Print

[paw broon]

Just dialled it up and you're right.  Great fun.

[Captain Audio]

The Five(ish) Doctors is a riot.

[jimmm kelly]

It almost makes me want to go see THE HOBBIT so I can get some of the jokes I don't quite get. There are some jokes in this thing that I probably won't get for another twenty years, if ever.

[profh0011]

I laughed my ass off from start to finish. I've never liked Davison's Doctor, but I DO like Davison (especially on CAMPION), and he did great work here. It's wonderful to see so many involved have such a sense of humor about themselves.

...and Sylvester's STILL my favorite!

"Do you think you could possibly play this scene by yourself?"
"I suppose.... it might actually be an improvement."
(OUCH!) 

[bowers]

I'll have to look for this one- sounds great! I watched "Day of the Doctor" this weekend, and was totally blown away. No spoilers , but an incredible revelation and a bold new direction and mission for the series. Also saw "An Adventure in Space and Time" about the birth of the Who series on BBC. Don't know how accurate it was, but a darn fine story anyway! Watched The Mentalist/ Red John conclusion. Again, no spoilers, but a bit of a letdown. Not sure if a new direction will save the show. Cheers, Bowers

[Captain Audio]

It almost makes me want to go see THE HOBBIT so I can get some of the jokes I don't quite get. There are some jokes in this thing that I probably won't get for another twenty years, if ever.

This explains some of it
http://herocomplex.latimes.com/movies/hobbit-sylvester-mccoys-twin-loves-radagast-doctor-who/#/0

Radagast is the Brown Wizard who works mainly with forest creatures and plants.
He is Bat (blank) crazy but a good guy and very brave.

[jimmm kelly]

Given all the cool theories that people had come up with about Red John over the years--it was kind of disappointing that the answer was rather more straightforward and not a complete mind-bender revelation (in fact, it was kind of obvious toward the end there, which is why I thought it had to be a red herring). Sometimes we overthink these shows.

[narfstar]

I enjoyed the ending for the most part. There were some super stupid scenes that took a lot away from it though. Too not spoil it for those who have not watched it, I will say breadcrumbs was pretty good.

[paw broon]

We haven't seen much of the last Mentalist season and we both thought it was all becoming just a bit too emotional and heavy.
There has been a 3 part series on BBC about the cold war. The first 2 were excellent and Dominic Sandbrook is a good presenter.  If you can access this outside the U.K. try this link but I think this show is good enough to travel to N. America.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03j5grr/episodes/guide
I've also been watching the recently found episodes of Dr. Who The Web of Fear and it is as good as I remember it, having been lucky enough to see it first time around.  My cable co. have also had a pile of Doctor Who, both classic and new, available.  Watched Sylvester in Remembrance the last 2 evenings.

[josemas]

Some sets and collections recently watched-

The Wire Season 2 (2002)  Still a fine example of the police procedural.  On the gritty side.  Definitely for adults with language and sexual situations.

The Baron: The Complete Series (1966-1967)   The only thing that came back to me when watching this one season British color series was the theme music.  The show starred American Steve Forrester and was an attempt by ITC to repeat their success with The Saint.  It didn't work at the time  although I found the series to be a respectable example of the genre rewatcing it today.

Zorro Season 1 (1957-1958)  I first watched this series when it was in syndicated reruns in the early 1960s.  It, along with concurrent reruns of The Lone Ranger and The Adventures of Superman, were what introduced me to the concept of superheroes and masked mystery men.  Re-watching it five decades later I still find it to be a wonderful swashbuckler series.  Guy Williams is great in the dual role of Don Diego/Zorro. There's also lots of light humor along with the action especially the banter between Henry Calvin (Sgt Garcia) and Don Diamond (Cpl Reyes).  Extras included a documentary about the show where I learned that the show would have continued beyond two seasons except Disney couldn't get ABC to commit to doing the show in color.  Also included are two of the hour long episodes of Zorro done for Walt Disney Presents after the regular show had ended (using scripts that were prepared for the aborted season three).

Perry Mason Season 1 Volume 1 (1957-1958)  It seems like a number of series are getting packaged this way where a season is divided into two sets so the manufacturer can make more bucks from us consumers.  They've done this with the entire run of Perry Mason.  I used to watch this show in daily rerun syndication regularly as a kid but it's been years since I've seen more then the occasional odd episode.  I'd forgotten how crafty Perry could be and how much location shooting they did (at least in these early episodes).

Dr Who-"The Dalek Invasion of Earth" (1964), "The Time Meddler" (1965) & "The Mind Robber" (1968).  Well I finished up the last of the William Hartnell episodes they had at my local library- a couple of good story-lines including one with the Daleks.  When moving onto the Troughton years I discovered that the library only had one set for this period beyond the one I had watched earlier ("The War Games").  One interesting fact learned about "The Mind Robber" story was that the actor playing Jamie was temporarily replaced in the middle of the storyline because he came down with Chicken Pox and the shooting could not be delayed so the writers quickly came up with a way that a completely different actor could play the role until he recovered and could return to work.   Now onto the Pertwee years.

Best

Joe

[Roygbiv666]

The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933)
by Fritz Lang

I'd heard of the character of Mabuse, and had seen Lang's "Metropolis" and "M", and this is the first time I've seen this.

It clocked in (on TCM) around 3 hours, but didn't seem it. It flows quite nicely and the Inspector Lohman character is awesome. Mabuse is a real supervillain.

Blackmail (1929)
by Alfred Hitchcock

This was pretty cool, the first several minutes telling the story without requiring dialogue, although sound was apparently forced on Hitchcock at the last minute.

