TV/Movies Megathread

[Tonitrus]

Speaking of remakes (kinda...feels more like the 80's Dragnet film)...

I am...very skeptical.

[HVC]

A serious actor leading such a comedy could never work.

[Darth Wagtaros]

I kind of liked the Dragnet movie.  

[Sophie Scholl]

On the other end of the spectrum you have movies based on the same source material but interpreting it differently. I'd struggle to call Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet a remake of Lawrence Olivier's Hamlet. Similar with Last Man on Earth vs. Omega Man vs. I am Legend, all adapted from the same book.

I'm a total sucker for modern/modern-esque setting adaptations/remakes of Shakespearean plays a la Luhrman, Taymor, and Loncraine. Something about keeping them fresh, relatable, and relevant just really appeals to me. The same with A Knight's Tale, which is possibly my favorite medieval/knight movie ever.

[Sheilbh]

Totally agree and I think it's part of the texts - they're very open to re-interpretation or different settings (I always think of McKellen's fascist Richard III) in a way that I think is more challenging for later, more realist texts.

On that if you've not seen it I really recommend Caesar Must Die a film about (and sort of of) prisoners putting on a production of Julius Caesar in a Roman maximum security prison:

[Sophie Scholl]

Oooo! Very interesting! I'll definitely try to track down a copy to watch! 

[celedhring]

We once went full Inception and in my drama class we put on a show about a group of students putting on a show of Marat/Sade 

[Syt]

Just learned that David Hayter, the voice of Snake in the Metal Gear games (and tons of other stuff), wrote the screenplay for the 2000 X-Men film and co-wrote the screenplays for X2 and Watchmen. 

[celedhring]

Just learned that David Hayter, the voice of Snake in the Metal Gear games (and tons of other stuff), wrote the screenplay for the 2000 X-Men film and co-wrote the screenplays for X2 and Watchmen. 

Yeah, I came at it from the opposite side. "Wait, the writer of the X-men movies is the one that voices Snake?" 

[Syt]

Finished Superstore. Overall fine, 7-7.5/10. Final season showed them running out of ideas.

It was a bit surreal to see Covid covered as a topic on the show for the entire final season. It feels like mask mandates, Tiger King etc. are forever ago, not a mere five years. Austria got rid of masks in stores/public transport "only" two years ago I think, and though this period lasted 3 years it already feels like ancient history.

Conclusion overall felt fine; most things nicely wrapped up, though not too happy that Carol got away pretty much with all the shit she pulled. I wish they had a resolution to who was collecting all those human feet, though.

[Savonarola]

The approach seems to be very similar to the redos and Beauty of the Beast and the Litle Mermaid = cast a spunky post-femininst lead but otherwise hew as closely as possible to the animated version.

I just remember watching the Disney Live Action remake of Cinderella a decade ago, so long ago I didn't realize they were trying to do a live action remake. I just thought I was watching another version of the story.

It's definitely different; there are no singing mice in the live action, though they did keep a number of the elements from the original Disney cartoon, including Cinderella's blue dress.

Anyway I remember thinking that if Cinderella is this adult, able, feminist woman instead of a meek abused teenage girl the story doesn't even make sense.

Feminism is about the right of a woman to make her own decisions.  If she wants to be abused by her step-mother and step sisters that's her decision, not yours, Valmy.      

 

Of course the princess has to be an ideal woman from the culture that created her, and since we value strong, independent women, Cinderella has to be a strong, independent woman.  (The ideal woman being a strong, independent woman who always does what she'd told might be a little more honest portrait of our culture's attitudes than Disney had intended .)

[Savonarola]

Dinklage's issue with Snow White was that it was revived at all.  He thinks the depiction of the dwarves in the story is inherently stereotypical and offensive.  The CGI dwarves do not respond to his critique they make the matter worse. They are supposed to be 275 year old sophisticated metallurgists but act like unruly children that need to be Mary Poppinsed by a 17 year old girl.

It makes sense to me magical dwarves (and miners for that matter) are notoriously immature.  The one that lives in Detroit still causes mischief and mayhem despite being of 300 years old and a master brewer.

Snow White, on the other hand, most likely had a lot of experience dealing with unruly children since she probably had to babysit for her step-mother's coven while they were out doing witch things.  Since those children were the literal spawn of demons, handling dwarves would have been a piece of cake for her.

[Josquius]

So, Dr Who is on pause.
Disney aren't renewing their contract and the BBC isn't sure how to go forward.
This is key to why Gatwa left. Understandably he wants reliability in life.
The rumour mill suggests they guy behind Babylon 5 is angling to take over. He has just moved to the UK. He claims he has no solid work lined up yet but would love that job....

[Syt]

Ghosts S4. So within a few days I've seen Dean Norris (aka Hank Schrader from Breaking Bad and the boot camp commander in Starship Troopers) play a dad trying to reconnect with his daughter in Superstore (with Dina) and Ghosts. I mean, I think he's perfect for such a role, but still.


"If I had a nickel for every time Dean Norris played an emotionally unavailable father trying to reconnect with his daughter in a sitcom, I'd have two nickels-- which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice."

[Sheilbh]

So, Dr Who is on pause.
Disney aren't renewing their contract and the BBC isn't sure how to go forward.
This is key to why Gutwa left. Understandably he wants reliability in life.
The rumour mill suggests they guy behind Babylon 5 is angling to take over. He has just moved to the UK. He claims he has no solid work lined up yet but would love that job....

Interesting - doesn't seem like a surprise.

I only watched a couple of episodes because I really like Russell T Davies and Gatwa. But it just felt a bit "off" I'm not sure why - wasn't sure if it was Disney's requirements or that Davies' style felt new and quite fun and exciting in 2005 and maybe doesn't now (especially because I actually think his best stuff is really grounded in a particular sort of British life/gay Coronation Street fan sensibility - which I'm not sure sits well with Disney and trying to make it global).