Fingernail on 31/3/2021 at 15:25
Quote Posted by Tocky
I recall reading about the discovery of Erebus in Archaeology magazine a few years back and what stuck out to me was the speculation that food tainted by lead sealed tins may have played a part in the muddled thinking and lack of a plan to get them out of the situation.
Also in the brief documentary Fingernail posted (fascinating cabin explorations) the woman pronounces bow sprit as if it could shoot an arrow. I always thought it was bow as in bow of a ship being as it is on a ship. I suppose it could be like bowline hitch which is pronounced as an arrow shooting bow though. At least that's how I've heard it. Never a seaman around when you need one.
I think that's the one, or another one, where she pronounces "forecastle" as it is spelt, but to my ears we always hear it more like "fowksle". Obviously a bit of a land-lubber. :cheeky:
On the lead thing, my recent readings about this after watching the Terror led me to more recent thinking that suggests the levels of lead in the discovered bodies would not have been unusually high for Victorian people of the time anyway... :erm:
Harvester on 1/4/2021 at 21:08
Short reviews, too tired to write anything long.
One Night In Miami
It's pretty good, well-written, well-acted and meaningful, but of course no one knows if the real night between these four men really happened anything like this. It's basically a stage play converted to movie, but it's good for what it is. Amazon Prime (free)
Synchronic
It's the new movie from Moorhead and Benson, directors of The Endless. Tocky might want to watch this. It's interesting and original for sure, and I liked that apart from the central conceit of the movie, there are also some meaningful scenes of dialogue about life and relationships that spoke to me. As with The Endless, Moorhead and Benson's ambition exceeds their budget sometimes so the CGI can be slightly janky. And from the reviews and it being about time travel I thought the story would be more complex. It's actually a pretty simple story, not that there's anything wrong with that, just don't expect anything like Primer or even Predestination. iTunes/others (rent/buy)
The Vast Of Night
Very original movie and interesting to watch all the way. Looks very grainy, even though it's shot on Red digital cameras. Some weird artistic choices, like the movie being framed as an episode of a Twilight Zone-like show, and the screen just fading to black from time to time for no apparent reason. Still good though, there aren't many movies like this one. Also an impressive long take of the female main character operating a switchboard and talking to people for like 9 minutes. Amazon Prime (free)
Greenland
Mid budget disaster movie that's interesting because it keeps the scale small, on just one family. You won't see typical scenes of the president making decisions and scientists advising what to do. It's centered on what happens to this one family trying to get to safety, and I appreciated that. Still, it's not great or anything and the science is bollocks. Amazon Prime (free)
Tales From The Loop
This is a good show with a kind of retro-futuristic look, it looks absolutely stunning on my new TV (finally got that 4K OLED screen I've been meaning to get for so long). It's not so much about the technology but more about humanity, it's using technology as a vessel to talk about life, desires, hopes and relationships. Based on a book with drawings or paintings I've heard, if you have a high end TV this is a treat for the eyes. Amazon Prime (free)
Blade Runner
No need to tell you guys anything about Blade Runner but just wanted to say that the Final Cut looks good in 4K! :D
henke on 2/4/2021 at 19:46
King of the Hill - Finished the series. Such a wonderful show.
Simpsons - I'm at season 6 now and every episode is just solid gold.
The Invisible Man - watched this tonight. So fricking TENSE!
Wandavision - Started out great, very strange and funny, but kinda turns into generic Marvel superhero stuff by the end.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier - Now I don't really give a hoot about either of these guys, but by the end of ep 2 I'm kinda into it!
How To With John Wilson - Watched through this last year and just rewatched the last ep tonight with friends. This is a funny and surprising and very human show that I'd recommend to anyone. It's on HBO. Don't bother finding out what it's about just WATCH IT!
Wonder Woman 84 - Not as good as the first one but still a good time. I like how the story was both very personal to Diane and TOTALLY EPIC at the same time.
Zack Snyder's CREATIVE VISION of the Justice League - Eeehhhhhh. Nice actionscenes and some fun stuff here and there. I actually liked the weird Knightmare epilogue. But mostly this didn't really engage me, and I didn't really care about any of the characters.
