What movies or TV shows are you watching now?

[GrantSmith]

Has anybody mentioned "Power" already? In case not: It is about a rather successful drug dealer who maintains a fancy club as cover for his illegal activities. He gets tired of the brutality of his business (some of this brutality is shown, rather well done) and wants do go legal with his club. But his accomplice and his wife object. There is also some love/Infidelity involved. Not too bad. Watchable, I'd say, watchable.

Yup been following this one since the get-go, I reckon the wife's a bit of a black widow (no racist overtones, just using the spider which happens to be called a black widow and it's actions ) and want's to keep the thug life whilst her husband wants the straight and narrow.

It'll probably go 1 of 2 ways, but good to see Curtis Jackson (50 Cent) doing a bit more acting, but given his production company is behind the project, not really surprising.

Some love/infidelity you say? <deleted> me, at least once an episode there be some action going on

[GrantSmith]

Here's a new one for you trendsetters...

Rush: kicked off tonight, from the preview it looks like a hybrid of House and Nip Tuck. Looks good.

[Frank James]

Watched Rise of the Planet of the Apes last night, in order to understand what happened earlier, to set up the current edition. Good stuff, but the new one is slightly better, unusual for a sequel. The drug which held such promise as a cure/turnaround against Alzheimers, turned the apes into buffed and extra-smart simians, while it turns against humans and kills them. Before it kills you, it eliminates your dementia (if you are afflicted by that terrible disease) and makes you temporarily sharper, even brilliant. This is the old "Charly" (70's Cliff Robertson movie) schtick, but it still works.

Absolutely stunning action sequence: Caesar's mother goes nuts in the lab, busts out, goes tearing around and crashes the board meeting, where they're discussing the pros and cons and profit potential of the drug she's on, before getting gunned down by a lowly security guard. Rage against the Big Pharma Machine!

[GrantSmith]

A mid-afternoon update for you trendsetters;

Rush: Pretty damn good start. Worth watching.

Satisfaction: Looks very "Californication"esque first episode today, staring no one really, Aussie lad who was in "The Glades" (Matt Passmore) is the male lead.

Gang Related: It's only just dawned on me that this is almost Graceland's alter ego, almost identical story lines. But preferring Gang Related to Graceland.

Edited July 18, 2014 by GrantSmith

[AnotherOneAmerican]

just saw dawn of planet of the apes 3d at the cinema

3d was good for 20mins then it wore off

movie had plot holes a mile wide

apparently a one eyed untrained in shooting ape on galloping horseback gun in each hand can take a fortified position easily

the defenders of fortified position with machine guns and rocket launchers were powerless

[GrantSmith]

Yeah, I can't do that Planet of the Apes. Even the original creeped me out!

[GrantSmith]

You're the Worst: It's like that "Hello Ladies" except the british bloke (not Stephen Merchant) gets laid! Excellent.

Married: Quite a funny opening episode, could be quite predictable (given the stereotypes), but funny nonetheless.

The Divide: Could go either way, an each way bet on the opening episodes. Might take a while to develop.

[Patsycat]

I am just loving all these new series.

No more vampires, no more stupid 2099 living on planet i dunno with a child which is a robot.

Just good down to earth normal things. Yahooooo!!

That Rush guy can be almost up with the Chicago Fire ones and that other one....

The Bridge Mexican es muy caliente....!!!

Kidding, i have lists of the days i download these series, i just love them. Takes away from the rest of the day.

Enjoy.

Edited July 19, 2014 by Patsycat

[Frank James]

Suits: they have lost me in the arcane details of this struggle between two rival investment banking groups. Does one need an MBA or Law degree to enjoy this soap opera now? Well, for those of us who don't understand this stuff (here, here) there's always Rachel's earnest mugging for the camera, (her ex-boyfriend is trying to take her away from Mike!) and Louis' role and talents being wasted in the interest of comedy. I'll stay with it until the end, but they've got me feeling pretty stupid lately.

[GrantSmith]

Suits: they have lost me in the arcane details of this struggle between two rival investment banking groups. Does one need an MBA or Law degree to enjoy this soap opera now? Well, for those of us who don't understand this stuff (here, here) there's always Rachel's earnest mugging for the camera, (her ex-boyfriend is trying to take her away from Mike!) and Louis' role and talents being wasted in the interest of comedy. I'll stay with it until the end, but they've got me feeling pretty stupid lately.

My dear Mr James, I have neither an MBA or Law Degree nor am I an Investment Banker by trade, but haven't struggled with following the plot of the current season. Not sure with which aspect in particular your struggling with?

Certainly enjoyed the last episode, Louis is definitely getting more air time which adds to the comedic aspect.

[keemapoot]

Extant ep2, unbelievably dull, what a shame after such a good start.

