ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
Beosound Stage, Beovision 8-40, Beolit 20, Beosound Explore.
Jeff
I'm afraid I'm recovering from the BeoVirus.
Jeff:Just finished all 18 episodes, 3 seasons, of a UK comedy "Black Books" about a misanthropic Irish bookstore owner, his assistant, and the woman who runs the shop next door. Crazy, silly, and funny in a way only UK comedy seems to manage. The assistant, no joke, looks and acts exactly like a twit I used to work with!
The assistant, no joke, looks and acts exactly like a twit I used to work with!
I remember the series well. What now frightens me is that the last episode was shown in the UK in 2004!
Graham
Jeff:Yeah, it's old but I just "discovered" it on Netflix streaming.
It's the passage of time that really bothers me!
Black Books is very funny, Dylan Moran and Bill Bailey, his assistant are both very talented and Tamsin Greig stared in another funny UK comedy show called Green Wing which is definitely worth hunting out. You may also enjoy the IT Crowd and Father Ted if you haven't seen these already.
I've seen Bill Bailey live many times, not sure if he ever tours the States but an accomplished musician .
we tend to forget there is more to design than designing.
Beo in white is my thing
Currently own: BeoVision Avant 55", BeoLab 5, BeoLab 18, BeoRemoteOne, BeoPlay V1-32", BeoRemote4, BeoSound 3200, BeoGram 6500 (MMC-1), BeoLit 15, BeoPlay A1, LC2, BeoVision MX7000 and BeoLab 3
Well, the Christmas episode of Black Mirror finally showed up on US Netflix, very good but disturbing episode. And just an amazing level of cruelty, albeit in very cyberpunk ways. Very creative and thought provoking.
Also finished watching Mad Max: Fury Road as well as American Sniper. Fury Road was a high octane, 2 hour long chase scene ala Road Warrior, loads of fun, excellent action, no real plot, but the designers of the sets, costumes, and cars were on a roll, incredible stuff. I really wish I'd have seen it in the theater on a larger screen and in 3D, it had some places that would have been remarkable in that.
American Sniper is a truly great and very thought provoking film, a good look into the life of a man with both incredible skill and his own demons from the war. A lot on the political left over here hated the film and slagged it, but it's more a reflection on them than on the film. I suspect the background of him and his family are completely alien to most big city types, which is one reason the film is so good, it shows where these types of men come from, and the incredible difference in culture we are experiencing in this country between the coastal self appointed elites and the more normal people in what they call "flyover" country. The man also was an amazingly skilled shot, 2100 yards, over 160 confirmed kills. Tough job which, no matter how just your cause may be in your eyes, scars everyone who is involved. An excellent film that doesn't sugarcoat the realities of war.
Deutschland 83. What a great series for anybody who still remembers the cold war. It's also rich with some elaborate nerd jokes - without giving too much away, you'll find out that back then VEB Robotron used 8" floppies. Plenty of excitement and odd turns of the plot, yet still quite plausible.
--mika
I recently watched the made for Netflix series "Hemlock Grove." Basically it seems like a modernized (aka more sex and violence) version of Dark Shadows, the original soap opera. Vampires and werewolves in a small Pennsylvania town. Utterly awful, I stuck with it for all three seasons because I kept waiting for something to happen to tie things together but it never happened. First season wasn't bad, it had a real plot and introduced what looked to be intriguing characters, but it then ambled around and got more outlandish, illogical, and hard to follow. Unless you're really bored skip this one.
My wife got me watching "Doc Martin" which is a funny show about a London surgeon who develops a phobia about blood and moves to be the only doctor in a small fishing village. Martin is a prickly sort, he has all the bedside manner of a porcupine with rabies, but it's a pleasant and fun series.
I hear that Netflix is commissioning 12 more episodes of "Black Mirror" and that Booker is supposed to be continuing as writer and producer. This is hopeful, the 6 episodes there are now rank among the best and most thought provoking TV I've seen since maybe the original series "The Prisoner." Dark, not what to watch if you want a lighthearted and uplifting show, but worth it if you value thought provoking looks at where our modern world might be leading us. Excellent cyberpunk.
tournedos:Deutschland 83. What a great series for anybody who still remembers the cold war. It's also rich with some elaborate nerd jokes - without giving too much away, you'll find out that back then VEB Robotron used 8" floppies. Plenty of excitement and odd turns of the plot, yet still quite plausible. --mika
BeoNut since '75
Jeff:My wife got me watching "Doc Martin" which is a funny show about a London surgeon who develops a phobia about blood and moves to be the only doctor in a small fishing village. Martin is a prickly sort, he has all the bedside manner of a porcupine with rabies, but it's a pleasant and fun series.
