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Watched Oculus tonight. Worth a watch if you're in the mood for horror. My main gripe is the ending is pretty unsatisfying. It feels like the movie was missing a climax, and that the "mirror" had already won from the start as it could make the siblings think whatever it wanted them to. Maybe that was the point? Either way the anchor/killswitch going wrong was telegraphed from a mile away. The movie explicitly showed us that it could go wrong early in the film, and that the characters understood how the "mirror" was trying to use it against them. Would have been better in the end if the mirror was destroyed or at least was cracked a bit more. Otherwise, very little actually happened with the story. Interesting horror concept but not fully developed.
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Feb 16, 2015 02:43
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cowbeef posted:Ditto. I'm just happy that it was better than most of the horror movies that find their way to Netflix. The mood is constantly unsettling and you don't know what will happen next. Also managed to balance the flashbacks with present-day narrative fairly well. Ending could have been better but I'm sure the writers were pleased to see a sad ending make it to the final cut. Agree about the unsettling nature of the film and good use of flashbacks, but "sad" or bad-guy-wins endings are fairly common in horror, so that wasn't that surprising. Even expected. Actually in retrospect most of the story presented in the latter parts of the film was explaining what happened to the kids when they were younger, rather than them fighting the mirror in present day. Then the brother flips the switch and an anti-deus-ex-machina puts his sister in front of the anchor. Although it was her own poor design that killed her so just deserts I guess? Bonus Oculus spoiler question: Did the sister's fiance actually die? Or no? I forget or might have missed something
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Feb 16, 2015 03:00
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MeatwadIsGod posted:Watched Money for Nothing which was about The Federal Reserve's hand in the housing bubble and subprime mortgage crisis. Faint whiffs of gold buggery aside, it did a good job of explaining the Fed's basic charter, how they gradually became more influential in the economy, and mostly of showing Allen Greenspan's long-term aversion to regulation and to raising the federal funds rate. Like most documentaries about the crisis, you leave it with the sense that we're setting ourselves up for another one due to lax regulation, the obscene amount of money and political power financial institutions have, and the realities of too big to fail. I watched this the other day and generally agree with this. Typically I've seen documentaries on the topic go the "Free market gone amok!" or "The Federal Reserve is a giant conspiracy!" routes. This one is a pretty solid, concise history of the Fed, with a focus on placing the decision makers in context of their times leading up to the 2008 crisis and after. It is definitely critical of the Fed, but doesn't go into advocating for new wacky monetary systems. If you're interested in the topic or want a 2 hour critique of Fed policy to show to someone, this is a decent bet. EDIT: Although I wouldn't say the message is about lax regulation, but rather mis-regulation and even over-regulation in giving the Fed political mandates that contradicted each-other.
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Mar 1, 2015 15:50
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forever whatever posted:Yea, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt owns, owns hard. I didn't even know who Ellie Kemper was but she's hilarious. If you think Tina Fey is funny than this is a funny and good show. Apparently she was was on The Office but I will forever remember her pre-fame career in pornography: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hm7pp_JFOs
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Mar 7, 2015 12:55
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Maxwell Lord posted:At the time The X-Files was neat because it was like a weekly horror/monster movie. It was one of the first genre shows to really take on a cinematic feel (the various Star Treks all had more of a stagey vibe). Yeah, there really hadn't been any sci-fi cinematic shows at the time. It hit a key part of the zietgiest of the 90's, government conspiracy* and a resurgence of an interest in extraterrestrials following the cold war period. Unfortunately, as others have said the main conspiracy plotline never had any payoff, and just kept getting dragged out. This is partially because it was a big moneymaker for Fox. In it's prime it and The Simpsons were the anchor of Sunday night TV. Like the Simpsons I always felt it suffered from a case of "adventures between now and the time that the show becomes unprofitable" syndrome. If they wrapped it up before it was tired and done they'd be losing out on potential profit. It was very much a product of it's times, but if you're interested in 90's TV you can't ignore it. EDIT: *In a less cynical age before we found out 90% of the non-alien conspiracies were true, and that nobody gave a poo poo that that was the case. 
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Mar 8, 2015 18:33
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Cocoa Ninja posted:HBO officially unveiled their standalone streaming service, HBO NOW. Way to drop the ball HBO. Hope the exclusivity deal is relatively short.
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Mar 9, 2015 21:52
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I liked Rectify but I'd cool the hype jets a little bit. It's good television with a lot of solid moments but the story is fairly straightforward and it seems to be missing some kind of spark/mystery that really drew me into it. I'm looking forward to season two but not scrambling for it.
