āSeriously! What is it with witches and cannibalism?ā
3 Likes
So, being ill, I took the opportunity to watch 3 movies I had been waiting years to explore again. A Christmas Story, Home Alone, and Die Hard.
A Christmas Story still feels top-notch, especially with the prose and narration of Jean Shepherd.
Home Alone was good, though not my favorite Hughes (writer) movie.
I donāt know. Die Hard just felt like a big mess to me.
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Butā¦butā¦ Itās Die Hard. You must look past the mess to enjoy the 80s Action Flick it is, cowboy.
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Lets see you get a heist movie a christmas movie a action movie a buddy on the radio movie and at the end a zombie movie.
Lot of bang for your buck.
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Christmas Resukoā¦
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Better-than-average British cop show 
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Weāre watching it this weekend, about halfway through. Itās pretty good, but itās odd to see anyone smoking on television. Honestly this detail is mundane but it lends a sort of weight of realism. I feel more invested in all the characters than I usually get.
Mostly I want to watch another episode but thatās cheating, because the dude is not here. Maybe Iāll watch some of this, but only because I want to see if it grabs me. Heās a hard NO on spooky ghosts, sticks more to cabals of morally dubious spooks imperiling and/or saving the world. So I watch some things on my own.
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The value of this kind of genre show is that it is able to talk about things that people donāt want to talk about without actually talking about those things. Or, alternatively, talking very literally about a taboo topic by putting it right next to a bonkers image of so-much-worse-look-at-that-arterial-spray.
The Fred Wertham censorship scheme that became the corporate norm in the 80s has been beaten into submission only in certain places. Even genre may be taken away from the masses by the corporate intelligentsia. āItās too much of a risk! Remember when we started giving rights to women? These people are crafty at being subversive. They can slip their little messages in anywhere. No fiction allowed until the cull is complete.ā
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So a friend has been visiting today and likes TV on in the background. (What is with that?)
At least it wasnāt Hallmark channel, but it was an In the Heat of the Night marathon.
And there was one on that reminded me of the classic 80s episode: The Flashback Episode
Letās build an episode of clips from previous episodes and 10 minutes of new footage with what ever actors are available.
9 Likes
Star Trek:The Orville.
I swear itās a spot on homage to the first two series, with a few differences (quantum vs. warp drive, much silly humor vs. occasional wit, Isaac vs. Data, etc.). It even has really good episodes and meh ones, just like the originals. Weāre enjoying it.
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āthis is how much noise it takes to drown out my self-loathingā
this weekās was definitely meh
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I did a couple of passes through Bandersnatch last night.
Interesting concept. Somewhat forced. Iāll try another run through again.
Two-and-a-half stars out of five for morbid curiosity
1 Like
Restored version of BuƱuel and DalĆās surrealist classic Un Chien Andalou. Much better image quality, not as blown out and cropped. Also, at a different speed than usual, running 21 minutes as opposed to the usual 16. And no tangos, only Wagner.
Iāve gotten rather used to the traditional versionās more rushed pace and definitely miss the tangos, but this is a worthwhile variant.
3 Likes
Weāre still in The Orville season 1, up to episode six, and itās pretty clear theyāre still trying to figure out what the showās about.
ETA but then ST:TNG had growing pains too.
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Just watched the first season this weekend. It was much better than expected, but Iām still tripped out to find that Riverdale (a series Iāve been avoiding like the plague) is actually a live adaptation of the Archies.
O_o
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Oops, forgot Orville was on last night. Iāll have to catch up via the web at some point.
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inherent vice
iām not sure what to think. Maybe homesick for California.
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Iāve got NASATV streaming, waiting for the Ultima Thule flyby. Iām loving all these scientists and engineers letting their geek flag fly. They even had a sing-along about working in the space programme, and it was fun.
Every New Yearās I make a nice meal (this year I went low-effort and had bacon-wrapped roasted baby potatoes), and champagne.
Iām really enjoying this.
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Better than the ball in Times Square!
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