Carl Sagan

3 hours ago, uttoxram75 said:

Not a film but enjoying The Trial of Christine Keeler, full of political intrigue, something I sort of knew about growing up so its an interesting insight into the 1960's..

Also, Sophie Cookson, ?

I'd say the movie Scandal is better, but so much is about long-form (ie TV) nowadays. And Sophie Cookson is no Joanne Whalley ?

Two cinema trips this weekend. Saw Fellini's Nights of Cabiria which probably has more plot and structure than most of his work, but understandably feels dated. I'll go for 6.5/10. There's a Fellini season at the British Film Institute at the moment.

Also went to 1917 at the BFI IMax (biggest screen in the country). In a way it was great that this is really booked up, but the disappointing thing was we were forced to sit in the second row as a result. Still a long way back but hard to take everything in. Normally I suspend my disbelief but perhaps because of proximity to the screen I felt I was always watching a film.

That said it was an extremely clever, well made film that was quite thought-provoking. For anyone who doesn't know the idea is the entire movie is made to appear a single show without scene shifts/breaks. Of course you find yourself looking for where the breaks really are. The bravery of the soldiers and the futility of the war come across. I still felt it was a bit sanitized. Ending was powerful. Delighted I didn't notice the soundtrack, meaning it wasn't overpowering (as happened with Nolan's Dunkirk).

Overall I'd give it 8/10. A filmmaker's film so could well win the Oscar, I think for Best Direction more likely than Best Film, but very often they go together.

Ad Astra 4/10

How do people get money to make some films? I guess people backed this because of the (movie) stars attached: Brad Pitt, Liv Tyler, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland. 

Not going to give spoilers other than saying what little story there is is totally bonkers and illogical. Some pretty space scenes but didn't find them on a par with other space movies, despite the claims. 

4/10 is quite generous but I want to reward people for at least trying to create a space-based blockbuster. That's probably as good as it gets. 

Without Hazard last season Chelsea were a midtable team ("officially" ranked 12th). Now they have a rookie manager. And he wasn't helped in an interview I heard with his Uncle Harry before Frank jumped ship saying if Lampard took the job he probably wouldn't be able to get 1st or 2nd because of the transfer ban but he should be able to get 3rd place. 

I don't know how I feel about him going, but it would be funny if he's not able to win a game and gets sacked come October.

Mason playing very well. I always thought he had the ability to be better for us than he was. Playing while injured against Chelsea really stuffed him for a lot of last season.

It's a travesty that Chelsea are behind to Man Utd and they've rocked the inner frame of the goal twice. But one player who's not settled is Zouma who looks an accident and sending off waiting to happen and gave away a penalty. Maybe we'll see Fikayo on for him in the second half? 

Watched Alita Battle Angel the other night. 5.5/10.

Some surprises and good moments but not enough substance. And too much of the storyline felt assumed, as if they expected you to have read the manga.

Really enjoyed The Dead Don't Die which has a great cast and is very meta. A tongue-in-cheek zombie movie.

8/10

Trailer:

15 hours ago, Inverurie Ram said:

Aberdeenshire Rams & Jersey Rams meeting up 10am onwards in The Globe opposite Baker Street Tube Station on route to Wembley.

https://www.greeneking-pubs.co.uk/pubs/greater-london/globe/?utm_source=g_places&utm_medium=locations&utm_campaign

43-47 Marylebone Road.

 

Yay! Delighted there's an Aberdeen (and Jersey) contingent rendezvousing for the game. Good spot with easy Wembley access. Here's a song for all of you winding your way down on Baker Street:

Decided to watch The Wife last night to see if Glenn Close was robbed of the Oscar. It's about a dysfunctional family who are travelling to Stockholm for the husband (Jonathan Pryce) to collect the Novel Prize for Literature.

Looked as if it was originally written as a stage play - very small scale. And lots of exaggerated "acting". Silly idea at the heart of it.

3/10.

