Anybody seen the latest one on Netflix “Leave the world behind”?
I’ve heard at work that it has a “Don’t look up” vibe but without the comedy. I must admit that in “Don’t look up” it was the comedy what made the movie great for me(let alone bearable to watch).
Doom and gloom just for the sake of it might not be what we want to watch this time of the year…
I saw The Boy and the Heron last week, and it was definitely a gorgeous film, but I felt it was lacking something compared to other Ghibli entries. Just left me feeling kind of nonplussed about it.
Just saw the new ep1 of S2 of “What If…?” and loved it.
Might be my favourite of them so far.
Films I’ve watched with the folks so far over this festive period:
Very festive. 
Watched Maze Runner 1 & 2 while stuck in bed recovering, and wow, they are so full of plot holes. Just, utterly ridiculous. Merely because a film is available on a streaming service you happen to be subscribed to, doesn’t make it worth watching.
Still, it passed the time while I couldn’t do much else.
I usually work over the holiday week between Christmas and New Years because the office is so dead it’s practically like a vacation, but this year, I decided I desperately needed (real) time off and have dedicated this week to “cleaning out my liquor cabinet and my Netflix queue.” (In particular, 2 of the movies below were leaving Netflex (for now) on December 31st, so I had to get a move-on.)
Yesterday was the The Raid and The Raid 2. Honestly not as violent as I thought they were going to be. Sure, there as lots of close fighting and gruesome injuries, but I was expecting more of the latter.
Today (Christmas Eve was Drag Me to Hell. I had been wanting to see this since it came out. It’s a PG-13 Sam Raimi flick that plays like an extended episode of Tales from the Crypt or similar horror anthology show. Quite enjoyable even if you do get distracted by the “spot the Evil Dead references” game.
Watched Muppets Christmas Carol yesterday and each year I’m more convinced that it’s perfect.
Didn’t realise that Paul Williams wrote the songs (He did Bugsy Malone, Rainbow Connection, lots of amazing stuff).
Today we watched Blackadder’s Christmas Carol for balance.
It is a flawless work of art. We watch it every Christmas Eve.
Do you watch the version with the ‘missing’ song, or the normal released version?
Definitely the song version (which I think is the default on Disney plus now)!
Us too.
It was hard to make the film any more perfect, but that song does.
I have no idea why someone thought removing it was a good idea!
A rare instance (for Henson Productions) of Disney stepping in and forcing them to remove it. Wasn’t testing well with kids as they stopped paying attention.
It’s excellent. I’ve started watching other interpretations of the story to compare - this year I watched the 1970 musical film of Scrooge (the one with Albert Finney and an unrecognisable Alec Guinness as Jacob Marley!) - it was decent but lacked the charm of the Muppets. I also found the songs much less memorable. Also Scrooge gets sent to Hell by the Spirit of Christmas Yet To Come - which I guess is an interpretation… Pretty full on though!
Also as for the questionable song in Muppets - it’s fine as an adult but I hated it as a kid - would always fast forward that bit. So it probably makes sense for them to cut it for a family film.
And I still maintain that A Christmas Carol is the best thing Dickens ever wrote.
Scrooged is the best Xmas movie
What is the missing song?
‘When Love Is Gone’ - Scrooge’s girlfriend sings it in the middle of the film, telling him the relationship is over.
The chorus has the same tune as ‘The Love We Found’ at the end of the film, so without the earlier song the ending has less significance.
Although - I found the film perfect before I ever knew of this song. Now it’s even more perfect, that’s all. I wouldn’t want to give anyone the impression that if they have access to the traditionally available version they’re missing out or shouldn’t bother.
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget - been a long time since I’ve watched any Aardman films. Felt right for watching on a lazy Boxing Day. Fun if a bit long.
Yesterday was House of Sand and Fog, a movie that a) stars my designated actress crush (and who is only 3 months younger than I am) and b) I’ve been meaning to see since it came out.
Today was Parasite. At least I didn’t wait 20 years for this one.
Tomorrow should be Seven Samurai, which I’m re-watching for rpg research.
“How do you expect us to hire Samurai with only 5 days worth of rice!?”
“… find hungry samurai.”
“I am sorry master. You told me to hire five, but I hired seven.”
“That’s okay.”
“What?! But you said to only hire five!”
“If I had said it was okay to hire seven, you would’ve hired ten!”
Also watching this, loving it so far.
That second quote seemed off to me. Although the old men are somewhat hard to understand, the numbers stand out. I think the original is more like:
“Mm, seven.”
“You said four, so I opposed/tried to stop [all of them coming]”
“I figured ten would be too many. If you say ten, you end up with fifteen. That’s the way it is.”
I find localisation changes like this, which go way beyond translation, fascinating.