Partial Lunar Eclipse

Tried to catch the partial lunar eclipse yesterday, but did not get to see it because most of it was happening before moonrise here in Western Australia. Had to settle for nice full moon shot after the event.

For those not familiar with my photography, I have a thing for the moon. I probably take a photo nearly every night I can see it clearly, even if it is not full, just for the practice. Can't help myself. Have it down to the point where I can just pick up one of my many cameras with a reasonable zoom or telephoto on it and snap away in manual and handheld. I know I can get things sharper with a tripod but I am lazy and only pull that out now for special events. It's amazing what you can capture now handheld with optical and in body image stabilisation.

I do get excited when I know there is an eclipse or other special event coming, but it is not always possible to get that special image due to clouds or just not being in the most ideal place. My favourite is still the last decent blood red moon image I managed to capture quite a few years ago now. There were clouds and it was in the very early hours of the morning, but I stayed up, patiently waited. I managed to grab the following shot when the clouds briefly parted to show the moon and some stars. 

 Looking forward to the next time I can pull this off again!

My November 2021 Watchlist and random thoughts

1. Capricorn One - Last time I saw this it was on TV when it was first released there. Seemed like a great story at the time, but I was just a kid and not picking up on everything that was happening. Pretty interesting cast. OJ Simpson, Kojak, amongst others in the early stages of their careers. The whole "did man really land on the moon?" fake landing conspiracy, but this time on Mars. Watching it now, I think it still holds up. Starts very strong, has an excellent vehicle action scene, possibly one of the best of its time with a real sense of speed and an impending crash. Some of the dialogue from the reporter is a bit different but still great, some other parts not so much. The two helicopters on the hunt for the missing astronauts are a bit cheesy. The close formation flying is not overly realistic, but I can see what they were going for. The model work when they crash is a bit obvious but this is how it was done then pre CGI. I found the ending a bit weak watching it now, but it does the job. Not a bad conspiracy thriller overall.
   
   
2. Army of Thieves - Netflix. Interesting prequel to Army of the Dead. Gives the background to the safe cracker. More European in style, not awesome but a bit of fun all the same. Good to see the hacker chick from the Fast and Furious series kicking ass too. I think I may have enjoyed this a little more than Army of the Dead last month if anything.
   
   
3. Squid Games - Netflix - very interesting…great first season, made me miss travelling to Korea. Some of the plot developments were predictable but I still got caught out in the final episode. 
   
   
4. Big Trouble in Little China - a classic, ‘nuff said. 
   
   
5. Kate - Netflix - starring Woody and Mary E W. Some great action, fight scenes, plot and character arcs are a little predictable but still a good watch. Some of the stunts are a bit CGI. Based in two of my favourite cities, Osaka and Tokyo. Not quite Kill Bill good, but an awesome tough bitch seeking revenge story all the same. 
   
   
6. Schumacher - documentary using footage of various interviews, races, etc along with more recent interviews with his family and competitors from the time. A nice reminder of just how driven and skilled he was, and how unfortunate it was that he had the skiing accident not that long after he retired.
   
   
7. Animal Kingdom TV series - latest season. Good start so far and there is still plenty happening *spoiler alert* without older Smurf on the scene. Getting lots of back story with the thirty years early parallel plot line as well. Looking forward to seeing where this goes and if there will be more. Finished it.
   
   
8. Midway - big bombastic Roland Em production, starts quickly with Pearl Harbor and big explosions etc. Like how they show Japan and US points of view and the internal politics in play on both sides. CGI as far as the eye can see like his other big disaster movies but I ended up enjoying this more than I thought I would. Prefer Dunkirk over this but was still well worth the watch.
   
   
9. Alien Resurrection - Theatrical version - often hated by fans but I still prefer it over Alien 3. Checked out the Special Edition as well to compare the differences, but the Theatrical cut is the better of the two.
   
   
10. Bikram - Netflix - reasonable documentary but it was very sad with what this yogi appeared to do with his female students.
    
    
11. The Sopranos - finally finished it. Awesome series that lived up to the hype for me. Ending was abrupt but was to be expected. Need to check out the recent movie sometime sooner rather than later.
    
    
12. Free Guy - Watched it for the second time with Bella. Still lots of fun, might not age well later with the youtubers featured etc but love the references to online gaming and streaming culture. The battle with Dude still makes me geek out, but it should not be spoiled for anyone who hasn't seen this movie yet!
    
    
13. Tiger King 2 - Only has a few episodes and didn't really grab me as much as the first season. I guess there wasn't really enough new material to develop it further. Doesn’t really resolve anything but it does go a bit deeper into some of the unresolved mysteries from the first one.
    
    
14. Billions - rest of Season 5. They clearly stopped for COVID and then came back to finish it off, and even built that into the story with them returning to the office with masks, etc. Well done overall but I am definitely hanging out for an entire new season.
    
    
15. Australian Gangster - stumbled across this two episode miniseries out of nowhere. Got a real Australian ethnic gangster Sydney story and characters. Wasn't too bad at all and I really enjoyed the Australian production, accents, setting etc. It has been too long since I've watched any of the Underbelly series.
    
