Wife can take no more "Severance"…i think we saw the first five or six episodes. The last one was simply brutal.
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- Thread starter Gorn
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It's not a comforting or easy watch, no.
He was amazing for decades. Not any more. I think Minority Report was his last decent movie.
Since it's leaving Netflix at the end of the month, we watched "The Wiz". It had been decades since either of us had seen it. It's still fun with a lot of great songs in it. And that last song Diana sings solo ("Home") -- my goodness! You forget how talented a singer she is. I almost wept.
I've absolutely no idea how, or why I ended up watching those movies - but yeah, I agree completely (I seem to remember the last one escalated into a completely bananas finale).
I would give exactly the same review for "The Maze Runner" movies, as well.
The lore was ludicrous, if I remember correctly. You're born into casts of either farmers or cops or judges or something, and the coolest kids do parkour, and if you're special you're awesome at everything but that's not allowed.
Sounds like fairly standard YA stuff, really. Pretty heavy-handed allegory/symbolism/etc. I'm reminded of a time years ago a co-worker of mine wanted me to read the Hunger Games series. They had just become movies (I think?) and as a young adult of approximately 22 she was all about the books. Mind you, I was an English Major in college (and a few years older than her). I currently read medieval literature and historical texts for fun. None of that is to demean anyone or their taste (lord knows I have questionable taste in all sorts of things!), but just to give context of our reading preferences. We finally agreed to a trade - she'd read one of my favorites, and I'd read the first Hunger Games book. I chose "Fahrenheit 451" as it's a relatively short, easy, read at a little under 200 pages or so for my edition.
I took home her book, read it in its entirety that night, and gave it back the next morning. She was convinced I had loved it, as I had finished it so quickly, and generously offered to lend me the rest of the series. I told her I didn't need to read the rest of the series, and that I could tell her the main points of the rest of the plot, including a twist or two. She doubted me, so I then broke down the 2nd and 3rd books, including the one colony (or whatever they called it) coming back out of nowhere. She was astounded that I could explain the rest of the story, and pretty much nailed the big parts.
Again, none of this is to demean anybody or anything, but to point out that YA stuff is rarely groundbreaking. It's often derivative and archetypical, and if you know what to look for, can often be figured out rather easily. It's often obvious variations on a theme. That's why I generally avoid it. That being said, I also love variations on a theme, when I like that theme. I've got around 30 versions/adaptations of Beowulf, and if something is "based on Beowulf", you can bet I'm going to try and watch/read/listen whatever. Same with The Song Of Roland, or Sir Gawain And The Green Knight (though I have far fewer versions of those!). I think the biggest difference is that the works I rather enjoy have the themes hidden a bit deeper than YA tends to!
Seemed like the last one was messed with by the studio or something, there were some odd edits and the last scene where Jeff Daniels magically reappears was just.... huh? Like they were setting it up for another sequel.
The Maze Runner movies are fun, same deal, yeah, but they're pretty well done.
There's some great YA stuff. I read all the Harry Potter books as an adult and enjoyed them. The Hunger Games books aren't bad. I read those too fairly quickly.
There certainly is! I openly admit that Tolkien ruined fantasy for me. LOTR was the first fantasy series I read, and I wanted everything to have that level of detail and forethought. My sister was obsessed with Harry Potter, and read them voraciously. Even 20 years later, she has those books displayed in her living room with a little Harry Potter shelf.
It's only been rather recently I've been able to read fantasy outside of Tolkien, and it's a very different take on the genre. I can't really knock anything about any of these YA novels except my own personal taste. I'm sure if I'd had read some of them as a kid, I'd have also been obsessed. But as an adult, I'm pretty sure I'm not the target audience. If my son eventually wants to read those, I'd be happy to read them with him. But on my own, I have no interest. Too many other books to read, including plenty of my own non-groundbreaking stuff like the old Star Wars Rogue Squadron series!
If some "Young Adult" had insisted I read The Hunger Games, in a book trade - I would have foisted Battle Royale by Koushun Takami upon them (or just had them watch the movie).
