Nextflix

[The Watcher]

It doesn't matter that I hardly ever know exactly what is going on,









it's a feast for the eyes. Then there's the ears.



Though I'll admit I find the magic bollox annoying at times.



As for Geralt of Rivia, "legendary witcher of the School of the Wolf active throughout the 13th century," he's bloody marvellous.



Yenn too.




Chicago Fire
Damsel in distress edition:

Spoiler

Sure to have raised the most smiles, but should've ended it the scene before... especially as his love interest was to become an enabler of that deus ex machina miracle one month cure for that pesky vertebrae problem. Now we can only imagine your new life in Madrid. Oh, the adventures you would've gotten up to!

[close]

[The Watcher]

Three Days of the Condor
I'm here for 70s NYC: about a decade before my time, but still similar enough to cause a pang of nostalgia.


Oh to be on the run again

After a bit of unpleasantness at work,


Is it spelled ketchup or catsup?

Robert Redford is in need of a B&B to get away from it all. First he must find a vacancy. His methods are unorthodox.


She looks like she might have a room

Faye Dunaway didn’t realise she was shopping for a mystery man.


Make up your mind

She takes him home


Where the ❤ is

and he chats her up.


Honesty is important in every relationship

Stuff happens and she warms to him, despite a few other bumps in the road.





It helps that he can be a smooth talker if he tries.


These are great, do you remember what f-stop you used?

They bond over his poor prospects of survival.


Bad guy and worse guy

He’s only got three days. In the book he had six, so he has to move extra fast. Bed is the ultimate destination, fortunately this time with fewer threats of violence.


You seemed tense

As they make love her photographs haunt him and add urgency to the desired climax – la petite mort.


Really, what f-stop did you use?

He had a main squeeze only a day or two ago, but life is for the living.


She’d want me to move on

By the morning they’re almost like old fuck buddies.




I'm shocked I tell you

I can go along with everything else this movie has to offer (the CIA data mining novels; Redford going out for food at just the right time as he would later do in Sneakers; very definitely Max von Sydow as assassin), but this little romance is disturbing as hell. I guess they figured hey, it's these two, we'll roll with it. Judging by the reviews pretty much everybody did.


He's already forgotten your name

Oh and there was this encounter, wherein our hero, spinning a yarn about locking his keys in his car and needing help to break into it, looks to be guilty of racial profiling.


The way we were

Cliff Robertson is great as the ultimate pragmatist who doesn’t mind the withering scorn of the one that got away (so far). I love this exchange at the end when Redford (Turner) channels his inner Bob Woodward





as he interrogates Robertson (Higgins):

Higgins: It's simple economics. Today it's oil, right? In ten or fifteen years, food. Plutonium. Maybe even sooner. Now, what do you think the people are gonna want us to do then?

Joe Turner: Ask them?

Higgins: Not now - then! Ask 'em when they're running out. Ask 'em when there's no heat in their homes and they're cold. Ask 'em when their engines stop. Ask 'em when people who have never known hunger start going hungry. You wanna know something? They won't want us to ask 'em.


A nation turns its lonely eyes to you

The movie leaves the audience concerned for Turner’s ultimate fate:



Those New York pretzels were loaded with big chunky salt crystals.


Extra salt please, it's not yet commonly known it's a killer

[The Watcher]

Was pleased to see somebody uploaded this.

[Bill Bixby]

I appear to be stuck in the nostalgia channel. It may be terminal.

"Doctor I've had this problem––"
"She is a pediatrician."
"Well I've had this problem since I was a child."

YouTube: the cheap Netflix.

[sam]

Watched the movie again tonight. As send-offs go, it doesn't get any better than this.

I know. My other favourite show used it too.

[Søren Kierkegaard]

To remind me of life's vicissitudes I sometimes replay Helen's death.

[The Watcher]

This is by far the best dissection I've seen.

I'm from Ohio, which is right next to The Hoosier State and far more likely to have produced a swashbuckling hero. Neil Armstrong was from Ohio. OK, maybe not so much swashbuckling as calm, cool and collected. Still. They picked the wrong place.

Unfortunately 'Indiana' sounds great, whereas The Buckeye State (that's conkers to you) lacks a certain poetry. Ohio Jones would be the insurance salesman of the year.

