Yeah I thought it was ok. Tennant, Sheen and Hamm were all good. Whitehall ok. Any others with big parts pretty poor esp McKean who was dreadful.
The first episode, or even just the opening sequences were nearly enough to put me off totally - the stench of cod Douglas Adams was overwhelming and threatened to come back every time the Frances McDormand v/o struck up.
― Elitist cheese photos (aldo), Monday, 3 June 2019 13:28 (five years ago) link
Has anyone watched "Higher Power"? Looks like a b-grade alt-superhuman movie, very vaguely like "Rupture", in that putting someone through stress unlocks latent ability. Not having Amazon Prime, if someone rates it average or better, I'd track it down elsewhere. Am thinking Google Play for "Forest of Lost Souls", so would look for "Higher Power" there, also.
― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Monday, 3 June 2019 13:34 (five years ago) link
^"Forest of Lost Souls" is great. It's on both Prime and Hulu.
Searching at justwatch.com, I see that "Higher Power" is on Hulu but would cost $4.99 for members to watch on Prime. Not my thing anyway.
Hulu would be your best deal to see both films. The $5.99/month plan works great for watching just movies. That's less than Google Play for just the two, and Hulu's ads only interrupt their TV shows/series.
― punning display, Monday, 3 June 2019 14:03 (five years ago) link
Thanks for the input! Been planning on dropping HBO, which - aside from GoT, John Oliver, and the periodic special or movie - hasn't been an excellent value for the money.
― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Monday, 3 June 2019 14:07 (five years ago) link
So could replace it with Hulu, meant to say.
― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Monday, 3 June 2019 14:08 (five years ago) link
I've been watching Long Strange Trip, the Amazon original Dead documentary. It's definitely a cut above the standard issue streaming doc-in-a-box and is done in a style that suits is subject matter very well.
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Monday, 3 June 2019 14:36 (five years ago) link
Any others with big parts pretty poor esp McKean who was dreadful.
About a minute into his first appearance, I said to myself "McKean was cast and directed to give this ridiculous performance because Shadwell is not supposed to come across as a credible human being" and then he stopped bothering me.
― Arugula Raccoon (DJP), Monday, 3 June 2019 14:43 (five years ago) link
xp to alpaca: the main story element of 'this week tonight' is on their youtube channel every week fwiw
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Monday, 3 June 2019 15:27 (five years ago) link
Good Omens is not as bad as I expected but I feel like actors other than Sheen and Tennant would have made it better.
― Greta Van Show Feets BB (milo z), Tuesday, 4 June 2019 03:09 (five years ago) link
It just occurred to me that the Queen gag was the one thing from the book that they DIDN'T signpost and repeat three times to make sure everyone watching got it
― Arugula Raccoon (DJP), Tuesday, 4 June 2019 16:47 (five years ago) link
thanks for the post about the 'classic albums' series being on here. got those queued up for background viewing during work .
― easy ball shooter (Spottie), Tuesday, 4 June 2019 17:09 (five years ago) link
Here are links to specific threads for some Amazon Originals shows:
— Bosch: "If you can smoke and drink while doing it, it's not a sport" - a thread for BOSCH— Sneaky Pete: Sneaky Pete on Amazon Prime— Homecoming: Homecoming, a good show on Amazon Prime— The Man in the High Castle: Search is Broken so I Don't Know if there's already a Man in the High Castle TV show thread— The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel— Transparent: Transparent - Jill Solloway television series on Amazon— The Expanse: (Amazon picked this up for season 4 and beyond): Is anybody else watching The Expanse?
― easy ball shooter (Spottie), Tuesday, 4 June 2019 17:28 (five years ago) link
One of the episodes of Good Omens has the intro 25 minutes in. That's just not on.
― Leaghaidh am brón an t-anam bochd (dowd), Tuesday, 4 June 2019 17:47 (five years ago) link
Watched The Posse yesterday. It's a western from 1975 starring and directed by Kirk Douglas. Bruce Dern is in it as well. Not a typical western - kind of weird little film tbh.
