Movies and TV Shows august to december
Just as a note, I think I'm going to give up trying for monthly posts for this - obviously I am not good at them - and fold my audiovisual media consumption into my Wednesday Reading Meme posts starting next year.
August
42. The Book of Eli
Not particularly exciting. And why did it have to be the Bible? Wait - US movie...
September
43. Arsenic and Old Lace
Still good second time around and it continues to be a delightfully funny movie. Though I did eventually change my mind about requesting it for Yuletide.
44. Dinotopia
I watched it mostly for young Wentworth Miller, and while I did enjoy many bits of the movie (and the CGI hadn't aged that poorly), well - I had issues with the worldbuilding, mostly involving how it felt like this Dinotopia was - pretty disinterested in individual rights like, say, giving teenagers a say in their own career - and the entire thing being set post-satellites and yet the rest of the world doesn't know about Dinotopia (a fairly sizable landmass) and Dinotopia is so isolated from the rest of the world that being told about the moon landing sounds like a great big joke to them? Yeah no. Isolated islands of wonder doesn't work half as well in that time frame as in the books'.
45. The Dark Tower
It has forgotten the face of its father.
46. The Lego Batman movie
47. Batman
Watching this for the first time in many, many years - and after an introduction by Jakob Stegelmann showing clips from really old superhero movies - was fun.
48. Prison Break season 3.
Hmmm. I dunno. Michael Scofield is a delight, and the story was short enough not to go meandering all over the place, but - I think this season was pretty clearly the showrunners going "we need to get back to our roots".
October
49. Gridlocked
It was fun. I mean, pretty standard buddy cop movie blended with assault on police station movie (is that a genre?), but it was okay. Or maybe I just like Dominic Purcell.
50. A Street Cat Named Bob
I really wanted to like this movie, but - the main character never really swayed me, and seriously, they couldn't have found a better acting feline? I dunno. I came for the cat and the cat failed to sway me.
51. Silence
Far too much torture porn for my taste.
52. Underverden
Another movie where I had hoped to like it better than I did. It felt pretty standard, even if the setting was Copenhagen and it added a layer of the conflict between integration and retaining your own culture.
53. Fröken Frimans krig
This was an absolutely delightful and visually pleasing mini-series, and I am delighted that there is more of it. Dagmar Friman is awesome - well, sometimes a bit short sighted and needs to check her own preconceptions, but still.
54. Moana
Very pretty.
55. The Great Wall
Visually lovely. I mean, the plot of an army trained to fight the aliens was a bit meh, and Matt Damon and co.'s random European mercenaries stumbling across the army didn't really add that much, but I enjoyed it while it lasted.
56. Thor: Ragnarok
I think this was my favourite superhero movie of the year. Though I really do hope Banner will get to come back from the Hulk - at the end of the movie, it didn't seem like he had yet, and the implications earlier on? Outlook not good. (And I am mad at them for cutting the scene right before Thor could hug Loki.)
57. Their Finest
This was a delightful movie. We follow the story of Catrin Cole, who sort of accidentally ends up a scriptwriter on a movie during the Blitz. We follow the entire movie production - casting - a blend of starlets, celebrities and the nice, but absolutely crap US soldier sent for political reasons, war ministry interference, and general ridiculousness. And it's lovely. Very recommended.
58. Doctor Who: Dreamland
This, on the other hand, was dull. At least it was short.
59. Moonlight
Oscar bait.
November
60. Life
Surprisingly creepy. Though I am a little disappointed that I read somewhere on the internet that the ending is not supposed to imply that Earth is about to get eaten...
61. Doctor Who: The Mind of Evil
62. Doctor Who: The Silver Nemesis
63. Doctor Who: Revenge of the Cybermen
Old school DW. I think my favourite was Silver Nemesis, with its time travelling witch and henchman getting freaked out by random llamas.
