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I really liked the first couple of seasons of Arrow. Other than that? The Arrowverse, meh. Aside from Legends of Tomorrow, which is, maybe oddly, really good. But the Flash? Meh. Just a lotta meh for me. YMMV, of course.
 
Certainly doesn't hold a candle to the Netflix Defendersverse

But I've always liked the Silver Age Flash as a character. And the TV version was way better than the Snyder version at least
 
So apparently this is a real thing...

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Rob Zombie has been attached to direct a Munsters film
 
A couple of nights ago, I watched The News of the World, a Tom Hanks western from last year. I enjoyed it; it is a nice mix of action and character development, and Helena Zengel, a German child-actor, is good as the girl raised by Kiowa that Hanks’ character has to return to her family. Hanks is often called this generation’s Jimmy Stewart; it is maybe an odd coincidence that later in his career Stewart also played the role of someone returning ex-captives of Indians to their homes, in Two Rode Together (1961). The landscapes in News of the World were starker than in some Westerns, but still lovely. Looking at the route that Hanks’ character was following, though, the world he moves through is too empty. But that makes it more photogenic.
 
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Just had my mind blown by Ken Russell's Lisztomania, now my second favourite film by him after his horror masterpiece The Devils.

A completely bonkers rock musical about the life of Franz Liszt as played by The Who's Roger Daltrey as an 18th century proto-rockstar/religious genius preyed upon by a literally vampiric, revolutionary and rabidly anti-semitic Wagner.

A giant plaster penis meets Bugsy Berkeley dance sequence, Rick Wakeman as a silver-skinned Thor, Jack Bruce on bass, cartoon Hassidic Jews reciting the Kaddish, Frankenstein Hitler with a machinegun guitar, a Aryan Superman and cult of prepubescent girls.

Like any Russell film, not for the easily offended. This would be a blast to see with a crowd at a midnight showing.

 
Started watching Channel Zero. Really like it so far. There's a lot of anthology horror shows I've been meaning to check out when I had the time, and Wednesday was my last final, with means I'm free until September. (Starting with a big Spring Clean, before I dive into writing and some art, and might be moving this summer). Anyways, chose this one first as I really like the lead for the first arc, Paul Schneider, a greatly underrated actor I'd ike to see in more stuff. The premise is based on Creepypastas, but they've gotten really creative with it and it doesn't feel like a bloated version of a campfire story, like some horror anthology TV shows I've seen in the past.
 
I often help my parents with stuff (at least once a week). So my mom has recorded a show called; Hubert und Staller - Heiter bis Tödlich. So we watch it together. Great fun.

 
Started watching Channel Zero. Really like it so far. There's a lot of anthology horror shows I've been meaning to check out when I had the time, and Wednesday was my last final, with means I'm free until September. (Starting with a big Spring Clean, before I dive into writing and some art, and might be moving this summer). Anyways, chose this one first as I really like the lead for the first arc, Paul Schneider, a greatly underrated actor I'd ike to see in more stuff. The premise is based on Creepypastas, but they've gotten really creative with it and it doesn't feel like a bloated version of a campfore story, like some horror anthology TV shows I've seen in the past.
Oh, that's been on my queue for a while. There's some good horror anthology stuff on Shudder. Probably the best value of any streaming service, as long as you like the genre.
 
Watched the Exorcist III again for the podcast (https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-nyag2-105be97). This one has always stood out in my memory as a solid film. It is different from the first one, better than the second one, and kind of unique. I love the dialogue and the way the movie builds its tension. Also nice departure from the first and second movie.
 
Watched Domina, which tried really hard not to be HBO Rome and nearly succeeded.

Just finished Season 2 of Ragnarok, which has changed its flavour now that certain things have been revealed. It was OK, enjoyable enough, but I was not surprised when they revealed who the main character's brother was, as I had called it last series.
 
I caught "Mind's Eye," a 5th season X-Files episode on broadcast recently. It was good, largely because of Lili Taylor's performance as a blind woman who becomes a suspect in two murders. It featured a twist that I didn't see coming:
Taylor has been showing up at murder scenes and cleaning up the evidence. This is because she can see through the eyes of the murderer (who turns out to be her father, though she's unaware of that fact). That's not surprising, but her motive is. The killer has been in prison her entire life, so all she has seen is the inside of cells. A few weeks ago he was paroled; he has been doing things like visiting the sea shore. She doesn't want him to be caught because she can't stand the idea of looking at prison walls for the rest of her life.
 
