What old media are you watching? - Since new media isn't worth watching

[marvlouslie]

I've seen it on reruns before, but on Tubi you can conveniently find all the seasons of Peter Gunn. the detective series created by Blake Edwards, known for it's iconic opening credits theme composed by Henry Mancini. Though the rest of the soundtrack is tops as well.

Peter Gunn, as played by Craig Stevens was like no other detective seen on TV or elsewhere at the time. While other (but not all) fictional private eyes conformed to the popular ideas of being loners living hand-to-mouth, hanging out in run down one-room offices, swilling whiskey and of course wearing rumpled trenchcoats, the suave, urbane Gunn hung out at his unofficial office which was Mother’s, a swanky jazz club on the waterfront of a big but never named Everytown USA kind of city, wearing his finest suits, making time with his girlfriend, singer Edie Hart (Lola Albright), drinking nothing more than an occasional tasteful martini.

The show features a strong cast, including Herschel Bernardi as Lieutenant Jacoby, Gunn's long-suffering contact and pal in the local police department. Gunn was a highly-innovative and influential show, featuring tight writing, witty dialogue, snazzy wardrobes for the cast and elaborate camerawork for television of the time, especially in the half-hour format. Really in thirty minutes or less, an average episode would be displaying more private eye action that many sixty-minute shows would die for, through all three of the show's seasons (two on NBC, the third on ABC.)

Gunn is fuckin' great. Everything about it was damn near perfect. From the soundtrack, to the show itself only being thirty some odd minutes. If you even have a passing interest in Jazz, you'll love the soundtrack.

 

[Vyse Inglebard]

Moral of the story for this one: don't marry crazy.

 

[Vyse Inglebard]

double posting, but idgaf. I kicked off my theatrical outings in 2025 with aplomb. Starting last weekend with the oddly fitting double feature of

and

Seen A Clockwork Orange before, first time with Se7en. Both scarily relevant to our times, and nihilistic as all hell.

Then, last night, another double feature:

and

We all know how great the OG Planet of the Apes is, so I won't elaborate further on that. The Omega Man, OTOH, is an early 70s post-apocalyptic hidden gem that I think should be seen by a lot more people. Better than the Will Smith version, IMO.

 

[millais]

Not too long ago, I read through all the Sherlock Holmes stories, and now watching some of the 1980s - 1990s Granada TV adaptation starring Jeremy Brett. Like everyone says, they are very faithful to the original text of the stories, directly lifting most of the dialogue verbatim, and only with some minor structural changes, like using flashback sequence instead of having characters verbally recount a past event.

 

[AWizard]

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai:

 

[skykiii]

Not too long ago, I read through all the Sherlock Holmes stories, and now watching some of the 1980s - 1990s Granada TV adaptation starring Jeremy Brett. Like everyone says, they are very faithful to the original text of the stories, directly lifting most of the dialogue verbatim, and only with some minor structural changes, like using flashback sequence instead of having characters verbally recount a past event.

I was about to sit down and watch this too. This was a favorite when it re-ran on A&E in my late teens/early 20s.

@thread tax

Lately I've gotten back into peak animation:

 

[Vyse Inglebard]

time to catch up on my theatrical outings.
________________________________________________
01/17/25 Double Feature:

"Smokie, this is not Nam, this is bowling. There are rules."
Still uproariously funny and strangely affecting all these years later, John Goodman being the particular MVP here.

"In case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!"
This movie truly unnerved me with how prescient it was to our current world today. So many layers. And it's genuinely funny on top of that. Genuinely a 10 out of 10 movie.
_____________________________________________________________________________
01/19/25:

"Nothing I ever do is good enough. It's not beautiful enough, it's not funny enough, it's not deep enough, it's not anything enough."

I genuinely don't know what to think of this one, even almost a week later. The only thing I can say about this one is that it's a deeply personal film, the kind that's rarely, if ever, made nowadays.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
01/21/2025 (in honor of David Lynch):

"I don't know if you're a detective or a pervert."

