The Sword and Laser discussion

Mark wrote: "Is this the first of the HBO MAX day and date releases following WW84?"

Also...

Judas and the Black Messiah - February 12, 2021
The Many Saints of Newark - March 12, 2021
Reminiscence - April 16, 2021
In the Heights - June 18, 2021
King Richard - November 19, 2021
Malignant - TBA 2021
Those Who Wish Me Dead - TBA 2021
Cry Macho - TBA 2021

Louie wrote: "Mark wrote: "Is this the first of the HBO MAX day and date releases following WW84?"

Also...

Judas and the Black Messiah - February 12, 2021
The Many Saints of Newark - March 12, 2021
Reminiscenc..."

It’s really a lot, isn’t it?

Trailer for Psycho Goreman

https://youtu.be/L4tizc0IAVQ

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11252440/

The Trail for the Chicago 7 on Netflix was very good. I learned about it from Impression Blend's top 10 on youtube. List in the description.

Watched Ford v. Ferrari, which is quite a lot of fun. The editing is amazing and it is very funny. The CGI is seamless. It’s a Hollywood-ized version of history, of course, but that’s to be expected.

I think that was the last movie I saw in a theatre. I need to double check what came out after that, since that was in early December 2019. But I think it was. It was really cool seeing that on the big screen. But I agree with your conclusion.

Nope, just checked and I forgot “Rise of Skywalker” was after that. But that means I didn’t see a single movie in the theater in 2020. That is probably the first time in 40 years I could say that for a year. One of my earliest memories was going to a theater when I was 3 and seeing Star Wars when it was re released in 1980 to hype up Empire. And I’m pretty sure I’ve seen a movie in a theater every year since.

Watched the film Cities of Last Things on Netflix, which they tag it with Dystopian, Cerebral and Film Noir.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4397342/

The first segment, which is by far the longest, is set in the near future and has a whole series of interesting "in the background elements" which are very well done. Hence why I mention it.

It is a non-English language film, with subtitles, and has adult themes so not for everyone but I enjoyed it a lot.

John (Nevets) wrote: "But that means I didn’t see a single movie in the theater in 2020. That is probably the first time in 40 years I could say that for a year."

Wow, I hadn’t even thought of that. Looking at the list of movies released last year, and I’m the same. (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_...) I only would’ve gone in January/February and I didn’t. I’ve since seen some of them, like Invisible Man, but not in theatres. So late 2019 was it, with Knives Out and then Rise of Skywalker.

I go back further just because I’m older, but yeah, that’s got to be the first time in 50 years I haven’t been to a movie theatre.


John (Nevets) wrote: "One of my earliest memories was going to a theater when I was 3 and seeing Star Wars when it was re released in 1980 to hype up Empire. And I’m pretty sure I’ve seen a movie in a theater every year since."

So the first movie and last movie you ever saw in theatres was a Star Wars film. That’s kind of cool. Now to maintain that you can never go to another theatre. 😁

John wrote: "Watched the film Cities of Last Things on Netflix, which they tag it with Dystopian, Cerebral and Film Noir.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4397342/

The first segment, which is by far the longest, ..."

sounds interesting, I'll check it out

I decided I needed to shift from serial killers to cults, so I watched "Wild Wild Country", the story of the Bhagwan Rajneesh and his followers creating a commune in rural Oregon in the 80s, good stuff.

I'm also well into "To The Lake", a 1 season mini-series in russian (with good subtitles) about a zombie plague breaking out in Moscow, I'm enjoying it quite a bit

I only recently learned of THE LAST KINGDOM on Netflix and have been bingeing it over these last few weeks. I’m partway through season 4 right now. I also just started reading the first book in the series the TV show is based off of.

I watched the original Conan the Barbarian movie with Ahnuld. What an ungodly mess!

I also watched Savages directed by Oliver Stone. I enjoyed it slightly less than I enjoyed the Don Winslow book. Overall thumbs up.

RJ from the LBC wrote: "I watched the original Conan the Barbarian movie with Ahnuld. What an ungodly mess!
."

But it has an awesome soundtrack.

John (Nevets) wrote: "I think that was the last movie I saw in a theatre. I need to double check what came out after that, since that was in early December 2019. But I think it was. It was really cool seeing that on the..."

Same here except Star Wars probably wasn’t the first movie I saw in a theater. My first movie out might have been at a drive-in. I’ll have to ask my mother if she remembers. Return of the Jedi was definitely the first Star Wars movie I saw new in a theater.

Watched The Yin Yang Master: Dream of Eternity in Netflix - been a while since I last watched a movie - and I was disappointed over the story (too derivative) and script. Great CG and visual feast, though.

