That's the crux of my argument on why TV shows are a waste of time. They rarely know if the pilot will be picked up, if so they scramble to write episodes. If picked up for a 2nd season they hire an entirely new group of writers to cobble together some nonsense. It's always a waste of time and turns into a mess.
A standalone film with a single writer/director or a team where the project is their life's work is always more authentic, cohesive and quite simply better.
Yes not always 100% but a good majority of the time that is what happens. I've gone off on this tangent before and hardy anyone agrees with me, people love their TV shows.
My patience for TV shows is very low right now. Movies stick to the three act structure (setup, confrontation and resolution). In a single sitting you can watch a story that has a beginning, middle and end. TV use to have a 4 act structure (4 commercial breaks) and now it's... I am not sure, it varies from show to show. But I feel like when someone calls an episode filler it's because of this. Did the story progress, did a character develop, did a conflict arise, did something happen... or did it feel like you just watched the middle hour of a long movie?
I feel my impatience typically comes with how TV shows deal with unknowns. TV shows love to tease things and drag things out. Introduce a character for a short bit, then cut to other characters or events, then come back to the character for a bit and then do this for 3 episodes. Potentially 3 hours of watching before I understand who this character is, what they are doing and how they fit into the story. I having a hard time with this pace of story telling.
I am not a slave to structure mind you either, but it does work for a reason. Doing something different is always interesting but I don't think basically turning something into a 10 hour movie is good story telling. I tried to get into the Lord of the Rings TV show and it felt like this to me. I thought the first season of the Mandalorian was great. It was a good blend of an over arching story for the season but each episode had a stand alone story with a beginning middle and end.
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Watched the Canadian film I Like Movies yesterday, and it was honestly the best movie I've seen in a long long time. The story takes place in 2003 in Burlington and is about a high school kid who is socially awkward, but obsessed with movies. He ends up getting a job in a video rental store and making friends with his female manager. Honestly it's great, and deserves more love, if you get a chance check this one out, you won't be disappointed.
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Went to see it today, curiosity always gets the best of me and I'll always give movies a fair shot, especially when they're made at this level by some of the best in the industry.
Multiple scenes beautifully shot and you have to appreciate the stunt work and fight choreography. I had to constantly remind myself that this movie exists in it's own universe, felt like a heavily stylized comic book movie. Ridiculous most of the time and incredibly ridiculous at moments, not my type of movie.
Well, I'm going to stay in my lane and recommend another "bad" movie. We took the kids to see 65. It was ok. The young girl was very good in her role. Adam Driver was, well, Adam Driver. He's a pretty stoic dude which is a good fit for this character. When you aren't expecting it though, he'll hit you with an uncomfortable example of ugly crying.
Anyway, it was a decent sci-fi movie. A fair amount of suspense mixed with action. I don't know, we kind of liked it. How's that for a recommendation lol.
2.5/5
Went to see it today, curiosity always gets the best of me and I'll always give movies a fair shot, especially when they're made at this level by some of the best in the industry.
Multiple scenes beautifully shot and you have to appreciate the stunt work and fight choreography. I had to constantly remind myself that this movie exists in it's own universe, felt like a heavily stylized comic book movie. Ridiculous most of the time and incredibly ridiculous at moments, not my type of movie.
Ridiculous and yet there are scenes that still stick with me long afterwards because of what they dared to do. Some of the angles were just awesome.
Love how heavily stylized it is. The sets, costumes and subtitles are great fun.
Re-watched it tonight and it might be my favorite western. And the cast is unreal. You remember Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Sam Elliott, Michael Biehn, Powers Boothe, Bill Paxton, but then you have guys like Jason Prisetley, Billy Bob Thornton, Thomas Haden Church and a very young Michael Rooker popping up. Even Terry O Quinn from Survivor .
Kilmer should have at least been nominated for best supporting actor. This was the year that Tommy Lee Jones won for the Fugitive, which was a fun role, but not really nuanced at all. Other nominees were Leonardo DiCaprio (What's eating Glen Gulutzan), Ralph Fiennes (Schindler's List), John Malkovich (in the line of fire), and Pete Postlethwaite (In the Name of the Father).