64. Historien om Danmark
Visually, this is a gorgeous tv show throughout. And that's what I stayed for. I must admit, after the first couple of episodes (stone and bronze age), I found that there wasn't really anything new in the documentary. It was a very standard retelling of Danish history, very uncontroversial actually - well, until the last episode, where the political right decided to have conniptions over the show deciding to follow a woman resistance fighter with communist leanings. But then, really, the right wing have conniptions over anything these days.
65. The Scrooge Mystery part 1.
A combined biography of Don Rosa and Scrooge McDuck, with a long interview with Don Rosa and brief interviews with various Donaldists from across the globe. It was delightful (and the post-movie Q&A session with Don Rosa did not make it less so), but I am sad it was only half the movie. I need the second half. Soon.
66. Fröken Frimans krig season 2.
Continues to be delightful, and I especially enjoyed Kinna's storyline. On the other hand, I actually find the plots that overlap with real women right's events in early 20th century Sweden to be the last satisfactory, mostly because, well, because - as Dagmar Friman and her cohorts are fictional, they don't actually ever get to make that much of a difference, you know?
67. Justice League
Let's see. Most of the plot was a rip-off from other superhero movies, and it felt like many parts were - missing? The whole Joss Whedon and his jokes came in and finished Zack Snyder's dark and serious movie didn't work for me. I liked their Barry Allen, I am willing to like their Aquaman if we get more of him, their Bruce needs a kick in the balls, and seriously, a collection of superheroes and their only solution to an alien invasion is to revive Superman? I need a new Wonder Woman movie...
68. Fröken Frimans krig season 3.
Still delightful - well, not the forced prostitution plotline, of course, but still. Those good old days of state run brothels... (I am sad that SVT has geo-locked season 4 and, since I don't have flow tv anymore, I have to wait until there's a dvd or Filmstriben (which doesn't yet have season 3) gets it.9
December
69. The Losers
It was supposed to be something like the A-Team, but it wasn't. Honestly, I remember very little of this, and it's not that long since I watched it.
70. The Lost City of Z
I very much enjoyed the exploration scenes and the interactions with the locals, but I must admit this felt like yet another "white people get eaten by the exotic parts of the world" movie, like Guldkysten. I dunno.
71. Star Wars: The Last Jedi
It had several scenes I enjoyed - Luke and Kylo Ren's confrontation, for instance - but ultimately, it just didn't work for me. It's not a bad movie, just - not for me.
72. The Numbers Station
Not the world's best movie, but I was entertained.
73. The Sound of Music
I'd seen the musical, but not the movie. It was okay. Why are there no other people in that town? Why can the kids and their governess run all over everything? But it was pretty technicolour and had nice songs. :-)
74. Hidden Figures
It was nice.
75. Bright
I've ranted about this movie on tumblr, so - let me just say this: it's a passable buddy cop movie delving into themes of racism and trying to ride the "black lives matter" wave, which the Luke Cage tv show did better, or at least I think so. And it has a bunch of traditional high fantasy tropes scattered throughout - orcs and elves, a few centaurs, a random dragon seen flying over LA, magic wands and a Dark Lord with no name - without the movie ever actually offering any worldbuilding to make them fit into an otherwise modern USA. On the contrary, everything apparently happened exactly like it did on our Earth - wars, pop culture. They reference Alamo, they reference Shrek - except there are also 9 races and a Dark Lord who might return and it makes no fucking sense.
It's the worst, crappiest, laziest urban fantasy world building I've encountered in a long, long time. The movie makers clearly haven't taken five seconds to consider how the existence of magic and entirely separate sentient species would have changed history and society. Instead? They added orcs and made them persecuted based on justification in a myth that sounds a bit like that story from the Bible with Barabbas. Which they haven't even considered how is supposed to weave together with real history.
I came hoping for urban fantasy and I found a movie that sucks at urban fantasy.
76. The Defenders season 1.
Well. That was - not my thing. It took forever for me to get around to finishing it - and let's be honest, the way they used Iron Fist as this show's Macguffin does not leave me wanting to watch the entitled brat's own show. But now I'm done, now I can go watch Punisher instead.
77. Colossal
This was actually a very creepy movie, and I am not talking about Anna Hathaway playing Godzilla...
