TV/Movies Megathread

[Ed Anger]

I was watching Z on TCM today. The subtitles were easy to read for once.

I liked the commies getting their skulls caved in.

[Admiral Yi]

Watched Jet Lag last night.  French flic starring Jean Reno and Juliette Binoche.  Basically they hook up while stranded at Charles de Gaulle by an air traffic controller's strike.  Very un-French happy ending.  Interesting cameo by the villainous Phalangist captain of Pan's Labyrinth as Juliette's squeeze.

Also tried to watch some Will Smith sci fi flick about crash landing on a quarantined Earth in the 31st century.  I did not have much success.

[katmai]

Why do you hate my man M. Night so yip!?!

[viper37]

So, necessities of the plot and shock value trumping the most logical action (and it's already pretty clear by this time that the T-1000 is evil, this happens after the mall scene where the T-800 saves John). Dad is just drinking a carton of milk, he isn't even part of the conversation. The T-1000 kills him just because.

He's killed because he notices the dog keeps barking and talks of it near the phone.  T-1000 doesn't want anything that could potentially compromise his mission by alerting John, but he forgot about the dog, presumably.  "Dad" has no uses, T-1000 can easily impersonate him if needs be.

Sarah Connor gets a conscience attack and just lies down, the T-800 and John enter without any gun. There's ample opportunity and that's what everybody would do instead of talking to these guys. It's a whole family in there, and nobody even makes a dash to seek help? Don't buy it.

There's a psychopath with a gun in arms reach. Mother's first instinct is to immediatly protect children, not run for her life, take the time to dial 9-1-1, wait for an answer and then wait for the cops.

Problem is the Terminator doesn't even attempt to convince him. It would be decent drama if Sarah or the T-800 suggested he stays with the latin weapons guy while they go to Cyberdyne, and he rebuked them or disobeyed them. No, they just take him to a place where they not only might encounter the T-1000, but an entire SWAT team.

The SWAT team, they didn't suspect they would be alerted.  The T-1000, they thought either:
a) he would have gone there, realized they weren't there and gone elsewhere
b) he would arrived after they had all departed.
It's called taking a gamble.  If it works, no more T-1000.  If it doesn't, there's a chance they can still escape.

[Admiral Yi]

Why do you hate my man M. Night so yip!?!

That explains it.

[Savonarola]

his pal Chingachgook (played by none other than Bela Lugosi)

Oh brother.

How!

Do you think Psellus would like it better than the Mann version?

It's hard to say with Spellus.  It's obscure enough that he might; but "The Deerslayer" isn't a good movie.

[katmai]

Waching Zulu in honor of the 135th anniversary of the battle.

[Queequeg]

Yo, Mike.  Blue is the Warmest Color is presently available for rental via Amazon.

For real this time.

Already illegally downloaded and disappointed by. 

[Ideologue]

Yo, Mike.  Blue is the Warmest Color is presently available for rental via Amazon.

For real this time.

Already illegally downloaded and disappointed by.

I wasn't disappointed.  But I had reasonable expectations.  The folks calling it one of the best movies of the year are the types who really, really love that kind of realism and slice-of-life smallness and handheld-out-the-ass Dogmesque shit filmmaking.

That said, as that kind of movie, I thought it was excellent.  The performances, even as gay for pay as they are, are fantastic, and Emma was real cool.  Unfortunately, I'm more like Adele: a depressive fuck-up who isn't very smart.  

Some of the fucking was awkward, though, and not in a realistic way, more like "too complicated for non-professionals, and Adele Exarchopolous and Lea Seydoux are not professionals."  The motorboating between Adele's ass cheeks literally made me laugh out loud.   And isn't tribbing an actual, fully busted myth?  But who knows, I could be wrong.

[Ed Anger]

Waching Zulu in honor of the 135th anniversary of the battle.

You are a good man, El Guapo.

[Eddie Teach]

And isn't tribbing an actual, fully busted myth?

No, it definitely happens. I've seen it many times. 

[CountDeMoney]

Oooh, New Jack City is on.  Gotta love those high fades;  Mario Van Peeblicious!

[Eddie Teach]

All the Boys Love Mandy Lane. It managed to surprise me.

[Savonarola]

Different from Others (1919)

At the end of the First World War, Germany abolished film censorship.  So a number of lurid "Enlightenment" films were made.  This one actually lives up to the title "Enlightenment" as it gives a sympathetic portrait to homosexuals.  The film is largely a polemic on Paragraph 175, the German law which forbade homosexuality.  It features a distinguished older musician (Conrad Veidt, who would go on to play the Nazi major in Casablanca), his slender, willowy protege, a sleazy extortionist and a sexologist (Magnus Hirschfeld, who was an early advocate for sexual minorities.)

The film exists only in fragments; it was first outlawed when film censorship was restored in the early 20s and then actively destroyed by the Nazis.  It's not a very good film.  In one scene Slender Willowy Protege stands in the foreground contemplating his life while Conrad Veidt and Sleazy Extortionist brawl in the background.  It reminded me of the scene in "Love and Death" where Napoleon and his double wrestle in the background while the conspirator delivers a soliloquy; except this wasn't supposed to be played for laughs.  At various intervals Hirschfeld will go on detailed lectures about homosexuality that don't in any way advance the plot.  It is a very brave film, and one far ahead of its time in terms of subject matter.

[Queequeg]

Have you seen Madchen in Uniform, Sav?