At 2/7/14 02:01 AM, Natick wrote: well as depressing as that reality is, i can't forget how much my respect for daniels shot right through the roof when he refused to juke the stats even for an election season and resigned to become a lawyer. one of the most ethical acts i've ever seen in a television series or film.

Oh indeed. That's one of the most (few?) truly satisfying moments in the series, especially coming from Daniels, who had been falling up the chain of command throughout the series and easily could have coasted if he wanted to.

Though to be fair he's probably making a lot more money as a lawyer...

he shot omar, let him rot >:(

But he's a product of his environment!

i've seen clips of deadwood and it looks intriguing even for such a short-lived series. coloful use of language, if i say so myself.

The speech patterns take some serious getting used to, but once you can stop worrying about getting the gist of what people are saying for the sake of keeping up with the plot it becomes apparent how gorgeous the dialogue is. It's poetic in a way that I've never really seen attempted on TV before. Like ridiculously profane poetry (one of the main characters tends to have all his most emotionally stirring monologues while getting blown by hookers).

another hbo series i'm on the fence about is boardwalk empire which at least as michael k. williams and steve buscemi (finally in a leading role) but i've had a few important moments spoiled for me by a few friends over the past few months.

I've been watching Boardwalk Empire week to week since it started. Personally I feel like it certainly has its moments, and it's wonderfully acted and shot, but it's mostly a warmed-over take on a genre that's pretty much run its course for now (the "gritty male antihero" show, popularized by The Sopranos and hitting its logical conclusion with Breaking Bad). At this point I have some trouble distinguishing a lot of the characters from each other or knowing/caring about what's going on with them, and honestly the most consistently compelling aspect of the show is the interior decorating.

It's a good show but hardly a great one. Compared to something with the depth and clear purpose of The Wire or Deadwood or The Sopranos or Mad Men it's kind of pulpy and a little thin. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but still. Next season is apparently going to be its last so I'll probably stick it out through the end, but really only because I've invested this much time already.

Have you been watching True Detective? Now that one's pretty mind-blowing.

The Wire is one of my favorite series.

As far as dramatic hour long episode TV show, I'll be recording the Walking Dead again when it comes back Sunday (followed by Comic Book Men). And I've been off and on with Fringe forever. One of the best sci fi shows I've seen on television. Then there's gonna be more Orphan Black, then more Hell on Wheels, then more Doctor Who.

I'm fucking pissed that Copper was cancelled.

At 2/6/14 11:37 PM, Dr-Worm wrote: I'm just about done with the second (and second-to-last) season of Deadwood now. It's actually nearly as good, though very different obviously.

I actually prefer Deadwood to The Wire. Just a shame it was cancelled and doesn't have an ending.

At 2/7/14 04:08 AM, Dr-Worm wrote: I've been watching Boardwalk Empire week to week since it started.

I fell out with it about halfway through the last season. Will probably catch up with it eventually since it's just got one to go, but it all just got a bit stale.

Have you been watching True Detective? Now that one's pretty mind-blowing.

It's top of my list. Looks excellent. Going to pick up that and Black Sails since I'm not watching anything else at the minute. Had hoped Helix might be good but was sick of it before the end of the pilot.

At 2/7/14 08:49 AM, TheMaster wrote: I actually prefer Deadwood to The Wire. Just a shame it was cancelled and doesn't have an ending.

I'm definitely getting closer to leaning that way with every episode I watch. There's a sense of camaraderie and community among the characters that you don't really see on many of these dark prestige dramas but seems so much more realistic. After watching so much Breaking Bad and Boardwalk Empire, it's refreshing and kind of shocking that so many of the characters on Deadwood are, like, actual fundamentally good people who try to act outside their own self-interest sometimes. Even Al Swearengen contains multitudes and has his moments of compassion. Hell, at this point (please don't spoil anything) I'm practically rooting for him, and not even in the guilty-pleasure way people "root" for Walter White or Tony Soprano.