[The Watcher]

Partway through Spaceman, I'm prepared to make the following announcement:

I love this movie. And I don't care who knows it.

It took Uncut Gems for me to realise Adam Sandler can act. Granted, I haven't kept up with his oeuvre (enough with the vowels), nor seen most of his work, but nevertheless I had some time ago filed him away as fun but not that interesting.

The "comfort spider", as The Observer called it, is brilliant. Arachnids creep me out mightily. At first I thought that was Star Trek's Data giving it a voice, which is why I looked it up and and noted the one star rating. Didn't actually click into the review, as astonishingly, I'd made up my mind not to read about this one before seeing it. Frankly my dear I don't give a damn what critics are saying.

It isn't all about Adam. The writing is great, the other characters anything but flat, and the Aliens junker-in-space aesthetic appeals. Also love that he's forced to regurgitate adverts to pay for his ride.

Will possibly stop back in later to add more when I've finished watching it. I'm not in a hurry.


"Bring the entire brood!"

[The Watcher]

Watching a flick at 2am because I can't go for a ride. Feeling nice and relaxed thanks to an earlier-than-expected wrap on a small project to be unveiled by Pale Rider tomorrow. (Hint #1: Not many will be celebrating his birthday. Hint #2: translation services were required again.) Chompsky is behind the couch, unaware that yesterday I started an AMA in his name over at LFGSS. I think they're more cat people.



That's an outtake from 20Q w/Ian. Figured she was dead but she had just given up. It ain't funny, their stomachs explode like a MacBook Air battery. Fortunately when she saw me she got scared straight, else I'd've had to give her a helping hand. Anyway, Netflix talked me into The Equalizer 2 (haven't seen The Equalizer 1, but one gets the idea). Bad guys getting what they deserve – THIS is entertainment. Wonder if he takes requests. There are some nice touches, like nobody messes with my bookseller (text coloured red to signify blood and Netflix). And is that whatshername from Homicide? I think it is. No screenshots because Apple doesn't want us to capture anything by Netflix, though I've paid for both of these. They're not bothered about subtitles.

on edit
We're past hints: X marks the spot. Change the hair and that could be our boy Rud.

[The Watcher]

That went well enough to back up and watch the first one, although perfection can get wearing after awhile, Mr Perfect Killing Machine. Next up: Ekvalayzer 3 [NACF translate: Equalizer 3, which McCall would know because he's very multilingual that way). Who's going to be the next Ralphie? Miles was a marginal improvement on the cohort of innocent bystanders of mayhem. I note that tats still = bad guys, at least if you have too many. So true. Poor helicopter hopping Melissa doesn't know what lies ahead in semi-retirement.

Speaking of Ralphie, today I learned that I am literally allergic to exercise. That's not going to stop me (they'll pry my bike from my cold scratching fingers), but may require either a bit less exercise (I've been on a binge lately) or working out if my urticaria is food-dependent and adjusting my eating times accordingly, but WTF, body. First you throw me a loop with intestinal malrotation, now this rarity? Nice.

I also like crunchy things.

Progress not perfection.

The old man is the old man, the fish is the fish. You gotta be who you are in this world. No matter what.

The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.



*Quote Investigator says sorry Mark Twain.

Also watching I'll see you in my dreams. State-of-the-art iPhone screenshot of the first coupling about to transpire:


Sam Elliott is welcome home anytime.

Spoiler

Sam could've had a happy ending but his timing was off.

Steel yourself for another Marley & Me moment, but not so drawn out and gut-wrenching.

[close]

While I approve of one of the messages ("You too can be friends and have meaningful encounters with people outside your age group!"), and it's very nicely done overall, Blythe Danner's character ultimately left me a bit cold. And slow down on the wine, lady. Then again she was playing comfortably numb. At least her circle of friends cruising through retirement included Rhea Perlman.

Pool guy ain't gonna be living like that when he gets old, augmenting his meagre income driving Uber and throwing his ukulele (it'll be a gift) into the fire for warmth.

~

Evidence a short scroll away shows I was previously able to capture these on Netflix. Different computer, older more obliging operating system? Don't remember. It's currently like the lost-wax casting process.