Last Movie You Watched

[Tacenda]

On 6/10/2025 at 8:13 PM, bluebell said:

That looks good.

I am watching again with my brother, and I forgot to warn about some language and violence. I think it has a good moral to the story. But maybe I'm desensitized and maybe others wouldn't want to see that. It's a robbery gone wrong that is the violent part.

[Pyreaux]

Down Periscope (1996)

Starring: Kelsey Grammer, Lauren Holly, Rob Schneider, Down Periscope is a Military Comedy. I never heard it, in fact my brother and I only watched it because we mistook it for Sgt Bilko with Steve Martin, but by a happy accident we loved it but didn't like Sgt Bilko. 

Lieutenant Commander Tom Dodge (Kelsey Grammer), an unorthodox submarine officer is given one last chance to prove his worth to the U.S. Navy. He’s assigned a rusty, outdated diesel sub for a wargame exercise. He must "invade" the U.S. coastline while evading detection by the entire nuclear Navy, led by Admiral Graham (Bruce Dern), a hard-nosed superior who is using the event for his own career advancement, and so he handpicked a misfit crew to ensure his failure. Dodge must turn his ragtag crew of rejects and oddballs into a naval force.

An underdog story, filled with heart, clever outside-the-box tactics, and a little bit of dry bathroom and sophomoric humor. There’s no political satire, just a refreshing anti-authority spirit that pokes fun at military bureaucracy, rigid hierarchies, and traditional notions of discipline. Down Periscope is a cult classic that never got the credit it deserved. 

Kelsey Grammer delivers a calm yet irreverent balance, wielding authority to redirect the crew's wanton mischief productively. Lauren Holly plays Lt. Lake, a sonar expert whose presence on a traditionally all-male crew causes commotion. Rob Schneider chews scenery with comedic gusto as the uptight XO. Harland Williams steals every scene he’s in as the spacey sonar man, E.T.

Full Content Warning (PG-13)

Mild to moderate profanity (e.g., h*ll, d*mn, *ss. One or two uses of “b*tch” and “b*st*rd”. No f-words). Some innuendo and suggestive dialogue for laughs. A running joke about the placement of a tattoo. A few crude remarks about the female officer aboard. No real violence. Just naval war games.

Edited June 13, 2025 by Pyreaux

[Calm]

14 minutes ago, Pyreaux said:

Starring: Kelsey Grammer, Lauren Holly, Rob Schneider, Down Periscope is a Military Comedy.

I remember watching it on TV and liking it (not loving it) for a military movie (my husband often likes those and there aren’t that many I would want to watch with him). Seems like it was older than mid90s in my memory, but maybe we saw it when we first moved back from Canada rather than before we moved to Canada, lol.

Edited June 13, 2025 by Calm

[Tony uk]

I recently watched Galaxy Quest. Watched it a number of times now. Know what is coming next, and still laugh at the parts I did many years ago.

[bluebell]

1 hour ago, Tony uk said:

I recently watched Galaxy Quest. Watched it a number of times now. Know what is coming next, and still laugh at the parts I did many years ago.

It’s such a good movie. 

[Pyreaux]

On 6/24/2025 at 8:39 AM, Tony uk said:

I recently watched Galaxy Quest. Watched it a number of times now. Know what is coming next, and still laugh at the parts I did many years ago.

Galaxy Quest (1999)

Beyond a comedy, it even hits me in the feels. For a majority of the movie, character Alexander Dane has nothing but contempt for the show he was on, feeling it destroyed his career and that he isn't taken seriously anymore.  On top of that the line his character says seems to sum up everything he didn't like about his part.

