shadokitty

Looking forward to this challenge. I've even mostly stopped the documentary mini challenge I've been doing this month so as not to burn out.

Travis McClain

List thread is now live, y'all.

davidh777

The problem is I keep finding eligible titles that I want to watch.

BobO'Link

Heck... I still have enough left over from last year to fill this one and *still* have leftovers... Then there are the titles I've purchased throughout the year when a good sale happened along...

mrcellophane

I'm very excited about this challenge! It's one of my favorites (and the first challenge I have participated in). War films, westerns, and period pieces: what's not to love? I've got several miniseries pulled from the shelves to watch. Unfortunately, there are just too many to get to everything. I would love to rewatch John Adams and The Pillars of the Earth, but I have a lot of series that I haven't yet watched (such as Roots) and they are higher on the priorities list.

I have a question about the checklist. Would y'all consider No Country for Old Men a neo-western?

LJG765

I have a couple docs that I have not watched, so I'll get to those for sure. Not sure what else, I'll end up watching. Maybe I'll end up buying Little House s. 2 after all!

shadokitty

Glad to see you're in the challenge after all. I'm mostly focusing on docs myself.

Ash Ketchum

Is the version you have the same as this one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAEufk8UNN4

Thanks.

LJG765

Well...I don't think I'll get to very many, but it's a good excuse to watch unwatched movies in my collection. I picked up a couple DVDs a long time ago for a dollar, that I'm mainly hoping to cross off my watch list. I do wish I had thought about this challenge before I watched Little House, but oh well.

This is also, my last "quiet" month for challenges as I do both the Sci-Fi/Fantasy one and the Animation, along with Criterion in Sept. October, I don't really do the challenge, but I watch a lot of my own and I do participate in both humor and holiday, and then TV on DVD in January. 'Bout the only challenge I don't participate in at all is the Drive-In one. These challenges have sucked me in! I've watched a lot of things I wouldn't have normally watched, though, and even found a handful of movies I love that I wouldn't have picked on my own. Plus, my watch list has shrunk. A little. It doesn't help that I keep buying...

BobO'Link

It's nice to have a "quiet" month. I got sucked in a few years back with the Sci-Fi/Fantasy one and only "sit out" the Animation and Criterion. Even in those two I pretty much do what you're doing with the History one this year. All the others I go in head first. They've *all* introduced me to titles I might not otherwise have know of or watched, or reminded me of titles I had forgotten about, all of which has added to the unwatched pile. That "keep buying" thing really gets in the way sometimes, eh?

shadokitty

Can't wait for tonight. While I've been watching documentaries off and on, I'm glad to watch more, and I love watching war movies, westerns, and historical movies. Roku even has a History channel app, with plenty of unlocked free episodes to watch that air on H2. I also have quite a few documentary channels on my Roku, and a western channel.

BobO'Link

I'm ready for this one. I'm planning to start with The Pacific as it's been in my unwatched pile *far* too long! After that I'll attack the growing stack of Western and War movies I've accumulated over the past year unless I dive into a couple of larger War documentary series/sets I picked for *last year's* challenge and didn't get to! As always, I have too much unopened product to watch in the limited time available!

JOE29

Looking forward to tonight too. I may start with something that my wife can watch also. Something like the movie- M*A*S*H*. Which I haven't seen in years. This is what I like about these challenges. It forces you to watch movies either that you haven't seen or movies that have been around for decades that you have forgotten about.

bacigalup

First time participant here!

Will start off with war-related movies through June 6th, the 60th anniversary of the WWII D-day invasion of France.

Edit: Had a senior moment with my anniversaries; This year marks the 70th anniversary of the D-day invasion, not the 60th!

shadokitty

Welcome to the Challenge. I hope you enjoy it here with us.

BobO'Link

I recently pre-ordered the new updated version of Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1980), Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, as Amazon has it at a pretty good price, but I'd never seen a episode. I ordered it because I'm a *huge* fan of the original and feel it's one of the best documentaries on the human journey mixed with elements and cosmological theories of the Universe made. I decided I should find more information about the series before I let the order complete (a few more weeks) and found much of it is available for streaming so I sampled a few episodes.

