What you watchin' tonight?

I was disappointed in "Space Station 76." The flick looked great - kudos to the set and costume designers cuz they captured that 1970s sci-fi vibe perfectly, but the movie wasn't very good at all. Nothin' much happened, there was no real storyline, it felt like a bunch of sketches strung together to feature length. There were a few chuckles but it never found the right tone. I'd say skip it.

Fat Freddy wrote:

I was disappointed in "Space Station 76." The flick looked great - kudos to the set and costume designers cuz they captured that 1970s sci-fi vibe perfectly, but the movie wasn't very good at all. Nothin' much happened, there was no real storyline, it felt like a bunch of sketches strung together to feature length. There were a few chuckles but it never found the right tone. I'd say skip it.

I had no idea it was a comedy until I saw the trailer you posted on HOM. Damn, I'm disappointed. Especially if it's more of a sketch thing. I think I'll actually pass.

It irks me that someone can't come up with a proper homage to those 70's space flicks such as Silent Running and Logan's Run (both have run in the title and are worlds apart in quality, interesting). Whether they were good or bad, the aesthetic impact those films made were remarkable and very missed by me. The only other homage I've seen is Beyond the Black Rainbow and god it was a turgid, pretentious mess. At least those old movies had a somewhat cohesive narrative (and didn't frame every shot in close-up to the point where you lose all sense of location).

As I get older, this notion of cinematic homages is becoming a tired, cumbersome effort. The payoff is always weak and no one can seem to get it right.

I don't think they knew what kind of movie they were making -- a comedy, a drama, or a mishmash of the two. Have you ever seen Ang Lee's "The Ice Storm?" Imagine that flick if it were set on a space station.

The problem is, there's no reason for a plot line like this to be set on a space station. This story could have happened anywhere. The space station setting could've been a cool added gimmick but they really don't do much with it at all.

(shrugs) Liv Tyler looked good in a 70s Starfleet style uniform, at least...

Apparently "Space Station 76" is adapted from a stage play. Maybe it worked better in that format.

A stage play of 70's space props would actually grab my attention.

American Horror Story. Wow, didn't see THAT coming! Okay, I did. This is by far the least effective season, even compared to the last that didn't do much for me. The melodrama is getting heavy but the gonzo OTT nature is surprisingly missing. It feels like the show is running out of energy, not surprising since they spent so much of it already.

It's also getting too familiar, and predictable--two things which the show has NOT been known for.

Speaking of AHS, drove by the house from season 1 on Friday and snapped a picture:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Been hitting my two DVDs of Christmas related Simpsons episodes this week... and my "SNL" holiday DVD is on deck...

I've been slackin' big time on the movie watching lately... the last thing I saw was the (god-awful silly) "Grinch" movie with Jim Carrey on Family Channel, and that was over a week ago already...

I'm expecting either the 2014 "Godzilla" and/or "Guardians of the Galaxy" DVDs for Christmas so I'll have a few new ones to finish out the year....

I watched season one of Hannibal and despite my initial reservations I have to say it's one of the best and most impressively made series currently on broadcast television. In fact it was a good reminder of how bad most TV series really are in comparison. It's also the best adaptation of the source material, actually it improves a good deal on the source material. It's intelligent, majorly creepy, mind-bending and exhilarating.

Now I hope Amazon Prime gets season 2 pretty soon so I can continue the journey.

Back on Pretty Little Liars tonight, oh baby! And I am CONFUUUUUSED.

This show is convoluted to the point of incoherence, with 99% of the dialogue being sheer exposition fired off at lightning speed. The amount of suspended disbelief required is superhuman. And it gets worse, and worse, and worse. "A" is getting ridiculously elaborate as the girls constantly avoid obvious decisions. I swear I'm getting dumber just analyzing the absurd group mentality of these characters. I can't help myself from shouting at the screen, TELL. THE. FUCKING. POLICE.

I know, same old shit. But it's interesting to watch cars crash.

