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Going forward, I think they’ve greater narrative room.

As a group of odd ‘uns and rejects and screw ups? You could have them appeal more to the in-universe public, compared to the squeaky clean do-gooders.

Just keep them kinda bordering on anti-heroes. Make continually striving against their flaws a common theme. Let that vital part of the human experience come to the fore.

Just watched my favorite movie about Glasgow, Scotland and featuring my favorite Irish Marvel actress Kerry Condon (she was Friday, the voice of Tony's AI assistant after Jarvis)...

Unleashed (aka Danny the Dog).

One of my favorite Bob Hoskins movies... oh and Mogan Freeman and Jet Li were in it too.

Did I mention Kerry Condon was in it, because I sure as hell can't talk about Jet Li's "acting."

The First Great Train Robbery (1978)

Heist film sat during the Victorian period, about the first robbery of a running train. Directed by Michael Crichton, based on a novel by his, which itself is based on a historical train robbery. It stars Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland and Lesley-Anne Down. And who wouldn't want to go on a heist with those three?

It's a pretty long film, it's a pretty slow film, it's a pretty film. Loads of great Victorian life is recreated very well (as far as I can tell). Sutherland looks incredibly sleazy with those HUGE muttonchops and his Sutherlandness.

Then there's a pretty well known action bit in the end, which really is pretty impressive. Until then the film has this comedic tone, which helps a lot sitting through it. And it's just fun to see Connery and Sutherland on screen, planning this thing.



Watch It, if you're into Victorian stuff or just the actors. Pretty good fun. I was dead sure I'd never seen that, but then one scene emerged which made me remember that I indeed have seen it a while ago, at least parts of it.

Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces

“I want a. Two. By. Four!”


The Missing Pieces is a feature length “meanwhile in Twin Peaks” accessory to Fire Walk With Me. All the weird, zany or wacky elements that might have detracted from the horror of Laura Palmer’s last week alive were stripped from Fire Walk With Me and stitched together into The Missing Pieces. Some of these moments are very fun. Some are weird, such as the David Bowie scenes and the Black Lodge stuff. Some are creepy and uncomfortable, such as Laura’s reaction to the ceiling fan, and every scene with Leland Palmer.

Not essential viewing, but I enjoyed it.

MDG, I found this just for you.

Alien Invasion: Rise of the Phoenix (2025)

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt33115196/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

You can thank me later.

That looks delightfully awful!

Not sure I ever heard of that other Twin Peaks summary film. I've heard of fire walk with me, but I don't think I've come across that one. Interesting.

Apparently they remastered Baywatch, so I'm watching that season 1 episode about the ghost lady, because that episode scared the bejeezus out of me when I saw it on tv as a kid. The remaster part seems to be mostly that they turned up the saturation to 11. Apart from that: What an odd show Baywatch is. There's THREE storylines within that episode, one of which gets resolved quite quickly, the other one being very bland and kinda wholesome on the surface, the main one being the one with Eddie and the ghost. Watched through it now, no idea why i was so utterly scared of the dead lady in the end. I mean she's a bit pale and got a pimple on her forehead, but the way I remembered it it was the ghastliest, dead-for-decades body of a drowned person evar. Oh well. Baywatch it kinda stupid, isn't it.

Oh, I also watched the first episode of Kevin Can feth Himself. It's a not-unintersting concept: It's basically King of Queens. The very attractive younger lady with very attractively oblique smile from Schitt's creek is married to a guy whose life is shown in classic sitcom scenes, when ever she passes through the door out of the room where her husband and friends/family hang out, she gets back into real life (which is unnecessarily filtered in blue and dark and whatnot. Which kinda hurts the premise of the whole thing, but okay. It's a US tv show, they have to make sure it's not subtle in any way). It's okay, she's a good lead, even though too pretty for the part I think. The people who play the sitcom characters are well cast, because they look like proper sitcom caricatures. Apparently it's about her trying to emancipate herself from her (mostly) self-imposed immaturity (but Kevin is kind of a thiefing git as well, on top of being a git in general), laden with some unnecessary tropes, but okay. Pretty sure I won't be watching this, but they did manage to make the sitcom portions feel really insufferable, which is pretty impressive.

