BWAAHAA! I think my son went and saw this, I saw a movie popcorn bucket in his car, lol. I'll have to hear if his review matches yours;

I'm watching the new She-Ra Netflix series so far Episode 1 has grabbed my attention but there's 12 more episodes left and I've heard there's "issues"in the latter episodes, it probably nothing but people trying to make something out of nothing but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

Shut up in denial past me! OH MY F*ING DIVINES THIS SHOW WAS A MAJOR LET DOWN T_T !!! I couldn't do it! I couldn't stomach it anymore and you know what's sad....the naysayers were right! She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is nothing more then Tumbler garbage written by people who didn't care and created by people who also didn't care but tried to hide it behind a Pro LGBTQ Flag. It's so sad that an icon from the past getting such an unwanted black eye, I'm so disappointed at Dreamworks for this. Hell the 200X He-Man reboot kicks this show's butt up one way and down the other...At least I enjoyed Adora and Catra's redesign artwork.
2/5 Bad!

I just finished watching The Meg. I went into it with low expectations, so I was not disappointed. It did have a nice homage to Jaws, in the form of a dog named Pippin swimming in the ocean. At first I thought it was a LOTR reference, but then I remembered that before the attack on the beach, there was a guy with a dog named Pippin, and later he could not find the dog. In this case however, Pippin makes it.

A link to Sherlock Holmes in the House of Fear (1945) was among this evening's YT recommendations. The title didn't ring a bell, though up until now I assumed I had seen all the Basil Rathbone. Nope. Tonight was my first viewing of it. Not a great movie, but the Rathbone Holmes films are always entertaining. Leastwise they are to an old fart like me who saw them on broadcast TV when a lad. Wonder if there are more I've missed?

Gremlins is on AMC!!!

Die Hard on 4k.

Yippee Ki Yay!

Firefly on BluRay that Khajiit got for Christmas!!

Watching this short docu on the Stug III. A great example of how you can take an obsolete piece of tech and make it not only viable, but outstanding. I always liked the look of the German Mk IIIs and IVs, and their Stug descendants.

I have been watching a lot of the DC Super Hero Girls webisodes on You Tube. I am not thrilled with the 3 minute episode lengths. I guess I am just an old fogey. I would prefer a real episode of 22 minutes, or movie of 90 minutes. But they are still fun in any case. Lots of girly super fun, without the grim Zack Snyderness that so infects the live action DCEU movies (at least until the Wonder Woman and Aquaman films). I am liking Batgirl and Katana the most.

I binge watched Titans over the weekend. It is a live action show of the Teen Titans. Though they are not all teens in this one. It was ok. But it kind of fell a little flat for me. The problem for me is the tone. They are going for the dark, grim, gritty, morally ambiguity again, like in Batman vs. Superman. It is nothing like any of the other Teen Titans shows I have ever seen (I never read any of the comics). Those I remember being fun superhero romps.

It feels off to me to break from the happy-go-lucky Teen Titans format. Especially since with Wonder Woman and now Aquaman I had thought DC had learned their lesson that the masses don't really want a lot of moody, brooding superhero fare. They want the upbeat popcorn fests with dazzling smackdowns and a few laughs that Marvel churns out. DC's tv shows seemed to have figured that out a long time ago, with The Flash, Supergirl, the League, etc... They have serious subjects, but don't get all mired down in grim moral ambiguity. Titans is a complete break from that (and it does not exist in the same continuum as the other DC shows).

I thought the casting was good. Raven was perfect. I did not need anyone telling me who she was. Likewise with Beast Boy. Robin/Nightwing/Dick Grayson is your average white boy. But I warmed up to him. Where I could look at the others and instantly know who they were, Starfire had me scratching my head. I had to look up the show in IMDB to figure out who she was. Twice. They did try to keep to the original character's motif of purple clothes and flame hair. But she came out looking more like a giant hooker than an alien. And she has none of the usual Star of the Fire's speaking of the English that I am the used to. But I have to admit that she fits in exactly with the tone of the show. She is definitely older, harder, edgier, crueler. So I am not complaining.

I also finished season 3 of Supergirl today. Wow, that was fantastic! The season was a little slow to get going, but once it did, it was fantastic. The plotting was outstanding. The characters were great, new and old. Everything is really clicking with that show. The blu-ray even came with all 4 of the annual Arrow-verse crossover episodes. So I actually saw an entire one of those massive crossovers for first time ever. It was good too. A solid alternate dimension Nazi story with SS Supergirl. (Every year they do a big crossover story, with one episode in each Arrow-verse show).

I've been getting all caught up on Star Wars Rebels. Still enjoying it, though not as much as the Clone Wars (I think it's just the time period that I don't like). Most of the characters continue to entertain and engage, and the story more or less continues at a good pace while not feeling out of place in the universe.

I do hope there's another series after this, as the last one ends on a note that suggests as much. Maybe we'll get to see more non-human characters in the next one or perhaps delve a little deeper into the lore. We shall see.

The Orville is back on!

