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There’s JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit.
There’s “based on” The Hobbit.
There’s “loosely based on” The Hobbit.
There’s “inspired by” The Hobbit.
Then there’s the absolute crime against humanity that Jackson gave us.

The Tolkien Estate should have sued for irreparable harm.
 
Watched the first 3 episodes of Flash, finishing up last season's mirrorverse storyline. Watching a couple of episodes of NCIS before diving into the night 1 replay of Wrestlemania on Peacock
 
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?


No, it was a shaggy dog tale in the end. They've had numerous chances (2 movies and a followup miniseries a few years back) to give some kind of conclusion, but no such luck. This is why I like the early self-contained episodes much more than the metaplot stuff.
 

The statue looks the same, or no better to me. The harpies look marginally better in the 8X version, but not enough to notice. The skeletons, to me, look the same, except from the elevated viewpoint, where the 8X version look a bit better, but again too similar to really notice.
 
The statue looks the same, or no better to me. The harpies look marginally better in the 8X version, but not enough to notice. The skeletons, to me, look the same, except from the elevated viewpoint, where the 8X version look a bit better, but again too similar to really notice.

I can tell the difference, but it seems to affect the human actors more dramatically than the stop-motion. That said, it just reminds me how good stop motion at it's best was, still better than the best CGI.

The perfect option to me would be top of the line stop motion with CGI just to smooth out the edges
 
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.

Very powerful end scene.

Mixed feelings about the show as a whole. Excellent acting by Mackie and Stan, but it's not quite coming together yet. Is there a separate thread for FatWS?
 
I have all twelve on blu, been watching them in release order and listening to the commentary track. They know what types of films they are, no pretensions, kind of junk food movies.
 
Just watched a few episodes of a podcast called Trash Taste. This is done by 3 anime youtubers and largely consists of them talking shite on camera. The presenters have very strong chemistry together and it's that chemistry that really makes the show; the result has loads of energy and is rather better than your average podcast.

I found them in a roundabout way when watching some episodes of a vlog called Abroad In Japan - and an episode of this podcast with the presenter as a guest popped up in the search results. Although I tried looking at the presenters' individual youtube channels a bit, I'm really not enough of a weab to be into the material so they didn't do all that much for me individually. Together however, the chemistry between the presenters makes for something much better and the whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts.

 
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On a whim, I watched the first episode of the fantasy-comedy The Barbarian and The Troll. I thought it was going to be animated based on the thumbnail image, but it turned out to be... puppets! I found it entertaining enough that I plan to check out some future episodes.
 
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?
My memory is that ultimately it doesn't. That is, there are answers--sometimes contradictory answers, as different layers of the onion get peeled off, or as the writers' ideas change--but that in the end the game is not worth the candle. The most memorable episodes end up being more the stand-alone ones, but some of these are very good indeed.
 
We're watching New Amsterdam on Netflix. It's been a while since I watched any hospital drama.

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I’ve finished watching the first three episodes of Love & Curses, which I missed back in the day. The first two episodes are pretty good, but the third episode is terrible, to the point that 1990 me might have sworn off the show if he saw it. Bad writing, bad logic, one of the worst episodes of television I’ve seen in a good many years.
 
Been watching Sam & Cat, a sitcom where Sam from iCarly and Cat from VicTORIous become roommates and start a babysitting service. It's all pretty absurd, in a way that I find entertaining. One of the things I liked about iCarly was the actors were roughly the same age as their characters, so you didn't have that weird thing of actors in their mid-twenties playing teenagers. But by the time of the second season of Sam & Cat, Jennette McCurdy's real-life age was 23 and she's pretty obviously an adult, even though her character, Sam, is ~17.
 
Watching the Blackhawks vs. Blue Jackets game, which just went to overtime! I didn't grow up watching hockey, but I've become a casual fan since moving to Chicago.
 
Finally finished Good Omens.