Yeah, favourite series of the last year. And I think it was better than the comic TBH
Yeah I also agree. This is why I'm quite interested to see what they do because this arc in the comic was quite good and yet they still improved it. So I'm interested to see how they actually handle the later arcs where there are many silly elements. I found the second half of the comic run could be fan-fiction like at times.
 
Watched the Exorcist III again for the podcast (https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-nyag2-105be97). This one has always stood out in my memory as a solid film. It is different from the first one, better than the second one, and kind of unique. I love the dialogue and the way the movie builds its tension. Also nice departure from the first and second movie.

Maybe you discuss this but have you seen the director's cut called Legion? Not that radically different as a lot of original footage wasn't available I believe but interesting.
 
Maybe you discuss this but have you seen the director's cut called Legion? Not that radically different as a lot of original footage wasn't available I believe but interesting.

I haven't seen it but I have heard about it.
 
Rewatched the infamous Verhoeven megahit Basic Instinct.

Funny to think of the reaction when this was released, aside from the famous glimpse of beaver (which I missed completely on my first watch) and bloody opening the film has only two extended sex scenes and a handful of short nude scenes.

At the time it was treated as smut which must have amused the European Verhoeven to no end, by the standards of his Danish films (or American films of the 70s) it is retrained!

Ironically, by today's puritan megaplex standards of course this wouldn't have come close to being screened in wide release.

Unlike his other Hollywood films of this period Verhoeven doesn't shoot everything in parodic flat-lighting and TV-like, going for a richer, denser and more cinematic look than most of his American action films.

The script clips along nicely, Stone and Douglas bring wit and chemistry to their flat but fun characters.

Not sure how I missed how clearly a neo-noir this is with a parodic and sly take on the femme fatale and noir protagonist.



With this, Robocop and Total Recall, even Starship Troopers was a hit, you'd think that Verhoeven could have done no wrong in Hollywood but it seems his career there was over after the flop of Showgirls. Reminds me of how Pauline Kael noted that industry hacks like Ivan Reitman are allowed to churn out turkeys and hits without it seeming to ever effect them too seriously but a director like Altman was blackballed after one big flop (Popeye, which of course now has a cult following). The studios resent the directors with talent and punish them for their failures much more strictly than the company men.

That's okay though at least Verhoeven was able to return to Europe and make excellent films like Black Book and the brilliantly perverse Elle.
 
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Love it. Also forgot to mention that Basic Instinct all on its own seems to have inspired the entire subgenre of exploitation 'erotic thrillers' in the 90s that were such a staple of cable Skinamax. Most of them were of course terrible, revisiting the OG brought home how capably made BI is, kind of like revisiting Animal House and realizing how much better it was than all its many, many inferior knock-offs.
 
Love it. Also forgot to mention that Basic Instinct all on its own seems to have inspired the entire subgenre of exploitation 'erotic thrillers' in the 90s that were such a staple of cable Skinamax. Most of them were of course terrible, revisiting the OG brought home how capably made BI is, kind of like revisiting Animal House and realizing how much better it was than all its many, many inferior knock-offs.
Just to say, in general it is very interesting to read this sort of proper critical and historical analysis of films as somebody with no training and knowledge of it. Keep it coming.
 
Rewatched the infamous Verhoeven megahit Basic Instinct.

Funny to think of the reaction when this was released, aside from the famous glimpse of beaver (which I missed completely on my first watch) and bloody opening the film has only two extended sex scenes and a handful of short nude scenes.

At the time it was treated as smut which must have amused the European Verhoeven to no end, by the standards of his Danish films (or American films of the 70s) it is retrained!

Ironically, by today's puritan megaplex standards of course this wouldn't have come close to being screened in wide release.

Unlike his other Hollywood films of this period Verhoeven doesn't shoot everything in parodic flat-lighting and TV-like, going for a richer, denser and more cinematic look than most of his American action films.

The script clips along nicely, Stone and Douglas bring wit and chemistry to their flat but fun characters.

Not sure how I missed how clearly a neo-noir this is with a parodic and sly take on the femme fatale and noir protagonist.



With this, Robocop and Total Recall, even Starship Troopers was a hit, you'd think that Verhoeven could have done no wrong in Hollywood but it seems his career there was over after the flop of Showgirls. Reminds me of how Pauline Kael noted that industry hacks like Ivan Reitman are allowed to churn out turkeys and hits without it seeming to ever effect them too seriously but a director like Altman was blackballed after one big flop (Popeye, which of course now has a cult following). The studios resent the directors with talent and punish them for their failures much more strictly than the company men.