It does suck that the show got cancelled before it could have a proper ending, though. There were talks of HBO doing two TV movie specials to wrap up the series, but those plans are pretty much dead now unfortunately. Though we do have some rough idea of where the series might have gone: apparently Milch originally intended for the show to end with the camp burning to the ground (which is what happened to Deadwood in real life), and there are several moments foreshadowing that throughout the series.

At 2/7/14 06:15 AM, Sense-Offender wrote: Then there's gonna be more Orphan Black

Oh shit I can't wait, that show is so much fun. Though any time Tatiana Maslany isn't onscreen the quality takes a nosedive.

I've only seen the first season of Deadwood. My memory of it is kinda foggy, but I know I was into it when I was renting it. But I only get one DVD at a time from Netflix now, so I never really feel like renting series anymore. I don't get the streaming service either. I didn't realize it was cancelled. What's the deal with great shows getting cancelled? That happened to Copper after only two seasons. Fucking shame. That show was great. Better than Hell on Wheels. Speaking of which, (MAJOR SPOILERS, btw) I fucking hope Elam isn't really dead. You can't kill off that character, asshole writers.

So I got watching The Wall. Half of it probably flew over my head but I enjoyed it anyway. Animated bits were super awesome and integrated flawlessly. I've also never properly listened to Pink Floyd so most of the music was new to me. I'd give it a 7 out of G major.

So I watched The Wall tonight, and I'm pretty on the fence about it so I'm curious to see what you guys thought (basically I thought the childhood stuff and the war/fascism stuff was great, but I'm more ambivalent about the drugged-out rock star stuff and the sexual hang-up stuff).

It kind of baffles me that this movie is so popular among stoners, even with the Pink Floyd association. I'm struggling to think of a movie that would be more unpleasant or disturbing to watch high.

At 2/3/14 04:20 PM, Oolaph wrote: Also, time to catch up on this whole MotW thing. I'll be having a triple feature of 400 Blows, Dark City, and The Wall tonight.

Awesome, definitely post your thoughts on the ones you missed at some point in between discussions if you want.

At 2/4/14 03:19 AM, Atlas wrote: I just finished Undercover Brother. It's an okay comedy. I would watch it again just for the soundtrack and one of the greatest death scenes I've seen in awhile.

I saw that movie in theaters when I was in elementary school and my friends and I were the only ones in the theater. Other than the soundtrack and Dave Chappelle that's pretty much all I remember. That soundtrack did introduce me to a bunch of great funk staples, though. I think I actually bought the CD, or downloaded it off Kazaa or whatever (this was 2002).

If you're looking for a far, far superior blaxploitation parody, check out Black Dynamite.

I also rewatched The Wall, and my opinion hasn't really changed on it.

It's a nice way to listen to the album, but I don't think I really get much more out of it this way than just sitting down with some headphones. The storytelling is strong enough without the images that it allows the film to just go nuts and throw whatever batshit crazy stuff it can come up with at the viewer, but that's all it is. Pretty pictures that don't do a whole lot to enhance the core experience.

The only real exception to this is the ending. Everything from In the Flesh through to the end of The Trial is perfect. But again, it's also my favourite part of the album, so I'm not sure how much it gains from being on film.

On the whole I enjoy it, but it only survives on the strength of the music.

At 2/8/14 03:42 AM, Dr-Worm wrote: I think I actually bought the CD, or downloaded it off Kazaa or whatever (this was 2002).

I remember when I used to download from Kazaa on my sister's computer years ago.

Black Dynamite

I saw that a while ago, but @0:13 is all I can really remember.

So I'm a week late but I finally watched Dark City and I have to say, I'm pleasantly surprised by it. Glad this film was chosen because I think it ranks quite highly on my hypothetical list of favorite films. Although I'm unsure if it will be as interesting to watch a second time because a big part of what made it interesting to me was the mystery, and now that I know the answers, will it be as enjoyable to watch again? I think some say I will watch it again, only that time I'll try the theatrical release out of curiosity.

