MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
I don't mind the Edinburgh setting on dept-q.
Someone has thought through the production design and carried the gothic theme all the way which that mushy 70s look. Bit of Trainspotting design in their with the lighting too.
It's quite odd in the locations and set design - I keep half-expecting to be told that there's a portal downstairs and they must go to alternative realities to solve the murders, or somesuch, it's got that kind of slight surreal feel to it.
2 episodes in and we're liking it; the Syrian guy is the heart of it I'd say as the only really likeable character
it's got that kind of slight surreal feel to it.
Agreed!
Rewatching Fubar atm, and in a sea of unbelievable nonsense, the line 'I got into HR to help people' is still somehow the least believable thing in it.
Rewatching Fubar atm,
Series 2 is quite promising aside from some dire special effects. Arnie does a good line in self-deprecation and sending up previous movie characters.
I liked the line: I'll be back! In a couple of hours or so depending on the traffic.
This popped up in my YT feed.
Only 28 mins long but worth a watch.
Zero Day on netflix.
Stellar cast, twisty, turny story. 3 episodes in and enjoying it.
53% on Rotten Tomatoes and 7/10 IMDB, but worth more IMHO (so far anyway)
Can't believe I forgot to add this weeks ago. For pure, unalloyed pleasure, watch the Asterix Combat de Chefs cartoon on Netflix. The road sign bit made me almost wet myself.
I'd never seen 28 Days Later so as its on iPlayer I though I'd watch it tonight to give a bit of context in case I watch 28 Years later and because it gets high scores on review sites etc etc
Total rubbish - Honestly, Shaun of the Dead had more depth and at least that was supposed to be funny.
I know its hard to make a good zombie film as the subject matter has been sent up ever since Bad Taste but to be fair the zombies were probably the least worst bit anyway. When you have bad acting, bad dialogue, ridiculous plot and awful pacing then it comes as a relief to have some flesh chomping carnage just to get the film over with.
Tragic, how did it become so highly rated?
Heads of State (just released on Amazon Prime) is quite entertaining. It's a very similar look and feel to The Hitman's Bodyguard (mismatched buddy duo, hot woman agent who used to be romantically involved, double cross/traitor on the inside, mildly dubious special effects) but it has its amusing moments.
Sandman season 2 is really good at inducing sleep....
Sandman season 2 is really good at inducing sleep....
To be fair, you can't say you weren't warned! 😉
I know its hard to make a good zombie film
Zombieland, and the sequel Zombieland 'double tap' are hillariously brilliant and funny... absolute mandatory watching.
On the subject of Zombies.. Z-nation series is really funny as well... if you like zombie films, they are top banana.
Another very notable series is 'black summer', for a more serious/grity zombie experience.
And of course 'last of us', whilst not technically zombies in the traditional sense, is superb.
Honorable mention to 'Train to Busan', a Korean zombie flick.
Can you tell I like zombie movies? lol
Shifty on iplayer.
Done in archive clips,it gives (I think) a good take on why a lot of the UK is the way it is now.
Apologies if you end up shouting FFS at the telly 😉 🤣
If you like a bit of silly and slightly absurd humour there's a new series of Mandy on iplayer (written by and starring Diane Morgan).
Heard this afternoon that Karen Pirie is back! ITVx/ ITV1 apparently.
Untamed on Netflix is excellent.
The scenery is the real star (filmed in Vancouver, doubling up for Yellowstone National Park) but it's a pretty solid murder mystery with the usual twists and reveals. 6 episodes.
Really liking Human bbc2, with Ella Al-Shamahi - giving Alice a run for her money. Superb presenter.
Saw the Red Riding Trilogy is on Netflix now. Remember thinking it was about the best thing I'd ever seen when it first showed.
As ^above [url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002fxm9/human-series-1-1-the-first-of-us?seriesId=m002fc72-structural-1-m002fxm8 ]Humans[/url] - now more than ever.
