Modern Vespa

We just finished watching Cunk on Earth.

It was fun seeing how the various interviewees responded to her. Some got with the spirit of the questions, some made earnest attempts to continue providing serious answers, and some were just nonplussed.

You left out Fifth Element. All three are excellent, and all of them stand out for different reasons.

(Okay, Fifth Element is an action comedy disguised as SciFi. But it's still awesome).

Can't argue with that.

I've seen clips of Australian Survivor on YouTube. I've looked into streaming it and I know at least one service I have has it.

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We've been watching The Last of Us and Poker Face.
Because of some of the actors in The Last of Us, we watched Chernobyl. It's a 5-episode miniseries about Three Mile Island Chernobyl. We found it to be very interesting.

I can't stand most comedic films, but I love SciFi, and this movie hit a happy balance. It's one of the few movies that I've watched more than once (I've lost count).

My top 3 if-it's-on-I'll-watch-it-no-matter-where-in-the-movie-it-is SciFi movies (in no particular order):

Fifth Element
GalaxyQuest
Starship Troopers

movie : Trial of the Chicago 7.

History lesson for my teen.

O.S.

Both have great production design thanks in no small part to Jean Giraud/Moebius. Giraud's 1976 comic The Long Tomorrow directly influenced the design of Blade Runner. Giraud was invited to work on the film but was unavailable at the time.

Giraud did work directly on the concept design for The Fifth Element and his influence can be seen throughout the film.


page from Moebius and Dan O'Bannon's The Long Tomorrow

I did not know this! Thanks much for the tip.

I would have to count Blade Runner and Fifth Element as two of my favorite films. The third is a bit of an outlier, though: Joe vs. The Volcano.

Some good shows I've watched recently…

1883, the Yellowstone prequel is outstanding in every way. Just perfect.

Extraordinary, a very sweary British super powers comedy is funny as f***.

Physical 100 on Netflix has amazingly fit Koreans competing to win a big cash prize. Strangely compelling viewing.

East New York - a police procedural, but a good one.

Babylon 5 (for at least the 10th time) - probably the best sci-fi tv show ever.

Jean Giraud is a huge figure in European comics. First class draughtsman with a vivid imagination. The Long Tomorrow is a good short story to dip a toe in. Or Arzach. Arzach is great.

I've not seen The Expanse. I'm putting it on my 'to be watched' list. Does it maintain over the six series? Does it finish well? I like to commit to long shows if I know they don't veer off the rails part way through.

The Expanse is worth the watch, but I do think that the first 1 or 2 seasons set a bar that they couldn't live up to in subsequent seasons. The style and tone of the show changed along the way, too — not in a bad way, but it definitely went in new directions.

I love Galaxy Quest. It is one of my "perfect movies"*. Everything just works; the casting is right on; it's a brilliant spoof without a mean bone in its body; perhaps the best Star Trek movie ever made. It's not easy to make fun of something (in this case somethings: both Star Trek and the Trekkie culture) and show affection for it at the same time.

I read Starship Troopers not long after it was first published. When I saw the movie, I didn't get the supposed irony of it - that it was actually deriding the fascist elements of the society rather than embracing them. I guess it was too subtle for me at the time. I should re-watch it.

*For me, a "perfect movie" (or song, or book, etc.) isn't necessarily great. But everything about it fits together perfectly in a very satisfying way no matter how many times I experience it. Examples are the aforementioned Blade Runner, plus Moonstruck, Fawlty Towers, Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow. There are more.

Oh, and J. S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos.

I watched and enjoyed "The Peripheral", mostly because the trailers showed a shot of Marshall, NC.

Marshall is just 15 miles north of Asheville, in the middle of some nice scooter roads.

There was one big scene on the bridge over the French Broad River that I have traversed many times solo and in groups.

That drew me in, but I found the story and characters to make for entertaining viewing.

Bill

Paul Verhoeven, the director, grew up in the Netherlands during the Nazi occupation. He purposely made the movie as a satire/parody of Nazi propaganda films. From what I've read, his intentions weren't initially clear when it first came out, but now are much more apparent.

Absolutely right. Christian is a little bit of a narcissistic sex addict.

A problem with satire is that you have to be familiar with the original object of it to get it. I'm not familiar with Nazi propaganda films.