Been watching a lot of Classic Doctor Who, jumping around to different doctors and different eras. My first exposure to this series was as a kid in the 70s during the Tom Baker era and it was just a little too much for my pre-teen brain to comprehend, now I'm totally digging it.

S.D. wrote:

Been watching a lot of Classic Doctor Who, jumping around to different doctors and different eras.  My first exposure to this series was as a kid in the 70s during the Tom Baker era and it was just a little too much for my pre-teen brain to comprehend, now I'm totally digging it.

Now that it's on Hulu I need to dedicate time to watch. I loved it as a kid and it's right up my alley.

NOT. ENOUGH. FUCKING. TIME. TO. DO. WHAT. I. WANT.

My first movie of 2015: "Captain America: The Winter Soldier." It was kickass!! Some peeps have told me they thought it was better than the first, I still think I prefer the original (because I enjoyed its 1940s period piece vibe) but this was no slouch either. A cool flick to kick off the new year. Next up: "Guardians of the Galaxy."

Got pissed as the Oregon/FSU game so I came to the computer.

I'm on season two of Twin Peaks, and that shit is crazy. I can't stop watching it. Makes me feel like I should watch other David Lynch stuff, but I haven't gotten around to it (and probably won't for a while).

Metal-On-Metal wrote:

I'm on season two of Twin Peaks, and that shit is crazy. I can't stop watching it. Makes me feel like I should watch other David Lynch stuff, but I haven't gotten around to it (and probably won't for a while).

Start with Eraserhead if you haven't seen it, move on to Wild at Heart, then Blue Velvet, then Lost Highway. Take a break to deal with the dizzy spells and PTSD, grab some vicodin, then shoot for his short films. If you can stomach any more, best of luck with Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire, the latter might kill you btw. Then after all the chaos and scheduling therapy, calm down with Dune, The Straight Story, and finally Elephant Man. This is all considering you've seen the Twin Peaks movie.

I have done this in a day and experienced alternate realities without mind-altering drugs. It was fucking cool. Happy trails.

I can't deal with David Lynch. I've given him more than enough tries and I guess I just never "got" him. I was in college back when "Twin Peaks" was hot on TV, and a bunch of my friends loved that show. It was a very big deal at the time that a maverick film maker like David Lynch was doing a TV series, and when I expressed total ignorance of his work, I was advised to rent some of his movies in hopes that I'd see what all the big whoop-de-doo was about. So I did.

...and aside from "Blue Velvet" I can't say I really enjoyed any of what I saw (and even my enjoyment of "Blue Velvet" was due mainly to Dennis Hopper's epic batshit crazy performance, esp. the "HEINEKEN? FUCK THAT SHIT! PABST BLUE RIBBON!" scene, which is still hilarious to me nearly 30 years later. Dennis Hopper frickin rules.)...

I have tried to watch "Eraserhead," and I mean really really goddamn tried, several times over the years, and I have never made it all the way to the end. It's just too damn weird. Even my film watching O.C.D. which generally demands that I watch ANY movie all the way to the end no matter HOW bad it is, is no match for "Eraserhead."

I guess David Lynch is my Kryptonite!!

Fat Freddy wrote:

I can't deal with David Lynch. I've given him more than enough tries and I guess I just never "got" him. I was in college back when "Twin Peaks" was hot on TV, and a bunch of my friends loved that show. It was a very big deal at the time that a maverick film maker like David Lynch was doing a TV series, and when I expressed total ignorance of his work, I was advised to rent some of his movies in hopes that I'd see what all the big whoop-de-doo was about. So I did.

...and aside from "Blue Velvet" I can't say I really enjoyed any of what I saw (and even my enjoyment of "Blue Velvet" was due mainly to Dennis Hopper's epic batshit crazy performance, esp. the "HEINEKEN? FUCK THAT SHIT! PABST BLUE RIBBON!" scene, which is still hilarious to me nearly 30 years later. Dennis Hopper frickin rules.)...

