What Are You Watching?

[Iarwainiel I she/her]

The absolute craziest "musical instrument" ever - the Floppotron. Amazing! So creative.

 

[Draginon he/him]

I just watched A Monster in Paris. Loved it but my only complaint is it should’ve included the original French audio since I like the French version of the songs more. I also prefer watching films in their original language than watching a dub to be honest.

[Briar King]

The original Roots.

[Pathfinder]

So my wife and I gave a bunch a shows a shot. The October Faction even though we loved the parents, we could not stand the kids or any other characters. Just couldn't pull us in so we gave up on it. We gave the Witcher three tries (saw the first episode, gave up. then tried the second episode, still couldn't get into it, but decided to give episode three a shot, and then just gave up completely). We watched Locke and Key all the way through and although we love the world building, and the keys, the actors and actresses just fall flat for us so we probably are not going to continue if a season 2 is done. Finally The Outsider is a winner for us. Love everything about it and focused on every episode. Would highly recommend. 

[Pathfinder]

Just watched Parasite and it deserves all the hype and ratings it got. It was very well done. 

[Draginon he/him]

Watching a fan project of a show. Chronological Once. Pretty much it’s Once Upon a Time in chronological order and excludes Wonderland and Season 7 since Wonderland was never released on video and 7 is way too convoluted to do though their reason is that the season is trash. I’m only up to part 6 of 29 and Emma has yet to appear since the point here is when the Charmings have met but not yet gotten together. Some storyline flashbacks have already finished, like Frozen, but others are still in progress like the Queens of Darkness. Going to be fun when it gets to the ‘time skip’ flashbacks like the Return to the Enchanted Forest in 3B and the Camelot story in 5A.

[Use the Falchion]

In the past ten days I've watched four movies. 

[Draginon he/him]

Last week Criterion Collection has their bi-yearly sale and I bought the 100 Years of Olympic Films box set. There’s 53 films and for the price I paid it was 3.77 per film and that’s not taking into account the book that comes with it that talks about each Olympic game and the restorations.

If you’re curious on what the films are I’ll put them in a spoiler tag to save space.

Spoiler

The Games of the V Olympiad Stockholm, 1912

The Olympic Games Held at Chamonix in 1924

The Olympic Games as They Were Practiced in Ancient Greece (Paris 1924)

The Olympic Games in Paris 1924

The White Stadium/Das Weisse Stadion (St. Morris 1928)

The IX Olympiad in Amsterdam/La IX Olimpiade ad Amsterdam (Amsterdam 1928)

The Olympic Games, Amsterdam 1928/De Olympische spelen— Amsterdam 1928

Youth of the World/Jugend der Welt (Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936)

Olympia Part 1: Festival of the Nations & Olympia Part 2: Festival of Beauty/Olympia— Fest der Voelker & Olympia— Fest der Schoenheit (Berlin 1936)

Fight Without Hate/Combat sans haine (St. Moritz 1948)

XIVth Olympiad: The Glory of Sport (London 1948)

The VI Olympic Winter Games, Oslo 1952/De VI Olympiske vinterleker Oslo 1952

Where the World Meets/Maailmat kohtaavat— XV Olympiakisat Helsingissā 1952 (Helsinki 1952)

Gold and Glory/Kultaa ja kunniaa (Helsinki 1952)

Memories of the Olympic Summer of 1952/Muistojen kisalesā (Helsinki 1952)

White Vertigo/Vertigine bianca (Cortina d’Ampezzo 1956)

Olympic Games, 1956 (Melbourne/Stockholm 1956)

The Melbourne Rendez-vous/Rendez-vous à Melbourne (Melbourne/Stockholm 1956)

Alain Mimoun (Melbourne/Stockholm 1956)

The Horse in Focus/Hästen i centrum (Melbourne/Stockholm 1956)

People, Hopes, Medals/Menschen, Hoffnungen, Medaillen (Squaw Valley 1960)

The Grand Olympics/Le grande Olimpiade (Rome 1960)

IX Olympic Winter Games, Innsbruck 1964/IX Olympische Winterspiele Innsbruck 1964

Tokyo Olympiad/Tokyo Orinpikku (Tokyo 1964)