I would say that Fiennes should have won. And I would have Kilmer #2 just ahead of Postlehwaite.
That gives me an idea for a thread.
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For no particular reason I turned on The Suicide Squad from a couple of years ago and decided to watch a bit of it, despite never watching the original.
ending up watching the whole thing. I needed something stupid and funny and it delivered. Even the gory violence was funny.
The movie set me up to enjoy it form the beginning. Using "People who Died" made me very happy and got me into the perfect mindset.
God I love that song and it was perfect for the movie.
The only thing that threw me off during the movie was The Thinker. He reminded me too much of Kevin McDonald from Kids in the Hall.
Last edited by GordonBlue; 03-27-2023 at 10:25 AM.
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John Wick 4 was a blast. There's a scene in the last third where he gets the incendiary ammo gun and the cinematography turns into Hotline Miami for a long continuous shot that is gonna go down as an absolute classic, just brilliant action film-making.
For no particular reason I turned on The Suicide Squad from a couple of years ago and decided to watch a bit of it, despite never watching the original.
ending up watching the whole thing. I needed something stupid and funny and it delivered. Even the gory violence was funny.
The movie set me up to enjoy it form the beginning. Using "People who Died" made me very happy and got me into the perfect mindset.
God I love that song and it was perfect for the movie.
The only thing that threw me off during the movie was The Thinker. He reminded me too much of Kevin McDonald from Kids in the Hall.
If you liked this iteration of The Suicide Squad you may want to check out the Peacemaker HBO series spin-off. It was also made by James Gunn so it has the same style and storytelling techniques.
Plus I thought it was damn good.
__________________ "It's a great day for hockey."
-'Badger' Bob Johnson (1931-1991)
"I see as much misery out of them moving to justify theirselves as them that set out to do harm." -Dr. Amos "Doc" Cochran
Re-watched it tonight and it might be my favorite western. And the cast is unreal. You remember Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Sam Elliott, Michael Biehn, Powers Boothe, Bill Paxton, but then you have guys like Jason Prisetley, Billy Bob Thornton, Thomas Haden Church and a very young Michael Rooker popping up. Even Terry O Quinn from Survivor .
Kilmer should have at least been nominated for best supporting actor. This was the year that Tommy Lee Jones won for the Fugitive, which was a fun role, but not really nuanced at all. Other nominees were Leonardo DiCaprio (What's eating Glen Gulutzan), Ralph Fiennes (Schindler's List), John Malkovich (in the line of fire), and Pete Postlethwaite (In the Name of the Father).
I would say that Fiennes should have won. And I would have Kilmer #2 just ahead of Postlehwaite.
Just watched Promising Young Woman, which I believe is on Netflix. I was kind of bored during the first part, but as the plot evolved, I became more and more intrigued, and although the ending was contrived to make a better visual, it was still amazing.
It stars Carey Mulligan and in lesser roles, Adam Brody, Alison Brie, Christopher Mintz-Passe, and a host of other recognizable faces. But it really is a Carey Mulligan movie. Alfred Molina shows up very briefly but knocks it out of the park.
I thought it was easily one of the best movies I've seen. I hesitate got get into the plot too much without spoiling it, but Mulligan plays a woman traumatized after a tragedy, dealing with it in an interesting way, and then getting the chance to get revenge on those who caused the trauma. There's a scene where she gets evidence of what happened, and it is almost heartbreaking.
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It's the 25th anniversary of Prince of Egypt so I decided to give it a re-watch with the new 4K release. This film is one of the best looking animated film ever, and the new 4K transfer does wonders for this movie. Not only does the film look amazing but the score is top notch (scored by Hans Zimmer) and the voice cast is one of the best ever assembled in a movie (Val Kilmer, Jeff Goldblum, Sandra Bullock, Michelle Pfiefer, Ralph Fiennes, Steve Martin, Patrick Stewart, Danny Glover and Helen Mirren). Plus the soundtrack has a song with Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. Much like the 1950s version ,The Ten Commandments, It's worth a watch. Even if you are not religious, you can appreciate the greatness of this film, and all that went into making it.
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