| Author | Message | ||
     Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8447 Registered: 05-2005 |
Ray Donovan, series five. Much fine writing and acting, somewhat diluted by the occasional massive suspension of disbelief required. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8454 Registered: 05-2005 |
Just saw Ladybird. Absolutely superb. It deserves whatever Oscars it gets. | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 1220 Registered: 08-2004 |
Winter Olympics and it's been very moderne. Not much of the ordinary downhill, do it quickly of yesteryear. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8460 Registered: 05-2005 |
The Bridge, season four, which just started on Australian TV last night. It was a stunning opening episode, truly astonishing. Hugh, I know you're a fan, have you see it all already? | ||
| Hugh Nimmo Member Username: Hugh_nimmo Post Number: 1059 Registered: 03-2007 |
Padraig, I have only watched Seasons 1 and 2 ( which I have on Blu-Ray ) to date. I will purchase Seasons 3 & 4 once Season 4 has been made available for sale in the U.K. Seasons 1, 2 and 3 were first broadcast in the U.K. on BBC 4. Season 4 has yet to start broadcasting but, when it does, it will be on BBC 2. I am currently watching Season 2 of The Bureau ( Le Bureau Des Legendes ) which I am thoroughly enjoying. Superb acting, casting, scripting and photography unlike Altered Carbon which was a huge disappointment. I enjoyed the book which I read many years ago. The TV Show is poor in comparison. The sad news is that my Denon AV Receiver packed in last night when I switched it on to watch Episode 7 of The Bureau: Season 2. It is only 6 months old and I have been told the repair / return may take up to four weeks so I am not going to be watching anything for a while. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1434 Registered: 10-2006 |
Also loving the Bureau!! Highly recommended to everyone. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8466 Registered: 05-2005 |
I must check it out. Thanks for the recommendation Hugh and Stuart. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8467 Registered: 05-2005 |
And, of course, I discover I already bought season 1 of The Bureau. Now I just have to watch it. | ||
| Hugh Nimmo Member Username: Hugh_nimmo Post Number: 1060 Registered: 03-2007 |
Padraig, I doubt very much if you will be disappointed. One of the best French TV shows released in recent years in my opinion. Up there with Spiral ( Engrenages ) which I also rate very highly. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1435 Registered: 10-2006 |
Also ended up liking Babylon Berlin quite a lot, especially for the testosterone-conjuring lead female performance by Liv Lisa Fries, who really gives you a character to root for – so much so that I almost kicked the TV in at one point. The main guy meanwhile is a tormented mix of Nigel Havers and Adrian Brody. Possibly too many irons in the fire to be really satisfying, but a good watch overall. | ||
| Hugh Nimmo Member Username: Hugh_nimmo Post Number: 1061 Registered: 03-2007 |
Sky have the exclusive rights here in the U.K. and unfortunately I only have subscriptions with Amazon Prime and Netflix. I believe it will be broadcast on Netflix in the U.S.A. later this year. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8480 Registered: 05-2005 |
Stormy Daniels on 60 Minutes. I have a new favourite Stormy Daniels film. Not that I had an old favourite Stormy Daniels film. They're all good. | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 511 Registered: 08-2005 |
Pádraig, great comment. I guess I'd better not watch her cinematic oeuvre on my work computer, then?! As for what I'm watching: England v Italy soccerball friendly. I've no idea why. It'll be dreadful; all England friendlies are, er, poor, and that's a generous reading. The only positive is that England won't (or shouldn't) go into the World Cup with any realistic expectations from the popular press. Losing in the quarter finals would be a decent outcome. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8483 Registered: 05-2005 |
Simon, I think the lack of expectation will serve England well. They could be dark horses this summer. Practising penalties wouldn't hurt though. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8508 Registered: 05-2005 |
I'm about to have a night of football watching, first Sydney FC v Melbourne Victory in the A-League semi-final, followed by Liverpool v Stoke. | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 1204 Registered: 04-2005 |
Vic Chestnutt - Everything I Say https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rPyQFmG mb4 Not exactly easy listening, but what a glorious noise from another troubled soul that we lost far too young. This whole house concert is stunning. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8552 Registered: 05-2005 |
A film made by John Peel about The Undertones. One of the sweetest music documentaries I've ever seen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0XCkrlo umE | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 1205 Registered: 04-2005 |
