On 4/11/2022 6:16 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
> On 2022-04-11 08:30:41 +0000, Ubiquitous said:
>
>> I watched:
>>
>> RIFFTRAX:
>> "The Devil's Hand". A man is haunted by visions of a beautiful woman.
>> When he
>> finally meets her, he winds up involved in a Satanic cult. Sadly, the
>> movie
>> wasn't nearly as exciting as sounds.
>
> A 4.6 on IMDb, though it's never a good sign when a movie was still in
> B&W by 1961.
>

Agreed! When I was a kid I just sort of took for granted that 60s =
B&W. Then I learned that color technology existed at least since the
30s. So if a movie was in B&W it was a financial choice, not because
color technology didn't exist. And lately I keep being surprised when I
watch an old movie from the 50s and it turns out that it was originally
shot in color. Sort of coincidentally, I just added the Devil's Diary
to my watch list last night. I've been wanting to watch it again for a
couple of years now, and I saw it's available on Prime.

>> What did you watch?
>
> Not all that much, and I got some grading done:
>
> The Boys Presents: Diabolical (Prime) - "John and Sun-Hee" and "One Plus
> One Equals Two" (ep's #7 & #8).
>   The series ends strong, with two good episodes.
>   I can't believe that "John and Sun-Hee" was written by Andy
> Samberg!?! There's not a trace of "comedy", and this one is straight-up
> poignant melodrama... In this one, an eldery husband, who works as a
> janitor for Vought, steals some Compound V to save his terminally ill
> wife's life. This episode does answer the question of what happenes when
> you mix Compound V with cancer (hint: the outcome isn't good!!)...
> Anyway, this is a pretty strong entry, though the episode feels like it
> ends rather abruptly and without a firm resolution... This one was
> animated in the style of Japanese movies from Hayao Miyazaki or Korean
> animation(?).
>   I looked it up, and "One Plus One Equals Two" is actually considered
> "canon". It concerns Homelander's first "mission", which of course goes
> disastrously wrong because Homelander is a monster! This also fleshes
> out the relationship between Homelander and Black Noir, which is
> apparently relevant to season #3 of "The Boys".

I don't read the comics, but based on what I know about the comics, if
this episode is canon, then it would seem to directly contradict the
comics. Not that that matters. I think the show regularly contradicts
the comics anyway.

This one was animated
> like 80s and 90s "superhero" shows, a la "GI Joe" and "The X-Men", etc.
>   I wonder if they will try to squeeze out another season of this show...
>

I watched:

X-Men: Apocalypse (blu-ray) Bryan Singer returns to direct this 80s set
prequel which has the X-Men waging an apocalyptic battle against what's
left of the X-men continuity. Isn't that "Angel" who was introduced in
X3, now in this movie as a teenager? How is he a young man in this 80s
set movie? And isn't that Nightcrawler? He met the X-Men for the first
time in X2, yet now he's meeting them and joining the team in the 80s?
Well, the same guy who directed X2 directed this one, so I guess it's
OK. Anyway, this one was actually teased at the end of Days of Future
Past with a flashback to Ancient Egypt. Picking up in the 80s
Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac) is released and sets out to bring together a
new and improved version of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and take
over the world. Only the X-Men can stop him. It's a fun turn your
brain off and enjoy the ride X-Men flick. I watched with the director's
commentary. The movie was shot in 3D, and Singer took every other
opportunity to point out how great certain scenes looked in 3D. Except
the 3D version doesn't include the commentary track, so I was watching
it in 2D. :-/ One interesting bit from the commentary was during the
scene where Quick Silver once again saves the day, Singer pointed out
that the scene took a month and a half to film with Peters working for
17 days all for 2 and half minutes of film. But it was worth it!

X-Men: Dark Phoenix (4K disc) 90s set prequel which takes the last
remaining shreds of X-Men continuity double taps it in the head then
buries it and salts the Earth. I mean what difference does it make if
they kill off key characters in this prequel. But if you can get over
what this movie does to the continuity, and let's face it, none of these
movies have every cared much about continuity anyway, this is loud,
shiny, just turn your brain off and enjoy the pretty pictures go boom
type of action flick. Now you do have to turn your brain way off! But
once that's done you can sit back and enjoy the ride. See X-Men in
space as things go boom. See X-Men on Earth fighting each other as
things go boom. And see X-Men fighting aliens as even more things go
boom. Plot? Who needs plot! Shiny things are going boom with the full
power of the Phoenix force!

