TODAY I WATCHED... (Movies, TV) 2019

MetalGuy71 wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

Finished disc 1 of Ken Burns' "The Vietnam War" today on the elliptical.

Basically what I learned from this disc is that the start of the war was France's fault; if they'd have given up trying to hang on to Vietnam as a colony long before they finally withdrew, history would be a lot different.

Friday night I was going through a documentary search on Netflix and saw this was on there so I gave it a go. Like you Toho (even though I'm a tad younger   ), I only have a vague idea of the reasoning behind the whole Vietnam war, gaining most of my knowledge thru multiple viewings of 'Apocalypse Now' and 'Full Metal Jacket'. I have 2 uncles that served, but they rarely, if ever, talked about it.

I did know that France had once colonized Viet Nam (courtesy of the extended version of 'Apocalypse Now') but I didn't realize just how deep it went. It does seem as though things could have gone very differently if France just gave it up following WWII.

Looking forward to Episode 2. Thanks for the inspiration Toho.

PS Kens Burns documentary on Prohibition is on Netflix too if anyone's interested.

Like all the Burns docs I've seen "The Vietnam War" is simultaneously educational and entertaining - a difficult feat to pull off in the documentary genre especially as in-depth as all of Burns' docs are. 

And the bit about people who served in the war never talking about it comes up quite often in the film during interviews with the US vets so I'm not surprised your uncles don't mention it. 

I've enjoyed all of Burns' work so far so I'll look for that "Prohibition" one because that sounds like an interesting subject.

Fat Freddy wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

C'mon now! You know the Penguin was going to kill Batman eventually. Oh, whoops. Sorry Freddy.

My 11 year old tried that joke on me already. He came home from school the Monday after Endgame opened and sez "DAD! A kid at school spoiled Endgame for me. Batman died!" -- I'm like "Wrong universe, kid. Nice try though."

I tried to pull that on my 8 year old grandson. We we my out for dinner before seeing the movie. I told him I heard Batman kills Thanos. He thought about it for a few seconds then said, "Batman can't kill Thanos, he's DC."

MetalGuy71 wrote:

corplhicks wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Took my son to see 'Avengers: Endgame'. Finally. We were tired of having to dodge all the spoilers out there.

3 hours flew by. Well worth it.

Reddit has been a bad place to be lately. Certain users have been arbitrarily posting spoilers in unrelated threads. I already know of one big death via reading a reply to a comment in a general photography post.

C'mon now! You know the Penguin was going to kill Batman eventually. Oh, whoops. Sorry Freddy.

I'm going to need to go back and watch most of the movies again too. I started losing interest in all the superhero movies that were coming out seemingly every other week, but now that my son is finding interest in them, I need a refresher course. Some I saw first run, some renting/streaming and a handful I never saw at all. It's 22 Marvel Universe movies in all, correct?

You're count has gotta be more accurate than mine; I've completely lost track. And a buddy just reminded me I need to see Captain Marvel. I keep forgetting that even exists!

I got burnt out bad too, somewhere around Avengers 1 because it was so pitch perfect a movie and I didn't need anything more. Thor Ragnorak is what got my curiosity stoked. What a weirdly awesome movie that was.

Yesterday I went saw 'Avengers: Endgame' and today watched 'An inconvenient Truth'

Ordered the 3-disc Ken Burns documentary "Prohibition".

I learn so much from these Burns docs.  In fact, "The Vietnam War" paid dividends the other week when I attended a charity trivia night with my team.  The questions were by decades and one of the ones for the 60s decades was to name 3 US presidents from that decade.  I was the only one at our table who could come up with 3 and the only reason I could do that was because I was watching "The Vietnam War"  (I came up with LBJ, JFK and Nixon and of course that was a correct answer).  Normally I hate history and I was terrible in the subject in high school but the Burns' docs make it entertaining and therefore I learn and remember.


Thanks for the heads-up on this prohibition one MG.