Untamed on Netflix
We just finished that. Pretty decent - now need something else, but there seems to a a dearth of quality series on Netflix. I read a David Peace book a while ago, so maybe the Red Riding trilogy is worth a go... Seem to remember the book being very grim though.
We tried Orphan Black, but there's too many annoying characters in it, and it seems to go on forever, so not sure we'll last!
I'm watching The Assassin on Amazon Prime, that's very good.
Although it does suffer from the usual movie cliche about "retired assassins" having miraculously lost none of their shooting and fighting skills when pitched against current assassins who have popped up to kill them.
Something different on Amazon, Fallout
I'm not a gamer but it was quite interesting to watch (and, for matty, it includes zombies)
Awaiting series 2 of Fallout. S1 was ages ago!
usual movie cliche..
What about the one where the bad guy never just shoots the goodie, gets them alone, without a weapon, points the guns, walks round in circles, "monologues" (The Incredibles should've seen the end of THAT cliche!), takes so long that the goodie always gets rescued, instead of just blowing their head off. THINK OF ANOTHER ENDING!
Ah yeah, above spoiler is about Untamed. Don't read if you plan to watch it! 😀
A friend recommended Ballard on Prime. It's 'adjacent' I suppose to Bosch Legacy; Bosch himself pops in it, plus a few other familiar faces. It's a slow burn; the first couple of episodes feel a bit of a slog, but it really starts to pick up and the characters become less annoying.
Still enjoying Jack Irish on C4 too - watched a couple of the films and now into S2 of the TV show
Just finished Ballard - found it quite underwhelming and a bit tedious at times. Not as good as Bosch and that's not a particularly high bar.
Jack Irish on C4 too
Was very meh about this, then it started to warm up, but the CH4 app is so shite, we've given up trying to use it.
Were halfway through Murderbot and again it warming up quite nicely. Pokerface was fun too, but peacock does do silly detective stories well (Monk/psych). Dug out the Frasier refresh too, though it's not great, it doesn't completely fall on it's face like many revamps & has managed two series
Untamed on Netflix is excellent.
Eric Bana strolling though a 9,000km2 wilderness and finding clues. Look, he found a hair on a branch. Oh, look, he found a bead from a bracelet. Oh, would you believe it, he found a spec on blood on a rock. No fingertip line searches needed when Bana is on the case!
What about the one where the bad guy never just shoots the goodie, gets them alone, without a weapon, points the guns, walks round in circles, "monologues" (The Incredibles should've seen the end of THAT cliche!), takes so long that the goodie always gets rescued, instead of just blowing their head off. THINK OF ANOTHER ENDING!
I saw an "Internet Guide to Being A Bad Guy" once which started with:
Tell your guards to shoot James Bond in the head at the first opportunity. On no account give him a guided tour of your facility in the company of scantily clad women then leave him in a carelessly guarded jail cell within easy reach of improvised weaponry.
The same applies to shooting anyone. On no account stand there monologuing about how sorry you are to kill them / how much you'll enjoy this moment, just ****ing KILL THEM DEAD!
Just finished Ballard - found it quite underwhelming and a bit tedious at times
This. It seemed to go on for ever.
Also watched The Veil (C4 and Disney+) and The Assassin (Amazon Prime). I'd been hoping The Veil would be good, because Elisabeth Moss can be brilliant at times. But it wasn't. The Assassin took itself less seriously and had nice scenery but it wasn't great either.
Untamed is decent slow-burn. I like the backdrop to this - lots of crazy stuff goes off in the NPS - so I'd imagine this has future legs.
The CGI Yosemite whilst well done is not totally convincing all of the time. Commercial filming in national parks is extremely difficult without huge expense and culling of millions of people! So fair enough.
Most of Bana's character's clues are person led rather than things dropped on the floor - that joke is made early on with the whole case of wrist bangles!
Makes a change from regular cop grit detective.
9,000km2
The park is not that big - (3000) in the grand scheme of things.
Cairngorms is bigger for instance.
Though it's big enough, dense enough and dangerous enough to be a proper wilderness of course with plenty of elevation and things to get lost in!