― brownie, Tuesday, 4 June 2019 17:53 (five years ago) link
I guess it's just called Posse.
― brownie, Tuesday, 4 June 2019 17:54 (five years ago) link
thanks, Spottie!
― mh, Tuesday, 4 June 2019 20:15 (five years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKXyXyJtbhg
― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Tuesday, 4 June 2019 20:58 (five years ago) link
Watched this https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannie_Caulder cuz the cast is amazeballs (well, except for Culp). Unfortunately it sucked.
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 5 June 2019 05:20 (five years ago) link
An area that I don't think has been mentioned where Amazon Prime is pretty strong is Italian genre films of the 60s, 70s & 80s. Spaghetti Westerns, Euro-crime, Giallo, etc. Unless you go searching for it and follow links to related titles, directors or actors, you might never know it's there. Amazon's website is the best way to explore, as opposed to the Prime Video app. A few examples:
Search for Spaghetti Western. Just a fraction of what Amazon suggests:
Django Kill... If You Live, Shoot!Django, Prepare A CoffinDjango Meets Sartana!(The original Django film is no longer available for some reason. None of the sequels come close, but these three are the best of the 10 or so on Prime.)I am Sartana...Your Angel Of DeathIf You Meet Sartana... Pray for Your DeathSartana's Here, Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin$100,000 For A KillingA Fistful of DollarsGod Made Them, I Kill ThemGod Said to CainA Man Called BladeDay of AngerCompanerosDead Men Don't CountMan, Pride & Vengeance
Sure, they ain't all classics. Many don't belong in a discussion of "what's good", but just seeing the lurid cover art by the dozen should make your pulse race. A search for Euro Crime leads to, for starters:
The Italian ConnectionCaliber 9The BossBlood & DiamondsExecution SquadHired GunKiller CopHow to Kill a JudgeProperty Is No Longer a TheftShoot First, Die Later
Search for Giallo. Some of what shows up:
Seven Deaths In The Cat's EyeEye In The LabyrinthYour Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the KeyWeekend MurdersThe Black Belly of the TarantulaThe Bloodstained ButterflyThe Blood Spattered BrideBlood and Black LaceForbidden Photos of a Lady Above SuspicionDon't Torture a DucklingThe Black CatCity of the Living DeadShort Night of Glass DollsDeath Laid an EggThe Cat O' Nine TailsThe Red Queen Kills Seven TimesKiller Is On The PhoneOperaDeep RedPhenomena
Beware that many versions have terrible dubbed English and no option for Italian with subtitles. I'm no expert, but I think that's what comes with the territory. It's more tolerable with the better movies. With the crappier ones, it can add to the charm. Or not.
Whenever you find an old movie on Prime from before about 1990, from anywhere, not just Italy, you should proceed with caution. I've gotten excited to find old classics that turn out to be unwatchable, shoddy transfers. As a rule, when the cover thumbnail is a generic dark box the video quality is shit.
― punning display, Wednesday, 5 June 2019 15:09 (five years ago) link
oh damn, i didn't realize so much of that giallo put out in recent times by Arrow was on Prime in the US. Awesome! i wanna watch all of that.
― Nhex, Wednesday, 5 June 2019 15:16 (five years ago) link
yes! i have been filling my watchlist with all this stuff and absolutely going to town.
it is also a goldmine for the works of folks like joseph merhi, richard pepin, and the like.
― andrew m., Wednesday, 5 June 2019 15:50 (five years ago) link
the church is missing from that giallo list, it's on prime and it's spectacular
― american bradass (BradNelson), Wednesday, 5 June 2019 15:57 (five years ago) link
Whenever I stumble upon a cache of stuff I like that I didn't know was there I add it to my watchlist. But then I end up with 300+ things in my watchlist, which is so many that I can't tell when something vanishes. Until I look for it, and it turns out to be the one thing I want to see and it's not there.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 5 June 2019 16:36 (five years ago) link
A bunch of the movies being listed lately (like Hannie Caulder) are available on Prime and Hulu both, for people without one or the other.
