Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine So what are you WATCHING?

Gawd, I'm still mourning "Daisies" so much that I haven't gotten up the will to watch the final three episodes I've got saved on DVR, let alone explore another Fuller series that got killed off too soon.

No comics spin-off will fill the void left by such a uniquely awesome show. Meanwhile, what do we have? Umpteen CSI and Law & Order shows and soon five hours of primetime Leno a week? With only one season of Lost left, I'm worried there will be nothing creative and original left on TV!!!

On the one hand, I love watching a really good actress go to town on a meaty role. OTOH, I feel sad when I realize how few chances really good actresses get to do that. Yeah, she's evil, but in her own mind it goes with the job. I doubt she thinks of herself as evil, but rather as being cut from the same cloth as the hero was when he was still doing his job.

IMHO, those are the creepiest villains around. You could spend a hundred years showing them how evil they are, but they'd never believe you.

Another film I just saw was the adaptation of Katherine Anne Porter's novel Ship of Fools. I've loved her work for years. Despite the inevitable liberties between novel and film, I was thrilled to see it on screen at long last.

Speaking of incredible actresses: Simone Signoret as La Condessa, a would-be revolutionary on her way to jail. Vivian Leigh as a wealthy divorcee' afraid that her life is already over at the ripe old age of 45. Elizabeth Ashley as an aspiring painter who can't let go of her painter boyfriend, even though they are (not in the words of the pre-WWII setting) absolutely toxic to one another.

Oh, and there were some men in the movie, too.

Documentaries on hulu recently.

Just watched an interesting one called DiG!. It chronicles the early years of two rock bands, The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre and the relationship that they had with each other. I'd heard of The Dandy Warhols but the (now defunct) Brian Jonestown Massacre is new to me.

Also, earlier this week I'd watched a slightly disturbing documentary called Confessions of a Superhero about the various characters who dress up as superheros (as well as other popular icons) and panhandle outside of Graumen's Chinese Theater in L.A.

DiG! was a fun rockumentary. My favorite was that guy who didn't play anything - he was just up on stage for no reason other than he was their friend. You should check out "Driver 23" If you like rockumentaries about fifth-rate musicians with delusions of rock-godhood.

Oh, and "Some Kind of Monster" about actual rock gods Metallica was also pretty fun.

Have been watching lots of movie as of late.

Woody Allen's Hollywood Ending. Didn't love it. It was fun and entertaining but I usually enjoy Allen movies more. Deborah Messing looked hot though.

Charade with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. It was pretty good. I quite liked it. Plot has a few holes but it was a light entertaining see. It's funny I was thinking "I've seen this before" and started thinking about a possible modern remake...then it hit me. Truth About Charlie with Mark Wahlberg.

Speaking of Wahlberg. BOOGIE NIGHTS. Great film! I thought this was a comedy (and it was) but it certainly got "real" towards the end. Nice to see we can have a message in this type of movie. I was always in love with Heather Graham but now even more so.

21. My wife loves blackjack and we recently went to the local casino for a b-day party and she tore it up. As a person who plays double nine dominoes with an obsession the counting card thing really interested me. Loved the movie and I might lose my house, car, and saving gambling! JK, I don't gamble but this movie sure makes you want to. (kind of like The Program makes you want to do roids)

Full Metal Jacket. Wow. Great movie. I was expecting more surreal but Kubrick just threw the "real" at us pretty hard. Maybe my favorite Kubrick film thus far. (I've seen Spartacus, Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, The Shining, and Eyes Wide Shut, and well um AI if you count that one)

As far as TV shows

Entourage started last night! Damn I love Sloan!

I've been addicted to Expedition Africa on History Channel. (2hour season finale last night I haven't watched yet)

Burn Notice has been pretty good as well.

Waiting for Psych.

Various comments to last few weeks of posts:

Memento - Lardy, you're dead on with Carrie Ann Moss's role in this one. That sequence where she is basically laughing to his face telling him what she's about to do is frightening to behold. I remember being SHOCKED by it the first time and its better and better the several times I've rewatched. This is the earliest film I recall seeing her in. She's such a totally underrated actress, likely because of the bad wrap the latter two Matrix films deservingly get.

