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Zombi

AKA, and probably better known as Dawn of the Dead, the Argento cut.

Now I’ve seen the original theatrical cut dozens of times. And I’ve recently had the pleasure of the extended Romero Director’s cut.

So far the differences are largely superficial. Less time spent getting our group together, as they entirely forgo the meeting the other group of cops.

The soundtrack is also different from memory too.

Ideally I’d watch the original, then watch this straight after, but to be honest I’m not entirely sure my appetite is quite that strong.

Stardust

For my boys, it was their first time seeing it, and my oldest just kept saying 'how have I never watched this before?'.
It is the rare film adaptation of a book that changes what needs to be changed, and integrates it while keeping the tone. A faithful adaptation would have lacked action. This one added the action, while keeping the fairy tale and fairy tale universe intact. So many story threads are woven together so well.

You constantly feel as if you understand a few of the rules of this universe, but keep being made very aware you do not know them all. It is fun and exciting fantasy. Fantastic performances, with Charlie Cox being understated and reserved, and Michelle Pfeiffer chewing scenery like Bruce Campbell (that is very high praise indeed). Everyone involved is having a fantastic time, and it shows. If only more adventure stories could be this entertaining and well constructed!

Ooh, good choice. Not seen stardust for ages. Have you watched mirrormask? I recall it being a similar experience. Not quite as polished (hah) as Stardust though.

I'll second the thumbs up for both Stardust (nearest anyone has got to The Princess Bride) and Mirrormask, which like Flinty says not as slick but worth it for the visuals (with the bonus game of "isn't that him/her from wotsit")

Thanks for the tip! I have not seen it, I'll keep my eyes open for Mirrormask.

Alexander The Great

No, not that one! The one from the 50's with Richard Burton! This one spends a lot of time on Alexander, Olympius, and Phillip. This Olympius is no Angelina Jolie.

Of course, there is a cast of thousands thanks to the help of the Spanish military. Some of the outfits are ridiculous, while others are pretty good.

The details of the story seem pretty solid too, but the movie ends short after the death of Black Cleitus, and somewhat suddenly.

Solomon and Sheba
So, hungry for more "historical epics" my Tubi just rolled into Solomon and Sheba starring Yule Brenner! My knowledge of this tale is not as solid as that of Alexander.

That said, it was great to see another "epic"! We got to see some chariot action and guys who had no chance of being Egyptian playing Egyptians! Fun stuff.

We really need more "modern" historical epics that aren't trying to be Lord of the Rings.

We also need modern adventure films ala The Mummy, Indiana Jones et al.

Bullet Train is excellent- well worth a watch.

It’s everything that Grey Man thinks it is (but isn’t)

Charismatic characters, interesting plot, stylish, a bit quirky, cool fights, interesting use of flashbacks.

@Easy E: Once more, I approve of your actions.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
We also need modern adventure films ala The Mummy, Indiana Jones et al.

Hey, we just got an immensely memorable Mummy film featuring Tom Cruise and we're about to get a new Indiana Jones nobody will wanna ever remember (Disney figured out that formuly for making any 2hours big franchise film feel 'alright' whilst in the cinema and then it's quickly forgotten, but the lingering guilt remains. It's the Big Mac formula. Most of all, it works in any part of the world, it works under any regime. That'll be one of those. )


Adventure films would be nice. Closest we got recently I'd say is that film in which Sandra Bullock is a novels writer and kinda goes through Romancing the Stone, but as a lady? Of course that's no Firewalker or King Solomon's Mine.

Hey, maybe Warner would like to do a series of Jules Vernes films. But they'd probably get cancelled for some reason.

I’ll reserve judgment on Indy until we’ve actually seen it. Parts will filmed just up the road from Daddykins, so it’s a shoe-in for me.

The Tom Cruise Mummy (in which Tom Cruise plays Tom Cruise, learns nothing and continues being Tom Cruise, like an adult Zack Morris, who is trash) doesn’t exist. You hallucinated it.

West Side Story (2021)

I'm a New Yorker and a Broadway fan but even I was ambivalent about whether the world needed a WSS remake. But this is good, real, real good.

Spielberg adds layers to the script that were there, but not as clear. For example the overture and Jets song make it clear the West Side is about to be bulldozed to build condos for rich folks. The Jets and Sharks are fighting to see who'll be the king of the last pile of bricks. There's also a great speech about the Jets, the Puerto Ricans are moving in because all the white people with any money or upward mobility have moved out. The Jets are the ones who are left, the bastard sons, the junkies, the losers, the white trash. It adds a lot of futility to them as they try to be kings of a neighborhood no one wants and which is about to be torn down.

My dad grew up in Brooklyn watching other families move out and immigrants move in. He lost his dad in the war and his family wasn't going anywhere, so I felt a very unexpected connection.

My family wanted to watch some movies, so that put an end to my Historical Epics and Peplum binge watching..... for now!

Logan
Surprisingly poignant, even if the end set-piece feels a bit contrived.

The chemistry between Stewart and Jackman sells the movie alone.

Lightyear
So, what was all the fuss about? Oh, there is a gay relationship that is portrayed in a positive light? I see.

This movie is really, really beautiful to look at. Just thinking about how far they have come since 1995's Toy Story 1 to today with the technology is unreal.

Sadly, the innovations ended at the technology, because the script is..... something.... it hits the right beats, but at the same time feels by the numbers, and the plot is..... a thing.

Young Sheldon

Decided to give this a bash, as I was at a loose end. Contrary to The Big Bang Theory, this is actually a pretty warm hearted show so far.

Big Bang was like Friends to me: I understood why it was supposed to be funny, and occasionally it could make me smile, but I didn't actually find it consistently funny.

