I re-watched both 12 Angry Men and Big Trouble in Little China recently. I love them both for different reasons. I think a lot of people could stand to watch 12 every few years, just to help keep perspective.
I was watching some clips from Friends that was embedded in some sort of “top 10 episodes” thing I was enjoying, and the clips had me grinning. I’m probably going to re-watch this entire series - I was bummed when I saw it wasn’t really easy to get a hold of back when I was watching the clips, so this is pretty awesome.
Korengal, which is “sequel” of sorts to Restrepo (same time period/people but different material essentially) is now available on Netflix.
— Alan
Friends is a pretty big deal for Netflix, if my actual friends are any indication.
I keep hearing it being described as a big deal, and I just can’t see it myself. It’s died off a bit now, but basically for the last ten years Friends has been in reruns on some channel for 24 hours a day. If you wanted to watch Friends, you just turned the telly on and looked for the channel that happened to be showing it at that time.
tryte
3605
Did anyone else watch the pilot of Marco Polo and think it was kind of shit? Nothing in there made me want to keep watching.
I did at least watch Under the Skin on Amazon streaming and thought it was fantastic.
hepcat
3606
There’s an entire thread about it. General concensus seems to be that it was a fairly fun adventure series.
Nah. My wife and her friends are excited. Reruns are okay, but episodes were shown out of order, and some episodes (for whatever reason) were just never shown.
Friends never struck me as a show that needed to be watched in strict sequence (at least within a season). It’s not exactly Arrested Development.
BB2 has the dubious distinction of being the last* Michael Bay movie I sorta-liked: ridiculously dumb and bombastic without being quite as overwrought and self-important as the Transformers films. The chase scene which culminates on the bridge was pretty intensely ludicrous (in a good way) when it came out; and I appreciated the homage to Police Story in the finale, even if Jackie Chan didn’t like getting ripped off. Plus the slomo bullet-cam shot of Martin Lawrence being shot may be the single best use of slomo bullet-cam this side of John Woo.
*Okay, I found The Island kinda watchable, but that’s almost solely due to Scarlett Johnansson, although Ewan McGregor playing an asshole version of himself was funny.
ElGuapo
3610
Watching Star Trek III on Netflix right now. What is up with Shatner’s sideburns in this movie? They look like 6 inch stiletto daggers.
I searched around and I guess we don’t have a thread for this, which is a shame because GODDAMN! This movie is incredible.
There are scenes in this movie that are more gut-wrenching than just about anything I’ve seen in movies before. The newspaperman denying what he knew only to be contradicted by the killers themselves. The neighbor that reveals his family’s ordeal. The henchmen bragging about raping 14-year-olds and the men around him laughing. The chipper TV host lauding the killers and talking about the massacres as if it were the most heroic thing one could do. The debate between the men regarding how much truth to show in their recreations. The nostalgic way one of them recalls stabbing random people to death in the street.
The real horror and tragedy here isn’t just the cold-blooded efficiency of these guys when they killed, it’s their ability to compartmentalize their actions. That moment towards the end when Anwar Congo actually processes what he did is insane. Watching someone get violently ill and dry heave for five full minutes would be grossly comical in any other movie, but after what The Act of Killing has already shown us, it’s the saddest, most awful thing in a movie filled with terrible things. His body is literally rejecting the full truth of what he did. It’s an amazing scene.
That Joshua Oppenheimer was able to insinuate himself into this bizarre circle of aging gangsters and death-squad members and get them to recreate their crimes for the sake of creating a low-budget vanity movie is nuts.
hepcat
3612
I just added this to my queue, but I thought I would mention that the director’s cut is also available to stream. At 159 minutes, it’s over a half hour longer than the theatrical cut. I’m going to try to watch it this weekend.
I think the Director’s Cut was added later, because I definitely would have gone for that instead if I’d had the option presented to me. As it is, I’m not sure I can rewatch all the stuff I did see for whatever the DC adds.
It looks to me like all the Mystery Science Theater episodes were just removed from Netflix. Hey, Netflix, how about I go get a step ladder so you can JUMP UP MY BUTT.
I’m really surprised at how good Maron gets by the end of Season 1. And I just watched the Season 2 opener, and it’s brilliant. The show has really found its groove. I watched the first 3 or so episodes back when it started showing on IFC, and didn’t care for it. I love Marc’s comedy, Morning Sedition on Air America, didn’t care for his two follow-up shows, but loved his podcast from Day 1. But I didn’t find the TV show great.
But I gave it another chance last week, and I think episode 4 is where it starts getting good. The Gina Gershon episode was great. The episode where he’s a sponsor for an ex-con was really great. I’m really happy that the show has found such a unique vibe.
hepcat
3616
Well crap. I do know that there’s a bunch of rifftrax on Hulu plus, if that’s any consolation.
Given that all 10 seasons are available for the price of watching a single ad each on Youtube, maybe Netflix is having a hard time competing.
The MST3k movie is also on HBO Go.
— Alan
Recently watched:
Jack Ryan, Shadow Recruit–serviceable, but nothing crazy-good.
Re-watched “In Harm’s Way.” Always loved that one. WWII With John Wayne and Kirk Douglas.
“Future.” A really terrible Rutger Haur movie that I didn’t make it through.
I’ve been looking for something fun. So far it’s been a bit dry this month. Any new recommendations?
ElGuapo
3620
Holy cow that new Jack Ryan movie was bad. The bus driving around filled with hackers/analysts was particularly terrible.
Recommend Blue Ruin if you haven’t seen it. It’s a straight up revenge movie but well done. We also enjoyed Better Living Through Chemistry as a dark comedy.
