On a whim popped on Godzilla (2014) last night. I hadn't seen this since it was in the theaters. Recall it being ok but disappointing. On second watch, with enough time to forget almost everything, I ended up really enjoying it. There's some really nice visuals in that film - forgot about the halo skydiving jump sequence which is just impressive.
So it was good enough to get me interested to see the rest of the MonsterVerse films. Will watch Kong: Skull Island tonight. Again, another one I hadn't seen since its release. I recall loving the world Kong inhabited but the human characters being goofy and the film taking on a silly tone. I don't recall anything about the plot but assume it follows typical King Kong plot and they capture and take him back to NY (?). Will see. Maybe it'll surprise me like Godzilla.
I had fun with the first season of Titans and am suffering through the rest of it.
I keep meaning to go back and watch Kong: Skull Island but never seem to find the time. I enjoyed the 2014 Godzilla film, and King of the Monsters was a perfect turn-your-brain-off-big-stupid-fun experience. Seriously, when Godzilla charged into the final battle
against King Ghidora, with the entire Monarch air force backing him up
I had as big a fist-pump "f*ck yeah!" reaction as I did at the climax of Avengers: Endgame. And Marvel had way more setup to earn theirs.
I keep meaning to go back and watch Kong: Skull Island but never seem to find the time. I enjoyed the 2014 Godzilla film, and King of the Monsters was a perfect turn-your-brain-off-big-stupid-fun experience. Seriously, when Godzilla charged into the final battle
Spoiler:against King Ghidora, with the entire Monarch air force backing him up
I had as big a fist-pump "f*ck yeah!" reaction as I did at the climax of Avengers: Endgame. And Marvel had way more setup to earn theirs.
King Skull Island was great! Give it a watch. You won’t be disappointed.
Godzilla 2014 is pretty serious in tone and just turned into campy silliness in the sequels. I don't think I enjoyed King of the Monsters much because of the tone shift. But Skull Island got me back onboard. I guess I was ready by that time.
That's part and parcel with the whole Godzilla franchise. The Showa Era movie started with a VERY serious movie dealing with feelings about a recent nuclear holocaust that became a man in a rubber suit defending children from aliens. It happened again in the Heisei Era movies. They brought back the serious tone, but eventually you get a teenaged girl who has a psychic link to Godzilla and his son. It's the same thing, only with an insane budge and I am here for it.
Watched the original with my 9yo last year and he LOVED it. Might re-up Max to watch some more this summer with him.
My opinion of Skull Island held. Did not enjoy that one. Basically reminded me of Armageddon where silly characters are put in a serious situation doing silly things (why in Armageddon did they need to bring that gatling gun to the asteroid?). For some reason the comedy elements for Skull Island didn't click with me at all.
Was looking forward to seeing Godzilla King of Monsters but looks like its not on HBO anymore. So will have to wait to see if that comes back in the next few months.
Since this will probably end up on this platform at some point, Babylon 5 returning as an animated movie.
More details on Babylon 5: The Road Home. Sheridan's going to save some whales!
"Home video summer release" is infuriatingly vague.
However they distribute it, it can't be as annoying as having to VHS a 3am broadcast off the local Fox affiliate...
When I explained the plot of Godzilla vs Kong, my wife accused me of making shit up.
This is a depressing paragraph.
The voice cast also includes Paul Guyet as Zathras and Jeffery Sinclair, Anthony Hansen as Michael Garibaldi, Mara Junot as Reporter and Computer Voice, Phil LaMarr as Dr. Stephen Franklin, Piotr Michael as David Sheridan, Andrew Morgado as G’Kar and Rebecca Riedy as Delenn.
OMG Anthony Hansen is an old friend of mine, been working at voice acting for years! Wonderful!!
Zathras is the One. Zathras still not happy.
This is a depressing paragraph.
The voice cast also includes Paul Guyet as Zathras and Jeffery Sinclair, Anthony Hansen as Michael Garibaldi, Mara Junot as Reporter and Computer Voice, Phil LaMarr as Dr. Stephen Franklin, Piotr Michael as David Sheridan, Andrew Morgado as G’Kar and Rebecca Riedy as Delenn.
Yes and no. It is sad to be reminded of how much of the cast we've lost. But it is also heartening to know that Straczynski and co. have found folks that can carry on their legacy. I'm not familiar with most of them, but I can definitely see Phil LaMarr doing an excellent job with Dr. Franklin. If the others are on par then we could be in for a real treat.