LogisticEarth fucked around with this message at 22:57 on Mar 15, 2015 |
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Mar 15, 2015 22:49
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precision posted:I can't find the clip on YouTube but the scene where Daniel explains his prison rape to Teddy is not hyperbolically one of the best scenes I have personally watched on a television program. I know it sounds like hype but for me the show, and especially season 1, is just a loving incredible meditative thing that I have watched at least 4 times all the way through, which is not something I can say about many movies and even less TV shows. Well, that's the thing. I agree with you that that was an amazing scene, and there are lots of them. But for some reason the show as a whole falls doesn't build up momentum. You know exactly who the antagonists are, people with the exception of Daniel himself act a bit predictably, etc. Maybe it's a lack of tension? Hard to put my finger on it.
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Mar 15, 2015 23:08
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NESguerilla posted:I'm actually sort of impressed at how off the mark my top picks are. I've had Netflix since before streaming was around, watched and rated hundreds of things, and they still find a way to make a list of only things I actively dislike or have zero interest in. Same long-standing ratings history here. It's about 50/50 with me. But they must have some kind of promotional bump where they cram a few in there regardless of past ratings. Case in point, that Ralphie May special they've been pushing hard. Netflix anticipates I'd rate it as 1 out of 5 stars. Yet it's in my "top picks". At the same time other stuff has been fairly accurate and enjoyable.
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Mar 17, 2015 11:39
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Having seen both The History of Future Folk and Safety Not Guaranteed, I remember the former being way more cheesy/dopey than the latter. They're both fantastical, but one worked and the other didn't.
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Mar 19, 2015 20:50
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Just finished Automata. It was a decent watch, if a little derivative and not too groundbreaking. A few interesting concepts, like the rules of robotics being designed by some precursor AI so that no human knew or was able to alter them. The references and callbacks were pretty heavy though, for better or worse. Right down to the instrumental rendition of Daisy Bell (the HAL 9000 song) at the end of the credits. Also, did anyone think that the actress who played the robotics expert in the middle of the film was like the director's girlfriend or something? It's not a Hollywood blockbuster but the acting there was notably bad. Other than that, the film got the job done.
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Mar 28, 2015 02:12
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Lycus posted:That was actually a very well-known actress (though I didn't really like her here either.) Holy poo poo that was Melanie Griffith? But yeah, given that she was Banderas's wife I guess my hunch stands. LogisticEarth fucked around with this message at 02:57 on Mar 28, 2015 |
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Mar 28, 2015 02:54
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NESguerilla posted:Edit: is Hell any good? If not, any other lesser known apocalyptic stuff worth watching on Netflix? I remember being mildly entertained by it but I totally forget the ending/plot. Ultimately I think that was my impression of the movie: Gritty, well shot and acted, but forgettable. Love is a sci-fi story about a guy trapped on the ISS. Dark and a bit abstract. I actually haven't seen it but How I Live Now is still on streaming. I think there was a moderately positive response to the film here. You probably saw it in recent discussion but in case you missed it Automata is worth a watch. Comedy option: Tank Girl. I actually watched this for the first time last weekend, even though I had seen parts over the years. It's by no means a "good" film, it's too disjointed for it's own good. But it's just so bizzare with some decent production value and star power behind it. Very much "peak 90's". If you want to see Freddy Hayes from House of Cards dressed up as a beatnik mutant kangaroo spec-ops ninja, this is your movie. LogisticEarth fucked around with this message at 02:25 on Apr 3, 2015 |
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Apr 3, 2015 02:19
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Alterian posted:The price to rent a movie on Amazon is freaking ridiculous. What, it's cheaper than the old BlockBuster DVD rental prices. Kids these days
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Apr 14, 2015 14:51
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Watched a few movies yesterday, starting with The Babadook. As others have said, it's a solid horror movie but I felt it was a little overhyped. I think my main gripe about it is that it was too heavy handed in it's allegory. It was obviously about dealing with grief, and once you get that part, the Babadook itself ceased to be a real source of horror or even tension. And the "defeat" of the monster by merely screaming at it was anticlimactic. This was of course ameliorated a bit by the great art direction, visuals, and acting. I really, really want that pop up book. Also watched They Came Together. Netflix called it a "semi" parody of rom-coms but there is nothing "semi" about it. Funny, wacky, absurd. My wife and I had had a few glasses of wine before watching it so it was probably funnier than it really is. But if you're looking for a stupid comedy for a date or a lazy evening it's a solid bet. LogisticEarth fucked around with this message at 15:38 on Apr 28, 2015 |
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Apr 28, 2015 15:36
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Watched Zombeavers. Enjoyable. It skirts the line when it comes to "trying to hard to be a campy bad movie" but knows what it's trying to do and doesn't disappoint. Stick around for the credit music.