Also, I think a few of you mentioned aged special effects and some kind of over the top final battle. You had me expecting something much worse than what I got. After the final battle I figured there must still be another one to come because it really didn't seem bad to me at all.

Interesting film that I'm glad I ended up watching.

just finished the wall

glad to have finally seen this in it's entirety. i have never listened to a pink floyd album so i can't really say that much about the music beyond how many times i've heard another brick in the wall, part 2. i've been interested in doing a musical for a concept album i really like for a year now and this was definitely a film that scratched that itch, along with tommyfrom the who, which i saw long before this. the imagery is compelling throughout, especially the sublime animation sequences from gerald scarfe and i really appreciated the near-lack of dialogue and reliance on the music to tell the story but my major problem with it is (and i hope this changes on repeat viewings) that it feels as if there is a lack of cohesion. a lot of the scenes don't have any real transitions and just kind of fall into each other, one after the other, with very little connection making the narrative experience a total mess. maybe that was the point of the editing. since we're following pink's recollections and fantasies, none of them are supposed to be presented in a linear fashion due to his slowly crumbling mental state.

it's funny, i thought the wall itself was a metaphor for society, every brick representing a civilian stripped of his individuality and only committed to being a piece of a stoic and immovable entity that only serves to protect itself and halt progression of any kind but i read that it was just representative of pink's detachment from society. whatever works. i don't know the philosophy behind pink floyd so i don't feel defensive if i'm wrong

At 1/27/14 03:51 PM, TheMaster wrote: And one of the worst. Aliens is crying out for a new version. The current one had horrible colour correction throughout the entire picture that makes everything look incredibly blue

I just got done watching Aliens last night and didn't notice this. I chose to watch the special edition rather than the theatrical version, if that makes any difference. Early on in scene where Ripley is recovering in the hospital, the entire room is white and I didn't notice any blue overlay. I actually made an effort to look for the blue seeing as you mentioned it. I wasn't seeing any. Whites looked pretty white to me.

Good film though. I definitely enjoyed it more than Alien. I like Alien but it was a bit too slow paced for me to fully enjoy it. I like that Aliens was more action orientated with an all guns blazing kind of approach. Having to wait until the end of Alien to see the Alien be killed was obviously quite a different experience to watching Aliens, where who knows how many of them get shot to pieces.

I actually thought I hadn't seen Aliens before and it wasn't until the scene where I saw Newt's little hideout that I started to think I had scene it before. Then every so often I'd see something else I remembered and then about half way through the film I suddenly remembered how it ended. Must have watched it on TV at some point and not forgotten. Would definitely watch it again. I'll try the theatrical version next time to see if there's any more noticeable blue.

At 2/9/14 05:05 AM, Dean wrote: I just got done watching Aliens last night and didn't notice this. I chose to watch the special edition rather than the theatrical version, if that makes any difference. Early on in scene where Ripley is recovering in the hospital, the entire room is white and I didn't notice any blue overlay. I actually made an effort to look for the blue seeing as you mentioned it. I wasn't seeing any. Whites looked pretty white to me.

I also rewatched it this week, actually, and it wasn't as bad as I remembered. It's very noticeable during the sequences with the red lighting, where anything that isn't red is blue, and during the ending sequence back on the Sulaco, but it's not as terrible as I'd convinced myself it was.

Good film though. I definitely enjoyed it more than Alien. I like Alien but it was a bit too slow paced for me to fully enjoy it. I like that Aliens was more action orientated with an all guns blazing kind of approach. Having to wait until the end of Alien to see the Alien be killed was obviously quite a different experience to watching Aliens, where who knows how many of them get shot to pieces.

I'm definitely more of an Alien fan. Love them both, but the creature itself is so much more interesting in Alien. You can never tell just how intelligent it is. Between it leaving the cat alone and the implied rape of Lambert there's plenty of potential for it to be sentient. In Aliens it's just a space ant with some low animal cunning.

Out of curiosity, which version of Alien did you watch? I always go theatrical for Alien, either for Aliens (theatrical is paced better, but the extra stuff in the special edition is worth seeing too), Assembly for Alien 3 and either for Resurrection because they're basically the same and they're both shit.

