I saw Grizzly Man on DVD a few years ago, courtesy of my uni's library, in between semesters when it wasn't in reserve, and yeah... not one that is forgotten.

My recent Good/Bad/Ugly:

Good: Alita: Battle Angel - I won't lie... this is not a good movie. This is a genuinely great movie (so this is kinda cheating). No point preaching to the converted, but as someone with no prior investment in the fiction, it drew me in very early, and left me wanting to dig even further into it afterwards. And if that isn't a sign/indicator of success, what is?

Bad: Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 - too be honest, the story regarding the production of this movie is more interesting than the movie itself. It's a movie that had to make cuts in order to change the rating from X to NC-17, and even by modern Netflix/HBO standards, this is a sadistic movie. Not a good movie, but it's an unpretentious horror movie, and there's an appeal to the mythical/nonexistent directors cut that still kinda makes it worth it.

Ugly: The Babysitter - maybe the reason I'm more forgiving of Leatherface is because I saw that after this. To keep it brief, Samara Weaving (daughter of Hugo) is perhaps sole saving grace of this "movie". I forgot who directed this, until McG scrolled up at the end, and by then it made sense, and the damage was done. Jesus... at least I can easily place the blame of the screenplay and direction, so I guess thats another positive.

Conclusion: watch Alita. Already watched it? Watch it again.

True Detective season 3 finale was incredible.

Powerful abd understated.

Nearing the end of better call saul s4, too. Its so good.

I watched Fyre on Netflix. Absolutely unbelievable! Fascinating documentary on the story of a failed festival. I'm sure everyone has heard of it by now.

I also watched White Gold on Netflix. A comedy from the writers (and some of the cast) of The Inbetweeners. Very similar in tone, it's about a group of double glazing salesmen in 80's Essex. It was good.

Also, of course, Alan Partridge'a glorious return to television. It was a work of genius, really couldn't have been better.

Also also also, we are halfway through the last season of Line Of Duty now. Really terrific stuff.

Oh yeah, I watched Ready Player One last weekend with my eldest, too. It was fairly enjoyable, although deviated from the book somewhat.

There's a South Korean TV series on Netflix called Kingdom and I thought it was quite different and actually really good.

If you're looking for something that has the bloodthirsty politics of Game of Thrones mixed in with a strong dose of Train to Busan then this could be your bag!

The first season is relatively short at only six episodes but filming for season 2 is currently underway and after the ending of episode 6 I'm so onboard for it.

As someone who grew frustrated and even mocked the slow release of Astroneer 1.0, I feel now feel enlightened and slightly down.

This is an another damn fine documentary by noclip.

Another brilliant episode of Alan Partridge tonight. I can't believe Coogan is still getting such pure gold out of the character, but he really is!

I'm sure a bunch of us saw Captain Marvel, what did you all think?
I'm less thrilled with it the more I think about it, but I think personal mileage will vary.

I’m going to see it later. I’m expecting another in the very long line of consistently watchable MCU 7/10 popcorn movies that I won’t remember much about by Thursday.

Which is pretty much exactly what I got. I liked it.

ratsoalbion wrote: ↑March 12th, 2019, 11:30 pm Which is pretty much exactly what I got. I liked it.

You're a darn prophet!

My god... I am so very far behind on my Marvel movies... I think Civil War would be the last one I saw. At least it will be a fun, eventual catch up!

Slight variation to my formula:

Great: Hereditary - there's a quote attributed to David Fincher (which I'm too lazy to find out if it's true): there's only two ways to shoot a scene, and the other way is wrong. Throughout this movie my armchair critic was continuously impress by the creative/directorial decisions being made, and yeah, the majority of decisions made were the right ones. Spoiler-free!

Above-average: The Rezort - I went through my zombie-movie faze with George Romero's entries, Return of the Living Dead, and whatever else was on VHS at the time. That faze is well over for me (not a Walking Dead fan). But this movie kept the story simple and coherent, moved along at a good paced, shots lined up and made sense, and at a little over 90 minutes, it respected my time (i.e. unlike Walking Dead). Does what it says on the box, and does it pretty competently.

