What Movie Are You Watching?

[Huntn]

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (1987)- Good Thanksgiving comedy.

 

[Gutwrench]

I watched The Notebook yesterday. No nudity or violence but still a pleasant show.

 

[DT]

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (1987)- Good Thanksgiving comedy.

So good, an all time classic. We've got it on deck to watch today Really classic Thanksgiving movies are few-and-far-between.

I have one for the horror aficionados:

Pilgrim 2019

So a couple of years ago, Hulu, with Blumhouse, started making these monthly horror films as their Into the Dark series, they're themed to the month (i.e., the November release was Thanksgiving)

This one is pretty fantastic. It's dark, subversive, a bit gory, funny - it's terrifically acted (especially the lead, umm, Pilgrim), has stellar production values, including all the pre-post movie credit production. I won't give too much away, I'll just use the IMDB synopsis:

A woman invites re-enactors to produce an authentic first Thanksgiving for her family and friends. However, things take an unexpected turn when the actors refuse to break character.

 

[lizkat]

Boston Globe columnist published a list of other than "top 10 America!" films to consider... some off the beaten track stuff, might check one of them out, the ones he picked are on assorted streaming platforms.

I'd put the link but it's paywalled, so... their loss is yours too. OK so here it is anyway in case you've a way around.

‘The Crown’s Gambit’? ‘The Queen’? Whatever. Watch these 10 recent movies instead - The Boston Globe

As I’ve adjusted to this year’s release upheavals, I’ve come across plenty of good films. Here are 10.

www.bostonglobe.com

 

[DT]

Boston Globe columnist published a list of other than "top 10 America!" films to consider... some off the beaten track stuff, might check one of them out, the ones he picked are on assorted streaming platforms.

I'd put the link but it's paywalled, so... their loss is yours too. OK so here it is anyway in case you've a way around.

‘The Crown’s Gambit’? ‘The Queen’? Whatever. Watch these 10 recent movies instead - The Boston Globe

As I’ve adjusted to this year’s release upheavals, I’ve come across plenty of good films. Here are 10.

www.bostonglobe.com

 

[lizkat]

^^ a stretch on fair use but hey... "better you than me"...

 

[DT]

^^ a stretch on fair use but hey... "better you than me"...

Hahaha, yeah, I guess, I mean, it's super easy to do, it only required a built-in browser feature Heck, NYT and several sources are accessible if you use incognito/private mode.

OK, now I feel bad ... purging.

 

[lizkat]

Hahaha, yeah, I guess, I mean, it's super easy to do, it only required a built-in browser feature Heck, NYT and several sources are accessible if you use incognito/private mode.

OK, now I feel bad ... purging.

The funniest thing about that piece was its typical range of subscriber comments on anything today -- from approximately "gee thanks so much gonna check out some of these films" to "seriously the paper bothered to print this list?" I've always wondered how much American online comment in newspapers was focused on the piece itself and how much was "oh yeah?" reaction to the first comment another commenter noticed.

To your effort, my comment and your retracted PDF file: I think newspapers and other online sites that do have paywalls should think harder about what they stick behind that paywall. I realize we're way beyond imagining that papers are in business as a public service, but surely --and maybe especially during the season of coronavirus constraining our entertainment options-- there's a sweet spot between 0 and 10 free looks where a paper potentially picks up more business than it deters by popping up a wall for registration / subscription. I mean there's always the chance someone clicks on a well placed ad near some piece about books, movies, live-streamed entertainment etc.

Anyway to get back to thread, I must confess that despite best intentions to check out some movie off that list, I ended up watching another episode of the TV series Succession.

Ironically, the piece I had read in the Boston Globe had started off suggesting skipping latest hype on assorted TV series and getting back to some movie watching, hence its list.

What can I say. I too have fallen into habit during covid-19 of queuing up a list of TV series to explore rather than films I mean to watch. Not sure if it's a shortening attention span during the pre-winter-solstice. Might be that once I find a tolerable series, it's easier to watch part of an episode and skip to next one, than to get 20 minutes into a movie, not care for it and then have to do more than just "click to next episode" to move on with the evening's screened entertainment.

So I might be getting as lazy as all the streaming platforms offering up dreadful TV series have hoped I would become.

 

[Huntn]

Lucy (2014)- Unlocking the potential of the human brain. Luc Besson takes this premise and runs with it, exciting, creative, visually intriguing and impressive. The only critique I’ve heard is that they could have done more at the end based on Lucy’s abilities, but with a character who is basically omnipotent, it can’t be just a straight up fight, because there would be no fight. It requires a different approach.

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[DT]

Lucy (2014)- Unlocking the potential of the human brain. Luc Besson takes this premise and runs with it, exciting, creative, visually intriguing and impressive. The only critique I’ve heard is that they could have done more at the end based on Lucy’s abilities, but with a character who is basically omnipotent, it can’t be just a straight up fight, because there would be no fight. It requires a different approach.

