What have you been watching lately?

Not About Food
121

Die Hard is a Xmas movie. Other ‘not Xmas’ Xmas movies:

Gremlins
Batman Returns (w Michelle Pfeiffer)
Eyes Wide Shut
A Long Kiss Goodnight (Samuel L Jackson, Geena Davis)

And there’s always the ‘bent’ Xmas movies: Bad Santa, The ‘Silent Night, Deadly Night’ franchise, various Krampus films (including ‘A Christmas Horror Story’)

And of course Black Christmas (1974 starring Margot Kidder), arguably one of the first ‘slasher’ horror movies, and directed by Bob Clark, who would go on to direct ‘A Christmas Story’, one the most loved actual Xmas movies around.

122

Bad Santa
Rare Exports
Krampus
All South Park xmas episodes
3 Nüsse für Aschenbrödel (streams on youtube, a nostalgic treat for anyone growing up in Yurp in the 70s/80s)

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123

Not a debate
More of a joke
But yes, it is

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124

Saw two different shows, both excellent, with an indigenous peoples storyline — Alaska Daily (with Hillary Swank and Three Pines (with Alfred Molina).

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125

three pines is great and what a coup to land molina. the rest of the cast is strong too. i like how there are mysteries that get solved over a few episodes and also some longer term mysteries. and of course underground lair type scenes are always scary. i’m looking forward to the next two episodes dropping tomorrow.

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126

I stopped watching after half of the second season’s first episode of White Lotus. Ugh, why doesn’t this site nest replies?

127

Tis the season :christmas_tree:~ It’s a Wonderful Life. The ending with Harry is a real tearjerker.

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128

“Your Honor”.

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129

This was really good. Can’t wait for the upcoming episodes, if I’m reading it right.

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130

TBH I was surprised that this had a second season. I did like the first one.

131

I’ve been watching Jack Ryan this week.

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132

From what I’ve read, it seems like the second season seems like an afterthought! I binge watched all of season one over the weekend, and was worried there would be some sort of cliffhanger, but I felt the first season was fairly complete.

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133

My husband has read all the Jack Ryan stuff and can’t help but compare actors to the real one". :slightly_smiling_face:

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134

Pocketful Of Miracles- Glenn Ford, Bette Davis, Peter Falk, Hope Lange and of course introducing Ann-Margret. I loved this movie as a kid, and while some parts are a bit far fetched by nowadays standards, it still stands the test of time at my age. Good movie.

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135

Welp, I saw Avatar 2: The Way of Water and, without fear of spoilers of any kind, I can say that it 100% met my expectations. I was HOPING the story would be a little less “My-First-Adventure-Book” than the first, but was fully prepared for it to just be another ‘good guys vs bad guys’ as an excuse to stage 1 part stunning nature documentary and 1 part big blow-em-up action movie. That’s exactly what I got, and boy oh boy, are the nature doc and action movie spectacular.

I saw it in 3D, which cemented my feeling that Cameron is, in fact, the only big name director that knows how the hell to do it properly. His experiments with High Frame Rate are… more of a mixed bag, but even that is a drastic improvement on previous tries with The Hobbit series and Ang Lee’s Billy Lynd’s Long Halftime Walk and Gemini Man.

What is NOT up for debate is the sheer technical achievement on display, and the jaw-dropping visual results. Yes, it’s 3+ hours long. Yes, some of the dialog is… not great. But while I could quibble with the plot, or characters, or performances, I must marvel that I am quibbling with the performance of 10 foot tall blue cat people. And if I have have reservations on how two of them look having a fight on a sinking hovercraft at 48 frames per second, I am never for a second doubting that I AM, in fact, seeing two 10 foot blue cat people fighting on a sinking hovercraft.

Do not expect Indiana Jones - level charm, or Star Wars - level “golly gee whiz” enthusiasm. But I think a current writer in Slate has it exactly right:

" To see a James Cameron movie is to remember that in rare cases it does not matter whether a film is good so long as the film is fucking awesome, and those are the cases on which Cameron has built his filmography. That some of his movies are also good—the Terminator films, Aliens, The Abyss—is more a matter of coincidence."

I’ve linked the article below, but it’s picking things apart in a way that, while interesting, I don’t necessarily agree with. But the quote above I endorse 100%.

3 Likes
136

Well, then you can’t really say all that much about it. I tend to give new shows 3 epis if they can hold my attention through the first one. If it’s a new season and I liked the first one, I feel kinda pot-invested. Although I recently tried watching the second season of “Russian Doll,” the first of which I loved - but I couldn’t deal with Natasha Lyonne’s shtick this time around & stopped after the first episode.

And while I thought this season was ok, it had nothing on the first. Armond was sorely missing.

137

The Devil’s Hour was an interesting & strange show.

138

Gran Torino - One of Clint Eastwood’s best.

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139

Best as an actor or director?

As an actor I’d say the first Dirty Harry for me, though I loved him in Bridges of Madison County as well, helped of course by Meryl Streep. As an director I’d probably pick Mystic River. But your post is spurring me on to rewatch Gran Torino.

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140

And speaking of Meryl Streep in romantic movies, a recent instagram post reminded me of below perfect ‘little’ movie.

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