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Post by kds on Mar 6, 2024 20:53:13 GMT
After a two week break, I started my next show last night - The Wonder Years. The Wonder Years was one of my favorite shows as a kid, but its seemingly disappeared from TV over the years. Thank goodness for streaming. Unlike Cheers, I'm fairly certain I've seen every episode, either in real time (I think I started watching sometime in Season 3) or reruns, which were actually pretty consistently through the 1990s. But, jumping on board about a third of the way into its run, this will be my first time watching the exploits of the Arnold family in order. Its also much less daunting than Cheers - 115 episodes as opposed to 270. I knocked out the first three episodes last night. One in particular hit me differently than way back when. Its the episode where Kevin wants to find out why his dad is such an unapproachable grouch after work, so he goes to his dad's office for the day. After experiencing the hell that often comes with middle management, Kevin has more of an understanding of his father. I was probably still a technically child the last time I watched that episode. If I was in the workforce, it was nothing like that. Now, I'm a middle manager myself, and frankly, it sucks at times. So, I found myself relating to Jack as he seeked decompression time after his workday. Although, I feel like I do a better job of leaving my stress at work than Jack does. I have a feeling I'll be seeing several of these episodes through different eyes. I loved The Wonder Years. If I'm not mistaken, I was in the same grade as Kevin Arnold, Paul Pfeiffer, and Winnie Cooper were on the show, so it always felt relevant to me despite being set 20 years in the past. I'd be interested in rewatching it, actually. (I think I said that when the reboot version came out, but I never did.) Your comment about the dad makes sense. I'd bet I'd feel somewhat similar. Speaking of reboots, I started watching the new Shogun, which I remember watching on TV when I was just a little kid. (I didn't actually remember anything about it other than that a European went to Japan at a time that was rare.) Through the first two episodes, I've really enjoyed it. At least so far, there isn't any of the absurdly unrealistic uber-violence that is so often put into movies set in historical Asia. There was a Marco Polo series on Netflix (I think) that was just so stupid, like Kill Bill or something with their fighting. And I'm not much into action/fight scenes to begin with. But when people are flying and stabbing people behind their backs and whatnot, I'm just all-out. I first thought about giving the original show a rewatch when they announced the reboot too. But, just never did until recently. I was actually toying with the idea of buying the DVD set, but the more I thought about it, and my tendencies getting away from tangible media, it just didn't make sense.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Mar 19, 2024 12:44:27 GMT
Cheech & Chong reunite for a documentary :
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Post by kds on Mar 20, 2024 12:57:28 GMT
This blurb proves to me that the website Ultimate Classic Rock, never really a great source for in depth writing but usually a new source for news, have become increasingly click baity. ultimateclassicrock.com/ghostbusters-movies-ranked/With the release of a new Ghostbusters movie tomorrow, they've ranked all four Ghostbusters movies prior to the new one, the three of the original franchise and the controversial remake. Not only do they rank the remake as the second best movie in the franchise, but the article at the same time kind of dismisses the very idea of Ghostbusters as a franchise.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 21, 2024 13:56:21 GMT
The creators of "Game of Thrones" have released a full season (8 episodes) of a new show based on a trilogy of Chinese novels ("Remembrance of Earth's Past") with the new Netflix series "3 Body Problem." (I wish they'd stuck with the novels' title!)
It is, per a New York Times summary, "a sweeping space invasion saga that begins in 1960s China, amid the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution, and involves a superior alien race that has built a rabid cultlike following on Earth. A heady mix of science and skulduggery, featuring investigations both scientific and criminal."
While this kind of sci-fi isn't usually my thing, neither is dragons-and-swordfighting fantasy, but yet I really liked "Game of Thrones." So I think I'm at least going to give this series a chance. Besides, I've been into postapocalyptic novels lately, and this seems to be somewhere along those lines. Maybe more preapocalyptic, but close enough.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 22, 2024 12:04:43 GMT
Regarding the above, I wached one episode last night. I think that's going to suffice: not my thing. I thought the parts from the Cultural Revolution were interesting, but the contemporary parts were just dumb. (OK, that's not fair: how about "...were just not for me.")
