But Is It on Netflix? - Streaming Video Service Thread: Hulu, Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, Disney+, Peacock, YouTube TV, AT+T Watch, Philo, Playstation Vue, HBO Max, HBO Now, Facebook Live and many more

i like omar l’s take and i think i lean towards it. aiui the gun fu in the first was v innovative and new to US audiences at least. but it’s also a case of keep going deeper and deeper in a single minded way into single simple thing: gun violence, for all that there are variations at the edges.

i agree about the stakes being lower and that weakening it. but really it’s all about the violence.

and it does that well and is *interested* in how it can be done well and refined. sure, that leads to decadence. i’m ok with that.

I've got no problem with the violence in the Wick movies, because they are, in a sense, occurring in a parallel world where apparently literally everyone is a sleeper agent or hitman, which is totally absurd. In that sense they are almost satires in their hyper-stylization and fetishization of violence.

A big part of what made the first one so much fun (IMO) was that there was no real context for it when it came out… it was just this cool new movie that felt fresh & clever, and was done well.

Kind of wild that this was also true for the paradigm shifting Matrix, or even something like Speed. Keanu (or his agent) has a knack for picking these sorts of projects.

in a parallel world where apparently literally everyone is a sleeper agent or hitman, which is totally absurd.

Yes! I noticed this in particular when watching the sequel... I think literally every character who speaks onscreen, even someone minor like a flight attendant, is somehow "in on" the secret assassin world. It's pretty clever.

i believe it’s at least in part keanu himself who’s picked up on this. read it somewhere anyway. xpost

Another technique that nullifies any emotional impact of the violence is that the film never highlights or wallows/delights in any fear, remorse, regret, etc. of the guys getting killed... if anything, they mostly act irritated that their time is up (or are just like, "Ugh, fuck you!" when they're about to get offed).

scott & everyone ilu & this convo is close to my heart but OMG we have a perfectly good john wick thread elsewhere

xp Right, they're samurai films.

The fact that he's not dead at the start of the second one shouldn't, I feel, count against the fact that he definitely dies at the end of the first, which (to go back a bit), is a decent noirish reason for the in media res.

Post-Wick 1, the best parts are the weirdo world building scenes like the gun sommelier. The world is a Catholic Libertarian paradise where the Reformation never happened and murder is legal as long as it follows the Rules of Acquisition.

TAPS

THE

SIGN

Wick thread: Something Wick This Way Comes

<3

each Wick better than the last imo

hey i only had TWO measly little wick posts! i'm not the one going on and on about how much i LUUUUUV john wick and how i want to MARRRRY john wick. but honestly i will try my hardest to not talk about movies on here. i am apparently a lightning rod for controversy. still watching girls5eva. tina fey as dolly parton was too funny. also watching Next Level Chef because you people aren't pulling your weight when it comes to solid middle american entertainment. ALSO if you ever want to die you should play the Next Level Chef drinking game. you take a shot whenever anyone says the word "BABY". omg they must say it 30 times an episode. LET'S GO, BABY! YOU GOT THIS, BABY! THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT, BABY! its relentless. and kind of funny.

wait what was the funny crime show that people liked on amazon? like i need another crime show...

australian...?

2nd episode of elsbeth was just....okay? always nice to see linda lavin.

Are you thinking of Deadloch, Scott?

i think that's it, thanks! couldn't remember the name. i know people talked about it on here.

Deadloch ruled, the parody was so on point I’d momentarily dislike it because they’d absolutely nail the look and feel of one of those terrible Nordic noir shows in a transition shot or something.

Still really regretting watching an entire season of the Detective Scully and the rapist serial killer show.

my favorite thing about those shows like the Scully one is that you have these massive cases that would be on the covers of newspapers and you have one cop in a dark room by themselves trying to solve it. as if everyone on earth short of the army wouldn't be a part of the investigation. same with all those times that the lone wolf cop goes to check out the scary house by themselves and doesn't tell anyone where they are going. the absence of red tape must be infuriating for real cops at home watching these shows. or maybe its a good fantasy break for them. "It would have taken me six months to get permission to open that killer's laptop..."

i mean i know its just a show...

i swear i remember reading some interview with a cop and them saying that Barney Miller was the closest to real cop life of any show on television.

Shout out to Graham Yost. I've been watching Justified. Yost was the creator & producer. I thought I recognized the name ... turns out he has writing and/or producing credits for The Americans, Slow Horses, Sneaky Pete, Silo, Masters of Air and some older shows I don't recognize like Boomtown and The Pacific.

And Speed!

Wrote 2 episodes of Band of Brothers too, in addition to EP credits on The Pacific and Masters of the Air. Pretty impressive resume

Watched the first episode of The Jarrod Carmichael Show on Max...even with meta elements, it felt like reality TV (vs. reality), but then there's a conversation with Tyler, The Creator that feels as specific second by second as the diner scene in Heat or a key moment in an Eric Rohmer film.

Fell asleep during the first episode of Ripley.

Oh man I think Ripley has been phenomenal 4 episodes in.

Thought the first two episodes were really sloooooow but been gripped since

Anyone watched Parasyte? Seems to be generating a bit of a buzz

quite keen to see it, mainly on the basis that i've seen a lot of negative comment, including one that said they don't 'get' why Andrew Scott is considered a good actor. Now, he may be crap in this, though I doubt it, but he is clearly an exceptional and extremely capable actor - with an ability to deliver a wide variety of emotion and experience with apparently minimal adaptation. So extrapolated my violent RONG judgment to all the other negative comment as well. and now i want to see it.

it's fine and I like Andrew Scott, loved him in All of Us Strangers.

lots of the period detail in Ripley is obv CGIed to fuck, but it works

So apparently Netflix has let David E. Kelley adapt Tom Wolfe's novel A Man In Full into a six-episode series starring Jeff Daniels. It'll be out in May.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OzMOuFR2eE

Ripley is impressive as a gesture alone: leisurely B&W adaptation in which three-fourths of episodes are about Rip walking to hotels, boarding buses, signing his name, and bumbling murders.

and two Brits as leads impersonating Americans, how clever

Where's the terrible Charlotte Simmons miniseries?

Who will play Doctor Dis?

There’s a Doctor Who Dis joke there, but I’m under caffeinated right now…

Not sure Andrew Scott would appreciate being called a Brit...

It took me a while to get into Ripley but I'm enjoying it now. It's not really how Highsmith wrote it though. Both the leads are too old, they're supposed to be in their carefree 20s (in the novel) but they're in their 40s - late 40s for Scott. Surely once in your 40s you don't still have your Dad sending emissaries out to try and get you back to the family business... And black and white seems an odd choice for sunlit southern Italy, obviously b&w is a noir signifier, but it doesn't quite seem right for the Mediterranean.

Fallout out today. Looks like it could be good

i’ve seen good reviews. but must admit seeing the movie poster as i cycled into town just now provoked a wail of WHHHHY are we making 20 year old video games into premium tv series.

the nostalgia middle aged money bet is i suspect the answer but that doesn’t seem good, in general.

I've never played any of the Fallout games and only made it about 20 minutes into the first episode of the series. Something about the kitschiness of its look (and the use of pre-rock pop music on the soundtrack) just bugged me.

the funny thing about there being a fallout show in 2024 is i'm pretty sure you can't play the fallout games on any current- or last-generation consoles

so younger gamers probably don't know the games and people who enjoy the tv show won't be able to go out and buy them, there's almost no cross-promotion options

i guess that's what fizzles was alluding to

oh maybe you can play them through the streaming services. but you can't buy the games.