Saw it a few days ago. Totally redundant remake of the “what is good is not new, and what is new is not good” variety.
Razgon
2882
Zlatko Buric is one of my favorite actors and is the only reason I could semi-enjoy the movie 2012 with my GF. He’s really awesome in the Pusher movies as well!
I must admit I thought Pusher 3 was the weakest of the 3 Pusher movies. While Mads Mikkelsen is a brilliant actor, the story just struck me as uninteresting, but it did have some nice nods to the two previous ones.
I think you may be confusing which one is which. Pusher 3 is all about Zlatko Buric as Milo. Mikkelsen’s character is already done and dusted as of Pusher 2.
Kolchak, The Night Stalker, has been the bedtime diversion for this week. I’m not going to tell you that big parts of the show have held up well, but will tell you I have been fascinated looking at the snapshot in time where it took place.
One of the nice things about Kolchak was that he spent a fair bit of time driving his Mustang around town. He’d stop in diners, office building, arcades, wherever. He used a side-winding instamatic camera and had this tricorder-sized cassette recorder that he brought everywhere with him. Typewriters, landline phones, collect calls, dime payphones, outdoor shots that make Chicago look like like Lebanon at times, references to things from cars to divorce…it just goes on. The show is very dense from a dialogue point of view, so a lot of stuff gets thrown in.
I realize it was nearly 40 years ago, but looking at it now feels like looking at the civil war. That, and it’s pretty cool.
hepcat
2885
The best thing about Kolchak (other than Darren McGavin of course) was the dialog. It’s outstanding at times.
F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, “The rich are different than you and me.” They sure are. They got more money.
Tony Vincenzo: You know, I once thought about entering the priesthood-…
Carl Kolchak: Then the Inquisition ended, and all of the fun went out of it for you.
Carl: I’m a reporter.
Mel: A reporter…oh, like the Fifth Column.
McGavin was great in that role. I don’t know how well it would have turned out for a different personality.
hepcat
2887
Not Well.
McGavin owned Kolchak. The remake tried to make him into a handsome, well dressed reporter. That’s like making Bugs Bunny a dog.
Razgon
2888
Woohoo! Just got netflix today! For the low price of 13 dollars a month, we have Netflix in Denmark now.
I have to say the selection is somewhat limited - How is it in the states with shows like NCIS (Which we don’t have at all), Glee (where we only have the first two shows) and HBO shows in general?
Lots of movies as well, but mostly from 2011 and back.
Oh, and how often do they add new titles?
They add stuff pretty regularly, often with big updates at the beginning of a new financial quarter. Stuff will leave as well as old deals expire. Don’t expect brand new movies, but they do a decent job of getting stuff from the previous year. Independent stuff can show up faster.
There’s no HBO stuff. HBO jealously guards their content and would never sublicense it to Netflix, who is increasingly a big competitor to them, both in terms of getting rights to movies, and original programming. (Netflix famously outbid HBO for House of Cards).
We don’t have NCIS. CBS shows in general aren’t represented all that well for whatever reason. NBC and Fox shows seem to be best represented. They also have pretty comprehensive deals with USA, AMC and FX. We do have the first three season of Glee. Previous season tend to be added just before a new season premieres.
Razgon
2890
Thanks Brad - Thats good info all around.
Its getting hard to choose, since we will get HBO as well with their online system for the same price. That, and a few local suppliers as well makes it a hard to understand market.
It will probably take a little while before it gets more clear who supplies what , how many movies, how many new shows and the like each supplier will offer.
Oh, and how often do they add new titles?
Based on the UK experience, I’d expect the selection to expand/improve pretty rapidly. Nine months after launch, the selection here is much, much better than it was at the start, and that’s despite having to compete with Sky and LoveFilm (ie Amazon) for rights. Still not a whole lot in the way of first run movies, but that’s not why I have it. The “catalogue” movies are far higher quality than the alternatives in the UK, and the TV selection is miles ahead of LoveFilm’s. Not as good as iTunes, but then it’s nowhere near as expensive as iTunes either.
Caught up on all the shows I’m watching, stuck with Netflix tonight. Anything worth recommending for someone with eclectic tastes but kinda high standards? I can stand low-brow scifi/fantasy if it’s engaging on some level, but have a low tolerance for bad films of any other genre. The Grey totally captured my heart and mind recently and I’m kind of in the mood for more like that. Currently watching Headhunters and have the Pusher series (not on Netflix except for the third) queued up.
Nice to see that Headhunters prominently features Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who plays Jaime in the Game of Thrones series. Edit: Also features friendly, clothing-optional gunfights between lovers in small apartments, something I don’t think I’ve ever seen before.
Netflix recently added Hansel and Gretel, a weird and rather creepy fantasy/horror movie from Korea. I quite enjoyed it, and if you’re worried that it’s the usual long-haired ghost girl fare, it definitely is not.
Ah, sounds wonderful! Love Korean movies and Korean horror in particular. A guy couldn’t have asked for more. Bumped to the top.
RichVR
2896
Primer
Pirate Radio
The Serpent and the Rainbow
Heavens Above!
The Name of the Rose
The Believers
Have you seen Howling? Korean crime movie with a killer dog. I was watching Snow White and the Huntsman on a plane home from Korea and someone else was watching Howling. I kept getting distracted by how awesome it looked and watched it right after. Thought it was pretty good. Love the dog they used and the attacks were brutal.
Picture of the cute little doggie
Picture and plot synopses remind me a lot of Wolfen. How similar is it?
Never seen Wolfen, but there is no supernatural element to Howling. I thought it was a werewolf movie at first, but nope just a dog! The dog is also just one part of the police investigation.
I’ve seen a number of new things on streaming lately. I’m sure most of them have their own threads, but here’s just my quick hit on them:
Once Upon a Time: Basically a fairly simple show about all the fairy tale things coming under a curse from the wicked Queen and being forced to live amnesiac, miserable mortal lives. Only Snow White’s daughter can break the curse, but she doesn’t even believe any of it, including her parentage. This show never actually grabbed me, but I found it easy to watch and good for, say, right before bed.
Terra Nova. Ugh. Nicely animated dinosaurs, but a uselessly convoluted plot, cutout characters and rebels who don’t look like they should have lived a week in the wild, let alone been this lurking, ongoing menace.
Walking Dead, Season 2. I try pretty hard to avoid spoilers on shows I think I might want to watch down the line, but remember reading a lot of negative press about season 2. I personally liked it. maybe it’s because i can watch several at a time intstead of having to wait really long times between reveals, but the storylines and acting worked well for me. I was good and ready for the band to split up at the end of the season, though. some of those folks were wearing kind of thin.