I've only seen one episode of Young Sheldon (the plot involved a new games console) and from what I saw I agree with you. It was a warm hearted show very different from Big Bang (the lack of a laugh track really helps).

Yeah. Rather than the joke being “Sheldon is socially inept”, it’s a gentler “Sheldon is socially awkward and inept, but loved by his family all the same, who try to accommodate his eccentricities”.

I think it works because his family are kind of odd balls themselves, just in very different ways.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Taggart

Chewing through my boxed set, and on disc 36, so approx half way.

Was trying to place the new Pathologist, and realised it’s only Boaby from the Clansman.

Two pints, prick!

Choose Or Die

Basically a Black Mirror episode with a splash of horror hi-jinx, some neat ideas but just doesn't come together, 4/10

Sweet Tooth

About half away in and I'm still not sure, some stunningly landscape cinematography mind

I love me some Friends. Still watch it. Maybe I even like it more than before.

I detest Big Bang Theory. It's calculated, cheap, not even made for the target audience it kinda pretends to be for. At least it very much cemented the fact - even for the last person on earth - that the 'nerd' thing is meaningless. The sitcom Mom is by the same guy, right? That's much better than Big Bang Theory.

I watched The Grey Man recently.

Competently shot, nice over the top action sequences, Chris Evans chewing all the scenery. It would have been wonderful, except that our man Mr Gosling cannot do stoic. All he could manage on this occasion is vacant...

Also watched Kiki's Delivery Service again with my daughter after many years. Its still as lovely as I recall. Just a lovely slice of life for a young witch finding her feet in a big city. Another generation enjoyed it greatly

Monster Hunter

It's Resident Evil all over again, Milla Jovovich being badass in something that bares little more than a passing resemblance to the source material.
Fortunately, I love the Resident Evil movies so I found this entertaining even though it wasn't that great of a film.

Did they ever give a reason for throwing a modern military unit and dimensional travel into the film rather than just going with... actual monster hunters doing monster hunter things? That actually seems far more relatable and understandable.

Highlander: The TV Series

Ahhhh, a great slice from 1995 to 2000 or so. A snapshot in time when "Syndication" was a thing. Basically, local, independent channels would buy pre-made shows to fill time slots based on their schedule needs. These shows were made and optioned by independent production companies and bought in seasonal block. Star Trek: The Next Generation is a pretty famous syndicated television shows.

So, this follows the life of Duncan McLeod who is a kinsman of Connor McLeod from the Highlander movie. Christopher Lambert is in the first episode or so, and then he wanders off after transitioning to Duncan.

Season 1 is trying to find its footing and focuses a lot on Immortal of the week type stuff. Season 2-5 are pretty solid, with a few ups and downs; and moves a bit away from immortal of the week and allows for some arcing themes; but they are all mostly stand alone. Season 6 was mostly a focus on other immortals rather than Duncan, and it feels like they were trying to develop some sort of spin-off that could stick; but mostly failed.

Of course, one of the highlights is all the famous and well-known character actors that show up as one-off immortals. There are a lot of people passing through this show that go on to other things. I recall watching an episode where person X showed up, and then watching a movie the next night that had that exact same actor in it, only 10 years later or so.

The show of course has good and bad episodes, but overall it is a very solid experience for a syndicated show; one of the good ones for sure. Duncan is an interesting "heroic" character, his supporting characters are all solid, and they really do a good job exploring what it means to be an immortal. The weakest episodes are typically the big "season end" or "Season opening" set pieces.

Anywho, it was good enough to inspire to me to create and run a "Highlander" themed RPG for my group. I would recommend watching it if you liked the movie.

Chewing my way (heh) through The Walking Dead on Star, and up to season 8.

And they’re playing some episode out of aired order. Not in a “you’ve buggered it up” way, but in a “look this is fairly old now, so sod spoilers and tension” way. So where we find Rick dumbstruck at the Saviours escaping, they showed how they escaped (Daryl’s possibly idiot plan) being put into action, then Rick finding out.

Voss wrote:
Did they ever give a reason for throwing a modern military unit and dimensional travel into the film rather than just going with... actual monster hunters doing monster hunter things? That actually seems far more relatable and understandable.

Nope.
Towards the end there's a bit of talk about an ancient civilisation of dimension jumpers whose portal tech has reactivated for some reason, but nothing comes of it (The film ends surprisingly abruptly).
Honestly, I think they had the idea that people wouldn't understand how super tough the monsters were unless people shot at them with big guns to no effect, or they just really wanted to do the whole scene and built the movie around it.

Highlander was a great show. They had a good mix of fun “baddie of the week” episode and lore building episodes.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Highlander was a great show. They had a good mix of fun “baddie of the week” episode and lore building episodes.

I was really surprised to see Ron Pearlman show up in an episode or two!

Beavis & Butt-Head.

They’re baaaaaaack! On Paramount+

I know, and don’t care, that they’re not to everyone’s taste. They’re my favourite idiots. Well stoked to have yet another series of gross negligence and abject stupidity to entertain me.

Absolutely ideal for decompressing the brain after a day of being clever.

Phantoms.

Basically "the thing" on a larger budget and scale with some religious tones that are explained in the movie. I liked it overall, Peter O'Tool was wonderful.

Admittedly the military rushing in with dozens of pieces of monsterbait.....er, soldiers and multi-million dollar vehicles on some small town sheriff's word was a little implausible, unless they knew about the bigbad.

Interstellar

Visually stunning, even watching it streaming but like many blockbusters ultimately gutless.

Spoilers, seriously, like the whole movie spoiled, I'm not kidding.

Uh, they didn’t kill Wedge then, either.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Uh, they didn’t kill Wedge then, either.

Oh, who did they kill then? Biggs? Goose?

Porkins, I know they killed Porkins.

I cried for weeks.