Charade - one of my all time favorite movies (as several LWers know, I'm a huge Audrey Hepburn fan, whom I've loved like no other woman since I was 11 years old). Its just plain fun in a way so many other movies try to be but fail. Best of all is the dialogue and chemistry between Grant and Hepburn and the obvious way Grant is poking fun at the idea of a girl like Audrey falling for someone his age—and the way she doesn’t care. Walter Matthau also plays his role so well and so off-beat that’s its really fun to watch. And James Coburn has a bunch of fun with his role too. I just reviewed “To Catch a Thief” recently and while that’s a completely different movie, its interesting to note how much the chemistry here surpasses the non-chemistry of Grace Kelly and Cary Grant there.

Boogie Nights – this is an excellent movie, and parts of it are really poignant. Everyone does a good job. I agree about Heather Graham. Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds and John C. Reilly are also fantastic, and this one of the creepiest performances ever by Phillip C. Hoffman which is really saying something.

Full Metal Jacket – What’s odd is that Kubrick really allows this to be seen as two almost separate but connecting movies. I’ve seen it like 20 times, so when I watch it now, I usually tune in for the first half but don’t bother with the second. When I mention it to my father, who was a teenager during the Viet Nam years, he says “that movie really pissed off a lot of people”. I like it, but its not one of my favorite Kubrick movies.

DiG! – Haven’t seen this but I’m interested because I just kind of discovered the Dandy Warhols a few years ago via Veronica Mars (Drake—is that how you know them?).

Forever Knight: I just started the third season.

Forever Knight. Was that on cable? I always bunch it with my other early 90s favorite cable shows like Highlander. Anyways I used to enjoy it my early teens.

Sahara - after watching Fools Gold with Mcnaughey(sp?) I was in the mood to watch this. I liked his character much better here. He made a good Dirk Pitt. Also like the sppt cast better (Zahn and Macy rock!). Penelope Cruz's character fell flat to me. The overall story was actually pretty good. The last scene on the beach (Taragona spain...nice!)!

Munich - Wow! I thought it was going to be sadder and have more of a message. It was Spielberg who likes to hammer you with emotions. While it had emotion and a message...it had lots of action! The emotion basically dealt with guilt and Avner(Bana) missing his family. The message was definetly even sided with them explaining the average Palestinian side of it (the terrorists were scum ofcourse). The action and spy stuff was great! Bana, Daniel Craig, and Hinds (great actor!) were amazing. So were the sppt characters. Ayelet Zurer I just saw in Angels and Demons. She is beautiful and a really good actress.

Marie-Josée Croze was just plain hot! (the female assassin).

Finally. JUNO. Saw it last night. Corky, good script, and acting. Wish we saw Juno get a bit more counseling. That mistake could happen to anyone (i got my 17 year old gf pregnant way back when). But she was cracking jokes. Someone had to sit her down and explain to her to take it bit more seriously. But that's the 30 something in me speaking.

was bored one night and while channel surfing i came across Tru.tv which use to be Court.tv and two shows inparticular,..Operation Repo, and Man vs. Cartoon.

Enterprise: working on season two.

Okay, a few of these episodes are some of the worst Sci Fi I've ever seen and the only character I find consistently has a uniques or interesting voice to me is T'Pol but the "Carbon Creek" episode is already one of my favorite Star Trek episodes, ever as is the ship design my favorite.

Now I'm wondering, will we ever see "Chef" or find out what the squeak is in the Captain's quarters?

Enterprise: nearly done with season two and I have noticed the pattern to the writing. Make these people who are supposed to be the best of the best commit moronic act after moronic act and have everything work out hunky dory as a set=up to show that this human way of acting is superior.

True Blood, Hung

Just watched Mad Men Season 2; I'd seen some eps previously but missed more than I saw. I expected it to be excellent after season 1 and boy my expectations were not only met--they were far exceeded. It remains simply one of the best shows I've ever seen combining real powerful commentary on the themes of the times, an intricate and intriguing look into a past era (which from what I gather is quite realistic) and just an amazing array of style and "cool". Each time they show advertising in its glory age, they show the glamorized version, the crude version and then the likely truth that falls somewhere in between.

Watch it--you won't be sorry.

True Blood, Hung and Mad Men

I'm sitting here this morning, still completely blown away by Inglorious Basterds, which I saw last night. Melanie Laurent and Christoph Waltz were the standout performances...so much so that I'm blown away by them both. I *must* find other movies they've been in, even if they're in French and German (I understand a little French and no German).

