Onyx2

6 minutes ago, Loki said:

I can't recall having seen any other films by that director though.  I just looked him up and there's a couple that sound worth tracking down

I did exactly the same. It was fairly standard 1980s TV blocking until a few shots which made me want to find out who it was, and he seems like a bit of a journeyman. Nothing wrong with that but I thought I'd discover he had several classics under his belt. 

I watched The Long Good Friday (Prime) for the first time yesterday. What a ride! Bob Hoskins is peak Hosko, all swagger and menace with a smile. Helen Mirren stands up really well to him, and there is an incredible cast of 'oh it's him!' (Alan Ford! Derek Thompson! Pierce Brosnan! Karl Howman! Bill Moody! Paul Barber!). The action is tense and the mystery intriguing, with some more interesting camerawork than this gangster flick really deserves. 

Then there's this little rant right at the end that sounds the most gammon-favoured Brexit rant you've ever heard (you could watch this out of context from my timestamp, it's a tiny bit spoilery but not really to the main plot)

...yet ends with "we're in the common market now, we will be the capital of Europe." Exactly the same arguments used by Farage turned on it's head. "We'll shit 'em!"

Then the actual final scene is pretty much a shot held on Hosky for about 90 seconds without a cut. Sensational. Oh and the soundtrack is a belter. 

Aside from the actual film I enjoyed seeing the Docklands area of London pre-Canary Wharf. Fascinating to see and for them to talk about hosting the 1988 Olympics there.

NB there is a small amount of dodgy racist language if you were considering watching. Not a lot but worth mentioning. 

Ross's wink to camera. Amazing.

7 hours ago, Loki said:

I don't ever go on Twitter or Facebook or anything so I don't see the reactions

You are a very intelligent man.

On 1/15/2024 at 10:16 PM, ReturnOfTheMack said:

Funerals... I've seen some odd stuff in my time running graveyards.

A personal fave was when a guy who was a proper film buff wanted to have the main theme from his favorite film- the Russell Crowe starring 'Gladiator'- playing as his family left the cremation service.

There was a miss communication somewhere and his family left to the theme song to the TV show 'Gladiators'

Reminds me of this

22 hours ago, Joe Blog said:

Into the West by Annie Lennox for me, not a dry eye in the house. 

Ah that's one I've always had pigeon holed too. Belting funeral tune. 

I grew up on a street where everyone was really close. I moved away years ago, sadly one of the old neighbours passed away. At the crematorium I was chatting to one of my old neighbours and started talking about pets we had back then. Turns out he'd had several dogs pass away in the intervening years. 

Completely earnestly, he said "I'd get another dog, but honestly I'm running out of room to bury them in the garden." 

I had to scurry away stifling laughter. 

7 hours ago, Keith Houchen said:

All the old style cinemas will be cracking Wetherspoons in the near future. 

Sadly that's true of The Peter Cushing in Whitstable - although at least the building is being used for *something*. 

Popped to Whitstable on a day trip and needed the loo, a Wetherspoons is always a safe bet. The toilets were upstairs and it's then I twigged they'd been sited in the old projector booths. The bar is where the screen was, and there's an enormous frieze of cinema goers looking at the back of your neck while you order a drink. 

3 hours ago, mim731 said:

I had a weird dream last night (we watched the most recent episodes of S2) that featured Claudia revealing that someone had been an undercover Traitor the whole time, unknown to the nominated Traitors, secretly pulling other strings in the background and this was then revealed to The Traitors AND the audience. Not suggesting this is a good plan, in fact it's probably a Russo-riffic swerve of an idea, but as it existed randomly in a dream it felt worth sharing. 

Fully plating up a huge serving of egg ready to beface, but I've had my suspicions about Zack for a while. He's been sort of prominently featured, saying very weird things, but largely not being part of the main stories. I'm fully expecting a Keyser Soze-esque reveal at some point.

23 hours ago, SuperBacon said:

I didn't watch Champion of Champions, as love of my life Mae Martin was unable to do it, but will give it a watch at some point.

It may be Maeless but Kiell brings both unpredictability and a chip on his shoulder. It's a fantastic episode. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/C2D_rilpBfe/?igsh=OGMyY2FkeTdiMWI3

Wonderful cliffhanger end to the week. 

In other news, I saw Kieran and Fay from S1 at the Excel today. They both seemed very nice. 

1 hour ago, Merzbow said:

Vince watching the moment Giant came out tho.

Richard Osman was grousing at the name, as he's 2 inches taller than Giant. 

Never mind.

There's a giraffe bit in Wonka (look at me with all the spoilers!) and it occurred to me at that point that is exactly what a Fantastic Beasts movie should've been. The whole thing had the right tone for the premise they'd setup, so that a Grindelwald - Dumbledore feud / love story could be told in a different film altogether.

On 1/9/2024 at 10:46 AM, mim731 said:

If they don't put this out on a t shirt, they've missed a trick.

 

 

Ta-da

40 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

RuPaul has invested in fracking, and has had some pretty problematic attitudes towards trans people that he's never properly walked back

Walked back, publicly apologised;

https://www.aclu.org/news/lgbtq-rights/rupauls-drag-race-finale-drag-defense-fund

and featured all different flavours of contestant since then; trans, non-binary, straight, fem presenting and masc presenting. 

Can't speak about the fracking but the trans stuff has been put to bed. 

Fairly sure I recommended one of (their? I think they may be non binary now) books on here, there was one about using tinned food that was ingenious. 

25th anniversary brings a lovely BBC article:

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240105-how-the-sopranos-began-as-a-comedy-about-a-mother

1 hour ago, Scratch said:

played through Mega-Lo-Mania on the Mega Drive

I played the Amiga version first so I could never understand the controller config after being spoiled by mouse controls. Well played! (literally) 

1 hour ago, Devon Malcolm said:

I've absolutely no idea who almost all these people are and that can only be a good thing.

Sadly Jack Monroe and ManBehavingDadly are very local to me so they're relatively minor celebs. Disappointing in both tbh as any good work they have done has been mullered now.

Maybe all us Essex lot are born grifters, innit? Stay lucky, oi oi! 

57 minutes ago, Scratch said:

I’d imagine the chances of any modern computing device still working flawlessly in 40 years time is almost zero.

2 hours ago, BigJag said:

Oh absolutely.

I'm pretty sure stuff like Stuntman, BMX Simulator, and Kickstart were in those bargain selections.

 

The Mastertronic special. 

My sister worked at a newsagents in the early 80s and got me this poster. Had it on my wall for ages. 

Prepare to lose about an hour watching videos off this account.

Getting to a thread too late means you miss all the good ones: Michael Palin is the nation's favourite uncle and feels thoroughly decent in every way, and the thought of no new John Williams music makes me very sad - every year since they've done it Spotify have told me he's my favourite artist. I've wanted to write a book about John Williams for ages but I lack the technical music knowledge to fully get across the connections in his work ("it gets loud here like this other song, do you understand?!")

Fully on-brand for me but Heston Blumenthal will shatter me for days. I have had the suspicion he's not been well for a while but I hope I'm wrong.

1 minute ago, johnnyboy said:

He's going to be in a lot of people's due to the number of parts he's had in big movies.

Yes I think I saw he was the 9th most watched actor in 2023 (by minutes reviewed) because of his high profile cameos. 

1, 19, 24, 27, 30