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A few reviews

Vultural

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Women, Sex and Society - Timewatch Guide - 2016 - 5/10

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Hour “documentary” about women’s fight for rights over 100 years.
Three eras:  Suffragette movement of 1890s, the Swinging 60s, and the 90s.
Talking heads skim the surface.  Suffragette radicals, fight for abortion, employment.
Numerous popular movies would serve the curious better.
Suffragette from 2015, or 2010‘s Made In Dagenham.
This whole production felt like a homework assignment.  Badly padded, at that.
 

ssj

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A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night — 2014 — 6.5/10

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tone poem with great visuals and music, but not much of a story.
still, i enjoyed seeing my first ever vampire flick in farsi.
black and white cinematography is gorgeous, and i was happy to discover music by bei ru and radio tehran.

was hoping the tale would give me something more to think about.
 

Vultural

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^ Talk about coincidence ^

Under The Shadow
- 2016 - 6/10

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Offbeat, and off the beaten track ghost story from Iran.
Near 1988, the end of the Iran - Iraq War, a bombed out roof allows a djinn to enter an apartment.
Or is does it ride in with the haunted orphan boy from Abadan?
Unclear, in a good way.  Items go missing and an unease descends.
Soon enough, inhabitants divide between believers and scoffers.
As bombings intensify, those who believe in spirits do the proper thing - they run.
Leaving behind, a mother and daughter.
Usually I would never watch any US film with the “kid in peril” device as they are 98% predictable.
This, being an Iranian production, will upset predictions.
Good spook story.

Note - I downed several subs and was happy with none.  Typos, odd timestamps, no caps for names.
I tweaked a set and uploaded if you need - http://www.addic7ed.com/movie/119833
 

Vultural

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Somm:  Into The Bottle - 2015 - 6/10

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Winesnobs, score higher.  Everyone else, prepare to stroll.

Checklist to see if you qualify.  (The correct answer is “A” every time.)
1)  Preferred evening drink:  A - alcohol, B - soft drinks, C - diary,  D - water,  E - nothing.
2)  What sort of alcohol:  A - wine,  B - beer,  C - cocktail.
3)  Wine with:  A - dinner,  B - crackers n cheese.
4)  Favorite place to dine:  A - away from home,  B - home.
5)  Restaurant wine list is:  A - at least 10 pages long,  B - house red or house white.
6)  How much will you spend on bottle:  A - $100 or more,  B - $99 or less,  C - are you crazy?

Wine documentary divided fairly equally between vintners (growers, bottlers) and sommeliers.
Vinters matter-of-fact about what they grow, challenges, how the wine ought to taste.
The sommeliers are selling a story, though.  They want you to spend for that $350 bottle.
“Because it is so special - - just like you.”  Sure ...
Mention given to Mondavi and Parker, both of whom I regard as bad influences -
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0411674

I enjoyed, albeit bemused.  My bride and I, while hardly connoisseurs, are “steady” drinkers, meaning 4-5 bottles per week.
But triple digit bottles?  C - are you crazy?  I could, and do, buy cases for that price.
 

Rogue-theX

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1: D
2: A/B
3: A
4: B
5: idunnowtf
6: under 10 dollars is nice cause that's how I roll.
 

TM2YC

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I drank my diary once. I got ink poisoning.
 

Rogue-theX

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I lost a leg climbing up the top sails.
I lost my leg!

I don't know why, I was drunk at the time.
 

Vultural

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Bedelia - 1946 - 6/10

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Based on Vera Caspary novel of honeymoon couple in Monte Carlo.
She is rich, he is not.  1st marriage for him, 2nd for her.
A wandering painter wants to do her portrait, she refuses.
Just as she adamantly stops any photographs being taken of her.
Sluggish tale of the past trailing after the shady soul.
Caspary also wrote Laura and was always angry that Preminger reduced the title heroine to an empty nothing.
Bedelia is more conniving and multi-layered, but the pace oozes along.
 

