James Bond -- "No Time to Die" (2021). We are among the last here to see it. We liked it. We've now seen all the Bond movies. My thoughts/rhetorical-questions follow: Please do not read if you have not seen the film.
They bombed "germ like objects" designed to annihilate much of humanity -- on an island near the shore. The "germs" cannot die (according to the script). Won't some be in the Ocean -- its just a matter of time.
"James Bond Will Return" (from the dead). It will be interesting to see how they make that "seamless" for Bond fans.
Two overarching key factors in the movie (original intent of "germs" versus how they were actually used) reminds me of the most logical explanation for COVID-19.
Allen, as you've been watching a lot of Sherlock Holmes, I can recommend Without A Clue Starring Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley as Holmes & Watson respectively. It's a comedy, typical 80s fare, with the hook that it is Watson who is the crimesolving genius who solves crimes by working through the hired actor & idiot Holmes
Sounds dumb, and it is, but it's Caine & Kingsley. 'Nuff said
"They might look the same, but they don't taste the same."
Michael Caine is one of those actors who is always fun to watch and always turns in a good performance even in crappy movies.
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
I saw the last episode of "Dexter: New Blood" last night...
Wow.
Semi spoilers follow...
Considering the original series "Dexter," the ending of "New Blood" is a contender for the best end to a series of all time, right up there with "Breaking Bad." "New Blood" is easily a 4 out of 4 stars. This the best of the best. Shows do not get any better than this. I am very sad that Dexter is over, again. A second time. But unlike the first, there's no chance of Dexter coming back. The writing is extremely strong.
If it weren't for the weak seasons 6 and 7 of the original series, "Dexter" overall might even be the best show of all time, but alas, I'd rank it in the top 3 or 5 easy without hesitation. There's so much good to be said of this series, despite the grim subject matter. Must watch if you're into crime/mystery/suspense. The series, like "Mr. Robot," achieves a quality only seen in true literature. Not genre fiction. Literature. Super high quality stuff.
I saw the last episode of "Dexter: New Blood" last night...
Wow.
Semi spoilers follow...
Considering the original series "Dexter," the ending of "New Blood" is a contender for the best end to a series of all time, right up there with "Breaking Bad." "New Blood" is easily a 4 out of 4 stars. This the best of the best. Shows do not get any better than this. I am very sad that Dexter is over, again. A second time. But unlike the first, there's no chance of Dexter coming back. The writing is extremely strong.
If it weren't for the weak seasons 6 and 7 of the original series, "Dexter" overall might even be the best show of all time, but alas, I'd rank it in the top 3 or 5 easy without hesitation. There's so much good to be said of this series, despite the grim subject matter. Must watch if you're into crime/mystery/suspense. The series, like "Mr. Robot," achieves a quality only seen in true literature. Not genre fiction. Literature. Super high quality stuff.
You have piqued my interest for this. Did start watching the original back when it came out but kinda lost interest after first few episodes and never bothered to return. Your recommendation makes me think I was wrong, maybe wasn't in right frame of mind at time. Loved his other show Six Feet Under though.
I saw the last episode of "Dexter: New Blood" last night...
Wow.
Semi spoilers follow...
Considering the original series "Dexter," the ending of "New Blood" is a contender for the best end to a series of all time, right up there with "Breaking Bad." "New Blood" is easily a 4 out of 4 stars. This the best of the best. Shows do not get any better than this. I am very sad that Dexter is over, again. A second time. But unlike the first, there's no chance of Dexter coming back. The writing is extremely strong.
If it weren't for the weak seasons 6 and 7 of the original series, "Dexter" overall might even be the best show of all time, but alas, I'd rank it in the top 3 or 5 easy without hesitation. There's so much good to be said of this series, despite the grim subject matter. Must watch if you're into crime/mystery/suspense. The series, like "Mr. Robot," achieves a quality only seen in true literature. Not genre fiction. Literature. Super high quality stuff.
You have piqued my interest for this. Did start watching the original back when it came out but kinda lost interest after first few episodes and never bothered to return. Your recommendation makes me think I was wrong, maybe wasn't in right frame of mind at time. Loved his other show Six Feet Under though.
