I've been watching some films that many regard as classics that have been in my backlog for a while. First up was Gladiator which I thought was good but didn't really understand why it is often in top 10 lists beyond the excellent fight scenes. The second film was The Big Lewbowski which I found enjoyable with its really colourful characters and a fun story, but again it didn't blow me away like it has others.

I also started watching Designated Survivor on Netflix which I'm finding really fun. It stars Keither Sutherland who is made President of the United States after the president is assasinated. It moves along at a great pace and reminds me a lot of 24 in that aspect, well worth checking out if you enjoyed 24.

I just watched the Console Wars documentary. I liked it. however, the fact that I also recently watched Netflix's 'High Score' series (a portion of it, anyway)—which features some of the same people telling the same stories—lessened its impact. I guess I don't really need to read the book now.

one thing I didn't like is the now-standard interview thing of sporadically switching to another camera angle because apparently everyone has ADD now. it's always annoying, but here it was annoying and amateur; it's like they were trying to show me someone hiding in Tom's Kalinske's kitchen.

also, is it just me or do Tom Kalinske and Joe Biden have the same face?

shadowless_kick wrote: ↑December 2nd, 2020, 2:34 pm I just watched the Console Wars documentary. I liked it. however, the fact that I also recently watched Netflix's 'High Score' series (a portion of it, anyway)—which features some of the same people telling the same stories—lessened its impact. I guess I don't really need to read the book now.

one thing I didn't like is the now-standard interview thing of sporadically switching to another camera angle because apparently everyone has ADD now. it's always annoying, but here it was annoying and amateur; it's like they were trying to show me someone hiding in Tom's Kalinske's kitchen.

also, is it just me or do Tom Kalinske and Joe Biden have the same face?

I loved the book, but haven't watched the documentary yet. Like you said, the info can be repetitive. The Sega episode of High Score was basically an adaptation of huge chunks of the Console War book.

Jon Cheetham wrote: ↑January 23rd, 2020, 1:14 pm The Lighthouse

Talking of brilliantly made films - some of the best creeping, slow-burning dread I've seen onscreen. This film is fucking menacing. Thanks to the incredible performances of Defoe and Pattinson, there's moments of dark and desperate humour to be had as well. And line readings that will stick with me forever.

Just watched this tonight, and thought I'd see if anyone else here had seen in. Yeah, very well made, well shot and, as you say, incredible performances. I'm not entirely sure whether I thought it was a great film or not, but I'm glad I watched it. Tense, claustrophobic paranoia - to use a cliché I absolutely loathe, it really was like a bad trip.

Alex79uk wrote: ↑December 11th, 2020, 10:42 pm

Jon Cheetham wrote: ↑January 23rd, 2020, 1:14 pm The Lighthouse

Talking of brilliantly made films - some of the best creeping, slow-burning dread I've seen onscreen. This film is fucking menacing. Thanks to the incredible performances of Defoe and Pattinson, there's moments of dark and desperate humour to be had as well. And line readings that will stick with me forever.

Just watched this tonight, and thought I'd see if anyone else here had seen in. Yeah, very well made, well shot and, as you say, incredible performances. I'm not entirely sure whether I thought it was a great film or not, but I'm glad I watched it. Tense, claustrophobic paranoia - to use a cliché I absolutely loathe, it really was like a bad trip.

Yeah it is brilliant. Love the atmosphere.

Flabyo wrote: ↑May 22nd, 2020, 4:14 pm The 2019 released Apollo 11 documentary is on Netflix now. It’s fantastic, there’s no narration, interviews or modern recreations. The entire thing is made up of footage and audio recordings from the time (a lot of which haven’t been made public before).

It’s very chill, and quite unlike any other doc I’ve watched about the moon missions.

This is exactly what I am planning to watch tonight with few friends at my property in Cyprus here. I love documentary movies but don't trust Netflix quality of movies in 90% of cases. Usually it's smth for teenagers

I recently realised I've not been watching enough films lately, spending any spare time I had playing games. I decided to try to dedicate more time to watching films, and have watched a few over the last week.

Diego Maradona - This was interesting, and I've always had a grudging admiration for the player. I'm not, however, a huge fan of this style of documentary though. Hard to describe, but it's a distinct style, with no narration and a lot of talking heads and use of music. That probably makes no sense, but I know what I mean.

Jay and Silent Bob Reboot - Absolute shite, but I knew it would be. The teenager in me still likes Kevin Smith, but most of his films have aged terribly and this new one is really scraping the barrel. Despite this, I enjoyed it for 90 minutes or so.

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood - I'd been looking forward to this for years, but for some reason not got round to watching it. Slightly underwhelming, and the least Tarantino film he's ever made, but enjoyable. Glad I watched it, but it doesn't make his top 5 for me.

The Lighthouse - Already posted about this, but utterly bizarre. Beautifully made with some stunning performances (people really need to stop ragging on Pattinson just because of the Twilight films). Very art-house, in the best way.

And then, for no reason other than I wanted to watch it whilst wearing surround headphones, and I'd not watched it in over ten years, I started Band Of Brothers last night. It's still absolutely incredible. Two episodes done, and planning two more tonight. I'll move on to The Pacific next, as I've also owned that on Bluray since it came out and never watched it.

I have to say, it's a good feeling getting back in to watching films. I've neglected it for so long, and it almost feels liberating, in that sitting and playing a game had become a habit more than anything. I'll likely spend a couple of weeks going mad with movies, and then hopefully settle in to a bit more of a balanced way of spending my free time.

Alex79uk wrote: ↑December 14th, 2020, 7:48 pm I have to say, it's a good feeling getting back in to watching films. I've neglected it for so long, and it almost feels liberating, in that sitting and playing a game had become a habit more than anything.