It was so good I need to see it one more time before I go to Key West on Saturday.

Saw the documentary King Corn last week. I've been wanting to see it for ages, since I read a piece by one of the filmmakers in a local yuppie food rag.

It uses a lot of the modern tropes in documentaries (cute stop-motion toys, ironic re-imaginings of childhood educational films, etc.) to make its point. Overall, though, the smarm level is low. Basically, the two filmmakers move to Iowa (where they both have very distant family) and grow an acre of corn, exactly as its grown in modern America for industrial purposes. Hijinks (and the discovery that most commercial corn tastes like crap, and is primarily for use in corn syrup) ensue.

Recommended.

Link

Finally saw Spaced...and loved it.

Tried to get into Heroes Season 1, but couldn't.

Always love watching Big Bang Theory.

Totally into Burn Notice.

Godspell

Hits hard in this 9/11 generation.

More Woody Allen...
Melinda and Melinda - A recent Allen film. Not one but two good stories here!

Anything Else - Woody working his usual magic with young actors. Good stuff. Also recent.

Curse of the Jade Scorpion - Great! Woody's best acting performance by far! Helen Hunt and Charlize Theron make those 1940 dresses look nice also.

Love and Death - a film that if I was under 30 would've hated but I laughed very loudly...amazing how one changes while getting older.

Prince Caspian - Eh. My wife and daughter loved it. Didn't do much for me. I'm more of a Potter fan.

Killing Me Softly - Another attempt to recreate Basic Instinct fails. Nice scenes with Heather Graham though.

Underworld Rise of the Lycans - Liked it better than I thought I would. But damn I got tired of that castle.

Push - Loved it. Lots of potential here. Good acting by young (and old) actors. Good action film. One complaint is they made it as if there is a definite sequel coming...didn't like that.

Also watching True Blood, Entourage, Top Chef, Psych, Miami Social(more my wife's show but Katrina has me watching it).

Expedition Africa was great on History Channel. Rented Mysterious of the Nile which had Pasquale. Wish they would've made that a series instead of a 45 min documentary.

I'm sure I left out other things it's been a while since I've been here.

Also plan to rent Mad Men...season one soon.

That was a good one. Dakota Fanning had a scarily mature presence in that movie. It felt like her relationship with the main dude was sliding into and out of 'The Professional' territory, at some points. Yeah, dear, there's 'another woman' in my life, but she's like, 12.

The bit at the end where one of the mind controllers takes over four gunmen at the same time and has them as a personal death-squad, moving like automatons, was awesome. The telekinesis-fu wasn't bad either...

Sons of Anarchy.

It's like watching cheeseball testosterony tv. The bikers are super clean, have all their teeth, always one step ahead of everyone....It's hifrickenlarious.

The lead guy dresses like he's a skateboarder and he's supposed to be in his thirties. Ron perlman has a buzz cut...funny stuff.

I don't watch as much tv as I used to, but I like Supernatural, Drop Dead Diva, Wolverine and the X-Men, the new Batman thingy, and...that's it...oh Ruby.

Movies seen recently:

Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices. Pretty much what you'd expect. My favorite bits took place in London, Quebec, and Germany. The matter-of-fact attitude of those interviewed there is in marked contrast to what I think of as the definitive timidness in the U.S. over confronting these hideous monoliths over their blatant abuses of power. The Quebecois, in particular, offered a stellar example of what Labor looks like when it doesn't suck eggs. (Cough. I'm ex-AFSCME, so I get to say that. Nyah.)

Beat the Devil. Humphrey Bogart, Gina Lolabrigitta, John Huston, smugglers, boats. C'mon, what more do you need?

Rabbit-Proof Fence. Australia's "Stolen Generation" in the early 20th Century. Three little girls sneak away from the Whites who want to "cure" them of being Aboriginal to return to their tribe. Just a great, great film. I should have seen it sooner. It's a rare case where the disc extras are every bit as good as the original film. Because the horrible "protection" program that separated Aboriginal children from their families didn't end officially until 1970, you see observers, the acting coach, and film crew (many of whom are Aboriginal themselves) literally weeping as a scene where the children are torn from their mother and grandmother is being filmed. Living history, paralleled in the U.S., of course.

I think I talked about Rabbit-Proof Fence earlier in the thread. A great film.

Just watched the first episode of Jay Leno's primetime show. Not impressed.