The Assassin took itself less seriously and had nice scenery but it wasn't great either.
It felt like there was the basis of a decent plot there but some aspects of it were swerved to avoid any awkward moments. I can see a Series 2 in the works though. Sadly a lot of series tend to be so focused on getting a second series that they neglect some points of solving everything in the first.
We’ve just finished series 4 of The Bear. I thought it was the best yet. A couple of episodes in particular, especially the last one, we’re just life-affirmingly wonderful.
Good to see them bow out on a high and say that’s it, there’s no more, instead of dragging it out for the sake of it
I may go back and watch all 4 series again. Telly really doesn’t get much better than this
Just finished all four seasons of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica on ITVX (again). I watched it via torrent downloads at the time, and on the iPlayer when they hosted it during COVID. On this third run, I was finding the adverts too intrusive so paid to strip them out.
Still one of the best SF shows ever made. Big themes that are still relevant today. If you've never seen it, forget the cheesy original; try the two part mini-series pilot and see what you think. And if you missed the (kinda) standalone movie 'Razor,' it's bundled as a two partner at the end of Season Three.
We’ve just finished series 4 of The Bear. I thought it was the best yet.
It took me until series 4 to realise that this is not about a restaurant. Yes, I’m slow.
We’ve been watching Smoke on AppleTV, about an arson investigator and a cop. It starts out as a fairly normal detective show but takes a left turn at the lights and heads somewhere quite dark. Now we’re quite hooked, and 2 episodes left.
Untamed on Netflix is excellent.
Agreed about the scenery, the plot and characters are mediocre at best, pretty basic story and 2D people I thought.
Really liking Human bbc2, with Ella Al-Shamahi -
In. Which. Every. Line. Of.....Script. Is Delivered With Portentous. Overtones...
With...
...Dramatic. Pauses for no particular reason or meaning...
While the camera films her staring wistfully out across the desert or Ocean, or actors pretending to be early humans stride purposefully with no particular reason or purpose across the scenery.
It's a badly edited and scripted undergrad level generic information that you could read in any number of dull academia, each episode could be half the length - Or the full length with actual information or script instead of filler and crap. She's awful and barely tolerable like she's taken presenting lessons from William [pause for dramatic effect] Shatner.
We’ve just finished series 4 of The Bear. I thought it was the best yet.
I thought the first two seasons were brilliant, then gave up after the first episode of S3. I guess I'll give it another try.
I thought the first two seasons were brilliant, then gave up after the first episode of S3. I guess I'll give it another try.
Series 3 was poor - I think a lot of people found that.
Prime Video; The Order with Jude Law
A very promising start (not reached the end yet)
Really liked "untamed". Gave me original "killing" vibes.
Watching "Oxen" on C4, danish drama. Really enjoying it.
Prime Video; The Order with Jude Law
A very promising start (not reached the end yet)
This is a beautifully bleak and low key film. One of the best of last year.
Some good characters and interesting plot turns.
The tone of the film has that lonely thing 'the Pledge' had with Jack Nicholson.
Couple of decent bits of action too.
Caught up with 28 years later last night. I find the whole apocalyptic thing can be a bit samey (protagonists wander around, zombie jumps out they kill it, rinse and repeat.) but this film (although it has that) went in a totally different direction than I thought. And became a film about relationships.
Loved the visuals - for once the iPhone made a lot of sense here (although they're iPhones decked out with cinema lenses) - but there was a definite immediacy to the image. And variety of camera angles that you don't get with regular productions. It worked really well to capture the suspense and the idea that this isn't romantic cinema.
The connection with the landscape in that area was also done well. Many elements that we'd all recognise.
The best of the three films by far. Soundtrack fantastic too.
The ending was unhinged though - especially that final sequence - which I'm still not sure about tonally. Weird. Would have worked better as a post-credits scene.
Ralph Fiennes' character was a breath of fresh air. Thought he was gonna be Colonel Kurtz type but he turned out to be way more interesting.
Best Danny Boyle film in yonks.