Bewitched
Welcome Back Kotter

The Big Bang Theory

Episode 3 of "The Klingon Collective" - A fan-selected series of Star Trek episodes from across the Star Trek show universe all featuring Klingons.

Episode 3 was the classic "The Trouble With Tribbles" from TOS (aka The Original Series).  What was interesting to me is that there are multiple references to "The Arganian Treaty (or "Organian - they say it both ways) from the previous episode in this collection which was also a TOS episode where the seemingly primitive Arganians turn out to actually be pure energy beings way above humans and Klingons.  So this episode dovetailed nicely into the previous episode of the collection and though I've seen both of these TOS episodes a gazillion times I never noticed the connection before watching them back to back in this context. 

Plus in that second episode "Errand Of Mercy" Gene Roddenberry was already laying the foundation for the eventual alignment of humans and Klingons because at the end one of the Arganians says something like "Oh eventually humans and Klingons will work out their differences and become fast friends.", foreshadowing what would come in Star Trek - The Next Generation. 

Never noticed that before either.

tohostudios wrote:

Episode 3 of "The Klingon Collective" - A fan-selected series of Star Trek episodes from across the Star Trek show universe all featuring Klingons.

Episode 3 was the classic "The Trouble With Tribbles" from TOS (aka The Original Series).  What was interesting to me is that there are multiple references to "The Arganian Treaty (or "Organian - they say it both ways) from the previous episode in this collection which was also a TOS episode where the seemingly primitive Arganians turn out to actually be pure energy beings way above humans and Klingons.  So this episode dovetailed nicely into the previous episode of the collection and though I've seen both of these TOS episodes a gazillion times I never noticed the connection before watching them back to back in this context. 

Plus in that second episode "Errand Of Mercy" Gene Roddenberry was already laying the foundation for the eventual alignment of humans and Klingons because at the end one of the Arganians says something like "Oh eventually humans and Klingons will work out their differences and become fast friends.", foreshadowing what would come in Star Trek - The Next Generation. 

Never noticed that before either.

Sounds like a fun way to watch Star Trek




Bohemian Rhapsody - Pretty darn entertaining movie, even if it takes liberty with actual events. I'll never understand why that's needed, when the real, EXACT story is/would be just as/more compelling.

Man, when Queen were on their game no one was better.

corplhicks wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Took my son to see 'Avengers: Endgame'. Finally. We were tired of having to dodge all the spoilers out there.

3 hours flew by. Well worth it.

Reddit has been a bad place to be lately. Certain users have been arbitrarily posting spoilers in unrelated threads. I already know of one big death via reading a reply to a comment in a general photography post.

I'm dying to see in the theater but I'd like to finish Black Panther and then revisit the first Avengers and Civil War. I'm running out of time.

I'll get it all out of the way for you. Squirrel Girl shows up, kicks the shit out of Thanos, snaps her fingers sans the Infinity Gauntlet and puts everything back to normal.

Unbreakable

The Hills Run Red(2009)-a group of filmmakers decide to do a documentary on the infamous lost film The Hills Run Red, a movie about the deformed killer known as Babyface. Enlisting the help of the daughter of the film's director, the crew go to the actual locations where the film was shot, only to discover that the movie and the killer weren't as fake as they thought. This was a pretty routine slasher with all the typical elements such as gore, nudity and a masked killer. Nothing special but worth one watch if you are on a quest to see every slasher under the sun. I give it 2 out of 5.

tohostudios wrote:

Finished Disc 2 of "The Vietnam War" and learned the story behind the photograph on the cover of Rage Against the Machine's S/T.  Sadly, it's a real photograph from 1963 of a South Vietnamese Buddhist monk immolating himself in protest of the regime's repression of Buddhists.  And this is the side the US supported in the war simply because of their anti-Communist stance.  Good grief what a CF that war was.

Watched this episode last night. And yea, the more it goes on, the more you see what a mess everything was on so many different levels. And this is still at the beginning. The US hasn't fully even stepped up yet. We're still "advisers" at this point.

tohostudios wrote:

Ordered the 3-disc Ken Burns documentary "Prohibition". Thanks for the heads-up on this prohibition one MG.

