It's Saturday night, I had a bottle of wine and nobody to share it with, spent most of the afternoon playing MH:Rise so I thought...let's give the Monster Hunter Movie a chance. And honestly..., it was very much fine!?

First of all, it's really just a Monster Hunter World and Iceborne movie. It references this game and add-on heavily and if you come from another MH games you will be let down.
I'm actually glad I played the two extra quest they added in MH:World related to the movie because it made the movie make much more sense. If you gonna watch it, do these 2 quests first.
I mean, of course it's not a great movie, but to me it's everything you'd expect from a Monster Hunter movie. Well, to be fair, I didn't think we actually need a Monster Hunter movie so the bar was pretty low! That being said I really enjoyed all the fanservice and had a great time.

Of course it needed way more monsters, but at least the ones we do have are handled with care related to the game's lore. The annoyance/uselessness of the handler is also pretty well portrayed imo.
Milla Jovovich and Tony Jaa (remember Ong-Bak?) really carry the movie and their acting/dynamic is great entertainment. More than the monsters, I really enjoyed these two.
It's a good mix of lore, Hollywood action movie and visual effects and while it won't make it to your list of your favorite movies of 2021, if you play Monster Hunter and want to have a fun evening with a lot of smiles, I recommend you this movie!

See you in two weeks for the Mortal Kombat review!! That one I do have high expectations for!

So...I watched the Mortal Kombat movie and...I have no words. I cannot, for the life of me, process how you make such an abysmally bad movie with such a strong franchise, especially considering the first two movies were that good for their time. If I were not a Mortal Kombat fan I would have stopped the movie after 40 minutes (and I kind of wish I did).
It feels the movie was made by some MK: Armageddon/Deception fan and took all of the worst part of it. The roster is boring and limited. Characters do not feel true to their in game counterparts at all. Dialogue is beyond D-tier. I mean...I'm just so sad.

Even the fighting scenes were not worth it. Honestly, MK fan or not, I highly recommend you stay the hell away from this .

Well this seemed to pop up out of nowhere, but a new series of This Time with Alan Partridge starts tomorrow evening at 9:30pm on the BBC.

Back of the net!

An update on a few films I've watched recently.
Palm Springs
Wow, what a incredible film. To say too much would spoil it but I now have a new favourite rom com 5/5

Sound of Metal
Thought it was good. A bit slow but good. Had a really good heartwrenching scene in it which will stay with me. 3/5

All of Alan Partridge is on HBO Max here in the states. I've watched it before but now I'm watching it again, and it never gets old. He is a character that is truly timeless and evergreen.

--Dan

DeadpoolNegative wrote: ↑May 6th, 2021, 5:46 am All of Alan Partridge is on HBO Max here in the states. I've watched it before but now I'm watching it again, and it never gets old. He is a character that is truly timeless and evergreen.

--Dan

Ah yeah, it's still a classic. Right back from when he used to do the sports sections on The Day Today, pretty much everything he's done is pure gold.

If you've never seen The Day Today check it out, it's a parody of a news show made by the legend Chris Morris. Don't know how easy it would be to come by in the US but I'm sure I saw some episodes on YouTube a couple of years back. After that, check out Brass Eye, and then if you want to go even further down the rabbit hole - Jam. All brilliant.

EDIT: Episode 1 of The Day Today. This was mid 90s I think, so some of it may not have held up as well, but it's largely still excellent satire.

I have seen a few episodes of the day today, classic Chris Morris. and my favorite newsman, Peter O'hanrahanrahan.

--Dan

Brass Eye still cracks me up. Chris Morris was hilarious back then, and he's gone on to do really important investigative work researching some pretty explosive topics for his films. Great interview with him on the Adam Buxton pod a while back.

I think I'm due a Breaking Bad rewatch. Can't wait for the final season of Better Call Saul

Girls5Eva is incredibly funny, but boy, it the beats for all these Tina Fey produced shows are so easy to spot. Having said that, Sara Bareilles really takes to the archetype of the anxiety ridden female lead very well, and Renee Elise Goldsberry is brilliant as the narcissistic second lead. The rest of the cast is very good too. The fake songs are well crafted. But if it didn't get picked up for season 2, I wouldn't be too broken up about it.

--Dan

I loved the KMKY callback in this weeks Partridge. That guy was always one of the funniest moments of the original series.

I got completely obsessed with "Mare of Easttown" (Sky here in the UK, HBO in the US). I wish it wasn't squirrelled away on a Sky channel in the UK because it's the best detective drama I've watched in ages and the ending of the latest episode was totally Clarice Starling at Buffalo Bill's house, and I loved it.

Great cast, too - especially with Kate Winslet and Evan Peters as odd couple detective partners. A perfect mix of melodrama, serious drama, self-aware humour, detective show contrivances and a completely addictive mystery plot. Can't recommend it highly enough. Unless they f*ck it all up in the last two episodes.

I've been watching the second season of a boxing Anime called Megalobox. The first season was pretty solid, it was well animated with a fairly basic underdog story, but I'm liking the second season a lot more, it just focuses more on characters than fights. It's a pretty simple show on the shorter side for anime being 13 episodes a season, but the writing is good and it has a somewhat retro art style that I really like.