Sensation of the Century/Seiki no kando (Tokyo 1964)

13 Days in France/13 jours en France (Grenoble 1968)

Snows of Grenoble/Neiges de Grenoble (Grenoble 1968)

The Olympics in Mexico/Olimpiada en Mexico (Mexico City 1968)

Sapporo Winter Olympics/Sapporo Orinpikku (Sapporo 1972)

Visions of Eight (Munich 1972)

White Rock (Innsbruck 1976)

Games of the XXI Olympiad/Jeux de la XXIlème olympiade (Montreal 1976)

Olympic Spirit (Lake Placid 1980)

O Sport, You Are Peace!/O sport, ty—mir! (Moscow 1980)

A Turning Point (Sarajevo 1984)

16 Days of Glory (LA 1984)

Calgery ‘88: 16 Days of Glory

Seoul 1988

Hand in Hand (Seoul 1988)

Beyond All Barriers (Seoul 1988)

One Light, One World (Albertville 1992)

Marathon/Maratón (Barcelona 1992)

Lillehammer ‘94: 16 Days of Glory

Atlanta’s Olympic Glory (Atlanta 1996)

Nagano ‘98 Olympics: Stories of Honor and Glory

Olympic Glory (Nagano 1998)

Sydney 2000: Stories of Olympic Glory

Salt Lake City 2002: Bud Greenspan’s Stories of Olympic Glory

Bud Greenspan’s Athens 2004: Stories of Olympic Glory

Bud Greenspan’s Torino 2006: Stories of Olympic Glory

The Everlasting Flame (Beijing 2008)

Bud Greenspan Presents Vancouver 2010: Stories of Olympic Glory

First (London 2012)

Quite a lot to list! The longest and shortest films are LA 84 at 284 minutes and Ancient Greece 1924 at 8 minutes.

The only games not represented here, either because there wasn’t any footage to find or it was too degraded for the IOC to use, are Antwerp 1920, LA 1932 and Lake Placid 1932.

I am by no means a sports fan but I do enjoy the Olympics so that’s why I got this.

Edited March 3, 2020 by Draginon

[Use the Falchion]

Just finished watching Terminator: Dark Fate with my dad! He ranked it on the same level of T3, so tying for third place (his ranking: T2, T1, T3 & Dark Fate, Salvation & Genysis. Sarah Connor Chronicles aren't listed because he never really watched the show). 

I'd rank it about a 6.5/10. It's not a bad movie at all, but it does things I'm personally not a fan of (boring invincible villains*, retcons, and emotionally stunted elderly protagonists (the only times it worked were Luke in TLJ and Kratos in God of War!))

There were a lot of things to like in this movie. Grace is AWESOME, Dani has an interesting parallel to some lore characters in some not wholly unexpected ways, and Arnold's role is very, VERY interesting to the plot for me. The action sets are varied and interesting, and the characters all have their specialty and moment to shine. But overall, this wasn't the movie for me. 

If the Terminator franchise wants to revitalize things, have a lead developer of Skynet be protected by a terminator from the future as an unstoppable, terminator-killing master Sarah Connor tries to kill him/her. 

 

*I get it, the Terminators represent rampant technology and the fears of it we have. I get it, we can't NOT have an invincible killing machine because that's what a Terminator is. I GET IT, keeping the "monster" helps keep the horror roots involved. And I get it, this terminator was better than all of the Knights of Ren by sheer presence. But it's not enough for me anymore. In T2 the villain never felt invincible. Unstoppable, absolutely, but never invincible. Here, the villain felt invincible. 

[Draginon he/him]

Watching the final season of Once Upon a Time. More dull than I remember considering I’m at the halfway mark of the season. The only characters I actually like in this final season are Alice, Wish Hook, Rumple, Regina, Drizella, Tiana and Gothel. Even when I first watched it I never liked the Henry, Cinderella/Jacinda and Lucy story, especially since Lucy doesn’t ever feel like their child nor does she resemble them, and since that’s the “A” plot it doesn’t help.

[Draginon he/him]

I just watched Yellow Submarine and all I can say is that I don’t know what I watched. I couldn’t tell you what the plot was since the sound mixing was so bizarre with the dialogue being super soft but the sound effects and music being super loud. It was to the point that it probably should’ve been a silent film with how soft the voices were. The music also just comes out of nowhere and doesn’t make sense why that song is playing.

