Streaming Recommendations (Netflix, HBO, Amazon, etc.)

Human Playground on Netflix narrated by Idris Elba. The first episode is extremely difficult to watch as people jump over rampaging bulls in france, race bikes on ancient cobblestones where horrific crashes are inevitable, dive below the ice, run six back to back marathons in the Sahara desert where some of the contenders die from cardiac arrest.

Watch people who voluntary undergo exreme torture.

Remastered : The Lions Share
History of the song The Lion Sleeps Tonight. Originally from South Africa, a family fights for recognition and rights against Disney.
It's always been one of my favorite songs. It's eerie listening to the earliest version of that magical melody

All Quiet on the Western Front
Netflix
Wow. Incredible realism
Really shows how brutal war is
Must see TV. It's that good.

Quote: terapined

All Quiet on the Western Front
Netflix
Wow. Incredible realism
Really shows how brutal war is
Must see TV. It's that good.

I watched this last yesterday. I enjoyed it overall, very excellent WWI depictions. But, I did not enjoy it nearly as much as the original version (or the first remake) or the book, and I felt it lacked in a lot of places.

I did not like how they changed the story (what there was of one in this version) so drastically from the book (if you want to make a standard WWI movie, just make a new IP). I also was not a fan of the segments of the fictional German general who was giving nationalist dialogue in random scenes and was bloodthirsty and plotting to push the war to the last minute before the treaty went into effect, his whole character seemed forced and out of place (which yes I know did happen in some parts of the war, but his inclusion just felt like they wanted to force in an overarching villain). They miss some of the scenes where people go home in the middle and see the massive disconnect between how people view the war at home as opposed to the front. And, it seemed to drag on maybe about 20 mins too long.

(Also, its dubbed to English from German -if you watch the American version- so if that kind of thing bothers you, and there can seem to be some awkward/clunky dubbing parts as far as lips matching up and facial expressions).

Overall the battle scenes were excellent, the sets and scenery were excellent, it felt authentic as far as setting, but the characters and story left a lot to be desired, and the acting was meh (its hard to judge fairly because of the dubbing, I am sure in the German version they did a fine job, but its just such an awkward dubbing that many lines feel off, I would probably recommend watching it in German with subtitles to be honest knowing what I know now).

I would also recommend it overall, if for no other reason WWI content is so lacking, that its always great when a major film gets produced. But, I was a bit disappointed.

I am glad it is successful though because hopefully that will lead to more WWI movies and shows. WWI is a war that is not portrayed enough (though to be fair, its probably portrayed more accurately than most wars when it is as just about every WWI movie is about how terrible it is and how misleading the propaganda was, going back to WWI movies in the 1930s, very different than WWII movies which there are just barrages of John Wayne type movies of heroes mowing down villains without consequence).

I did not enjoy it as much as 1917 (which was such a perfect movie, as it was essentially one continuous shot -yes I know editing tricks made it that way-, not jumping to various characters and timelines, which combined with its WWI setting makes it an almost perfect movie, the less jumping and timeline gaps the better).

Quote: Gandler

I also was not a fan of the segments of the fictional German general who was giving nationalist dialogue in random scenes and was bloodthirsty and plotting to push the war to the last minute before the treaty went into effect, his whole character seemed forced and out of place (which yes I know did happen in some parts of the war, but his inclusion just felt like they wanted to force in an overarching villain).

Viewers watching films, just like in real life, have difficulty with abstract concepts like "war is heck". They want villains as it is an easy concept to grasp.

"Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" is a good example of an anti-war film without an overt villains, but they get away with it by making the film a farce,


Johnny Got his Gun (1971) was based on a book written in 1939, but was a financial disaster.

Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities
Netflix
8 episode anthology
Some episodes were pretty good
Some were pointless in my opinion

Quote: terapined

Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities

A lot of CGI murder and mayhem. Makes you nostalgic for the low tech stories of 60 years ago of a 60 year old lady (played by Agnes Moorehad) defending her home against an alien invasion.

Quote: Pacomartin

Viewers watching films, just like in real life, have difficulty with abstract concepts like "war is heck". They want villains as it is an easy concept to grasp.

"Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" is a good example of an anti-war film without an overt villains, but they get away with it by making the film a farce,


Johnny Got his Gun (1971) was based on a book written in 1939, but was a financial disaster.

But, that was one of the key brilliant themes of the book (and most movie versions). There was not some over the top villain, even the drill sergeant in the training segment (or I think corporal in the original) character who initially was made to be a sort of villain turned out to have shades of gray.

Most of the story was just people trying to survive and praying that their friends did. Even the enemy was sympathetic, and it felt like nobody really wanted to be doing what they had to do once they actually got to the trenches (it showed the stark contrast from the glory of recruiting to training to the font to home and being disenchanted with how people viewed the war to back to the front where it was still terrible but you were with people who understood). Almost all of that was lost in this version.

The inclusion of cuts away from the Squad to the German general with a cartoonish mustache, smoking cigarettes in dark rooms while plotting to make battles bloodier and speaking about how Germany needed to be more nationalistic, and peace is terrible seemed completely forced and out of place. The character felt so over the top it almost felt like somebody portraying a German general in some parody. I just do not get it; those scenes were terrible (and they made the pacing and timeline even more unnecessarily confusing). They could have cut all of those scenes (as well as all of the diplomat scenes) and the movie would be better (pacing, length, etc....)

Or if they wanted the same length they could have cut those scenes and shot scenes of the return home and return to war and show the themes that were an important focus of the book....

The General (and the diplomat to be fair) were unnecessary characters that detracted far more than they added.

Quote: Pacomartin

A lot of CGI murder and mayhem. Makes you nostalgic for the low tech stories of 60 years ago of a 60 year old lady (played by Agnes Moorehad) defending her home against an alien invasion

Some of the stories in the Cabinet of Curiosities were good stories such as the storage locker with the great Tim Blake Nelson
Some of the stories were just stupid. Let's get together and do some drugs then watch a monster was such a dumb story. Peter Weller needs to find better roles

Quote: terapined

Some of the stories in the Cabinet of Curiosities were good stories such as the storage locker with the great Tim Blake Nelson

I would watch Tim Blake Nelson play a cockroach --- no wait, he already did that.