Except for a minor asynchrony at the beginning, I had no clue that lead actress Anny Ondra's dialogue was dubbed by another actress from off camera - cool.

[jimmm kelly]

Yesterday I watched REMEMBER THE NIGHT on my computer. I was watching it on dailymotion and the sound goes out of synchronization pretty quick into the movie. What I do in these situations is I open two windows and use one window for the sound, while I watch the movie in full screen on the other window. Sometimes I can get the sound in synch, but in this case I had to keep adjusting throughout the movie and never could get the sound totally in synch.

I had heard about this movie earlier in the day, on the radio, from a movie critic who was listing some overlooked Christmas gems from the past. REMEMBER THE NIGHT stars Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck and it came out in early 1940, four years before MacMurray and Stanwyck made DOUBLE INDEMNITY. It's interesting to contrast and compare their characters in those two movies.

It's a rather understated Christmas movie with a screenplay by the great Preston Sturges. It didn't make me cry like some Christmas movies and specials, but it did make me think.

[Captain Audio]

Ran across a little known Christmas film.
William S Burroughs' " the Junky's Christmas".
A rather disturbing mix of dark live action and stop motion animation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6kHN92Yv48

Haven't tried watching it yet, just fast forwarded to sample it.
Looks like it is a well done art film, and from comments it has an uplifting message.
Not sure I want to watch it till Christmas is over.

[narfstar]

Has anyone else watched Axe Cop and High School USA? Axe Cop is based on the comic. It was originally written by a 5 year old. Totally random in a five year old way. Crazy stuff that can be a lot of fun. High School USA is an Archie parody with characters that look like they belong in Archie comics.

[Roygbiv666]

Insidious (2010) and
Insidious Chapter 2 (2013)

OK. These were not great movies, maybe a cool X-Files episode, which is not a bad thing.

Towards the end of the first one, it didn't seem out of place for the Phantom Stranger to show up and help guide Josh on the astral-plain.

Anyway, I enjoyed them.

[paw broon]

We watched the 3 part, "Death Comes to Pemberley" at the weekend.  A tv version of the PD James novel which is a sort of continuation of Pride and Prejudice, with a murder thrown in.  Very good indeed, although it could have made 3 x 50 min. episodes as opposed to 3 x 1 hour episodes with a little judicious trimming.  Beautifully set, lit and acted.  Watch out for it.
There was a festive Midsomer Murders at Christmas and while not the most cerebral detective show, it was a good, easy watch.  Neil Dudgeon is quite acceptable as the DCI.
And no-one seems to have mentioned the Christmas Day Doctor Who.  I don't want to say much in case I spoil it for the rest of you.  The last 10 minutes were the most watched of any programme on British t.v.  Really well done, funny, sad, exciting, moving with a bit of a manic madman right at the end. Jenna Coleman played a major character in Death Comes to Pemberley

[narfstar]

I commented on facebook but not here. I thought the last Doctor Who episode was one of the worst. It was pretty dumb IMHO.

[paw broon]

Not sure how much to say re. Doctor Who as many of you might not have seen it yet.  I, unlike narfstar, and unusually,  enjoyed it.  Something that does not often happen with these specials. 
However, we watched the new Sherlock last night and were mesmerised.  It got a huge audience, confused lots of viewers, left some BIG questions hanging and was thoroughly, if frustratingly, entertaining.  Impressive filming, lighting and setting.  Better leave plot discussions till more of you own up to having seen it.
There is a new series starting soon on BBC.  THE MUSKETEERS.   This could be good, with new Doctor Peter Capaldi as Cardinal Richelieu (with a Scottish accent?  Here's hoping, as the Musketeers don't seem to have a vestige of a French accent)
Any chance of some of you getting on here to have a chat about the Doctor and Sherlock???

[mr_goldenage]

Sherlock was brilliant IMHO. Just saying.

RB @ Work

Personal Aside - How's the movies going Paw?

[paw broon]

So much to watch - so little time.  Movies, is it?  Up to my ears in cross dressing, wheelchair bound Fu Manchu.  And Killing is a seriously good bad guy.  As for the other Turkish Superheroes, they're starting to melt into one another.  but it's fun listening out for soundtrack music pinched from mainstream franchises.  Found another Bond rip-off in the last one.  Keep going, got to keep going.
And don't you think Martin Freeman is the best Watson?
Phantom, Phantom, Phantom.

[Roygbiv666]

I'm glad that this is a supportive, non-judgmental environment where you feel comfortable telling us this.

Up to my ears in cross dressing...

[paw broon]

Ooooopps. Talk about revealing statements.  Along the linesof Charlton Lee's Dick (Turpin), which I only noticed today.  Gone now thanks to thestuff  about giant toy submarines.
If I could just point out, officer, the films came from mr_goldenage. Well, that's my excuse.
Is this all a bit surreal, or what?

[mr_goldenage]

Well I am the culprit here. I sent Paw a bunch of Turkish superhero movies (plus some non Turk super hero ones as well) and one of them had a villian -Fu Manchu - who was a transvesite/crossdresser who sat in a wheelchair (and didn't really need to) who had a henchman who used a glove like weapon (which resembled a kitchen mitt) type gun and a bunch of beauties (nasty ones at that!) who fought our brave hero. So if Paw sounded a bit off here it isn't his fault,and if a bit confused about all these black clad super hero types (yes they do tend to blend all together after a while), and also, to top it all off I sent him some Phantom type movies to just confuse him more.....James Batman indeed! Robin where are you!

RB @ Work

[narfstar]

I ignored another Sherlock but it looks like I gotta check it out now.

[narfstar]

I just watched the Thanksgiving episode of Brooklyn nine nine. I do not care for the star Adam Sandberg's character but the off the wall humor is brilliant.