However, when one of these aliens gets shot, dying in front of Alexander and tells him "I have always considered you as a father to me" hits Dane between the eyes and gets him to realize he was not simply a fan: All these aliens took every lesson that was taught on the show, and applied It to their lives, and it is what "saved" them. The actor realizes that while he felt the show and his character was silly, and it held him back from roles that he thought truly mattered, his character truly mattered to Quellek. A cynical actor comes to terms with and finally understands the impact he's had on his fans. And it's not a joke anymore. And perhaps for the first time he says the line and means it, as his biggest fan laid dying, who was literally raised by his TV character.

Galaxy Quest ranks higher than even Star Trek Into Darkness among Star Trek films at conventions. Galaxy Quest, while not directly from the Star Trek series, is considered a satirical tribute to Star Trek and is appreciated for its merits and skewering of the fandom and original actors.

I like Star Trek also, I think my top favorite character is Garak from DS9.

Edited June 29, 2025 by Pyreaux

[Tony uk]

I have always enjoyed Star Trek myself. And all the spin off series. I have always felt the fan base have had a hard time, the way some people treat them. 

Edited June 29, 2025 by Tony uk
Grammar

[Tacenda]

7 hours ago, Tony uk said:

I have always enjoyed Star Trek myself. And all the spin off series. I have always felt the fan base have had a hard time, the way some people treat them. 

Good job Tony, on getting your profile pic up.

[Tony uk]

1 hour ago, Tacenda said:

Good job Tony, on getting your profile pic up.

I got there in the end, a large amount of persistence 👍

[Stargazer]

On 6/24/2025 at 2:39 PM, Tony uk said:

I recently watched Galaxy Quest. Watched it a number of times now. Know what is coming next, and still laugh at the parts I did many years ago.

One of my favorite scenes...

 

[Tony uk]

3 minutes ago, Stargazer said:

One of my favorite scenes...

 

Scenes like this, bring back, memories of a classic film 👍

[Stargazer]

19 hours ago, Pyreaux said:

I think my top favorite character is Garak from DS9.

Oh, yes. No question.

 

[bluebell]

I rewatched Serenity.  Always a good time.

[Calm]

2 hours ago, bluebell said:

I rewatched Serenity.  Always a good time.

Except for that one moment of tragedy, which imo was not needed to up the conflict or emotional investment, given the other deaths.  But Whedon likes to shock his audience.

Edited July 1, 2025 by Calm

[bluebell]

25 minutes ago, Calm said:

Except for that one moment of tragedy, which imo was not needed to up the conflict or emotional investment, given the other deaths.  But Whedon like to shock his audience.

That could be.  I thought it was annoying.

I think he did it so the audience had the sense that anyone else in the crew could die in the final act.  The crew were not 'safe'.  Plus, one death in the core characters is supposed to give gravitas to the situation and make it more "serious" than the type of action you get from weekly series, where the main characters almost always make it through each week's danger mostly unscathed.  Given that this started out as a series, I'm not surprised that Whedon decided to play the movie like he did and kill off a main character.  It provided a shock, like you said.

But I wish it had been one of the others.  I liked Wash (though I didn't think that actor and the actress that played his wife had any chemistry at all together).

[Pyreaux]

On 6/30/2025 at 7:42 PM, bluebell said:

That could be.  I thought it was annoying.

I think he did it so the audience had the sense that anyone else in the crew could die in the final act.  The crew were not 'safe'.  Plus, one death in the core characters is supposed to give gravitas to the situation and make it more "serious" than the type of action you get from weekly series, where the main characters almost always make it through each week's danger mostly unscathed.  Given that this started out as a series, I'm not surprised that Whedon decided to play the movie like he did and kill off a main character.  It provided a shock, like you said.

But I wish it had been one of the others.  I liked Wash (though I didn't think that actor and the actress that played his wife had any chemistry at all together).

Serenity (2005)

Well, at the time, those characters had to die: They hoped that the show would continue, so the actors that could not promise they'd be back to the show got killed off. Now, with no show, its for no reason... Though they were perfectly arranged just before other characters started to fall, giving you the impression they might all die.

