Finding New Shit on TV

[jhawks99]

Looks like it's Twilight Zone day on Sci Fi.

He's Alive starring Dennis Hopper comes on later today. May actually be the scariest episode.

[twocoach]

It sort of bugs me that they couldn't be bothered to get new music for House of Dragons. Just straight up rolled the Game of Thrones music right out there. I would have gone for new music.

[jhawks99]

Watching NASA play Asteroids now. 7 Minutes

https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive

[ousdahl]

just saw Hocus Pocus 2

not bad, as far as sequels go.

The writers did a good job of recreating the humor and timing of the original...goes from taking itself too seriously in a spooky way, seamlessly to some sassy zinger, and such. The little backstory with the childhood version of the sisters isn't bad either, with the child actresses nailing the ma the adult characters. Serviceable job of adding modern culture jokes and stuff too.

childhood me had a crush on SJP when I first saw that movie growing up...awful flirty for a PG Disney flick. But time wins again, cuz in this one (redacted cuz I don't want illy to think I'm misogynistic)

the storyline is kind of meh, with he plot sometimes feeling like little more than a device to create situations to enjoy the characters, but what do you expect, it's a sequel.

Overall worth a watch, at least if you enjoyed the first one.

[KUTradition]

https://www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/mjs538 ... evil-hocus

[twocoach]

just saw Hocus Pocus 2

not bad, as far as sequels go.

The writers did a good job of recreating the humor and timing of the original...goes from taking itself too seriously in a spooky way, seamlessly to some sassy zinger, and such. The little backstory with the childhood version of the sisters isn't bad either, with the child actresses nailing the ma the adult characters. Serviceable job of adding modern culture jokes and stuff too.

childhood me had a crush on SJP when I first saw that movie growing up...awful flirty for a PG Disney flick. But time wins again, cuz in this one (redacted cuz I don't want illy to think I'm misogynistic)

the storyline is kind of meh, with he plot sometimes feeling like little more than a device to create situations to enjoy the characters, but what do you expect, it's a sequel.

Overall worth a watch, at least if you enjoyed the first one.

I thought the first one was one of the single dumbest halloween-themed movies of all time. It's lore seems to be based mostly on "I like feeling nostalgic about younger times". My 9 year old liked Hocus Pocus 2, though.

[twocoach]

https://www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/mjs538 ... evil-hocus

Signs that you take your Bible too seriously.

[ousdahl]

Does anybody else think the Jeffrey Dahmer actor from that Netflix series looks like Gradey Dick?

[TDub]

no

[ousdahl]

finally saw the new Top Gun. Was pleasantly surprised, it was actually pretty entertaining. Did a good job of keeping the pace of the original, and a serviceable-to-good use of nostalgia too. Storyline was meh, and the character development sucked - I thought the dynamic with Goose's kid could've been so much better - but what do you expect, it's an action movie.

Also finally saw The Sixth Sense all the way through for the first time ever. I think I must've heard the big twist before, cuz it seemed so glaringly obvious all along. And it kinda left me wondering what the point of the movie was, or if the entire movie was just one big storytelling device itself, being used to build up to the big twist.

Spoiler!

the main character gets shot in the opening scene. He then spends the rest of the movie creeping around his wife, but his wife doesn't even notice him or pay attention to him or say anything to him at all. The only person who even talks to him the entire time is the "I see dead people" little kid...and yet we're supposed to be surprised to find out he's dead too?

Top Gun 3.5 stars
Sixth Sense 1.5 stars

Both would have been better if they were about fishing.

[KUTradition]

there are two “based on a true story” mini-series dramatizations that are quite good and highlight just some of the fucked up shenanigans associated with the LDS church

Under the Banner of Heaven (Hulu)

Friend of the Family (Peacock)

would recommend both

[CrimsonNBlue]

I wanted to dislike Top Gun: Maverick for several reasons, but I saw it in theaters way after everyone else and I just couldn't. That was the most fun I've had at a theater in a long, long time.

Nostalgia, real footage action scenes, enough drama, some Tom Cruise no-way-in-hell plot turn, and Jennifer Connelly still killing it. Easy plot, sure, but it's a popcorn movie and it's called Maverick, not Maverick and Goose's Doppelganger Kid With Mommy and Daddy Issues.

I don't say this lightly as I'm pretty harsh on movies, especially action movies which I normally hate, but it's a solid 4/5 for me, if not more, and 5/5 for an action movie. The opening monologue by Cruise was also a nice touch--the movie theater is not dead.