Cheers Pádraig...very enjoyable. John Peel played such a large part of my musical education for many years. I imagine that you have seen the film "Good Vibrations" ? Wonderful. Would you have any idea who the couple featured watching "Jimmy Jimmy" are at 1:02:15 ? The woman looks like the author Maggie O'Farrell but without her wild hair !? | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8555 Registered: 05-2005 |
Andrew, I don't think I'd recognise Maggie O'Farrell. Yes, I've seen Good Vibrations a couple of times. Wonderful, indeed. I interviewed Terri Hooley at the time. What a lovely fella. He was very pleased with Richard Dormer's portrayal of him and said he got him just right. | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 527 Registered: 08-2005 |
Pádraig, thanks for the Undertones link - I'll give it a watch. There's a documentary that's been on BBC4 a few times but I've not seen this. I interviewed the Undertones drummer, Billy Doherty, in 2010 for the cycling magazine I work on - he's a mad-keen cyclist - and I was invited back stage after the gig I interviewed him at. They were lovely, all their with their wives, and they have written a couple of dozen songs of classic punk-infused pop that stand the test of time. "He's got a degree in economics, maths, physics and bionics!" | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8574 Registered: 05-2005 |
The World Cup, of course. Pity there weren't good teams for the opener, but oh well. | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 534 Registered: 08-2005 |
Just watching my first game at the World Cup - and it's a cracker, presently Portugal 2, Spain 3 - though even I'd have saved the shot that spun in off of De Gea's hand or shin. Best keeper in the world? Not on that sort of evidence. And apparently a large but sparsely populated country in the southern hemisphere are playing tomorrow morning (UK time). And before people get pedantic, I am aware that in Australia it would probably be written as 'is playing' tomorrow, but I'm going by the everyday British-English usage. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8576 Registered: 05-2005 |
We were robbed. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8577 Registered: 05-2005 |
"We" being my second nationality in this case. Spain v Portugal was sublime, football at its absolute finest. It was one of the greatest football games I've ever seen. | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 535 Registered: 08-2005 |
Spain v Portugal was a great game. A team of fine footballers playing neat, possession football against a team dominated by one man at the very top of his game. Cristiano Ronaldo is not universally popular, and may have an ego the size of a small planet, but he can certainly play football, shows no sign of nerves and is not afraid of the big occasion. | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 1209 Registered: 04-2005 |
Tunisia v England Allez la Tunisie !!! ABE !!! | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 1210 Registered: 04-2005 |
Oh well, there's always Panama. For those who don't know... Anyone But England | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 1899 Registered: 08-2006 |
ABE, that's great. I watched the Mexico/Germany game, and here in Chicago (and I'm sure in LA) that was a BFD. It occurred the same weekend the sizable Puerto Rican community celebrates their independence, which is quite a wild party around here to begin with, but then throw thousands of overjoyed Mexican-Americans into the mix and it was a real wing ding. I read that all the simultaneous celebrating in Mexico itself caused a bona fide seismic event (true story). If we didn't get into earthquake range here, it was still great to see so many ecstatic faces everywhere I went yesterday. Vamos Mexico! | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 1225 Registered: 08-2004 |
VAR is no better than the naked eye judging by the first week. France shouldn't have had that penalty. Australia were indeed very unlucky. Iran almost did the impossible against Spain too. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8579 Registered: 05-2005 |
Jerry, I will respectfully disagree with you on VAR. It is a powerful addition to the game and has been used very well in the World Cup. | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 1228 Registered: 08-2004 |
I'm not sure if you're joking or not, Padraig. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8580 Registered: 05-2005 |
100% serious, Jerry. | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 537 Registered: 08-2005 |