I ALSO Watched the first two episodes of Maniac Mansion (1990) by Sean Levy, which ran for 3 bloody seasons and of which I'd never heard before. Late 90s/early 2000s may have been a golden age for TV, but the early 90s was where the interesting stuff happened. Interesting show, pretty daring when it comes to format, got nothing to do with the video game, but they got the rights from Lucas Arts. I suggest watching that just to see what used to be possible. It's all on youtube. It kinda feels like a mix of the muppets, host segments in MST3k and Spaced? Not sure. Pretty interesting stuff, if only for historical reference.

My understanding is that the footage used for TwinPeaks The Missing Pieces was held up for decades due to a rights issue, so it was only released relatively recently.

Baywatch felt like a series struggling to be about more than lifeguards, the few episodes I saw. Or maybe I’m projecting back due to Baywatch Nights.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
My understanding is that the footage used for TwinPeaks The Missing Pieces was held up for decades due to a rights issue, so it was only released relatively recently.

Baywatch felt like a series struggling to be about more than lifeguards, the few episodes I saw. Or maybe I’m projecting back due to Baywatch Nights.

I just went through the first season's episode descriptions, because they haveto explain the plot in 2 sentences, which reads really funny, but I was surprised how much of those I remember. I even remember the first time the first episode aired. I was at a friend's, had to leave because it was evening and I saw the intro at his place, then the rest of the episode at home. It was David Hasselhoff's new show and of course he was the king of early evening tv by means of Knight Rider. That intro irritated and impressed me with how modern it looked and sounded. And it was irritating due to lack of cars.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
My understanding is that the footage used for TwinPeaks The Missing Pieces was held up for decades due to a rights issue, so it was only released relatively recently.

Baywatch felt like a series struggling to be about more than lifeguards, the few episodes I saw. Or maybe I’m projecting back due to Baywatch Nights.

Nah, right from the start Baywatch had the problem of "okay, what situations can people get caught in that we haven't done?" and from there needing to spiral out away from actual baywatch responsibilities. If you want a great time, find the episode where WCW wrestlers guest starred (Bash at the Beach, s6e15). Not as different characters either, Ric Flair is Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan is Hulk Hogan. Just in the Baywatch world Ric Flair is trying to buy up Hogan's old beachside gym to turn it into condos so naturally a wrestling match needs to happen to solve that. Oh, and what B-plot do you have for the episode where a load of roided men in bright tights are chewing the scenery and shouting at each other? Have one of your main cast get diagnosed with skin cancer, that'll hook the new watchers in for next week! Certainly no tonal whiplash there!

With regards to the HD update to Baywatch, Youtube's resident Baywatch expert Allison Pregler has a video about it:


I recommend her Baywatching series which is going through reviewing every episode of Baywatch, including all of Baywatch Nights. It's great fun hearing about the bonkers stories of Baywatch, including some behind the scenes stuff occasionally such as when she gets her hands on the initial scripts for some episodes and seeing just how much they cut to fit things into the baywatch budget.

Penda’s Fen

A “Play for Today” tv movie from 1974. And it’s an odd one to describe.

Our protagonist is a Vicar’s son, struggling with his faith and latent homosexuality. This is compounded by him being told on his 18th Birthday he’s adopted. It’s a very interesting piece of work that’s hard to describe without spouting the entire plot.

It’s strange how the protagonist starts off as pretty unlikable, using his faith to berate and criticise other people with unthinking judgement. But as we progress, and he begins to reconcile himself with, well, himself? He becomes far more sympathetic.

It’s critical of religious hypocrisy, but not religion itself. The Vicar isn’t all fire and brimstone, instead being slightly embarrassed by his son’s judgemental comments.

Definitely interesting, rather than merely entertaining. A decent option if you fancy something a bit more complex and thought provoking.

