The Kingsmen - and Sense8

[thesalmonofdoubt]

Kingsmen

So - didn't get round to watching the Kingsmen when it was released at the flicks but did hear good things about it from a diverse variety of mates who went along so, was curious when it became available on download, so downloaded it and watched it with the kids on Saturday.

My opinion - pretty darn good rollicking fun adventure time flick. Deliberately camp, effectively one joke (middle aged men in finely tailored suits unexpectantly kicks all sorts of ass with umbrellas and cuff links and such and such, but more than that it was a nice nod to all those ancient first run Bond/Avengers English type movies/tv series that were all stiff upper lip (Little known factoid - this is actually originally an American expression) violence with dignity tropes.

Not a perfect movie by any stretch and at times, came over a bit schizophrenic in terms of how it handles violence. Weird mix of uber graphic with all the blood and gore almost completely removed which I think was done deliberately so that the violence didn't overtake the comedy. Script was decently paced as was the action, Colin Firth was absolutely excellent, as was Mark Strong and Micheal Cain, unfortunately the movie also rested largely on the shoulders of Taron Egerton who never quite seemed to hit the mark in terms of making a convincing chav or a convincing kingsman.. All in all - super fun, completely non-serious excellent way of killing a couple of hours.
8/10.

Sense8.

Dunno how many people have heard about this or are in a position to watch it given its a Netflicks exclusive (and we here down in the antipodes have only recently had access to netflicks locally) so no idea how pervasive it is in other geographies. Essentially the plot (in so much as I can tell) is enormously like "Midnights children - Salman Rushdie".. 8 people on different continents, all born on the same day at the same time are joined mysteriously in a mind hive type thing that was birthed into existence by a women called Angelica - who immediately kills herself because of "Bad guys".

The 8 people consist of a lesbian (who is a transgender mtf), a closeted famous male Mexican actor, a bus driver in Nairobi, a DJ in London, a thief in Germany, an Indian women about to enter into a loveless marriage in India, a cop in Chicago and finally the daughter of an enormously wealthy business tycoon in Korea..

It's written, directed and produced by the Wachowski's which initially put me off given I'm kinda sick of their heavy handed direction techniques and pretentiously cerebral dialogue .. but they have toned all this down a bit for this series to the point where its only a mild distraction. Mix of performances from a surprisingly competent Brian J Smith to an all ways annoying Bae Doona (I have no idea how this women gets parts given she wears the same blank expression in absolutely every single thing she ever does).

So - first season deals with these people catching up on what's happening to then. Effectively, they become connected in two ways, they can "Visit" other people with the same abilities (and apparently there are more people outside of this "hive of 8" and they can actually share the abilities of anyone else in their specific hive.
Every single person in the group seems to have some sort of drama going on in their lives and there is a undefined bad guy who's role and intentions haven't really been hinted at.
Loads of sex from Gay male to transgender to hetro and bi - the sex seems to be the thing that getting all the bad press by the audience which I feel has more to do with it not all being good solid mano on womeno rather than it being anything overly grapghic or gratuitous and given one of the themes seems to be this lack of "self" in a shared world - it seems appropriate to explore personal behaviours within the context of the show. I also like enormously that its offended people who seem to think that hinting at a lesbian wearing a strap on for sex is "going too far"..
I've watched about 6 episodes so far and am really enjoying it. Sure it full of standard Wachowski stuff - like overly long, slow mo panning shots showing people bounce walking while blinking - loads of sweeping city scapes and a bit of dialogue that sounds all deeply thoughtful because its delivered in a quiet tone to a gormless audience but really is just obvious stuff said like serious stuff. But, I still like it and will give it a 7.5

[sikax]

I'm semi-interested in "Sense8", being it a Wachowski thing. The preview looks good, and I do have Netflix. One of these days.

[thesalmonofdoubt]

I'm semi-interested in "Sense8", being it a Wachowski thing. The preview looks good, and I do have Netflix. One of these days.

Well - my recommendation is, give it a go and see what you think.

If you have read Salman Rushdie's "Midnights Children" .. I'd be doubly interested in if this series left the same "hmm, this smacks of plagiarism" thoughts as it did for me, not that there is anything wrong with that given, the series was very well executed, but curious.

[sikax]

I have read that and I like it. Will give it a shot regardless