[ousdahl]

Oh, and can we talk Tarantino?

Inglorious Basterds and Kill Bills are among my fave movies of all time. Pulp Fiction is a cult classic, in that quirky nothing-else-quite-like-it kinda way.

But I haven't been able to embrace much since. Went to Django Unchained in the theater, and my girlfriend at the time asked to leave halfway through. I didn't object, cuz the only thing more hideous than all the blood and gore was Jamie Foxx's acting.* I still haven't been able to finish Hateful 8, with the extended version clocking in at close to 4 hours long. And Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, I at least got to the end, but zoned out for most of it, and was left wondering what the story was even supposed to be about.

Tarantino is inevitably long, and inevitably has those scenes of drawn out dialogue. But those scenes used to seem to go somewhere, be used to advance some greater storytelling, and even often have some buildup and climax within itself and the scene.

But the last two movies seem to just be dialogue; long, tedious dialogue, without much excitement or climax, and without much toward the storyline besides maybe some Easter eggs. It was like his previous dialogues dared you to keep listening, but now he's just daring you to not fall asleep.

And just the cringey themes. In Django, there's a scene with an enslaved black dude being ripped to shreds by dogs. In Hateful, Kurt Russell's character keeps beating the shit out of this woman in his custody, so she's this black-eyed bloody mess the whole time. And in Hollywood, Tarantino's sexualizing the fuck out of this hitchhiker character only to eventually reveal she's underage.

I guess there were always some controversial themes in Tarantino movies, but I'm still kind of wondering if he's just become too intoxicated off the smell of his own farts.


*After the fact, I learned Tarantino wrote the Django part for Will Smith, who turned down the role. This is prob why Foxx's lines all seemed to fall flat: they were supposed to be Fresh Prince-y all along.

[KUTradition]

Once Upon a Time is by far my least favorite of Tarantino’s

Django has grown on me

i’m still disappointed that he never did a John Brown biopic (he was thinking about it)

[ousdahl]

I really enjoyed Death Proof too.

It was like somebody said, no way a director could actually make an entertaining couple hours out of nothing more than hot chicks and car chases, and Tarantino replied with "hold my $5 dollar milkshake and watch THIS!"

The dialogue was good too! Witty, sexy, and still had that punch his more recent movies seem to lack.

Now the punch is less in the timing and edginess of the dialogue, and more in themes like "I bet it would be soo edgy to randomly make Bruce Lee look like a little bitch!"

[CrimsonNBlue]

After his first film, Tarantino wrote in order:

Reservoir Dogs
True Romance
Pulp Fiction
Natural Born Killers

between the years 1992 and 1994. Jackie Brown was 97, Kill Bill 2003. It was inevitable that ousdahl, et al. would eventually come out and say Tarantino is going down hill.

Death Proof, Inglourious, Django, and Hateful Eight were all good, imo. Once Upon a Time was a miss, which sucks, because the subject matter is quite interesting. The acting was top notch, though.

[ousdahl]

What's the subject matter of Once Upon A Time supposed to be?

Some commentary on some end of some perceived golden age of Hollywood or something?

Here's my high point and low point...SPOILERS

low point: when Leo's character torches the hippie chick in the pool. I think the flamethrower was some Easter egg reference to some prop he used in some previous movie, but had little to do with much else. But the thing I didn't like about it is, if you're standing an a pool and some motherfucker is flamethrowering you, you don't just stand there in the pool letting your top half get crispy, you just go under the water!

high point: the acid cigarette. It's mentioned a few times, so you know it's going to have something to do with something at some point. Brad Pitt gets it from the hippie chick. Then later on he casually decides to smoke it while walking his dog. Then later on yet, he's in the standoff with the crazy Charles Manson hippies who are screaming in his face threatening to kill him, and he's just being way too cool about it all, until he casually asks, "just one thing. Are you real?"

I lol'd.

[CrimsonNBlue]

What's the subject matter of Once Upon A Time supposed to be?

Some commentary on some end of some perceived golden age of Hollywood or something?

When he was writing, I always thought it was supposed to be his take on making spaghetti westerns and then throw in Sharon Tate and the Manson "family" because that was going on at the time, too. Tarantino on the screenplay and director chair? Sign me up (in theory).

[MICHHAWK]

qt has made some great movies. but his movies are too long for me anymore. I don't have the time or the attention span to dedicate.

[ousdahl]

they've always been long.

it's just that there seems to be less action or storyline and more just dialogue, even tho the dialogue doesn't seem to have quite the same punch any more.