One hundred percent agree. I did my wrist/hand hammering Mushihimesama Futari over the summer and was in genuine pain for a good few weeks which came back whenever I played on stick or Switch handheld or even with pad for more than a brief period.

Cue getting back into films, which I absolutely adore but just haven't watched for so long, I'm talking best part of a decade, basically since I've been with my wife. We watch stuff together of course, but mostly pretty light or genre fayre, stuff we can both enjoy, common denominator kind of thing.

I've dipped back into games with the PS5 and I still play a bit of Switch here and there but I'm so much more enthused by films at the moment. I'm aware it's very much a form of escapism because I'm absolutely fucked these days by work and 'staying strong' for the family but I feel zero guilt for that, I love it. Headphones on, nice beer, some Wong Kar Wai movie or a Godzilla (which I'd never seen any of a few months ago - and bloody love!) or Terrence Malick or Arnie or Ghibli or Zatoichi, whatever it may be. It's wonderful to sink into a film and get so much out of the experience.

Very few games can compete with that at the moment for me.

Watched the new Pixar movie, Soul, today. It was good, classic Pixar, not quite up there with Toy Story and the first Monsters Inc., but what is? Soundtrack was great - obviously.

Watched Knives Out the other day, my god that is an extremely good film. So many twists and turns and brilliant characters. The time flew by.
Loved Daniel Craig's character in it

Watched John Wick 3 last night. More of the same, enjoyable enough but it's had less of an impact at the series has gone on. Still interested in the overarching story, though. The film didn't need to be 2h10m though, in my opinion. It was literally one long fight scene. I mean that really was it, very little of anything else, started fighting in the first minute, ended in the last. It could have been trimmed to 90 minutes and not really lost anything.

Alex79uk wrote: ↑January 1st, 2021, 4:20 pm Watched John Wick 3 last night. More of the same, enjoyable enough but it's had less of an impact at the series has gone on. Still interested in the overarching story, though. The film didn't need to be 2h10m though, in my opinion. It was literally one long fight scene. I mean that really was it, very little of anything else, started fighting in the first minute, ended in the last. It could have been trimmed to 90 minutes and not really lost anything.

But the opening however-long-it-it-takes-John-to-get-out-of-the-city moments are great! I was laughing morbidly in that knife shop...

A year late to the party and I've been binge-watching The Mandalorian. I'm almost done with season 2.

I'm a very casual SW fan with "terrible 'Star Wars' opinions" (as put to me by my SW-obsessed friends). I didn't grow up with the series (besides watching the prequels at the cinema), the only SW film I've ever loved is "Rogue One" (and it's still my favourite of the franchise), I fell asleep during ROTJ (friend had to hit me to wake me up), and I never even bothered to watch "The Rise of Skywalker" (I'll get round to it... one day). So I am... a terrible "Star Wars" heretic.

With all that in mind, I bloody love "The Mandalorian". I think it's great. I love its relatively small scope. I love the puppets. I love the Western story-of-the-week feel. I love the "oh hey it's that guy!" guest cast. I love the sweet (and possibly a bit obviously emotionally manipulative) set-up. I love the designs of the armour and aliens and machines. I love the theme music. I love the gorgeous concept art they show during the credits. I'm having a great time.

Most of all, my niche favourite thing about all SW properties is whenever a character in a helmet experiences An Emotion and the camera pans over his blank helmet face. This is 70% of this show and I am very pleased with this.

I bloody love The Mandalorian!

Over the last few couple of weeks I've re-watched The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance and took a punt on the Korean series Sweet Home, both on Netflix

Sweet Home was in the same ballpark as another Korean Netflix drama that gets a massive thumbs up from me - Kingdom - in that I had little to no knowledge about it before watching and ended up being surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

Whilst both Kingdom and Sweet Home could be described as horror, they offer something more than just cheap scares and gore, with some genuinely interesting character arcs and quite gripping set-pieces.

Oh, those sound really interesting. Might check them out soon

Speaking of Korean TV/film, that reminds me I've had Parasite on my watch list for over a year now and still not got round to it...

Alex79uk wrote: ↑January 3rd, 2021, 12:19 am Speaking of Korean TV/film, that reminds me I've had Parasite on my watch list for over a year now and still not got round to it...

Yeah, you need to get on that!

Oh, and finally, Netflix has DREDD

Alex79uk wrote: ↑January 3rd, 2021, 12:19 am Speaking of Korean TV/film, that reminds me I've had Parasite on my watch list for over a year now and still not got round to it...

You've got a treat coming.

(Also if you've not watched any other Bong Joon-ho films, "Memories of Murder" and "Host" are both good shouts).

Caught up on "The Mandalorian" and am now bereft without awkward helmet dad and the small green puppet. Re-watching "Deadwood" as "The Mandalorian" was a bit of a reunion. Timothy Olyphant in every TV show please. (And if they could shoehorn other "Deadwood" cast members into Mando series 3 that would be appreciated).

Miririn wrote: ↑January 4th, 2021, 3:47 pm Caught up on "The Mandalorian" and am now bereft without awkward helmet dad and the small green puppet. Re-watching "Deadwood" as "The Mandalorian" was a bit of a reunion. Timothy Olyphant in every TV show please. (And if they could shoehorn other "Deadwood" cast members into Mando series 3 that would be appreciated).

They already did! W. Earl Brown (Dan Dority) also played the Weequay bartender in the same episode

JaySevenZero wrote: ↑January 4th, 2021, 10:18 am

Alex79uk wrote: ↑January 3rd, 2021, 12:19 am Speaking of Korean TV/film, that reminds me I've had Parasite on my watch list for over a year now and still not got round to it...

Yeah, you need to get on that!

Oh, and finally, Netflix has DREDD

Dredd is great! Everyone watch Dredd!