At 2/9/14 06:17 AM, TheMaster wrote: Out of curiosity, which version of Alien did you watch? I always go theatrical for Alien, either for Aliens (theatrical is paced better, but the extra stuff in the special edition is worth seeing too), Assembly for Alien 3 and either for Resurrection because they're basically the same and they're both shit.

I think it was the theatrical version I watched, but I'm not 100% sure on that. I remember looking online to see which version people recommended. I think it was a pretty mixed response but in the end I seem to recall deciding I wanted to see how it was originally shown.

As for Alien and Aliens, I thought they were both great but for different reasons. I can definitely see why you'd prefer Alien more. Definitely glad I chose to watch these though. It's another case of classic films that I'd just never seen for whatever reason. This is kinda why I want to start watching more films. I feel like there's so many classics out there that I just haven't seen.

I'm not sure if I'll watch any more of the films that came after Aliens. Everyone seems to regard them as being shit so I'm not really all that interested in seeing them. Since I tend to buy all the films I watch, I've been trying to limit myself to films that are either well regarded or something that I think I'd enjoy for whatever reason. I don't want my movies "collection" to end up my video game collection, which has a fair bit of shit in it.

Ordered a copy of Repo Man after Ejit recommended I watch it. I want to go into films blind whenever I can so I haven't really read up on it much. Hopefully it'll be here in time for me to watch it next weekend. Today I'll probably watch Forbidden Planet at some point.

At 2/9/14 06:40 AM, Dean wrote: I think it was the theatrical version I watched, but I'm not 100% sure on that. I remember looking online to see which version people recommended. I think it was a pretty mixed response but in the end I seem to recall deciding I wanted to see how it was originally shown.

The director's cut is slightly shorter than the theatrical, and the only significant addition is the cocoon sequence. Basically it sets up a complete life cycle without the need for the Queen from Aliens, with a cocooned Dallas and Brett being turned into eggs. It's quite an interesting scene, but it cripples the pacing of the final act since it takes place during Ripley's final mad dash around the ship after Lambert and Parker are killed.

I'm not sure if I'll watch any more of the films that came after Aliens. Everyone seems to regard them as being shit so I'm not really all that interested in seeing them. Since I tend to buy all the films I watch, I've been trying to limit myself to films that are either well regarded or something that I think I'd enjoy for whatever reason. I don't want my movies "collection" to end up my video game collection, which has a fair bit of shit in it.

The Alien 3 Assembly cut is okay as a film in itself, and most people dislike it because it's very depressing and pulls the rug out from under the happy ending of Aliens within the first 5 minutes. Bring the series to a definitive ending, too, and there was some serious bullshitting involved to justify Resurrection. It's worth a watch.

The theatrical cut is just dire, though.

Ordered a copy of Repo Man after Ejit recommended I watch it. I want to go into films blind whenever I can so I haven't really read up on it much. Hopefully it'll be here in time for me to watch it next weekend. Today I'll probably watch Forbidden Planet at some point.

Repo Man is incredible. Probably in my top 10 of all time. The Masters of Cinema set is phenomenal, too, if that's the one you've ordered.

Saw The Wolf of Wall Street the other week. It was 3 hours of drugs, shagging, money, swearing and dwarf tossing.

Freaking awesome in other words.

At 2/9/14 08:46 AM, TheMaster wrote: Repo Man is incredible. Probably in my top 10 of all time. The Masters of Cinema set is phenomenal, too, if that's the one you've ordered.

Indeed it was. I had a look on amazon and the steel book version was like £1 more than the standard Blu-ray so thought I might as well get it. Not usually someone who bothers with steel books but for the price difference I thought I might as well. Think it comes with a 40 page book or something too? The Universal Monsters set I got a little while back came packed with a nice book and some postcards featuring the original movie posters. They're not something I'm ever likely to look at much but still nice to get things like that included with films.