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May 26, 2015 00:26
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Tonight's flick was Toad Road. Very based on tone and not so much plot. Having spent a significant portion of my life in and around Lancaster County, I felt it really captured the feeling of being a young trashy loser in York, PA. Kind of felt like a David Lynch-lite.
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May 30, 2015 03:43
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NESguerilla posted:I'm old so my childhood science guy was Mr. Wizard. He wasn't the most exciting, but...actually I don't even remember if that show was any good anymore. I was borderline between the Mr. Wizard and Beakman/Nye runs. Mr. Wizard's World ended in 1990 but was on re-runs for years. Beakman started in 1992 and Nye in 1993. I still think Mr. Wizard was probably the most informative (if less exciting), as it left out a lot of the wiz-bang of Nye and Beakman. I watched a few episodes of Nye and it was way more random/ADD than I remember. I think Nye was a little innovative with that style at the time, but in the post YouTube era that style has been so worn out it's way, way too annoying for me to enjoy it anymore. Anyway, Mr. Wizard was quite excellent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkJEt1UsUcs
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Jun 17, 2015 00:11
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So after Netflix recommended that I watch Pontypool for like two years straight, we broke down and watched it last night. Good idea. I went in cold not knowing much beyond the Netflix description, so I won't go into too much detail. Best way I can describe it is like you're in the studio with a shlocky radio jock version of Orson Wells as he's reading the War of the Worlds broadcast, and instead of a martian invasion, it's "disturbing events in a small town". It's obviously a lower budget movie but with the limited scope it does a good job keeping the suspense up and the right amount of comic relief.
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Jun 20, 2015 12:19
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Ramadu posted:Man gently caress you Netflix. I know Terminator 2 was on there so when you told me Terminator 1 was now streaming I was going to watch both! Tricked you, you got rid of T2 when you put the first up. Jerks!!! This poo poo happened to me yesterday. The insult was compounded after we tried to rent it from Amazon only to be told that my PC "couldn't support" the HD version despite being able to do so with other services. What the gently caress? Time to get a Roku I guess.
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Jul 4, 2015 12:56
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Get some Chinese takeout, and watch The Search for General Tso's. Great documentary not only about General Tso's, and it's origins, but also about the large Chinese restaurant heritage and story in the US. The "original" General Tso's they show looks like the best goddamn General Tso's chicken I've seen and now I want to fly to Taiwan and try it out. Especially so since Chef Peng stressed how there was too much sugar and not enough spice in the Americanized version.
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Jul 12, 2015 00:40
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Tommofork posted:Ahahaha the plot is actually worse than that. Don't watch the show though, it's terrible and not even worth watching ironically. Yeah, the "twist" took all the interest out of the show. It was like trading off the whole premise for a cheap shock reveal. For those not looking to waste time with it: The ship is actually still on Earth. It's just a big enclosed environment and everyone just thinks they're in space. The outside world in 2014 or whenever is exactly unchanged. The purpose of the mission, unbeknownst to the crew, is to breed a new level of human capable of warping people across the universe with psychokinetic powers or something. The miniseries ends on a cliffhanger and not much is resolved. The premise had some potential but it looks like it got gutted and reworked too many times to be a coherent experience.
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Jul 13, 2015 11:57
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The Vosgian Beast posted:Is The Young Doctor's Notebook good? It definitely a solid a black comedy, and the episodes are short so I say go for it. It's not spectacular, not like it was written by Leopold Leopoldovitch or anything, but it is certainly worth a watch.
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Jul 19, 2015 02:39
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Regarding Creep, it was OK, but I didn't really enjoy it enough to actively recommend it to people. Apparently it's supposed to be horror-comedy? While it had a few funny parts most notably Duplass' self-jump scare at the end, it didn't really succeed at either creeping me out or making me laugh consistently. I found the villain to be more annoying than sinister, and the videographer was basically a wet paper bag of a character. That said, I wouldn't tell someone not to watch it.
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Jul 23, 2015 10:56
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Speaking of Justified and westerns, the 4th season of Hell on Wheels was added on Netflix recently. It's generally a solid western frontier story with a good dash of Civil War aesthetic thrown in. It's highly dramatized/fictionalized of course, but all in all I think the quality of the show has maintained itself. I was glad to see there was a new season up because I just wrapped up season 3 of Sons of Anarchy and that turned out to be a bit of a slog to get through. Should I forge ahead? I've heard negative things about the quality of the show as it drags on.