The New Mutants (4K disc) Anya Taylor-Joy stars in this X-Men spin off
movie is what I'd like to say, except they didn't make Anya Taylor-Joy's
character the central focus of the movie. Instead, we get some other
random mutant no one cares about that he have to watch while waiting for
Anya Taylor-Joy to steal her scenes and chew the scenery. The plot
involves a bunch of young mutants at a "hospital" trying to figure out
why when a new mutant with an unknown power shows up weird things start
to happen. Could the new mutant with the unknown power who showed up
exactly when the weird stuff started happening be the cause of the weird
things happening? You'll just have to watch the movie to find out.
It's an OK movie, but it has limited rewatch value. With the exception
of Anya Taylor-Joy at the end, the movie doesn't even have shiny things
going boom.

Logan (4K disc) Hard "R" rated Wolverine movie. Pretty much a perfect
movie. Nuff Said! If you're going to do an X-Men movie marathon, you
can't do better than ending it with this one. Well, technically ending
it with Deadpool 2 would also work. But best to end with Logan. :-)

Billions (Showtime) - "Cold Storage" - A pretty good cat and mouse game
for the season finale. Now that Chuck has basically become the villain,
I like that he got what's coming to him, sort of. And it seems like
Prince should have some sort of multi-billion lawsuit against New York,
as soon as he can figure out how to get past the tax fraud liability.
But for several billion dollars, you'd think he'd figure that part out.
As an aside, I was trying to look up the cast of the show and so far I
have not been able to pull up a cast list of the current season. This
is ridiculous! wiki, imdb, and showtime's website all use the old cast
list including Damian Lewis who is not even on the show any more.

Super Pumped: The Battle For Uber (Showtime) - "Same Last Name" - Season
(series?) finale which wraps everything up. No sign of the Google
lawsuit, but everyone finally gets fed up with the CEO and runs him out
of town.

On 4/11/2022 9:24 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
> On 2022-04-11 15:22:51 +0000, Arthur Lipscomb said:
>
>> I watched:
>>
>>
>> X-Men: Apocalypse (blu-ray) Bryan Singer returns to direct this 80s
>> set prequel which has the X-Men waging an apocalyptic battle against
>> what's left of the X-men continuity.  Isn't that "Angel" who was
>> introduced in X3, now in this movie as a teenager?  How is he a young
>> man in this 80s set movie?  And isn't that Nightcrawler?  He met the
>> X-Men for the first time in X2, yet now he's meeting them and joining
>> the team in the 80s? Well, the same guy who directed X2 directed this
>> one, so I guess it's OK.  Anyway, this one was actually teased at the
>> end of Days of Future Past with a flashback to Ancient Egypt.  Picking
>> up in the 80s Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac) is released and sets out to
>> bring together a new and improved version of the Four Horsemen of the
>> Apocalypse and take over the world.  Only the X-Men can stop him.
>> It's a fun turn your brain off and enjoy the ride X-Men flick.  I
>> watched with the director's commentary.  The movie was shot in 3D, and
>> Singer took every other opportunity to point out how great certain
>> scenes looked in 3D. Except the 3D version doesn't include the
>> commentary track, so I was watching it in 2D. :-/  One interesting bit
>> from the commentary was during the scene where Quick Silver once again
>> saves the day, Singer pointed out that the scene took a month and a
>> half to film with Peters working for 17 days all for 2 and half
>> minutes of film.  But it was worth it!
>
> I think I need to see this one again. IIRC, my original impression is
> that the ending is good, but the first half of the movie takes too long
> to get going...
>

So in other words, it's an X-Men movie.

