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I recently finished Season 1 of The Terror - truly, a fantastic show. It has light horror elements but overall is just a harrowing journey into humanity's drive to conquer nature, and the hubris involved.

It is amazing! Need to check out Season 2 but no matter how good I suspect it will have trouble topping the first season.
 
Watching Falcon and Winter Soldier makes me wonder, is Agents of Shield good?
 
I've been making my way through Orphan Black, after catching some reference to it on the OWoD/NWoD thread... and having recently watched Utopia (similar themes, but funnier and darker and wilder).
It's well made, with some interesting ideas... but it started to drag pretty early on. Too much repetition of capture/rescue ('we have to save KIRAAAA!!!') and other contrivances padding out the story (like revealing new layers of the conspiracy that don't feel all that different than the previous layers... kind of meh). Plus, the characters feel like familiar stereotypes.
Utopia covered a lot of the same territory in just 12 episodes (though it did get cancelled, leaving on a huge cliffhanger).
 
I watched Cadaver on Netflix.

It was a film that should have been better than it was. It was good, but held back by itself from greatness. The horror is undercut by predictability, the philosophical questions are undercut by blatancy, and the potential power of the film in entirety is mangled by pacing issues, acting issues, and what I can only describe as "timidness" on the part of the director - they refuse to commit to the extremes they are trying to portray.

Regardless, it is beautifully shot, and even if it's easy to figure out the cliched "twist" before the opening credits even finish, there's still a harrowing, nightmarish quality that is engaging, if not delivering the tension it should have. At several points while watching I wondered what another director could have done with the material - Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Guillermo Del Toro, or David Lynch I could all see tackling the same premise with a much more effective outcome.

I'm being deliberately ambiguous in case you haven't seen it, because it is worth it, despite it's imperfections, especially if you like Dystopian Kafkaesque horror films. Probably skip the trailer, since it's already going to be very obvious what's going on just from the set up in the film itself.
 
I've been making my way through Orphan Black, after catching some reference to it on the OWoD/NWoD thread... and having recently watched Utopia (similar themes, but funnier and darker and wilder).
It's well made, with some interesting ideas... but it started to drag pretty early on. Too much repetition of capture/rescue ('we have to save KIRAAAA!!!') and other contrivances padding out the story (like revealing new layers of the conspiracy that don't feel all that different than the previous layers... kind of meh). Plus, the characters feel like familiar stereotypes.
Utopia covered a lot of the same territory in just 12 episodes (though it did get cancelled, leaving on a huge cliffhanger).
I watched Orphan Black back when it was airing, and I had a similar opinion. After a few seasons, I began to think it would be better if it turned into a sitcom. I was enjoying the funnier episodes involving clones impersonating each other and the plots involving the suburban clone, but I couldn't bring myself to care at all about the murky conspiracy plots at all. Like with The X-Files, I lost all belief that the writers of the show were going to be able to pay things off at the end. I stopped watching at the beginning of season 4, and I've never heard any reason to pick it up again.
 
It is amazing! Need to check out Season 2 but no matter how good I suspect it will have trouble topping the first season.
Partner and I started Season 2... only got a few episodes in. The theme of the setting was interesting to us but overall the spookiness was completely left absent, and we were unable to find any likable characters to attach to.

Season 1 was leagues ahead!
 
I'm a bit torn on Hanks as an actor. I think the comparison of him to Stewart are way off base and really reinforce misunderstanding of Stewart as an actor: although famous for his more saintly roles Stewart played a wide range of characters, including much darker roles like in Vertigo and Mann's The Man from Laramie.

By chance, I caught a bit of The Man from Laramie on broadcast last night. I'll have to watch all of it sometime.

Comet, one of those minor broadcast networks that local stations pick up to fill out their repeater slots, has started airing the X-Files every night at 10:00.
I've seen the initial episode and parts of a couple of others. I'd forgotten how much I liked the show--though Duchovny and Anderson look almost impossibly young.
Screenshot_2021-04-08 Pilot (1993).jpg
 
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I'm watching the Jackson Hobbit movies. At this point I've seen the first two.

I've intentionally avoided them for years. The thought of three movies stretched out to 3 hours each filled me with dread.

I've never read the book. I've never been able to get into Tolkien's style. So my knowledge of The Hobbit had previously started and ended with the 70s Rankin/Bass cartoon version.

I'm generally liking the new CGI version. There are key things I think the cartoon actually does a lot better, but it's hard to compete with something I've known for over 40 years. In particular, I think the cartoon version of the scene with Gollum had much more threat and tension than the CGI version. Also, Smaug was much, much more threatening and just smarter in the cartoon.

I don't know if it's present in the books, but those scenes with Bilbo against Gollum and Smaug both have some interesting dynamics in the old cartoon. They lose that in the modern CGI version.

