TODAY I WATCHED (Movies, TV series) 2014

I watched the first couple episodes of that Syfy series Helix. It's okay, they basically took The Andromeda Strain and The Thing and combined it with bits of 28 Days Later. Not bad for a low budget Canadian series, it will make an okay time filler.

Dallas Buyers Club

Saw an episode of Mythbusters a couple of days back.

Sleepy Hollow season finale (already?)

manny wrote:

Dallas Buyers Club

I saw that the other evening, i thought that it was pretty good.

007 wrote:

Sleepy Hollow season finale (already?)

It's a 13 episode series. The major networks are starting to move in that direction instead of ordering a full 22 episode series. This allows them to start a series in the fall, complete in January and then run an entirely new series in that slot from January until Spring. The 13 episode series is usually tighter and doesn't contain nearly as many filler episodes, 22 is a hard number to attain for a dramatic series and keep it interesting each episode.

S.D. wrote:

007 wrote:

Sleepy Hollow season finale (already?)

It's a 13 episode series.  The major networks are starting to move in that direction instead of ordering a full 22 episode series.  This allows them to start a series in the fall, complete in January and then run an entirely new series in that slot from January until Spring.  The 13 episode series is usually tighter and doesn't contain nearly as many filler episodes, 22 is a hard number to attain for a dramatic series and keep it interesting each episode.

Interesting. I gotta admit that it did breeze right along (and everything was tied together rather nicely). It ended on a cool cliffhanger and makes me want to come back for season 2.

Downton Abby - Season 4 up to the Xmas special (as to how I was able to see them, well, it's a secret).

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)



Excellent second installment to the YA franchise improves on just about every level from the first film, the new director and increased budget allow them to more fully explore the world and the characters. Jennifer Lawrence is not surprisingly…excellent. New actor additions include Phillip Seymour Hoffman as the creepy game master and Jena Malone who is hilarious as a previous winner of the Hunger Games. Recommended. I look forward to the next 2 films which will complete the story.

S.D. wrote:

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)



Excellent second installment to the YA franchise improves on just about every level from the first film, the new director and increased budget allow them to more fully explore the world and the characters.  Jennifer Lawrence is not surprisingly…excellent.  New actor additions include Phillip Seymour Hoffman as the creepy game master and Jena Malone who is hilarious as a previous winner of the Hunger Games.  Recommended.  I look forward to the next 2 films which will complete the story.  

Agree 100% - really enjoyed the film. Great cast, great ending. Jena Malone is fantastic - I look forward to more of her in the next 2 films.

thejokeriv wrote:

Agree 100% - really enjoyed the film. Great cast, great ending. Jena Malone is fantastic - I look forward to more of her in the next 2 films.

I think it's interesting that even though the source material is a "young adult" novel it's actually more intelligent, better written and far better acted than most supposedly "adult" action/adventure movies. Makers of brain-dead action fare should be forced to sit down and watch both of these movies for proof that you can make action films that don't insult the intelligence of their audience.

S.D. wrote:

thejokeriv wrote:

Agree 100% - really enjoyed the film. Great cast, great ending. Jena Malone is fantastic - I look forward to more of her in the next 2 films.

I think it's interesting that even though the source material is a "young adult" novel it's actually more intelligent, better written and far better acted than most supposedly "adult" action/adventure movies.  Makers of brain-dead action fare should be forced to sit down and watch both of these movies for proof that you can make action films that don't insult the intelligence of their audience.

I read the novels and to me they aren't really YA Fiction but novels where the main characters just happen to be teenagers. Catching Fire, the novel, wasn't as good as the first novel, but they made the second film better than the first film.

And I agree - film makers could learn about making big action films from this one. Better action film - higher grosses.

thejokeriv wrote:

S.D. wrote:

thejokeriv wrote:

Agree 100% - really enjoyed the film. Great cast, great ending. Jena Malone is fantastic - I look forward to more of her in the next 2 films.

I think it's interesting that even though the source material is a "young adult" novel it's actually more intelligent, better written and far better acted than most supposedly "adult" action/adventure movies.  Makers of brain-dead action fare should be forced to sit down and watch both of these movies for proof that you can make action films that don't insult the intelligence of their audience.

I read the novels and to me they aren't really YA Fiction but novels where the main characters just happen to be teenagers. Catching Fire, the novel, wasn't as good as the first novel, but they made the second film better than the first film.

And I agree - film makers could learn about making big action films from this one. Better action film - higher grosses.

Quality is quality and it does show that there is a market for a bit more than "crash bang wallop" type action films. A good story well told really is still king, even if Hollywood won't acknowledge this.

Jeopardy

I watched Ali G Indahouse last night.

Required Fields wrote:

I watched Ali G Indahouse last night.

Bit of a guilty pleasure that film   

Finally ordered Netflix last week and the wife and I watched all of the new Arrested Development episodes over 2 days... The week before we watched the first 3 seasons again to get reaquainted with The Bluth family. Then my wife asked what else Jason Bateman has done and I rememered The Hogan Family. So I went on YouTube and found a few episodes of that. Forgot about that show and surprised it isn't in syndication.

Pawn Stars

Supernatural

Sleepy Hollow - 2 part finale.  Enjoyable end to the season, knowing that they had already been renewed allowed them to end on a major cliffhanger.  Now we just have to wait 9 months to see how it turns out...

Star Trek: TNG - watched a couple episodes from season 4.

A few episodes of 'CSI' and 'Elementary'

mikeinfla wrote:

Finally ordered Netflix last week and the wife and I watched all of the new Arrested Development episodes over 2 days... The week before we watched the first 3 seasons again to get reaquainted with The Bluth family. Then my wife asked what else Jason Bateman has done and I rememered The Hogan Family. So I went on YouTube and found a few episodes of that. Forgot about that show and surprised it isn't in syndication.

I really need to jump on the Netflix season.

Started Season 3 of Showtime's 'Episodes' with back-to-back, uh, episodes last night. Still funny. Too bad noone else watches it beside my wife & me.

And Monday night, I watched 'Oblivion'. First Tom Cruise movie I've seen since 'Jerry Maguire'. 'Oblivion' seemed like a little mish-mosh of a bunch of different sci-fi movies themes all thrown together, but it comes together very nicely. I was entertained for 2 hours.

Sherlock -The Empty Hearse

The stories to this point have been genius. This one was just good, which was a bit disappointing, actually!

Arrow

American Horror Story : Coven