    
16. Zone 414 - sci fi, bounty hunter needs to find a missing daughter in an area populated by very realistic androids and pairs up with one. Blade Runner anyone? Has Guy Pierce in the main role, one of those fine Aussie actors that has had a great career but still tends to slip under the radar compared to the Hugh Jackmans, Russell Crowes etc. Wasn't sure about robots that can express emotion etc but got past. A bit slow in places but has some nice twists in the plot and development of the characters involved.
    
    
17. Gunpowder Milkshake - more style over substance but a great female cast with great almost John Wick like action sequences. Probably one of those movies where someone will ask me to explain the story later and I won't remember anything except the action sequences, but it was an easy Friday night popcorn movie after a crazy week at work.
    
    
18. The Many Saints of Newark - Enjoyed this Sopranos universe “movie”. Handy to have only just finished the Sopranos so I found it easy to work out who was who. Some really great performances with younger actors doing their best to replicate/imitate the older characters, and in a good way mostly. Having the late James Gandolfini’s son Michael play young Tony was genius, and Michael clear worked on being young Tony rather than just relying on his resemblance. I only use “movie” in quotes because it does kinda feel like two episodes back to back but I still enjoyed it. Not for everyone but worth it for your average Sopranos fan.
    
    
19. No Time To Die - I loved it. I’m a complete James Bond tragic, and Daniel Craig was welcome as the next Bond, but it is fair to say that his movies have followed a pattern of Great, mediocre, Awesome, mediocre to Fantastic. This last one was a great wrap up as the last Craig Bond. I think if they had planned these knowing there would be five, they could  have done a better job with the overall character arc, but No Time To Die manages to bring it home. It has to cover a lot and runs a bit long, but it is worth it. There are Easter eggs galore, not just for the Craig season but previous Bonds too. Bond academics and tragic will pick up all sorts of cues along the way, both visually and audibly. The main issue for me was the timeline for the main antagonist. He would have been either impossibly young or did not age in this movie. I need to see this again, and again, to say a proper goodbye to the Daniel Craig Bond seeing as it is Craig’s last appearance as 007.
    
    
20. Dope Sick - Have seen the episodes as they drop, but still not finished yet. Have seen a couple of documentaries now about the prescribed addictive opioid crisis but still really enjoyed this series. It is more a reenactment than a documentary as such, with some great casting and performances from what I have seen so far.
    
    
21. Jolt - Amazon - Quirkly little action movie with Kate Beckinsale, Jai Courtney and Stanley Tucci amongst others. Lindy (played by Kate) is a woman with impulse/anger management issues and has a special vest that she can use to jolt herself to stop her from lashing out. After her date is killed, she decides to go out and find out what happened, and uses her impulses almost like a super power. Some really cool action/violence sequences and a bit of fun if you don’t take it too seriously?
    
    
22. Mare of Easttown - Early days, but enjoying this so far. I tend to like most things Kate Winslet, so it was not hard to get into this. Small town detective is dealing with her own personal challenges while also investigating a murder. Kept me guessing to the end, and loved seeing Guy Pierce again, a great underrated Aussie actor.
    
    
23. Swamp Thing 1982 - Heard about this many times, but never got around to seeing it. Found a DVD in a $2 shop, ripped it (more about that later) and chucked it on my Plex server. What can I say, a bizarre little sci-fi, horror(?), superhero creature feature based on a DC/Vertigo franchise. A scientist becomes a swamp monster after his research and laboratory are destroyed by the evil Arcane. It is all a bit of silly fun but I can see why it has its own cult following. And…it is a Wes Craven film. It’s no Halloween but I enjoyed it. I need to hunt down the sequel now, regardless of how good or probably bad it is! Love the actress in this, Adrienne Barbeau. Whether it is this movie, Escape from New York or even much later in Argo, she always come through. Some funny Beauty and the Beast scenes in this. Every time I heard her name, Cable, I keep thinking of a certain Marvel character. The effects don’t age terribly well, but come on, it was the early 80’s!
    
    
24. The Crying Game - Laserdisc via Retrotink 5x - Another movie I heard a lot about but never got to watch in its time. (I was at university and was distracted by other things, leave it at that!) A movie set in the troubles in Ireland with strong characters, strong dialogue and interesting casting choices that work. Some aspects remind me of a Quentin Tarantino movie if he did an Irish movie in terms of as much dialogue and character development as there is action. Very ahead of its time in terms of sexuality and gender politics. This is one movie I need to rip from LD as I don’t own it anywhere else. (Another topic for me to blog about later, my recent addiction to Laserdisc collecting and how best to capture them for preservation.)
    
    
25. The Return of The Swamp Thing - I did track it down and watched it through, but it is not as good at the first one. Still a bit of silly fun though. Not sure what Heather Locklear was thinking though. Very early in her career I guess?
    
    
26. Untold Crimes and Penalties - Netflix - A documentary covering a real life Sopranos mob type family (allegedly) secures ownership of an ice hockey team and goes for maximum impact in every sense of the word! Really enjoyed this for something different after some of my recent watches! A bit of a Soprano's connection too.
    
    
27. The Motive - Netflix - documentary true crime mini-series about a family that was murdered. A fair bit of crime scene archival footage so a bit full on.

So that was my November. I posted this halfway through and then added to it after the end of the month. Not sure yet if I will keep doing it this way or individually blog as I watch. Will see how I go.