I have tried to watch "Eraserhead," and I mean really really goddamn tried, several times over the years, and I have never made it all the way to the end. It's just too damn weird. Even my film watching O.C.D. which generally demands that I watch ANY movie all the way to the end no matter HOW bad it is, is no match for "Eraserhead."

I guess David Lynch is my Kryptonite!!

He's definitely not for everyone for sure. He's a love it or hate it director all the way.

If you ever make it to the end of Eraserhead, you'll either want to bathe in acid or shoot the TV. I got my buddy to sit through it--he's of the conventional, safe, formulaic Hollywood camp--and he kept nodding off and looking at me like I'm an oddity of nature, but when he reached the END--dead silence for about a minute, and I'll never forget his words, "I just want to claw my eyes out." Actually made him nauseous a bit. He hated me for a few weeks after haha.

I always found Blue Velvet a tad overrated apart from Hopper's mania. I thought Lynch did better in Wild at Heart, and Lost Highway is an underrated masterpiece, certainly his magnum opus in my eyes. That movie scarred me.

I think Mulholland Drive is the Lynch film I've liked the most, with The Elephant Man running a close second. Not a big fan, I also think Blue Velvet is WAY overrated. I understand why he's got such a big cult following, I've just got to be in a very specific mood to watch his stuff.

I watched season one of Twin Peaks for the first time recently and enjoyed it, but season 2 goes off the deep end into gonzo weird and I haven't gotten in the mood to finish tit yet.

I'm something like 8 episodes into season 2 right now, and I'm totally enthralled by it. It's super weird, but it's got me glued to my tv.

I haven't actually seen any other David Lynch stuff, but I recall Eraserhead being on Hulu, so I think I'll give that a shot tomorrow if I'm up to it. And there's a bunch of short films of his on there too, so I'll likely check those out as well.

Metal-On-Metal wrote:

I'm something like 8 episodes into season 2 right now, and I'm totally enthralled by it. It's super weird, but it's got me glued to my tv.

I haven't actually seen any other David Lynch stuff, but I recall Eraserhead being on Hulu, so I think I'll give that a shot tomorrow if I'm up to it. And there's a bunch of short films of his on there too, so I'll likely check those out as well.

My favorite short film is The Amputee. Takes a bit of a strong stomach.

Reason I love Lynch is because I'm all about surrealism and absurdism like Buenuel and Jodorowsky. Alternate realities, dream-like states, disturbances in normalcy, that kind of stuff. Always loved it. Love staying up late at night on the brink of sleep watching Adult Swim or listening to experimental music like Coil. The insanity is just sort of transcendent. I find it's a rare taste, that not many people out there are into it, but for me it's a great way to shake up and deconstruct social norms and conventions. Lynch's films (and art such as paintings and collages) do that, hardcore.

My dream house someday will have a man-cave covered in Dali and Man Ray.

Just for the record, the only time I watched Eraserhead I was tripping on acid at the time.

I just finished reading an amazing book about Roger Corman ("Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen and Candy Stripe Nurses: Roger Corman, King of the B Movie") so I'm thinking of digging back into some of his oldies that are on this "50 Horror Classics" box set I've got on the shelf, like "Dementia 13" ...

Fat Freddy wrote:

I just finished reading an amazing book about Roger Corman ("Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen and Candy Stripe Nurses: Roger Corman, King of the B Movie") so I'm thinking of digging back into some of his oldies that are on this "50 Horror Classics" box set I've got on the shelf, like "Dementia 13" ...

I've read that, damn entertaining book.

S.D. wrote:

Just for the record, the only time I watched Eraserhead I was tripping on acid at the time.  

I'm jealous.

Damn, I've often thought of how entertaining Twin Peaks would be while tripping.

I love how everything you watch feels like some kind of grandiose revelation on acid. I'm sure Lynch's style would pair nicely with that.