Jessica wrote: "I only recently learned of THE LAST KINGDOM on Netflix and have been bingeing it over these last few weeks. I’m partway through season 4 right now. I also just started reading the first book in the..."

The series is really good! I fell asleep reading the novel though.

I'm watching a Sky production called 'Curfew'. It's a bit like 'Death Race 2000' and 'Wacky Races' combines with 'I am Legend' type monsters that come out at night. Quite a star cast including Sean Bean, Bill Zane. In the USA I think it's only available if you have service through Spectrum.
Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNyRo...

Ian (RebelGeek) wrote: "...Return of the Jedi was definitely the first Star Wars movie I saw new in a theater."

I got up at 3 am and waited in line for that one. Got in the first showing which was at 8 or 9 am. Missed my first few classes of Jr. High that day.

Cool video on YouTube, “Up IRL -VFX Artist Simulates Pixar but with Real Physics.”

https://youtu.be/dZsp1tgXkUI

It’s a lot of fun, and suitable for kids.

Moreover, it helps prove my point that the book Helldivers was annoyingly dumb, and I excoriated the novel here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I watched The Endless on Netflix. It’s intriguing and engaging, but I sure didn’t understand it.

From 1966, Walter Cronkite explores the home of 2001.

https://youtu.be/2ivp442RLS8

Some predictions are way off, of course — the 30-hour workweek, paper furniture, plastic dinnerware printed on command then melted afterwards — but some things are dead-on accurate: telecommuting, giant flatscreen TVs, microwave ovens.

They did overestimate the number of robots we’d have. Or as Walter says, row-bitts.

The guy who was most accurate is the architect Philip Johnson. He accurately foresaw that more people would move to cities rather than live in the country or suburbs. And we have, recently tipping over to a 55% majority of the world’s population living in cities.

I watched "The Sixth Sense", probably for the first time since I saw it in the theater umpteen years ago. Still a good story, despite knowing what was going to happen. Helped me to admire how it was constructed and executed.

I watched a passable action movie called Homefront, but now I'm checking out the book version Homefront, which of course has more detail, including the army agent wife still being alive.

Watching again, Blott on the Landscape, the fine subtle wit of Tom Sharpe.

I seem to remember watching that Walter Cronkite film 40+ years ago. Weren't the real homes of 2001 a let down. 😏

Trike wrote: "And we have, recently tipping over to a 55% majority of the world’s population living in cities."

Australia is much higher than that. We are one of the least densely populated countries. But we are also one of the most urbanised countries also.

86% of Aussie live in cities. 60% of all Aussies live in just 4 cities.

I an outlier in that I live in a small town of 1,800 people.

Who would have guessed Tassie Dave is an outlier. ;-)


By the way I love living in the middle of a rural area on 20 acres next to a trout stream. But I will admit that It is a bit nicer now that I have fiber to the home instead of having to use satellite internet.

I, too, hate cities. I prefer watching the wildlife wander through my backyard: turkey, moose, bear, deer, coyote, etc. Cities are too noisy for my unquiet mind.

I’m sure if I lived in a city I’d end up like the guy I saw outside Grand Central Station, screaming at an electronic billboard about Giorgio Moroder stealing his songs.

Has Giorgio Moroder been stealing a lot of your songs too, Trike?

I just watched the 2019 film The Mandela Effect. It was pretty good. It reminded me of Muse’s Simulation Theory album, so I spun that after.

Agatha Christie's The ABC Murders on Amazon, a 3 part miniseries with John Malkovich. It was just made by the BBC just two years ago. I thought it was quite well done. It was very dramatic. It has two actors from The Witcher as well, Eamon Farren (Cahir) and Anya Chalotra (Yennifer).

I did a few Deep Space Nines last night, including the one where they travel back in time to the classic TOS The Trouble With Tribbles episode. The time travel episodes have been my favorites so far. The other big theme is possession, which I haven’t been as into.

Watched The Man Who Would Be King tonight, which I haven’t seen in decades. With the recent passing of Christopher Plummer, who has a minor role as Rudyard Kipling, and last year’s death of Sean Connery, I figured I’d revisit it. It was just as good as I remembered. For a film that clocks in at just over two hours, it really moves right along. I don’t think I ever knew that Michael Caine’s wife Shakira plays Roxanne.

I also tried watching The Scarlet Pimpernel, but it has all the detriments of a 1930s film without any of the charm, so I bailed early. Also tried Tribes of Europa, the German sci-fi show, but found it to be extra clunky and dumb.

Finally watched Train to Busan, the South Korean zombie film, and holy braineaters is that incredibly great. It deserves all the praise it has received, easily one of the best zombie movies ever. One of the best action movies, too, which sneaks in commentary about life.

