Modern Vespa

We went to see Hamnet today. Highly recommended.

I just finished season one of Chad Powers on Disney+/Hulu... glad it got renewed!

A former college quarterback attempts a comeback as a walk-on player for a struggling team.

Just finished watching Mammoth. Lots of LOL moments. three episodes a season, two seasons shot four years apart.

In 1979 an avalanche catches Tony Mammoth unaware - thought dead, Tony is brought back to the land of the living in 2021

Just watched the Bruce Springsteen biopic "Deliver Me From Nowhere".

Decent enough movie, if very slow in places. Didn't know his health history or that he'd suffered with depression & nearly commited suicide, so that was a surprise. Maybe they should have put a trigger warning before the film started. 🤔

We watch "Mrs. Brown's Boys" on Britbox. It's a freaking riot!
Mrs. Brown is actually a guy, who writes the scripts. His real-life wife plays "her" daughter.
Highly recommend - but uses the f-word a lot, but it's not really offensive.

Wait, WHAT?

No lie! He/she is a freaking riot. She is approaching her later years, so is built like a linebacker. She even wears nickers which become visible every now and then. You just don't know what to expect. The gags are old, but their delivery makes them funny all over again. There are also new (to me) gags.
There is nothing sexual about the show, but the f-word flies around at times. It doesn't' come out as crude, just an old lady who is feisty and doesn't take any crap from anyone.

Currently watching Ridley Scott's "Robin Hood" with Russell Crowe & Mark Strong

We've been re-watching the animated Despicable Me/Minion movies.

They might be for kids, but there's enough off-kilter adult references in them to entertain us quite nicely, and the animation is absolutely top tier stuff.

Just like Mr. Magoo, although the animation was rather crude.

My brother and his wife get monthly passes. They watch a movie a week.

This year's crop is a bit weak. "One Battle After Another" is a very solid P.T. Anderson flick. I hope it takes Best Picture. The movie is deserving.

The rub is that "One Battle After Another" is far from his best work.

1.There Will Be Blood

2. Magnolia

3. Boogie Nights

4. Hard Eight

Hard Eight was his first real film. P.T. Anderson is Tarantino with a softer edge. I respect both of them.

Kind of a binge-watching afternoon recovering from Chicago traffic...

I'd bookmarked the documentary Twenty Feet From Stardom (2013) about backup singers, who I've always had a weakness for watching and listening for. They rarely get enough credit IMHO.
?si=bXQ3zBBznWXFKhd_

The next suggestion on YouTube was The Wrecking Crew (2008) about the group of studio musicians in L.A. that most of us were listening to for years without knowing. ?si=1lmsjpGqySpae577

While on a roll, I finished up with Muscle Shoals (2013) that I'd previously seen about a studio with a small group of musicians in this backwater town that produced the likes of Aretha Franklin, the Rolling Stones, Jimmy Cliff, John Prine and dozens of others. The first and only time I'd heard of it was in the lyrics of Sweet Home Alabama. Quite the compelling story. ?si=DXcO6PAPGgD56JHT

If you were alive and listening to music in the 60s and 70s and later, it's pretty interesting.

Thanks for the tip on Muscle Shoals. My neighbor grew up there and I lived about 70 miles upriver in Huntsville. I'll share the link with him; he'll get a kick out of it!

Two episodes left of the first season of UNTAMED on Netflix starring Eric Bana.

Set in Yosemite National Park, absolutely stunning camera work. Apparently it was only supposed to be a limited series, but they have ordered a second season due to the viewing figures. They are due to start filming again next month.

Hope he enjoys it. Great music history, the back story on the founder of the studio is pretty amazing in a sad way. What a life trajectory.

Who knew Helen Keller was born there too. Something in the water there for sure.

Currently in the 2nd season of Palm Royale on Apple TV.

It's a comedy/spoof of classic soap opera drama set in the late 60's/early 70's, where every scenario is way over the top.

Kristen Wiig and Carol Burnette are damn funny!

