Season 3 of HBO’s series, Industry begins 8/11.
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I watched it. It was interesting, if I remember correctly there was some pretty good cooking going on.
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Mayhem (2017) with Stephen Yeun and Samara Weaving. A fun flick about a dude’s worst day at work, like, ever. Samara Weaving was also in the very good The Babysitter and Ready or Not.
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Out of Darkness, a ‘horror’ flick set in 45,000 BC that started off promisingly enough… so long as one could ignore the director’s choice to have the actors speak a made-up language that required subtitles for the entire movie. I don’t mind subtitles for actually existing languages (they sure come in handy for our K-horror & Scandinavian Everything obsession), but we found it rather tiresome and unnecessary.
The setup for a fabulous monster doesn’t quite play out; instead it seems to be far more interested in The Message with which they proceed to hit you over the head until yer slapped silly… much like most of the characters. Ugh. @Lectroid, I have a hunch that would agree.
I saw this in the theaters. The language is a conlang (constructed language) called Tola, based on Arabic and Basque. I didn’t find it any more difficult to follow than any other subtitled movie, and I admit I have a soft spot for filmmakers that take the trouble to do this sort of detail. See also: The Navi language from Avatar, Klingon from Star Trek, and of course the granddaddies of all conlangs, Tolkien’s Elvish and Dwarfish.
But I agree that they built up to an ending that kinda fell flat. But I think I probably enjoyed it a bit more than you did. I remember watching it and being quite impressed about halfway through. “This is like a slasher version of Quest for Fire!” which is a pretty neat trick to pull off.
I might have bought the ending more if they hadn’t done the misdirect so well. They had me primed dessert and then delivered a tasty healthy salad, which is nice, but why you gotta tease me that it might be cake?
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I watched it. I don’t know if that means it was decent, but it scratched an itch the time. What I found interesting was seeing was seeinga bit more of the chefs at various stages of their television careers. Marcel and Martel come to mind.
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I thought it was a mix of Arabic and some Nordic language, perhaps. I didn’t find it difficult to follow, I just wasn’t expecting subtitles for this one, and I don’t think it would’ve worked (or not worked) if they’d simply spoken English.
There was a fascinating NYer article about conlangs a few years ago. Lemme see if I can dig it up.
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I recently finished watching all 4 seasons of Trying on Apple TV. I had never heard of this show before, but saw it mentioned on a list of top shows to watch on Apple TV, and I’m glad that I gave it a try. I highly recommend it! It is both funny and endearing. It is about the trials and tribulations of a British lower middle class (unmarried) couple, from Camden, trying to have kids. They are unable to naturally conceive, so they try and go the adoption route, and run into a lot of obstacles along the way. They both have dysfunctional families and friends. It took a few episodes to get used to the heavy British cockney accents, but is well worth the trip.
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Finished up the Bear last night and disappointed in the ending or lack of ending. Really just a continuation of various “issues” everyone mulled over all season. Liked the Tina episode and the small redemption of Donna during the baby delivery epsiode. Carmy’s plates look incredibly unappetizing and almost like a parody of current “fine” dining.
Need some new series to watch. Going to check out Drops of Gold, Summer of Rockets and Land of Women. Also have heard good things about Trying. Watched a few episodes long ago so will start over.
I’ve been watching Hope Street on BritBox.
Apparently it’s time for yet another installment of “former bad ass is pulled back in” adventure, in a form that was less successful than one that would come a few years later…
Jack Reacher (2012) - dir. Chris McQuarrie
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016) - dir. Edward Zwick
Amazon’s current Jack Reacher series wasn’t the first attempt at bringing the Lee Childs character to life. That honor goes to one Tom Cruise and Chris McQuarrie. And then again, with director Edward Zwick. They both landed with a barely audible thud at the box office, which explains the lack of a continued franchise and the eventual (moderately improved) series currently airing on Amazon Prime.
The problem with both Cruise flicks is that they largely miss the appeal of the character, SOLEY because Tom Cruise looks, on screen, like a man of average build and strength (and great teeth and a perfect jawline). And Jack Reacher is described in the books with ever more ridiculously outsized descriptions of the sheer physical enormity of the man. At one point, he’s described as having “fists the size of Christmas turkeys”. Cruise is handsome, and certainly in better shape than 99% of the men his age, but he does not, and never will project “physical intimidation”. Certainly not in the way that someone built like walking side of beef Alan Ritchson does in the role in the Amazon version.
And that leaves the films as hopelessly generic “See Tom Run. Run Tom Run” action pictures, with characters sort of acting afraid of a man who they would have no reason to be afraid of BEFORE he begins improbably kicking the asses of multiple thugs and goons.
The first movie holds up much better than the second, plot wise. The details hardly matter, a corrupt military contractor, and old colleague from Reacher’s past, a frame up, etc. But the 2nd film involves a LOT of coincidences and bad guys that are PARTICULARLY dumb in just the right moments for the plot to proceed. Both films are firmly in the “Pleasant enough distraction while you are cooking / folding laundry / scrolling HO” but definitely no more than that.
If I had to find a counterpart to them that works better, I’d say than any of the Denzel Washington Equalizer movies would be a better choice, but if you’ve run through those already, this pair is…. fine, I suppose.
And that’s about as much of an endorsement as I can muster for ‘em.
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Appletv’s The Instigators is horrible given the heavyweights acting in it. First truly bad movie effort from Apple. Not worth the time.
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I’m looking forward to checking out Bad Monkey on Apple TV. Got decent reviews.
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Fingers crossed. Trailer looked interesting.
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I was shocked when I read that Cruise was playing Reacher. I saw a review by someone who’s name I have forgotten talking about tiny Tom standing on his tippy toes.
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Peacock is streaming The Bike Riders, which I enjoyed more than I thought I might.
Jodie Comer was excellent.
A 1960s Chicago motorcycle club evolves from a gathering place for local outsiders to a sinister gang, threatening the original group’s way of life.
Starring Jodie Comer, Austin Butler, Tom Hardy
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