The ending was unhinged though - especially that final sequence - which I'm still not sure about tonally. Weird. Would have worked better as a post-credits scene.
I found it refreshing to come out of an apocalypse film on an upbeat note, often they are such downers. Gave us lots to talk about on the way out of the cinema and looking forward to the next installment .
I watched it in US whilst on holiday.
assumed it was out in UK.
The ending was unhinged though - especially that final sequence - which I'm still not sure about tonally. Weird. Would have worked better as a post-credits scene.
I found it refreshing to come out of an apocalypse film on an upbeat note, often they are such downers. Gave us lots to talk about on the way out of the cinema and looking forward to the next installment .
Yeah I'd agree with that.
We enjoyed Dope Thief on Apple+.
Two guys in Philadelphia robbing crack houses, while posing as DEA agents, Goes south when they pick the wrong one
Dark phone on channel 4od. Eye opening and fascinating
You have to buy or rent it but the Tremors franchise is on Amazon.
My local cinema does occasional film specials, anniversary showings etc and last night (as part of a "Cult Classics Season") it screened the original Tremors film (1990) which we went to see. I've never seen it at the cinema before. The picture quality suffered a bit but the sound was brilliant. It was such good fun. I mean, I've seen the film dozens of times but the full cinema experience for it was great.
Anyway, I got to looking on streaming platforms and found it on Amazon. There's the original film and then a host of increasingly derivative straight-to-video sequels. Although 2 and 3 aren't bad.
Watched the Amazon remake of War of the Worlds and I enjoyed it.
Looks like it is getting poor ratings for some reason. Probably an anti Amazon thing?
I liked it. Better than the last remake I saw and on watching the credits I was pleased to see the bloke who directed Night Watch involved with the film.
Just finished all four seasons of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica
I thought Battlestar Galactica was great. I watched it a few years ago and then bought the box set and watched it again.
It's a badly edited and scripted undergrad level generic information that you could read in any number of dull academia, each episode could be half the length - Or the full length with actual information or script instead of filler and crap.
We all thought the same. Stretched out and lacking in any interesting information about the research behind it.
It's a badly edited and scripted undergrad level generic information that you could read in any number of dull academia, each episode could be half the length - Or the full length with actual information or script instead of filler and crap.
We all thought the same. Stretched out and lacking in any interesting information about the research behind it.
Hmmm, interesting. I was planning to watch this. In my head I imagined a shorter, presented version of something like Sapiens. Might still try the first episode and see how it goes.
The new Attenborough thing, Parenthood (BBC, not streaming), is even more beautifully shot than the last Atttenborough thing! Watching on my partner's 70inch TV in HD was quite mesmerising. Especially the social spiders. Wow.
While the camera films her staring wistfully out across the desert or Ocean,
So that's what she was doing. I couldn't make it out past the drunken handicam work by Shakey McShakeface and Shakin' Stevens. FFS put the thing on a tripod will you? It's a documentary not The Rock's latest action effort.
Come to think of it, what is the Rock's latest action effort? I might watch that instead.
The new Attenborough thing, Parenthood (BBC, not streaming), is even more beautifully shot than the last Atttenborough thing! Watching on my partner's 70inch TV in HD was quite mesmerising. Especially the social spiders. Wow.
Think we'll junk Human in favour of this actually. Sorry, Rock.
The new Attenborough thing, Parenthood (BBC, not streaming), is even more beautifully shot than the last Atttenborough thing! Watching on my partner's 70inch TV in HD was quite mesmerising. Especially the social spiders. Wow.
Based entirely on this comment, I've just started watching and yes - WOW.
We've been watching Ballad, and the dialogue just feels so ****ing cliched. I'm not sure Maggie Q is a good enough actor to carry a show that's this weak. The whole show feels like something CBS would have cancelled after two episodes. Mrs.10 likes it, though, so I'm sure I'll watch the second half of the series and complain about it some more.
