TODAY I WATCHED (Movies, TV series) 2015

The Interview - highly disappointing film. I expected a little better based on the commercials but it fell flat.

Frozen Ground - I had never heard of this film before but it stars Nicholas Cage as an Alaskan State Trooper on the trail of serial killer John Cusack. Based on a true story from the 80s, I found this to be a very intriguing film.

S.D. wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

"From Russia With Love" (1963)


SPECTRE cons James Bond and a lovely Russian diplomat into stealing a top secret Soviet decoding machine for them in the second 007 adventure. Italian actress Daniela Bianchi, who plays "Tatiana," definitely ranks as one of the hottest Bond girls in the history of the series.

One of my favorite Bond movies, more intrigue and less goofiness.

Great film!

"OK Connery" (aka "Operation Kid Brother," 1967)


In the late 60s, campy James Bond ripoffs - known as "Eurospy" flicks -were all the rage. This Italian made 007 wanna-be upped the ante considerably by casting Sean Connery's real-life younger brother Neil (yes, really) as a plastic surgeon/hypnotist (?) who also happens to be the lookalike brother of a certain, ahem, well known British secret agent who's never mentioned by name, of course. When "Dr. Connery's" brother isn't available to battle a criminal syndicate planning to take over the world with a magnetic pulse device, he gets pressed into service in his place and becomes a reluctant spy.

In addition to Connery, the film features several other performers who have Bond connections, like Bernard "M" Lee, Lois "Miss Moneypenny" Maxwell (who actually gets out of the office and even gets to shoot a machine gun!), Italian hottie Daniela Bianchi of "From Russia With Love" fame and Adolfo Celi, who was SPECTRE's "Mr. Largo" in "Thunderball."

"OK Connery" straddles the line between loving homage, silly parody and out-and-out ripoff; variations on virtually all of the Bond trademarks are included and lovingly tweaked, the movie is full of hot babes, weird gadgets, lush European locations, and crazed supervillains, all set to a brassy score (composed by the great Ennio Morricone) that stops juuuust shy of copyright infringement.

In the end the movie doesn't really make a lick of sense but Bond fans might want to give it a look anyway, just to check out what amounts to a weird, alternate-universe version of 007.

Duke vs St. John's

Coach K becomes the first Division I Men's basketball coach with 1,000 wins.

tohostudios wrote:

Duke vs St. John's

Coach K becomes the first Division I Men's basketball coach with 1,000 wins.

Stryper "Live At The Whiskey" and Orange Is The New Black

007 wrote:

Frozen Ground - I had never heard of this film before but it stars Nicholas Cage as an Alaskan State Trooper on the trail of serial killer John Cusack. Based on a true story from the 80s, I found this to be a very intriguing film.

Canadian film, no theatrical distribution in the US.

Two Jack Kerouac retrospective / biography dvds - very interesting -
King of the Beats - What happened to Kerouac -
ballsy writer from Lowell Mass. - who had a bee bop sax jazz type of style -
I have a portrait tattoo of him on my back - been to his grave - etc -
did his thing in the late 1940's - early 1950's - Charlie Parker / Dizzy Gilipse -
I think he died in 1969 - Jim Morrison LOVED " On The Road " -
It was made into a movie - last year or so -

Odd pairing tonight:

Finished the last act of "Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance" then watched "The Rabbit Of Seville" (the only reason I know anything about the opera "The Barber Of Seville"

The Royal Rumble

The X-Files. I got a list of all the mythology episodes (the alien arc) and I'm going to watch them back to back.

tohostudios wrote:

"The Rabbit Of Seville" (the only reason I know anything about the opera "The Barber Of Seville"

"Welcome to my shop! Lemme cut your mop! Lemme shave your crop! Daaaain-tily! Daaaaain-tily!"

S.D. wrote:

I much prefer The Philadelphia Story to High Society by the way.  High Society is quite hip because of the cast, but I think the original version is the better film...at least in my opinion.  