Kolya on 3/4/2021 at 17:01
Quote Posted by Harvester
Tales From The LoopThis is a good show with a kind of retro-futuristic look, it looks absolutely stunning on my new TV (finally got that 4K OLED screen I've been meaning to get for so long). It's not so much about the technology but more about humanity, it's using technology as a vessel to talk about life, desires, hopes and relationships. Based on a book with drawings or paintings I've heard, if you have a high end TV this is a treat for the eyes. Amazon Prime (free)
It's based on the art of Simon Stålenhag: (
http://www.simonstalenhag.se/tftl.html)
(
https://systemshock.org/?topic=9243.0)
Tocky on 4/4/2021 at 03:42
Quote Posted by Harvester
SynchronicIt's the new movie from Moorhead and Benson, directors of The Endless. Tocky might want to watch this. It's interesting and original for sure, and I liked that apart from the central conceit of the movie, there are also some meaningful scenes of dialogue about life and relationships that spoke to me. As with The Endless, Moorhead and Benson's ambition exceeds their budget sometimes so the CGI can be slightly janky. And from the reviews and it being about time travel I thought the story would be more complex. It's actually a pretty simple story, not that there's anything wrong with that, just don't expect anything like Primer or even Predestination. iTunes/others (rent/buy)
I liked it but it was no Endless. The Endless was at it's heart a horror and this isn't. I felt like it missed an opportunity to explore life, death, and relationships more while it dicked around in other times instead. Maybe it was the only way to tell the story though. Hard to say what exactly was missing but it felt like something was. I really liked what he said about the present though. We often miss how precious it really is. The ending was a little too Hollywood. A simple finding something to scratch on stone with would have been better.
Oddly bits of it were synchronous with bits of my life.
demagogue on 4/4/2021 at 03:59
I saw the finale of The Terror S1, and the show stayed true to form (and great) all the way through, and it saved some of the best drama & action and most striking imagery for the end. Since I've been thinking about physical modeling-esque synthesis recently, I was particularly struck by the synth track near the end that was really divine in the context of the imagery where it was used. What a send off!
So I'm already on to S2. I hadn't heard that it was completely different story so was a bit surprised & confused at first, but anyway, it clarifies the story it's telling early on well enough. It's about the Japanese-American internment in the US during WWII, nothing to do with S1 except we have an unhappy supernatural element in a dramatic setting where people are trapped & at the mercy of greater forces they can't control. Since I have a special connection to both Japan & the US, and good drama is good drama, it's a theme that connects really well with me independently of S1, but I can imagine some people being thrown off by the change in setting. So far I like this season too, but of course it's a very different kind of drama to the first.
Thirith on 4/4/2021 at 09:30
I love how *weird* The Terror gets, yet how it's always grounded in something real, both physically and psychologically. Also, I love seeing Tobias Menzies in roles where he's not just a character who's a bit ridiculous and pathetic, although he does those parts well. Between this and his part in Rome, he is capable of so much more than variations on his part in Game of Thrones.
On a different note: while I found Godzilla: King of the Monsters pretty dull and badly written - and no, the problem isn't that it's not Bergman, it's that it spends a lot of time on its human characters without ever making them worth watching, even in a pulpy, tropey way - it's also the first 2+ hour film we've managed to watch in one go in recent weeks. My wife and me, we've had a very draining last 5-6 weeks, to the extent where we couldn't even enjoy the things we usually do to recharge our batteries, such as watching films. This one, as dull as it was for long stretches, was just the right kind of stupid and loud for us to watch while still fairly tired. For that already, thanks, Godzilla!
Harvester on 5/4/2021 at 21:11
Holy shit, Saint Maud is some freaky religious horror, a really unnerving and effective look at religious psychosis.
henke on 10/4/2021 at 10:12
The kids on tiktok really know a thing or two about drama.
[video=youtube;1crmFWTvCFI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1crmFWTvCFI[/video]
[video=youtube;hFQuB_doPa0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFQuB_doPa0[/video]
There's like (
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgOy4Yxspm8q2yP8UbTfLiA) A LOT more of this.
raph on 11/4/2021 at 13:59
I like how The Falcon and the Winter Soldier have treated the subject of Captain America until episode 4. I was really starting to actually feel bad for the guy, as he hadn't really shown himself to be such a bad guy, only one that had big shoes to fill and faced the resentment of his predecessor's buddies... But then the show made the ballsy move to kill his friend and he goes totally apeshit which, while understandable, is also the great moral event horizon he was supposed not to cross.
It's not perfect but the show works pretty well so far. I have a strong feeling that Sharon Carter is in fact the Power Broker herself, we'll see.
On another note, with the Dora Milaje apparently here to stay, I wonder if the creators will use the show to address Chadwick Boseman's passing there first, before they do BP2.