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Jul 27, 2015 20:21
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Wake_N_Bake posted:Read through the last few pages, watched The Guest and I just wonder what David Fincher could have done with it. It was a good movie, but (third act spoilers): Scenes running through a maze/house of mirrors?! Seriously lazy poo poo, and they didn't even do anything interesting with it. They just emerge five minutes later to the final fight. I did like that they didn't bother too much with the explanation of the govt guys, just here's an antagonist that becomes the protagonist, no back story required. I was rooting for David until he killed mom. What a great "Ooppps he's the villain moment." Yeah, generally agree with this. The Guest was like 2/3 good and 1/3 lazy and bad. I would say that the "oh he's the villian" moment came a lot sooner than him stabbing the mom. For me it was the gun buy scene where he just straight up and unnecessarily murdered the two guys. Yeah one guy's a druggie and the other guy's a black market gun dealer, but they were both presented as non-threatening and even affable. Then it's heavily implied that David murdered the dad's boss AND the boss's girlfriend. The movie really did fall apart at the end though. As soon as the government guys show up it turns into a cheap action movie and David just turns into Slasher Antagonist #87. Could have been handled a bit better by not diving so hard into campy horror.
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Aug 1, 2015 12:25
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Watched Faults over the weekend. It's a good, straightforward thriller about a down and out cult researcher trying to deprogram a couple's young daughter. Not groundbreaking, but it had a few twists and turns, and Leland Orsner does a good job as the mentally fragile lead. I kinda saw the ending coming, but the leadup to the climax was vague enough to keep you interested. However, it nicely wraps everything up at the end.
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Aug 4, 2015 16:32
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stickyfngrdboy posted:Hurt locker is good, yeah. Really good, in fact. Hurt Locker is a decent movie, but deserves a lot of flak because it's just total action/thriller junk that is portrayed (and was hyped as) a realistic portrayal of the war in Iraq. Huge amounts of inaccuracies, squads going out solo in a Humvee, blood jamming guns, etc. "Tactical Realism" arguments are usually pedantic and stupid but since it's played straight, the bullshit really takes away from the weight of the film.
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Aug 10, 2015 02:18
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Cocoa Ninja posted:Edit: also I think logistic earth is right, I disliked hurt locker on first viewing since I think it was misrepresented as some searing portrait of the war in Iraq. Lowered expectations on a second watch it's fine. Yeah, my point wasn't that the movie was outright ruined by the misrepresentations, just that a lot of the film's prominence after it's release was bogus. It is, as I said, decent, but ultimately forgettable outside of the hype surrounding it's release. "Fine" is a good way to describe it. Anyway, I took a leap and watched The Phoenix Project despite low ratings. I wouldn't bother with it. It heavily apes Primer, except the story is pretty straightforward, and the resolution predictable and not that interesting. When you resurrect a human, their minds are blank. Then everyone smashes the machine with sledgehammers. Not worth the hour of hamfisted angst that lead up to it..
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Aug 10, 2015 05:49
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Thwomp posted:Noticed last night while getting over a sickness that the selection of Good Eats episodes changed. I can't tell if they've switched over to another collection officially but it looked like the same show listing until I really checked out the episode titles. Yeah, same show listing, but a different 25 episodes. If this is how all the "collection" offerings are handled, that's pretty neat. I was worried we'd only ever get the first episode list and that was it. Good Eats is a Sunday morning staple with my wife, ha. We cook a big breakfast then watch food science/comedy for half an hour. Helps stave off the inevitable cravings after watching it. Unless it's one of the cocktail episodes, at which point we end up drinking at 10AM.
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Aug 26, 2015 18:58
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Gaz2k21 posted:Thought I'd give netflix a go again after not having it for years, turns out the PS3 app is absolutely crap for browsing titles by genre, I'm sure this question has been asked a thousand times but is there a website or app that I could use to find out whats available? Netflix.com
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Sep 13, 2015 12:16
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coyo7e posted:Wow, a videogame drew inspiration from some insipid movie based on a mediocre story by a mediocre author. I'm impressed now. The movie adaptation came out nearly a decade after the first Half-Life, for what it's worth. It's a neat piece of trivia and you can see how the novella and game jive.
