Finished Season 1 of Falling Skies. There are five seasons, but I think i'm done. I was pretty underwhelmed.

I just learned that there is a Twitter account dedicated to "live tweeting" the events of the 1996 movie Independence Day corresponding to the timeline of the movie as though it were really happening. Thought I'd share for those who share my affinity for that absurd popcorn flick.

That's awesome. I love that film and watch it every July 4th.

Wise move. It just gets worse. The premise was interesting but the execution was less than good, almost like they were making it up as they went along. I purchased all 5 seasons as a blind buy (real good price and has good reviews) so felt compelled to stick with it to the end. It was a slog, especially the last 3 seasons.

A few months back I picked up the first 2 seasons of Continuum and have been watching those. I can't quite decide about continuing after S2. It's interesting but has a few too many logistic issues and incongruities with its overall time travel premise to work properly for me. At its core it's a police drama (a genre I don't particularly care for) with one of the cops coming from 55 years in the future. She also happens to have advanced, integrated, what appears to be organic type tech that just happens to still work in the past. And she just happens to connect with the kid who'd grow up to fully develop that technology *plus* he's advanced enough (in the current time frame) to monitor through her, talk with her (she hears him in her head but has to vocalize for him to hear her - and his future self has sent messages back to himself inside the code that runs her systems). Her main goal is to capture some escaped, convicted, "terrorists" who, during their execution, traveled back in time, dragging her with them, hoping to change history by negating the way society, and corporations, advanced through the intervening years - basically prevent a corporate oligarchy from coming to fruition.

Like most modern productions, it suffers from too much music scoring often with it underlying scenes that really don't need such intrusion. It also plays very loosely with time travel paradox situations.

Thanks for the confirmation Bob. I was guessing Falling Skies would just get worse.

Is it just me that finds most of the Marvel superhero films overly long and tedious? All of them tend to be one and done for me. I watched Thor: The Dark World and it was just another chore to get through.

The MCU films are hit or miss with me. There are a handful that I really enjoy but the majority of them are overly long and tedious with characters that don't interest me. The first two Thor films are a mess.

I generally enjoy them but, yes, they're mostly too long and the battle sequences cgi porn just wear me down. I don't like them and liken them to those double page spreads in comics that are nothing but fight scenes showing off the artist's ability. They're OK but do nothing to advance or help the story.

They are hit and miss for me. But when they are good, they are really good... I do agree in general, they are all too long. But that is almost every action movie these days...

Had planned on possibly watching Independence Day today, but the day was rather busy most of the day for me today, so didn’t get much time to relax. Still might get it in this month, but it won’t be on it’s special day.

Have to admit, this is not one of my favs. Like Mars Attacks better...

watched WW84 last nght. Thought is good, too long and over CGI'd, but watchable. I had wondered how Steve could be in it....

Same here. I saw Independence Day in a full theater with my wife (who's decidedly *not* an SF fan by any stretch), a cousin, and his wife. They'd chosen the movie - I argued against it (I'd seen the trailers and saw nothing that made me want to see it). It was exactly what I expected - an overblown "Summer Popcorn" type action/adventure/disaster movie full of SF cliche's and stereotypical characters that hits all the expected notes along the way to its finish. I thought it OK for what it was - they all loved it. That's when I realized it's not really made for the SF crowd but for the summer movie going crowd who just want a "fun time" at the movies. FWIW, Independence Day does what it does quite well, it's just not my type of film. I can watch it these days but I really have to turn off my brain to keep from laughing. At least Mars Attacks was done with tongue firmly planted in cheek and admits it's a comedy...

I just finished a first time viewing of Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome, a pilot for what was to have been a prequel to Ron Moore's revamped Battlestar Galactica. Oh my... this was not that good. Horrible visual effects with more lens flares (actually horizontal smear type) than J.J. Abrams ever imagined using. The incredible overuse of these (*every* shot) make his use of the technique seem tame. Every scene was done "shaky cam" style which added even more distraction to the otherwise average and overused CGI for almost everything (a special feature indicates it was done much like those for Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow but not as well). Add a poorly written and plotted script coupled with generally poor acting and it's a formula for failure. I'm not surprised it wasn't picked up - even SyFy passed (and they'll air almost anything).

