boykin_spaniel said:

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Saw Furiosa the other day. 7/10 for me. Some great pieces like opening chase. Thought Miller needed to shave 20ish minutes of run time and tighten the script. Didn't think the payoff was quite there for Furiousa or Dementus, especially Dementus. Would rank it as my third favorite Mad Max world film after Fury Road and Road Warrior.

Worried we might not get another one as it hasn't lit up at the box office so far. Attending the theater is expensive and I don't think the marketing or timing was great for this film. They should have done a limited theater run of Fury Road to remind people of Furiosa. Casual fans might've forgotten her and it's not Charlize Theron this go around. Plus it had Mad Max in the subtitle and he's in the film for all of a 5 second cameo. They should have released before Dune 2 or waited longer and pushed Fury Road in theaters to build the hype a bit more.

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I had forgotten that Charlizes character was Furiosa. I think you are right when a Fury Road re-release before this one, would have helped the box office. It did kinda look like box offices overall sucked. Not sure if folks were burned out on the franchise or it was, as you said, bad marketing

Furiosa I think led the weekend. Down across the board for a holiday. I think theater cost and the fact films are now released on streaming so fast that many probably thought "I'll just wait a couple months". My ticket and popcorn was over $20 after tax. It'll cost $20 to buy the thing in two months or so.

I think people go to one or two films a year in the theater over a 12 month period and we had Dune 2, Oppenheimer, Barbie, a Mission Impossible, and John Wick 4 all within around 12 months. Those are all cultural icons. Mad Max is somewhat but sadly Furiosa is not.

I do think marketing was bad as I know people who didn't even know Furiosa was out or forgot who Furiosa was. The average viewer can't keep track of franchises and characters beyond "Mad Max" or "Spiderman" and with the 7 year gap or so from the last film I bet the large majority of folks forgot Charlize Theron was Furiosa or even Tom Hardy was Mad Max.

Watched the six part mini series "The Veil". Elizabeth Moss is starring. Not sure I get why she is popular.

They spent millions on this thing. Shot in Istanbul, Paris, London and several other ritzy locations.

One of the jerkiest shows you will ever see. Part one is okay, the part two is like the writer had no connection to the writers of Part one. And they insert plot twists the likes of which you will (hopefully) never see again. The Part six ending was so choppy with "reveals" that it was like it was a totally new writer.

I was bored so I watched all of it. I cant get that time back... I am depressed

The Acolyte - this latest Star Wars spinoff. Not sure what to make of it. In a nutshell, one bad girl ex-padawan and one good girl ex-padawan. And I think they are the same girl. But not sure. Its gonna take more than a couple of episodes to figure this one out

Disney-style Star Wars productions are multiplying and the quality is not keeping up with the quantity.

Tutuapp

avensis said:

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Disney-style Star Wars productions are multiplying and the quality is not keeping up with the quantity.

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Pretty hard to keep improving the product, for sure

The Bear, S3 just came out...

If you are planning to understand, S3, episode 1, please don't try. You will get it at the end but its a mess. S3, 2 was much more like you would come to expect.

Saw Thelma today. Excellent movie. Original, creative, subtly funny and sometimes over the top funny. A good story told well. Not a typical 2020s movie but very well done. If you can find it, it's worth a watch.

Assassin said:

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The Bear, S3 just came out...

If you are planning to understand, S3, episode 1, please don't try. You will get it at the end but its a mess. S3, 2 was much more like you would come to expect.

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Watched the rest of the season in a binge. About half of it was watchable, matched last two seasons. However other parts of it were absolutely tedious to watch... they left the season in a cliffhanger, by the end of it, I was hoping that the show was done with.

Saw Fly Me to the Moon tonight. Really really good movie. Cleverly plays off the conspiracy theories while tying real life events around a rather preposterous story line. Funny at times but mostly just a good story.

Anybody besides me watching The Ultimate Fighter? Still loved MMA after all these years...

Assassin said:

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The Acolyte - this latest Star Wars spinoff. Not sure what to make of it. In a nutshell, one bad girl ex-padawan and one good girl ex-padawan. And I think they are the same girl. But not sure. Its gonna take more than a couple of episodes to figure this one out

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So stuck with it through season one. Just not very good. Too many things don't make sense but it starts with why put a person in charge who doesn't like Star Wars?


It's really the first SW series that Disney has failed with but it's a miss.