>> X-Men: Dark Phoenix (4K disc) 90s set prequel which takes the last
>> remaining shreds of X-Men continuity double taps it in the head then
>> buries it and salts the Earth. I mean what difference does it make if
>> they kill off key characters in this prequel.   But if you can get
>> over what this movie does to the continuity, and let's face it, none
>> of these movies have every cared much about continuity anyway, this is
>> loud, shiny, just turn your brain off and enjoy the pretty pictures go
>> boom type of action flick.  Now you do have to turn your brain way
>> off!  But once that's done you can sit back and enjoy the ride.  See
>> X-Men in space as things go boom.  See X-Men on Earth fighting each
>> other as things go boom.  And see X-Men fighting aliens as even more
>> things go boom.  Plot?  Who needs plot!  Shiny things are going boom
>> with the full power of the Phoenix force!
>
> I'm unabashedly a "fan" of this one. I've watched it multiple times on HBO.
>
>> The New Mutants (4K disc) Anya Taylor-Joy stars in this X-Men spin off
>> movie is what I'd like to say, except they didn't make Anya
>> Taylor-Joy's character the central focus of the movie.  Instead, we
>> get some other random mutant no one cares about that he have to watch
>> while waiting for Anya Taylor-Joy to steal her scenes and chew the
>> scenery. The plot involves a bunch of young mutants at a "hospital"
>> trying to figure out why when a new mutant with an unknown power shows
>> up weird things start to happen.  Could the new mutant with the
>> unknown power who showed up exactly when the weird stuff started
>> happening be the cause of the weird things happening?  You'll just
>> have to watch the movie to find out. It's an OK movie, but it has
>> limited rewatch value. With the exception of Anya Taylor-Joy at the
>> end, the movie doesn't even have shiny things going boom.
>
> I also have see this one more than once on HBO. It's OK. I like it
> alright. But I agree with you that they focused on the wrong lead
> character - the lead they focused on was boring... But I would surely
> have watched a sequel to this (which now, of course, will never happen...).
>

On the Logan commentary track I got a bit of a chuckle when the director
pointed out Patrick Stewart's final scene and said this may be the last
time he ever plays Professor X. And now of course he's returning to the
role for the upcoming Doctor Strange movie. So never say never.

I have to cut the movie some slack for not being all that it could have
been. They were scheduled to do reshoots then were never allowed to do
them. I'm sure they would have fixed all the problems with the movie
with the reshoots. But given they were forced to release basically a
rough draft of the movie, it's not bad for what it is.

>> Logan (4K disc) Hard "R" rated Wolverine movie.  Pretty much a perfect
>> movie.  Nuff Said!  If you're going to do an X-Men movie marathon, you
>> can't do better than ending it with this one.  Well, technically
>> ending it with Deadpool 2 would also work.  But best to end with
>> Logan.  :-)
>
> I liked this one a lot when I saw it. But I'm also fine with having seen
> it once, and am in no hurry to rewatch it.
>
>> Super Pumped: The Battle For Uber (Showtime) - "Same Last Name" -
>> Season (series?) finale which wraps everything up.  No sign of the
>> Google lawsuit, but everyone finally gets fed up with the CEO and runs
>> him out of town.
>
> I'm sure I will get to this at some point...
>
>

On 4/11/2022 2:17 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
> Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:
>> On 4/11/2022 6:16 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
>>> On 2022-04-11 08:30:41 +0000, Ubiquitous said:
>>>
>>>> I watched:
>>>>
>>>> RIFFTRAX:
>>>> "The Devil's Hand". A man is haunted by visions of a beautiful woman.
>>>> When he
>>>> finally meets her, he winds up involved in a Satanic cult. Sadly, the
>>>> movie
>>>> wasn't nearly as exciting as sounds.
>>>
>>> A 4.6 on IMDb, though it's never a good sign when a movie was still in
>>> B&W by 1961.
>>>
>>
>> Agreed! When I was a kid I just sort of took for granted that 60s =
>> B&W. Then I learned that color technology existed at least since the
>> 30s. So if a movie was in B&W it was a financial choice,
>
> Not necessarily. A lot of movies were in black-and-white because that’s
> what the Director wanted.

Yeah, I've heard that lots of times before. But that doesn't make the
movie any more enjoyable because it's on purpose. I love Snyder Cut of
"Justice League," but I refuse to forgive him for releasing it full
frame for *no* good reason other than ego. Same goes for black and
white movies too.