I have to admit, I don't really get the whole YA market, on the grounds that I was reading books for adults as a kid ; but maybe that's simply because that market didn't exist back then, and at the very least it helps get a huge number of people into reading, at an age when they previously would have missed the boat if they hadn't already jumped onboard, and might have always felt too intimidated to take it up later.
I'm a fan of the (mostly) horror writer F. Paul Wilson, and I was surprised to discover (completely by accident, whilst having a trial membership with Audible) that he has been tapping into that market, and in a rather interesting and unique way.
He'd previously done a whole series of books (of which I've read, and enjoyed a couple) around his character Repairman Jack.
He's since, very shrewdly, been putting out books introducing the YA audience to Jack in his mid-teens, which working backwards from adult Jack sits them right in the late 70's / early 80's - so coincidentally it's going to appeal to the Stranger Things crowd, and likely whet their appetite for the adult books when they're a little older - and it's interesting to see that character being exposed to ideas, changing the way he sees the world, and learning new skills (like obsessing over a set of lock picks, his junkstore job boss uses to check vintage cabinets that are missing keys) that won't fully develop until later in life.
I'm not the target audience, and I never would have read the books, if I'd even known about them - but I really enjoyed the audiobooks that I heard.
Just watched s02ep04 earlier. It might be even more dark/intense than s01 so I'm certainly enjoying it but it's a one episode a night show for us. Really good cliffhangers.
I finally got around to "Weapons" and really liked it. Silly horror? Thriller? I've been watching a lot more of that genre lately. The ending was fantastic. Saw a lot of things coming ahead of time but for sure some unexpected stuff.
Weapons is AWESOME. Saw it in the theatre with a friend and we were ROLLING. The ending is indeed fantastic. Aunt Gladys is getting her own movie, so I've heard.
Finally finished Spider Noir on Amazon Prime. Absolutely enjoyed all aspects of it. Story, pacing, ambience, Nic Cage's portrayal, the different characters. Watched it in B&W for the full noir effect (I like noir films). Will give it a month or so and re-watch in color. Especially loved his response within the first 5 seconds when someone asked him which universe this was. Personally like this Spiderman much better than any other film version. Pretty much the way I like The Batman (Robert Pattinson) film better than the others, as it concentrates on Batman's detective elements.
Watched Weapons last night. Kept me engaged nicely, especially showing key characters story's which started filling in bits and pieces. Didn't expect the ending, though. I kept hoping the ending wouldn't be some lame crap. It wasn't.
Accidentally found a French film the other night, Mama Weed (2020). Subtitled in English, a crime comedy film. Really liked it more than I figured I would. A female translator working for French police are involved in a case busting some hash dealers. She discovers it's 1.5 tons of hash and uses insider knowledge to distribute it.
Watched Weapons last night. Kept me engaged nicely, especially showing key characters story's which started filling in bits and pieces. Didn't expect the ending, though. I kept hoping the ending wouldn't be some lame crap. It wasn't.
Accidentally found a French film the other night, Mama Weed (2020). Subtitled in English, a crime comedy film. Really liked it more than I figured I would. A female translator working for French police are involved in a case busting some hash dealers. She discovers it's 1.5 tons of hash and uses insider knowledge to distribute it.
Tenuous connection, but the new movie starring Weapons cast members Josh Brolin, and Austin Abrams (the junkie character) looks crazy intense :
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Definitely looks intense but I am sorry you cannot breath inside a whale's stomach. That is just dumb.
Well…you've obviously never been in a whale's stomach. Three days and three nights documented previously suggest it is, indeed possible…Science…
I mean, the fact that he's dealing with a very limited supply of oxygen, whilst sharing that space with a panic stricken giant squid, is probably why it was pitched as a cross between Gravity, and 127 Hours (I don't want to ask where his hand is stuck, or why that squid seems so angry).
Fair. Just saying that last part of the trailer shows no regulator in his mouth, so unless it's busted and free-flowing, he is breathing ambient stomach air.. It does now have me wondering if sperm whales hunt deep and feed/finish their meals more shallow. Pretty sure when he got dragged around would be when at least one of his ear drums ruptured. When it's free to stream I could justify it. I also feel like there would be tons of footage of whales fighting squid in kelp forrests if it happened regularly.