I am watching The HP Lovecraft Collection Vol. 2. - Dreams of Cthulhu. I finished the main feature - Rough Magick. It was good. I liked the Night Scholars (and that most of them are listed as dead). It is about a former army psychiatrist who had a Mythos encounter during the Falkland War. Most of it is him recounting that. Some of it is set in the present, with a Vinegar Joe secret agent interrogating him to learn more about how to fight a wave of 'Dreamers', people driven to murderous insanity by the Dreaming God (aka Cthulhu).

I still have to get into the shorts that accompany the main story. Experiment 17 and Experiment 18. Plus a few others. I have seen all of them before, but they are cool.

Saw Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse yesterday. I enjoyed it a lot. Very unique and I didn't know what to expect. I don't read actual comics and just about all that I know about them comes from looking up stuff about them on the Internet or hearing from other people, so I didn't have any reference at all for what it was about (although apparently the movie is significantly different from the original comic).

Anyway, if anyone is thinking of going to see it, you definitely should. It was really good.

Started watch Star Trek (original series) again. Got to Balance of Terror last night. Great episode.

I have been watching a lot of Batman the Animated Series from the 90s. I just finished Robin's Reckoning. The bad guy was voiced by Biff from the Back to the Future movies, and the cabbie who gives Robin a ride was Sam Jackson.

Love it. This reminds Khajiit that he needs to start watching those again.

Watching the New Age channel...ah soothing .

Last night I followed a YouTube recommendation link to a video of someone's "Top Five Oldest Films." The list has issues, such as attributing them all to Edison, which isn't the case. Of prime interest to me is the video's closing bonus footage, a circa 1906 film of a ride down a San Francisco street, possibly shot only a day or two before the quake. It's visually well restored and has been augmented with appropriate street-scene sound effects and a haunting musical accompaniment. I queued it to start at the ride rather than the video's beginning. An absolutely fascinating glimpse into a time our past.

I just tried watching Batman Forever. I failed. I cannot do it.

It’s really bad. Not Batman and Robin bad, but still pretty bad. Watch Returns instead! That one is probably Khajiit’s favorite!

I already watched the two Tim Burton Bat movies over the summer. So I guess I will go back to Batman: The Animated Series.

Hey that’s a good plan too!

I finished Batman: The Animated Series. That was really cool. A very fun stroll down memory lane for many of them. Though some I have no recollection of at all. It is actually 2 shows. The original first season of BTAS (all 65 episodes!), and the following 20 episodes are from The Adventures of Batman & Robin. I really love the 'Dark Deco' style the show is done in, being sort of 40s-ish in look in many ways. And of course the voice acting is outstanding. Mark Hamill really shining as The Joker, while Kevin Conroy so owns the voice of Batman that anyone else just sounds wrong to me.

There is a big drop in artwork quality with Adventures, which apparently was done on purpose to match that of a contemporary Superman show. But the writers and voice actors were the same, so it is not terrible. Plus there is a lot more Batgirl, which I loved. I wish there was a Batgirl animated series.

My blu-ray set also came with Mask of the Phantasm, which I am watching now, and Mr. Freeze: Sub Zero, which will be next.

Related to this, here is a video of Mark Hamil doing both The Joker and Luke Skywalker in the same skit. It’s impressive.

I remember that! This is one of my favorite Mark Hamil/Joker expositions.

I haven't watched a single feature length film since my hearing sunk below a certain point close to a year ago. Heck, I can't even bring myself to finish watching GoT season five, which I bought on DVD about the time my hearing took its big nosedive. Be that as it may, I still watch a LOT of videos at YouTube. Lately it's been mostly Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Transport Fever vids, those being the two games I play with regularity these days, political oriented vids, and vids documenting history in some fashion. Lots of other stuff too, but those get the most play.

I'll single out only one recent watch, 1911 - A Trip Through New York City, a lovely little 'time capsule' to which effective appropriate sounds have been added.

My Father had lost his hearing too; but his hearing loss was caused by a stroke. We had to connect some small computer-type speakers to the back of his television and set them up on the back of the couch right where he sat. (TV's usually have some kind of connectors for extra speakers to be added). The speakers were small enough that he could adjust them around as needed; or even hold them close to his ears without too much effort. Those little speakers made a huge difference in him being able to enjoy movies again comfortably.

They make chairs that have speakers built into the headrests (which adjust to curve in closer to your ears) that hook up to any electronics (television/stereo/PC/Laptop/XBox 360/etc) = some of them even have vibration and/or light features you can toggle on/off that enhances sounds while gaming or with the bass line in sound tracks, etc.

My youngest son is hearing impaired; and growing up I kept him in those chairs with the vibration on so he could "hear" his games/music/TV shows. (he didn't care much at all for the light effects).

It made a huge difference for him. For children those chairs are fairly reasonably priced; they get more expensive for adults (which is why we rigged up our own version for my Dad, lol)

(you can put a subwoofer under the seat of the couch to simulate the vibrations with the bass line of the TV/music/games = try playing Fallout 3 on the XBox 360 with vibrations in your chair and with them set to "On" on your controller while following Liberty Prime across that bridge at the end of the game = it is like actually being there while it is happening!)

