Last movie watched...

[pictsy]

Did anyone else ever used to get the double-size Radio Times (for BBC1 & BBC2) and TV Times (for ITV) only at Christmas, and the whole family would circle their must-sees - cue violent arguments and negotiations with my brothers over any overlaps.

No.  That was the expensive option for posh people.  We had a TV guide that came with a newspaper.  I also don't remember any real arguments because I'm the youngest of six and lost all arguments of the like by virtue of being the youngest of six.  We generally looked to see what films we could record off the TV, because recording them off the TV was cheaper than buying them from the shops (especially if you record on long play).  Of course I could only record things no one else wanted to.

Now I'm going to bang my head on the wall until I forget my childhood again.

[Dandontdare]

This was before newspapers were allowed to print TV guides and "recording" was something you'd only seen on Tomorrow's World. We only ever got the local evening paper (and comics, thank God), never a daily (why bother - that stuff was on the telly for free anyway), but when those those two magazines came on sale, it was officially Christmas (this was also when people decorated their houses a week before Christmas, not in fucking November)

[Tiplodocus]

Yeah, us too. Radio Times in our house which embedded a prejudice against ITV that I still carry today. I know BBC puts out as much celebrity shit as the commercial channels but it just seems classier.

[Jim_Campbell]

I know BBC puts out as much celebrity shit as the commercial channels but it just seems classier.

I don't know how you can say that, when ITV is offering us a festive edition of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire featuring those stellar talents and living embodiments of classiness: Piers Morgan and Jeremy Clarkson.

[pictsy]

This was before newspapers were allowed to print TV guides and "recording" was something you'd only seen on Tomorrow's World. We only ever got the local evening paper (and comics, thank God), never a daily (why bother - that stuff was on the telly for free anyway), but when those those two magazines came on sale, it was officially Christmas (this was also when people decorated their houses a week before Christmas, not in fucking November)

Thank you for making me feel young(er) 

I looked it up and listings in newspapers started when I was eight.  I double checked with my Mum and before TV guides in newspapers we didn't have a guide.  I'd say that we got a VCR around the time the TV listings were in newspapers because I remember the first thing I ever recorded and that I saw it in the guide (it was Annie).  I guess we just enjoyed our presents before then and had whatever on the TV like the rest of the year.

I also remember a period of time with the Argos and Index books and making list of toys I'd like that I knew I'd never get.  A very special kind of Christmas masochism.

I still decorate our house a week before Christmas.  To be fair, I do hate putting the crap up so I put it off for as long as possible.

[shaolin_monkey]

I also remember a period of time with the Argos and Index books and making list of toys I'd like that I knew I'd never get.  A very special kind of Christmas masochism.

Yes! We had something similar in Edinburgh in the 70s/early 80s, a pay-it-off-over-a-year catalogue, in which I always circled the AT-AT. Never got it. Hardly surprising - it cost £30 in those days, which was like a gazillion dollars or something.

[Tjm86]

TBH my memories of telly growing up are quite weird.  Earliest memories are of Iranian television which ran Star Trek alongside a slightly out of sync BBC World Service English translation.  We had one at Northwood in the late seventies when Dad wanted to watch either the Olympics or Commonwealth Games.  Gave us the chance to see Blakes 7 and Bakers Doctor Who along with re-runs of Space 1999 (heady days!).

We had a little b&w portable out in Germany that only picked up the American Armed Forces Network.  On the plus side it meant a chance to see some of the US stuff that rarely got to the UK.  For some reason Dad had trained as a projectionist and he was responsible for the films in the Brit club in our block of flats, along with picking the films too!

I think the weirdest recollection though has to be the regional variations that could result in some interesting experiments with aerials.  If you lived in the right place and angled your aerial right you could sometimes pick up signals from other ITV regions.  So some of the programming variations could result in a lot of twisting and flexing of coat hanger aerials!

[von Boom]

This was before newspapers were allowed to print TV guides and "recording" was something you'd only seen on Tomorrow's World. We only ever got the local evening paper (and comics, thank God), never a daily (why bother - that stuff was on the telly for free anyway), but when those those two magazines came on sale, it was officially Christmas (this was also when people decorated their houses a week before Christmas, not in fucking November)

I think we may have lived on the same street.

[Jim_Campbell]

Do, please!  Sorely tempted, even knowing I've nothing worth playing them on!

Hah. Turns out I stupidly assumed my less-than-a-year-old Blu-ray player would play these fucking things. Turns out that this particular model is actually five years old and is having none of it. Looks like it's Mrs Brown's Boys for us tomorrow... :-(

[TordelBack]

Dear god no, have they found your cyanide capsules?

First cinema trip since who knows when for us (could have been Jumanji 3?), Nightmare Before Christmas at the drive-in, superb views of sunset over the Dublin Mtns, good bright screen and lots of chat and messing. Plenty of detail I'd missed on the small screen, so very much worth the trip.

[sheridan]

Iron Sky. Again.

Every time I watch this film (this is about the third or fourth time) I love it a little bit more. It really takes me on a ride, just getting madder and madder as it goes - which is a neat trick when you start with Moon Nazis. It really is a little masterpiece, I think, with some genuine laugh-out loud moments. I'll be chuckling at the scene where "President Palin" demands to know  will have me chuckling for days.

I remember seeing that at the cinema - midnight showing (presumably a premier) and it happened that one of the others present was from Finland.  They thought it was hilarious

It almost goes too far in so many places and in so many ways but always pulls back just in time. And, after loving the ride, I love the last message it leaves me with - that we gotta' find a better way.

Great little film. Love it.

You certainly know what you're getting from the trailer and it doesn't disappoint!  I found the sequel wasn't so great, but still good in places (really should re-watch at some point).  Starts off with a character who you suspect is based on a real person.  Then said character takes their top off (they're male) and starts doing cossack dancing, which kind of confirms it...

[Jim_Campbell]

So, hastily casting around for things to watch last night after the LotR plan went out of the window... we thought we could go a dumb action movie, and Prime has been pushing Olympus Has Fallen so we figured what the hell...?

Yeah. No. Turned that shit off after thirty minutes. Watched Die Hard instead, which we've probably not seen in a decade and is, I believe, as close to the platonic ideal of an action movie as anyone has ever made.

Tonight, we watched Pixar's Soul, which is fantastic, and Wonder Woman '84 which, sadly, isn't — it's a shapeless, overlong mess of a movie that decent turns by Pascal and Wiig in support of Gadot and Pine (who are excellent again) can't rescue.

[Tiplodocus]

INCEPTION
I love it; it's gripping from beginning to end. I know the faults so you won't convince me otherwise. Dunno if I'd just forgotten or not noticed before the idea of Mal's childhood trauma (assuming some form of abuse)

[Smith]

INCEPTION
I love it; it's gripping from beginning to end. I know the faults so you won't convince me otherwise. Dunno if I'd just forgotten or not noticed before the idea of Mal's childhood trauma (assuming some form of abuse)

Is the top still spinning?

[Tiplodocus]

 It's not his totem so doesn't matter.