TV/Movies Megathread

[Ideologue]

Very well.  It was hyperbole, rather than a thesis intended for publication in Nature, but very well.

[Eddie Teach]

I wasn't.

Is that a picture of you in your avatar, btw? 

[Savonarola]

House (Hausu)(1977)

If the Children's Television Workshop made a slasher film it would be like this.  Seven nubile young women go to an old dark house in the Japanese countryside.  One by one they all start disappearing.  Have they simply stepped out, or is something more sinister in the works?

Director Nobuhiko Ôbayashi at the time pre-teen daughter complained that horror movies were all bad because adults thought they had to make sense.  She made some suggestions and he constructed this thoroughly wacky film.  All the girls have names like "Prof," "Gorgeous and "Melody."  The special effects in the film are about the level of this fine rock video by Prince:  http://www.metacafe.com/watch/8305118/prince_raspberry_beret/  It's not a great film so much as it's a great experience.  See it in the theater if you have a chance.

[11B4V]

Iron Man 3: B

[Ideologue]

House (Hausu)(1977)

If the Children's Television Workshop made a slasher film it would be like this.  Seven nubile young women go to an old dark house in the Japanese countryside.  One by one they all start disappearing.  Have they simply stepped out, or is something more sinister in the works?

Director Nobuhiko Ôbayashi at the time pre-teen daughter complained that horror movies were all bad because adults thought they had to make sense.  She made some suggestions and he constructed this thoroughly wacky film.  All the girls have names like "Prof," "Gorgeous and "Melody."  The special effects in the film are about the level of this fine rock video by Prince:  http://www.metacafe.com/watch/8305118/prince_raspberry_beret/  It's not a great film so much as it's a great experience.  See it in the theater if you have a chance.

Let me hop in my time machine.  Does Detroit have a repertory theater?  Do they play Escape From New York a lot?

We sort of have one, but it also sort of blows.

[11B4V]

'Star Wars: Episode VII': J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan now rewriting screenplay -- BREAKING
Obi-Wan Kenobi said act on instinct — but others might see this as a disturbance in the Force ...
Related
Star Wars Galaxy: See Full Coverage

Lucasfilm has announced that Star Wars: Episode VII director J.J. Abrams and Raiders of the Lost Ark writer Lawrence Kasdan have taken over screenwriting duties from Michael Arndt, an Oscar winner for Little Miss Sunshine and nominee for Toy Story 3, who had previously been working on the story.

The movie is slated for release in 2015 but no firm date has been set. In its announcement about the screenwriter shuffle today, Lucasfilm said the current plan is still to begin shooting in Spring 2014.

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Abrams started out as a screenwriter with such films as Regarding Henry and Forever Young before becoming more genre and sci-fi focused with Alias, Lost, and movies such as Mission: Impossible 3, Super 8, and the Star Trek reboot.

Kasdan has a rich history in the Star Wars universe. While best known as a writer-director of dramas such as Body Heat, The Big Chill and The Accidental Tourist, Kasdan also co-wrote The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. He had been consulting on the development of the new trilogy, which picks up with the Rebellion after the death of Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine.

Kasdan was also working with screenwriter Simon Kinberg on the development of spin-off prequels being developed by Lucasfilms. Sources tell EW that one film will follow the adventures of young Han Solo, while the other focuses on Boba Fett and his rival bounty hunters.

It's not clear what role Arndt will have moving forward. Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy characterized the change-up as a positive in her statement. "I am very excited about the story we have in place and thrilled to have Larry and J.J. working on the script. There are very few people who fundamentally understand the way a Star Wars story works like Larry, and it is nothing short of incredible to have him even more deeply involved in its return to the big screen. J.J. of course is an incredible storyteller in his own right. Michael Arndt has done a terrific job bringing us to this point and we have an amazing filmmaking and design team in place already prepping for production."

Massive productions like this typically go through multiple rewrites, so it would be premature for anyone to have a bad feeling about this just yet.

