What are you streaming/watching?

The Lost Weekend (1945). Internet Archive. Very good film, won four Oscars.

The Searchers (1956). Cinema Box. A very good western with the Duke. On Independent’s list of 47 brilliant films that did not receive an Oscar nomination.

Village of the Damned (1960). OK. Very good non-graphic horror film. If you liked Vivarium, both have the similar premise of humans raising the brood of you-know-what.

 

Gilda (1946). Internet Archive. Rita Hayworth oozes sexuality.

Notorious (1946). Tubi. A Hitchcock classic with Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman.

Hawaii Five-O (1969). Paramount+. Completed S1. Was not impressed with the pilot and never cared for the Wo Fat character who would return as McGarret’s nemesis throughout the series’ run. I was three years old when the series started. I began watching the show around S6 when the show was well polished. This S1 was a bit rough but entertaining to watch the character development.
Notable appearances: Ricardo Montalban as an AWOL Japanese soldier (E4); Gavin MacLeod as an inmate (E5) and dope peddler (E16); Yaphet Kotto as a traumatized US soldier (E13); and Sally Kellerman as a wife conspirator (E23).

 

My wife hates the Wo Fat episodes.

 

Instigators
Bad Monkey
A Very English Scandal

 

It (2017). Tubi. The child actors were very good. The film was better than I expected. I’m gonna have to see the sequel now.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2094). OK. Pretty good lovey dovey film. Technically a Sci Fi but more a drama love story, like Another Earth, which I enjoyed a bit more than this one.

Strangers on a Train (1951). Tubi. A Hitchcock classic. Grabs onto you shortly after the movie starts and doesn’t ket go till the end. But, police tactics are atrocious - shooting at a bad guy into a crowded merry-go-round is ludicrous.

 

Industry.
Deadwood, again. Got roped into a few reruns last weekend and ended up starting it over.

 

FP2 ... Monza

 

Touch of Evil (1958). Internet Archive. An Orson Wells film noir. I don’t like the too-brief-dialogues, characteristic of this genre. Otherwise, good acting from the main characters.

Trainspotting (1996). Paramount+. Enjoyable British flick with decent soundtrack.

 

Clark (2022). Netflix, six-part mini series. Humorous bio account of Clark Oloffson, a Swedish criminal. The phenomenon termed "Stockholm Syndrome" arose from a 1973 bank robbery Clark was involved in. The bank robbery is covered in Ep 3-4.

 

A Very English Scandal
Mr Bates vs the Post Office

 

Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). Cinema Box. A classic WWII movie; won seven Oscars.

The War Game (1956). Internet Archive. An intense docudrama about a nuclear attack. Won Best Documentary Oscar. I wouldn’t oppose it as required viewing at high school level.

Hot Fuzz (2007). Peacock. Funny.

 

Watched Godzilla Minus 1 on Netflix Saturday. Was pretty good. Will watch it again when the oldest comes to visit for the holidays. He's a huge Godzilla movie fan.

 

Season 5 of Fargo. I know I'm not supposed to like Jon Hamms character but I do. Edit: ok nvm, just saw how he's a wife beater so yeah, lots to hate.

Bad Monkey on Apple. At this point it's the only reason we're still on apple.

Going to start season 3 of Murders in the building.

 

Your Honor and Peaky Blinders on Netflix. Enjoyed Your Honor but had a hard time picking up on the accent in Peaky. May have enjoyed that one more if I understood all the dialogue.

 

Rio Bravo (1956). Faewsome. Very good western with John Wayne, Dean Martin and teen sensation, Ricky Nelson.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). Cinema Box. Another very good western. Source of the misquote, “we don't need no stinkin badges.” What the character actually says is, "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges!".

 

Interesting trivia. One of the bandits at the end of the movie is the same actor who was in Butch Cassidy who tried to rob the payroll from Butch and the Kid.

 

The Queen’s Gambit (2020). Netflix. I’m no chess player/fan but I greatly enjoyed this chess-themed short series. I originally intended to watch the seven part series over a week’s time but I was so captivated by the characters and storyline, I watched the series over a 48-hour period.

 

Promising Young Woman (2020). Peacock. At first I thought this was going to be a chick flick - it was quite a bit more than that!

Once Upon a Time in America (1984). Internet Archive. Hated keeping track of the five or so timelines, going back and forth, for nearly four hours, but it moves quick-like.

 

High Noon (1952). Prime. Good western. Won four of seven nominated Oscars. Film debut of Lee Van Cleef, although he had no speaking parts.

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949). OK site. Great cinematography, for which it won an Oscar. The usual mostly stereotypical view of Indians as hostiles. There is this line from the Duke’s character I like, “Yes, we are too old for war. But old men should stop wars.”

 

Rewatched "Severance" (Apple TV) in preparation for the new season in January. So good. Also watched "Kaos" (Netflix) and found it a clever retelling of the Greek mythos.

 

Days of Heaven (1978). PlutoTV.
Badlands (1973). OK site.

Both were directed by Terrence Malick and share many similarities - great cinematography (DoH won an Oscar for it), atypical love relationship, and young female narrator. Both are good watch but felt DoH ended rather abruptly.

 

Beauty and the Beast (1946). Max. First full length version of the fairy-tale. Has some good special effects.

A Matter of Life and Death (1946). OK site. Excellent opening sequence that hooks you in. But, I found many of the subsequent dialogue sequences boring and long winded. Like above, it also has good special effects for the time period.

 

Hawaii Five-O (1969). Completed S2 - a little better than S1. Of the actors that later became popular, I most enjoyed Marion Ross’ episode, E15.

Other notable actors:
E2 Loretta Swit
E16 Christopher Walken
E20 Martin Sheen
E21 Tom Skerritt
E23/E24 Loretta Swit - different character from E2.

 

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). Very good film about three end-of-duty soldiers returning home and their adjustment to civilian life. Won seven Oscars.

Brute Force (1947). Max. A prison film, considered very violent when it came out but quite tame by today’s standards.

 

Star Trek: Discovery (2024). Paramount+. Completed S5. Good season, sad to see the series end.

 

Sunset Boulevard (1950). Paramount+. A classic and very good watch.

Some Like it Hot (1959). Tubi. Meh

 

Finished The Stand and caught up on Rings of Power so binge watched the first season of Joe Pickett - it's soooooo good.

 

The Old Man (2022) on FX/Hulu

 

Watched all 9 episodes of Monsters: The Lyle and Eric Menendez Story this weekend. Very interesting since I vaguely remember that from my youth living in SoCal.

Seeing Javier Bardem play the father makes me want to watch No Country for Old Men again.

 

The Haunting (1963). Tubi. Brit horror flick. I didn’t find it scary nor relatable, but decent watch overall.

Annie Hall (1977). Tubi. Funny and relatable.