I think I liked Unexpected Journey more than Desolation of Smaug. Unexpected seemed to keep the pace flowing better. Desolation was a bit stop and go, and the action was less interesting and engaging.

I liked Tauriel and Legolas going all jedi. That was pretty fun. I like Tauriel. Am I getting her name right? I'm certain their antics aren't at all book accurate, but I liked them in the film.

The plan is to watch Five Armies tonight.
 
I liked Tauriel and Legolas going all jedi. That was pretty fun. I like Tauriel. Am I getting her name right? I'm certain their antics aren't at all book accurate, but I liked them in the film.

Tauriel is invented entirely for the movies. As you noted, stretching a relatively short book out into three long movies meant creating a lot of new stuff.

Because I love the book, I was disappointed in the Jackson Hobbit trilogy, but I ought to rewatch it someday.
 
I'm watching the Jackson Hobbit movies. At this point I've seen the first two.

I've intentionally avoided them for years. The thought of three movies stretched out to 3 hours each filled me with dread.

I've never read the book. I've never been able to get into Tolkien's style. So my knowledge of The Hobbit had previously started and ended with the 70s Rankin/Bass cartoon version.

I'm generally liking the new CGI version. There are key things I think the cartoon actually does a lot better, but it's hard to compete with something I've known for over 40 years. In particular, I think the cartoon version of the scene with Gollum had much more threat and tension than the CGI version. Also, Smaug was much, much more threatening and just smarter in the cartoon.

I don't know if it's present in the books, but those scenes with Bilbo against Gollum and Smaug both have some interesting dynamics in the old cartoon. They lose that in the modern CGI version.

I think I liked Unexpected Journey more than Desolation of Smaug. Unexpected seemed to keep the pace flowing better. Desolation was a bit stop and go, and the action was less interesting and engaging.

I liked Tauriel and Legolas going all jedi. That was pretty fun. I like Tauriel. Am I getting her name right? I'm certain their antics aren't at all book accurate, but I liked them in the film.

The plan is to watch Five Armies tonight.

There's a fancut around that shortens all three movies into a 2-3 hour cut which was much more tolerable - I don't remember where I found it, though.
 
Most of the first season of AOS is fairly forgettable, although it picks up nicely once the Winter Soldier movie is released, allowing them to shake things up. Season 2 is overall pretty solid. I only watched a few episodes of Season 3 before losing track of the show for various real-life reasons, and never got back around to watching the rest of the run.
 
There's a fancut around that shortens all three movies into a 2-3 hour cut which was much more tolerable - I don't remember where I found it, though.
That's the version I watched. It satisfied me and I've never felt a need to go watch the bloated versions.
 
That's the version I watched. It satisfied me and I've never felt a need to go watch the bloated versions.

It is easily findable via a quick Google for those interested. It is solid, certainly a lot better than the mess that the films are, I had no patience for them since I actually like The Hobbit as a novel more than LotR.
 
And just finished with The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies.

It was... OK. It lacked any significant emotional resonance. Overall, Bilbo felt like a secondary character in his eponymous trilogy. There wasn't much time for character in this 2 and a half hour movie. It didn't so much feel like an epic conclusion as much as just a spectacle.

Tauriel was my favorite character by far. Even if she could barely be called a character concept.

I don't regret watching the three movies. They were fun enough.
 
It is easily findable via a quick Google for those interested. It is solid, certainly a lot better than the mess that the films are, I had no patience for them since I actually like The Hobbit as a novel more than LotR.
It might be the nostalgia factor but I really loved The Hobbit as my parents had bought me a very special hardback edition of the book illustrated by Alan Lee. It was gorgeous!
 
And just finished with The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies.

It was... OK. It lacked any significant emotional resonance. Overall, Bilbo felt like a secondary character in his eponymous trilogy.

A big difference from the book, of course, where Bilbo's actions are key, especially in the ending of the story.
 
Courtesy of the informal Bad Movie Club that a few friends and I have, I ended up watching Jason X for the second time inside of a year. It's a complete failure of a horror movie, as it's never scary. After the second viewing, however, I will begrudgingly admit that it's a mildly entertaining gory action movie. Either way, Lexa Doig is the best thing in it :heart:.
 
Courtesy of the informal Bad Movie Club that a few friends and I have, I ended up watching Jason X for the second time inside of a year. It's a complete failure of a horror movie, as it's never scary. After the second viewing, however, I will begrudgingly admit that it's a mildly entertaining gory action movie. Either way, Lexa Doig is the best thing in it :heart:.

