What are we watching these days?

[DaveBrown74]

I'm a few episodes in to The Chestnut Man (Danish: Kastanjemanden), on Netflix. It's from the book by the same name, written by S

[LennG]

Len,

Sorry you didn't like it. I liked the way it was done, the setup, the lingering question, and the answer at the end.

Aside from the language, what part(s) did you feel were racist? To me, especially the white town, was all tongue-in-cheek. I'm not a big western movie fan but I enjoyed this from a purely entertainment standpoint.  If I recall correctly, some of the characters were based on real black cowboys. The events were obviously written for the movie.

BTW, Blazing Saddles is probably the best western of all time.



Just kidding, Len! I know that would turn you three shades of red!   

Tim

I do not wish to harp on this one. I love Westerns and I love my westerns to try and be as real as can be. Yes a movie like Blazing Saddles was great, but this one, well, as I said in my post, I know it was done tongue in cheek, but I just found it to be so over the top. Maybe I was really looking for a good, old-time, western, but this, I felt was so absurd. I would also assume that it was based on true characters, but did you ever hear of a completely Black town, not just one, but several. At that time, I really wouldn't think most of the Black cowboys have shaved heads, and I fully understand that the 'While Town' was done for laughs, I just didn't find it fully that way. We know each other well enough that I can say what, or how I feel. Say the situation was reversed and it was a White group of Cowboys and they said the same thing about a Black town and all the people portrayed in the town were made to look foolish and incompetent. As a Balck man, I know you would be upset, well I just think that in this particular movie, it went a bit too far and I just didn't find any humor in what they were trying to project.
As we always say, to each his own. There are many movies, especially ones made for today's audiences that I just do not get or like, so it's no big deal to me.
Glad you enjoyed it though.

[T200]

Len,

It's all good, man. I understand where you're coming from. You know the saying: everything ain't for everybody.

Just put it in the bucket with your favorite Jim Carrey movies

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

[ozzie]

Thanks for the review Sem. I like the look of The Chestnut Man. I'll definitely give it a shot.

[LennG]

My darling wife and I have just finished watching this series on Netflix 'Maid'. It is highly rated these days and this is the first season. It is about a young woman with a 2-year-old child who lives with an abusive husband. She runs away, goes to a shelter, and finds all sorts of problems to survive. The Maid title is the fact she takes a job as a low earning Maid just to earn enough to get on some of the financial things that people in her position can get.
Anyway, I really liked it thru about the first 5 episodes, then this young lady started getting on my nerves for various reasons. Many peop[le are trying to help her but she basically refuses their help. By the time it ended, and it had a decent ending, but I was really less than thrilled with it.
So, my darling wife LOVED it. I would assume, as a woman, she was able to relate to many of the things this young lady was going thru and her mothering instincts et al. Since I have never been in any of the situations as this young lady and neither has my wife, but overall, I can see where women would relate to the main character a lot more than men would.

Overall, I would recommend it, just know what you're in for.

[LennG]

 So a week or so ago, I sort of killed a new Western on Netflix. Today I read another new Western type movie that was just out, again on Netflix, "Power of the Dog"

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_power_of_the_dog  Rotten Tomatoes review

so it was something that really looked different, a gritty type western set in the early 1920s. I love realism and was hoping that this would fit the bill.
Well, I was right on the realism part, the imagery, the sets and just about everything else was very good, For me, the problem was this story was so quirky and utterly impossible to believe, when it ended I sat there realizing I wasted another few hours. I was so disappointed in this movie from the mid-way point and beyond it just elaft me with a bad taste in my mouth.

Briefly, 2 brothers, one a hard-driving cowboy, the other a more reserved and business-like. The reserved on marries a lady he meets with a son who, let's say is a bit awkward when it comes to being a cowboy and seems to have again, what one might say are feminine quirks, a sissy to put it bluntly. The cowboy brother is relentless in not wanting to conform to more modern-day things including the new wife. This goes on thru about 1/2 the movie then all of a sudden he takes a liking to the boy and decides to help make him more of a cowboy. I won't even go into it anymore.

For me, another very promising movie, ends up in the crapper, to put it honestly.

[Jolly Blue Giant]

So a week or so ago, I sort of killed a new Western on Netflix. Today I read another new Western type movie that was just out, again on Netflix, "Power of the Dog"

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_power_of_the_dog  Rotten Tomatoes review

so it was something that really looked different, a gritty type western set in the early 1920s. I love realism and was hoping that this would fit the bill.
Well, I was right on the realism part, the imagery, the sets and just about everything else was very good, For me, the problem was this story was so quirky and utterly impossible to believe, when it ended I sat there realizing I wasted another few hours. I was so disappointed in this movie from the mid-way point and beyond it just elaft me with a bad taste in my mouth.

