| To: Ron who wrote (51279) | 4/17/2024 8:37:39 AM | | From: Doo | | | | | We enjoyed it very much. I wasn't wild about the lead actor, although I can't pinpoint what was rubbing me the wrong way about his performance. Overall, though, the piece was well done and visually stunning. |
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| To: Doo who wrote (51284) | 4/17/2024 10:08:02 AM | | From: Ron | | | | Andrew Scott was rather subdued I thought. Initially it bothered me, but then just added to the
sense of danger. The last time we saw him was as Moriarty in 'Sherlock'. Dakota Fanning was rather
subdued as well. Overall it was rather low-key for an American production, maybe one of the reasons we
liked it.
The series that pump up the volume and energy as if to say, don't look away, look here! We find those
a drag. American films pandering to shorter attention spans? |
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| To: Ron who wrote (51285) | 4/17/2024 10:23:11 AM | | From: Doo | | | | I'd not seen him before, and didn't know that was a Fanning - don't think I've seen her before, either.
Subdued? Yes. But there was something a little contrived in his constant expression. It made him a bit unbelievable or just distracting, for me anyway. Overall, we really enjoyed it. |
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| To: Doo who wrote (51286) | 4/17/2024 10:56:15 AM | | From: Ron | | | | Some critics complained because it was so unlike the original movie based on the book.
But one of the nice things about age and memory loss... I can't really remember the version with
Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
I do remember quite clearly the theater I saw it in. Memory is a funny thing.
imdb.com
My wife thinks this version was a better reflection of the book. |
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| From: koan | 4/27/2024 2:44:35 PM | | | | | | Watching the Diplomate on Netflix.
Boy is it good, IMO.
Really smart dialogue and very interesting story.
The recent Biden diplomatic success regarding Israel and Iran is sort of explained, as international diplomacy, in this series. |
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| From: Jhana | 4/28/2024 3:42:15 PM | | | | | | Another catch-up post: "Freud's Last Session" was a solid outing for Anthony Hopkins, who is older than Freud was supposed to be when this was set a few weeks before Freud took his own life (suffering from oral cancer). I see that it is now a rental movie; maybe the free period was a special intro?
APV: "Sister Boniface" and "Beyond Paradise" are turning our reliable formula shows like always. "Brokenwood" will return soon too.
PBS "Guilt" is back for a third go around tonight. The first two short seasons were pretty good, as I recall.
"Miracle Club" is a fun movie on Netflix about folks from a small Irish town going to Lourdes and making unexpected discoveries about themselves. Stellar cast. |
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| From: Jhana | 5/2/2024 1:25:07 PM | | | | | | Great news - season 1 was exceptional TV.
Coming in 2025
The Last of Us – Season 2 (MAX TBD) |
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| From: LoneClone | 5/7/2024 2:50:54 PM | | | | | | The Traveller (Le Voyageur)
Watching this French series was a very strange experience for me. Mostly it was not the content of the series that bemused me, so let me explain.
The first oddness was when the star of the series, Eric Contana, showed up on screen not wearing shorts. I had seen Cantona on screen many times before, but that was back in the early 1990s when he was one of the best football (soccer) players in the world, leading France and Manchester United to many titles. His football career fizzled out after he went into the stands and drop-kicked a fan – an even stranger story which ended up with the ‘fan’ serving jail time – but apparently after retiring from footy he decided to become an actor.
All that figured out, I settle in to enjoy the series. Contana plays a brilliant detective who got fed up with being told by his superiors to drop cases he thought he could solve, hence managed to get himself into a position where he would drop in to help local police forces with difficult to solve crimes. And Contana’s character really did drop out, selling everything including his house and driving to his assignments in a van he lived in while hunting, fishing, and doing odd jobs to survive. (I never managed to figure out if he was still getting paid as a policeman, but I don’t think so.) Hence the title of the series – he was living as a Traveller (or what we used to call a gypsy or Romany).
The first season of four 90-minute episodes was enjoyable as Contana’s character, well, travelled to gorgeous locations in the French countryside and interacted with interesting locals while solving interesting crimes. Imagine my surprise when the second season started and it was quickly mentioned, kind of offhand, that Contana’s character had been killed. Instead we get a new central figure, and this is where it really gets weird. He acquires Contana’s character’s van and even his dog and basically taken over as a mobile Traveller/cop. Unfortunately, without Contana the series didn’t really work very well. I managed to watch one more episode after that but, revealingly, no one has bothered making English subs for the remaining few episodes.
Then I did some research. Apparently Contana, who has Romany ancestry, was actually living the Traveller lifestyle during the filming of the first season, and then quit the show before the second season because it was interfering with that lifestyle. He still does the occasional movie, but I hope he’s happier with his life these days.
I would say the first season is definitely worth checking out, and maybe the first episode of the second season for the weirdness, but that’s it.
imdb.com |
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