That's okay though at least Verhoeven was able to return to Europe and make excellent films like Black Book and the brilliantly perverse Elle.


Lol I completely forgot 'Newman' was in that scene lol
 
As a part of a programme of giving my shoulder a rest off the computer I've been going through some of the Japanese stuff on Netflix. Today I watched Way of the House Husband. The basic premise of this is a notorious Yakuza thug that has retired and married to become a house husband. There are about 5 episodes of it, each of which takes the form of a series of little skits or vignettes. The animation is pretty basic, presumably deliberately as it's an adaptation of a manga, but it works well. It's quite funny and definitely worth the couple of hours or so it takes to watch it.
 
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I'm just having a hard time processing it in my head. It's like two things that won't go together in my brain, like trying to push together the wrong ends of magnets
I feel like it’ll end up like the 13 Mockingbird Lane. Version, where they do horrible things and we’re to think it’s cool just because they’re the protagonists.

As for what I’ve been watching, over the last two months I’ve had several people bring up 1200AM to me, and I finally got around to watching it. It can be summed up as “White collar criminal gets drawn into something unearthly.” I like the lead actor, and had a good laugh as his character realizes something weird is up and tries to get out immediately.



Other than that, though, the film is just kind of there for me. It doesn’t help that everyone who talked it up to me kept attributing all this deepness and hidden meaning to me, and after watching it all I can think of is the Benny Hill skit where he plays a filmmaker, and every time an interviewer attributes deeper meaning to his work he explains a mundane reason for it.



Sometimes a monster film is just a monster film.
 
Watched Valeri's Day of Anger on Tubi.

Rather low-key for a Spaghetti Western this spends more time than most in the genre on the conflicted father/son-like dynamic of the Lee van Cleef and Giulano Gemma characters.

Notably Ernesto Gastaldi is one of the screenwriters, almost always a sign of quality when it comes to Spaghetti Westerns and giallo. He brings tight plotting and sharp characterization to most of his scripts. This Arrow release looks really good and as usual Riz Ortolani delivers a fun, dynamic score.

 
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Over the weekend, I saw Pinkus' Shoe Palace, a silent film from 1916 starring Ernst Lubitsch as a young man who is expelled from school and rises by savvy and clever trickery to run his own shoe store in Berlin. It's very funny and my wife and I both enjoyed it. I'd never seen a Lubitsch silent film before. His character, Sally, is Jewish, but the anti-Semitism is less marked than one might have imagined in a German film of this era. It's also interesting that though the film was made in 1916, there is no hint of the war.
 
Finally got around to watching The New Mutants. Not nearly as bad as some people made it out to be. It has its flaws, to be certain (especially with the pacing in spots), but I've certainly seen much worse. Heck, I've seen worse X-Men related films.

There are good parts of two different films here. There's parts that can form the basis of a superhero coming of age movie, and there are also parts of a horror film with teen protagonists. The two come together at the end, but before that they at best kinda co-exist with each other, and at worst they occasionally step on the other's toes.

The best part of the movie is the cast, who often do a lot with only a minimum to work with. In particular, Maisie Williams, Blu Hunt, Charlie Heaton and Anna Taylor-Joy pretty much owned their roles.

Had I seen this in the theater, it would at least have been worth the price of a matinee ticket.
 
Finally finished Army of the Dead. It was ok, but some stuff didn't work for me. Bautista was actually really good in this. His character had some depth, which like his small role in the last Blade Runner movie, shows he can act if given the chance.

I started to dig into Black Lightning again, as it's on Netflix now, but I might dive right into the new animated series Trese, as it looks really good.
 
I started to dig into Black Lightning again, as it's on Netflix now, but I might dive right into the new animated series Trese, as it looks really good.

I’d like to get back into Black Lightning again someday. I enjoyed the first season, but then life happened and I sort of forgot about it. My only concern is I looked up one plot point and finding out how they handled it just raised so many questions for me on how much long-term plotting was done.
 
Just watched the debut episode of the iCarly revival on Paramount+. It was quite funny and had some really amusing callbacks to the original series. The first 3 eps came out today, but I won't have a chance to watch the other two until tomorrow.
 