Briefly, 2 brothers, one a hard-driving cowboy, the other a more reserved and business-like. The reserved on marries a lady he meets with a son who, let's say is a bit awkward when it comes to being a cowboy and seems to have again, what one might say are feminine quirks, a sissy to put it bluntly. The cowboy brother is relentless in not wanting to conform to more modern-day things including the new wife. This goes on thru about 1/2 the movie then all of a sudden he takes a liking to the boy and decides to help make him more of a cowboy. I won't even go into it anymore.

For me, another very promising movie, ends up in the crapper, to put it honestly.

I watched a trailer a couple days ago and decided against it. I love watching Benedict Cumberbatch act - a strange man with strange looks who is a great actor, but is so stereotyped as Sherlock Holmes with his traditional British accent and style straight out of early London that its difficult to see him in such a different role. Seeing him as a cowboy in American West just didn't seem right to me...sorta like watching Jason Alexander (better known as George Costanza of Seinfeld series) playing a rough and tough mob boss...or perhaps Ren

[LennG]

I watched a trailer a couple days ago and decided against it. I love watching Benedict Cumberbatch act - a strange man with strange looks who is a great actor, but is so stereotyped as Sherlock Holmes with his traditional British accent and style straight out of early London that its difficult to see him in such a different role. Seeing him as a cowboy in American West just didn't seem right to me...sorta like watching Jason Alexander (better known as George Costanza of Seinfeld series) playing a rough and tough mob boss...or perhaps Ren

[ozzie]

I watched a movie called "Deja Vu" yesterday. It stars Denzel Washington as an ATF agent who is investigating the bombing of a ferry boat. As he is checking into that he finds it linked to another case which could lead him to the perpetrator of the bombing. Pretty standard stuff until he is invited into a group that has found a way to investigate using time travel to gather clues.
This short paragraph explains it better than I can..
"In the wake of a devastating terrorist attack on a slow New Orleans ferry, the A.T.F. special agent, Doug Carlin, joins an experimental top-secret government program to find the bomber. Designed to bend the very fabric of time, this state-of-the-art technology enables the user to observe a detailed representation of what happened four days and six hours in the past, tracking the target's every move prior to the attack. However, the man responsible for the deadly explosion is bound to strike again. Can Carlin figure out who he is, when he is always precisely four days behind?"
I thought the premise sounded really good and it was for the most part, but I found toward the end there were just too many questions and I was kind of confused as to which time period I was actually watching.
If you're into police, good guy/bad guy movies or sci-fi you may enjoy this. I thought it was pretty good, but like I said, a bit confused at the end.
It's from 2006 and also stars Jim Caviezel & Val Kilmer.

[LennG]

Thanks for the heads up. Really can't go too wrong with Denzel in the lead.

[ozzie]

My wife and I just watched a fun Christmas movie last night. It's a Nextflix original from 2018 called "The Christmas Chronicles".
A short synopsis is that a brother and sister try to catch Santa in the act and wind up almost ruining Christmas for everyone before helping Santa save it.
This is a fun family movie with a lot of action, a lot of laughs and a great turn by Kurt Russell as a Santa different from all others.

[Jolly Blue Giant]

Funny, I didn't recognize the name but when you, mentioned Sherlock Holmes, Ding, Ding, Ding, the bell went off. He was just terrific as Sherlock. He was pretty good here also, it was more the quirkiness of the entire story and his way of playing the role that sort of letting me down on it. he WAs the main character. I was so surprised by all the glowing reviews though I believe it was more about the woman director than anything else.

I just watched Disney's Doctor Strange last night who is played by Benedict Cumberbatch and he is excellent. Has sort of a Dr. House attitude as a one-of-a-kind super surgeon with sarcastic responses to lesser medical staff. Goes into some pretty weird stuff and time is spent in Katmandu (which to me is interesting because I haven't seen a movie with Nepal as a back drop). Anyway, worth a watch if you like Marvel movies with strange phenomena

[LennG]

I just watched Disney's Doctor Strange last night who is played by Benedict Cumberbatch and he is excellent. Has sort of a Dr. House attitude as a one-of-a-kind super surgeon with sarcastic responses to lesser medical staff. Goes into some pretty weird stuff and time is spent in Katmandu (which to me is interesting because I haven't seen a movie with Nepal as a back drop). Anyway, worth a watch if you like Marvel movies with strange phenomena

Thanks, Lou. I am usually not a fan of those Marvel/superhero type movies. I usually try and stay away from them but since you recommended this one I will definitely try to give it a go.

[ozzie]

Credit where it's due Lenn....that was Jolly's post on the Marvel movies.

[Jolly Blue Giant]

Credit where it's due Lenn....that was Jolly's post on the Marvel movies.

LOL - I wonder if Lenn will still give it a shot now that he knows it wasn't suggest by you. BTW, I'm Ric (I was wondering why Lenn said "Lou")