Trike wrote: "Finally watched Train to Busan, the South Korean zombie film, and holy braineaters is that incredibly great. It deserves all the praise it has received, easily one of the best zombie movies ever. One of the best action movies, too, which sneaks in commentary about life. "

I still need to watch the sequel, Peninsula (2020). And I am curious how the American remake will do, produced by James Wan.

The American remake of Train to Busan will just be people riding the el in Chicago on a slow loop.

— Trike (@Trike) February 20, 2021

I just saw the movie Possessor Uncut, it’s amazing. It’s like a horror movie version of The Matrix

Miniature effects for Moon.

https://youtu.be/zkcqDx6UiSw

Bathroom supplies FTW! Discarded toilet paper dispensers and kitty litter for the moonbase and lunar regolith. 😂

Miniature effects for Aliens.

https://youtu.be/zkcqDx6UiSw

Popsicle sticks and hot glue, yet it looks cool.

Here’s the scene he’s talking about: https://youtu.be/loXoL7yEw4Q

Trike wrote: "Miniature effects for Moon..."

Love the film. Love these sort of looks into the creating of <3

(The Aliens link seems to be missing; same as the Moon link).

Jemppu wrote: "Trike wrote: "Miniature effects for Moon..."

Love the film. Love these sort of looks into the creating of <3

(The Aliens link seems to be missing; same as the Moon link)."

Must be a country accessibility thing.

Is this the Aliens link you were referring to?

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

Miniature effects for Escape From New York.

https://youtu.be/v0q0A8WauKc

😮

Miniature effects for The Grand Budapest Hotel.

https://youtu.be/tz6tCq7jsUI

I just bought the Criterion Collection version of the movie: https://www.instagram.com/p/CL5Gx8WD_...

Stan Lee on CBC in 1977.

https://youtu.be/A9-A_GDsjvw

“The more realistic we make our characters, the more the college kids who read them think that it’s satire. Which has taught me a really great lesson: the world is so crazy that if you present things the way they really are, it comes across as broad satire.”

I'm surprised to say Coming 2 America is hilarious! A ton of fan service but genuinely good.

Just finished a rewatch of Babylon 5. I watched it with considerable enjoyment when it was first broadcast. Two decades and change later, it holds up really well. The remastered version streaming on HBO MAX looks terrific. While watching I found myself looking up many of the actors in IMDB, including those that played secondary characters, to see what else they appeared in. I'll be rereading the B5 comics next and maybe some of the novels.

So with Kiki's Delivery Service loss in the tournament today, I decided to watch the movie. I've watched several other Studio Ghibli movies, but not this one. It was great. It had both that great sense of humor that their lighter movies are known for, and fantastic animation. If I didn't know better, I'd have said the art style was from 10 years later, it was just that fluid and well done. Someday I will finish watching the full collection, but this was a great step along the way.

I just started Boss Level on Hulu, which is in the vein of Groundhog Day, Happy Death Day and Edge of Tomorrow, but I had to pause in appreciation of the fact they’re using “Foreplay/Long Time” by Boston as the opening song to underscore Frank Grillo’s resigned voice-over. Such a perfect choice, making me wonder why no one has done that before in these time loop flicks.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/PGHD0bqjZWQ (The first half of the trailer comes from the opening scene.)

Song: https://youtu.be/TnwqUEelQjE (One of the all-time great songs, full stop.)

Watching Babylon 5 Season Three on DVD from the library.
I read the Babylon 5 tie-in novel, The Shadow Within (Book #7) by Jeanne Cavelos. The novel tells the background to three stories. What happened to Anna Sheridan at Z'Ha'dum, what happened when John Sheridan became the captain of the Agamemnon, and the events that surround the dedication of Babylon 5. A great novel that brings these stories together.
Planning to read To Dream in the City of Sorrows (Book #9) by Kathryn M. Drennan. These two novels expand on events from season two.
Planning to watch Babylon 5 Seasons Four and Five next.
Then I plan to re-watch/watch Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Boss Level is awesome, btw. Just a fun, time-loop action flick.

We're watching all the MCU movies in order.

Kinda funny to recap how the C level character Iron Man started the MCU. It's pretty much completely due to Robert Downey Jr. The scripts are meh, but good GOD can that man act.

Watched Thor yesterday. It's better on repeat. The first time I was pissed that they threw away all the cool pantheon stuff for a "Chariots of the Gods" type origin. Still, plenty of Thor comics stuff made it in. I always took "if he be worthy" to mean something other than a Jesus turn, but it worked.

John (Taloni) wrote: "We're watching all the MCU movies in order.

Kinda funny to recap how the C level character Iron Man started the MCU. It's pretty much completely due to Robert Downey Jr. The scripts are meh, but g..."

Without RDJ , the whole thing would have fizzled out. Just my humble opinion.