I watched the first episode when it premiered on amazon Prime and then, I dunno, can't really describe it something kept me from continuing - not because it was bad, but because it wasn't. Not sure how to explain that, but it happens to me from time to time with shows. I want to watch them, but I keep putting it off.

So , well, it was really good up until a point, and then got pretty bad and then ended sorta mediocre.

It's been too long since I read the book to know how much of that is the fault of the original narrative.

I think the 4 Horsemen were the biggest letdown for me. And Adam's character didn't really make much sense.

Crowley and Aziraphale were great.
 
Yay! New Invincible! Quickly becoming my favourite media this year.
Read the comic in its entirety as it came out. It went up and down in quality, but very interested to see the show as the overall story and concept were quite good. It's the kind of thing where if the show makes the right changes from the comic it could be very good.
If you've read the comic how do you feel the show compares?
 
I've seen it sitting there on Prime but I haven't pulled the trigger yet. Tell me more...

On the one hand, its a very solid, straight-forward superhero story - one with very obvious Bronze Age Marvel vibes. On the other hand, there's a dark undercurrent and some serious violence, but it never comes across as edgy grimdark or trying to be "extreme" like a 90s coomic, nor as an over the top parody or deconstruction like The Boys or a Garth Ennis comic - it's played straight, full of heart and with a real, obvious love for superheroes.

The best comparison I can think of is Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon (indeed, there was even some crossovers between the universes in the early comics).

Read the comic in its entirety as it came out. It went up and down in quality, but very interested to see the show as the overall story and concept were quite good. It's the kind of thing where if the show makes the right changes from the comic it could be very good.
If you've read the comic how do you feel the show compares?

I started rereading the comic after watching the show and....I think the show is actually better. As far as storytelling, it's tighter, better paced. Granted it's not a fair comparison because it comes from the benefit of hindsight - it's easier to go in after a story has finished and tighten it up, streamline it, as opposed to writing it as you go in monthly installments. But yeah...if you like the comic, I daresay it's pretty much garunteed you'll like the show.
 
Anyone else tried Age of Samurai, Battle for Japan on Netflix?


I'm up to episode 3 and really enjoying it. Semi visualized history documentary. Lots of talking heads, some fight scenes, but well done and engaging, about Sengoku era Japan. I am absolutely the target audience for this - wargamer, interested by historical Japan, big Kurosawa fan.
 
I watched the first two-thirds of the horror movie Black Pumpkin on Prime before I fell asleep. That's not a knock on the movie- I was just really tired. I like horror movies in general (I mean, not all of them, but I'm comfortable saying I like the genre) and I have a particular fondness for horror movies that take place on Halloween, which this one does. I plan to finish it tonight.
 
Monday night we watched The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, John Ford's 1962 western with John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart in the lead roles. It's most famous for a line that comes late in the film, "when the legend becomes fact, print the legend." I'd seen some scenes from it over the years, but never the whole thing, end to end.

I really enjoyed it. It's different from many of Ford's other westerns--shot in black and white, and without much in the way of locations or scenery (no Monument Valley). Much of the filming took place on sound stages or the studio backlot. I'm not sure if Ford followed that route for artistic reasons or simply to save money. Using black and white in 1962 seems a little odd for a western, but I wondered if it had to do with his stars' ages. Both Stewart and Wayne were in their '50s at that point, but were playing (except for the 'frame' episodes) characters who were supposed to be much younger--in fact, Stewart's character is fresh out of law school. They look too old for it and might have looked even older in color.

The supporting cast was quite good, too. I especially enjoyed Edmond O'Brien as the local newspaper editor and town drunk, but Vera Miles was good as the love interest (if, again, maybe a bit too old for the part), and Andy Devine was perfect as the ineffectual town marshal. Lee Van Cleef and Strother Martin have small roles as the henchman of the titular Liberty Valance, who was very well played by Lee Marvin. Valance is given to fits of rage in which he beats people with a horsewhip; shots are framed so that when he does this we see him, facing the camera, but not the victim. That was very effective, I thought--it avoids gratuitous violence but in some ways is even more shocking than if we saw his victim, because it creates the effect that he his beating us, the audience.