@A Town Called Malus: Funnily enough, I caught that WCW episode on tv just a few years ago. It also starred The Man They Call Vader, didn't it? Also - dang, it's been a while since I watched an Obscurus Lupa video

 Sigur wrote:
@A Town Called Malus: Funnily enough, I caught that WCW episode on tv just a few years ago. It also starred The Man They Call Vader, didn't it? Also - dang, it's been a while since I watched an Obscurus Lupa video

Yep, has Vader, Ric Flair, and Dungeon of Doom iteration Kevin Sullivan, complete with painted on elaborate eyebrows/facial markings, on the villain side, and Hulk Hogan, Macho Man Randy Savage, and Jimmy Hart on the face side. Also, you can see Dennis Rodman around the ring at times, if I remember right as he was there for that actual PPV supporting Hogan, uncredited on the episode.

Okay, Rodman I missed. The thought of mid-90s Dennis Rodman not being credited for every tiny thing he does is really astounding. Very funny little factoid.

Weapons

The one with the creepy running kids.


This is a must-see for anyone who loves supernatural horror. It starts out pretty grounded with the tension slowly ratcheting, building towards an ending that ranks up there with the horror classics.

It is a cracker.

We’ve been on a bit of a run of genuinely quality horror flicks of late. Sinners, Weapons, Bring Her Back to name but three.

Sure, there’s always good new horror if you know where to look. But these are getting widespread releases to rightful critical acclaim.

All three largely rely on building a strong atmosphere of fear and uncertainty. They’ve their gory and horrifying moments, but never as a replacement for deep seated dread and unease.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
We’ve been on a bit of a run of genuinely quality horror flicks of late. Sinners, Weapons, Bring Her Back to name but three.

Of the three I only saw Sinners, and I thought it was pretty lame. I have no idea why everyone is gushing over it.

Besides the ending, my favorite scene in Weapons is a whole roller coaster ride in 5 minutes: dread, startled fear, growing unease…laughter and relief—then a groan of deep dread, audience holding their breath—oh feth no!—then a nervous chuckle of confused maybe relief.

 Geifer wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
We’ve been on a bit of a run of genuinely quality horror flicks of late. Sinners, Weapons, Bring Her Back to name but three.

Of the three I only saw Sinners, and I thought it was pretty lame. I have no idea why everyone is gushing over it.

People love Vampire movies. Same with dull as stale popcorn Zombie movies.

Last time I watched a Vampire product I enjoyed it had Guillermo Del Toro's name attached to it.

 Geifer wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
We’ve been on a bit of a run of genuinely quality horror flicks of late. Sinners, Weapons, Bring Her Back to name but three.

Of the three I only saw Sinners, and I thought it was pretty lame. I have no idea why everyone is gushing over it.

I don’t know if it’s the very American context of it or if it just wasn’t your style. I loved the film. My son loved the film. Sinners is a crowd pleaser here, and stylish enough to be an instant classic.

Loved Sinners, but I can see how a lot of people went in with expectations that it doesn't meet. It's, at its core, just a classic, mean, dirty, evil style of vampire movie but it kind of got hyped up as something significantly more than that and probably pulled in people who didn't get what they were looking for.

That's because in a US context it IS significantly more.

Sure, the core plot line is From Dusk 'til Dawn and is nothing special there. However, everything else says so much more about the dark side of America and its relationship with African-American culture. If you have never experienced the relationship for yourself, it would be really tough to read the subtext and cultural context of the film.

Just like a lot of Asian movies, I have a hard time understanding the subtext and cultural context because I have not lived in that culture. I don't get it most of the time.

I don't think subtext is a problem. Fortunately America is prolific enough in exporting its past and present culture and social conflicts that it's not hard to understand what's going on.

I just think there isn't much that ties the exposition of black culture and racial issues a hundred years ago that takes up the majority of the movie to the vampire action finale. The former makes up a whole lot of the movie, and could pretty much stand on its own as a social drama, but hasn't much relation to the fairly brief vampirific conflict and resolution later on. If you're into the cultural aspect of it, I'm sure the movie has plenty going for it.

