shadowkat: (Default)
[personal profile] shadowkat
I got bored of archiving finally - although did make it up through 2009.

Me: We saw a ton of movies between 2004-2009.
Wales: Did we? What movies?
Me: Weirdly I can't remember them or the names, will have to look them up again. I swear my brain is a sieve...ah, Waitress, Notes on a Scandel, the Pervert's Guide to Cinema (yes that's actually a movie).
Wales: Ah, I used to be alive. I used to do things. Thanks for reminding me.
Me: What? Going to the movie theater and watching a movie isn't really being alive and doing stuff. You packed 938 free meals for the homeless today, and are volunteering to work in a public garden up in Queens next Saturday. All I did was archive stuff on the internet... Also, there are corpses found in movie theaters - of homeless people. Dead people watch movies in theaters.
Wales: Okay fine. Ha Ha. I just meant that I was actually entertaining the brain - I feel like such a cement head.
Me: Oh please, I'm reading romance novels and watching General Hospital.
[Not that there is anything wrong with that - personally, I think its a couple of notches above reality shows, true crime novels, and bad paint-by-number mystery novels of which there appear to be millions. But what the hell, do I know?]

[There's now a lot, maybe too many, movie reviews in my archive now. I think they may out do the Buffy meta...which is saying something. Although most folks are reading and liking the unedited fanfic that I wrote. This is why I stopped caring what people think of my writing. It's all subjective anyhow.]

As you can see I'm in a snarky mood of late. Also a touch depressed. It's gloomy, although the sun did peak out once or twice this weekend, and we saw a touch of blue, and a few pretty sunsets. I don't expect to see one tonight - but you never know. Humid, but otherwise mild - all things considered.

Niece sent me photos of the Canary Islands. (It looks like a California Beach, specifically one in San Diego, with a lot of sand, not much in the way of foliage, although a lot in the mountains. Also reminds me a little of Turkey. I liked Costa Rica and Hilton Head better, to be honest. This is good - I should be discouraged from wanting to visit the Canary Islands.)
Bro made it safely to Milan - and now has to take two trains (with luggage) to get to Florence. I do not feel sorry for him - that's just poor planning on his part. I'd have plotted to stay one night in Milan, get past the jet-lag, and then jump to Florence, mother and I assumed that was what he was doing - mainly because how we travel. My brother, not so much.

***

Enuf of the boring stuff ...television:

1. Obiwan Kenobi aka Ben and Leia:

This feels like a kids show.

Leia gets kidnapped. After lots of prodding and guilt tripping by her adoptive family, Ben Kenobi aka Obi Wan, races off to save her - even though the kidnapping feels like bait to trap him. Although why they didn't just take Leia to Vader and say - here's your kid, I've no clue. It appears they know who she is? I may be wrong about that.

I only saw one episode, but it's very...Disney. Dumbed down for the general family audience. Shame, has a good cast that deserves better. That said - it's not that bad. I enjoyed the first episode. And it's not like Star Wars (the original film) was stellar writing either. Critics are equating it to Star Wars The Holiday Special - eh, I'd say it is much much better than that, which granted isn't hard. (I saw footage from Star Wars the Holiday Special recently - it was...well atrocious might be an understatement? I can't believe they did that.) (currently streaming on Disney +)

2. Picard Episode 1, S1 (I liked Episode 1 of S2 better. This episode kind of put me to sleep, I'm going to have to re-watch it.) S1 - appears to be about Data and the Borg, while S2 is about Q and temporal time wars. (currently streaming on the Paramount App on Amazon Prime)

3. Speaking of Time Travel - Stephen Moffat's Adaptation of The Time Traveler's Wife - is better than the movie, and as far as I can tell the book of the same name. I decided to try it - after I spoke with Gabe, who loved it. Say what you will about Moffat - the man is good at dialogue and in particular banter. There's a few television writers/screen writers who excel at dialogue, or banter, Moffat, Sorkin, and Whedon (or he used to, he kind of slid downhill after Firefly, I do not know why). I like rapid fire dialogue - it's an art form.

