TV/Movies Megathread

[The Brain]

15th century France wasn't a very tolerant place.

Really her problem with the church was that the priest wanted to bang her, and her problem with the law was that the dude she did bang let everyone think she'd killed him.

Also, she apparently married The Brain.

It was arranged by my parents.

[Viking]

The Hunchback is a classic; the Disney Hunchback is an abomination. Though I suppose you may be lumping it in as it did come after Pocahontas.

The hunchback contained the last bit of interesting content from disney. Certainly not good, it was half-way not-bland.

[Savonarola]

Frankenstein (1931)

When STEM Degrees Go Bad...

In a strange coincidence I've been listening to a series of lectures from UC Berkeley about the ray even higher than the ultraviolet (Soft x-rays); the part of the spectrum that Dr. Frankenstein uses to create life.  (The prof must not have gotten to the part about creating life yet; he keeps getting bogged down in Maxwell's equations.)  X-rays had been known since the end of the 19th century, but electro-magnetism was still so mysterious at this point that it could be imbued with all sorts of fantastic properties.

Even though in the end female intuition and torches triumph over the cold hand of science ()  this is a great movie.  The camera work is far in advance of most movies of the era.  Boris Karloff's mute performance is one of the best in his career.

[Ideologue]

You shoudl watch the Topper movies Ide. Those and Harvey.

I'm glad I came back to this to look up some stuff; you reminded me.  Harvey: going on the queueueueue.

[Ideologue]

The Last Stand (2013).  Either it took me a long time to understand what this movie was going for, or it took a long time to decide on its tone, but in the end it's a rather fun, rather goofy actioner that serves as a substantial blow for our 2d Amendment rights and a pretty effective ad for General Motors.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is a small town sheriff whose home on the Mexican border becomes the egress point for a drug kingpin who's mobilized a small army to extract him from the States.  When one of his deputies dies, he, his fellow cops, and the heavily armed civilian volunteers they've joined forces with prepare for a last stand to stop the crime lord before he reaches freedom, and Yuri Orlov profits.

It's not great or even very good, largely owing to the long set-up, some really goofy parts with the oblivious locals that feel like they're out of a full-on parody, and the curious omissions on the part of Peter Stormare's miniboss character subsequent to a mid-film action scene which should have spurred him to a more aggressive pursuit of our heroes, or at least a pursuit of any kind, but The Last Stand's extended set-piece finale is well worth watching.

Be on the lookout for the sequence with a conscripted schoolbus, Breaking Bad-style we-attached-the-camera-to-shit POV shots, and a Vickers (!) machine gun; and also a climactic car chase (between a namechecked Corvette ZR1 and Chekov's illegally parked Camaro SS) that is weird and inventive and could have gone even further and taken some cues from submarine cinema of all things, but doesn't and is thus slightly unsatisfying as a partly wasted opportunity.

There is fantastic use of The Last Stand's R rating for violence, however--it's like a 2 Guns that's not dribbling herpetic cum down its chin.  Not that there's anything wrong with anonymous fellatio; it's just an figure of speech.  This movie's alright.

B

[Liep]

Man of Steel. First superman film I've ever seen, and I don't really get him. So the only question is should he abandon his own kind and assimilate completely with the 'Mericans or terraform the hell out of earth. Of course he chooses the humans, because he's from Kansas and shit. And Amy Adams. We're never really in doubt whether or not this man is good or bad, or if he's going to die or not.

But it's still nicely shot and somewhat entertaining. 5 okay-he's-been-thrown-into-enough-buildings-now out of 10.

Or as Ide would put it: C

[Ideologue]

I dunno.  A C's pretty terrible.  You ain't getting a job on the Orient Express with a C.

[Liep]

A C is average, is it not? I dream of this being the average for action movies. Then it would be more shameful to produce such trash as Pacific Rim.

[Admiral Yi]

In educational terms a C means you pass the class but you're a fucking meathead.

In terms of movies I think C means I managed to sit all the way through without slitting my wrists.

An average, "I enjoyed some parts but this did not rock my world" grade is a B.

[Gups]

I'd put C as the straight down the middle average.

If B is your average, you haven't made gradations available between quite good, good, very good, excellent and film of the year.

[Admiral Yi]

You do that with the pluses and minuses.

[Josquius]

In academics as in movies an A is amazing, top 10%, a B is merely every day good whilst a C is 'good enough'.

[Ed Anger]

Languish. 

[PDH]

A means hot chick, not too dumb
B means tries hard, kinda plain chick
C means dude or weird emo chick
D means texts too much, even if hot chick
F means foreign kid

We're talking about university grading, right?

[garbon]

In academics as in movies an A is amazing, top 10%, a B is merely every day good whilst a C is 'good enough'.

Actually in academics, people with Cs get worried looks and talks about how they need to apply themselves more.