Just watched it and agree, though that kid who plays the robot has really nailed the "mostly human" robot role.

[Frank James]

Suits...

The ways of money and finance are as mysterious to me as early Egyptian religion. I can still follow the show just on the basis of the warring personalities, which is really all that matters. We all know that Mike and Harvey will both prevail when the smoke clears, even though they appear to be on opposite sides in this season. Rachel will stay with Mike, even though she's really not over Logan, the arrogant young billionaire who wears bespoke suits but can't afford a razor. That is, unless she gets picked up by a different show, in which case they will kill her off, causing Mike to go into seclusion as a monk in outer Chiang Rai province, until Donna comes and finds him. Louis (Rick Hoffman) deserves to quit and get his own show. He looks and talks like Jack Webb's illegitimate son, so a cop show would work. He is the best actor on Suits, and they're wasting him for cheap laughs.

The nasty guy from the SEC will almost bring Harvey down, and Mike's "secret" is bound to come up again. But the actor, Neal McDonough, NEVER wins. In Band of Brothers he had a nervous breakdown and had to be sent home. In Justified he was a suave Detroit gangster until contact with Harlan County crackers turned him into a babbling oxycontin gobbler, worse than Rush Limbaugh. He makes a good living having the kind of face and demeanor everybody loves to hate. The new partner, D.B. Woodside, Jessica's lover, will take him down, tag-teaming with Harvey, who never loses, except in affairs of the heart.

[GrantSmith]

The deepest pockets wins Frank, that's all we need to know, rest is rather immaterial

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend"

Yes, Mike's secret is bound to come back and haunt him at some point and will no doubt involve him doing something illegal to cover it up... Funny though how the Logan Sanders thing is still in play when in the first or second episode Jessica made it pretty clear she didn't give a shit about Logan Sanders and his billions...

I like her 'cos she's hot as all get out but she does need to be brought down a peg or two, karma or something like that Bring back Daniel Hardman, that would be a treat!

[Frank James]

just saw dawn of planet of the apes 3d at the cinema

3d was good for 20mins then it wore off

movie had plot holes a mile wide

apparently a one eyed untrained in shooting ape on galloping horseback gun in each hand can take a fortified position easily

the defenders of fortified position with machine guns and rocket launchers were powerless

Mild Semi SPOILERS follow, You Have Been Advised...

Yes, in addition to mastery of fire and rudimentary house building, the apes now have a cavalry! They made off with the horses of the SFPD mounted patrol, and have been breeding their own troop since then. Maybe they even saved one of those ALZ aerosols to give the horses a whiff, and they will be super-evolving, too. Not only is that Super Badass Koba One-Eye able to spur his mount through the fire, steering with his feet, with automatic weapons in each hand blazing away, these are the special kind from Movieland, that never run out of rounds!

And how about the token female lead, (Keri Russell, taking a break from her TV gig, of being a Commie spy on America) having just the right antibiotic to immediately bring back Mrs. Caesar from the brink of death, thereby buying the guys time to get that hydro dam working again. Power to the people.

And it's supposed to be ten years later, and the hundreds (thousands?) of human survivors in SF have been living off of FEMA packages, and they still have lots of fresh batteries, and petrol.

And Caesar, two days after getting shot, is able to get into a kickass deathmatch and ...

Come on, it's Planet of the Apes, not Hiroshima, Mon Amour. ya have to make allowances.

[AnotherOneAmerican]

just saw dawn of planet of the apes 3d at the cinema

3d was good for 20mins then it wore off

movie had plot holes a mile wide

apparently a one eyed untrained in shooting ape on galloping horseback gun in each hand can take a fortified position easily

the defenders of fortified position with machine guns and rocket launchers were powerless

Mild Semi SPOILERS follow, You Have Been Advised...

Come on, it's Planet of the Apes, not Hiroshima, Mon Amour. ya have to make allowances.

OK, so what about the initial ape/human confrontation.

Humans drive to Dam, but for some reason get out of the cars and take a walk through the forest, when of course the road goes all the way to the dam. What was the point of the walk?

And

At the start of the film, apes follow the humans back to the human base, but wait, apes on foot, humans driving cars, can apes really run as fast as cars on a clear road for 25Km?

And

Humans plant C4 all over the base of the tower, but don't run any cable, so when they press the button the tower falls down on them and they all die.

Unnecessary plot holes ruin a movie for me. Absolutely no reason for most of them, apart from poor plot, and poor directing. They spend $$$$$s on these films, why cut corners with the writing?

Edited July 19, 2014 by AnotherOneAmerican

[Frank James]

Well, you've made some good points.

