Re: 2020 Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Challenge
 

My daughter has been on me to watch The Godfather for a couple months now, so it's finally time.

Re: 2020 Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Challenge
 

I discovered that many of the Abbott and Costello movies (especially the later ones) qualify so I'm watching my BR of those I'd not gotten to yet. I also discovered the Bob Hope/Bing Crosby "Road" movies also qualify and I have 2 BR upgrades of those left to watch. :)

Re: 2020 Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Challenge
 

Yesterday, I took part in FThisMovieFest, a Twitter-based film festival. Patrick Bromly of fthismovie.net organized one of these each year. The concept is that everyone watches the movies at the same time and discusses them on Twitter. This year was a celebration of 1990 cinema and featured six films (three of which I'd not seen before). Here's the rundown:

Tremors - This is one of my favorite films. It's nearly perfect.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - It's an extremely silly movie, featuring some of the best puppetry of the late 80s / early 90s. I cannot decide if April O'Neill is the best reporter or the worst reporter.

Dick Tracy - I love this movie so much. Warren Beatty doesn't entirely work in the role of the titular detective, but everyone else is just great. I even love Madonna as perpetually-horny Breathless Mahoney.

Hard to Kill - Steven Seagal's brand of stoicism and hyper-competence is a bit silly, but this was a fun revenge flick. Seagal is shot and goes into a seven year coma, only to wake up and take down the dirty cops and thugs who killed his wife. The Big Boss is a corrupt Senator played with haughty smirks by William Sadler. Seagal pairs up with a beautiful nurse played by Kelly LeBrock who plays the role as if she were addicted to Ambien.

Darkman - I must admit I was a bit high for this one, but I was absolutely blown away by the zany visuals. Liam Neeson plays the absurd, over-the-top tragedy wonderfully and even looks good in Phantom of the Opera cosplay. I got super happy when Larry Drake showed up; he has a small role in an episode of Firefly and even shows up in the board game adaptation.

Total Recall - So many things from this movie have filtered into pop culture, and I'm pleased that I now get all of the references and gifs. Arnold is great. Sharon Stone is great. Rachel Ticotin is great. I think all movies should have a second version in which Michael Ironside obsessively tries to kill the protagonists.

Re: 2020 Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Challenge
 

I exceeded my total for last year's challenge (only 30) yesterday so I'm pretty happy with my viewings so far. My favorite up to now is Deadline - U.S.A. a 1952 movie starring Humphrey Bogart as a tough and principled newspaper editor who is racing the clock to finish an exposé of a crime boss before his paper is sold by the heirs of the now deceased founder. It can be a little preachy at times but the pace feels frantic and the newsroom is just bursting with energy. The entire cast is very good.

While going through a box of TV DVD's I ran across seasons five and six of The F.B.I. which a I got as a gift years ago but never got around to watching. I remember my parents watching this (I would have been 17-18 years old during these two seasons) and that it starred Efrem Zimbalist Jr. who I knew from an earlier show 77 Sunset Strip but that's about it. It was the most successful show from Quinn Martin Productions lasting for nine seasons (1965 - 1974). I'm going to check out some episodes today.

Re: 2020 Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Challenge
 

I decided to watch some of the Basil Rathbone / Nigel Bruce film adaptations of Sherlock Holmes - all of which were collected and restored for a BR box set. I want to do some research to see when "bumbling Watson" became a thing, because Nigel Bruce does it so well it seems plausible that these movies started the trend. The first film is Hound of the Baskervilles which has never been my favorite Holmes mystery, but the film is populated with a pack of quirky characters. The second film is The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes which is largely inert. Aside from Ida Lupino, the supporting cast isn't terribly interesting, and there is too much time focused on them. Thankfully, the next film plucks Holmes and Watson out of their Victorian surroundings and plops them in the 1940s. These films tend to be a bit shorter and move a bit quicker.

Re: 2020 Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Challenge
 

After a few months of working on it, I finally finished Lion Force Voltron. The second season didn’t start out very good, but I thought the season got better when Merla was introduced. I’m looking forward to watching Vehicle Voltron now.

Re: 2020 Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Challenge
 

I just got back from a Fathom event - the 1933 King Kong in its first theatrical showing in 60 years. That was very cool to see one of my all time favorite classic movies on the big screen. There were ~12 people in the theater (including my grandson and me) so no crowd at all. I'd love to see more 1933-1960 classics presented this way.

Re: 2020 Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Challenge
 

Watched the new Jumanji and if you liked the last one, you should like this one too.