Watched the Exorcist III again for the podcast (https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-nyag2-105be97). This one has always stood out in my memory as a solid film. It is different from the first one, better than the second one, and kind of unique. I love the dialogue and the way the movie builds its tension. Also nice departure from the first and second movie.


Highly underrated film. I think it just sat in the shadow of the second film being so bad, and at that point in time it was just dismissed as yet another horror sequel. George C. Scott is an absolute treat, maybe my favourite role of his. He's like a potboiler of anger the entire film. Hesitate to call it horror, even with the supernatural elements, but some really tense scenes. The held shot in the hospital hallway was particularly effective I thought
 
Oh, that's been on my queue for a while. There's some good horror anthology stuff on Shudder. Probably the best value of any streaming service, as long as you like the genre.

After a very strong beginning, the first season ended...OK. I think the issue is, it purported to be about/inspired by the classic creepypasta Candle Cove, and initially they pull that off well, but by the end it's sorta clear that they just tacked the Candle Cove stuff on top of another story (which seemed to be kinda a blend of Twin Peaks and the Ring). So the story does resolve, but the resolution has zero to do with any of the Candle Cove stuff in the story. Which doesn't mean it was bad, but I think if I went back and watched it again, it wouldn't make a lot of thematic sense.

Still well acted, very creepy, and the beginning is strong enough that I'd recommend it based on that alone.
 
I’d like to get back into Black Lightning again someday. I enjoyed the first season, but then life happened and I sort of forgot about it. My only concern is I looked up one plot point and finding out how they handled it just raised so many questions for me on how much long-term plotting was done.

I've been kind of so-so on season 3 and 4. I like it, but not as much as Season 1. The episode where they set up a possible Painkiller spin off wasn't bad. To be honest though, how could they not think about tying Static Shock to Black Lightning, and making a live action Static Shock show escapes me.

Since I was having a bit of choice paralysis on what to watch next, I started rewatching Enter the Dragon on Netflix for the umpteenth time. Still awesome after all these decades
 
Watched the Nagisa Oshima's 1969 film Boy, a terrific story of a young boy and his criminal family.



Great sense of time and place, both the adult and kid actors are all very good. This film is more neo-realist than Oshima's more Godardian 60s films and touchingly humanist yet resolutely unsentimental. I suspect this film was a big influence on Kore-eda's recent masterpiece Shoplifters. Highly recommended.
 
I've been kind of so-so on season 3 and 4. I like it, but not as much as Season 1. The episode where they set up a possible Painkiller spin off wasn't bad. To be honest though, how could they not think about tying Static Shock to Black Lightning, and making a live action Static Shock show escapes me.

I suspect given some of the stories about anything Milestone-related in recent years they might have refrained in case TV rights issues got muddled.
 
I suspect given some of the stories about anything Milestone-related in recent years they might have refrained in case TV rights issues got muddled.

They used Icon, Rocket and iirc, Static in the Young Justice cartoon. Also, the comics are back again under DC (the first issue of the new Static series came out 3 days ago). I'm doubtful there are any issues; more than likely, they just didn't have time to plan something once they learned Milestone was coming back (given they likely filmed most of the last season before the return was made official)
 
They used Icon, Rocket and iirc, Static in the Young Justice cartoon. Also, the comics are back again under DC (the first issue of the new Static series came out 3 days ago). I'm doubtful there are any issues; more than likely, they just didn't have time to plan something once they learned Milestone was coming back (given they likely filmed most of the last season before the return was made official)

I apologize, as I’m clearly out of the loop. A few years ago I read an article where Dwayne McDuffie’s widow had commented about issues with DC using Milestone characters, and had thought there were still issues in that area.
 
Last night I watched "The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat," a season 11 X-Files episode from 2018. It's a comic episode, in which Mulder and Scully encounter a man who claims to be their old partner Reggie Something, who worked with them on the X-Files for years. It's pretty funny--Darin Morgan, who wrote some of the classic episodes of the original series gets writing and directing credits. It's the kind of episode that a series can only do once, though, since its main point is that the X-Files' world-view (The truth is out there! There is a vast conspiracy!) seems a little quaint in the post-truth era. The many references to Trump made it feel a bit dated, though the scene where Mulder has an encounter with Dr. Thaddeus They (who may, or may not, have the power to alter people's collective memories) is engaging, not least for the art installation where it was shot, something called "A-maze-ing laughter" in Morton Park, Vancouver:
Lost Art Forehead Sweat.jpg
 
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