shadokitty

Outside Television is a good channel with lots of shows about action sports. One of those shows is Pushing Boundaries, which I just finished an episode of. The episode had professional freestyle motorcyclist, Robbie Maddison, at a show, doing some extreme stunts. I ride a bike, but there is no way that I could ever do what some of those riders do.

ntnon

1930's The Silver Horde has to be one of the manliest films ever - a copper mine, salmon fishing, canning machinery, a boxing bit, Western star Joel McCrea...!

mrcellophane

I'm so bad at participating in the discussion thread! While not commenting, I've been steadily watching stuff, focusing on a couple of series such as Agatha Christie's Poirot (a pitch-perfect adaptation with brilliant casting) and getting an eclectic selection of things out of my massive unwatched pile (it's embarrassingly large).

Yesterday, I went to see Kong: Skull Island and was underwhelmed. Perhaps, I hyped the film up too much in my head, but I was very disappointed despite liking a few aspects of the film. Today, I got into an anime kick, continuing where I left off on Death Note and starting Nabari. It's been a while since I just vegged out with some Japanese cartoons! I need to do it more often.

LJG765

I guess I'm not the only one not getting a lot of watching done this month. I had good intentions at the beginning of the month, but whether it's Daylight Savings or just life in general, I've gotten very few watches in. I haven't even been watching too much of anything non challenge related either.

I did just finish Kubo and the Two Strings which I really enjoyed. I've been trying to watch that for a while now and glad I finally got to it. I would recommend if it's on your radar at all to watch.

I also saw Ice Age: Collision Course a couple days ago as well. Another first time watch. I enjoy the series but I kind of feel like as they go on, that they are getting worse the more they go on. I did enjoy that they brought back Buck from a couple movies ago.

shadokitty

I was looking for something to watch on TV, so fell back on one of my old stand by channels, Outside Television. Pushing Boundaries was on, and it was a good episode about one of my favorite sports, Rally Racing. I enjoy motor sports of all kinds.

davidh777

Finally caught up with London Has Fallen on Netflix and liked it quite a bit.

omike

Thanks for the info. I didn't know about the King Kong re-release. I have this notion that I might have read something somewhere that said the producer was going to make Gojira more of a sea based monster (thus the whale part of the name) but after seeing Beast he decided to go with a dinosaur type. Do you know if there is there any truth to that?

Agatha Christie's Poirot is a show that I really, really like even though I don't think I ever read anything by Christie. I was totally taken by the show from the very first one I watched (I'm only up to series 3 now). The acting is great but I also think that the sets and costumes are wonderful. I don't know if everything is historically accurate but it all certainly takes me to a different time and place. And I just love that theme song.

BobO'Link

My wife is a mystery fan and has read almost all of Christie's output. I've not read a single page (I lean more towards SF/Fantasy). But I love Agatha Christie's Poirot. We stumbled upon the series looking for something to watch one night and both enjoyed it immensely. As you've said, the theme song is very good and it has excellent sets/costuming. After picking up several of the volume style releases I sprung for the Complete Series set, in chronological order, a couple of years ago. It was great fun watching through the series again and seeing the growth of Suchet in the role. I truly believe he was born to play that character.

shadokitty

I think I might be starting to get used to DST, as with the exception of last night, I've been able to stay up closer to my normal bedtime for the past few nights. That being the case, I'm putting my theory to the test tonight, by seeing how long I can make it before sleep takes me. I started tonight's marathon with an episode of Gridiron Outdoors, on the Outdoor Channel. The episode featured Jack Conklin, from the Tennessee Titans, on a South Carolina hog hunt, and he bagged a beautiful cinnamon brown hog that was a perfect eating size.

caligulathegod

Obviously, you are very familiar with Japanese, but I'll lay it out for anyone else who might be interested. It's basic phonemes and they way they get converted into other languages.

Japanese and English phonemes are not quite equivalent but if you deconstruct the "J" it is pretty close to "D-Zh" /dʒ/ (d as in dog, ʒ as in treasure. So, Goj is Anglicized as Godz to be easier to pronounce (without sounding like Gah-Jella).

Japanese doesn't have an R or an L but they have a phoneme that kind of sounds like a combination of the two /ɺ/. It's kind of like a French R, almost trilled but not quite. The tongue flaps on the palate just behind the teeth in what's called a postalveolar flap. That usually gets Anglicized as LL.

So, in native Japanese pronunciation, Gojira and Godzilla are virtually identical. It's just when spelled out in English and pronounced by English speakers that is looks like two completely different words.

ntnon

Two jaw-dropping things today - the short Hitler Lives, with it's images of dead people and rambling towards a positive message about being wary of people who continue peddling race-hatred even after Hitler was defeated. Which is all well and good (if very propagandist... while decrying propaganda) except that on its way towards the 'don't hate other people' message, it cavalierly paints the entire German populace as inherently warlike and tending towards evil. 'They may extend the hand of friendahip, but it's the same hand that murdered people and saluted Hitler...' Ummm...