Re: 2020 Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Challenge
 

Schools are closed state wide until at least March 30th due to the coronovirus threat. I work in IT for the school and we're working from home (I can remote in and work on the virtual farm/servers) which means I can watch TV while I work (something I can't easily do in the office because I share office space with 2 other guys). That's going to increase my numbers to those I normally get only when on vacation. I spend lots of time watching a server screen monitoring processes and at the office listen to music so am trading music for TV. I have remote tools so I can connect to teacher's school issued laptops if they have issues (they're supposed to be doing their in-service packets and parent conferences remotely this week and may need tech support). When I "got off" this afternoon I went upstairs (my den is in the basement) and told my wife I was almost as productive at home as in the office just to hear her say "Oh... I thought you were doing your usual day off type stuff. I had no idea you were actually *working*."

I've been able to watch the last 2 episodes of Perry Mason S1 and the first 6 episodes of Columbo so far today. I was productive all around. :)

I recently purchased the Columbo Complete Series set from Amazon during a sale ($30 - couldn't resist). I never watched Columbo much during its original run and seeing those 6 episodes today reminded me of why it was never on my "must see TV" list. They typically use the first 20-30 minutes showing a murder being committed and the last part of the episode with Columbo figuring out what happened and manipulating the perpetrator into pretty much spilling the beans on themselves. That means there's no mystery, just watching Columbo getting it all lined up. So far I'm enjoying seeing the guest stars more than the actual shows, although the shows aren't that bad. The episodes I've see so far are in the 75-100 minute range and have lots of padding to get to the required "TV Movie of the Week" length (1 1/2 or 2 hours depending on day of air). I also own a copy of the complete McMillan & Wife and am wondering how it may hold up as it, too, was in that 2 hour MotW rotation block. I watched that one every time it aired and really liked it but expect it to also have lots of padding. I may pull it out to watch a few episodes sometime over the next couple of weeks.

Re: 2020 Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Challenge
 

Caught a strange back door Pilot on Diagnosis Murder. A couple of loopy rogue female cops investigate a trio of loopy vigilante female cops that are killing criminals to harvest their organs. Bad acting and dialogue all around. Fun stuff!

Anybody else like back door Pilots? Back in the day I hated them. You wait a week for your show, and it focuses on a bunch of characters you've never seen before. Of course I had no idea what a back door Pilot was back then. I enjoy catching them now. It's easy to see why they're usually not picked up.

Re: 2020 Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Challenge
 

Picked off a couple recent releases on HBO. I’d forgotten Anna was Luc Besson, but it’s totally him, kind of a Russian, legal-age Natalie Portman. Pretty good.

Not that thrilled with Alita Battle Angel. Kinda over creepy-looking CGI protagonists.

Re: 2020 Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Challenge
 

I can't stand back door pilots. I've never liked them as they're generally a complete waste of time. Like you said, it's easy to see why they're not picked up.

Re: 2020 Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Challenge
 

When I moved onto Vehicle Voltron I was able to switch to DVD and finished Disc 1 yesterday. There was also a bonus feature, which was called Team Up Clip. It was the scene where Lion Voltron and Vehicle Voltron combined forces to destroy Lotor’s Robeast in Fleet Of Doom.

Re: 2020 Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Challenge
 

Just re-watched Community's "Modern Warfare" episode for the umpteenth time. It's just so brilliant. It references/parodies movies as diverse as 28 Days Later (2002), The Warriors (1979), Boondock Saints (1999) and Hardboiled (1989) amongst others. Three more paintball episodes to go.

Re: 2020 Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Challenge
 

Anyone doing a Star Wars rewatch, or is there not enough interest in the last one? ;) I rewatched the films in December so don’t need to do it again.

Re: 2020 Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Challenge
 

I’ve got my Blu Rays out, and have thought about it.

Re: 2020 Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Challenge
 

I have all but the last one on disc and hadn't really given it much thought in spite of fairly recently having purchased the first 6 on BR. I think that's partly due to me thinking of them more as SF/Space Opera rather than action/adventure films. That last one won't arrive in time for this month (I do have it on pre-order from DMC) but it's been a year or two since I last watched the original trilogy and longer still since watching the 2nd so maybe it's time...