It's unsettling, it's dream-like, it's weird. It's a David Lynch movie, possibly THE David Lynch movie.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
01/24/2025 Double Feature (Veggies and Dessert):

"Is it safe?"
The meat/veggies. A tense, smart, and satisfying thriller with top-notch performances.

"You learn to love the rope. That's how you beat 'em. That's how you beat people who torture you. You learn to love 'em. Then they don't know you're beatin' 'em."

The dessert. Violent, red-blooded American fun. Also based as fuck for portraying beaners as lecherous, murderous, conniving bastards.

 

[khaine]

Hogan's Heroes. What's not to love. Set in a luftstalag during WW2 a troop of allied soldiers secretly work to help escaping airman and sabotage the german's war efforts. Well written, and despite the subject matter its light and lots of fun.

 

[Srumab]

All the old 70s/80s comedies that would get your crucified now: Nerds, 1941, first couple of Police Academy movies, etc..

I listen to old time radio shows when I'm sculpting for background noise mostly.

 

[rusty shackleford 1]

One of the free channels on my tv plays nothing but Little House on the Prairie and I watch it often lol

 

[TaimuRadiu]

I'm going to watch an old VHS tape of Buffy the Vampire Slayer tonight as hosted by Joe Bob Briggs.

 

[ChampFantana]

I rewatch Married With Children all the way through at least once a year. It's pure sitcom perfection at it's finest.

I love many old movies like Zulu, Django, Sabata, The Magnificent Seven, The Dollars Trilogy, The Dirty Harry series, Josey Wales, The Wild Bunch, etc. I could go on, but I don't want to bore you guys.

 

[Vyse Inglebard]

03/05/2025:

"This is the west, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

Well-regarded as a classic of the Western genre, and for good reason. Incredibly smart, thought-provoking, brilliantly directed and acted.

---

03/07/2025 Kevin Costner Double Feature:

"He pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue!"

False advertising; the Untouchables are in fact, Touchable. Sarcasm aside, one of Brian de Palma's best, if not his outright best film. Sean Connery's performance as Jimmy Malone is a highlight, and his Oscar win for this film is one of the few times the blasted Academy got something right.

(R.I.P. Gene Hackman)
"Do you realize the magnitude of the scandal? The Secretary of Defense and a Soviet agent sharing the favors of a murdered whore."

Good, but not great. Standard 80s political/erotic thriller done with a bit more care and craft than most. Dat twist ending though, woof.

 

[Lone MacReady II]

Learn how to build some good shit you plebs. I'm tired of seeing buildings and furnature designed to be "prison-esque".

 

[Mordecai "3 Finger" Brown]

After watching and loving 2004's Man on Fire with Denzel Washington dozens of times, I discovered last night that it's actually a remake of a 1987 direct-to-VHS original of the same name starring Scott Glenn.



I recognize Scott Glenn from his role as American submarine Captain Bart Mancuso 3 years later in 1990's The Hunt for the Red October



The 1987 version is itself based off of a 1980 novel of the same name.

The original novel and the 1987 movie are set in Italy instead of Mexico. Instead of the cartels, it's the mafia who makes a deal with her daughter's father to kidnap his own kin. Then after the 12 y/o (Pinta I believe) is kidnapped, Creasy (Glenn) goes on a rampage against the mafia for revenge.

It seems other than the change of venue, all 3 versions stick pretty faithful to the original.

In the novel, the 12 y/o is killed. Didn't watch enough of 1987, but I assume the same. 2004 was too soft to off Dakota Fanning, so they made a MacGuffin that she was still alive.

Joe Pesci plays the Christopher Walken handler/liaison role in 1987.

In the novel and 1987, Creasy the bodyguard is a Nam vet with flashbacks, which makes more sense with the timeline than Washington's soldier-of-fortune of no particular wars act. (Edit: In the 1980 novel, Creasy is actually from the French Foreign Legion).

In the '87 version, Pinta is also a precocious, probing girl who wears down Glenn's stoic and gruff persona. The original substitutes long distance running as the bonding sporting exercise they come together over instead of competitive swimming like with Fanning.