A lot of writers suck at dialogue. Want to get good at dialogue? Listen to conversations. And read plays. Lots of plays. Over a hundred plays. Don't just go to the theater - actually read the plays.

It is an odd series though. Reminds me a lot of Doctor Who River Song arc - which I liked. So it's working for me. The lead, Henry, portrayed by the same actor who played Sydney Parker in Sandition (and the man is hot and shown butt naked alot, he's also comfortable being naked on screen (or appears to be) so I'm a happy camper - that is one pretty male body - and I've seen a lot. (I'm an artist - I've taken a lot of live drawing courses in my life time, so I've seen a lot of naked people pose.)) Anyhow, the gaze in this series is heterosexual female not male - which is interesting. Also it is split in two points of view - Henry's and Clair's. And it starts with their first meeting - not Henry's first time travel.

Henry is unstuck in time - he basically time travels at the drop of a hat, little warning, and only within his own time line. It's framed as a disability not a gift, and he doesn't help anyone doing it. Actually he does whatever is necessary to survive, since whenever he time travels, he loses his clothing, and arrives butt naked. So he's learned how to fight, steal clothing, food, and other necessities.

The movie took itself far too seriously, and Henry was a kind of dull sort, who just fell in and out of things, with a perpetually bewildered look on his face. But the series, has Moffat's dry wit, and is rather funny in places, at least it was in the first episode. Also Henry doesn't take himself quite so seriously, is a bit snarky, and self-deprecating. Clair, I felt was likable as well - but I also like the actress - Rose Leslie. (Who've I've seen in something before.)

I thought Henry visiting Clair as a child would bother me - but it doesn't. He's a gentleman, and he's careful. Also it's not entirely by choice - he doesn't choose to time travel - it's kind of out of his control. (I'm admittedly less upset by potential pedophilia than most folks are - since I never was molested, am not close to anyone who was, don't really known anyone personally who was, and so - it's kind of foreign to me. I only have seen it in books, movies, and magazines. In short, not a trigger.)



4. Stranger Things S4 - this actually works without having a clear memory of the former seasons. I wasn't sure at first, but it does. They do a good job of catching us up a bit. It was filmed over a year ago. Biggest take away from the first episode - was whoa, the kids sprouted up and have grown big time. Also, while the girls look more or less the same, the boys look entirely different, except for Jonathan and Steve, who were older to begin with.

They've also made the teen D&D players to be a bit on the creepy side - while they weren't as kids.

Joyce, aka Winona Ryder's character, is starting to annoy me. Hopefully this is a first episode thing?

Oh, and guess who is back? Yep Mathew Modine and Paul Glazer.

5. The Offer - dramatization of the Making of the Godfather. Watching this thing makes me wonder how the Godfather ever got made. Seriously it had more obstacles in its way. For one thing the Italians hated the book and were actively boycotting the movie. Okay, the Italians in my opinion are a bit on the sensitive side. The mafia, comically - I might add, goes ape shit over the film - going so far as to threaten the film makers. Bob Evans gets a dead rat put in his hotel bed. Al Ruddy has his car window shot out (while he's in it) and is taken in a car for a meeting. Sinatra shuts down their efforts to get Vic Damone to play Johnny Fontana (the Sinatra stand in). Sinatra also took the book personally.

[They would have been better off just ignoring it. Instead they just drew more attention to themselves and the book, and made it about them. It was stupid, and highly narcissistic. Sinatra was a narcissist. Great Singer, good actor, nasty human being. It's amazing how many truly talented and charmed people are in truth - complete assholes, isn't it? I guess the talent is to ensure that they serve a purpose on the planet, besides resident asshole. Anyhow, the irony is - that by drawing negative attention to themselves - not only does the movie get made, and become one of the biggest films of all time, but a television series gets made about their efforts to stop it - portraying all of them in a far worse light than the movie ever did. If Sinatra were alive today - he'd not be a happy camper.
Nor would his mob cronies. Today's mafia is smarter - they tend to ignore television and film productions. They ignored the Sopranos, and produced Gotti. Of course by now, it's all been done - so they probably figure lets at least get a piece of the financial pie.]