I thought I'd posted this earlier but somehow failed to do so. On the whole I think that VAR has improved the decision-making process, notably overthrowing the Neymar 'penalty' and correctly awarding one to Iceland, even if they did make a mess of it. But that was never a penalty for France, while Harry Kane getting manhandled to the ground in the penalty area was somehow seem as acceptable. And, I'm guessing as a result of the law of unintended consequences, refs seem to be letting some really quite 'industrial' tackles go unpunished. Overall, though, it's been a very good World Cup so far. Some very good goals, and very good games with surprising results, Germany losing, Argentina losing... As for my money, it would be on... Germany, they'll come good, or Spain, they'll come good. Possibly. I'm not betting real money on this, though I did draw Peru in the office sweepstake! I made my first visit to the bookies in 2006, betting a fiver on Argentina at 7/1 and a fiver on Italy at 8/1; England were 6/1!!! | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 1230 Registered: 08-2004 |
Seems that VAR which is meant to be conclusive has 3 fairly agreeable people unable to agree on it's positives. IMO some good decisions some not so good. Just like always. That aside the 1st round has been exceptional. Certainly better even than 2002. Due to my odd life schedule I'll be walking to work during the next England match through Staines town centre. With all it's off-licences and public houses it could be a bloodbath or a rocking celebration. Also watching Gone Fishing with Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse. Very funny celebration of Brit comedy and the British countryside. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8609 Registered: 05-2005 |
The Man In The High Castle on Amazon Prime. A superb, distopian imagining of what might have happened if WW II went the other way. Has anyone else here seen it? I'd love to know how it's perceived in Japan and Germany. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 3938 Registered: 03-2005 |
Last night I made one of my rare forays to a movie theater and saw "Sorry to Bother You." The experience was particularly well-timed for me, following by less than a week an enlightening evening in which I decided to use public transit to run an errand up in the San Fernando Valley. I walked by my already-familiar local tent village observing that the people were clean and peaceful and doing their damnedest to make the best of a bad situation. I was headed for the subway. I emerged from the subway to the chaotic din of central Hollywood on a warm July evening. I saw the cars bearing Uber and Lyft badges buzzing and circling around the area, fully aware from my insurance lawyer job that most of the cars I saw were over-priced short term rentals driven by people who had already completed full workdays at jobs that weren't paying enough to support them. I remembered the viral video of Travis Kalanick lecturing one of his own Uber drivers about how he should "take responsibility for himself." As I waited for the bus to take me up into the Valley, I watched the young homeless mentally ill guy seated on the bus bench screaming out to nobody in particular about their sins and the other actual bus riders seated next to him ignoring him. And I was struck by a shocking lightning bolt: "I may be in danger of hating my own country." "Sorry to Bother You" is definitely a film of its time, an inevitably magic-tinged Hollywood take on the libertarian nightmare we have fallen into, an unmasking of the Tech Bro Ubermenschen and their wannabes who have done so much in the past decade to destroy the American working class and and the prisoner's dilemma type choices people are now confronted with on a daily basis. Yes, it had its over the top elements but mostly it was brilliant. I hope it means something for our future. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8627 Registered: 05-2005 |
I saw a couple of films in the past two days. It's been quite a while since I went to films two days running. Yesterday I saw a New Zealand comedy called The Breaker Upperers, which I liked, but it wouldn't be to everyone's taste - three of the seven people in the cinema walked out which is the highest walk out percentage I've ever come across. The trailer is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKVhDbe9 VOo And tonight I went to see Beirut. I went with a friend who is from Beirut to see if it was accurate to what happened there. It is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SagsqxiV StM | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 1245 Registered: 08-2004 |
The Meg and the equally terrible The Guardian (1990), a film by William Friedkin on autopilot and starring a robotic Jenny Seagrove. About druid sacrifice and nature being all powerful. It's glossy and soulless. The only interesting part was the radio show which has the voice of Deirdre O'Donahue introducing Wide Open Road by The Triffids. Which has the intro interrupted by an earthquake tremor. Deirdre's voice comes back with "Did you feel that too" which was eery because it was like she was in the same room. | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 1221 Registered: 04-2005 |