Need I say more?

In my quest to avoid the Superbowl, I stumbled across TNT showing Godzilla: King of Monsters, followed by Rampage, followed by Kong: Skull Island.
Yes, please!

If you have access to HBO Max you will find a comprehensive collection of Godzilla movies. I have been re-watching a number of these films over the last couple weeks. I had forgotten how much fun they are and actually how several are just really good movies.

If you enjoyed King of the Monsters, I suggest you find the original Japanese 1954 version called Gojira (or sometimes just "Godzilla"). You will have to put up with subtitles but it is a much better movie than the Americanized "King".

I really enjoyed "Rodan" as well. Currently watching "Godzilla vs. Mothra".

Chris from CLE

I'm between streaming services at the moment, but...that's a strong reason to start with HBO next time! I use closed captioning all the time and I'm accustomed to subtitles from foreign films, so that's no problem. I'm ashamed to say that I haven't seen the originals yet...worth fixing when I get regular wifi access (or unlimited mobile data) again!

Still going through Animal Kingdom but nearly finished that, also watching Justified and Raised by Wolves.

Pretty diverse trio that.

Amazon Freevee has both "Night Court" and "Perfect Strangers" available for free.

I'm good for the rest of the winter.

If you liked Fifth Element you might like Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. Also from Luc Besson. It was a commercial flop, but I like it. Cara Delevingne looks just as good as Milla Jovovich did in FE.
I had watched it partway through when I realized I have a copy of the comic book it was made after.

Bullet Train. So much fun I watched it twice.

I just couldn't make it through much of that film. It was clearly a Guy Ritchie rip off that tried to be clever and fell flat for me. If you like action that is certainly there in spades. It just lacked that clever writing that Guy Ritchie is known for. But hey, with art it's whatever blows your hair back. I'm glad you found a new flick to enjoy!

Tonite, on PBS, I'm watching Midsomer Murders. I've seen it before, but it's still good. Not long ago, over satellite, I saw one of my favorites, Cowboys and Aliens. Bad reviews, but Mrs Syd and I really like it.

5th Element is very good, but my current favorite is Everything Everywhere All At Once. Fantastic!! Michelle Yeoh and Jamie Lee Curtis are worth the rental price.

We just finished the miniseries, High Water, the dramatization of events in Wroclaw Poland's 1997 flood. Pretty realistic, and a good story. I think the sense of impending doom kept us coming back for another episode. Not super flashy, but I really like the realism that resulted. I kept wondering how they managed to make flood scenes, but I'm old school, pre-CGI where you either turned on the fire hoses or did miniatures in the bathtub, lol.

Also pretty regular with Vienna Blood. PBS gets us pretty inundated with British locations and it's nice to see something set in a different region for a change.

Itchy Boots Season 7 just started on YouTube, she's riding North Africa this season, starting in Morocco.

Alternating between "Night Court" and "Perfect Strangers".

She just got stuck in the sand in Morocco and had to wrestle the bike out of it. She's a bit of a badass!

She is definitely a badass!
The stamina and endurance that girl has is incredible. I could never do what she's been doing.

The Queen's Gambit on Netflix.

Good one!

Just finished the Law According to Lidia Poet. 8 episodes. Set in the late 1880s Milan. I think a good part of production was dressing up the main character in vintage outfits. Pretty impressive, that.

I need to watch that, started with my wife and I didn't get back to it.

The last few things we've watched (including this) have had more than a bit of sex/nudity which has resulted in some interesting conversations about European vs. American attitudes about portraying such. That went a step further after watching The Secret of Roan Innish with a little kid running around nekkid (or was he a selkie, I forget...). Anyway, the great part of European nudity is it includes men so I can yell at the missus for peeking.

We just finished watching the "Tin Man" mini-series. This is a retelling of "The Wizard of Oz" story that is really worth watching.

I have noticed the same about European nudity.

I don't know how I missed hearing about Michael Cleveland. We went to the Musical Instrument Museum's 300 seat theater tonight to watch Michael and the Flamekeepers. Wow!, This guy can play! Before they started the host mentioned the documentary about Michael Cleveland, so I came home and watched it on YT. Holy Mackerel, what a talent!

watched the movie 'FALL' last night and found out that I (now) suffer from acrophobia!

I did really enjoy it though