At least, unlike Jason goes to Hell, it's actually about Jason
 
We watched the first episode of The Way of the Househusband (極主夫道, Gokushufudō) on Netflix. The whole show is pretty hilarious but especially the cat Gin had me cracking up.

the-way-of-the-househusband-1.jpg
 
Last night I saw most of "Fallen Angel," a first-season episode of the X-Files that features a crashed U.F.O. (probably) and an abductee. I was struck by how much the episode plays against expectations. Mulder does some (very unbelievable) ninja stuff early on--but it doesn't matter--and is so insubordinate that he should be thrown out of the F.B.I., only to be saved by his patron, whom we learn is actually his enemy. Alien invasion stuff is going on, but we don't really learn what, why, or who.

A fair amount of the episode concentrates on a U.F.O. enthusiast named Max Fenig, played by Scott Bellis. Physically and in character conception, he is something of a precursor of Langly from the later Lone Gunman group. But he's a good deal more vulnerable and, well, broken, as Mulder also seems to be in these earlier episodes.

Screenshot_2021-04-09 Fallen Angel (1993).jpg
 
Watched Thunder Force this morning. It was definitely entertaining. Jason Bateman is hilarious, especially when he and McCarthy are on screen together
 
Part I and Part VI were my favorites in that series
Jason Goes to Hell and Jason X were made after Paramount sold off the IP to New Line (mostly because they were always embarassed by the series, but it kept making money throughout the 80s no matter how often they tried to kill it,).

My favourites of the original series are IV, V, and VI, The Tommy Jarvis Trilogy, with VI as my overall favourite.

IV, The Final Friday (lol) was I think the culimnation of the original concept introduced in part II (which still makes no sense as a sequel to Part I - the little boy is alive living in the lake, what? But his mom is unaware of this and killing teens because he died? But the next week he's a full grown man? What? bit II - III work as a self-contained trilogy) - Jason has his iconic hockey mask, he's become an urban legend/folk tale. His death is appropriately gruesome and earned, and it was definitely intended as an epic (intended) conclusion to the series. It's much better paced and has more interesting kills than II or III.

V, Jason Lives is the one a lot of people hate because it's not really Jason, but taken on it's own, I really enoy the premise. It follows on from the ending of the last film and deals with the consequences, an approach for a sequel I always appreciate, in this case the psychological trauma on the young Tommy who managed to kill Jason. Now a teen and living in a residential care facility for troubled adolesence, a situation that I can empathise and identify with, just as with the troubled youth hospital serving as the setting for Elm St III. This one is also the most over-the-top as far as sex and violence. Contrary to popular perception, the Friday films were pretty tame, even for 80s horror, being mercilessly circumsized by the film censors, most likely simply due to their success. But of all the original films, V has the most amount of kills and the most gratuitous nudity. 45 minutes into the film we are still being introduced to new characters just so not-Jason has more bodies to rack up.

VI, Jason Lives, is I think the most iconic film in the series - it established what the popular perception of Jason is, bereft of his humanity now just a full-on undead monster. And monster is the right word, becauseVI was clearly a homage to the Universal Classic Movie Monsters series, presented with a dry wit and a tongue-in-cheek humour the earlier entries sorely lack. This film was pure "wink-at-the-audience" gothic-American fun.

I'll also give a shout out to Freddy vs Jason, which isn't that bad, though it's clearly more of an Elm Street film that Jason is guest-starring in than a true crossover.


Boy, I love talking about horror films.
 
Jason Goes to Hell and Jason X were made after Paramount sold off the IP to New Line (mostly because they were always embarassed by the series, but it kept making money throughout the 80s no matter how often they tried to kill it,).

My favourites of the original series are IV, V, and VI, The Tommy Jarvis Trilogy, with VI as my overall favourite.

IV, The Final Friday (lol) was I think the culimnation of the original concept introduced in part II (which still makes no sense as a sequel to Part I - the little boy is alive living in the lake, what? But his mom is unaware of this and killing teens because he died? But the next week he's a full grown man? What? bit II - III work as a self-contained trilogy) - Jason has his iconic hockey mask, he's become an urban legend/folk tale. His death is appropriately gruesome and earned, and it was definitely intended as an epic (intended) conclusion to the series. It's much better paced and has more interesting kills than II or III.

V, Jason Lives is the one a lot of people hate because it's not really Jason, but taken on it's own, I really enoy the premise. It follows on from the ending of the last film and deals with the consequences, an approach for a sequel I always appreciate, in this case the psychological trauma on the young Tommy who managed to kill Jason. Now a teen and living in a residential care facility for troubled adolesence, a situation that I can empathise and identify with, just as with the troubled youth hospital serving as the setting for Elm St III. This one is also the most over-the-top as far as sex and violence. Contrary to popular perception, the Friday films were pretty tame, even for 80s horror, being mercilessly circumsized by the film censors, most likely simply due to their success. But of all the original films, V has the most amount of kills and the most gratuitous nudity. 45 minutes into the film we are still being introduced to new characters just so not-Jason has more bodies to rack up.

