[generic] What have you viewed recently?

Went to see Sisu at the cinema. Angry Finnish goldminer getting his own back on Nazis who stole his gold. Enjoyed it, but surprised it was only a 15 rating.

Started re-watching Torchwood. They all look so young!
 
Went to see Sisu at the cinema. Angry Finnish goldminer getting his own back on Nazis who stole his gold. Enjoyed it, but surprised it was only a 15 rating.

Saw the trailer for that, loads of swearing and violence, and a bit of a spaghetti western vibe about it?
 
American Born Chinese (on Disney+) is very much not what you might expect at first glance. It looks like the typical Disney comedy about a Chinese kid dealing with high school life and the everyday racism that permeates it. And it is, sort of, especially as the kid's father (with a past...) also experiences this. The kid even gets paired up with the new Chinese student at school, because they're both Chinese....

Did I mention that the new kid is the son of the Monkey King?

And at that point we explode into something quite wonderful. It's part high-school comedy, part action adventure, part middled aged love allegory. It has an excellent, mostly Asian cast including Michelle Yeoh, Daniel Wu, Ronnie Chieng, Stephanie Hsu and Ke Huy Quan - basically, the core cast of Everything Everywhere All at Once. James Hong even turns up as the Jade Emperor! The young actor, Ben Wang is excellent as the protagonist, Jin - with a properly mastered world weary 'I really don't know why this is happening to me' look most of the time.

The show is also very aware of it's roots. For most of the dialogue between Chinese characters, it's spoken in what I assume is Mandarin and then subtitled.

Oh, and there is an entire episode that is, essentially, done in the style of the 'Monkey' show many of us will remember from BBC2 as kids.

I heartily recommend it - after all, 'What could go wong?'*





* Watch the show!
 
American Born Chinese (on Disney+) is very much not what you might expect at first glance. It looks like the typical Disney comedy about a Chinese kid dealing with high school life and the everyday racism that permeates it. And it is, sort of, especially as the kid's father (with a past...) also experiences this. The kid even gets paired up with the new Chinese student at school, because they're both Chinese....

Did I mention that the new kid is the son of the Monkey King?

And at that point we explode into something quite wonderful. It's part high-school comedy, part action adventure, part middled aged love allegory. It has an excellent, mostly Asian cast including Michelle Yeoh, Daniel Wu, Ronnie Chieng, Stephanie Hsu and Ke Huy Quan - basically, the core cast of Everything Everywhere All at Once. James Hong even turns up as the Jade Emperor! The young actor, Ben Wang is excellent as the protagonist, Jin - with a properly mastered world weary 'I really don't know why this is happening to me' look most of the time.

The show is also very aware of it's roots. For most of the dialogue between Chinese characters, it's spoken in what I assume is Mandarin and then subtitled.

Oh, and there is an entire episode that is, essentially, done in the style of the 'Monkey' show many of us will remember from BBC2 as kids.

I heartily recommend it - after all, 'What could go wong?'*





* Watch the show!
Oh thanks, I wouldn't have considered this and now I shall.
 
Ghosts
BBC
The whole four series. Just loved it.

Now watching Hello Tomorrow on Apple TV. A retrofuturist tale of Lunar door to door salesfolk.

You know what, Apple TV is getting my attention a lot.
 
Saw the trailer for that, loads of swearing and violence, and a bit of a spaghetti western vibe about it?

There's swearing in it, but also large sections with no dialogue because it is just the lone goldminer getting on with stuff (be that mining or tracking down Nazis). It's not a 'hero makes witty one liners' kind of movie.
It's more like the Denzel Washington Equalizer movies than a spaghetti western. But without the bits where Denzel is cultured and well-read.
It's definitely in the "guy who doesn't do That Thing any more, is provoked out of retirement to do That Thing one more time" genre.
 
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I think what all this is telling me is that I don't buy enough streaming services!
I think I have only paid for 1 month of Apple TV ever, there are so many free trials and they seem to not care if you have used one before.
 
Watching Ant Man Quantumania. It's really quite Star Wars, Möbius, Guardians of the galaxy in styling.

Fun. I like the funny ones.
 
Tonight: Avatar: Way of Water
Pretty and despite being very long, very watchable. Good genre dive for Blue Planet as well.. not the same.. but *could* be.
 
Man! This weekend was on a whole new level. Childhood rap music and funky jams, including L. L. Cool J's "Mama's said knock you out" in the Bumblebee action scene. Maybe because I am black myself, but, hot damn, I did not even care about the storyline, just the nostalgia was epic!

But my favorite action sequence was the one featuring Arcee. Some of the enemy fire she dodged was just totally ace, especially the missile.

"Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" and so much better than Michael Bay's versions. Here the Autobots actually sported cool retro-classic morphs.

Transformers-Rise-of-the-Beasts-arcee-and-wheeljack-1122x667.png
 
I wonder if some of the movies these days are just nostalgia trips?

Anyway, here is the soundtrack of "Rise of the Beasts" for those who experienced a similar childhood like mine.

https://www.nme.com/news/film/every-song-on-the-transformers-rise-of-the-beasts-soundtrack-3452680

‘C.R.E.A.M.’ – Wu-Tang Clan
‘Check The Rhime’ – A Tribe Called Quest
‘Anything (Old Skool Radio Version)’ – SWV
‘Represent’ – Nas
‘Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)’ – Digable Planets
‘The Choice Is Yours’ – Black Sheep
‘Mama Said Knock You Out (Sam Wilkes Remix)’ – LL Cool J
‘Hypnotize’ – Notorious B.I.G.
‘On My Soul’ – Tobe Nwigwe, Nas & Jacob Banks
 
The only advantage of my office phone is my Apple subscription.

I still consider Isaac Asimov's Foundation the best of classic SF.

Session 2 stops on 14th July.

 
Extraction 2 - decent sequel to the Netflix hit. Never quite goes over the top. I mean, it’s unrealistic but never ridiculous. Leaves an opening for a third instalment.

John Wick 4 - watched on the plane to South Africa. Long. Very long. Beautifully choreographed fight scenes but I must confess I was getting a bit bored at points. Overall I enjoyed it.
 
Extraction 2 - decent sequel to the Netflix hit. Never quite goes over the top. I mean, it’s unrealistic but never ridiculous. Leaves an opening for a third instalment.

Thoroughly enjoyed it but I thought the train was ridiculous. Not the stunts/action on the train. But the fact that someone had provided it in the first place. I imagine a deleted scene at the planning stage...

Fixer: So they need guns - check. Ammunition - check. Body armour - check. SUVs with bulletproof glass - check. Helicopters on standby - check. And WTF? A train! A train with...? Where the hell am I going to source and refit a train???
 
We are about three or four episodes into Silo on AppleTV+. I’ve read the trilogy a few years back and so far it seems like a fairly faithful adaption. Books 1 and 3 will be the easiest to adapt - it will be interesting to see what they do about book 2 which is a prequel to the other books.
 
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