As a horror movie I find Sinners lacking. That bit just felt tacked on to me. Although I'd say the setup for it is too much in the background and on the sidelines for much of the movie, in a way you might even say that what little there is is too much. People keep referring to From Dusk Till Dawn (which I'm not big on, really, even if it's considered a classic), but that movie at least has its "and suddenly, vampires!" moment going for it where the viewer is thrown into a radically, and luckily humorously overdone different situation. I don't think Sinners pulls off anything like it, so while you get your two movies for the price of one, you know early on your exploration of cultural themes is going to get cut short by bloody vampire nonsense, and the bloody vampire nonsense doesn't get much exploration before the final and only battle between monsters and survivors.

The movie's successful so I'm sure plenty of folks like the blend, but when MDG talks about genuinely good horror movies, I just don't see what puts Sinners on that list.

See my comments about relying on atmosphere over shock. Not shying away from gore, but not doing gore for the sake of gore.

The three I mentioned are just Very Well Made Films. Solid plots, excellent cast, interesting stories.

It feels like another new age of horror is starting. One where you get the new mass appeal movies which set not necessarily a new standard as such, but becomes the In Thing that all studios will try to cash in on. The fashion. I think you can call it the fashion.

We’ve also seen much the same occur with Prey, Romulus and Alien Earth. Film makers and show runners who understand the Atmosphere is a major part of what made the originals so well regarded.

I mean, pretty much any tit can have a crack at Making An Alien Movie. But if you don’t build that atmosphere? It doesn’t matter if this time Instead Of A Mouth, It’s Got Four Arses. Because without the right atmosphere? All you’ve got is a bunch of people fannying around in a mild panic whilst getting killed to death one by one.

Heck, I learned in film school that action movies and horror are the same exact story with a POV swap.

One (nigh) invulnerable monster kills a bunch of numbskulls who make poor decisions.

In an action film you must give the viewers a reason to root for the indestructible monster.

(See. The works of Steven Seagal, Chuck Norris, Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, et al.)

Which is why Predator works so well. It starts off as a (very good!) action movie, before literally flipping the script.

Importantly for the flipping? Dutch and his lads don’t just become suddenly incompetent. They’re just horribly, hideously outclassed by the Yautja. It’s smarter than them. Stealthier than arm. Stronger than them. And better armed.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
There’s also a possible subtext to Prey.

When Naru comes across the slaughtered Bison? We see wasteful hunting. Done not for survival, but for greed. And so when the Hunters get their heads kicked in (well, off)? We genuinely don’t feel sorry for them.

We don’t necessarily root for the Yautja - but we do feel like the Hunters are getting their just desserts.

@Gelfer- You are looking to the Vampires for the Horror in Sinners, they are not where the Horror stems from. However, it is okay if you didn't like it.

A lot of people love The Dark Knight Rises (I think that is the Second Nolan Batman) but I hate it. However, I recognize what a good film it is, I just don't like the conclusions it draws about its themes.

JAWS: 50th Anniversary.

Not much to say other than "Bruce" is rather scary on the big screen! Looking forward to the sequel in 2028...because...one good bite...deserves another.

The Dark Knight is the second, good, one. The Dark Knight Rises is the third one that is somehow dumber than Pete Holmes’s Badman.

However, without the Dark Knight Rises we never would have gotten Holmes’s Batman Has A Dirty Mind.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
On Sinners, you can kind of see by the huge Domestic/Worldwide disparity in box office performance that it really resonates with (a large subset of) Americans while generally failing to connect with foreign audiences.

It feels a bit like Everything Everywhere All At Once in that the people it didn’t connect with swear it’s the movie that is bad and there is nothing of substance to be found despite its success.

TDKR is hard carried by Hathaway and Hardy being as interesting as possible with their dialogue. They both crushed it, but that movie is generally unbelievably stupid. I don't know how we went from shoot-outs in TDK to that absurd melee at the end of TDKR.