Yesterday evening we saw The Jerry Douglas Band at mim.org. Jerry is always fun, but he had a lead guitarist with the fastest fingers I've seen. Wicked fast, I'd say if I was still back there.





*Edited for spelling

The Traitors... UK version (and New Zealand version while waiting for new episodes to come out)

Not everyone's cup of tea but we love it

For a bit of motorsports fix, Peacock is streaming coverage of this year's Dakar Rally.

They also have coverage from the previous 3 years as well. It's worth a binge if you're cooped up inside.

TNG

Just got back from watching the 25th anniversary release of Fellowship of the Ring. However, having not ever seen it before, I couldn't tell you which bits were added for the extended edition that was screened. Really nice intro before the film from Peter Jackson & a few behind the scenes stories (including Viggo's surfing accident that changed the camera angles on the Mine scenes!) Some epic battle scenes, & the scenery shots in New Zealand were just breathtaking! Two Towers next Tuesday! 🥰

Rewatch of the "28..." franchise in preparation of the YEARS Trilogy...

I watched 28 Days Later, then 28 Weeks Later but the latter was too "Hollywood" for me...

I am glad Alex Garland & Danny Boyle are back for the YEARS trilogy... the first was excellent.

Two girls who just turned eighteen are having a slumber party. In between pillow fights, they order a pizza. But when the pizza guy shows up, they have no money to pay for the pizza. That got me thinking. Back in five.....


Fackham Hall
Incestus ad infinitum

It's as if Mel Brooks was forced to watch episodes of Downton Abbey until he went mad. I can't think of a single modern filmmaker who can make movies like this.
Frackham Hall is so tight and so well written, there isn't an extra line in the whole film.

Not sure if that's a recommendation to watch it or avoid it...

...let me guess, the pizza was large with extra sausage?

Just finished watching 4 episodes of a BBC series called "Riot Women"
Well written and not something men would generally decide to watch.
It is on BBC iplayer.

Second on "Riot Women". My wife and I watched it together. Funny, dramatic story about menopausal women who form a punk band. Written by Sally Wainwright (my draw) who wrote "Happy Valley" and "Last Tango in Halifax". We enjoyed "Riot Women" a lot.

Talking of BBC iPlayer I'm currently watching Mix Tape which is very good - https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m002fy6d/mix-tape

Still watching Star Trek Discovery and The Resident and also now watching Mobland - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31510819/

I had to get the soundtrack to listen as well ..

Although I live around 100 miles south of where the series was set in England, the music was what I was listening to in the 80's.

A week or so ago we saw Marty Supreme. What a dick! Anything this bozo could do to get what he wants except a job, he'd do.
Side bonus, table tennis!

We have been rewatching Stranger Things before watching the final season. By son doesn't like scary shows, but now he's hooked and wants to see the end.

Well......you asked....

THE most predictable, worn out storyline ever, but great animation and design. It's just ET in reverse, embarrassingly so.

Last night it was the Bond film, Skyfall, on Netflix.

As much as I really like Daniel Craig as Bond, the movie was just so filled with stupidly outrageous, unbelievable crap that I feel that I must give it a solid 2 out of 10, and I'm being generous.

I was surprised that Craig's 'Bond' was still using the same pipsqueak Walther PPK .380 that Connery's Bond had in 1964, and it apparently had damn near magical powers. Good grief James, that's 1931 weaponry dude, get with the times, eh?

So there!

Well, Bonds are for 12 year olds anyway.

But for that nostalgy-point, watched one Persuaders.
(those were also for 12rs.
-and of course the theme music is just THE classic.

I mean, that's pretty much a word for word description of EVERY Bond "film". And that's what makes them spectacular and popular to a certain genre of fans.

Kind of like the Star Wars movies.

(Ducking behind the couch)


I will say, however, as a kid, the Connery 007 films I first saw in the early 1960's were incredible, and I soaked up every second of them.

Agreed.

They were never meant to to be too closely analyzed by jaded old farts.

Old farts
Watching fiction and complaining it isn't factual/real.