The film also has a nice moral complexity, more so I guess than the original story on which it is based (though I've not read that). It could have been presented as a fairly simple tale contrasting a 'real' hero (Wayne's Tom Doniphon), who dies in obscurity, with a 'fake' hero (Stewart's Ransom Stoddard) who instead prospers, but the way the story is told in the film makes it a good deal more murky.
 
As I'm sure I've mentioned a couple times, I recently binged the entirety of iCarly, and really enjoyed it, although I feel seasons 1-3 are definitely better than 4-6.

But I am going to nitpick a few things, because... I don't know, I'm bored at work? I'm on a nerd forum and that's what nerds do? Insert justification of your choosing.

1. The characters, despite being Seattleites, mispronounce "Yakima." I saw one reference online that said the director had them mispronounce it on purpose because he thought it was funny, but I'm unsure of the truth of that. Regardless, it just sounded wrong.

2. In the episode iCook, [SPOILERS, if anyone cares], after the kids beat a professional chef at a cooking competition, he becomes despondent and they encourage him to find something else he's good at. So, he rules-lawyers his way into an amateur wrestling club because it's "recommended for boys age 8-11," not restricted to them, and he, being an adult, keeps beating all the kids. When the iCarly crew find out, they ain't havin' none of that, and Sam challenges him to a match at the club and wins. Don't get me wrong, I loved seeing Sam beat this pompous ass. But she beats him with a jiujutsu arm bar. Jiututsu arm bars are not allowed in amateur wrestling.

There were a couple others, but, eh, I don't feel like being negative.

I was not at all bothered, and was in fact quite amused, that they used the central branch of the Seattle Public Library as the HQ of a shoe company. I volunteered there during grad school. The library, that is, not the fictional shoe company :happy:.
 
Monday night we watched The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, John Ford's 1962 western with John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart in the lead roles. It's most famous for a line that comes late in the film, "when the legend becomes fact, print the legend." I'd seen some scenes from it over the years, but never the whole thing, end to end.

I really enjoyed it. It's different from many of Ford's other westerns--shot in black and white, and without much in the way of locations or scenery (no Monument Valley). Much of the filming took place on sound stages or the studio backlot. I'm not sure if Ford followed that route for artistic reasons or simply to save money. Using black and white in 1962 seems a little odd for a western, but I wondered if it had to do with his stars' ages. Both Stewart and Wayne were in their '50s at that point, but were playing (except for the 'frame' episodes) characters who were supposed to be much younger--in fact, Stewart's character is fresh out of law school. They look too old for it and might have looked even older in color.

The supporting cast was quite good, too. I especially enjoyed Edmond O'Brien as the local newspaper editor and town drunk, but Vera Miles was good as the love interest (if, again, maybe a bit too old for the part), and Andy Devine was perfect as the ineffectual town marshal. Lee Van Cleef and Strother Martin have small roles as the henchman of the titular Liberty Valance, who was very well played by Lee Marvin. Valance is given to fits of rage in which he beats people with a horsewhip; shots are framed so that when he does this we see him, facing the camera, but not the victim. That was very effective, I thought--it avoids gratuitous violence but in some ways is even more shocking than if we saw his victim, because it creates the effect that he his beating us, the audience.

The film also has a nice moral complexity, more so I guess than the original story on which it is based (though I've not read that). It could have been presented as a fairly simple tale contrasting a 'real' hero (Wayne's Tom Doniphon), who dies in obscurity, with a 'fake' hero (Stewart's Ransom Stoddard) who instead prospers, but the way the story is told in the film makes it a good deal more murky.

I like Liberty Valance as well and many of my favourite Ford westerns are B&W: Fort Apache, My Darling Clementine and Wagon Master.
 
I like Liberty Valance as well and many of my favourite Ford westerns are B&W: Fort Apache, My Darling Clementine and Wagon Master.