Wow, I must say yesterday's Succession hit hard. For the most part no matter how "real" or "ripped from the headlines" something is or how well its acted I usually just see it as "its just TV" and probably forget about it 10 minutes after it airs. I dont' really get triggered.. not deeply at least. I actually see Succession more of a Black Comedy than a commentary on society...until yesterdays episode.
Up until yesterday, the only thing that actually did trigger me is dramatizations or documentaries around 9/11 since I was working in NYC at the time and was about 30 minutes away from leaving my apt to catch my train to WTC.
Yesterdays episode brought everything back from 2016 election.. and that complete sense of dread. yikes.
Yeah, "triggering" was the exact word my wife used to describe last night's Succession. Just an excruciatingly painful hour of television. But at the same time, every character behaving consistent with their prior actions and background. They were always these people.
Succession is a strange show for me in that I'm not rooting for anyone, or hoping for a particular outcome. I'm just watching this exquisitely crafted trainwreck of a family.
Funny how in an unrelated chain of events a Warner Bros. Discovery platform airs an episode in which political violence alters the outcome of the US presidential election days after another WBD platform airs a town hall featuring someone who tried to use political violence to alter the outcome of a US presidential election.
Same here. Stressed me out. I always read Linda Holmes’s take on NPR afterward and I thought it was particularly good this week.
I keep having to remind myself that each episode is a day and Logan hasn’t even been buried yet.
The funeral is gonna be a shit show, isn't it?
All of Max's gems were hidden this morning, when the service came crashing down during its relaunch with the new branding.
I'm continuing to call it "HBO Max." And if HBO Max finds itself hurting for new things during they strike, they can put up the footage of Honey BooBoo Zazlav being booed during his commencement speech at Boston University.
Got annoyed with how many times we were told about the new name when we watched Succession Monday night.
They are making such a big deal about it that it is just emphasizing how it’s not that big a deal.
HBO's Max Rebrand Launch Didn't Go as Planned
HBO Max, now rebranded as Max, had a less-than-ideal launch on Tuesday, with many subscribers reporting ongoing issues with the app. The problems may have stemmed from Max creating an entirely new app, rather than simply renaming its existing one, and many subscribers were displeased, saying they couldn’t log in or that the app had completely crashed.
The streaming service has not provided instructions on how to fix the problem, nor has it posted a finite resolution on its site, if anything, it makes the swap more complicated, not less. On its site, Max says if subscribers receive a message saying the app isn’t available in their region, they should follow four steps including unblocking the IP address, restarting the network device, contacting their internet service provider, and as a last-ditch effort, contact Max.Max’s introduction of a completely different app left no direction for subscribers, saying in a press release that a “large portion” of subscribers’ apps will be automatically updated to Max, while others will receive a prompt to download the app. Speaking from firsthand experience, no such prompt consistently exists.
When I loaded up the HBO Max app on the PS5 yesterday, it gave me a message telling me to download the new app. However there was no button or link to take me directly to the download page. I had to manually search for it on the PS5 and download it. I still have to delete the old app.
Once I got it installed and signed in, it worked as expected. No outages, crashes, etc.
It's pretty crap on Apple TV. When scrolling long lists is always bounces back to the top of the list for no reason. It also doesn't use the native ATV video player, so it's missing basic features such as nice scrubbing, "what did they say?" and easy sub-title access.
At least the watch history seems to have transferred so shows that are in progress will now open with the new app.
Anyone want to take bets that Max is going to crash tonight thanks to Succession, Barry, and WBD presumably never stress testing the app prior to launch?
Succession series finale:
Kendall, finally re-revealed as a monster, plummets to the New York streets like King Kong because no one in the end believes he can be the next Logan Roy.
Shiv chooses to hold onto what privilege she has through Tom because that's all she can hope for in this specific world that doesn't ever want her to lead it.
Roman the perpetual shit-stirrer ends up mostly in the same place he was before because despite his acts of rebellion, he wants consistency not change.
Greg the perpetual naive one is stuck in that loop for the rest of his life because he will always be taken advantage of by people higher up the ladder than he is.
And Tom is the CEO of Waystar Royco because he's always been the loyalist, not the leader.
As I said up top, no one in Succession wanted another Logan Roy to win out.
Pages