View attachment 1588​

I know the basic premise is scientifically refuted (i.e., the "10 percent of the brain" myth), but I really like this movie, especially when it gets into the more abstract, when she becomes all things, how she experiences time, place, the idea that as part of the greater whole we're as much Australopithecus as we are some future being that can manipulate matter, move freely through time and space.

 

[thekev]

$35 is a bit steep, I said, $25-30, but I'm probably capped at around $25. The experience at home - for us - is actually better, since we're alcoholics ...

Just tell people that alcohol fuels your circuits.

I know the basic premise is scientifically refuted (i.e., the "10 percent of the brain" myth), but I really like this movie, especially when it gets into the more abstract, when she becomes all things, how she experiences time, place, the idea that as part of the greater whole we're as much Australopithecus as we are some future being that can manipulate matter, move freely through time and space.

The 10% myth has lived far too long.

 

[User.45]

Just tell people that alcohol fuels your circuits.



The 10% myth has lived far too long.

I've seen people use 100% of their brain. It's called an epileptic seizure and is generally considered unhealthy.
Jokes aside, yeah it's such a stupid myth. I'd say the brain's networks are way more plastic than even neurologists are trained to believe. There's a concept called hodotopism, which means that even though primary cortex like speech centers (e.g. Broca's area) work like a server park, slow insults allow the server park to be moved (hodos stands for wandering). So yeah, the network is more flexible than what many believe but it doesn't mean it's not used the best way it can be.

 

[DT]

I use 97% of my ass.

 

[DT]

We've already start tapping into Christmas movies, and shows, the latter, we ran a playlist from Hulu, had a bunch of seasonal EPs from Bob's, Seinfeld.

We opened up the season - albeit, slightly early - with Elf

 

[thekev]

I use 97% of my ass.

which is 42% titanium?

 

[Huntn]

Mad Max Fury Road (2015)- Basic, but good story which offers the premise for a 70 minute amazingly choreographed visual spectacle of bad ass vehicles and action.

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Wikepedia quote:
The film was praised by critics for its screenplay, Miller's direction, action sequences, score, cinematography, editing, costume design, visuals, and the performances of the cast, particularly Hardy and Theron. Considered one of the greatest action films of all time and one of the best of the 2010s, Fury Road won multiple directing and technical achievements, and received ten Academy Award nominations at the 88th Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won the most awards of the ceremony with six awards for Costume Design, Production Design, Makeup and Hairstyling,

 

[Huntn]

I know the basic premise is scientifically refuted (i.e., the "10 percent of the brain" myth), but I really like this movie, especially when it gets into the more abstract, when she becomes all things, how she experiences time, place, the idea that as part of the greater whole we're as much Australopithecus as we are some future being that can manipulate matter, move freely through time and space.

I really did not know... but I still like this movie too.

True or False: We Only Use 10% of Our Brains

For centuries, psychics, clairvoyants, and other psuedo-scientific charlatans have touted their own extraordinary perceptive powers by saying that ordinary people ...

www.disorders.org

 

[User.45]

which is 42% titanium?

I just accidentally rewatched the episode. You were 2% off (40% titanium), I'm no less impressed though.
It was also an episode on elections and dude it was hilarious.

 

[thekev]

I just accidentally rewatched the episode. You were 2% off (40% titanium), I'm no less impressed though.
It was also an episode on elections and dude it was hilarious.

I know. It was close enough, aaaannnddd...

 

[Thomas Veil]

I couldn't point out why, but I've been on a Dracula kick lately.

I started with Hammer's "Dracula, Prince of Darkness" ---- and then graduated to not one, not two, but three different versions of the original tale.

The first one is a BBC production, "Count Dracula", with Louis Jourdan in the title role, that first aired in (I think) the 1980s. It was good but technologically primitive. (YouTube)

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The second was the Frank Langella film. It's a better, more expansive movie marred only by the fact that it dispenses with the entire beginning of the story involving Jonathan Harker's trip to Transylvania. For me that's the best part of the story. (DVD)

Last was one made for CBS some years ago by no less than Dan Curtis, in which Jack Palance played a highly menacing Dracula. It too is a great telling of the story. Surprisingly I wasn't put off by the fact that Curtis borrowed some of his motifs from Dark Shadows, including Lucy being Dracula's reincarnated love, with her own music box theme even. I had this version on DVD, but it's somewhat muddy. Amazon's edition, however, is magnificently restored, and unlike the TV version this is wide screen. It looks freaking gorgeous. (Amazon Prime)

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I think I'm drawn to these because despite the holiday, these are dark days, both literally and figuratively, and somber horror seems to fit my mood.