Now I like weird and kind of like the Beatles but this was too much of the wrong kind of weird. It says something when Cirque du Soliel had a better adaptation of Beatles songs than a Beatles film.

[Draginon he/him]

About to watch Monty Python’s Life of Brian for the first time. Hope I like it as much as the Holy Grail.

Edit: Finished watching Life of Brian, currently watching the supplements, and I found it above okay but not at the good level. I’m more a fan of the humor from Holy Grail and the show but there were some jokes I did like here. I was surprised by the nudity that was visible but it at least was equal opportunity since we get both a couple men and a woman.

The supplements included with the dvd are two commentaries, one with Gilliam, Jones and Idle, the other with Cleese and Palin, a trailer, five deleted scenes with commentaries, the original British radio ads and the documentary film The Pythons. The box includes the digital transfer, subtitles and image quality as supplements but I don’t count those for obvious reason. There’s usually a booklet essay but I bought this sealed and there was no booklet so I can’t read the essay about the film.

Edited April 5, 2020 by Draginon
Films thoughts

[NottTheBrave he/him]

Still plugging away at The Simpsons on Disney+.  We're mid season 8 now.  Also this current season of Survivor, which has been excellent!  Outside of that, just a heck of a lot of YouTube stuff if I watch anything.

[Draginon he/him]

Watched a Universal Horror Collection set containing the Karloff Lugosi films The Black Cat, The Raven, The Invisible Ray and Black Friday. They practically trade off who’s the hero and who’s the villain and they’re great actors to watch. There’s a pretty good four part documentary about these guys plus two radio adaptations of them reading Tell Tale Heart.

Calling the set Universal Horror is a bit of a misnomer since only the first two are straight horror while the other two have a mad scientist story, Invisible Ray being more sci-fi and Black Friday being a gangster. Heck it’s generous calling the final film a Karloff Lugosi film since Lugosi has a minor role with the title role being Stanley Ridge.

[Draginon he/him]

Currently watching The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy BBC miniseries.

[Ammanas]

The Adventures of Pete and Pete. Evidently they are all available on YouTube. I used to watch this show a lot when I was a kid in the 90s. Back in those days you just had to tune in everyday and hope you got a new episode. It’s such a crazy show and I’m still entertained by it now watching it with adult eyes. It has to be one of the greatest children shows of all time. The greatest being (in my opinion) Avatar: The last airbender.

[Use the Falchion]

Movie-wise I watched Crazy Rich Asians...TWICE with my family because my mom and I enjoyed it so much (my dad had some hang-ups about it, so the first night it was just me and my mom. The next week we loved it so much we finally convinced my dad to join us). This may go down as one of my favorite movies ever. It won't beat out  12 Angry Men or Inception, but I think it rounds out spot #5. (Top Rankings are: 12 Angry Men (1957), Inception, The Great Gatsby, Pacific Rim, and now Crazy Rich Asians. Superhero movies,  animated movies, and Star Wars have different ranking systems). 

We watched Detective Pikachu last week, which was WAY over due for me. The movie was good, and it was a nice take on the Pokemon world. I just hope the sequel has more "detective" in order to balance out the "Pikachu." 

The next day we watched Spider-Man: Far From Home again. Still holds up, and Peter and MJ's relationship is still super cute!

 

In terms of television, I'm actually watching Power Rangers Beast Morphers...until I get bored of it at least. I've been feeling down, a little stressed (classes are ending, so final papers are due), and nostalgic all week, so I've been going back to Power Rangers as if it's a warm childhood blanket. This time I'm focusing far more on the actual characters and story than the action, leading me to skip over action scenes entirely. RPM and SPD - my two favorites - still hold up, but I hadn't seen anything good or bad about the latest season. As such, I'm checking it out.

I think the continuity (as if Power Rangers really ever cared about that) makes it a nice successor to MMPR...or at least a better successor so far than Megaforce was.* The theme song isn't catchy, and the characters don't have the same charm as Dino Charge's do just yet. The new security guards are the new Bulk and Skull, and while they are genuine and genuinely helpful, I'm finding that their antics take away precious screentime from the main rangers, who need as much screentime as they can get to develop. That's not to say they don't have problems, but they haven't...popped for me as characters yet. Then again, I'm only a few episodes in, so I should give them time. 