On 4/23/2022 3:48 AM, Micky DuPree wrote:
> Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> writes:
>
>> On 4/11/2022 6:16 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
>
>>> A 4.6 on IMDb, though it's never a good sign when a movie was still
>>> in B&W by 1961.
>>
>> Agreed! When I was a kid I just sort of took for granted that 60s =
>> B&W. Then I learned that color technology existed at least since the
>> 30s. So if a movie was in B&W it was a financial choice, not because
>> color technology didn't exist.
>
> There are enough exceptions that I'm not comfortable with this. Yes,
> there were a lot of B movies in B&W in the '60s, but so were _The Man
> Who Shot Liberty Valance_, _Dr. Strangelove_, and _To Kill a
> Mockingbird_ (and I know there were others I can't rattle off without
> doing research). I'm sure Ford could have shot in color if he wanted
> to, and I suspect the other two could have as well. It was a deliberate
> choice to go with black & white.
>

I'm not disputing that. But keep in my mind I was not alive in the 60s
(or most of the 70s). I'm only speaking from my perspective growing up
and the majority of movies I watched from that time period were in Black
and White. At least I think it was the majority. My knowledge of the
period was shaped by the popular movies that survived and was shown on
TV in the 80s. It didn't matter if they made 1000 color movies if I had
no awareness that those movies existed, I only knew of the Black and
White movies. And with notable exceptions the color ones like Planet of
the Apes and 2001, but those are both *late* 60s. Also I didn't exactly
know what year these movies were made. They were simply old movies and
old = black and white. It didn't matter if it was made in 65 or 45, it
all blurred together as Black and White, and that mattered more than
plot! Although obviously I did watch tons of old / Black and white
movies when I was kid.

I've mentioned this once or twice before but when Back to the Future
came out, 30 years in the past was *ancient* history. Now it's
nostalgia filled memories of my childhood.

I've been thinking a lot about so many movies that I grew up watching as
a kid in the 80s that were on TV all the time, and now they've
disappeared into the void. Few people know they exists and probably
even fewer care. But I remember them. And I'd love to see them again,
even some of the bad ones. That's one of the reasons I buy so many
movies; a lot of them are just movies I want to see again, and buying it
on disc is the only way.

>
>> Billions (Showtime) - "Cold Storage" - A pretty good cat and mouse
>> game for the season finale. Now that Chuck has basically become the
>> villain, I like that he got what's coming to him, sort of.
>
> I disagree, sort of. It seemed to me like the story vindicated Chuck,
> but without his basing his viewpoint on evidence. It just allowed his
> prejudices to be right in the end.

That's my problem, it's prejudice. If you take the full resources of
the government to investigate and harass a class of people who you just
know must be up to no good, because "those people" are no good, you
probably can come up with something they did wrong. Especially if you
aren't burdened by obeying the laws you are supposedly upholding.
What's next planting evidence? He's guilty anyway, right? Not to
mention the rank hypocrisy given Chuck is a millionaire himself. If
he's so committed to going after rich law breakers then why doesn't he
go after his ex wife and father? That's some low hanging fruit. I'm
sure they've torn the tag off a pillow or two in their lives.

Prince meticulously projected the
> image of a benevolent billionaire, and his company was the almost
> mythical Good Corporate Citizen. Yet Chuck refused to believe any of
> the evidence of his own eyes, insisting that no one in the billionaire
> class can be primarily motivated by anything other than the desire for
> more power.
>
> Though Prince's antagonists somehow didn't see the signs until the final
> episode -- Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin -- and in the real world
> that would be hard to believe, nevertheless, Chuck's convictions seem to
> be turning out to be right all along. Hell, in the real world you can
> even say that his convictions are on the right side of history, but
> within the story, I would have expected him to be challenged again and
> again as to why the other characters should share his cynical view of
> Prince in the absence of evidence to that effect.
>
> I expect that next season, Chuck will look both less wrongheaded and
> less ineffectual, while Prince will look more steadily like a black hat
> and will make bigger mistakes. Gone, of course, is my hope from a
> couple of seasons ago that the last episode would be Sacker putting both
> Chuck and Axe (or now, Chuck and Prince) in handcuffs.
>
>
>> As an aside, I was trying to look up the cast of the show and so far
>> I have not been able to pull up a cast list of the current season.
>> This is ridiculous! wiki, imdb, and showtime's website all use the
>> old cast list including Damian Lewis who is not even on the show any
>> more.
>
> For the most recent season, I'd try looking up the cast list on
> individual episodes on IMDb. It's not perfect, but I don't know where
> you'd go to get a cast list that includes everyone in the latest season,
> but excludes anyone not in the latest season. The liner notes for the
> season Blu-ray box?
>
> -Micky
>