VI, Jason Lives, is I think the most iconic film in the series - it established what the popular perception of Jason is, bereft of his humanity now just a full-on undead monster. And monster is the right word, becauseVI was clearly a homage to the Universal Classic Movie Monsters series, presented with a dry wit and a tongue-in-cheek humour the earlier entries sorely lack. This film was pure "wink-at-the-audience" gothic-American fun.

I'll also give a shout out to Freddy vs Jason, which isn't that bad, though it's clearly more of an Elm Street film that Jason is guest-starring in than a true crossover.


Boy, I love talking about horror films.

Now that you have me thinking about it, I think that is the reason 1 and 6 are my favorites (you get opposite ends of the pole with 1 and 6, where 1 is the mom and 6 is, like you say, the 'iconic jason'). I like 4 and 5 as well: the Tommy Jarvis stuff was good. Part 2 is always the weirdest one for me because of the bag over his head, but that is likely because 6 was my introduction (part 6 was the first the 13th movie I saw as a I kid, at least first one I saw beginning to end---probably caught bits of the other ones before that I am sure)
 
I really like VI because it's deliberately funny, especially how Jason
gets resurrected
at the beginning.

I also enjoy VII because of the
telekinetic girl. iirc, she's the only protagonist in the series with supernatural abilities.

But I enjoy pretty much all of them, to varying degrees. Except Jason Goes to Hell. Fuck that noise.
 
Just finished watching episode 4 of Falcon & Winter Soldier. Better than last week's, very strong throughout, and that ending scene is the very definition of an oh fuck moment.
 
I really like VI because it's deliberately funny, especially how Jason
gets resurrected
at the beginning.

I also enjoy VII because of the
telekinetic girl. iirc, she's the only protagonist in the series with supernatural abilities.

But I enjoy pretty much all of them, to varying degrees. Except Jason Goes to Hell. Fuck that noise.

For me it is all the later weird films like V and VI that stand up best these days.
 
Most of the first season of AOS is fairly forgettable, although it picks up nicely once the Winter Soldier movie is released, allowing them to shake things up. Season 2 is overall pretty solid. I only watched a few episodes of Season 3 before losing track of the show for various real-life reasons, and never got back around to watching the rest of the run.
It stays fresh for most of the run. The acting gets a lot better... The actors that play Fitz and Simmons especially grow in leaps and bounds and they have episodes focused on them that are my favorites. I'd definitely recommend finishing. And when Ghost Rider comes in, it's a hell of a ride.

Speaking of hell of a ride, just watched Falcon and Winter Soldier. I'm conflicted about a lot of the themes- and in a good way. It's more straightfoward than WandaVision in my opinion, and I'm liking it more, in all honesty. WandaVision was high experimental television, where this is just good television. I like that it's a lot like Winter Soldier in that it's more of an espionage flick with superheroes.
 
Finished episode 4 (and concluding episode of the first arc) of the Black Lightning Season 4. Then hit up 2 episodes of NCIS New Orleans. Debating between hitting up some episodes of NCIS, or diving into the current season of The Flash
 

I dimly remember this one from when I was a kid but haven't seen it since.

Watched my blus of The Barbarians and Tintorera. Already saw Tintorera on TCM and posted about it earlier, so I listened to it with the commentary which was quite good. One thing I didn't note previously is how good this film looks, the cinematography is crisp and beautiful although a lot of that may just be Cancun.

The Barbarians, which was more enjoyable than I expected, I'll post more about in our S&S and other fantasy films thread.
 
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Since it has come up and I watched bits of it years ago, does the main conspiracy plot of the X-Files end up making sense or paying off?
 
I dimly remember this one from when I was a kid but haven't seen it since.

Watched my blus of The Barbarians and Tintorera. Already saw Tintorera on TCM and posted about it earlier, so I listened to it with the commentary which was quite good. One thing I didn't note previously is how good this film looks, the cinematography is crisp and beautiful although a lot of that may just be Cancun.

The Barbarians, which was more enjoyable than I expected, I'll post more about in our S&S and other fantasy films thread.
Convoy is a movie that is better than the sum of its parts. I watched with the commentary track which was informatIve and had me pondering what could have been. it could be remade today, with a little tweaking.
 
Since it has come up and I watched bits of it years ago, does the main conspiracy plot of the X-Files end up making sense or paying off?

Not that I recall, the X-Files movie was supposed to wrap it up I believe but I remember being pretty disappointed when it didn't. But is has been years since I revisited any X-Files.
 
Did Season 11 have anything interesting to say about that? I watched Season 10 around the time it came out, and they were going with the idea that the Roswell crash was real, but all the true aliens died and the Conspiracy seized the opportunity to take power on the back of paranoia and advanced tech. Then Mulder and Scully got abducted in the middle of a plot about tainted vaccines ( :shock: ), and I decided to go back and finish the classic episodes, a project that is still ongoing.
 
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