Jeff:Utterly awful, I stuck with it
Thanks for the heads up! I had heard about The Lobster and the idea sounded interesting, but it sounds like the execution is not only lacking but painful!
Just watched a future dystopean kind of movie, "Advantageous" that was thought provoking and IMO good. It concerns a future world where a woman works as a PR person for a biotech firm. The firm has just developed a way to transfer consciousness to a new, younger body and she was working on the PR launch, but she was let go as she was too old (maybe 40s or late 30s). She volunteers to have the procedure done so she can get her job back as PR lead. The whole process obviously affects her daughter. Quiet movie, no huge action scenes, but quietly thought provoking. I enjoyed it, it gets almost 5 stars on Netflix.
I also watched a documentary called "The Decent One" that consists of narration taken from letters and diaries of Heinrich Himmler with archival footage of Himmler and such from before to the end of WWII. Fascinating actually, many of the letters and such are oh so normal it's hard to attach them to the man who orchestrated the Holocaust.
I just watched John Carpenter's "They Live" from 1988. Ok this will not challenge any of our B&O vision systems and please do not expect class leading acting but the story line is genius and I am surprised Hollywood reboot land has not tried to remake this.
Not so gory horror film with intelligent political over-tones of capitalism, conformity and poverty in ever day life in which Carpenter displays with artistic fun.
I do enjoy a good B movie...
I remember quite enjoying "They Live." Starring Rowdy Roddy Piper, of pro wrestling fame. A very good, enjoyable scifi B movie indeed. I am surprised they haven't remade it, though as usual I'd expect them to muck it up on a remake. The only remake of classic scifi movies I've seen lately that I liked was "Dredd" which is a remake of "Judge Dredd." Totally different movies, but I liked the grittiness of "Dredd" instead of the tongue in cheek humor of "Judge Dredd." Karl Urban as Dredd, not many actors would take a part where the audience never sees your face for the whole movie, just from the tip of your nose down.
Don't even get me started on the remake of "Robocop." Gadzooks that sucked compared with the original.
I just started watching Netflix's show "Marco Polo" the other night. Outstanding, incredibly high production values. So far only 1 season, 10 episodes. I read they spent $9 million per episode, and man does it show, the quality of the sets, costuming, locations are worth of a huge budget movie.
Their portrayal of Kublai Khan is great, wonderful actor and great writing for him.
Jeff:I just started watching Netflix's show "Marco Polo" the other night. Outstanding, incredibly high production values. So far only 1 season, 10 episodes. I read they spent $9 million per episode, and man does it show, the quality of the sets, costuming, locations are worth of a huge budget movie. Their portrayal of Kublai Khan is great, wonderful actor and great writing for him. Jeff Beovirus victim, it's gotten to be too much to list!
I saw it first! Which is what got me interested in the Marco Polo show, wasn't it entitled "Hundred Eyes?" About the kung fu master who Khan had blinded, and who is a main character in Marco Polo.
Good call out!
I've always been a big fan of Bruce Campbell, the chin that roared. I loved him in the Evil Dead trilogy, Evil Dead 1, 2, and Army of Darkness. I just bought on iTunes the first season of the Starz series "Ash Vs. Evil Dead." Completely hysterically funny, a great continuation of the series of Evil Dead movies. First episode finds Ash 30 years older than in Army Of Darkness, still working a dead end clerk job at a hardware store, a fat drunkard nobody. It opens with a closeup of him tugging on a leather strap rig, you think he's strapping on the chainsaw to where his right hand was as in Army Of Darkness. He says "This one's gonna hurt!" and gives a final huge tug, looks in the mirror and you can see he's putting on a girdle/corset kind of thing to hide his beer gut. He looks in the mirror, and goes "Yeah, looking good!" He still has a copy of the Necronomicon, and in a flashback you see how he read from it while stoned to try and impress a girl he'd picked up, which of course starts the curse of the Deadites again, kicking off the series.
Sam Raimi is still directing, very funny.
Also, if you like Campbell and Raimi, they were together again in a movie a while back called "Bubba Hotep" where Campbell plays Elvis Presley living in an east Texas old folks home that's haunted by a mummy that sucks the souls out of the residents, killing them. Bubba Hotep because the mummy wears cowboy boots and a cowboy hat. Another funny one.
Jeff:I saw it first! Which is what got me interested in the Marco Polo show, wasn't it entitled "Hundred Eyes?" About the kung fu master who Khan had blinded, and who is a main character in Marco Polo. Good call out! Jeff Beovirus victim, it's gotten to be too much to list!