TechDawgMc said:

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Assassin said:

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The Acolyte - this latest Star Wars spinoff. Not sure what to make of it. In a nutshell, one bad girl ex-padawan and one good girl ex-padawan. And I think they are the same girl. But not sure. Its gonna take more than a couple of episodes to figure this one out

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So stuck with it through season one. Just not very good. Too many things don't make sense but it starts with why put a person in charge who doesn't like Star Wars?

It's really the first SW series that Disney has failed with but it's a miss.

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I would have to agree. Okay for rainy day binge, but nothing to hang your hat on

Always like SciFi stuff but that last Star Trek series could test that

ST: Discovery. Black chick that was the star was pretty good. She had just come of Walking Dead. However most of the rest of the stars were right off the left wing check list.

Fat white redhead chick (body shaming) that didnt pass a catering tray during the five years of the show. Meanwhile her heart is going to crap from being obese for so long.

And the Doctor was an extremely effeminate gay man.

The Chief Engineer was another effeminate gay man. Apparently the two were in a relationship both on and off screen as in one scene, the two are walking down the hall, the Doctor came walking down the hall rather bowlegged. The Chief Engineer had a big smile on his face.

One of the later characters who was a he/she who was having a romantic thing with another he/she. They even chose a he/she actor to play the he/she part.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu_del_Barrio

There were others but those are a few that seem to appear every episode.

The show got canceled as it had gone so far off the Star Trek script. In the words of one fan,

Quote:

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According to my wife, it's what a man thinks a woman wants from Star Trek.
Everything's about relationships and emotions rather than science and spaceships, even to the point of the spore drive only working based on its "relationship" with Stamets. Someone, usually Burnham, cries in every episode, often two or three times. If there's something that needs to be done right now to save a million lives, it's perfectly fine to not do it for an agonizingly long time because you're busy having a tearful goodbye; there will never be any consequences from this. Men are only allowed to be decisive and in command if they're gay, evil or alien; straight good-guy human men must be emotional wrecks requiring constant maintenance from their women. Tilly's absolute incompetence doesn't get in the way of her meteoric rise in rank, because you go, girl. Ash's backstory as a Klingon-not-Klingon makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, but it doesn't matter because the only thing we actually care about is whether he's going to be Burnham's long-term boyfriend or not.
It's all written to be from the stereotypical female perspective, as understood by males.

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"Monkey Man" kinda little offbeat Indian flick. But in English for the most part, you will recognize Dev Patel from Slumdog Millionaire. His family gets wronged and he decides to go after the bad guy. Uses his real life Tae Kwon Do black belt to do some pretty convincing John Wicks type fight scenes.

That's a pretty good assessment of Discovery a show that spent too much effort on sermons to be good drama.

OTOH, Strange New Worlds has been terrific. They seem to have remembered they are doing Star Trek

'Sleeping Dogs', flick with Russell Crowe. Not bad afternoon flick, but not one of his better ones. Still a solid actor but pretty easy to figure out plot

TechDawgMc said:

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That's a pretty good assessment of Discovery a show that spent too much effort on sermons to be good drama.

OTOH, Strange New Worlds has been terrific. They seem to have remembered they are doing Star Trek

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agreed, discovery has beenmeh but strange new worlds has been solid so far

4th and Inches said:

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TechDawgMc said:

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That's a pretty good assessment of Discovery a show that spent too much effort on sermons to be good drama.

OTOH, Strange New Worlds has been terrific. They seem to have remembered they are doing Star Trek

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agreed, discovery has beenmeh but strange new worlds has been solid so far

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They need a crossover episode, Captain Pike becomes a space version of Cullen Bohannan... Anson gets to play them both

A few new movies to review: The Watchers. Another strange one from M Night Shymalan. Stuck in the woods, besieged by bad fairies. With a "surprise" ending that you could see coming from miles away. Wait until it hits HBO and you have an afternoon to waste

The Bikerriders. The start of the Vandals motorcycle club with Tom Hardy. Big fan of Hardy, he doesnt disappoint here although he was used sparingly. Its supposed to be biographical for the club I think but it kinda dies at certain points. A nice night with the wife when it comes out on a premium channel

Horizon; Chapter One'; finally went and saw this. Kevin Costner 3 hour epic. It was a bit too epic. Could have done more in less time I think. I believe he wants to do 4 chapters but this one failed pretty epically at the box office

Last but least; Deadpool & Wolverine; Obviously the screenwriters were paid extra to insert F*** and F*****G at least once per delivery during the flick. Concept was pretty bizarre, typical Deadpool stuff. The best part? Ryan Reynolds made a buttload of money on this and a plethora of side promotions. Gonna be able to sink a ton of that into his Welsh soccer team Wrexham. That show is a lot more fun than this travesty. Save your money. If you gotta see it, DO NOT take your kids!

