Recent Viewing Part IV

Yes. This is "must-see" viewing tonight in this house. Sherlock has been great to watch.

(As has the new series of The Bridge. The other "must see" show at the moment.)

I doubt someone as crazy as that can run a global crime syndicate. If he can't even have a conversation without making silly voices, trying to sound scary and acting like every badly acted film villain in existence, his highest possible achievement in life would probably be as a bum.




That didn't ruin my day, but I appreciate the effort. If he was being serious I'd somewhat agree with him. Her face just looks weird to me.

But while he wasn't overtly comical, the words he was saying is meant to be comical on their own. Most people for some mysterious reason consider her to be beautiful, so to call her ugly is such a sharp contrast that most people will find it funny.

Also, in these interviews actors often rip on each other like that, because they all know each other and they know it won't be taken serious.

Peter

I know I'm posting this on a message board devoted to obscure hobbies, but... who has the time to watch the videos on that site? That would seem an incredible waste of time.

I saw it on YouTube but was unable to find it again there, so I just did a general search and this was the first thing that popped up...

This.

And although I enjoy Iron Man 3 more, I'd say the original Iron Man is second, then Iron Man 3, then Thor 2. The rest are rather meh.

You mean The Avengerz ?

Oh good, I have this to look forward to tonight.

Oh, I thought it was excellent. One of my favourite episodes. I quite enjoyed Lars Mikkelsen as the bad guy (brother of Mads Mikkelsen, btw). [spoiler]I like that Mary had to shoot Sherlock to save his life, that was clever writing, and I liked the emotional aspect of John finding out that she was a liar and the reconciliation, and in combination with the great baddie, I couldn't help but enjoy myself immensely. Oh, I also love the whole conversation that Sherlock and Mycroft has after the Christmas do ("Are you two smoking? It was Mycrof" ); the acting, the clever writing, the hilariousness of that scene; pure Sherlock.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]One thing I didn't like though was was the long hallucination sequence thing. I've never liked dreams and hallucinations in films and TV. And that Sherlock turned into that kid at the end, was a bit over the top. It was of course to show that Mycroft still viewed Sherlock as his little kid brother, which might have been great, but it rubbed me the wrong way somehow. Oh, and I expressed my feelings about Moriarty earlier, so his return isn't very welcome. I like though that he outsmarted Sherlock and we thought that he was gone, which shows what a difficult foe he is. But my dislike of the actor's performance makes me wish he would have stayed dead.[/spoiler]

Peter

They have ruined the show.

That was the most incomprehensible, poorly written, confusing, thinly plotted rubbish I have seen in a long time.

Moffat has lost it. His ego has gone right to his head. Has he done the same thing with Dr. Who?

And to top it all off they decide to bring back a dead character. What a complete sell out.

I can't believe it only took two episodes to kill it, and I just wish I could understand why the reviews are calling it great. I'm angry.

Edit: best review I've seen - this says what I'm trying to say but much better.

Watched the first episode of Sherlock again. This is just perfection from start to finish. No wonder I was disappointed by the second episode, considering how brilliant the first one was.

Rating: 10 outta 10


Was also curious to find out what all this Doctor Who stuff was about. I watched the first episode of the first series (2005) and found it rather poor, boring and amateurish.

Rating: 2


Perhaps I'd have better luck with the tenth doctor...? Think I'll watch the first episode of series 2 and see how it goes.

Peter

That first episode is pretty bad. Don't worry, it gets better. And then worse again, and then a whole lot better, and then really awful, and then meh-okay-ish, and then brilliant...What I'm trying to say is, Doctor Who jumps around in quality like no other show I've ever seen, often from episode to episode. You have to have patience with it and wait for the next gem like "Blink" or "Midnight" to come along - or, from the first season, "Father's Day." Hell, even the second episode, "The End of the World," is leaps and bounds beyond the first.

I don't understand the cult status of Heavy Metal either. Great GREAT score by Elmer Bernstein though.

100% spot-fucking-on!

LA GRANDE BELEZZA (The Great Beauty)

Thor and a colleague of mine coincidentally talked about this movie the past week so I decided that I wanted to see it in spite of the rather weird timeslot it has here in Ghent. Turned out to be one of my rather great ideas lately!

I thought it was fantastic. Some movies leave an impression much longer and this is such an example. Of course there's the beautiful images and scenes in Rome, with a camera travelling through the corridors and most beautiful corners of palaces and historic buildings in this city. The bizarre opening gets everything right and it takes a few moments before it made any sense to me. We get the introduction to Jep and then follows a his search for the great beauty. With some sort of short flash forwards and often past paced camera movements the director introduces other stories in the main story. Fascinating. Some of it is surreal, some of it contain great dialogue (or monologue) by the main actor which are a joy to see.

And then obviously the music choice. Lots of Thor music I think. Very vocal, religious like and hypnotizing music. I see there's a playlist on Spotify. The highlights are David Lang's I Lie, Arvo Part's My Heart's in the Highlands, John Tavener's The Lamb and most certainly Vladimir Martynov's The Beatitudes. I had not heard most of them before so it's great to get to know more music. And then there's some party music too! Last time I was so impressed with music choice (non film music) and images was Tree of Life (I think).

Anyhow enough bla bla. I realize that my English vocabulary is a bit limited above because I use the same words I use in other of my opinions. I'm sure that Michael, Bob and Thor will be able to describe it better.

Anyhow it's worth seeing. For me it is the sense of awe it leaves me with. And if not, then at least you get a damn beautiful movie to look at. Oh, and the main character has the best roof terrace in the world. The scene with the flamingo's is one of those you'll remember for a long time.

I think you described it well enough, Bregt! For me, the fascination was in the 'classical' references on one hand (Fellini, Bunuel, Resnais, Antonioni) and then the somewhat 'vulgar' aspect on the other -- like that crazy SPRING BREAKERS-like party following the opening you describe (tied together with a loud scream!). There are so many details in this film -- on a purely audiovisual level -- that symbolize a lot of different things, it's impossible to take it all in in one sitting. It's certainly a film that can warrant several pages of analysis.