I watched the latest series of The Boys, which was pretty good. Much like the first series I still feel like it's trying way too hard to be edgy and subversive. Compare this to the Watchmen series, especially with how it handles racism, and it comes across as quite petulant and on the nose (calling a racist character Stormfront is a little obvious). I haven't read the comic series yet, but given the author I'm sure the TV show is trying its best to tone down his excesses, so that might explain the odd tone at times.

I will say that the character progression is still interesting. Again, it pales in comparison to Watchmen, but I like the main characters and I do want them to come out ok on the other side. The rehabilitation of The Deep is still the most interesting part from a character point of view as he genuinely wants to be a better person despite everyone else using him or treating him like trash. I'm guessing he'll end up a proper hero. Or just kill everybody...

Eight episodes feels about right too, so you can finish it in a weekend, easily.

Seph wrote: ↑May 17th, 2021, 5:34 pm Much like the first series I still feel like it's trying way too hard to be edgy and subversive. Compare this to the Watchmen series, especially with how it handles racism, and it comes across as quite petulant and on the nose (calling a racist character Stormfront is a little obvious).

Yeah, I think most of that is from the source material which in a lot of ways was peak comic book edginess, it's toned down and It improves the material a lot, but that tone from the comic still has a lot of influence on the show.

I can't really think of another Comic Book show in the same league as Watchmen, I had a few issues with it, but it felt like a great sequel to the original comic in a way that was pretty hard to pull off.

Just finished the first season of The Unforgotten last night, it's an ITV crime drama but on Netflix and is a really good cold case crime drama, well worth checking out if you like that kind of stuff.

I definitely agree "The Boys" tries too hard to be ~ so edgy ~, but I enjoyed it for the humour, cast, and outlandish twists and turns. I've always found the concept of Cap America a bit... weird and creepy (although I like in the first Cap MCU film where they lean into him being a propaganda thing), so I think Homelander is great and the guy who plays him steals absolutely every scene he's in. It's also fun to have an irreverent superhero show that doesn't take itself particularly seriously and mostly wants to make you gag or gasp. The aeroplane scene in season 1 (?) was legitimately horrifying. The dolphin stuff made me cackle. It's sort of fun to have your emotions yanked around like that while the show throws everything at the wall to see what sticks.

I should give "Watchmen" a go. I love the comic, I love Regina King. I used to have a cat who was a deadringer for Rorschach (although I know he's not in the TV show ). Adaptations of Alan Moore's comics tend to be pretty bad but this seems only very loosely related to the source material (From the little I've seen it felt like they were using the name to draw people in to a pretty unrelated story - I don't know if that's a fair assessment, though).

All that's putting me off is my eternal grudge against Damon Lindelof. I watched every season of "Lost" and that's hard to forgive :p I don't think I've ever loathed a main character the creators clearly wanted me to love so much, and I haaaated the ending, and I hated that some really excellent actors and characters were stuck in that show. And yes I know that Lindelof has apparently redeemed himself and "The Leftovers" is meant to be brilliant and "Watchmen" is meant to be brilliant... but it's hard to turn off a nerd grudge that has lasted for over a decade now :p

Buuuut... I love superhero fiction. So fine. I'll give it a try. For Regina.

Believe me, the Lindelof connection made me pause for thought. I succumbed to the Lost hype and I've considered him a hack based on that (and some film about aliens he wrote...). I've never seen The Leftovers either, but it is on my list and I hear great things. With Watchmen, I was unsure about it at first, but it links up very well with the comic in the latter episodes, and it should be considered a follow-on from the comic storyline (I don't know if it borrows elements from Doomsday Clock). There's one episode in particular that focuses on the background of a secondary character from the comic that is worth watching alone, but I would recommend it.

Yeah, I think most of that is from the source material which in a lot of ways was peak comic book edginess, it's toned down and It improves the material a lot, but that tone from the comic still has a lot of influence on the show.

I thought that would be the case. I think Garth Ennis has flashes of brilliance, but he does need an editor or somebody higher up to rein in some of the more childish moments. I have the whole comic series saved on my tablet though, so I'm hoping to get through them before the end of the year.

I agree with Miririn that Homelander is also a great character (and actor). He's one of the most vile villains I've ever seen, while also being clearly psychologically damaged by forces out of his control.

Based on the recent exclusive podcast recommendation of Jay, I binged Gangs of London in one day and incidentally totally fell for it.

Just now finished binging 'The Last Dance' on Netflix for the third time. I am not a basketball fan these days by any stretch, but man back in the 90s I was obsessed with MJ and Bulls. Brilliant stuff and really eye opening.

Has anyone been watching the new series of Inside No 9? I felt last year was a rare dip in quality for a show that has been consistently excellent, but this latest run has been really good so far. The first episode in particular was fantastically silly and creative.

Just now finished binging 'The Last Dance' on Netflix for the third time. I am not a basketball fan these days by any stretch, but man back in the 90s I was obsessed with MJ and Bulls. Brilliant stuff and really eye opening.

The Last Dance was my favourite TV of last year. It was so well put together and fascinating. It landed when I was going through a bad patch and it helped focus my attention and take my mind off things. I only knew of basketball because my brother was a fan, but I remember even for a sport with little following in the UK you couldn't move for Bulls/MJ merch.