Thursday, December 21, 2023

Slow Horses win the race





Slow Horses is a bit like if Alan Furst got together with David Simon and they combined forces to follow a modern day MI5 unit.

This is a very well-written show with unique characters and edge of your seat action and chase scenes and infinitely funnier than most other workplace dramas out there.

You can almost smell Gary Oldman's character - Jackson Lamb - who heads up an MI5 unit full of misfits that continually find themselves in fake situations with disastrous consequences.  Lamb leads the disgraced unit, but his backstory is Smiley/Bond worthy from the sounds of it, and his caring for the "Joes" under his command seems sincere.

The wife and I can't get enough.... on Apple TV


Saturday, August 28, 2021

See


The Witchfinder General

See is an epically decent fantasy/action series set in a future where humanity has lost the power of sight.  There's incredible world-building and characters and the story sucks you in.   

For this world they have almost had to re-invent what makes a good battle scene or chase scene.  Very fun to watch. 

Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Decent Graphic Novel adaptations - pt I

 Legion




If you like musical sequences, astral projection, time travel and psycho-kinesis, may I be the nth to say you're pretty fuckin weird, but bright side is you might like this decent show.


Umbrella Academy




More time travel, but it won't make your head hurt.


The Boys



Rude. Gross. Violent. Funny. Epic.

Motherless Brooklyn


 

I found this to be an excellent way to spend a lazy morning off.  I hope Edward Norton will continue to direct movies.  If I was going to be flippant, I would say this is Rain Man meets Chinatown, but in a GOOD way.

Excellent cast, decent twists and a great job of acting and directing by Norton.

The Outsider


I am watching this series for a second time with the wife and I am just as riveted and having just as many emotional reactions the second time around.  Based on a novel by Stephen King, the mastermind of American kitchen-sink horror, someone did an incredible job on the adaptation.  Not to mention the casting and pacing and general fucking aura of creepiness.

First time I watched this, I was thinking, "God damn, Stephen King books are just like decompressed X-Files episodes!"   Then I realized immediately I had it backwards and X-files episodes are just compressed Stephen King novels.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Microcosmos

Microcosmos:  A great documentary for all ages, this one puts you right down on the ground with some of the most fascinating and everyday insects you could imagine.


Rotten Tomatoes

Monday, July 11, 2011

OSS 117


OSS 117: If you like parodies of movies you've never seen, then these are the films for you.  They're like the Black Dynamite of French cold war spy thrillers - definitely more 'what's up tiger lily?' than Austin Powers.  If none of that makes any sense to you, you still might like these movies, if you like funny things and don't mind reading.

Rotten Tomatoes