Duels: Jeff: I saw it first! Which is what got me interested in the Marco Polo show, wasn't it entitled "Hundred Eyes?" About the kung fu master who Khan had blinded, and who is a main character in Marco Polo. Good call out! Jeff Beovirus victim, it's gotten to be too much to list! Yup. That's the one!
Jeff: I saw it first! Which is what got me interested in the Marco Polo show, wasn't it entitled "Hundred Eyes?" About the kung fu master who Khan had blinded, and who is a main character in Marco Polo. Good call out! Jeff Beovirus victim, it's gotten to be too much to list!
Beovirus victim, it's gotten to be too much to list!
Yup. That's the one!
I looked up the actor who plays Hundred Eyes, Tom Wu. You can tell from watching he actually is an accomplished martial artist and not just well choreographed. He started taking lessons when he was 10, won two bronze and a gold medal in a Kung Fu competition in China, after he became proficient with martial arts as a young man he also started studying acrobatics. It's very nice to watch someone who actually is good at martial arts do it. I remember a movie where Chuck Norris fought David Carradine of Kung Fu fame. They asked Norris how Carradine's kung fu was. He replied, about as good as my acting.
Jeff:I looked up the actor who plays Hundred Eyes, Tom Wu. You can tell from watching he actually is an accomplished martial artist and not just well choreographed. He started taking lessons when he was 10, won two bronze and a gold medal in a Kung Fu competition in China, after he became proficient with martial arts as a young man he also started studying acrobatics. It's very nice to watch someone who actually is good at martial arts do it. I remember a movie where Chuck Norris fought David Carradine of Kung Fu fame. They asked Norris how Carradine's kung fu was. He replied, about as good as my acting. Jeff Beovirus victim, it's gotten to be too much to list!
New season starts July 1st!
I watched two good movies lately.
"I Dream Of Wires" is a documentary about the birth of analog synthesizers, fascinating and informative. I hadn't been aware that lately there's been a strong rebirth of analog module based synths. One musician was talking about how obsessive people get over collecting the largest number of modules, he was saying he had all he could fit in his studio and was thinking of a bigger studio.
"Robinson Crusoe On Mars." Great, underrated 1964 movie about an astronaut stranded on mars, eat your heart out "The Martian." One of my favorite movies from my childhood, of course about everything they have about Mars is wrong, but for its day a great scifi film.
Jeff:"Robinson Crusoe On Mars." Great, underrated 1964 movie about an astronaut stranded on mars, eat your heart out "The Martian.
The original Outer Limits launched in 64 too...I was about 7, and some of those scared the pants off of me. Especially the ones with physicists in them for some reason, so naturally what do I decide to major in in college. Go figure.
Jeff:Go figure.Jeff
elephant: Jeff: Go figure. Jeff
Jeff: Go figure. Jeff
Go figure.
I'm not a mad scientist though, only a mildly perturbed one.
Jeff:I'm not a mad scientist though, only a mildly perturbed one
I mentioned earlier the Asian horror film collection "Three Extremes." I just watched the second one, "Three Extremes II" and again found it interesting. The first two vignettes were just so so to me, the first was surreal and kept you guessing but wasn't that scary, the second dealing with evil puppets didn't live up to the premise in my view, it could have been so much creepier. The last one though, whoo boy, that was unsettling. The last one is worth sitting thru the other two for, very creepy and disturbing, though nothing matches the first vignette in the first film for being truly upsetting. Highly recommend both of these if this is your kind of thing. As Abe Lincoln said in a book review he wrote before becoming President, "People who like this kind of thing will find this the kind of thing that they like." A born politician!
Just watched the UK ITV series 'The Secret' having recorded it but then forgotten all about it. The great advantage of recording is that you can zap through all the advertising.
This is the true story of a Northern Ireland dentist who is a religious maniac.... who has an affair with a married woman, kills her husband and his own wife..... fondles his female patients under anaesthetic and justifies everything as inspired by God or forgiven by God. James Nesbitt stars as the baddy. (The real baddy and his accomplice are currently serving about 30 years.)
"The Secret" sounds interesting, but unfortunately I can't find it available on this side of the pond, at least yet.
I recently watched the latest Bond film, "Spectre." I didn't like it as well as Craig's previous three films as Bond but it's a good movie nonetheless. It has all the requisite villains, chases, gorgeous women, etc. Plus, the beginning is set in Mexico City, and it is completely believable if you understand Mexican construction standards. I'm sure our member Soren would not be surprised by the start of the movie.