I think they walked to the dam so as not to appear threatening to the apes. As for the apes hotfooting back across the Golden Gate Bridge to that City where Tony Bennett left his heart...remember in the first film how easily the apes went high and low to trip across the bridge? Childs' play for them. Then, at the SF end, as I recall there is the Presidio, full of trees for the apes to swing on into town. Meanwhile, there has been no CalDOT maintaining the roads for ten years, so cars probably encountered lots of hazards.

As for blowing up the tower, that seemed like a useless move, and highly dangerous to the dumbass humans. Did I see a case of dynamite there with "Acme TNT Co." stamped on it? It's an ironclad rule in films like this, you've got to blow something up at least once.

I was fascinated by the intricate details of the core of the tower, all of that scaffolding, etc. Somebody had to dream up all of that, and create it on a monster computer, and make it look real, which it did. A great setting for the Big Fight between Caesar and Koba.

It's all set up now for the sequel, where Caesar Junior will probably be the King of the Apes, with the elder Caesar acting as consigliere. ("Remember, my son, the one that arranges the meeting is your traitor.") For the bad ape, maybe they'll go Godfather part Three, and introduce a bastard son of Caesar, or maybe Koba had a son, or better yet a super-nasty roided-out daughter! We haven't seen enough of the female apes, not since that fantastic action sequence featuring Baby C's mother, going ape in Rise. By that time the apes may have super-evolved enough to where they speak Aussie (Bogan Style!) English. Can't wait!

[AnotherOneAmerican]

It's all set up now for the sequel, where Caesar Junior will probably be the King of the Apes, with the elder Caesar acting as consigliere. ("Remember, my son, the one that arranges the meeting is your traitor.") For the bad ape, maybe they'll go Godfather part Three, and introduce a bastard son of Caesar, or maybe Koba had a son, or better yet a super-nasty roided-out daughter! We haven't seen enough of the female apes, not since that fantastic action sequence featuring Baby C's mother, going ape in Rise. By that time the apes may have super-evolved enough to where they speak Aussie (Bogan Style!) English. Can't wait!

I was disappointed by the lack of a nude ape sex scene.

[Frank James]

The Bridge is off to a gripping start. I had to watch those first two episodes twice to pick up on all of the details. The character played by Franka Potente plumbs new depths of twistedness. There's a whole overlay of baked-in-the-unforgiving-sun pure evil going on here. Diane Kruger is really fun to watch. She still has a hard time making eye contact with anyone, and she's always moving around, even when she's sitting still. Great show!

[Patsycat]

See, get rid of the vampires, get rid of creepy robot kids and people in white who chain smoke---

We want (I want) to watch good interesting real life drama. That i can watch without falling asleep, whilst the beautiful Halle Berry floats around space. Yawny...

I love the Bridge, i did an almost overnight watching the first series.

My favourite at the moment, closely followed by Murder in the first Degree, Tyrant and Major Crimes.

Plus - Ray Donovan came back quite good too.

Edited July 19, 2014 by Patsycat

[jope]

Here's a new one for you trendsetters...

Rush: kicked off tonight, from the preview it looks like a hybrid of House and Nip Tuck. Looks good.

Good description. I would add "Royal Pains" to it.

But lets face it: while in House, Nip Tuck and Royal Pains the doctors are somehow likable (although the doc from Royal Pains is also very, very boring), Rush is a genuine ahole. I mean, House needed painkillers, but this Rush??? Way over the top! While House is witty, this Rush is just babbling along. At least, he did the right thing after the last emergency. Too late for me, I already found him pathetic (that he is a good surgeon is a description of his abilities and not his character). Best bit of the episode: the wrong donation. First and only time that I smiled. (I hope I am vague enough to avoid spoilers).

Of course, all these negative points (IMHO) will not keep me from watching a few more episodes (at least). I think, they cannot keep the Rush-character like that over the full course of the show. His condition must change. Otherwise, it will become completely unrealistic. Let's see.

[jope]

A mid-afternoon update for you trendsetters;

Rush: Pretty damn good start. Worth watching.

Satisfaction: Looks very "Californication"esque first episode today, staring no one really, Aussie lad who was in "The Glades" (Matt Passmore) is the male lead.

Gang Related: It's only just dawned on me that this is almost Graceland's alter ego, almost identical story lines. But preferring Gang Related to Graceland.

I am absolutely satisfied with "Satisfaction" (I know, I know, that was lame). Honestly, I am hooked. "Californicationesque" is not bad a description. But I think it also goes into the direction of "Hung" (I still do not know why they did not continue that. There were scenes when I could not stop laughing. Admittedly, "Hung" also had some weird moments). Could be a real good mixture of both. I also liked that there is some emotion in it, which I have not perceived as cheesy so far (piece of advice: if you want to surprise your wife/girlfriend, give her a call before you show up. Just saying... ).

