What I've been watching

[sarahmichigan]

TV Shows
We're continuing on with further seasons of shows we've already been watching:
-If Buffy Season 2 was darker than Season 1, Season 3 starts off even darker. But good. I like zombies.

-Smallville took a while to grow on me, but I was pretty well hooked by the end of Season One. We're working on Season 2 now.

-Ren & Stimpy, "The Lost Episodes." These were made for Spike TV some time after the original show went off the air. There's much less censorship, and so more cartoon boobies and raunchy humor. Unfortunately, it also does NOT have Billy West doing the voices, and all the raunch in the world can't make up for that. He is an amazing voice artist. These are mediocre Ren & Stimpy, IMO.

-Still enjoying News Radio as we move on to Season 3. The cast just works together so well-- great chemistry, and great writing.

-Red Dwarf Season 4. We've realized that through the "Watch Now" feature on Netflix, we're only getting partial seasons. I don't know why they replaced the original funny-looking male Holly with a female computer face, but I miss the old Holly. Other than that, the show remains hilarious.

Movies
Boondock Saints - I had this recommended to me by multiple people, so I had to check it out. It's more violent than the movies I usually watch, but highly enjoyable.

UHF - We've had a crappy, fading VHS copy of this, so it was nice to get it on DVD and see how crisp and clear the picture and sound were. I'm not a huge Weird Al fan, but this movie cracks me up. I think it'll go into heavy rotation at our house.

Ice Pirates - Yes, this is a terrible movie, even though it has pirates and robots and Space Herpes. It has nostalgia value for me, because I begged my Dad to take me to it when it was originally out in the theaters. Poor Dad.

Idiocracy - Highly recommended by simianpower, and we laughed and laughed. Mindless, but fun. The President of the U.S. was easily the high point of the film.

Near Dark - A stylish Western noir vampire film. I was entranced by it the first time I saw it, just because the setting and characters were so different from other vampire films. No preening effete European vampires here-- they're violent rednecks instead. Upon another viewing, there are some plot holes and logic problems, but it's still captivating.

Running with Scissors - Didn't enjoy it-- way too slow. I wanted to smack Annette Benning's character. I think I'd enjoy the book better.

Yellowbeard - For a movie that has actors both from Mel Brooks' usual troupe and many of the Monty Pythoners, it should be funnier than it is. Enjoyable, but only mildly so. J. finds Madeliene Kahn to be a drawback in any movie; she doesn't bother me as much.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother - I love Gene Wilder, and I wanted this to be funnier than it was. I cried with laughter in a few spots, but other places dragged. If you don't like musicals, don't rent this, because it has a fair amount of song and dance. I think Gene Wilder (who wrote and directed) really wanted an excuse to put on a musical with a bunch of his friends and an excuse to feel up Kahn's boobies.

Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil - I'd seen this several years ago and liked it. Watching it again recently, I liked it even better. I like the moral ambiguity of it, and the acting is really good. And Lady Chablis steals every scene she's in.

Comments

[bernmarx.livejournal.com]

I knew I was a UHF fan when I realized that I was one of the few people whose first thought seeing Michael-bigot-what's-his-name wasn't Kramer but UHF.

Then again, I can't see Christopher Lloyd without thinking of Reverend Jim (not Back to the Future), and Peter Boyle is Frankenstein's monster, not Raymond's Dad. :)

[trebor1415.livejournal.com]

I am a huge Weird AL fan and I was soo glad to finally get a copy of UHF on DVD. His commentary is great. He remembers EVERYTHING about filming that movie and talks about why this shot didn't work right, or the address where something was filmed, or just a bunch of other trivia.


As for Newsradio, I miss Phil Hartman. That show didn't recover when he died and I miss Lionel Hutz and Troy McClure on the Simpsons. At least they did do "A fish called Selma" first.

I remember seeing Ice Pirates with my dad as well. I think he said it was the worst movie he'd ever seen at the time. Who would have thought "Starlog" mag would lie to me? It was my "worst movie ever" until I paid good money to see "Ishtar" several years later.

[firecat]

Ooh, Yellowbeard! I've been looking for that, but it wasn't available for a long time.

And stylish vampire flicks are always good.

[pastry-i-make.livejournal.com]

UHF & Ice Pirates .... hehehe

[arkaycee.livejournal.com]

RE: NewsRadio -- I never saw it when it first came out, then happened to catch the 1st episode on A&E shortly after getting my first TiVo as a b'day present... and got hooked, and caught the entire series. One of my all-time favorite sitcoms.

RE: Red Dwarf -- there was an episode where the crew met alternate-universe opposite-gender versions of themselves -- Holly met Hilly. When Norman Lovett wanted to pursue other opportunities or whatever, they asked the Hilly actress back, and threw in some plot that Holly transformed himself into his love... or something like that.

But despair not, they got Norman Lovett back, I think not til Season 8 (the final season) (or maybe Season 7).

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

I remember the gender-switcheroo episode, but don't remember them explaining the Holly/Hilly change, though.

I had heard through the grapevine that Lovett came back later in the series.