Still amazed the Godfather got made. Ruddy had to deal with a prima dona director, writer, actors, studio, Bob Evans, and the Mafia and Sinatra.

The actor playing Al Pacino actually looks like, sounds like, and has the mannerisms of a young Al Pacino. They've done excellent casting with Ruddy, Evans, Pacino, Coppola, Puzo, and Bettaye. Sinatra however looks nothing like the real one. And he also looks too much like various other actors in the series - so I keep getting confused. They didn't do a good job with the mafia - outside of Giovanni Ribsi, everyone looks alike. Colin Hanks sounds like and looks a lot like his father.



6. Fantastic Beasts: Secrets of Dumbledore...

I tried to watch this..

Mother: How is it?
ME: I'm pretty much lost and close to giving up. I can't remember the first two films at all. And am thinking I may have to re-watch them.

It's also an overly dark film - so hard to watch unless, it's night and all the lights are off.

I do think Mads (of Hannibal fame) is an improvement over Johnny Depp. (BTW, if you have issues with Johnny Depp? Just watch his infamous death scene in A Nightmare on Elm Street, aka the human meat-grinder scene. You may not have to rewatch it - it is ingrained on my memory. I managed to forget most of Fantastic Beasts, not all of it, I actually remember the first movie better than the second - and the second is the one I have to remember in order to follow this one - anyhow why I can forget that, but can't forget the human meat grinder scene in Nightmare is beyond me. My memory is not nice - bad brain.)

Anyhow, that's the second thing on this list that had last minute casting changes due to the bad behavior of one of the actors or personal shit getting in the way of their job. Demonstrating that we can't compartmentalize as much as we think - it all bleeds in, one way or another. Armie Hammer was supposed to play Ruddy in The Offer, he got replaced by Miles Teller (if you want to know why - google it, suffice it to say - Hammer was a very bad boy). Depp - same. (Also Depp has not aged well, which is interesting. I'm not a huge Depp fan, so don't care.)

I gave up mid-way through. I couldn't follow it and didn't care. I need to re-watch the first two. Had the same problem with The Witcher, I'll have to rewatch the first season. Will state that I adore Jude Law as Dumbledore - that's pitch perfect casting.

You know you have a problem with a series - if, the audience has to rewatch everything that came prior to follow it, and if the title is over seven words in length. "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Secrets of Dumbledore." That's a mouthful in of itself.

I may try it again - when I have time and the inclination to rewatch the other two films first.



***

Coming soon...

Tonight Dark Winds adapted from the Tony Hillerman Detective Joe Leaphorn Series (the Navajho detectives). This has George RR Martin, Robert Redford, and Hillerman's Daughter behind it, although someone else is show-running and writing. It has been adapted previously for a PBS series, and a couple of movies (none of which were stellar, although I liked the PBS series).

The two people I know that would love this the most - are either dead, or demented. So it's somewhat painful. I told mother about it, but I'm not sure she can watch - since her mother and my father loved the mysteries.

It's on at 9pm on AMC. Between airings of Die Hard with a Vengeance.

August 5 on Netflix ---Neil Gaiman's Sandman - which according to Gaiman goes up to Dollhouse in the comics. Or that's how far they filmed for the first season.

I'm looking forward to this - the creator was hands on in regards to casting, production and to some lesser degree writing. He was more hands on than he was with American Gods. Actually his involvement was kind of similar to how he was involved with Good Omens.

If you don't like Gaiman - you'll probably skip. But must viewing for Gaiman fans. (I have a love/hate relationship with Gaiman - I actually prefer his comics and graphic novels to his written novels, with the exception of Ocean at the End of the Lane - which is just brilliant.)

