TV/Movies Megathread

[katmai]

NBC has purchased the rights for an adaptation of Constantine for television, and so far the network has committed to a script (with a penalty if it decides to cease development of the show), according to The Hollywood Reporter. David Goyer — who wrote for Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, and Man of Steel  — and Daniel Cerone, the executive producer of The Mentalist and the first three seasons of Dexter, will work on the project with Warner Bros. Television and DC Comics.   

[CountDeMoney]

That could turn out to be really, really awesome (Hannibal), or really, really suck ass balls (Grimm).

[Darth Wagtaros]

I concur.

[Eddie Teach]

Grimm is almost watchable. There's an awful lot of suckier stuff out there.

[The Larch]

There'll be a mini series (10 episodes) based on the Coen Bros' Fargo.

[viper37]

Give the fact that I was working on European hours (less than 30hrs a week) for the last few months, I found myself with lots of freetime on my hands
I had the opportunity to rewatch the entire Battlestar Galactica series, +Razor, the webisodes and the Plan.
Wow.  I like it even better than the first time.  Even the 3rd season wich I didn't really like at first got redeemed in my eyes.

Such great sci-fi... I think it killed all other sci-fi shows, studios find it hard to top, I guess.

Also, I started watching Caprica.  Not bad, but not really my type of show either.  But I'm halfway through and there's only one season, so I'll try to see it through the end by Christmas time

[Ideologue]

I dunno.  I think they topped BSG easily by doing nothing.

[frunk]

Any feedback for Agents of SHIELD?

I taped the first episode, and only watched it tonight.  It shows promise...

First episode was all setup with plenty of silliness.  It has promise, but it hasn't shown much brilliance yet.

[Darth Wagtaros]

SHIELD needs lots of work.  It could be fun.  But I think it needs a season or two to get there.  Sadly, these days a show that doesn't score a 100 the first week gets cut by the second.

[Ideologue]

Polar Express (2004).  Nice little kids' Christmas movie with some decent visuals.  I loved some of Tom Hanks' reads in this movie.  "Christmas might not be important to SOOOOME people!"  The Jews? B

Beowulf (2007).  A grossly unfaithful rendition of Beowulf that is still probably better for it (going by the plot, anyway; if I'm going to read something translated from a foreign language, I'm going to read the Greek classics ), but still isn't that great.  While in Polar Express, the mo-cap animation makes some sense with the subject matter, it's really misplaced here.  If this movie had been done like 300, it'd probably be a B; but it wasn't, so it isn't.  The animation style adds little in terms of what kind of action can be accomplished, and detracts a fair amount, especially in the scene where Beowulf fights Grendel--in the nude.  Zack Snyder learned a valuable lesson from Zemeckis: if you're going to have a CGI guy walk around naked and do stuff, just show his dick, don't hide it with distracting framing, strategically placed objects, and physically implausible shadows.  It worked in Austin Powers because that movie's supposed to be funny.  At a certain point, hiding genitals is a lot more burdensome than just whipping them out.  Sometimes you just have to accept penis.  C+

Warrior (2011).  Loved the shit out of this movie.  Two brothers with problems enter a fighting tournament for money.  You'd think it might sap the tension in the intermediary matches, because you know both are going to face each other in the final fight (how unsatisfying would it be if they didn't?), but it doesn't.  The great thing is that you know one of the characters you're following must lose.  It's not quite anything to set the world on fire--other than its central cool idea, it's a sports movie, through and through--but the fights are awesome, the characters are likeable (well, one is), and it never cops out.  Someone has got to win, and, better yet, the brother I wanted to win did so, and it made me cry.  B+

Side Effects (2013).  Gnarly movie from Steven Soderbergh, that you think is a quiet, maybe dull drama about how we're all so medicated nowadays--and then something completely different happens instead.  It may be a spoiler to even call it a thriller.  I liked it.  B

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).  It's no The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.  Not by a long shot--except in terms of length.  But it never bores.  There are some fantastic images--the shot where Cheyenne reveals the harmonica-playing Charles Bronson in the saloon with the swinging light of a lamp is just fucking amazing.  I wasn't a huge fan of Harmonica's rape vibe early on; I didn't quite understand the necessity of that sexual assault.  I love the final showdown.  I kind of wish he hadn't demonstrated why he needed to kill Peter Fonda--he'd told him he'd only tell him why he was out for his blood at the point of, I think it's implied, his death.  I feel it would have been stronger if Fonda had never known.  It may have been stronger had we never known, though the flashback is a hell of a scene. B

The Conversation (1974).  This movie is unafraid to try your patience in the first thirty minutes, but it will reward you.  It's probably a spoiler to say it has a twist.  Well, it came out forty-two years ago.  Gene Hackman is a surveillance expert who becomes embroiled--personally, emotionally, ethically--in one of his cases.  Will he solve the mystery in time?  Nope.  It must have been a slow year for Gene Siskel to call this the 4th best movie of 1974, and Ebert the 10th, but it is good. B  P.S. Good Lord, was Gene Hackman born an old, balding man with a mustache?

Apollo 18 (2011).  An almost okay sci-fi horror movie.  I liked the little rock monsters that live on the moon, but while you don't need well-rounded characters in a movie like this, Apollo 18 doesn't even have one dimensional characters, it has no-dimensional characters, just points in space.  It doesn't even really have a plot, either.  It hangs entirely on a premise.  Its premise is okay; but it's just not enough.  It is short.  C+

Bonnie and Clyde (1967).  I'm halfway through it, and right now it has most of the problems of the similarly themed Public Enemies, less the shakycam (but it does have the hastily sketched characters with unbelievable motivations, and dialogue intended, I suppose, to sell them as uneducated, which is sooo fun to listen to).  It also has one problem Public Enemies doesn't, namely Warren Beatty being some kind of impotent--and I'm some kind of not buying it, especially when Bonnie Parker looks like Faye Dunaway and not at all like Bonnie Parker.  At present, it has none of the tommygun action I demand.  This is possibly one of those movies that's more historically important than actually good, though it's not really bad.  I had to leave to go watch Don Jon. I P.S. Gene Hackman wasn't born with the mustache.

Don Jon (2013).   Jon Martello likes to fuck but he likes to jack off more.  His reasoning: girls don't let you come on their faces.  This movie might have been accurate in the 20th century, but it was made this year.  Oh, also, he's emotionally unavailable.  The movie, initially so creditably reluctant to embrace bullshit romantic lies, doubles-down on them in the last act.  But it's funny, and at least semen is being talked about.  B

Full write-up: Starring David Duchovny and Sierra Sinn

[Eddie Teach]

B
C+
  B+
B
B
B
C+
  B

This may be a sign that you've been watching too many movies and can no longer tell them apart.

[Ideologue]

It's just a sign that they were all basically good, except for two which weren't, and one of which was pretty awesome.  Warrior's on Netflix Instant.

[Ideologue]

Side Effects and ...In the West are both really solid Bs, though.

[Queequeg]

The Conversation (1974).  This movie is unafraid to try your patience in the first thirty minutes, but it will reward you.  It's probably a spoiler to say it has a twist.  Well, it came out forty-two years ago.  Gene Hackman is a surveillance expert who becomes embroiled--personally, emotionally, ethically--in one of his cases.  Will he solve the mystery in time?  Nope.  It must have been a slow year for Gene Siskel to call this the 4th best movie of 1974, and Ebert the 10th, but it is good. B  P.S. Good Lord, was Gene Hackman born an old, balding man with a mustache?

It's the best thriller of the 70s.  Why do I read these reviews? 

[The Brain]

Riddick. My date gave it a C+.