Seasons 1 - 5 are easily some of the best of television, 6 and 7 were rough, mainly because the showrunner who created the show left and a few of the writers did too, 8 was decent enough... But "New Blood" sees a return of the original showrunner and boy was it good. I started watching season 5 of "The Americans" last night(I took a break after season 4 to watch "New Blood") and was depressed because "Dexter" is that good, and "Americans" so far is a 3.5 star show. I like darker stuff, though, so maybe you can gauge how I rate things by my list of four star shows on a scale of four, these are my best of the best:
Breaking Bad Game of Thrones Mr. Robot Dexter Babylon 5 The X-Files Twin Peaks(original two seasons)
Honorable mention: "12 Monkeys" which I have at 3.75
It is hard going back to a lower rated show because the top ones are just so good. I suppose I might include Dr. Who in there depending on the era but that's a tough one. That'd be 4 star sci-fi, at least.
Breaking Bad -- Never watched it. Premise just doesn't interest me. Game of Thrones -- Brilliant series until the final season when the wheels started coming off..... Mr. Robot -- This is on my watch list. I hope to get to it sometime this year. Dexter -- Never watched it. Premise just doesn't interest me. Babylon 5 -- Absolutely brilliant writing and characters. The X-Files -- A landmark science fiction series and absolutely brilliant through season 7. The decline came hard and fast with seasons 8 and 9 and that recent "revival" from a few years ago was CRAP. Twin Peaks(original two seasons) -- Brilliant series even though I think the wheels started to come off after the episode where Laura Palmer's killer is revealed. All of those subsequent odd side-stories were pointless in my opinion. The series finally gets back on track with the final 2-3 episodes of season 2 when we find out more about Windham Earle.
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
Just finished binge-watching the first season of "Reacher" which is based on the Jack Reacher novels by British author Lee Child. This is the same character that Tom Cruise played in two movies. However, readers of the novels have pointed out that Cruise is physically the wrong size and that size is an immense factor of the character from the novels. In the book series, Reacher is 6ft 5 inches and built like a tank. While the Cruise movies were popular and well accepted, he is still only like 5ft 7in. The Amazon Prime 1st season is entirely based on the very first book that Child wrote called "The Killing Floor". The actor playing Reacher in the series is Alan Michael Ritchson. While only 6ft 2inch, he is still solid muscle and stands out in a crowd.
Anyway, it was 8 episodes of 53 minutes each and it covered the first novel "The Killing Floor" completely. I couldn't stop watching after the first episode. The character of Reacher is portrayed as a former decorated US Army military police special unit officer who has superior hand-to-hand combat skills, total weapons proficiency, and the deductive reasoning and crime-solving abilities of Sherlock Holmes. All of that and he simply wanders the world living like a "Hobo" (a word Reacher uses) solving crimes, and putting an end to bad guys in spectacular ways. What's not to like. I'd give it a solid B+ as an entertaining action/suspense/crime mystery series.
According to Wikipedia, there are 26 novels in all, so there's plenty of material for more seasons if Amazon renews the series. Of course, I doubt they would repeat the two Tom Cruise episodes, but I still hope they do more seasons based on other novels in the series.
Prior to that, I rented "The Last Duel" directed by Ridley Scott---starring Matt Damon and Adam Driver as two main protagonists along with Jodie Comer as the wife of Damon's character. It is set in late 14th century France and is based on true events leading up to a judicial duel to the death fought by two noblemen--one of whom was accused of raping the other's wife. It tells the story in 3 chapters--each one retelling the story from the perspective of each nobleman and then the wife who was assaulted. Ben Affleck who co-wrote the screenplay along with Damon and Nicole Holofcener, also play a supporting role in the movie.
It was quite well done IMHO and was also well received by most critics and audience reviewers. However, it bombed at the box office--probably partially caused by the pandemic and the fact that most audiences today would rather watch a brainless superhero movie than a well-acted historical drama. I thought it quite good and would give it at least a B+ to A- but then I generally like most any medieval-based historical movie. Unlike Ridley Scott's other two movies set in the early medieval period---"Kingdom of Heaven" and "Robin Hood", this one stayed grounded in a believable reality.