In Western literature, Mal is basically a typical jaded ex-Confederate soldier. But without the slavery element, the theme is more anti- big government, individual freedom and sovereignty of planets. In the Train Job had Mal say, "maybe we'll rise again" is like the saying "the South will rise again".... Well, the reasons for independence are certainly more akin to the Revolutionary War, Libertarianism - Constitutional Federalism (Localized Government, Limited Government). But for a show based on Westerns, the Civil War era is clearly where you found many jaded outlaw ex-solders around having fought for their independence and utterly lost, forced to surrender but always begrudging their government until the day they die. That is Mal.

Inara is the 'whore with the heart of gold' archetype, or rather a Chinese Courtesan. She loves Serenity and what they do. She does not want to be a Companion, she wants to join the crew but Mal won't have her. She chose to live on Serenity on purpose, and she already knew Mal's reputation as a war-hero-turned-outlaw, an honorable-thief, living free and she likes that, she's always trying to steer Mal's morals, inserting herself in things, because she wants to join the crew and have a voice. Unfortunately, Mal may hate her job, but he also hates the idea of Inara in danger. So, he pushes her away. The crew are all misfits.

Zoey obeys Mal do to rank and military history and they are very alike, in mind and personality, grim, jaded, serious, but after living amongst macho army men, Zoey loves Wash because he's the exact opposite of Mal. Wash is a "civilian", unjaded by loss, non-serious. Weaker and even more emotional than her, some say he's the "female" of the relationship. The war wife.

River just hates the Blue Sun Corporation. In the film, River flips out over a Blue Sun Fruity Oaty Bar ad, then inexplicably kicks a Blue Sun bottle off a table. If you remember River inexplicably pulls the Blue Sun labels off their food cans in Shindig, and inexplicably slashed Jayne who was wearing a Blue Sun t-shirt in Ariel.

My favorite character is 'the man they call Jayne" (a lyric I always thought was another jab that "Jane is a girl's name"). Jayne is to me a paradox. He is selflessly selfish and loyally disloyal. It seems Jayne is not 'greedy'. True, money is the most important thing to Jayne, more than his crew or friends, because he's been sending it all to his mom and sick brother. We know he sent some money in The Message. Joss doesn't make simply bad characters, even the worst believes they are in the right in their point of view. So, why was money important? Because what does he even do with money he has? What is he buying? For all I know, all of it is going to his family. There is no point where we see him spending his money on a lavish lifestyle, he is always saying he "needs coin". Why? I think if the show had continued, we would have seen Jayne's family, and Simon Tam, a gifted doctor, would have cured his brother. It'd be poetic. The vary person he tried to turn in for money would be the one. I also think Jayne kind of liked Kaylee and was jealous of 'fancy' Simon.

I thought Book's secret is he was just like The Operative, and that scene in Objects in Space where River has a psychic glimpse into Book in the kitchen is thought to be Book remembering interrogating or torturing an innocent person. He was also "familiar with the works of Shan Yu", had a high-profile Ident-card, and claims to know how The Operative thinks. I've not read the Book of Book, so I don't know what it says.

Edited July 2, 2025 by Pyreaux

[Calm]

8 hours ago, bluebell said:

think he did it so the audience had the sense that anyone else in the crew could die in the final act. 

That is what he said when asked.  Do people really go to movies without hearing about the shockers beforehand?  Most probably knew about it before they walked in.

I liked all the characters, but the relationships weren’t as satisfying.  There was friendship, not passion between the married couple with the teasing, etc.

[Calm]

5 hours ago, Pyreaux said:

They hoped that the show would continue, so the actors that could not promise they'd be back to the show got killed off.

Except Book was off with his colony in the movie and so didn’t have to be on the show anyway and something could have come up with Wash as well, though given he was married, killing him off was a less complicated approach.

My problem is not so much he died, but the meaningless of it.  It was done purely for shock, imo, everyone thinks they are safe, etc.