― Greta Van Show Feets BB (milo z), Wednesday, 5 June 2019 16:41 (five years ago) link
thank you, punning display! I have several of those giallo already in my watchlist but had no clue about how to search for them
I haven't had Prime very long, but my impression is that stuff like this cycles in and out of free status without much predictability
― Brad C., Wednesday, 5 June 2019 16:46 (five years ago) link
Whenever I stumble upon a cache of stuff I like that I didn't know was there I add it to my watchlist. But then I end up with 300+ things in my watchlist, which is so many that I can't tell when something vanishes. Until I look for it, and it turns out to be the one thing I want to see and it's not there.― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, June 5, 2019 12:36 PM
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, June 5, 2019 12:36 PM
Or it's still there but now it's $3.99 to watch, not free with Prime anymore. Hate that.
The easiest way I've found to keep tabs on that is to periodically open my watchlist on my computer and scroll down, looking for videos where the diagonal Prime stripe on the upper left corner is gone. Then as you click 'Remove', loudly curse "Fuck Amazon!" or your swear word of choice. When you mouse over, it will sometimes give the date when a title will be leaving Prime soon, but this is completely unreliable.
It sucks that Amazon doesn't support multiple watchlists, or changing the order of videos in your watchlist, or even viewing it as text only. One method I've tried for keeping a list of movies I don't want to forget about but I don't want bloating my watchlist: I save a browser bookmark of the video's Prime page (first deleting the "Amazon.com: Watch" text before each title). Then, I can freely organize the bookmarks into folders as I please. However, there are no thumbnails and no indication whether a title has been dropped, so it's usefulness is limited.
I'd watch more movies if it didn't cut into the time I could spend farting around with lists.
― punning display, Wednesday, 5 June 2019 18:06 (five years ago) link
Good Omens is outrageously clumsy but I’m enjoying watching it. The voiceover is the pits though, yes.
I wish Tennant had waited a decade to do Who. He’s a lot more interesting to watch now.
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 5 June 2019 23:46 (five years ago) link
Whenever you find an old movie on Prime from before about 1990, from anywhere, not just Italy, you should proceed with caution. I've gotten excited to find old classics that turn out to be unwatchable, shoddy transfers.
Yeah, Prime has some really terrible transfers, particularly of horror movies. Shudder is really good for that stuff though, and is pretty cheap for a year's sub. They don't seem to be trawling the transfer bargain bin (can such a thing exist? It seems like it does) like Amazon is.
― Position Position, Wednesday, 5 June 2019 23:53 (five years ago) link
I think that was where I saw a version of "City Lights" that didn't even have Chaplin's score
― reggae mike love (polyphonic), Wednesday, 5 June 2019 23:56 (five years ago) link
He's in my bottom three Doctors, but I don't think there would have been a show a decade later if he hadn't done it.
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Thursday, 6 June 2019 00:20 (five years ago) link
If you have a watchlist on IMDb, you can drill down to see a list of those that are streaming on Amazon Prime. Only problem is: the title matching is rudimentary, so quite often you're disappointed to find it's actually another film with the same name. It's a nice feature though: shame they don't do it with Netflix.
― Alba, Thursday, 6 June 2019 06:42 (five years ago) link
They do it with Prime because they're owned by Amazon
There's a streaming service they've crammed into a weird niche called "Freedive" that I believe is US-only with television shows and movies interrupted by commercials. It's accessible in a not-clear way through most of the Amazon streaming apps, sometimes via a separate row of content. I think I've only watched episodes of Fringe that way, but it's not easy to search for content on it unless you come from the website.
― mh, Thursday, 6 June 2019 13:32 (five years ago) link
Patriot's really good! Surprised that I hadn't heard anything about it. Maybe the title puts people off?? Riyl barry
― just sayin, Thursday, 6 June 2019 21:59 (five years ago) link
yeah the name doesnt really work at all.
― easy ball shooter (Spottie), Thursday, 6 June 2019 22:05 (five years ago) link
Fleabag has a thread too!Fleabag
― easy ball shooter (Spottie), Thursday, 6 June 2019 22:35 (five years ago) link
There's a separate thread for it but is anyone else watching Nicolas Winding Refn's Too Old To Die Young?