This entry was originally posted at https://oneiriad.dreamwidth.org/482108.html, where it currently has
comments.
August
42. The Book of Eli
Not particularly exciting. And why did it have to be the Bible? Wait - US movie...
September
43. Arsenic and Old Lace
Still good second time around and it continues to be a delightfully funny movie. Though I did eventually change my mind about requesting it for Yuletide.
44. Dinotopia
I watched it mostly for young Wentworth Miller, and while I did enjoy many bits of the movie (and the CGI hadn't aged that poorly), well - I had issues with the worldbuilding, mostly involving how it felt like this Dinotopia was - pretty disinterested in individual rights like, say, giving teenagers a say in their own career - and the entire thing being set post-satellites and yet the rest of the world doesn't know about Dinotopia (a fairly sizable landmass) and Dinotopia is so isolated from the rest of the world that being told about the moon landing sounds like a great big joke to them? Yeah no. Isolated islands of wonder doesn't work half as well in that time frame as in the books'.
45. The Dark Tower
It has forgotten the face of its father.
46. The Lego Batman movie
47. Batman
Watching this for the first time in many, many years - and after an introduction by Jakob Stegelmann showing clips from really old superhero movies - was fun.
48. Prison Break season 3.
Hmmm. I dunno. Michael Scofield is a delight, and the story was short enough not to go meandering all over the place, but - I think this season was pretty clearly the showrunners going "we need to get back to our roots".
October
49. Gridlocked
It was fun. I mean, pretty standard buddy cop movie blended with assault on police station movie (is that a genre?), but it was okay. Or maybe I just like Dominic Purcell.
50. A Street Cat Named Bob
I really wanted to like this movie, but - the main character never really swayed me, and seriously, they couldn't have found a better acting feline? I dunno. I came for the cat and the cat failed to sway me.
51. Silence
Far too much torture porn for my taste.
52. Underverden
Another movie where I had hoped to like it better than I did. It felt pretty standard, even if the setting was Copenhagen and it added a layer of the conflict between integration and retaining your own culture.
53. Fröken Frimans krig
This was an absolutely delightful and visually pleasing mini-series, and I am delighted that there is more of it. Dagmar Friman is awesome - well, sometimes a bit short sighted and needs to check her own preconceptions, but still.
54. Moana
Very pretty.
55. The Great Wall
Visually lovely. I mean, the plot of an army trained to fight the aliens was a bit meh, and Matt Damon and co.'s random European mercenaries stumbling across the army didn't really add that much, but I enjoyed it while it lasted.
56. Thor: Ragnarok
I think this was my favourite superhero movie of the year. Though I really do hope Banner will get to come back from the Hulk - at the end of the movie, it didn't seem like he had yet, and the implications earlier on? Outlook not good. (And I am mad at them for cutting the scene right before Thor could hug Loki.)
57. Their Finest
This was a delightful movie. We follow the story of Catrin Cole, who sort of accidentally ends up a scriptwriter on a movie during the Blitz. We follow the entire movie production - casting - a blend of starlets, celebrities and the nice, but absolutely crap US soldier sent for political reasons, war ministry interference, and general ridiculousness. And it's lovely. Very recommended.
58. Doctor Who: Dreamland
This, on the other hand, was dull. At least it was short.
59. Moonlight
Oscar bait.
November
60. Life
Surprisingly creepy. Though I am a little disappointed that I read somewhere on the internet that the ending is not supposed to imply that Earth is about to get eaten...
61. Doctor Who: The Mind of Evil
62. Doctor Who: The Silver Nemesis
63. Doctor Who: Revenge of the Cybermen
Old school DW. I think my favourite was Silver Nemesis, with its time travelling witch and henchman getting freaked out by random llamas.
64. Historien om Danmark
Visually, this is a gorgeous tv show throughout. And that's what I stayed for. I must admit, after the first couple of episodes (stone and bronze age), I found that there wasn't really anything new in the documentary. It was a very standard retelling of Danish history, very uncontroversial actually - well, until the last episode, where the political right decided to have conniptions over the show deciding to follow a woman resistance fighter with communist leanings. But then, really, the right wing have conniptions over anything these days.