I don't think it helps that I've watched a few early seasons of Unforgotten and Dept Q recently, so I probably have a bit of 'troubled detective solves cold cases' burnout.
what is the Rock's latest action effort
I remember there being kids and a burning building, beyond that just a load of action sequences, before the schmalz at the end. It was hugely forgettable.
I need a new Schitts creek equivalent, but nothing much seems to come close.
Season 3 of Star Trek Strange New Worlds is available on Prime. Watched it last night, very enjoyable if you liked the first two episodes.
Watched Top Gun Maverick on All 4 at the weekend.
Impressively efficient action movie with great set pieces and a weird Star Wars nod, but not very homo-erotic.
Season 3 of Star Trek Strange New Worlds is available on Prime. Watched it last night, very enjoyable if you liked the first two episodes.
just season 3 or 1-3?
Took a punt on a French film on Prime film called
"Frontier(s)" - looked like a La Haine type thriller. I like a surprise when things don't go how you expect! Not sure if it was a good thing with this... Tre Méchant! 😆
Just finished The Assassin. Pleasantly nuts. Not to be taken seriously. Did seem to be fishing for a second series, which might be stretching the enjoyable nonsense a bit too far.
Going back a few posts, I did enjoy The Order, not necessarily in a good way.
Took a punt on a French film on Prime film called
"Frontier(s)" - looked like a La Haine type thriller. I like a surprise when things don't go how you expect! Not sure if it was a good thing with this... Tre Méchant! 😆
Oh yeah it's one of the French extreme cinema regulars. Can only just remember it - it's got some pretty grim stuff in it. Wrong people at the wrong hotel!
It's got parallels with Green Room for me. But it's the opposite way around. I do love a good hill-billy in the middle of nowhere flick.
(Martyrs is the top of this sub-genre I reckon. Haute-Tension/switch blade romance is pretty rough too!)
Given Star Trek Strange New Worlds was two years ago, I think I need to find the last of S2 as I can't remember the cliff hanger. It's usually a story per episode, like the original.
Shifty on iplayer.
Done in archive clips,it gives (I think) a good take on why a lot of the UK is the way it is now.
Apologies if you end up shouting FFS at the telly
Just watched pt1. Interesting stuff. I was a child in the 80s, so didn't have a great awareness of what was happening in the world. It's definitely a different viewing experience. Have tried to watch Adam Curtis stuff before, but never got round to it! Found this a bit slow in places until I'd adjusted to the way it's telling the story. Definitely some interesting juxtapositions between the clips!
Finished The Assassin last , presumably the scriptwriters ran out of time when the last episode was due in and just decided any old toss would do?
presumably the scriptwriters ran out of time when the last episode was due in and just decided any old toss would do?
Same people that produced 'The Tourist', which also started promisingly then descended into by-the-numbers dross. And even got recommissioned to continue the slide into a second season.
Season 3 of Star Trek Strange New Worlds is available on Prime. Watched it last night, very enjoyable if you liked the first two episodes.
I thought you also needed a Paramount+ sub for that one, although Prime lobbed out episode 1 as a freebee.
Finished The Assassin last , presumably the scriptwriters ran out of time when the last episode was due in and just decided any old toss would do?
Spoiler alert, but I was disappointed that she didn't shoot the son. Annoying clever-dick.
For any Dexter fans here, a new season is available. Only seen 1 episode but looking good 👍
Finished The Assassin last , presumably the scriptwriters ran out of time when the last episode was due in and just decided any old toss would do?
I think "had to set it up for a possible Season 2 and decided any old toss would do" but yes.
New series of Fisk coming soon, might have been mentioned before but Jack Irish is worth a look
Just watched the first two episodes of the new South Park series and even by their standards… bloody hell! 😳
They really, really rip into Trump! And it is very, very funny!
My daughter and I have really been enjoying Garth Merenghi's Dark Place, which has recently been added to 4 - very silly and funny. Don't know how I managed to avoid it for so long.
Finally got round to the Handmaid's Tale final season. If you lost patience further back in the show, I think you could watch the last three episodes of Season 6 and get good closure - real emotional heft, despite some dodgy plotting if you stop to think about it too much.