***

Date: 2022-06-13 03:44 am (UTC)
jazzfish: Jazz Fish: beret, sunglasses, saxophone (Jazz Fish)
From: [personal profile] jazzfish
(I have a love/hate relationship with Gaiman - I actually prefer his comics and graphic novels to his written novels, with the exception of Ocean at the End of the Lane - which is just brilliant.)

Sounds about right, though I've only read Ocean once so I can't really comment on it. (I remember liking it.) But Gaiman's novels have been primarily meh-to-okay for me.

His short stories are good, though, and The Graveyard Book (which was functionally a collection of linked stories) was good. So maybe/possibly/probably he works best at shorter length. I mean, yes, Sandman is one big epic story, but it contains a bunch of smaller stories within it.

Date: 2022-06-13 05:08 am (UTC)
kerk_hiraeth: Me and Unidoggy Edinburgh Pride 2015 (Default)
From: [personal profile] kerk_hiraeth
Would love have seen adaptations of Tony Hillerman's books with maybe Graham Green as Joe Leaphorn; got introduced to them by a friend; she's somewhere in the American South-west with her husband on a holiday delayed for more than two years... because of some global crisis or other ;-)

She introduced me to them at about the same time as Akira & My Neighbour Totoro.

Neil Gaiman is one of those odd cases; an artist who, as a Human Being I greatly admire them, but their actual art leaves me cool, or cold. I actually only took to him because he married Amanda Palmer and decided, 'well okay, if she likes him he must be ok'. Of course I would have grown to like him anyway because of writing Good Omens with Terry Pratchett.

Still haven't found a way into his work, the way I did for Terry Pratchett; do wonder sometimes of that is a result of having met and talked to Terry Pratchett.

kerk

Date: 2022-06-14 01:50 am (UTC)
kerk_hiraeth: Me and Unidoggy Edinburgh Pride 2015 (Default)
From: [personal profile] kerk_hiraeth
After the greater part of thirty years I don't see it happening now, but just found this on the BBC radio player https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00180kj It's an interview series; this one features Neil Gaiman. You should be able to listen and should be able to download it if you wish.

kerk

Date: 2022-06-13 05:33 pm (UTC)
mtbc: photograph of me (Default)
From: [personal profile] mtbc
I usually like Mads Mikkelsen in things, I'm glad his career's gone well.

Gah, Sandman, maybe a reason not to cancel Netflix then! Though I wonder if they're dumping the season in pieces with a gap, like Lupin and Stranger Things and suchlike.

Date: 2022-06-14 07:57 pm (UTC)
mtbc: photograph of me (Default)
From: [personal profile] mtbc
Yeah, I think that oftentimes, with current Netflix series, a season is in two parts with months between their releases. It's really annoying, I forget what's going on, especially true between actual series of course, which is why I hate cliffhanger endings. Netflix also did similar with Money Heist, if I recall correctly. I'll wait for all of Stranger Things to drop before I start it.

Date: 2022-06-14 12:30 am (UTC)
yourlibrarian: Loki Thumbs Up (AVEN-LokiThumbsUp-Peaked.png)
From: [personal profile] yourlibrarian
The archiving does get tedious after a while, but at least you got more stuff done -- congrats!

Date: 2022-06-14 04:11 pm (UTC)
yourlibrarian: Lorne pretends he can help (BUF-LornePretend-indulging_breck)
From: [personal profile] yourlibrarian
I'm not sure I'm following you. I assume you're saying that when you're in the "My Dashboard" view you can't see works except how they're sorted by fandoms at the top?

If so, just change to the My Works view and you can sort them by tag. So if you tagged all your book reviews as "Book Review" and or meta as "Meta" you can either click on the Additional Tags in the right sidebar or else enter the specific tag in the "Other tags to include" field to bring them up.

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