65. The Scrooge Mystery part 1.
A combined biography of Don Rosa and Scrooge McDuck, with a long interview with Don Rosa and brief interviews with various Donaldists from across the globe. It was delightful (and the post-movie Q&A session with Don Rosa did not make it less so), but I am sad it was only half the movie. I need the second half. Soon.
66. Fröken Frimans krig season 2.
Continues to be delightful, and I especially enjoyed Kinna's storyline. On the other hand, I actually find the plots that overlap with real women right's events in early 20th century Sweden to be the last satisfactory, mostly because, well, because - as Dagmar Friman and her cohorts are fictional, they don't actually ever get to make that much of a difference, you know?
67. Justice League
Let's see. Most of the plot was a rip-off from other superhero movies, and it felt like many parts were - missing? The whole Joss Whedon and his jokes came in and finished Zack Snyder's dark and serious movie didn't work for me. I liked their Barry Allen, I am willing to like their Aquaman if we get more of him, their Bruce needs a kick in the balls, and seriously, a collection of superheroes and their only solution to an alien invasion is to revive Superman? I need a new Wonder Woman movie...
68. Fröken Frimans krig season 3.
Still delightful - well, not the forced prostitution plotline, of course, but still. Those good old days of state run brothels... (I am sad that SVT has geo-locked season 4 and, since I don't have flow tv anymore, I have to wait until there's a dvd or Filmstriben (which doesn't yet have season 3) gets it.9
December
69. The Losers
It was supposed to be something like the A-Team, but it wasn't. Honestly, I remember very little of this, and it's not that long since I watched it.
70. The Lost City of Z
I very much enjoyed the exploration scenes and the interactions with the locals, but I must admit this felt like yet another "white people get eaten by the exotic parts of the world" movie, like Guldkysten. I dunno.
71. Star Wars: The Last Jedi
It had several scenes I enjoyed - Luke and Kylo Ren's confrontation, for instance - but ultimately, it just didn't work for me. It's not a bad movie, just - not for me.
72. The Numbers Station
Not the world's best movie, but I was entertained.
73. The Sound of Music
I'd seen the musical, but not the movie. It was okay. Why are there no other people in that town? Why can the kids and their governess run all over everything? But it was pretty technicolour and had nice songs. :-)
74. Hidden Figures
It was nice.
75. Bright
I've ranted about this movie on tumblr, so - let me just say this: it's a passable buddy cop movie delving into themes of racism and trying to ride the "black lives matter" wave, which the Luke Cage tv show did better, or at least I think so. And it has a bunch of traditional high fantasy tropes scattered throughout - orcs and elves, a few centaurs, a random dragon seen flying over LA, magic wands and a Dark Lord with no name - without the movie ever actually offering any worldbuilding to make them fit into an otherwise modern USA. On the contrary, everything apparently happened exactly like it did on our Earth - wars, pop culture. They reference Alamo, they reference Shrek - except there are also 9 races and a Dark Lord who might return and it makes no fucking sense.
It's the worst, crappiest, laziest urban fantasy world building I've encountered in a long, long time. The movie makers clearly haven't taken five seconds to consider how the existence of magic and entirely separate sentient species would have changed history and society. Instead? They added orcs and made them persecuted based on justification in a myth that sounds a bit like that story from the Bible with Barabbas. Which they haven't even considered how is supposed to weave together with real history.
I came hoping for urban fantasy and I found a movie that sucks at urban fantasy.
76. The Defenders season 1.
Well. That was - not my thing. It took forever for me to get around to finishing it - and let's be honest, the way they used Iron Fist as this show's Macguffin does not leave me wanting to watch the entitled brat's own show. But now I'm done, now I can go watch Punisher instead.
77. Colossal
This was actually a very creepy movie, and I am not talking about Anna Hathaway playing Godzilla...
This entry was originally posted at https://oneiriad.dreamwidth.org/482108.html, where it currently has
comments.