What's in/on Your DVD/VCR/PVR etc

[Fishy]

The Capture S3

[pxr5]

Married at First Site: Australia - my word, it's bad - but the missus loves it.

[R6GYY]

Amazone Prime's Countdown.

Enjoyable hokum.

[Thenop]

Anyone lured into S3 of Night Agent yet?
Asking for a friend that couldn't stand S2..

[captainkurtz]

Sinners

Much hyped on the back of a record 16  Oscar nominations, Ryan Coogler's gender-bending film has often been fairly described as 'Crossroads meets From Dusk Till Dawn'.

There are actually several genres thrown into a melting pot here, but unfortunately the result for me was quite insipid and the film is a failure on too many levels - it's an expensively made, overlong, occasionally diverting straight-to-DVD flick that belongs in the more obscure corners of Amazon Prime rather than the podiums of lavish award ceremonies.

Rating: **

Wow. Really pleased to find someone else who didn't like it.  Absolute rubbish, gave up after about 70 minutes...

[Fishy]

Anyone lured into S3 of Night Agent yet?
Asking for a friend that couldn't stand S2..

Have grabbed S3 .. but not started yet.. hopefully theyve ditched the really annoying female from S2

[Matt2112]

One Battle After Another

Thirteen Oscar nominations for a film 2 hours and 40 minutes long suggests a good investment of a viewer's time - it isn't. 

It's a mess; it's Paul Thomas Anderson thinking he's making semi-satirical political slam-dunks when in fact there isn't a single coherent "point" made through its entire running time, nor is there anything engaging in the direction, acting or script.  It's a classic Naked Emperor of a film that's been lauded because it seems like the right thing to do.

Dire.

Rating: *

[pxr5]

One Battle After Another

Thirteen Oscar nominations for a film 2 hours and 40 minutes long suggests a good investment of a viewer's time - it isn't. 

It's a mess; it's Paul Thomas Anderson thinking he's making semi-satirical political slam-dunks when in fact there isn't a single coherent "point" made through its entire running time, nor is there anything engaging in the direction, acting or script.  It's a classic Naked Emperor of a film that's been lauded because it seems like the right thing to do.

Dire.

Rating: *

I had this one quite low down on my to-watch list. I'll give it a miss thanks.

[Nick]

I enjoyed it, thought Sean Penn was great.

[dom]

I enjoyed it, thought Sean Penn was great.

Me too, not sure why it was classed as a comedy though. Characters a little ott I suppose

[Matt2112]

Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro are the best things about it; they deserved better though.

[Fishy]

Finished of Small Prophets and started on Paradise S2

[Fishy]

More Paradise

[Matt2112]

K-Pop Demon Hunters

I probably need to provide some context for this recent double Oscar-winner (Best Animated Film and Best Original Song), given it's an Anime-esque feature chiefly aimed at the tween market (but apologies if at any stage I over-"splain" things).

"K-Pop" stands for "Korean Pop", part of a fairly long-running phenomenon now of an increasing popularisation of Korean culture in Western media.

However, K-PDH is actually an American production (from Sony and available on Netflix), yet still it feels authentically East Asian at least on a visual level.

The 2010's saw Frozen - also a recipient of the Oscars won by K-PDH - become an enduring worldwide phenomenon both in cinemas (grossing over $1 billion) and on music streaming (close to 1 billion streams for the long-ubiquitous Let It Go); and it does look like the 2020's equivalent is going to be K-Pop Demon Hunters.

Indeed, it's currently the most-viewed original title in Netflix's history, and its rousing Oscar-winning song Golden - a chunk of dance-pop that stands up with Lady Gaga's best work - is comfortably in the billion streams club.

For all its impressive achievements, though, how does it score on artistic merit?  The answer is: pretty high. Visually, it's never less than remarkable, and is chock full of invention and no lack of wit; similarly, the script and story fizz with sharp dialogue and nuanced character development and are paced with such momentum that the odd narrative incoherence can be easily overlooked.

It can also be classed technically as a musical, and the songs are as forensically crafted as you would expect; but what is unexpected is that they act as pivotal plot points on more than one level, skilfully interweaved into the narrative rather than being mere musical interludes.

Those Oscars are well deserved.

Rating: ****

[Fishy]

Cross S2