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Sep 18, 2015 04:00
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Yeah, seconding Time Lapse as an OK not-too-serious thriller/time mystery movie. It's a little contrived but worth a watch. My biggest complaint was that the main characters were a little too stereotypical and you can kinda expect how things will progress. It has more of a stylized stage play vibe rather than a stark realism of films like Primer.
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Sep 19, 2015 13:59
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Bioalchemist posted:I've only seen it once when it came out at the cinema, don't remember it being a tearjerker think it's more Black Hawk Down than anything else. Yeah, it's sort of a middle ground between Blackhawk Down and Private Ryan. It has some emotional elements TELL MY WIFE I LOVE HER and is more character focused than BHD. But it's more about the battle and brothers-in-arms. If I recall, it also treats the North Vietnamese as a respected/worthy adversary rather than the faceless, backstabbing Wehrmacht of Private Ryan or unwashed masses of BHD.
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Sep 20, 2015 17:49
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speshl guy posted:Just caught Circle on Netflix and I gotta say I was pretty entertained. It's the definition of low budget, a lot of the acting is just barely approaching passable, and it covers a lot of the same ground as other indies The Killing Room, Would You Rather and Cheap Thrills, but it's pretty quick at just under 90 minutes and manages to achieve something resembling a new idea with its thought experiment premise. Yeah, it was definitely low budget, and not perfect, but worth a watch. Also, as far as the acting goes I noticed it getting better through the film as the bad actors playing the less significant characters got zapped .
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Oct 23, 2015 19:47
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coyo7e posted:I broke down and watched Jessica Jones. It was p okay I guess but outside of being super duper anti rape culture/patriarchy it's a character I never knew much about, and I can only handle so many grizzled comic book P.I.s. Luke Cage gonna be rad though. Yeah Jessica Jones is just kinda OK. Jessica herself is portrayed as your standard grizzled PI, the rest of the supporting characters are all kind of lackluster, and the vilian is more annoying than menacing, which I think may be a problem with casting or something. The show stretches a lot to try and be shocking with regards to violence but it comes off really forced. Superpowers are treated as deus ex machinas far too often. Contrast that with Daredevil where you had a lot of well worn tropes, but they all seemed to mesh better. The vilian is slightly unusual, there's a lot more plot progression, not as many spin off side stories, etc.
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Dec 5, 2015 04:53
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nate fisher posted:Has anyone made the journey into Hard to Be a God? After reading reviews I am not sure if I want to watch it or run from it. I am afarid with the that running time it will turn into another Inland Empire for me. I tried to watch it, and it certainly takes a herculean effort to get through it. It's imagery is exceedingly grimy, violent, and depressing. The plot was kind of hard to follow, as I went into it expecting some sci-fi elements but instead walked into an esoteric slog through a very muddy and excrement-laden dark ages story. And it's less of a story and more of an experience, as the storyline is very sparse. I only made it about an hour in, but kind of want to go back. Give it a shot, but it's definitely not an easy watch. LogisticEarth fucked around with this message at 19:26 on Dec 23, 2015 |
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Dec 23, 2015 19:20
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So is Making a Murderer good-infuriating or bad-infuriating? Like, don't miss it, or don't bother with it? Because all I keep hearing is how how much it pisses people off, and not much else.
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Dec 31, 2015 16:23
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a worthy uhh posted:The fact that the star/producer of the film operates as "Taggart Productions", I have a feeling that the moral lesson of that film is sadly intended to be that he, who survives by manipulation and lying, is in the right. I read it as a critique of direct democracy and voting in general. With the exception of the one dude who didn't vote, and the "pawn" characters (the pregnant woman and child), the people surviving going forward were progressively tribal and manipulative. The "winner" was played as sympathetic up until his reveal, at which point he obviously becomes the villian.
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Jan 6, 2016 03:31
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Basebf555 posted:Netflix does this thing, at least on PS4, where if I click on something to see more details about it, it starts playing automatically because the cursor sits on "play" for more than half a second. Is that somehow being included in these numbers? There's so much terrible poo poo I've clicked on just to see a screenshot or two or to see who directed it, I hope these bad filmmakers aren't getting the same credit as if I had legitimately watched the thing. Jesus Christ my Roku 3 does this too and it's annoying as hell. I click on a show to read the description or add to my list, and it starts playing immediately. This makes searching for a show/movie needlessly frustrating and clutters up my "continue watching" list. I don't even get the utility of it or know why it's on by default. If anyone knows how to turn it off, that would be great. I looked around for options to turn the autoplay off, but I may be a big dumb idiot and missed it.
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Jan 8, 2016 21:03
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