Edited July 1, 2025 by Calm

[Raingirl]

I just watched ‘My Mom Jayne’,  Mariska Hargitay’s documentary about her mother, Jayne Mansfield.  I can’t really articulate why, but it really made an impact on me.  Highly recommend. 

[Tacenda]

On 7/2/2025 at 10:05 AM, Raingirl said:

I just watched ‘My Mom Jayne’,  Mariska Hargitay’s documentary about her mother, Jayne Mansfield.  I can’t really articulate why, but it really made an impact on me.  Highly recommend. 

I want to see this, but don't have HBO dang it!

[Raingirl]

3 hours ago, Tacenda said:

I want to see this, but don't have HBO dang it!

I watched it on the Max (HBO) app.  It is so good.  If you do watch it, keep some Kleenex handy. 

[Amulek]

Speaking of Nathan Fillion, I took my son to see the latest Superman reboot this weekend (where Nathan Fillion appears as a Green Lantern).

My son liked the film quite a bit. 

I enjoyed as well, but I feel like there was too much Superman and not enough Clark. 

I also think like they leaned on Krypto (the dog) a bit too much for comedic relief. Don't get me wrong, the idea of a super powered dog is pretty funny, but you don't want to overdo it. 

Some of James Gunn's humor is a bit sophomoric as well, which is occasionally a little distracting for me, but I know everyone has different tastes when it comes to humor, so I can roll with it. 

All in all, I thought it was a good movie - just not as great as I was hoping it would be.

 

[bluebell]

53 minutes ago, Amulek said:

Speaking of Nathan Fillion, I took my son to see the latest Superman reboot this weekend (where Nathan Fillion appears as a Green Lantern).

My son liked the film quite a bit. 

I enjoyed as well, but I feel like there was too much Superman and not enough Clark. 

I also think like they leaned on Krypto (the dog) a bit too much for comedic relief. Don't get me wrong, the idea of a super powered dog is pretty funny, but you don't want to overdo it. 

Some of James Gunn's humor is a bit sophomoric as well, which is occasionally a little distracting for me, but I know everyone has different tastes when it comes to humor, so I can roll with it. 

All in all, I thought it was a good movie - just not as great as I was hoping it would be.

 

I didn’t even know they did another Superman reboot. 

[Amulek]

28 minutes ago, bluebell said:

I didn’t even know they did another Superman reboot. 

Oh yeah, this is like the third reboot.

The first was Bryan Singer's Superman Returns (2006), featuring Brandon Routh as Superman.

Then it was rebooted again in 2013 with Zach Snyder's Man of Steel, staring Henry Cavill. 

When the so called Snyder-verse finally fizzled out, DC tapped James Gunn (who previously directed the Guardians of the Galaxy films in the MCU) to unify / relaunch their properties over the next 10 years. Assuming they continue to make money, we'll be seeing more DC in the future.

They've already wrapped filming on Supergirl, who makes a very brief cameo in the Superman film. So I guess we'll see how things go.

[Tacenda]

10 hours ago, Amulek said:

Speaking of Nathan Fillion, I took my son to see the latest Superman reboot this weekend (where Nathan Fillion appears as a Green Lantern).

My son liked the film quite a bit. 

I enjoyed as well, but I feel like there was too much Superman and not enough Clark. 

I also think like they leaned on Krypto (the dog) a bit too much for comedic relief. Don't get me wrong, the idea of a super powered dog is pretty funny, but you don't want to overdo it. 

Some of James Gunn's humor is a bit sophomoric as well, which is occasionally a little distracting for me, but I know everyone has different tastes when it comes to humor, so I can roll with it. 

All in all, I thought it was a good movie - just not as great as I was hoping it would be.

 

I know that Rotten Tomatoes audience gave it 85%, but I'm similar to you but actually left before it was over. I guess I like the old ones so much better. Could there be too much AI or was the script terrible? O maybe they did show to much Superman vs. Clark as well.