Anyway, even without the vibrations in your seat; the speakers around your head do make a huge difference to your enjoyment in TV watching or listening to music; if you can set something like that up.

My hearing is not what it once was. Though I am by no means even close to deafness. I found that wearing headphones helps me immensely when I watch tv. Especially with movies where they mix the sound effects up high, and the dialogue down low. Yes, I am looking at you The Road. I had to watch that movie with subtitles on, because I literally could not hear half of what Viggo Mortensen was saying, even though the music and effects was so loud they made me wince.

I have this a pair of Sennheiser wireless headphones. They are a little pricey, but were worth every penny. I never have that problem like I did with The Road anymore. Since they are wireless, there is nothing to trip over.

I've been noticing that A LOT in the last year or so; it is like the dialogue is whispered or muted to the point that = no matter how loud I turn the volume up I still can't hear the dialogue; but the sound effects blast me out of my chair and blow my hair back they are so loud in comparison.

My TV has a feature called "Smart Sound" that is SUPPOSED to control that from happening; but it doesn't seem to work at all.

I used to play video games on the TV (via XBox 360) instead of on the PC; so I thought I probably had used a sound mode that would be more conductive to gaming than watching a movie. I've tried changing the sound mode several times; but can't seem to find one that accentuates the dialogue.

I have had tvs and dvd players with that smart sound feature too. But they never really made much difference for me either.

I think what is happening is that as we get older, we start to lose our ability to hear certain frequencies. So other people can probably hear it fine. I heard about this story a few weeks ago that makes me think of it. Basically a woman in China can no longer hear men's voices, because she lost the ability to hear in low frequencies.

Bold: I wish!

I watched Shanghai today. It was good, but not great. It is a spy movie set in Shanghai in 1941. It gives you the feeling that something epic is brewing with the lead up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Like the main character is going to discover it. And he does pick up some leads. But the ending does not deliver. It just kind of sits there.

It does present many really interesting, many-layered characters that we get to know as the story goes on. That was worth the rental. Everyone, Japanese, Chinese, American, were well done people. In that regard it humanizes the enemy.

So it is a good character-driven story. It has some shoot-outs, but is not really an action film by any stretch. I would say it is worth the watch, but will not blow you socks off.

Watching HCBailly old LP of Arcana for the snes, his second playthrough as his first one he abandoned it many moons ago.

Have you seen the movie Lust, Caution, directed by Ang Lee?

I have never heard of Lust, Caution. Netflix has it though. It looks interesting. Also in Shanghai I see. I added it to my queue.

I just finished watching The Crow. Still an awesome revenge movie.

Just a couple of words of... caution, for Lust, Caution: it is a straight up spy/assassin film, so the pacing is a bit slow. Also, there is a ton of sex and sex related nudity in it....

The Crow is one of Khajiit’s very favorite movies! This one liked The Crow: City of Angels also (not as much as the original), but hasn’t seen any of the others.

I am watching the first Underworld move for the umpteenth time. This time I recognized the doctor pal of Scott Speedman's character. He only appears in about two scenes, but his voice sounded really familiar. So did his jaw, which has a certain sharp and clenched nature. Then it came to me. It's Captain Cold! Yes, our pal Wentworth Miller from The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow. He was much younger of course. But I still kept expecting him to pull out a cold gun at any moment.

Oh wow, he was in Buffy the Vampire Slayer too!

'Bout to watch Infinity War again.

I just cannot take a movie seriously when the villain is a giant purple popsicle.

SPEW!!! Now you made me go hunt up vids on it just to see what you were talking about,

Thanos?

Who else? I am also unimpressed with someone who wants to kill half the people in the Universe. Go all in or get out. Alexander would not be called The Great if he had been satisfied with conquering half of Persia, Vader would not have been so cool if he had only wanted to kill half the Jedi, and no one would know who Palpatine was if he had only wanted to take over half the galaxy. Half measures are for wimps.

Lol, Khajiit never saw Infinity War. What were Thanos’s actual goals? Based on what little Khajiit saw of him in Gaurdians of the Galaxy vol. 1, he doesn’t strike this one as the type that would care to see the universe’s entire population wiped out. Surely there is some reason half of the universe’s population was spared (i.e. he wanted to rule over folks, etc)?

He wants to kill half the people in the universe to conserve resources. It is his answer to people destroying the environment. I am not saying if he succeeds or not. So no spoilers. That is just Thanos' stated goal.

I think if you killed all the people, it would protect the environment much better.

I recall in the comics, he was in love with Death. So he decided he would kill everyone in the universe as a way to drop Death's panties. Now that is a real villain!

Ah, well yeah, in that case killing everyone would indeed save the environment. Not very imaginative or fun, but, eh *shrugs*.

I am now watching Midway. I noticed in the IMDB that a new version of it is coming out this November. With Alexander Ludwig! Vikings in the skies!

Say what you want about the villain, but Thor's arrivial in Wakanda is one of the best moments in the MCU.

https://youtu.be/rLL11dEMGdU?t=152

That was pretty cool.

But Thor without Mjolner... That's like a car with no wheels.