What have you watched lately?

[jjreason]

Also rewatched the Ken Burns Civil War documentary - likely should have been watching Defenders but I digress. I really enjoyed this over 20 years ago, and the stories were entertaining all over again. Perfect for couch napping.

[Tom Foolery]

I'm watching the French Connection in 15 min increments (mainly because I keep getting interrupted). I'm sure I watched during my 70's binge during university after seeing Reservoir Dogs the first time, but it's basically new all over again (I was drinking a lot back then). It's not bad so far, not quite halfway done. I might go revisit Mean Streets & Taxi Driver as well.

The first time I watched French Connection, I thought it was interesting what passed for "action" movies back in the day. The editing in older movies is very...leisurely...compared to the hyper-quick cuts we are used to today.

[jjreason]

The shocking intro with the dude getting shot in the face literally looks worse than if I took kids' tempra paint from school & threw it at someone - but they cut from it quick so your brain tries to make it worse than it was. I was surprised by 2 things - it looked that bad, but mostly at the audacity of that level of violence for '71. I guess Godfather & Scarface were on their way shortly, which are far worse.

[Tom Foolery]

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Guy Ritchie's remake of the 1960's spy series. This was 2015's Speed Racer. The most under appreciated, but funnest movie of the year. I got it for $5 at WM.


Dear Mr. Watterson. Documentary about the greatest comic strip in the entire history of the universe. Since Watterson is an infamous recluse (he's this century's Salinger) they talk to fans and several fellow cartoonists who he's influenced with his strip.


Princess Bride. Today is the 30th anniversary. The real question is, why ARENT you watching it, you heathens.

[Diabolical]

The Man from UNCLE and Dear Mr Watterson are fantastic.

Went to see Kingsman: The Golden Circle. Almost as great as the first, which had that fun surprise factor going for it.

[Diabolical]

I caught Starring Adam West on HBO.
Good documentary on him finally getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame mixed with a career retrospective.

Which also led to a new ILF.

[jjreason]

Been trying to watch Ken Burns' Vietnam war on Detroit PBS when I can. Typically enlightening & good on Ken for allowing equal time for the North to speak & tell their side. Scary some of the footage the media was able to capture during periods of live fire.

[Diabolical]

I watched the first episode. It was good, but a damn complex history leading up to the war.

[Ran]

I've watched every episode so far. I had trouble falling asleep after a few of them. Multiple politicians just let people die just so they could get re-elected.

One of the other stories that bugged me was from an American journalist who was traveling with the Army. He witnessed what napalm could do and went into detail. It was in the 2nd or 3rd episode.

There have been several things in this series that you could apply to today's world. The one that stands out is a campaign speech by Nixon that said the Presidents should unite people, not divide them. There was also a lot of fear mongering and calling people who didn't agree with you "communists".

[jjreason]

Very troubling. I'm expecting them to spend some time with vets who came home expecting a parade & got shit on - those are always tough to hear as well. The country was in rough shape back then, and I agree with Ran's sentiment - it seems you poor folks have dipped to a similar divided place once again.

[Ran]

Yes, they covered the people coming home as well all the protests. They predictably talked about Kent State and played the Neil Young song to go along with it.

The last episode was pretty interesting. It covered the evacuation, the Memorial, and everything up to today.

[Ran]

Watched a few minutes of Bachelor Party. How did that guy ever win all those acting awards?

[Ran]

I tried to watch the 1931 Dracula. It was very slow and I ended up losing interest. I suppose that makes me a bad person.

[Tom Foolery]

Halloween H20. A bit of backstory here. When I was a wee lad in me early twenties, me and an even younger lass had some fun boom boom times and the result was a beautiful baby girl. Often we would take beautiful baby girl to movies with us because she would sleep thru the movie (I often apologize to her for her first movies being The Big Hit and Species 2, which we pulled a double feature when she was only three days old). But eventually there comes a day when beautiful baby girls aren't quiet in movies anymore, and their father has to stand out in the lobby while their baby cries and fusses and miss the entire movie they paid to see. That movie was Halloween H20. Which I've never been able made an effort to watch in the intervening two decades.
But it's on Hulu and even though it's not a very memorable movie, I can satisfactorily cross it off my bucket list. I enjoy closure.
Also, Joe Gordon Levitt gets killed with an ice skate blade to the face. First kill in the movie. Forgot he was in it.

[jjreason]

Most of Wonder Woman. It was fine. There was a bit of Canadiana in the form of a body double of our first Prime Minister and some military uniforms interspersed which was nice to see.