2 minutes ago, Parsnip said:

Decent 4G reception up in the old North Pole is it?

It's utterly remarkable. Everywhere you go in northernmost Norway they've ultrafast 4G broadband. No blackspots at all, out in the wilderness. Roads all go through the mountains so they stay passable. Between Tromso airport and the town the tunnel has three roundabouts with roads going off in different directions. Puts us to shame - it's like living in the future. Booze a bit pricey mind...

1 hour ago, Mucker1884 said:

Disqualified!

... No knee!   

19 minutes ago, Parsnip said:

What a coincidence! I happen to be in the Antarctic right now! Look here's proof...

Or in other words... get your knee in or it didn't happen.

This thread's full (full I tell you) of kneeless photos. Shocked and appalled by the ruling.

Up in the Arctic. Oh yes... 

13 hours ago, Parsnip said:

Do you work in the industry @Carl Sagan?

A little - I'm lucky and flit about. I did work for the British Film Institute for a while and am still connected, but I'm more TV, space and publishing. I would love to work more in film as it's my favourite format but it's just so hard to get anything made. For instance there are tens of thousands of books published every year (way too many) but not very many movies so your odds are way worse.

On 05/02/2019 at 15:52, 86 points said:

Malek definitely a strange call to play such a vibrant and larger than life character. Was OK in Mr Robot and would think that's more his thing really. Didn't know Ali G was in the running! Would have been fascinating to see how that worked out - have a hunch Baron-Cohen would have been excellent. Also a dead-ringer for Freddie. WIll give it a swerve I reckon, in any case. Thanks for write up ?

41 minutes ago, Parsnip said:

Wow is that true?? He would've been brilliant.

Films take forever to make. Bohemian Rhapsody began about a decade ago and they picked SBC as first-choice Freddy in 2010. But he walked in 2013. There are differing opinions as to what went wrong, but clearly he didn't agree with the film Queen wanted to make and Queen didn't like the film he wanted to make.

https://www.nme.com/news/film/bohemian-rhapsody-former-director-sacha-baron-cohen-freddie-mercury-outrageous-2396293

It's a relief for the public media frenzy that the body recovered was the player not the pilot, as it means the player search isn't going to continue with the Argentine family clinging to false hopes. All terribly sad. Given it took two hours to find the plane on the seabed, it makes a bit of a mockery of the previous search efforts.

Cardiff had signed the player - he was no longer anything to do with Nantes. Unquestionably Cardiff will have to pay the full fee under the contracted payment schedule. Whether there is a way they can pursue money from third parties is up to them, but Nantes had sold him. If Cardiff hadn't sorted out their own insurance, then that's their problem.

Bohemian Rhapsody 

5/10

This is meant to be Freddy Mercury we're talking about. Way too anodyne for me. You can see why Sacha Baron-Cohen didn't work out in such a sanitized version of the story. Astonished his replacement Rami Malek is up for an Oscar. 

Sorry to Bother You 

7.5/10 

Mixture of very good and bits that don't quite work. Very interesting and striking, but probably too many ideas. I think it's the director's first film and it's as if he tried to do everything in one go. 

It could be two very good separate films, but by trying to force the different strands together, I think it loses something. 

But I'd definitely recommend it as something different and interesting. 

45 minutes ago, AmericanRam said:

My gal and I enjoying some Hibachi☺?

Thought I was well-travelled (and have been to Japan) but had to Google hibachi. Enjoy! 

Here in Blighty I'm gazing out of the window, enjoying the start of the total lunar eclipse. 

4 hours ago, angieram said:

Just to say how much I have enjoyed the coverage of the under 23s and under 18s games this week with Owen Bradley and Marc Edworthy commentating.

It's a good balance with both Owen and Marc concentrating on the game. 

(Although I did hear someone having a little pop at Zak Brunt tonight!) 

I think they're much better as a partnership. And it's great of the club that we can watch these academy games in such a professional way. Even if I was distracted by events in Westminster tonight do didn't see that much of the game! 