That's the thing, PS is a much better film. The direction in High Society is low-key and stagey, whereas Cukor does some great blocking and timing in PS that adds to the humor. And Stewart is gold in the original whereas Sinatra, while enjoyable, is a different angle. I think for me it boils down that High Society is a Bing movie I grew up with and the Cole Porter tunes hit me in the right spot, whereas PS is a movie I've seen twice now, the first time in my early 20's. So the better made movie isn't quite as endearing to me for sentimental reasons, I suppose.

The sequence in The Philadelphia Story where Stewart and Hepburn get drunk together is one of my favorites in film history.

Family Guy
Bob's Burgers

Fat Freddy wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

"The Rabbit Of Seville" (the only reason I know anything about the opera "The Barber Of Seville"

"Welcome to my shop! Lemme cut your mop! Lemme shave your crop! Daaaain-tily! Daaaaain-tily!"

They just don't make 'em like that anymore.  My favorite part is when Bugs applies hair restorer and fertilizer to Elmer's bald head.  He hands Elmer a mirror and Elmer gets all excited when hair starts to grow until each hair gets a flower on the end. 

I just saw the live Raw show is canceled for tonight due to the blizzard in the Northeast yet WWE.com says the show will still emanate live from the Studio.  WTH does that mean?  If they were smart, they roll a replay of last night's Royal Rumble since they're practically gave it away live on WWE network anyway. More likely though they'll do some pathetic highlight show and I'll end up watching the next Chanwook Park film "Oldboy" instead.

tohostudios wrote:

I just saw the live Raw show is canceled for tonight due to the blizzard in the Northeast yet WWE.com says the show will still emanate live from the Studio.  WTH does that mean?  If they were smart, they roll a replay of last night's Royal Rumble since they're practically gave it away live on WWE network anyway. More likely though they'll do some pathetic highlight show and I'll end up watching the next Chanwook Park film "Oldboy" instead.

Trust me on this one - nobody should be forced to watch last night's Royal Rumble. It was awful.

Is there an arena up there in Stamford that they can use for matches?

Witchfinder wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

I just saw the live Raw show is canceled for tonight due to the blizzard in the Northeast yet WWE.com says the show will still emanate live from the Studio.  WTH does that mean?  If they were smart, they roll a replay of last night's Royal Rumble since they're practically gave it away live on WWE network anyway. More likely though they'll do some pathetic highlight show and I'll end up watching the next Chanwook Park film "Oldboy" instead.

Trust me on this one - nobody should be forced to watch last night's Royal Rumble.  It was awful.

Is there an arena up there in Stamford that they can use for matches?

I heard the 3-way title match was pretty good.  Anything would be better than some stupid "highlights" show.  

And even if there is a ring in Stamford (and there probably is) because of the travel ban, the only wrestlers who could be in it would be anyone who was already in the building.  That's why I think they're going to run some lame "best of" show.

tohostudios wrote:

Witchfinder wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

I just saw the live Raw show is canceled for tonight due to the blizzard in the Northeast yet WWE.com says the show will still emanate live from the Studio.  WTH does that mean?  If they were smart, they roll a replay of last night's Royal Rumble since they're practically gave it away live on WWE network anyway. More likely though they'll do some pathetic highlight show and I'll end up watching the next Chanwook Park film "Oldboy" instead.

Trust me on this one - nobody should be forced to watch last night's Royal Rumble.  It was awful.

Is there an arena up there in Stamford that they can use for matches?

I heard the 3-way title match was pretty good.  Anything would be better than some stupid "highlights" show.  

And even if there is a ring in Stamford (and there probably is) because of the travel ban, the only wrestlers who could be in it would be anyone who was already in the building.  That's why I think they're going to run some lame "best of" show.

The title match was excellent and was a definite highlight. The Rumble itself was a booking disaster. The Philly fans booed them out of the building.

