TV/Movies Megathread

[jimmy olsen]

Finding Nemo, Up, Tangled, and Frozen were pretty great

[Queequeg]

Spirited Away.

[crazy canuck]

I gave Firefly another try and followed the advice to ignore the train episode.  I am now on episode 7 and I am ejoying it quite a bit.  Its too bad the train episode ruined it for me so early on.  Had it not aired I probably would have become a real fan of the show when it mattered...

[Syt]

Expendables 2. Funny how the series went from homage straight on to self parody. It was a fun ride, but it's been some time since I rolled my eyes so often at a movie.

Also, Stallone is a nerd according to IMDB:

In an interview with BBC Radio, Sylvester Stallone confirmed that he named Jean-Claude Van Damme's character 'Vilain' to make it similar to the name of 19th Century French poet Paul Verlaine. This was to set up an extremely obscure in-joke where the final showdown between Van Damme and Stallone, could be seen as a fight between Vilain/Verlaine and Rambo/Rimbaud. Arthur Rimbaud (pronounced Rambo) being another French poet with whom Verlaine had a tempestuous affair.

[Barrister]

Wife brought home a copy of the LEGO Movie.

Really, really enjoyed it.   

[Malthus]

Wife brought home a copy of the LEGO Movie.

Really, really enjoyed it.   

I can see all the prosecutors bopping to that "everything is awesome!" song. 

[CountDeMoney]

Wife brought home a copy of the LEGO Movie.

Really, really enjoyed it.   

You should do her doggie-style while you watch it.

[Ed Anger]

hott

[CountDeMoney]

Or better yet, forced oral.  LEGO MAH EGGO

[Ed Anger]

Beeb is more a missionary man I bet. While wearing his court wig.

[CountDeMoney]

HOTT

[Eddie Teach]

You two must be really into Legos, I guess.

[Malthus]

You two must be really into Legos, I guess.

Perhaps they are really into Beeb. 

[Barrister]

 

[Ideologue]

Finding Nemo, Up, Tangled, and Frozen were pretty great

Much to my shame, I still haven't seen Up but it was one of the five or six I was counting, because I reckon you're right--hell, just having it described to me once made me tear up.

Finding Nemo's okay, I kind of barely remember it.  Frozen is good, but kind of marginal.

As for Yi's list, The Incredibles is one of the few great ones--though only an A, Syndrome is a bit too over-the-top and the entire bent of the story suggests a libertarian cumming all over himself while acting out a persecution fantasy.

Wall-E is, as I've said before, both 1)fascist and 2)plagiarized.  The authoritarian angle wouldn't be as bad as it is, except the captain is making an obviously terrible choice for everyone.  I'm convinced the credits sequence wasn't in the script but was added to assure people that those fat fucks didn't starve to death amidst the Cursed Earth.

Now, of course, every one of these movies is a triumph of animated technique (what I've seen of Up suggests this is the case for that too).  But that is a different kettle of fish; it's like how Only God Forgives looks (and sounds) amazing, but is still after all a rather bad movie.

If I were trying to make an exhaustive list of animated movies from the 21st century that were better than Dragon, which we've established is at a very-good-almost-great level of quality, it'd go a little something like this:

Tangled, A+ ( )
The Lego Movie, A (though I'm thinking of knocking it up... to an A+, I mean)
Toy Story 2, A (I guess, but only because I like The Lego Movie more)
Toy Story 3, A (same diff)
The Incredibles, A (see above)
The Emperor's New Groove, if a 2000 release date even counts, B+ (super-high B+)

...and, in the same vein, The Road to El Dorado, also 2000, but which I remember being just wonderful--like, better than TS 2 or 3--but it's been so long since I've seen it that I hesitate to say that for sure or even give it a grade.

So it's seven.  That said, Monsters University is pretty close to How to Train Your Dragon.  (Lilo and Stitch is not, even if it's a machine made for making you cry.)

I'll note I have avoided the Ice Ages, the Rios, and the Despicable Mes, since they look like they suck (DM 2's trailer made it appear to be aggressively unfunny garbage, in fact).  I seriously doubt they have any sort of shot at being "great," even if they might be less offensive than they appear.  I've had the same stance toward the Madagascars, but the one with the penguins that's coming out this year actually looked humorous, so I might reverse that policy.