Yeah; I'm fond of Fort Apache and My Darling Clementine as well. I've never seen Wagon Master. I just meant that I found the use of black and white a little surprising in 1962. Ford hadn't made a western except in color since Rio Grande in 1950 and I think color was pretty standard for westerns by the 1960s. I'd guess that its use of black-and-white was one reason Liberty Valance was not all that popular at the time, from what I've read.

Last night I saw another first season X-Files episode, "Shapes." It's a fairly standard werewolf story with a Manitou twist, but well done. Michael Horse was good as Sheriff Tskany; he played a lawman in Twin Peaks and Roswell also.

The X-Files has a haunting theme. IIRC, the main sound is actually an electronically-modified recording of the composer, Mark Snow, whistling. Snow was once asked if the theme had lyrics. His suggestion for them: "The X-Files is a show, with music by Mark Snow." You can sing it to the theme...
 
Yeah; I'm fond of Fort Apache and My Darling Clementine as well. I've never seen Wagon Master. I just meant that I found the use of black and white a little surprising in 1962. Ford hadn't made a western except in color since Rio Grande in 1950 and I think color was pretty standard for westerns by the 1960s. I'd guess that its use of black-and-white was one reason Liberty Valance was not all that popular at the time, from what I've read.

Last night I saw another first season X-Files episode, "Shapes." It's a fairly standard werewolf story with a Manitou twist, but well done. Michael Horse was good as Sheriff Tskany; he played a lawman in Twin Peaks and Roswell also.

The X-Files has a haunting theme. IIRC, the main sound is actually an electronically-modified recording of the composer, Mark Snow, whistling. Snow was once asked if the theme had lyrics. His suggestion for them: "The X-Files is a show, with music by Mark Snow." You can sing it to the theme...
I just fairly recently saw Wagon Master and it is worth seeking out for Ford fans.

It would be interesting to hear why Ford decided to shoot Liberty Valance in B&W (perhaps like the set to keep it low budget so he could do as he pleased?) but he was notoriously difficult in interviews about discussing technique and intention although he was clearly a master artist.

This clip from Bogdanovitch is classic.

 
Watched the next-to-last episode of Falcon & Winter Soldier last night. Really brutal and well done fight sequence at the beginning. Quite a bit of some low-key scenes that gave us some good bits of characterization and acted as a bit of a breather, right before the set-up for the shit going down in the final episode.
 
Regarding Falcon and The Winter Soldier...I wasn't expecting that actress to appear, and the character she was playing as well. Not sure what they will be doing with that character, as she has changed over the years from a hero to a villain in the books.
 
Regarding Falcon and The Winter Soldier...I wasn't expecting that actress to appear, and the character she was playing as well. Not sure what they will be doing with that character, as she has changed over the years from a hero to a villain in the books.
I read somewhere that said character was also supposed to show up in the Black Widow movie, but that it may not make it into the theatrical release.
 
Watched the next-to-last episode of Falcon & Winter Soldier last night. Really brutal and well done fight sequence at the beginning. Quite a bit of some low-key scenes that gave us some good bits of characterization and acted as a bit of a breather, right before the set-up for the shit going down in the final episode.

I will say, that scene with Isaiah Bradley was right on point. Being Black and loving America is fucking hard at times, and they didn't shy away from it, and I appreciate that. Isaiah's story was kept in cruel spotlight- the only changes being his son and the fact he kept his mental faculties - and I'm not sure if that was worse or better. To experience that with full mental capacity- just like damn. “They erased me from history…They been doing it for 500 years.” Goddamn. Following that up with him telling Sam, no self-respecting black man would be Captain America. Damn. Just like it's hard loving America, it's hard loving Genre media- as a more gifted writer than I once said, "loving genre media is like sacrificing your melanin on the altar of your testosterone." But not here. Not here. And I have to say, though it hasn't landed yet- not taking the easy way out of giving Sam the super-soldier serum was on point too.

I'm loving this show.
 
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