Witchfinder wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

Witchfinder wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

I just saw the live Raw show is canceled for tonight due to the blizzard in the Northeast yet WWE.com says the show will still emanate live from the Studio.  WTH does that mean?  If they were smart, they roll a replay of last night's Royal Rumble since they're practically gave it away live on WWE network anyway. More likely though they'll do some pathetic highlight show and I'll end up watching the next Chanwook Park film "Oldboy" instead.

Trust me on this one - nobody should be forced to watch last night's Royal Rumble.  It was awful.

Is there an arena up there in Stamford that they can use for matches?

I heard the 3-way title match was pretty good.  Anything would be better than some stupid "highlights" show.  

And even if there is a ring in Stamford (and there probably is) because of the travel ban, the only wrestlers who could be in it would be anyone who was already in the building.  That's why I think they're going to run some lame "best of" show.

The title match was excellent and was a definite highlight.  The Rumble itself was a booking disaster.  The Philly fans booed them out of the building.  

Probably because "creative" keeps shoving Roman Reigns down our throats.  The guy has a good look and can do some things in the ring but he sucks on the mic and when you compare what he does to what his fellow Shield guys have been doing solo, Reigns is easily the weak link.  That's not his fault IMO, that's on creative.  Listen to what the people want and stop cramming guys down our throats. 

At this rate, Reigns is the second coming of John Cena; a supposed 'face' who fans boo.

tohostudios wrote:

Witchfinder wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

Witchfinder wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

I just saw the live Raw show is canceled for tonight due to the blizzard in the Northeast yet WWE.com says the show will still emanate live from the Studio.  WTH does that mean?  If they were smart, they roll a replay of last night's Royal Rumble since they're practically gave it away live on WWE network anyway. More likely though they'll do some pathetic highlight show and I'll end up watching the next Chanwook Park film "Oldboy" instead.

Trust me on this one - nobody should be forced to watch last night's Royal Rumble.  It was awful.

Is there an arena up there in Stamford that they can use for matches?

I heard the 3-way title match was pretty good.  Anything would be better than some stupid "highlights" show.  

And even if there is a ring in Stamford (and there probably is) because of the travel ban, the only wrestlers who could be in it would be anyone who was already in the building.  That's why I think they're going to run some lame "best of" show.

The title match was excellent and was a definite highlight.  The Rumble itself was a booking disaster.  The Philly fans booed them out of the building.  

Probably because "creative" keeps shoving Roman Reigns down our throats.  The guys has a good look and can do some things in the ring but he sucks on the mic and when you compare what he does to what his fellow Shield guys have been doing solo, Reigns is easily the weak link.  That's not his fault IMO, that's on creative.  Listen to what the people want and stop cramming guys down our throats. 

At this rate, Reigns is the second coming of John Cena; a supposed 'face' who fans boo.

Yep. Vince is killing Reigns just like he did with Rocky Maivia "The Bluechipper." In my eyes, this is the worst period in the history of WWE. Their product is virtually unwatchable.

Amazing!  They're actually doing the smart thing and showing matches from the Rumble.

"The Living Daylights" (1987)


Timothy Dalton's first outing as James Bond is a mediocre (at best) affair. Dalton's performance is fine, but the story, which takes Bond from Czechoslovakia to Austria, Tangiers and Afghanistan in pursuit of Russian military arms dealers, is an overlong muddle. In addition, Maryam D'Abo is perhaps the blandest Bond girl in the series' history. The series was clearly unsure of what direction to go in after the departure of Roger Moore.

tohostudios wrote:

Amazing!  They're actually doing the smart thing and showing matches from the Rumble.

It's sad that these suddenly impromptu interviews with Seth Rollins and Brock Lesnar/Paul Heyman spliced in with last night's Rumble matches are far more entertaining than anything I've seen on Raw in a long time. 

I'm enjoying the hell outta this...