What I DO like is how the Rangers each have real relationships with their parents: the Red Ranger's father wants his son to live up to his potential, the Yellow Ranger's mother is very supportive of her, but also worried, and the Blue Ranger's mother is the Mentor of the group, meaning that every time there's a battle, she willingly sends her son into danger. Add in the twist that the Rangers' identities are a secret, and you've got some nice potential there. 

And the two dragons are really interesting! They're hammy and devious, and they steal any scene they're in. It's not a BIG spoiler as to who they are, but I'd rather not say yet either. 

Overall, Beast Morphers isn't automatically a standout, but it's not terrible either. If you like Power Rangers, then this is a good background show.

 

*And let's be real, Dino Thunder was the TRUE sequel and successor to MMPR.

[Draginon he/him]

Watching the Criterion Collection edition of Hitchcock’s Spellbound.

[Draginon he/him]

Now watching Tokyo Olympiad. This is the film about the 1964 Olympic Games. Not really a sports person but I like the Olympics and documentaries well enough.

[Draginon he/him]

Watching The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Haven’t seen it since it was in theaters.

[Draginon he/him]

Watership Down. Did want to see this as a kid but never did.

[Draginon he/him]

Watched Pan’s Labyrinth last night. Never seen a Spanish language film before this but I liked it. A very beautiful and horrific film. The girl who played Ofelia was great.

Not my first Del Toro film but can say I like his style for the creatures in his films.

[NottTheBrave he/him]

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power on Netflix, as well as Avatar The Last Airbender.  Absolutely love both!  

[Use the Falchion]

On 5/20/2020 at 8:07 PM, NottTheBrave said:

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power on Netflix, as well as Avatar The Last Airbender.  Absolutely love both!  

Once you finish, will you watch (or rewatch) The Dragon Prince?

 

I binged Digimon Tamers in about four days. I love the show, but I don't recommend binging it like that. Digimon Tamers is seen by a decent amount of people as the best Digimon show, and it's the one I remember most fondly as a kid - I loved Digimon Adventure, and I enjoyed Digimon Adventure 2 (I didn't like any of the characters, but their Digimon were cool - so finally revisiting it was interesting. It's over 16 years old at this point, so things have CLEARLY aged. The voice acting isn't always the best, the animation is clearly not up to par at times and kind of slow, and CGI has improved a TON since Tamer days. But beyond all that, the show I still remember fondly is still there. Takato is a kid who learns to be confident in himself and his friends, Rika is a young girl who learns to let people into her heart and show her affection, and Henry learns that not everything is in his control and when to fight. 

The digi-modify sequences are still awesome (except for one hilariously creepy swipe) and show off the children's personality. The story also is darker than what I remember, yet is somehow less frightening, if that makes sense. Some of the dialogue that went over my head as an adult makes the show a joy to rewatch. Overall, I would recommend watching this show like it originally aired, one to two episodes per week. 

7.9/10 as an adult, 9/10 as a child. This show is on Hulu. 

 

Edit: I finished watching all of the episodes Netflix has of Beast Morphers before starting Digimon Tamers. While my initial thoughts haven't changed much, I do see who in some ways this show can also serve as a spiritual successor to RPM as well. The team formation, and relationship to the parents are reminiscent of RPM, but the characters are VERY different. It's also a different situation, so I'm not entirely sure how well that works. 

Edited May 21, 2020 by Use the Falchion

[Eluvianii he/him]

I just watched Okja. In a lot of ways that movie was a lot different from what it seemed. To me it looked like a family movie, and while I wouldn't really hesitate showing it to children, there are a lot of scenes that are very clearly aimed at adults, and there's the fact that there are heroes and villains in the movie but none of the heroes are exactly clean and none of the villains can really be considered, say, evil. Selfish or misguided yes, but all of them are really easy to understand.

Actually overall it's a really unusual cast of characters because, aside from the protagonist, I found all of them both hard to love and hard to hate. It's kind of amazing really. 

Edited May 29, 2020 by Eluvianii