Just watched Men in Black: International for the first time and was surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did. I'd absolutely say it's better than MIB III and as good as MIB II.

I've been on a bit of a Bogie kick, which led me to stream The Return of Doctor X on Fawesome late last night. I can't even say it's a bad movie so much as it feels like a bad abridgment of a mediocre one. Wayne Morris is affable enough to keep it going, but it's probably for the best that it ends as early as it does because I don't think his wide-eyed, small town hokum charm could have kept it up much longer. The premise is fine: A journalist (Morris) stumbles onto a plot concerning a hematologist who has been experimenting with synthetic blood to keep people from dying and people with the blood type he's using are turning up murdered. There isn't much in the way of fake movie science, and what is there is laughable, but the story is really just a whodunit borrowing ever so lightly from Frankenstein (who is name-checked at one point). I can only recommend it as a novelty in Bogart's filmography, and even that recommendation would come with the qualifier that his performance seethes with indignation. It's one of the most blatantly passive-aggressive performances I can recall seeing in any movie.

I own a copy of that one, Travis. It's in a DVD box set called Hollywood Legends of Horror:
I honestly don't recall seeing it at all though I know I have as that set was purchased ~8 years ago and watched long ago. Bogie in a Horror/SF movie is really somewhat of a surprise due to me not remembering watching it at all. IMDB shows that film to be his only outing in those genres. You make me want to dig that set out of storage and watch the movie...

I have that set. Despite not being a good movie, I think Bogie's only horror role makes it must-see (at least once) for classic horror and Bogie fans (and I happen to be both).

It's funny Travis mentions that Bogie seems to be filled with indignation. Bogie said as much about this movie:

If IMDB is to be believed, Karloff *was* supposed to star in this one.

Just remember I only recommended it as a novelty in Bogie's filmography and with a qualifier, at that.

Also, I think the role would have been beneath Karloff, especially in 1939. Lugosi would have done it, though. He deserved a better career. Come to think of it, replacing Bogie and John Litel with Karloff and Lugosi--in either roles--would have probably worked. Of course, with them in those roles, the studio would have insisted on emphasizing them over Wayne Morris's Walter Garrett and with all due respect to Morris, that would have benefited the movie considerably. Shoulda, coulda, woulda.

Makes me want to watch it just to see how bad it really is!

Finally watched Pan's Labyrinth. I can appreciate why it's held in such high esteem. Sergi López's Captain Vidal is one of the most heinous screen villains I've seen in awhile. He made me uncomfortable whenever he was onscreen and honestly, made me even more uncomfortable when he wasn't. That's the hallmark of a great villain in my book. Plus, everything about its mise-en-scčne makes for an engaging visual experience, and Javier Navarrete's moody, atmospheric score completed the world.

Followed that by checking out The 10th Victim. I was drawn to it solely for its leads, Marcello Mastroianni and Ursula Andress. It was a delightful surprise and a whole lot of fun. I was highly amused from start to finish, and glad I took a chance on it last year. I recommend the Blue Underground Blu-ray, but for those not looking to splurge on a blind buy, it's presently streaming for free on Plex, the Roku Channel, Tubi, and Vudu. (Note: Tubi apparently only has it in SD.)

FInally found a Marvel film I did enjoy, The Punisher (2004).. Great dark, serious story without endless CGI action.

I did some reading up on it and found that Bogie considered it his 2nd worst film... The worst is a musical from the same year. Yep... Bogie in a *musical*... He would only talk about those two films if pressed.

Totally agree with you about this film. I just saw it the first time myself within the last last year or two. Definitely made me uncomfortable. I'm not a huge horror fan to start off with, but it received such high reviews that I decided to watch it. I doubt I'll ever watch it again, but am glad I gave it a shot. It was very well done.

Hmm...well, I may save the musical for next Feb.