Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

Netflix recommendations

Godzilla Minus One is solid. Maybe not quite as deserving as the level of love it gets from kaiju enthusiasts, but definitely a solid, entertaining watch.

Edit to add: Also, done on a small (~$15M) budget with a 12 rating, which makes Who look a bit pathetic with what they're spending on the new one and their "for kids" excuses.

Godzilla Minus One

Nods to the original from 70(!!!!) years ago, a bit of Jaws and a tonne of sentimentality. For the relatively small budget it's impressive, if a bit cheesy and clichéd in parts.

Finally got around to watching this, it's bloody great. Shows that you can make a creature feature with a decent story line.

Sure, it's a bit cheesy in parts, but I think it deals really well with the themes of post-war shame, rediscovering your humanity and the family that you find. Thought it was really engaging, I was pretty invested in the characters. It was very un-American. I mean that as a compliment.

And it's a silly monster film. Highly recommend for a Friday/Saturday night with a beer.
 
Just watched Mountain Queen.

Sherpa woman climbs Everest while struggling with the demons of her past.

Maybe not one to watch if you don't like dealing with domestic violence etc - but this is one of the best things I've seen on netflix.

Oooh ta, that sounds right up my alley (or up my south face or whatever fits as an analogy here)
 
Finally got round to watching Scoop last night. What I found especially interesting, other than 'what the hell was he thinking,' was the depiction of class.

Class not just in the context of the morals and mores of the royal family, and that member in particular, but also in the context of BBC journalism and journalists.

Is it based on the Evelyn Waugh book? Probably not
 
Just watched Mountain Queen.

Sherpa woman climbs Everest while struggling with the demons of her past.

Maybe not one to watch if you don't like dealing with domestic violence etc - but this is one of the best things I've seen on netflix.

Great documentary. Felt like something got missed with her eldest though, there was a real disconnect between how she was at the start and the end. Just seemed like part of the story got dropped.

Didn't stop it being fascinating and, ultimately, uplifting.
 
Is it based on the Evelyn Waugh book? Probably not
Nah. It's about that Prince Andrew interview by Emily Maitlis for Newsnight, how their guest booker Sam McAlister built a relationship with staff at the palace and persuaded the palace/Andrew to do the interview, and a bit about the fallout too.

Gillian Anderson plays Emily Maitlis and Billie Piper plays Sam McAlister.
 
Nah. It's about that Prince Andrew interview by Emily Maitlis for Newsnight, how their guest booker Sam McAlister built a relationship with staff at the palace and persuaded the palace/Andrew to do the interview, and a bit about the fallout too.

Gillian Anderson plays Emily Maitlis and Billie Piper plays Sam McAlister.

Oh yes.I've seen that.
 
If you missed it when it was originally on TV, BBC drama Mrs Wilson is now on Netflix - dramatisation of a true story which I found quite interesting to watch. Fun fact, Ruth Wilson is playing the role of her actual grandmother, the Mrs Wilson in the title of the drama. It is a miniseries of only 3 episodes, so not a massive investment of time, I watched it in one sitting.

I watched this yesterday as its going off Netflix soon. Love Ruth Wilson and found the non-drama bit at the end unexpectedly moving.
 
Enjoying Kaos, mainly cos I enjoy watching Jeff Goldblum enjoying himself and I covet his wardrobe. I WANT TO BE JEFF GOLDBLUM.
It also has a well-chosen soundtrack with some excellent needle drop moments. Anhnoni & The Johnsons’ Kiss My Name took me by surprise. Never heard it before. What a beautiful song.
The rest of it is claptrap, but enjoyable all the same.
 
Kaos is a decent capture of the fucked up nature and energy of Greek myths translated into Barbie world visuals the Greeks would have absolutely adored to see.

I hope it makes all the right people mad.
 
I enjoyed the first episode of Kaos, but after that I am just finding myself not being grabbed by it at all, I can barely watch it without wanting to do something else...
 
Kaos somehow looks cheap and tacky and expensive at the same time. It's not at all gripping but at the very least it's an accessible look into the world of the Greek gods. I hate all the captions and forced 'cool' aesthetics. Might have been more compelling with better pacing and more lush cinematography. It looks very flat and tv vanilla.
 
I enjoyed the Decameron but I was ultimately disappointed by it too. It had loads of promise and it was almost great, but I think it was hamstrung by the “comedy” part of being a comedy drama. The second half slid more towards silliness than it needed to. The character of Tindero, for example, hinted at an enormous unexplored depth that could really have been interesting to flesh out if they hadn’t spent lots of time chasing each other around the villa instead.
 
I mostly enjoyed The Infernal Machine starring Guy Pearce. He plays an author who wrote one book and then drops out of society after a young man goes on a shooting spree after reading it. He starts getting letters from someone who wants to write about his book and despite saying no continues to be pursued until he is eventually drawn in to a cat and mouse game which turns nasty. There are some decent twists in the run up to a final twist which lets the rest of the film down a bit. Pearce is usually always good, and he is here. It's a slow burner, but I stayed interested until the last fifteen minutes when I realised the ending wasn't going to measure up to everything that had proceeded it.
 
Last edited:
Kaos is a decent capture of the fucked up nature and energy of Greek myths translated into Barbie world visuals the Greeks would have absolutely adored to see.

I hope it makes all the right people mad.

I enjoyed the first episode of Kaos, but after that I am just finding myself not being grabbed by it at all, I can barely watch it without wanting to do something else...

Kaos somehow looks cheap and tacky and expensive at the same time. It's not at all gripping but at the very least it's an accessible look into the world of the Greek gods. I hate all the captions and forced 'cool' aesthetics. Might have been more compelling with better pacing and more lush cinematography. It looks very flat and tv vanilla.
I’ve watched a few episodes of Kaos and it seems okay, but very little of it seems to have any connection to the mythology associated with its characters. Like Caeneus, for example, who has a rich set of stories associated with her/him, but I don’t think any of them has anything to do with Euripides and Orpheus (not that I’m an expert or anything).

I get the impression that the show runners thought that it’s enough to just reference a name and that’ll do. And that’s a real missed opportunity, if so, because the source material really could have been the inspiration for some top-notch story-telling.
 
Last edited:
TBF, I think Greek myth isn't even internally consistent and would be hard to accurately display on screen in a manner that would satisfy most. At least Orpheus goes to Hades for his love. There are plenty of shows that wouldn't even have that.
 
TBF, I think Greek myth isn't even internally consistent and would be hard to accurately display on screen in a manner that would satisfy most. At least Orpheus goes to Hades for his love. There are plenty of shows that wouldn't even have that.
Sure, this is fair. But it feels very much part of everything that is wrong with modern film-making to simply insert references to things with no substance behind the reference, just a pandering to the impulse for 'memberberries. It's a cheap way to create the impression of depth, but is ultimately hollow.
 
I'm watching Lost 😁. I never saw it back in the day... what ridiculous fun it is... just what the doctor ordered.
I'm glad to hear that it holds up despite not enjoying the collective theory watercooler chat and hype during the slow weekly drip of the day.

I did recently watch a documentary on it a while back and the problems the creators had struggling with it's popularity. Basically they had a vision that lasted three or four seasons (I think) but because it was popular they were not allowed to finish it, (with executives threatening to take it off them). I think they hit most of the original plot points / ideas, but ended up with a lot of extra baggage. It really picks up when they know they are going to finally be able to wind it down thought the end isn't entirely satisfying
 
Loving Kai’s so far. Get past the first episode even if not grabbing you, because from the beginning of the second one it gets really good and fast paced :)
 
Back
Top Bottom