At 2/9/14 10:27 AM, Dean wrote: Indeed it was. I had a look on amazon and the steel book version was like £1 more than the standard Blu-ray so thought I might as well get it. Not usually someone who bothers with steel books but for the price difference I thought I might as well.

I don't see the point in some limited editions/steelbooks, they just come with postcards that I'll never use, and interviews/behind the scenes which I will forget about. The only limited edition I thought was worth my purchase was my Godfather one, which came included with a family tree, all the others are just useless, I only got them because they were about the same price as the normal one.

At 2/9/14 10:27 AM, Dean wrote: Indeed it was. I had a look on amazon and the steel book version was like £1 more than the standard Blu-ray so thought I might as well get it. Not usually someone who bothers with steel books but for the price difference I thought I might as well. Think it comes with a 40 page book or something too? The Universal Monsters set I got a little while back came packed with a nice book and some postcards featuring the original movie posters. They're not something I'm ever likely to look at much but still nice to get things like that included with films.

The MoC steelbooks are the same as the regular editions but for £1 there's no reason not to. Every one of their discs comes with a booklet.

Really what you're paying for is the restoration, though. All their blu-rays are superb, and the majority are director approved, where they've had the filmmaker sign off on it to say it's up to their standards. Always have a ton of special features, and usually nice technical things like proper audio options or even frame rate options on some films.

They're also one of the few companies who dump you straight to the menu when you put the disc in, too. No logo screens, no trailers, not animated intros, just straight to the options so you're one click away from playing. Stick all the anti-piracy guff AFTER the film, which is also nice.

Definitely the best distributor in the UK. Criterion is probably the only company putting out better stuff, and even then it's pretty close.

I watched the Wall. The main character is clearly based on Syd Barrett. Overall, meh. The animation was great, though. I'm huge into animation.

lol Why was the judge an ass and balls?

At 2/8/14 04:21 PM, Dean wrote: Although I'm unsure if it will be as interesting to watch a second time because a big part of what made it interesting to me was the mystery, and now that I know the answers, will it be as enjoyable to watch again?

I dunno. I like to go back and watch it again once in a while, but sure, it's not the same as the first viewing.

Also, I think a few of you mentioned aged special effects and some kind of over the top final battle. You had me expecting something much worse than what I got. After the final battle I figured there must still be another one to come because it really didn't seem bad to me at all.

Yeah, I don't have a problem with it either.

At 2/9/14 06:40 AM, Dean wrote: I'm not sure if I'll watch any more of the films that came after Aliens. Everyone seems to regard them as being shit so I'm not really all that interested in seeing them.

Yeah, I try to forget Alien 3, Ressurection and both AVP movies.

Ordered a copy of Repo Man after Ejit recommended I watch it.

"I blame society...aaaaaaaggggghhhhhhccckkkkk...."

Today I'll probably watch Forbidden Planet at some point.

Forbidden Planet is kinda neat. I'm not usually very interested sci fi from that far back, but I could dig it.

At 2/9/14 10:55 AM, Sense-Offender wrote: lol Why was the judge an ass and balls?

The way you made them suffer,
Your exquisite wife and mother,
Fills me with the urge to defecate!

Probably no more reason than the lyrics have "defecate" in them.

At 2/9/14 11:02 AM, TheMaster wrote:

At 2/9/14 10:55 AM, Sense-Offender wrote: lol Why was the judge an ass and balls?

The way you made them suffer,
Your exquisite wife and mother,
Fills me with the urge to defecate!

Probably no more reason than the lyrics have "defecate" in them.

I noticed those lyrics, but still figured I missed something.

At 2/8/14 03:42 AM, Dr-Worm wrote:

At 2/4/14 03:19 AM, Atlas wrote: I just finished Undercover Brother. It's an okay comedy. I would watch it again just for the soundtrack and one of the greatest death scenes I've seen in awhile.

I saw that movie in theaters when I was in elementary school and my friends and I were the only ones in the theater. Other than the soundtrack and Dave Chappelle that's pretty much all I remember. That soundtrack did introduce me to a bunch of great funk staples, though. I think I actually bought the CD, or downloaded it off Kazaa or whatever (this was 2002).

