on a hydraulic lift. It is introduced as a boat, rotating 360 degrees so that we can see the characters both on deck and inside the hull. In one of the more spectacular moves, the stage rises up completely vertical to become a cliffside. Archers in the audience stand on the handrails we use to get to our seats and fire actual arrows around the cast. This leads to a battle with people swinging up and down the (stage prop) arrows sticking out of the wall. Performers get knocked off, literally plummeting from the top of the stage to below the floor. That's just a five-minute sequence. Like I said, jaw on floor.

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Television & Sports / The Mandalorian

« Last post by 1SO on Today at 12:04:36 AM »

I feel like this one is going to want its own thread.

I certainly liked the first episode, and was surprised by how short it was, expecting an hour and getting less than 40 minutes. I'm not geeky enough to get into the Star Wars lore and all the hidden references and meanings, but I am production savvy enough to watch how Star Wars looks on a smaller budget. If you compare it to the movies, there are visibly some corners cut in the effects and production design, though the costuming and make-up is of the same high quality. However, it looks exceptional for a television show. Besides, TV is more about characters than spectacle and having people like Carl Weathers and Werner Herzog means everything.

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Movie Talk / Re: Respond to the last movie you watched

« Last post by 1SO on Yesterday at 11:52:47 PM »

Lady and the Tramp
★ ★ ½
A good fit for streaming at home, because it probably would've quickly vanished from theaters. Largely unnecessary (like most of these Disney live-action remakes), you end up just comparing the differences. I liked moving the location to New Orleans and the new song for the racist cats isn't just necessary, it's equal to the best tunes from the original. I also liked the staging of "He's a Tramp," which along with the spaghetti dinner are the two scenes the remake scores a bullseye, even though this is largely about how great the scenes were in the original. Good to read FLY's reaction because I wondered how a dog lover would react to the scenes of peril and distress played out without the wall of animation, even though this film still lives pretty far from reality.

While I admire Disney for using color-blind casting, it's as dishonest as Song of the South to have the main couple (and others throughout the movie) be different races, living in New Orleans in the early 1900s with a mixed-race baby.

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Marathons / Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2019

« Last post by 1SO on Yesterday at 11:42:52 PM »

Hounds of Love also reminded me of Snowtown and Bad Boy Bubby. Australian horror is some of the most challenging because some of them are fearless about plunging you into deeply uncomfortable characters that are grounded in reality despite how outside the norm their actions are.

There's a massive imbalance to how much Cosmatos is praised for his visual style but not admonished for his terrible dialogue.

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Television & Sports / Re: Review the Last TV Episode/Season/Series You Watched

« Last post by smirnoff on Yesterday at 11:23:04 PM »

Does anyone else still watch Bill Maher? Lately it seems like the format has changed to give much less time to the panel, and much more time to initial solo guest, and the latter special guest. I feels like they have no time to sink their teeth into anything or get more than a single back and forth going over one issue. And some guests are just not suited to the show. Dan Carlin was on the panel the other day, a guy with as much perspective as anyone... I think he spoke twice, a couple of short sentences. The other guests just spoke over him and so he basically contributed nothing. Bad fit.

Judge Judy was a solo guest on the most recent episode. She seemed out of touch... pretty strange interview.

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Marathons / Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2019

« Last post by Beavermoose on Yesterday at 10:31:43 PM »

My shocktober has slipped into November!

Ready or Not (2019) Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett

Slick looking satirical horror piece attempts to take on the rich and their ridiculous beliefs. I liked the aesthetic of the film and most of the characters, yet the humour seemed to reduce the impact of the subtext as the numerous deaths of the help are played for laughs. The mysticism and ending of the film also reduce the impact of the satire by giving more legitimate reasons for the rich people's abhorrent behaviours. I feel like the only way people talk about serious issues anymore is through satire which may indicate an inability of dealing with theses issues, as such this didn't quite work for me.

Mandy (2018) Panos Cosmatos

Cosmatos' slowburn story telling is not quite my cup of tea, nor is the entirely red tinted world he creates, although once the movie picks up in the second half and finally releases the Cage Rage, I was much more on board which the demonic biker fights and revenge plot.

The Purge (2013) James DeMonaco

Throughout the entire movie I felt like there could be much more to say about class issues using this premise, yet the movie doesn't really stretch far enough into that territory. (I've heard that the sequels actually do this better.) Pros: Rhys Wakefield is really great at playing the entitled white supremacist private school boy villain. Cons: So many dumb character decisions, even for a horror movie.

The Wailing (2016) Hong-jin Na

I liked how it managed to balance that South-Korean humour with some classic horror movie tropes and the build up this mystery of the illness works for the first hour and a half but
for how long this movie is I feel like I wanted a bigger pay-off than what we got. The movie has like 3 different twists in the last hour as it keeps going back and forth thinking it's revealed something and then actually nothing and it just became frustrating that by the end I didn't really care what happened.

Hounds of Love (2016) Ben Young

More of a thriller than a horror film. I watched this with a bunch of Aussie friends and the fact that the main bad guy in the movie also played one of the idiot sons in the cult Australian film The Castle made this movie much funnier for us that it was intended to be despite how great the performances are. I think this film fits in well with Aussie crime films like Animal Kingdom and Snowtown but the premise is much simpler. It's a film about abuse, manipulation and about loneliness. Domestic abuse is an incredibly big problem in Australia and this movie is probably a pretty accurate portrayal of how controlling and violent men can be.

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Movie Talk / Re: What should I watch?

« Last post by FLYmeatwad on Yesterday at 10:18:42 PM »

They opened a dine in AMC near the train station in Philly with a Dolby screen. Considered going to FvF in that one, but don't think I'll have enough time to make it after Marriage Story a few blocks up. Also, idk if I'd actually order food?

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Movie Talk (Spoiler Edition) / Re: Parasite

« Last post by FLYmeatwad on Yesterday at 10:08:10 PM »

Have heard a bunch of Shoplifters comparisons, which FLY get, but no seeing a lot of people (or any?) mentioning that this thing is very much a BJH film throughout, but ends feeling very much like a Park Chan-wook picture. I'll wait for that to be poached and show up on some thinkpiece somewhere soon, I guess.