Am I missing something? I *really* like the original with Carl Sagan but I'm finding the update to be not all that good. With only a few exceptions, the reviews I've read are all glowing and gushing but I feel like I'm watching a different program than the reviewers. The host, Neil deGrasse Tyson, is personable but I find his narration style a bit distracting. It's nowhere as bad as the job Oprah did on Life, but it's in the same vein. I feel like I'm sitting in a 8th grade class being lectured to in "that voice" used by lots of people when presenting material to younger kids. I'm finding most of the updated graphics to be quite good but the animations, used frequently to tell stories of the past, are offputting, poorly done, and a huge distraction - like something done for a kindergarten class. I really expected more from a series I'd read was a "update" of the original. With the technology available today I expected CGI rather than *simple* and rather poorly done animations.

Have any of you seen this? If so, what are your impressions? I've also read the new version is essentially the word-for-word remake text of the original with a few updates added and it's mainly the visuals that have changed. Is that correct?

I want to like it but after watching half of three episodes I've not seen anything compelling enough for me to either continue viewing or allow the purchase to go through.

shadokitty

I've watched a few episodes, as it is on the Fox Channel on Roku, and I get the same impression. However, while I don't plan to marathon through the show, I do figure on eventually finishing the show. However, I don't have high hopes, and don't have any plans to re watch it.

LJG765

It is. My favorite genres are animation and sci fi/fantasy, so it's hard to just sit out or tone back. Last year, I really got into the Criterion one and while I def. had some bombs, I enjoyed quite a few of them.

But you're right on about the buying thing! I am lucky that I have access to a great library system where I can rent for free (I've only had maybe 2 titles not be listed that I wanted to watch). The problem comes when I like the movie too much! I do try to not just rush out and buy stuff, but keep an eye out for good deals, but at this point, a lot of what I'm wanting has either been out for ages or just isn't that popular, so the prices are pretty steady!

shadokitty

Started out my challenge with an episode of Season 1 of Dogfights, Mig Alley. About the dogfights between the F-86s and the Mig 15s in the Korean War. Hadn't watched Dogfights in quite a while, so I thought it was time to revisit the show. Haven't decided if I'll do seasons 1 and 2 back to back though.

Travis McClain

It could be worse. Your nose could be gushing blood!

What the hell. Knock yerself out, hoss.

I remember when you were gonna pass on Criterion. (No offense to this challenge or TV on DVD*, which I also host, but Criterion is my favorite challenge of the entire year.)

Aww. So sweet! (Not being snotty; I'm genuinely happy to know y'all are sharing this challenge!)

We will add your distinctiveness to our own.

shadokitty

Started today with a nature documentary on Nat Geo Wild, Hippo vs. Croc. It was a very interesting look at how the hippos and crocodiles live in the same territories.

shadokitty

I started to watch the Italian movie Attila on Epix HD, but due to a possible eye infection which makes one eye painful, and almost glued shut with crusty discharge, it got too hard to read, as it was subtitled, so I turned on Dogfights instead.

Also, I have a question. I know peplum that says historical on imdb, and the Hercules and other mythological movies would be ok, but what about other peplum set in ancient times?

MrTerrific

I can't say that I enjoyed the music/songs from Keoma, but they were very interesting. I don't know if I've ever seen a film in which the songs are explaining what is going on in the scene or what the character is thinking.

LJG765

I know, you're the worst influence! That and I love checking off things, so combined with icheckmovies...it was inevitable that I got sucked in.

Thanks to the oop thread, I discovered a doc about a band I love that I never heard of, so that will be first to watch. Was thinking about this afternoon, but feeling like a nap since my nephew just left first.

shadokitty

I just watched a good movie on Encore Westerns, The Bravos, starring George Peppard, Pernell Roberts, and Bo Svenson. Before this, other than The Blue Max, I had only seen George in The A-Team. This movie makes me want to seek out more of his eligible movies for this challenge.