So much to watch, so little time… 
1 Like
Swimming With Sharks is notoriously hard to find.
There are dvds still available and there was a recent (2021) Blu ray reissue, but it’s only in region B (UK) as far as I can tell, and likely will not work in North American players unless they are multi-region.
One wonders what sort of rights conflict is going on when things disappear like that.
Kevin Smith’s Dogma has been held up for years because the rights were held in part by Weinstein, and no one want him to make any $$ of the deal. It was announced recently that there’s been an agreement and there will likely be a new release, possibly this year.
Danny Boyle’s original 28 Days Later zombie apocalypse film is similarly unavailable for easy viewing, even though its sequel, 28 Weeks Later is everywhere, and a new entry in the saga, 28 Months Later, is due later this year.
Hopefully, that will spur whoever it is to work things out.
3 Likes
Yeah I love Bosch. This is the last season but I’m hoping he will show up in the newest Connolly spin off-Ballard. They are together in a bunch of the books.
5 Likes
The Reacher finale was a real action packed blast. I only wish the earlier episodes were as good. They probably could have cut this season into 5 episodes instead of 8.
3 Likes
I finally caught up to A Complete Unknown, on Hulu, and really enjoyed it. Timothee Chalamet really embodied Bob Dylan.
I liked the first season, season two was pretty meh for me and I just barely managed to get through the first episode of season three. Not sure I’ll continue watching 
Chiming in to say that we’re enjoying The Residence very much too.
The dialogue and (most of) the acting in this series are so sharp. We were hooked from the moment that the character of Detective Cordelia Cupp appeared onscreen. The exposition moves at a deliciously slow pace that only adds to the intrigue for us.
1 Like
Just skip the other episodes and watch the finale 
1 Like
Sounds like a good plan!
1 Like
The Rule of Jenny Pen - dir. James Ashcroft
Stephen Mortensen (Geoffrey Rush) is a judge in New Zealand who, as he passing sentence on a violent criminal, has a stroke, and is sent to a care home to recuperate, adamant that his stay there is only temporary, til he recovers. Another resident, Dave Crealy (John Lithgow, see also: my avatar!) takes pleasure in torturing the more vulnerable residents both physically and psychologically, in part using a creepy, hollow-eyed baby-doll hand puppet named “Jenny Pen”. Stephen’s attempts to get the staff to stop him aren’t believed, and his condition is worsening, so Stephen must figure out how to stop Crealy in his weakened state, before he becomes incapable of any action at all.
It’s a simple premise given unexpected gravity by some excellent filmmaking choices. The main one is very much limit our view, and our mindset, to Stephen’s. All the details of life in the care home, the indignities of aging, the bureaucracy, are all meted out gradually, very much taking to heart the movie adage “show, don’t tell”. It gives the narrative a focus that might otherwise be lost on subplots and extraneous characters. Rush acquits himself very well, as usual, but it’s Lithgow’s Crealy that steals the show. Lithgow has made a career of going BIG with his comedic roles, from Buckaroo Banzaii to The World According to Garp to his tv stint on Third Rock from the Sun. Heck, he was the perfect addition to the old Jon Lovitz “Master Thespian” SNL sketch. (“ACTING!”) But when he goes bad, that manic energy he has becomes positively terrifying. DePalma figured that out in the 90’s with Raising Cain, and here, well… You may give grandpa a little side-eye after this. It’s currently available on Shudder in the US.
4/5 choruses of “Knees Up Mother Brown”
4 Likes
Got that one cued up and ready to go. Go Uzo Aduba!
2 Likes
Memories of Murder (2003) - dir. Bong Joon Ho
A murderer is terrorizing a small South Korean town, killing young women and leaving their bodies tied up in the fields. The local police only seem to know how to grab up any possible suspect and beat them til they get a confession, regardless of actual guilt. Even a more competent officer from Seoul can’t seem to help. Every lead, though incompetence or ignorance or pure bad luck, evaporates before they can capitalize on it.
And plot wise, that’s really all there is. A poorly run murder investigation. But Bong is packing a lot into that simple box. His now familiar laying bare of societal and institutional failures is out of front, constantly backing into what might be comedy if it weren’t so sad. There is no neatly packaged resolution. Just doubt, and the feeling that maybe a different outcome COULD have been possible, but that the world doesn’t work that way.
4.5/5 good cop/bad cop routines.
As an additional note, the story was based on the Lee Choon-Jae murders that occurred between 1986-1994.
3 Likes
Lithgow’s Roberta Muldoon and Lithgow’s children’s books.
Baseball season has begun. I’ll be watching the Dodgers the whole season. Go Evil Empire!
2 Likes
As I live in the Bay Area with someone born and raised in SF, I am required by law to tell you “Fuck the Dodgers”, but understand that I’m not actually a sports person, so my heart isn’t in it.
And I will not let the occasion go by without mentioning that, until such time as the former Oakland baseball team finds itself a permanent home, they should be referred to as “The Athletic Sacs.”
I didn’t invent the joke (someone on r/Sacramento gets that credit) and, again, I’m not a sports person, but it is way too funny to let go.
3 Likes
I gotta say watching two episodes of The Righteous Gemstones in a row followed by the latest White Lotus, I really got into the craziness of it all. And a double dose of Walton Goggins 
1 Like
Haha, I understand. I have friends and family members who are Giants fans. Use to go out with someone whose brothers were old school drunk left field bums at the Stick…who had visited the Paddy wagon under the left the bleachers. Believe me I’ve heard it all. Closest friends are Giants fans….and y’all whine like hell. Giants had a nice run in the ‘00s. Now it’s Dodger time!
What can I say, by chance I was born in SoCal, and you follow who the paper covered.
Nice one on the Athletic Sacs….and John Fishf*** is a Bay Area native. That MF deserves everything thrown at him, and more. Billionaire looking for corporate welfare hand out. At least the Giants paid for their stadium…I worked 2 blocks away when it was built.
Having watched the most recent episodes of both back to back, I am struck by the realization that the Goggins character has the same relationship with his partner in each.
I was too distracted by the waterskiing