It's currently the London Film Festival. I went to see Duplicate yesterday, which is a film about two brothers living in the same apartment, passing messages back and forth yet never meeting for some reason. 

A clever concept movie but hard to maintain interest, especially after the big reveal, and despite the presence of Suki Waterhouse. A little oddly, the film debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival called Jonathan (who's one of the brothers). 

Definitely interesting but would have been better as a "short". Maybe 5.5/10.

Looking forward to Assassination Nation on Friday! A modern day take on the Salem witch trials. 

We were linked with a £3.5m move for Glenn Murray four years ago. I must admit I wasn't keen on the injury-plagued has-been:

https://www.getreading.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/reading-fc-transfer-speculation-glenn-8126378

2 hours ago, rynny said:

Once again Carl, apologies, David has been away from the forum for a few days and as the only mod on at the time I acted quickly to ensure that we still had a thread to talk about the game. 

If you had said point 4 at the time I could have easily added the link into my post. Unfortunately only David can do number 3. Number 1 could be done in the future, but unfortunately once posted a quote cannot be added. On number, as above David has been away from the forum for the last few days and we didn't have any plan in the place. 

As Boycie has now started the pre match thread I am sure he will start the match one as well.

Again apologies. 

Sorry to have banged on! But I know it's important to some folk. You had to start something as it clearly can't be a case of relying on the original starter to also post the team news tweet an hour before kickoff.

We defo needed a thread, but should probably have planned it in advance. Sadly I didn't think of option 4 until the end of writing that post (that's why it's option 4!) as that is the most obvious solution, but I still worry it loses thread starter continuity. 

Another even simpler option is to revert to one thread and add the page number of the team news in the title once it's released? As we have such short pages that would make it instantly findable. 

How to deal with the splitting of the match thread into two? I think we need a protocol for this or else there's no meaning in beginning the threads. It has been custom and practice on practically every football forum since the web began that the thread starter stays on until the team loses.

@Derby bloodhad started threads leading to four wins in a row but @rynny took it away from him at 2pm, with zero acknowledgement or credit, so it became Rynny's game thread. I don't think that should be allowed to happen again. Some options are:

1. At a basic level, the teamsheet onwards thread could always quote the original match thread starter (but this still loses the official credit of the original poster)
2. Better would be to organize a system where the post of the original thread starter also begins the teamsheet onwards thread. Surely that's not beyond the ken of the forum?
3. Another method might be to pin the original post/thread in the same way we pin pre-match and post-match interviews.
4. Or the link to the pre-match thread could be embedded at the beginning of the teamsheet thread (but again this still loses the official credit of the original poster, but is probably better than (1))

Many football fans have deep (of course irrational) superstitions and one of the most deep-rooted is about a lucky poster continuing the threads. Probably half the members don't think it matters, while the other half think it matters a lot. I'd say the forum should honour the tradition.

Just spotted the new forum rule of no politics, religion, sex (has there ever been sex? I must have missed that). Even in The Pub! Huge shame. I felt it was really informative to see the different opinions on say Brexit or whatever, with fascinating polls to gauge the view of the forum. 

I'm disappointed if people took it so seriously that it had to be shut down. In the end we're all Derby fans and that should be a deep bond. This place will be much the poorer for not being able to discuss topics around the edges. 

On 02/09/2018 at 17:10, angieram said:

Did you do this yesterday and then merge it back together or have I just got a dodgy phone connection up here in Yorkshire? 

Aha! That's why the Rotherham thread is labelled "pre-match". I can see the point. Another leap forward for Frank Lampard's dcfc fans.

Spent a lot of time in Scotland and shockingly have never been to Aberdeen. What a day that would be if the Rams came to town and the chance to watch and have a drink and discuss bands with @Inverurie Ram? I just checked and it's a direct  from my lovely local airport so less than 3 hours door-to-door including the wait time. Not that much different from Pride Park!

Just call my name and I'll be there.