Bad, but kinda-goofy-charming: The Black Room - a movie from 2017 that feels like a straight-to-video horror movie from the 80's/90's. If someone like Stuart Gordon directed this, it would be far more gory and gross (and better), and there's some terrible jokes and lotsa puns. And it certainly looks as cheap as I imagine it was to make... but it also had enough self-awareness to understand it's audience, and the makeup/special-effects crew look liked they had fun. Not necessarily a movie you should watch... however, compared to other recent viewings:

1. Between The Black Room or The Babysitter - The Black Room, absolutely.
2. Between The Black Room or Polar - The Black Room, again.
3. Between The Babysitter or Polar - if you're watching it on a laptop, throw that laptop into the nearest lake/ravine/canyon/volcano/ocean/woodchipper. If you're watching it on a TV, maybe a hammer? Brick? Use something that will shatter the screen beyond all recognition.

Is Polar that bad? The graphic novels were fairly interesting, if not hugely exciting.

Alex79uk wrote: ↑March 13th, 2019, 9:39 am Is Polar that bad? The graphic novels were fairly interesting, if not hugely exciting.

Well, I can only speak for myself, so other peoples experiences may vary...

Here's the thing: I haven't read the graphic novels for Polar, so I had no prior investment in the characters or the story. But I also didn't have any prior investment in Alita: Battle Angel, another movie with graphic novel/mange roots. And I really, really hated Polar, and I really, really loved Alita.

Both movies actually have pretty similar run times (Polar at just under 2 hours, and Alita at just over 2), but Alita is paced so much better, does a better job of setting up the world (especially for newbies like me), has far more likeable characters, and has so much more, for lack of better words, heart.

Polar feels like a very fat 2 hours, and you feel every minute. So much of this movie adds nothing, and honestly, if you cut a good half hour out, it wouldn't make it a great movie, but it would help the pacing. And it just feels so insincere and juvenile. And it's trying so hard to impress you.

As a gateway to the uninitiated, Polar failed for me, because it failed to get me to care, at all. On the flip side, I left the cinema after watching Alita wanting to dig further into the fiction. It succeed so casually.

Again, other peoples experience will vary, and no one will ever need to justify their personal taste to me. But that's the reasoning behind my opinion.

Watched After Life over two evenings.

It had some lovely moments both happy and sad however I would have liked the events in the last episode spread out over more episodes.

This Time episode 3 was streets ahead of the other two. Loved it

We have almost finished After Life, too. Enjoying it actually, although it's rarely laugh out loud funny it does have some touching moments. It may change in the last two episodes but the character does seem a little one dimensional. I feel like the fact he could kill himself at any moment is overused. Definitely enjoyable, though.

I've rewatched the entirety of The Office over the last week or so. I've seen it lots of times before, but it's lost nothing whatsoever. It's still an absolutely brilliant, bittersweet masterpiece. And the gut-wrench of Tim and Dawn at the end genuinely chokes me up even now. It's beautiful.

clippa wrote: ↑March 14th, 2019, 5:22 am

Joshihatsumitsu wrote: ↑March 13th, 2019, 1:59 amGreat: Hereditary

Yaaas man! Really good, really tense all the way through.

You seen The Witch? Some similar themes, but it's even betterer.

The Suspiria redo is worth a watch too.
2 spellbinding hours utterly squandered by a crappy ending, but it's so much it's own thing, and it's all about the journey, innit? A worthy re-imagining, as flawed as the original but in different ways.

Anything else that "gives good witch" that I might not have seen?

Gives good witch... hmm... (goes to dvd shelf...)

Not really a witch movie, more cult-related, would be Kill List? A more successful cult movie than Apostle, thats for sure...

The Witch is on the watch list, along with Suspira... seen neither, but really want to... and now I'm going to add Possum to that list. The other title on my DVD shelf is Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, so connections...

Love Death + Robots is out now on Netflix and it's a serious fucking trip with some proper A-game animation from the likes of Blur Studios. It's an 18 part anthology with each episode standing completely independent and each other with a wildly differing art style (but all superb) and whose stories are reminiscent of the kinds you might have read in the likes of Métal hurlant back in the day.

It's exactly the kind of stuff that I really dig.

The first episode may be of particular interest to any fans of both Dishonored and Prey as the characters were created by Cédric Peyravernay, the artist behind those games very distinctive character designs.

Sod it! Here's the trailer again because I freakin' love it and the Matt Green remix of Ambassador 21's We Are Legion is a serious fucking tune!

So Chet and Jon are back!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scnB4emNg2s