Film and TV review.

Hip Priest wrote:Watched an excellent documentary film on Netflix tonight. "My Octopus Teacher." True story about a scientist who developed and filmed an astonishing 18 month long friendship with an octopus in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Africa. Fantastic underwater photography and an enthralling storyline. I was almost in tears at the end.

I’ll be watching this. Thanks

Watched that recently too Hip, very, very good and nearly got me going too. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Watched ‘da 5 bloods’ on Netflix last night, Spike Lee’s latest film. Again would definitely recommend it, educational as well as entertaining.

Anyone else enjoying His Dark Materials? Having enjoyed the books, I was wary of any attempt to put them on film.
However, I've been mightily impressed.

I recommend The Hijacker Who Vanished (BBC). An entertaining Storyville film which goes some way towards finding a convincing account of who DB Cooper might have been.

Love a Storyville, will have a look at that.

Finished queens gambit over the weekend, very good.

Yes I really enjoyed Queen's Gambit. I remember reading the book a few years ago. Walter Tevis didn't write much but he did write some great stories (The Hustler, The Color of Money and The Man Who Fell to Earth).

Finished all 3 series of Borgen now. One of those where they establish the main characters and then every episode has a new story line - which were all entertaining. Well written, covers a wide range of topics (war, immigration, mental health, breast cancer, environment etc) and a really good watch. 
Initially I struggled a bit to get past the use of broad English dialects in the context of the Danish Parliament (Away aye Birgitte hen...)  but it's a political/media thriller cum soap that gets better and better and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes Designated Survivor and House of Cards.

wanderlust wrote:Finished all 3 series of Borgen now. One of those where they establish the main characters and then every episode has a new story line - which were all entertaining. Well written, covers a wide range of topics (war, immigration, mental health, breast cancer, environment etc) and a really good watch. 
Initially I struggled a bit to get past the use of broad English dialects in the context of the Danish Parliament (Away aye Birgitte hen...)  but it's a political/media thriller cum soap that gets better and better and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes Designated Survivor and House of Cards.

I really struggled with the very heavy British accents used for the dubbing and I did find it a bit dated in places even though the first series was only made 10 years ago.

xmiles wrote:

I really struggled with the very heavy British accents used for the dubbing and I did find it a bit dated in places even though the first series was only made 10 years ago.

Enjoyable though?

Just watched the Hugh Grant/Nicole Kidman thing "The Undoing" on my mate Debbie's recommendation - hard to do as Deb's a proper girl into girl stuff and much as I love her let's say our tastes differ, but it was enjoyable enough. Bit of a New York whodunnit/courtroom drama with a touch of family psychology thrown in for good measure. I was considering the kid smashed her head in with a hammer for a while...

wanderlust wrote:
Enjoyable though?

Just watched the Hugh Grant/Nicole Kidman thing "The Undoing" on my mate Debbie's recommendation - hard to do as Deb's a proper girl into girl stuff and much as I love her let's say our tastes differ, but it was enjoyable enough. Bit of a New York whodunnit/courtroom drama with a touch of family psychology thrown in for good measure. I was considering the kid smashed her head in with a hammer for a while...

I watched it too, Lusty. Thought Nicole Kidman was a bit on the posy side but Huge Rant was a really convincing seedy geezer.

Final of Countdown today. Two brilliant finalists but Lady Bobsworth was on fire solving the conundrum and two of the numbers rounds that the finalists didn't get. I was too busy taking the knee whilst setting the wood burner.

Big fan of Upstart Crow, but tonight's lockdown version was dreadful. They should have left well alone.

A couple of recommendations:

Umbrella Academy (Netflix) - a rather different take on super heroes

Crossing Swords (ITV) - amusing animation

boltonbonce wrote:Big fan of Upstart Crow, but tonight's lockdown version was dreadful. They should have left well alone.

The Bobsworths are big fans of Ben Elton's writing.  Pity he couldn't find room for the Marquis of Burberry in the script but it was quite funny without it.

Finished a few recently. The Serpent was OK when it got going - mass murderer drama based on a true story. Spiral is better although it's in French with subtitles which won't please some, but whilst it's another police drama it's amped up quite a bit and definitely not for the squeamish. Very well written and acted.

The Serpent really made me feel chills because (albeit with some dramatic licence) actually happened more or less as shown. What I especially couldn't get over was Jenna Coleman's performance. For me it was outstanding especially given her prior 'wholesome' roles in Dr Who and where she played Queen Victoria. I haven't watched Spiral as yet but I'll check it out lusty. I like a good drama that makes you think and frankly the Europeans are often better at that sort of thing than the British and Americans.

I notice The X-Files are all free to watch on Prime Video, so I might give them a go. Not seen an episode for many years now.

Used to enjoy watching the X files

BoltonTillIDie wrote:Used to enjoy watching the X files

Yes, I had a bit of a thing about agent Scully.

Haven't a clue why...

Then something bad happened.