Gryzemuis on 21/9/2019 at 16:59
Thanks. I'll watch Okkupert. I might check out your other suggestions later. (I'm allergic to Lars von Trier, so I need to be careful what I watch).
Tommyph1208 on 24/9/2019 at 09:08
Quote Posted by demagogue
The best Scandinavian series I've seen lately was Occupied (Norwegian: Okkupert) about Norway being quietly (at first) occupied by Russia. It was right after the quiet occupation & annexation of Crimea so it suddenly felt like something that could just happen one day. The geopolitics part isn't even the important part IMO; if you took away the historic paranoia of sharing a border with Russia (important to the target audience but not really me), it could have been fictional countries. It's just fascinating to see how an occupation & puppet government and all of that stuff familiar from the Cold War era would play out in our current era. And it's played like an historic drama / action movie, so it's fun to watch.
The others I have on my list are Danish, Rejseholdet/Mobile Unit, which I think is what made police procedurals a thing there (the episodes are kind of quaint and cliche by the police show standards now, but it's the classic anyway), and Riget/The Kingdom which I guess is exactly the kind of supernatural medical drama horror you'd expect Lars von Trier to make, for better and worse.
I'm from Denmark and remember liking Rejseholdet, but it must be almost 20 years ago by now that I watched it, so I was also just a teenager (back when it aired on danish television). Could be an interesting re-watch today, when the genre has developed so much, and fun seeing characters like Mads Mikkelsen from before he became a big-shot. Riget I only watched small parts of and yes, I think you are right in your expectations on that.
Did you watch Broen?
Tocky on 25/9/2019 at 01:47
Finally saw "The Dead Don't Die". Wish I hadn't. It was a zombie movie with Bill Murray. By all rights it should have been a no brainer win. It was a no brainer lose. The writing was the laziest thing I've ever seen. Laconic buildup. Laconic middle. Just give up and do stupid shit end while still being laconic. It even broke the fourth wall. Nobody even tried to make it decent. Shit writer. Completely shit. Not a smidge of funny. Not a whit of wit. Not a scare to be found. Not only did you not care about the characters but you wanted them to die only you felt cheated you couldn't kill them yourself. Particularly the writer.
SubJeff on 26/9/2019 at 01:57
Quote Posted by Tocky
Finally saw "The Dead Don't Die". Wish I hadn't.
This the Adam Driver film? If so, thanks for the warning. I'm disappointed though, as I was looking forward to it.
I'm watching The Capture on BBC. Very good.
Also saw The Boys. Surprisingly high quality, or not I suppose - it does have Karl Urban and Elizabeth Shue in it.
Starker on 26/9/2019 at 02:05
Quote Posted by Tocky
Finally saw "The Dead Don't Die". Wish I hadn't. It was a zombie movie with Bill Murray. By all rights it should have been a no brainer win. It was a no brainer lose. The writing was the laziest thing I've ever seen. Laconic buildup. Laconic middle. Just give up and do stupid shit end while still being laconic. It even broke the fourth wall. Nobody even tried to make it decent. Shit writer. Completely shit. Not a smidge of funny. Not a whit of wit. Not a scare to be found. Not only did you not care about the characters but you wanted them to die only you felt cheated you couldn't kill them yourself. Particularly the writer.
Oh no. I was looking forward for it too.
Tocky on 26/9/2019 at 02:54
Yeah. It hurt my feelings. I've never seen Bill Murray in a stinker before this. I love zombie flicks. I WANTED to like this. I TRIED to like it. I gave up a hard fought battle about a third of the way in and watched the whole thing getting more and more depressed it was so bad. It broke the fourth wall for godsake. Only the laziest writer does that. Didn't even try. The only part mildly funny was that only one person showed any emotion in the whole film and that was the female deputy and she went way overboard. I don't think that was intentional though. It's kind of like the writer hated zombie movies and somebody MADE him do one.
They even spent part of the flick building up some small measure of feeling for a kid who knew horror and even Creepy magazine only to spend him needlessly and foolishly. They showed what happened to him so I suppose that is something. With some you had an inkling of like for they just did a POW here they are dead. At least they didn't wreck the 68 Lemans.
Starker on 26/9/2019 at 03:45
Well, I don't think breaking the fourth wall is necessarily bad in a comedy. Mel Brooks and Monty Python did it a lot. And there are lots of other examples... Airplane!, Wayne's World, Austin Powers. And even some of the less goofy ones like Amelie. Hell, Princess Bride has it as a part of its framing device. But if it's done in a bad way and doesn't match the tone of the film, it can certainly be very irritating.
For me, the laziest thing a screenwriter can do is have a scene with the characters just standing around and telling jokes. If you're not making use of the visual medium, you might as well be doing a radio play. Every Frame a Painting has a really good video on this:
[video=youtube;3FOzD4Sfgag]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FOzD4Sfgag[/video]
Here's the opening of Shaun of the Dead to further illustrate his point:
[video=youtube;Hj_dbS3PEH0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj_dbS3PEH0[/video]
henke on 26/9/2019 at 15:23
Early shoe-in for Best Animated Short Oscar:
[video=youtube;uohuu93G00U]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uohuu93G00U[/video]
Gray on 27/9/2019 at 22:49
Quote Posted by Gryzemuis
OK, I' watch it.
(The Guest) Just because of the music and your recommendation.
I'll discuss Clan Of Xymox in the music thread.
I'm gonna count that as a win for quality culture.
rachel on 28/9/2019 at 08:02
I'm currently catching up with the second season of Hip Hop Evolution on Netflix and I'm reallly diggin' it. Great documentary series.