Cheers
Artillery adds dignity to what would otherwise be a vulgar brawl.
It was quite well done IMHO and was also well received by most critics and audience reviewers. However, it bombed at the box office--probably partially caused by the pandemic and the fact that most audiences today would rather watch a brainless superhero movie than a well-acted historical drama. I thought it quite good and would give it at least a B+ to A- but then I generally like most any medieval-based historical movie. Unlike Ridley Scott's other two movies set in the early medieval period---"Kingdom of Heaven" and "Robin Hood", this one stayed grounded in a believable reality.
Cheers
I have not seen the movie but you are right about why the movie was a box office flop to some extent. What hurt it the most is that this movie really caters to the 50+ age demographic and that demographic is still largely staying away from movie theaters due to the ongoing pandemic. The other problem that you alluded to is subject matter. This is the kind of film that appeals to a niche audience so it really should have been released to streaming instead of movie theaters.
The movie also suffered from very poor marketing. I read comment after comment online from people saying that they had no clue this movie even existed until it was released.
Last edited by PanzerMeyer; 02/04/2207:14 PM.
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
David Suchet as Hercule Poirot in "Murder in Mesopotamia" (2000). First of the two "feature length" TV shows in Season 8 of the TV Series. On DVD color 16:9.
This starts our viewing of the Poirot TV series (13 seasons total). We started with Season 8 because the DVD seemed damaged and it was a test. It passed. Our Blue Ray Player plus relatively new 4K TV converts some low resolution DVDs to nearly 4K -- so, we give up nothing by going with much cheaper DVDs over Blue Ray and 4K disks.
A very good movie. Excellent almost-desert arid setting featuring an archeological dig site surrounded by old desert buildings.
Everyone a suspect. Some "red herrings" along the way -- including crimes that had no bearing on the main crime. I did slightly suspect the right person near the end. And the killer was revealed at the very end with a thorough explanation by Poirot of how he saw it -- the way I like it.
One interesting facet (to me): Poirot looks very fat (virtually fattest guy in the movie) and very out of shape. Suchet portrayed him as an "out of shape" character who had trouble going up and down stairs -- but fine on level ground. Its all about his 1st rate brain -- his 5th rate body is just its container.
I won't be bothering you with a "play by play" of the entire series. This episode got it started.
I have not seen the movie but you are right about why the movie was a box office flop to some extent. What hurt it the most is that this movie really caters to the 50+ age demographic and that demographic is still largely staying away from movie theaters due to the ongoing pandemic. The other problem that you alluded to is subject matter. This is the kind of film that appeals to a niche audience so it really should have been released to streaming instead of movie theaters.
The movie also suffered from very poor marketing. I read comment after comment online from people saying that they had no clue this movie even existed until it was released.
You are correct about the movie not being promoted or marketed properly and of course, the fact that a lot of younger audiences are not going to set through a 2 and half hour medieval drama.
Much of the movie takes place in the winter including the final joust so it tends to have an overall gray and dreary look.
All of this contributes to why it probably hit the budget rental on Amazon Prime so soon. It was released in October for theaters in the US and UK. The only reason I knew about it was from one of those movie trailer channels on Youtube that I check out occasionally.
Still, I was kind of surprised when it showed up on Amazon Prime for only a $4 rental fee for the 4k UHD version.
Cheers
Artillery adds dignity to what would otherwise be a vulgar brawl.
the Royal Air Force gave the movie makers three Mosquito
An article in the 14 March 1954 edition of the New York Times noted that the Royal Air Force provided three de Havilland Mosquito bombers and all the required crew from Singapore. IMDB
I also thought "The Last Duel" was good, but flawed.
Flawed in which ways? I'll try and watch it sometime soon.
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
1883 on Prime. Compelling very well written and acted story First thing on tv worth watching in ages.
I'm not a huge fan of Westerns but I may give Yellowstone and 1883 a shot just to see what all of the hype and commotion is all about.
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