It also raises questions over blackwashing with Washington way back when in 2004 after seeing the source material. Denzel did a great job with the role, but in the revenge sequences, I always found it odd that he was so easily able to camouflage on the streets of Mexico City as a black man by simply putting on a bandanna and sunglasses.

With the original source material based completely on whites in Italy, the need for the venue change to Mexico is more obvious.

 

[Mordecai "3 Finger" Brown]

Watched As Good As It Gets (1997) for the first time.

Can't believe how shit it was. Kept on having to go to Wikipedia to review the plot summary because I didn't care who the characters were and what was happening.

Greg Kinnear (gay artist neighbor) and Cuba Gooding Jr.'s character (black art buyer?) were completely superfluous.

Jack Nicholson is always a treat to watch, but the movie goes nowhere. The whole time he's half-simping for Helen Hunt 25 years younger, who constantly tells him to fuck off.

I can't believe this movie was nominated for Best Picture. And Nicholson and Hunt both won Best Actor/Actress.

Reading contemporary Reddit reviews, there’s way too many "Best Writing Evuh!" posts with an occasional modern revisionist moralfagging over 1997 homophobia.

 

[Pokemon Conquistador]

Peter Gunn, as played by Craig Stevens was like no other detective seen on TV or elsewhere at the time. While other (but not all) fictional private eyes conformed to the popular ideas of being loners living hand-to-mouth, hanging out in run down one-room offices, swilling whiskey and of course wearing rumpled trenchcoats, the suave, urbane Gunn hung out at his unofficial office which was Mother’s, a swanky jazz club on the waterfront of a big but never named Everytown USA kind of city, wearing his finest suits, making time with his girlfriend, singer Edie Hart (Lola Albright), drinking nothing more than an occasional tasteful martini.

Sounds good. Will have to check it out.

I recently watched Kiss Me Deadly on Razorfist's recommendation:

It was an unflinching portrayal of famed detective Mike Hammer as a brute, willing to do whatever it took to crack the case, even beat up and threaten mostly innocent people. It was also the inspiration for Pulp Fiction and Repo Man. The best aspect of the movie was the setting, portraying the contrast between the old LA of ancient Victorian houses sprawled labyrinthine over high hills riddled with shadows and danger, and the new LA of sleek, modern apartment buildings, fast streamlined cars and abstract art. It's an LA that doesn't exist anymore, and you can keenly feel its loss. The movie also has a real stunner of an ending. I'd read what was coming and I was still blown away by it.

 

[Vyse Inglebard]

I recently watched Kiss Me Deadly on Razorfist's recommendation:


It was an unflinching portrayal of famed detective Mike Hammer as a brute, willing to do whatever it took to crack the case, even beat up and threaten mostly innocent people. It was also the inspiration for Pulp Fiction and Repo Man. The best aspect of the movie was the setting, portraying the contrast between the old LA of ancient Victorian houses sprawled labyrinthine over high hills riddled with shadows and danger, and the new LA of sleek, modern apartment buildings, fast streamlined cars and abstract art. It's an LA that doesn't exist anymore, and you can keenly feel its loss. The movie also has a real stunner of an ending. I'd read what was coming and I was still blown away by it.

saw it in the theater tonight. Agree with everything you said

 

[Captain Syrup]

Not too long ago, I read through all the Sherlock Holmes stories, and now watching some of the 1980s - 1990s Granada TV adaptation

Nobody asked for my opinion so I’m going to lay it down anyway: I have a soft spot for Grenada Holmes but once they swapped Burke Watson for Hardwicke Watson, it kind of went off the rails. Not Hardwicke's fault—he just didn’t have much to do. And it got harder to ignore Jeremy’s Michele Trachtenberg transformation. Then they hand the reins to Charles Gray who I never cared for.

Brett nailed that soliloquy at the end of "The Cardboard Box." That really is seminal Brett. Holmes understanding the human condition as another puzzle to crack.

 

[The Cringe Connoisseur]

Silent films are fascinating pieces of human history and many are works of art in their own right. Give them a look.