House of the Dragon; Really picking up. And really set up Season 3. Wish there were more episodes per season though.

New TV series based on one of the coolest movies ever "Time Bandits"

Right off the bat, they missed the boat. The Bandits are regular folk, not dwarfs. Huge misstep.

Has some interesting stuff but that misstep just keeps slamming your noggin.

Back on December 2022 about the original movie director Terry Gilliam's visit to the New Zealand set, and how Gilliam allegedly walked off after finding himself massively disappointed with the entire production. "He wasn't happy," said the insider. "He kept groaning and making remarks. Terry was supposed to be there for two weeks but he left after three days."

"His disdain for the entire project was quite obvious," they added. "You probably won't be hearing any praise for this series from him anytime soon."

New series "Those About To Die"

Looks interesting. Iwan Rehon, better known as the guy that sliced off Theon Grayjoy's manhood in Game of Thrones. Anthony Hopkins too. DOnt really know the rest of them

Looks pretty cool. Lots of CGI so far

Season 2 of Rings of Power just came out on Prime. 2-1 was pretty good

Alone: Artic Circle just concluded. Wont spill the beans if you want to binge it.

However keep an eye on the fella named Timber, easily the most unique and driven participant in all the seasons. And one of the few to bring down big game!

The English Teacher on FX.

It's very far left. Even opens with the teacher complaining about how the newer kids were abandoning the "woke" policies from the far left. Then gets into teacher suspended for kissing his boyfriend in front of the students. How homophobic!

Anyway, don't bother unless you are an extreme far left winger. Then you will probably love iit.

Murders in the Building. What fun. Canadian Martin Short, Wacoan Steve Martin and Grand Prairie's Selena Gomez in a NYC apartment building. A great one to binge so you pick up the details

'The Old Man' with Jeff Bridges and John LIthgrow. Great little CIA/FBI spy-assassin

Long awaited Season 2 coming out Sept 12

https://www.tvguide.com/news/the-old-man-season-2-premiere-date-cast-and-more/#google_vignette

Re-watching Season 1 now. S2 is gonna be a fun ride!

HIP, a little French bit. Mom with three kids goes from job to job to job. Her biggest issue, she has a 160 IQ, she tends to get bored easily. Its dubbed in English so it flows okay. Her latest job, cleaning the Police offices in Lille. She accidently knocks over a stack of photos from a case they are working on, sees something and notes it on their dry erase board. That starts a chain of events

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice. Cant really match the first one. You saw the same gags in the first one. I would wait until it comes out on HBO or HULU

Assassin said:

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HIP, a little French bit. Mom with three kids goes from job to job to job. Her biggest issue, she has a 160 IQ, she tends to get bored easily. Its dubbed in English so it flows okay. Her latest job, cleaning the Police offices in Lille. She accidently knocks over a stack of photos from a case they are working on, sees something and notes it on their dry erase board. That starts a chain of events

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sounds interesting- what streaming service?

4th and Inches said:

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Assassin said:

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HIP, a little French bit. Mom with three kids goes from job to job to job. Her biggest issue, she has a 160 IQ, she tends to get bored easily. Its dubbed in English so it flows okay. Her latest job, cleaning the Police offices in Lille. She accidently knocks over a stack of photos from a case they are working on, sees something and notes it on their dry erase board. That starts a chain of events

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sounds interesting- what streaming service?

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Hulu

Aliens Romulus

I guess I am getting Alienated, I've seen it all before. Maybe fun for the young folk, but we saw the same thing in 1979. Was hoping for something different

There is going to be a new "Joker" flick, Part Deux I think. Just rewatched Joker again last month. Joaquin Phoenix sizzled in that part. The perfect casting for him.

I mean this guy is good. If you didnt hate his guts in Gladiator, you werent watching the same movie I was.

Assassin said:

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There is going to be a new "Joker" flick, Part Deux I think. Just rewatched Joker again last month. Joaquin Phoenix sizzled in that part. The perfect casting for him.

I mean this guy is good. If you didnt hate his guts in Gladiator, you werent watching the same movie I was.

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there are parts of the first Joker that were not part of the script but they just let Phoenix do something and left it in and it is now iconic improv.. those improv scenes are why he won the award for that film.