If you're looking for a far, far superior blaxploitation parody, check out Black Dynamite.

I haven't watched Black Dynamite in awhile, I probably should check out out sometime. Also I missed The Wall as I was busy camping. I shall watch it tonight though.

I watched Ruby Sparks.

I liked the film overall. It has a bit of that Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind weirdness to it. I feel like they could've gotten a little more out of the concept though. Also, they should have cut the last 5 minutes in my opinion.

----

I haven't gotten around to watching The Wall myself this week, but I've seen it about three times already (as well as in concert once) so I know it from beginning to end by now.

At 2/8/14 03:42 AM, Dr-Worm wrote: So I watched The Wall tonight, and I'm pretty on the fence about it so I'm curious to see what you guys thought (basically I thought the childhood stuff and the war/fascism stuff was great, but I'm more ambivalent about the drugged-out rock star stuff and the sexual hang-up stuff).

It kind of baffles me that this movie is so popular among stoners, even with the Pink Floyd association. I'm struggling to think of a movie that would be more unpleasant or disturbing to watch high.

I can think of one (not that I watched it high though).

I can see why it's popular amongst stoners, but I'm pretty sure the film/music is not about drugs at all even though it might seem that way in some parts.

At 2/8/14 07:31 AM, TheMaster wrote: On the whole I enjoy it, but it only survives on the strength of the music.

I think they did about the best job they could translating the album to a film though.

At 2/8/14 09:23 PM, Natick wrote: just finished the wall

glad to have finally seen this in it's entirety. i have never listened to a pink floyd album so i can't really say that much about the music beyond how many times i've heard another brick in the wall, part 2. i've been interested in doing a musical for a concept album i really like for a year now and this was definitely a film that scratched that itch, along with tommyfrom the who, which i saw long before this. the imagery is compelling throughout, especially the sublime animation sequences from gerald scarfe and i really appreciated the near-lack of dialogue and reliance on the music to tell the story but my major problem with it is (and i hope this changes on repeat viewings) that it feels as if there is a lack of cohesion. a lot of the scenes don't have any real transitions and just kind of fall into each other, one after the other, with very little connection making the narrative experience a total mess. maybe that was the point of the editing. since we're following pink's recollections and fantasies, none of them are supposed to be presented in a linear fashion due to his slowly crumbling mental state.

I thought I read somewhere that the film was initially meant to be a lot more coherent but Roger Waters wasn't happy with presenting it that way.

Anyway, despite the lack of cohesion, the structure of the story is actually pretty clear in my opinion. Maybe it's more easy to see on the album since CD1 (or side A) ends with "Another Brick in the Wall p3." and "Goodbye Cruel World". There's a clear division there.

it's funny, i thought the wall itself was a metaphor for society, every brick representing a civilian stripped of his individuality and only committed to being a piece of a stoic and immovable entity that only serves to protect itself and halt progression of any kind but i read that it was just representative of pink's detachment from society. whatever works. i don't know the philosophy behind pink floyd so i don't feel defensive if i'm wrong

Well it might be open to interpretation, to some extent. What you're describing does sound a bit like Roger Waters' criticism of the (British) education system (expressed in the school teacher scene).

At 2/9/14 10:55 AM, Sense-Offender wrote: I watched the Wall. The main character is clearly based on Syd Barrett. Overall, meh. The animation was great, though. I'm huge into animation.

I always thought he was meant to be Roger Waters' own self-image. However, the scene where Pink shaves his head is supposedly based on a reunion they had with Syd Barrett when they were recording Wish You Were Here.

lol Why was the judge an ass and balls?

I have no idea about that. Could just be because of the defecate lyric, but there's generally a lot of sexual imagery in the animations.

At 2/9/14 06:06 PM, Auz wrote: I thought I read somewhere that the film was initially meant to be a lot more coherent but Roger Waters wasn't happy with presenting it that way.