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Post by kds on Mar 25, 2024 12:42:01 GMT
Yesterday, my wife and I went to see the latest installment of the Ghostbusters franchise - Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.
Here are my spoiler free thoughts. I really enjoyed it. I actually enjoyed it far more than the previous installment - Afterlife - which felt more like a tribute movie. This one feels more like a modern Ghostbusting adventure. It had plenty of action, some horror, and some laughs. I know one of the knocks on the two 2020s GB movies is the humor, or lack thereof. The bitter truth as I see it is that, other than Paul Rudd, the new cast is just not that funny. Much of the humor in the new movie came from the original Ghostbusters cast members, as well as newcomers Kumail Nanjiani and Patton Oswald.
So, while I don't expect a modern GB movie to hit the same highs as the original two movies released in the 1980s, I do feel like Frozen Empire is as good a Ghostbusters movie as one could realistically expect.
The movie has been getting slammed by critics, but there seems to be a weird perception among critics and movie snobs that Ghostbusters is undeserving of the reverence it gets. I also think there's still some lingering bitterness by critics that the 2016 remake was a failure.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 30, 2024 11:22:51 GMT
When Bill Burr's movie Old Dads was released, I read some terrible reviews and ignored it. Then I heard Burr recently on a podcast talking about it, saying it actually was doing extremely well on Netflix because "it's a 'hard-R' comedy, and the world loves 'hard-R' comedies, and they don't make many anymore."
Well, I agreed with that sentiment entirely, so I decided to give it a try last night.
Unfortunately, I gave up maybe 20-30 minutes into it. I don't know, maybe it got funnier as it went along, but I don't watch comedies that don't make me laugh more or less constantly--at least frequently. If I have to wait 45, 60 minutes for the payoff, that's not really comedy. It's just a bad drama!
Without any spoilers, it basically just struck me as cliched repetitions of Old White Guy comedy: young people these days; women these days; progressives these days; etc. You can do a lot with those things, and Burr is funny. But not in this one. If you're looking for Big Dumb Comedy, unfortunately this isn't it.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 20, 2024 16:38:58 GMT
NYT had a story today about the spreading of a practice we've discussed here: whether to stick with your chosen streaming platforms; or to sign up for a streaming platform for one specific reason, then quit when you've watched that one thing. The story says 25% of all people who own streaming accounts have quit three or more other services within the past two years. Among that 25%, 33% resubscribe to one of those services they've quit within the next six months. "Serial churners" account for 40% of all new subscriptions and cancellations. Unfortunately the result is that services are raising base rates to make up for the temporary losses in subscription revenue. And apparently streaming services aren't even close to the cash cow that cable bundles were for networks or platforms. The story says Peacock lost $2.8 billion last year. As I was saying the other day, I don't like to join with the idea it's going to be a short-term thing, because I just know I'd forget. I just stick to my Hulu, Netflix, and Prime. And honestly I'd probably cancel Prime except I use Amazon for delivery often enough that it is worth the cost of a subscription that way.
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Post by kds on Apr 22, 2024 19:44:28 GMT
NYT had a story today about the spreading of a practice we've discussed here: whether to stick with your chosen streaming platforms; or to sign up for a streaming platform for one specific reason, then quit when you've watched that one thing. The story says 25% of all people who own streaming accounts have quit three or more other services within the past two years. Among that 25%, 33% resubscribe to one of those services they've quit within the next six months. "Serial churners" account for 40% of all new subscriptions and cancellations. Unfortunately the result is that services are raising base rates to make up for the temporary losses in subscription revenue. And apparently streaming services aren't even close to the cash cow that cable bundles were for networks or platforms. The story says Peacock lost $2.8 billion last year. As I was saying the other day, I don't like to join with the idea it's going to be a short-term thing, because I just know I'd forget. I just stick to my Hulu, Netflix, and Prime. And honestly I'd probably cancel Prime except I use Amazon for delivery often enough that it is worth the cost of a subscription that way. Funny thing is I signed up with Hulu on a promo rate, pretty much for the upcoming King of the Hill revival. Now, that's likely not going to premier until 2025. But, I think I like enough content on Hulu to keep it at least. But, I agree the sheer amount of services is a bit overwhelming.
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