Benedikt Erlingsson's "Woman at War" Possibly the first Icelandic film that I have ever seen. A great wee film, highly original...loved the musicians and singers popping up everywhere. And a strong environmental/anti-captitalist message...which resonated with me as I had been on a demo last Saturday against the by-pass in the Dordogne valley for the village of Beynac. To briefly sum up, the valley of the river Dordogne is an UNESCO site, Beynac's mayor and his deputy spoke against the by-pass, the village's shopkeepers don't want it either...2 years of widening the existing road (cost 3 million euros) have lead to virtually no traffic jams this summer. And yet the "département" (the fifth most indebted in France) pushes through a ridiculous plan for 3 kms of new roads, 2 bridges and a tunnel. The latter will be in an area that regularly floods in winter. All this will cost 32 millions euros. An absolute farce. An egotistical project for the President of the Département, Germinal Peiro. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1466 Registered: 10-2006 |
One thing they never lack money for here in Italy is tearing up huge stretches of breathtakingly beautiful countryside in order to pour in massive amounts of cement for new bridges and motorways. You've probably all seen the devastation caused by the Genoa bridge collapse, but also probably asked yourself how such a wretched piece of work could be erected in the first place. Some years ago, where I live, there was a choice between laying a new bypass on a fairly flat piece of land to the north or burrowing through five hills and a bunch of lovely valleys to the south. Which idea won? Obviously, the most expensive and destructive. It's heartbreaking. If there's a petition going around for your case, Andrew - sometimes these things work, though the powers behind most construction work are dark and unyielding - then do share it! | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 1223 Registered: 04-2005 |
Cheers Stuart... https://dordogne.me/petition | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1467 Registered: 10-2006 |
Signed, shared and fingers crossed! | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 3952 Registered: 03-2005 |
Andrew, I sent it on to my francophile (and francophone) friend but I'm assuming non-EU people can't sign, right? Or can we because of the UNESCO angle? | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 1225 Registered: 04-2005 |
Randy, Not sure that there any restrictions as to who can sign ? I'm going to vist our vet in the village who seems very active in the protest, to learn a bit more about the current situation...but sadly the bulldozers are already working. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 3953 Registered: 03-2005 |
Signed, just in case. ". . . the powers behind most construction work are dark and unyielding . . . ." Stuart, you do have flair. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8640 Registered: 05-2005 |
I went to see Blackkklansman this afternoon. It's very good. It may be my third favourite Spike Lee film after Do The Right Thing and Inside Man. Not that I've seen many of his films in recent years. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 3955 Registered: 03-2005 |
I also saw Blackkklansman, Padraig. If I'm not mistaken it's only the third Spike Lee film I've seen. I consider "Do the Right Thing" a masterpiece though I suppose I should watch it again to see how it has held up. I also saw "Jungle Fever" which I consider not a masterpiece. I think Lee was just throwing a personal tantrum because his dad had remarried, to a white woman. I've always regretted missing the Malcolm X film. I saw a lot of great stuff in Blackkklansman. I thought he handled the dissonance of believing in the system when it obviously has some pretty serious problems quite well. I appreciated the nuance he gave to some of the cop characters. I was hoping Lee would find a way to explain the KKK people. They ended up as largely two dimensional characters, but I walked out of the theater thinking "I don't know how I'd have given them any dimension--any explanation--either." I guess I was hoping for a magic trick. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8642 Registered: 05-2005 |
Randy, yes, I considered Do The Right Thing a masterpiece when I saw it in Boston in 1989 and when I've subsequently seen it on TV once or twice. It's a long time since I've seen it, but I think it would hold up, given the times we live in. I've only seen Malcolm X once, but remember being impressed that they filmed part of it in Roxbury, an area I knew well because I had worked there. Well, they either filmed there for authenticity (because that was where Malcolm X lived from age 14-21), or they did a very good job of replicating it. Mo' Better Blues and Jungle Fever were both disappointing. Clockers was OK. Summer Of Sam was very good, as was 25th Hour, and Inside Man is one of the best heist films I've ever seen. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 3957 Registered: 03-2005 |
Padraig, I forgot the one other Spike Lee film I saw. It was his student film called "We Cut Heads" which I saw with several other shorts way back, possibly before I saw "Do The Right Thing." I remember it was well-crafted, set in NYC of course. It was a crime gambit film so maybe a precursor to "Inside Man?" |