Gaith

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Passengers (2016)

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This movie seems to have upset a lot of people. The marketing apparently concealed the movie's premise, which occurs in the first act of the movie and therefore, to my mind, cannot reasonably be called a spoiler. I mean, I'm all for not spoiling things for people, but so long as one isn't gratuitously giving away fun moments, discussing stuff that happens in the first act, especially when they're the movie's basic premise, isn't spoiling, IMO. That said, it can also be fun to go into a movie cold. I knew the premise going in, but I'd recommend sci-fi fans rent this knowing as little as possible.

My actual spoilery thoughts on the movie can be read here. It may not have been the most enlightened story/movie of all time, but I wasn't offended, and I'm frankly disappointed that so many online geeks have attacked it for being a big-budget sci-fi flick that dares to present a thorny moral story, and then fawn over deritivate dreck like Star Trek Beyond, in which Kirk surely loses dozens of crewmen, and a few days later is joking about how fun "flying" in space is. Well, let it be known that Passengers has more moral complexity than the three nuTrek movies combined. Also, it's a reasonably well-made space yarn. Does it depicts saints acting flawlessly? No. Does it glorify bad deeds, as some have suggested? Heck, no. Anyhow, I liked it.

B+
 

Vultural

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Victorian Slum - 2016 - 6/10

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Not what I anticipated.
I expected a documentary, but this is of modern families reliving Victorian poverty in the slum.
Decade each:  1860 - 1870 - 1880 - 1890 - 1900.
Some are tradesmen, others grocers, bottom rung is unskilled.
Food is what would be available, work is manual, restrictions and limitations.
Apparently participants lived in the accommodations for three weeks, so this may be more “authentic.”
Last episode - 1900 - is the eye-opener, relevant to today.
Increased global competition (from Germany and US) means more goods for the poor, but fewer jobs.
Worrisome if you believe history runs in cycles.
 

Vultural

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American Experience:  Mary Pickford - 2004 - 7/10

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Fine documentary on America’s sweetheart, from the Silent Era.
Good collection of stills, clips from her films (including Griffith shorts), newsreels. home movies.
One gets a good feel for Pickford the actress, professional, and business woman.
What is unseen, is Pickford’s private life, the person under the role.
Especially after she quit acting and became a recluse.

I have to be in the right mood to watch Pickford.
She excelled at radiating purity and innocence, which I am seldom in the mood for.
An influential actress, her audiences insisted she portray young girls (even into her 30s).
Tastes can change overnight.  She was abandoned when 20s theater goers opted for sleeker models.
Most movie stars seem to end up badly, personal opinion.
 

Gaith

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The Story of Ireland (2011)

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A five-part BBC/RTÉ documentary miniseries featuring one Fergal Keane giving a narrative-focused recounting of Ireland's history, which I've been woefully ignorant of. I knew tale would be a contentious one, but even though I majored in History in college, I was unprepared for and startled by the extent of the viciousness and violence, especially against civilians and fellow countrymen, unleashed over the centuries. Yikes.

Though Keane is careful to discuss ways in which the outside world shaped Ireland's story and vice versa, he never really delved into what most strikes my agnostic Yank self about all the strife - namely, the absurdity of all these devout Protestants and Catholics being such bitter enemies. You're all Christians, for Pete's sakes! Haven't you read that book about Christ? You're all doing it wrong! Nor does he much examine the irony of the Irish Catholics being perennial underdogs over centuries in which the Catholic Church dominated European politics. Their fierce and long-standing rebellion was forever in service of... the most hierarchical and dogmatic institution then known to Western man? The (again, agnostic Californian) mind boggles. And in the whirlwind of the last hour, which covers the 1916 Easter Rising to the Great Recession, he doesn't even mention the first Papal visit to Irish shores in 1979. Oy!

Anyhow, a lively, and intelligent series, chock full of beautiful views of wilderness and countryside. With my ignorance of Irish history and culture noted, I give it an A- for engaging viewing value alone.
 