So, I would recommend this show for everybody who likes "Californication" or "Hung" or both (that would be me). Otherwise, better stay away from it.

BTW: liked Matt Passmore in the first season of "The Glades" but stopped after a few episodes of the second season. Suddenly, everything was serious, all the fun was gone and his girlfriend became increasingly irritating. And I had bought the second season in advance on iTunes. Definitely a mistake. But now with "Satisfaction": forgiven and forgotten.

Edited July 19, 2014 by jope

[GrantSmith]

Got my hands on the latest edition of Transformers.

Takes me back to my childhood these movies watching the Saturday morning cartoon rotation and now can enjoy the kick arse CGI as an adult.

I wasn't overly sold on the addition of Mark Wahlberg et al, that's not to say I didn't enjoy it, but would have been better keeping with Shia LeBeouf's character.

Would definitely watch this in 3D!

[keemapoot]

For we fans of 24, indications are not good for another season:

9 Actors From ’24: Live Another Day’ and Their Next Gigs

http://wallstcheatsheet.com/entertainment/9-actors-from-24-live-another-day-and-their-next-gigs.html/?a=viewall

[bartender100]

Got my hands on the latest edition of Transformers.

Takes me back to my childhood these movies watching the Saturday morning cartoon rotation and now can enjoy the kick arse CGI as an adult.

I wasn't overly sold on the addition of Mark Wahlberg et al, that's not to say I didn't enjoy it, but would have been better keeping with Shia LeBeouf's character.

Would definitely watch this in 3D!

DVD quality? if so source would be good

[Razzler1973]

That Resurrection was great. Based on a French series but not identical (apparently the Yanks are doing a remake of that too) but really enjoyed it. 8 episode series

Orange is the New Black was also excellent

[jope]

That Resurrection was great. Based on a French series but not identical (apparently the Yanks are doing a remake of that too) but really enjoyed it. 8 episode series

Orange is the New Black was also excellent

That's interesting. I saw the French original and found it surprisingly good (not because it's French, they do great films, but because I am not that much into dead people walking around). So, I thought I spare me the remake. But might have a look now.

Saw the first season of "Orange is the New Black", found it highly entertaining, but could not watch the second season yet. Currently, there are simply too many good shows around.

[GrantSmith]

Got my hands on the latest edition of Transformers.

Takes me back to my childhood these movies watching the Saturday morning cartoon rotation and now can enjoy the kick arse CGI as an adult.

I wasn't overly sold on the addition of Mark Wahlberg et al, that's not to say I didn't enjoy it, but would have been better keeping with Shia LeBeouf's character.

Would definitely watch this in 3D!

DVD quality? if so source would be good

In a bay of pirates...

HD Telesync... Very watchable... Harks88 with a pink skull... Look for a comment about the Chinese subtitles...

Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[Razzler1973]

That Resurrection was great. Based on a French series but not identical (apparently the Yanks are doing a remake of that too) but really enjoyed it. 8 episode series

Orange is the New Black was also excellent

That's interesting. I saw the French original and found it surprisingly good (not because it's French, they do great films, but because I am not that much into dead people walking around). So, I thought I spare me the remake. But might have a look now.

Saw the first season of "Orange is the New Black", found it highly entertaining, but could not watch the second season yet. Currently, there are simply too many good shows around.

I don't mind a bit of supernatural type stuff, done well. Had heard of the French show and heard this was 'based on' but it seems pretty close in concept, if not in script. Now they're doing a more direct remake (I think with Carlton Cuse from Lost) so will probably check that out too when it finally arrives, even if two sort of similar shows are on :/

OitNB is definitely worth adding to your list though, only 13 episode series so not exhausting

[BookMan]

Got my hands on the latest edition of Transformers.

Takes me back to my childhood these movies watching the Saturday morning cartoon rotation and now can enjoy the kick arse CGI as an adult.

I wasn't overly sold on the addition of Mark Wahlberg et al, that's not to say I didn't enjoy it, but would have been better keeping with Shia LeBeouf's character.

Would definitely watch this in 3D!

DVD quality? if so source would be good

In a bay of pirates...

HD Telesync... Very watchable... Harks88 with a pink skull... Look for a comment about the Chinese subtitles...

Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Not DVD quality bartender...maybe 7 or 6 for quality

[Frank James]

Wish I could post a few thoughts on what is happening on Rectify, without spoiling it for others. This show is almost painful to watch, due to the personal agonies people are going through, all over that small Georgia town. Especially Tawney and her idiot husband Ted. He's really trying hard, but he's just not equipped to face the truth about anything around him.

I really like the show, even though there is a constant atmosphere of impending doom. Now matter what happens in the way of resolution, there are going to be a lot of disappointed people. Not for everybody, but right up my alley.