Re: 2020 Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Challenge
 

In the "I think of some movies as SF and not action" vein I checked the newest Planet of the Apes trilogy to find they are action movies. For some reason I didn't think those 3 would be in that genre. That means I can finish watching the BR set of all the PotA movies I picked up last summer. I have a video conference in a few minutes so will start those as soon as it's over. :)

**EDIT**
Due to some local internet outages the video conference got postponed until this afternoon. Bummer... totally messes up my planned viewings today. Oh well... I'm going to wait until after anyway and will just fill the time with more Columbo...

Re: 2020 Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Challenge
 

Since we’re stuck at home, the kid suggested watching LOTR. :banana: First time was a few years ago, and memories are fuzzy. And this time I figure we can watch the extendeds.

Bob’O, I totally get the genre thing. If all things are equal, I’ll watch something that won’t qualify for another month.

One plain action title that I wanted to watch this month was F&F Hobbs and Shaw, which just hit HBO. I thought it would be good escapism but the plot involves a super virus. :(

Re: 2020 Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Challenge
 

In case anyone missed it, the 2020 April B-Movie/Exploitation Challenge has started early, special COVID-19 Edition, so you can be getting double credit on your viewings if applicable and desired.

Re: 2020 Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Challenge
 

I *try* to watch the extended LOTR films every 12-18 months. I block a full day for the viewings (it takes it). So far I've done this 4 times and 2 of those have had interruptions break the flow. While I really like the films it makes for a very long day.

I watched 2 of the Planet of the Apes trilogy films Friday afternoon and finished with the 3rd Saturday morning. I generally like this trilogy but every time I watch it the CGI looks more like CGI than the last time I watched. Frequently the apes look just enough "off" to make me feel like I'm watching a cartoon instead of a "live action" movie.

Yesterday when I asked if he'd like to watch "Episode IV" with me I discovered my grandson has been watching the MCU films and was about to start the Captain America ones. He has a very small (24" IIRC) set in his room for his game systems and watches stuff on that so I offered to watch with him on my set (42"). He liked that idea - but... he has a Nintendo Switch and the new version of "Animal Kingdom" for that platform just came out so his mom purchased a digital copy for him right after that decision. He spent most of the day dling and playing it so I continued with more episodes of Columbo while waiting.

I'm currently in S3 of Columbo and have found a pair of fairly good episodes, mostly due to the guest stars. One had Vera Miles, Martin Sheen, and Vincent Price (who was pretty much wasted in a minor supporting role) and the other had Donald Pleasence and Julie Harris. While both could use some judicial editing to tighten things and both had significant plot (aka poor writing/research) issues they were better than average and played to the strengths of their casts fairly well.

Re: 2020 Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Challenge
 

I haven't been watching a ton of films lately, but I had wanted to get a movie off my DVR I had filmed awhile ago, John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum. I saw the first and enjoyed it, thought I had watched the 2nd, but haven't marked it off on icheckmovies, so must have missed it. I don't think you need to watch the second as I'm 3/4th the way through and having no issues understanding what's going on. At this point, I'm just watching to get through it, but not enjoying it. Whatever I liked about the first film is missing here.

The previews for this made me interested but all the good parts were there. This is just a blood fest and maybe people like that, but I don't particularly. Eyeballs and blood spray, oh my. Anyway, this was a miss for me but at least I got it off my DVR and cleared some space.

Re: 2020 Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Challenge
 

I've been watching The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour and Murder, She Wrote while working from home. I'll be interested to see how the upcoming Scooby-Doo movie brings back Dynomutt and Blue Falcon - especially since those segments are pretty subpar H-B for me. Unfortunately, most of my seasons of Murder, She Wrote are currently lent to family members so I only have a few middle seasons (4-6) to watch. Thankfully, the show is pretty consistent so this isn't as bad as it would be for some shows.

Re: 2020 Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Challenge
 

Dynomutt and the Blue Falcon appear in an episode of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, "Heart of Evil". There's a Jonny Quest tie-in as well.

Re: 2020 Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Challenge
 

Well... my department went back to the office for work yesterday so my movie/TV watching while doing remote work is gone. :( Still, I got in quite a few episodes of Columbo and am in S6(?) right now. A lot further in than I'd have been otherwise.

I ordered Rise of Skywalker from DMC a month or two back (don't remember just when - only that it was a reduced cost pre-order and fulfilled my commitment). According to tracking it should arrive today. Since I got it well before the official release date of the 31st and, more importantly, with a weekend left here I'm considering a watch through the entire Star Wars movie series. I recently caved and purchased Episodes 1-VI on BR (got an excellent price on a like new used copy - $15) and have the others on BR so it might be the perfect time...