I'm five (very long) episodes in now and whilst it looks beautiful, the incredibly drawn out scenes are getting all a bit tedious now in a way that those of Twin Peaks didn't. They all just feel a bit too much deliberately stylized in this, so much so that it often breaks your suspension of disbelief.
― groovypanda, Friday, 21 June 2019 09:13 (five years ago) link
ozploitation options are strong. have so far enjoyed: wake in fright, long weekend, turkey shoot, and frog dreaming.
will say that rarely has a movie made me as queasy and uneasy as wake in fright. and if i ever watch it again i will be ffw-ing through the infamous roo hunt.
have a few more lined up in the queue: night of fear, mad dog morgan, patrick, nightmares.
have read that dead end drive-in and razorback are worthy. not on prime atm though.
― andrew m., Thursday, 27 June 2019 18:46 (five years ago) link
oh, and body melt is in the queue as well.
Body Melt is wild
The Man From Hong Kong is a $2 rental & well worth it
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Thursday, 27 June 2019 18:58 (five years ago) link
― groovypanda, Friday, June 21, 2019 2:13 AM (six days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I'm five episodes in now and I think it's really strong. the manner in which the five leads are all operating in vv different ways on paths of revenge for those who have been wronged is pretty interesting and the whole series being specifically from the very first scene about the violent effects of broken and/or evil men is pretty timely to say the least.
I saw someone online refer to episode 2 as basically Tarkovsky doing "Narcos" and that seems pretty otm, i mean obv not Tarkovsky-level but miles better than any of the bullshit in Narcos. Points to the show for clearly being super contemptuous of the police dept -- i love the Wolf of Wall Street style of Hart Bochner's homicide squad.
William Baldwin is insane in this. and James Urbaniak's villain in episode 5 was one of the most despicable creations I've seen in a long time. Miles Teller makes for a better blank slate than Ryan Gosling.
― omar little, Thursday, 27 June 2019 19:05 (five years ago) link
basically Tarkovsky doing "Narcos"
― big beautiful wario (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 27 June 2019 19:10 (five years ago) link
Wake In Fright is SO good, one of my faves; but the roo hunt def makes it a tough watch, no question.
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 28 June 2019 02:12 (five years ago) link
belladonna of sadness added
― johnny crunch, Friday, 28 June 2019 14:42 (five years ago) link
Another thumbs-up for Wake in Fright, which perfectly balances between terrifying and hilarious, capturing that queasy fear you get when you're just waiting for the goons you've been partying with to decide you think you're better than them and kick the shit out of you, but it also perfectly captures the kind of asshole behavior of someone who thinks he's smarter than his goon friends. It's one of the most lacerating movies I've ever seen.
― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Friday, 28 June 2019 14:49 (five years ago) link
wake in fright is genuinely one of the most unsettling, nightmarish movies i've ever seen
― big beautiful wario (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 28 June 2019 14:50 (five years ago) link
sweaty, threatening Donald Pleasance is so great in that film
― Captain ACAB (Neil S), Friday, 28 June 2019 15:03 (five years ago) link
otm
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 28 June 2019 16:34 (five years ago) link
I'd somehow never seen Wake in Fright before. I think I always confused it with something else, a movie about someone hallucinating in the outback or being hunted in the outback? (Both descriptions not entirely off!) Anyway, what a nuts movie this is. It would make a great sweaty triple bill with, I dunno, Straw Dogs and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 28 June 2019 18:38 (five years ago) link
Saw it at the cinema a few years ago and loved it, it has that wicker man feel where you’re simultaneously against the uptight prick who won’t go with the flow, revelling in his downfall, and yet totally with him in his descent to hell surrounded by these grotesquesThe scariest thing was that ruined steak and egg and the piss that Australians call beer tho
― shhh / let peaceful like things (wins), Friday, 28 June 2019 18:46 (five years ago) link
Yeah, I don't know if it's scary so much as unsettling.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 28 June 2019 18:49 (five years ago) link