While Abrams and Kasdan get the script in shape, pre-production for Episode VII remains underway. The plan is to shoot mostly at London's Pinewood Studios, but exterior locations are being scouted, nearly every actor in the business is trying to land a role with the casting department, and sets and costumes are being designed in preparation for those actors to inhabit when principal photography gets underway.

[Ideologue]

I basically like JJ Abrams as a director, so I thank God that his association with Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman is no longer a going concern.

Fun fact: "orci kurtzman hacks" is the first thing, other than their names, that comes up using google's predictive software.  Unfun fact: last I heard, they're still attached to the Star Trek franchise.

[Ed Anger]

I want to see Carrie Fisher in a gold bikini again.

[Ideologue]

Careful.  Monkeybutt will get on your ass for thinking a woman who's now old was attractive when she was young.

[Ed Anger]

Wait..wha?

[Ideologue]

[garbon]

Good Wife this week was so good!

[lustindarkness]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgLl0_mqLtc

Star Wars bloopers.

[mongers]

The is an almost extraordinary piece of television documentary work, it's the story of when the founder of the English Defence League (EDL) meet a British Muslim and the 'debate' they had:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03ghfyp/Quitting_the_English_Defence_League_When_Tommy_Met_Mo/

If outside the UK, you might have to use a proxy IP etc to watch it.

[Ideologue]

Vertigo (1958).  Another "Jimmy Stewart solves a mystery by being a piece of human garbage" picture, and in many respects Vertigo really is pretty great (it's never as great as its reputation), but it's rare to see someone so talented degrade their movie so thoroughly in so short a span as Hitchcock did in this.

While Scottie, Stewart's character, does solve the mystery on his own, we are not permitted that luxury.  Instead, we just have the entire plot explained to us through a vomit party of narrated exposition held halfway through the movie.  It was, of course, not very satisfying.  Yes, they did it in Rope--in the beggining; in Rope, the lack of mystery was the point.  Here it's teased and then just dropped with the subtlety of a broken neck--and I wasn't that concerned whether Judy got caught or not because she's awful on at least two levels, one being that she's a murderer, and the other being that she's a completely spineless worm.

I suppose, in its defense, it explains upfront why Judy can be such a weak and pathetic creature in the face of Scottie's (frankly) overly-broad turn toward utter monstrosity, but I would have accepted "it was the 1950s and women were things" just as readily.  No, it sucks and it sucks hard.  All Vertigo leaves us with is the psychological stuff, which is good if a little too blunt and forceful, but is harder to focus on when the thrill of discovery--as Judy becomes far too perfect a Madeleine for it be a coincidence--has been so cruelly snatched away.

Also, I liked the Midge character and thought she was close to as pretty as Kim Novak, and maybe thinner, but Scottie seemed disinterested, probably because Midge, while a fully functioning adult sane person--unlike Madeleine--and possessed of an actual human personality--again unlike Madeleine--did not have the allure of social class and insane amounts of money, and I was annoyed and offended by this.  It's also possible that she's a secret production code homosexual and I didn't notice again; he did say she's the one who called off the engagement when they were in college, but more likely because she recognized, perhaps instinctively, that beyond his America's Dad exterior Scottie is pure, unexpurgated evil.

Finally, the dream sequence should have been at least six minutes longer, featuring false color pictures of landscapes and then Jimmy Stewart meeting himself as an old man.  I'm just suggesting these as improvements; I did think it was neat.

Other than those complaints, Vertigo is a gorgeous, engaging film with fine performances and at least three really amazing sets (the mission bell tower, obviously, but also an office so big and paneled it's an offense to God, and my favorite, Ernie's, with the reddest wallpaper you'll ever see outside of Only God Forigves).  Additionally, I liked the vertiginous camera effect; it looks very cool.  Most spectacular, however, was the makeup and hair work done to create two Kim Novaks, to the extent I wasn't even sure it wasn't a different actress at first, and although I'm afraid it might mean I'm actually a high-functioning autistic, I probably could've been fooled a good while longer.

So, yes, I did like it.  But the best American movie of all time?  Man, that's not even cooked baloney.

B+