I take it you don't have Netflix?

Nope.  I just don't watch enough non-sports TV to make it worth the cost.   It's cheaper to buy DVDs.

I went to see this after work.

Enjoyable action movie, though I prefer the first two.

The ending leaves the door open for a fourth John Wick movie. Sign me up!

Watched 'Split' and 'Hellboy II: The Golden Army'

I love Hellboy II.  That's one of the few times I liked the sequel better than the original.

^^ Yea, "Hellboy II" was better than the first.
I hear the new Hellboy flick is a total sh*t show, by the way.

On topic:
"Slumber Party Massacre II" (1987)

An all-girl rock band heads to a secluded condo for a weekend of practicing and partying. Unfortunately their bash gets invaded by a leather clad rock 'n roll maniac who wields a giant, drill-equipped guitar. This guy is easily one of the dumbest looking villains in slasher history, and he even gets his own musical number in the middle of the movie! Yes, it's just as random and dumb as it sounds.
I didn't think the first "Slumber Party Massacre" was particularly great, but this one makes it look like solid gold. At least there are some good splashy gory bits and the T&A is nice -- my teenage crush on Crystal Bernard (later of "Wings" fame) was ignited by repeated viewings of this flick on USA's "Up All Night" back in the day.

Disc 2 of "The Klingon Fan Collective"

This disc starts off with two episodes from Star Trek TNG and like the two episodes from Star Trek TOS on the first disc, these episodes are from different seasons of the series but the latter one references stuff in the earlier one. 

I never really noticed that before when watching the Star Trek universe shows.  Gene Roddenberry had an overall "story arc" in mind and referenced back to earlier episodes in each series. 

So far I'd give this collection an A++.  It's fascinating to watch the different Star Trek shows in this context and even more fascinating to realize the vision the shows' creator had.

Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein

tohostudios wrote:

I love Hellboy II.  That's one of the few times I liked the sequel better than the original.

Truth

"Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" (2018)


Star-Lord and Ron Howard's hot daughter have to save the previous film's surviving dinosaurs from a volcanic eruption that will destroy their secret island home, and then again from a wealthy animal poacher who plans to auction the critters off to the highest bidders. The usual crashing, blasting, roaring and dino-chomping mayhem ensues. There's nothing here you haven't already seen in previous "Jurassic" films but it's fast-paced popcorn fun, with the usual first-rate special FX.

Fat Freddy wrote:

^^ Yea, "Hellboy II" was better than the first.
I hear the new Hellboy flick is a total sh*t show, by the way.

On topic:
"Slumber Party Massacre II" (1987)

An all-girl rock band heads to a secluded condo for a weekend of practicing and partying. Unfortunately their bash gets invaded by a leather clad rock 'n roll maniac who wields a giant, drill-equipped guitar. This guy is easily one of the dumbest looking villains in slasher history, and he even gets his own musical number in the middle of the movie! Yes, it's just as random and dumb as it sounds.
I didn't think the first "Slumber Party Massacre" was particularly great, but this one makes it look like solid gold. At least there are some good splashy gory bits and the T&A is nice -- my teenage crush on Crystal Bernard (later of "Wings" fame) was ignited by repeated viewings of this flick on USA's "Up All Night" back in the day.

I can't believe I've never seen this one. How did I miss Crystal Bernard (loved her!) AND a guy doing a bad Andrew Dice Clay impression? This kinda flick would've been right in my wheel house back in the day of cheap beer, cheap weed and cheap movie nights with the guys.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I can't believe I've never seen this one. How did I miss Crystal Bernard (loved her!) AND a guy doing a bad Andrew Dice Clay impression? This kinda flick would've been right in my wheel house back in the day of cheap beer, cheap weed and cheap movie nights with the guys.

It had been years since I'd seen this one, and yeah, this is definitely a cheap beer and cheap weed kind of movie. I had a few of the former while watching (I don't do the latter anymore)...