Vultural

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^ Ha!  Speaking of Ireland v


Dara O’Briain:  Comedy Tickler - 2016 - 7/10

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After watching, with minimal enjoyment, Dawn French's confessional standup, others suggested Mr O’Briain.
Thank you.  Thank you.
O’Briain, who hosts the savagely funny Mock The Week delivers the goods.
Topics range from uncertain fame (“Hey, aren’t you Al Murray?  Hey, pub landlord!!”)
to over-sharing, to rampant false empathy, best of all, a running gag leveled at Jedi’s Mon Mothma.
“Many Bothans died ... “  Sad sad sad, despair, guilt, la la la.
At one hour, this packs plenty of laughs.
 

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Gaith said:
Passengers (2016)

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This movie seems to have upset a lot of people. T....
B+

Gaith, witha  fan edit, how much of people's problems can be fixed to make this an "A" movie?
 

Moe_Syzlak

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Gaith said:
Passengers (2016)

mmeuiuihstnofiottppb.jpg


This movie seems to have upset a lot of people. The marketing apparently concealed the movie's premise, which occurs in the first act of the movie and therefore, to my mind, cannot reasonably be called a spoiler. I mean, I'm all for not spoiling things for people, but so long as one isn't gratuitously giving away fun moments, discussing stuff that happens in the first act, especially when they're the movie's basic premise, isn't spoiling, IMO. That said, it can also be fun to go into a movie cold. I knew the premise going in, but I'd recommend sci-fi fans rent this knowing as little as possible.

My actual spoilery thoughts on the movie can be read here. It may not have been the most enlightened story/movie of all time, but I wasn't offended, and I'm frankly disappointed that so many online geeks have attacked it for being a big-budget sci-fi flick that dares to present a thorny moral story, and then fawn over deritivate dreck like Star Trek Beyond, in which Kirk surely loses dozens of crewmen, and a few days later is joking about how fun "flying" in space is. Well, let it be known that Passengers has more moral complexity than the three nuTrek movies combined. Also, it's a reasonably well-made space yarn. Does it depicts saints acting flawlessly? No. Does it glorify bad deeds, as some have suggested? Heck, no. Anyhow, I liked it.

B+

I haven't seen the movie, but it seemed to me the issue was with the marketing (as you stated). They marketed it as a rom com in space. Had they marketed honestly I don't think the thorny moral issues would've irked so many.
 

thecuddlyninja

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^For me, the issue isn't that the spoilery thing happened (marketing didn't lie just left out the circumstances of one awakening), it was that they DID treat it as a rom-com afterward. They never really dealt with the ramifications of it properly IMO. This movie is getting too much hate, but I didn't think it was very good either.
 

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revel911 said:
Gaith, with a  fan edit, how much of people's problems can be fixed to make this an "A" movie?

Though I love this board, I don't often think a movie can be significantly improved by fan editing. I think this is a good, not great, flick as it is, and doesn't need any messing with.


thecuddlyninja said:
For me, the issue isn't that the spoilery thing happened (marketing didn't lie just left out the circumstances of one awakening), it was that they DID treat it as a rom-com afterward. They never really dealt with the ramifications of it properly IMO. This movie is getting too much hate, but I didn't think it was very good either.

I respectfully disagree that they didn't deal enough with the ramification of the thing - as I recall, they probably spent around 15-20 minutes on it, which is far more reaction to an ethical choice in your average big-budget flick. And as I said in the post I lined above, once things are talked out, the affected character really doesn't have much of a choice in how to proceed until the very end, due to plot mechanics. The very narrative setup that makes for an interesting moral dilemma also sharply limits the possible sensible reactions to said dilemma. As I said in the aforementioned linked post, I would have preferred a different choice made in the last few minutes, but no fan editing will satisfyingly fix that, I'm afraid.
 

DSM2337

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thecuddlyninja said:
^For me, the issue isn't that the spoilery thing happened (marketing didn't lie just left out the circumstances of one awakening), it was that they DID treat it as a rom-com afterward. They never really dealt with the ramifications of it properly IMO. This movie is getting too much hate, but I didn't think it was very good either.
I agree with Gaith. I felt the thorny issue was neither glossed over or sidelined. There was a proper reaction that played out in a manner that felt true to me. I liked the film, but I didn't go in expecting a rom com in space, but a desert island scenario, in space :)
 
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