Anyway, despite the lack of cohesion, the structure of the story is actually pretty clear in my opinion. Maybe it's more easy to see on the album since CD1 (or side A) ends with "Another Brick in the Wall p3." and "Goodbye Cruel World". There's a clear division there.

understandable. maybe i'll go listen to the album and then come back to the film and it will make more sense

Well it might be open to interpretation, to some extent. What you're describing does sound a bit like Roger Waters' criticism of the (British) education system (expressed in the school teacher scene).

oh, that scene was nothing short of depressing and truthful but strangely funny with the scottish teacher shouting random quotes. i was thinking more of the facist scenes near the end, especially the iconic marching hammers.

The Great Randomizer has spoken, and it has selected @TheMaster to pick this week's film!

I think you know the drill by now: try to announce it tomorrow, conducive to discussion, most of us haven't seen it, branching out, different decade and genre and possibly country from last week, yada yada yada. Have fun!

By the way, I saw The LEGO Movie today and it was great. Seriously, believe the hype, the film is an extremely pleasant surprise. What easily could have been a cheap cash-in is instead incredibly clever, heartfelt and lovingly crafted. Which isn't to say that the movie doesn't also achieve its primary reason for existing, as heading out of the theater I was all but ready to sprint to the nearest toy store and buy up every LEGO product they had.

At 2/10/14 01:57 AM, Dr-Worm wrote: The Great Randomizer has spoken, and it has selected @TheMaster to pick this week's film!

Cool.

I was pretty well set on picking something by Nigel Kneale, one of my all time favourite writers, and initially lent towards Quatermass and the Pit, which is generally considered his best cinematic work, but I think I'm going to go for my personal favourite instead.

The Stone Tape, a TV movie commissioned by the BBC in 1972. I was on the fence about picking something so televisual but I think the writing is so strong and everything else so perfect that it gets past its low budget and slightly dodgy sets.

It's about a team of scientists searching for a new recording medium who move into a recently built research complex inside an old abandoned mansion and quickly stumble upon an apparent haunting.

It's folk horror at its finest, but it may not be for everyone. It's slow and deliberate genre in which the victims are usually entirely to blame for what's happening to them and the forces they're up against are only ever vaguely defined. If you've read any MR James stories you'll know what you're in for. HP Lovecraft is often cited as an influence on this sort of stuff, too, although Kneale claims to have never read him. It's my absolute favour sort of horror, and I think it's something everyone should try at least once, and The Stone Tape is an excellent entry point.

You'll probably struggle to find it on any on demand services, but I've had a look around and it's not difficult to get a hold of online. If you're interested in a physical copy the out of print BFI version is the best option, but the recent BBC release is almost identical, just missing a couple of extras but using the same excellent transfer.

Stealing Auz's list of @s:
@Auz
@Sense-Offender
@Natick
@Slint
@Sekhem
@Jolly
@Atlas
@NuScarab
@EclecticEnnui
@Makeshift
@HeavenDuff
@ZJ
@Darthdenim
@Oolaph
@Jackho
@darkjam
@Nebula
@Jester
@SapphireLight
@SG3
@Dean
@Piggler

So I think I deserve the official title of 'worst MotW participant'. We're four films in and I still haven't watched a single one of 'em yet.

tonight though

for real

gonna catch up

probably

At 2/10/14 01:24 PM, Oolaph wrote: So I think I deserve the official title of 'worst MotW participant'. We're four films in and I still haven't watched a single one of 'em yet.

tonight though

for real

gonna catch up

probably

I'm in the same boat. I think for now I'm opting out of MotW as I haven't participated, have a long list of movies I need to play catch up on, and school work needs done.

At 2/10/14 07:33 PM, Atlas wrote:

At 2/10/14 01:24 PM, Oolaph wrote: So I think I deserve the official title of 'worst MotW participant'.

I'm in the same boat. I think for now I'm opting out of MotW as I haven't participated, have a long list of movies I need to play catch up on, and school work needs done.

Tell me about it, i haven't even seen Pacific Rim yet...