Then noir Angel Face wanders around being fairly good but nothing particularly special - until the not-necessarily-completely-unexpected-but-even-so eye-widening ending! Good grief..

Ash Ketchum

I can't quote anything right now, but I've always heard that it was a combo of KING KONG and BEAST that inspired GOJIRA, with an added boost provided by the news account of the Japanese fishing vessel irradiated by an American nuke test. Also, another story says that "kujira" was a nickname for a big guy who worked for Toho, hence the "whale" nickname, and that was the inspiration for that part of the name.

I looked up on Wiki the story of the fishing boat and found this:
This would have happened well after the film was in pre-production, so I don't know if they changed the script to reflect this incident or not. I have a few books on Godzilla, so I can check at some point.

Indy24LA

This challenge has been great, I've knocked The Warriors, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Rope, The Raid I and II, Traffic and Layer Cake off my movie bucket list. And this weekend, I will cross off Scarface.

coyoteblue

Tonight I'm going to finally finish off the Harry Potter series for the first time when I watch Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2(2010). I'll find time to watch the musical Flash episode, though.

shadokitty

Since I've found nature documentaries under my recommended action/adventure movies on Amazon Prime, I took that opportunity to revisit Blue Planet. I've seen the first four episodes already today alone. I can see how the camera crews are adventurous in getting their footage, and the BBC Earth nature documentaries are some of the best.

shadokitty

Maybe this is what one would call serendipity, but with today being William Shatner's birthday, I just finished an episode of Death Valley Days, on Grit, that starred Grace Lee Whitney. She played a woman searching for gold in the desert at any cost.

ntnon

Watched Arrival today, and enjoyed it. Does not seem quite as innovative or special as reviews and whatnot suggested. It was certainly well done, but also predictable and standard, plot-wise.

shadokitty

I felt like 80s cartoon goodness, so after I finished Season One of Dogfights, earlier today, I decided on GI Joe. Right now, I'm working my way through the second mini series, The Revenge Of Cobra, and just finished the first episode.

Ash Ketchum

Which version of SCARFACE?

Indy24LA

De Palma's 1983 version. Just never got around to seeing it.

shadokitty

I finished The Revenge Of Cobra earlier today, and was still in the mood for more GI Joe, so I decided to continue with The Pyramid Of Darkness. Being the pilot miniseries officially for the series, this miniseries finishes introducing all of the Season One characters that hadn't been introduced in the first two miniseries.

shadokitty

I haven't decided yet if I'm going to continue with more GI Joe, or take a short break and watch another series. I did however, just finish The Pyramid Of Darkness, and of the first three miniseries, I think that one is my favorite.

BobO'Link

I watched Suicide Squad (2016) yesterday. I'd not planned to watch this one as is just didn't sound that interesting. I've never read the comic for the same reason. So... my father is constantly getting movies from the Public Library and making copies for my grandkids. My oldest grandson wants to see the film but his mom says I have to vet it first because of the PG13 rating (and she's let him watch R rated films I'd have said "no" to). Sigh... I watch it. It's OK for him (he's 13) as it's mostly language and cartoon violence. I think he'll love it as it seems to be aimed directly at his age group. Me? I'd rather watch Nolan's Batman Trilogy (which I do not care for) again. For those of you who like the Nolan Batman maybe I should say I'd rather watch Batman Forever again (and I like it better than Nolan's Batman - yeah... I'm that guy).

I didn't care for the Joker in this one and would say it's my new least favorite film Joker (right behind Heath Ledger's Joker but it's a close call). Harley Quinn was good, but other than being crazy I just don't "get" this character. All she did was serve as a reason for the Joker to be involved but those segments were more side-story than necessary to the plot yet were also some of the best parts of the film. Deadshot was the best character, but the segments with him or Joker/Harley weren't enough to save the film. The CGI for Killer Croc worked fairly well with the rest of the group being pretty forgettable.

Most importantly, the there just wasn't much of a plot or story. Most of the film consisted of a series of loosely strung together "origins" for the group so you'd know who they are and side-bars with the Joker/Harley. Those origins were necessary for a general film audience who'd not know most of the villains without a intro of some type. Still... you don't care. Once all the niceties were out of the way there was only time for a 30 minute "get it done" segment. The film is 30 minutes too long, and I saw the Theatrical Cut.

Ben Affleck's Batman/Bruce shows up a few times. Other than a chase sequence with a Joker/Harley flash back, he was rather unnecessary and seemed to be there for lead in to a sequel or maybe the new Batman film.

Ash Ketchum

I finally saw the complete 12-chapter serial, DAREDEVILS OF THE RED CIRCLE (1939), for this challenge. What a blast. Non-stop action and stunt work and the villain is Charles Middleton, straight off his three-year gig as Ming the Merciless! What's especially striking about this serial is that the settings are frequently industrial sites and power plants around Los Angeles, with numerous fights at these places all filmed on location, supplemented by occasional expert miniature work, such as an oil derrick burning up and crashing down. The plot has to do with an escaped con sabotaging an industrialist's holdings and the title circus daredevils recruited to stop him.

KaBluie

Sorry.

I just really like that image.