TV/Movies Megathread

[garbon]

Fun misogyny? I think that's what Robin Thicke is all about.

[Ideologue]

This para explains it more fully:

I didn't spend time discussing Tattoo entirely by accident: Fincher is lucky his last movie was a movie that was serious about the horrors of rape.  It doesn't hurt, either, that the writer of the novel and, refreshingly, its screen adaptation, is one Gillian Flynn, and that she seems to know what she's doing, too.  That's because the parade of misogynist tropes that is Gone Girl only stops when it slams into an ending too gonzo to ignore yet too full of juicy spoilers to describe, an ending so utterly outrageous that, at first, I recoiled, before realizing that it is exactly the ending it needed—a vicious and terrible punchline to one of the darkest jokes ever told.

Edit: review really is spoiler free though; that's the closest thing to revealing last-hour details there is.

[CountDeMoney]

But, bent toward satire, it's such fun misogyny. 

It's either a satire, or it's not.

[Ideologue]

It can be a satire and still be a great thriller.  See, e.g., Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (satirizing Italian neo-fascism), Side Effects (the pharmaceutical industry), or Rope (the liberal arts).

[CountDeMoney]

But you say it's "bent" toward satire;  that indicates intent.  I did not get that vibe from the trailers that it was a satirical treatment of a missing wife.  Does David Fincher, with all his experience in satire, happen to make it more obvious in the film?

[CountDeMoney]

, or Rope (the liberal arts).

[Ideologue]

But you say it's "bent" toward satire;  that indicates intent.  I did not get that vibe from the trailers that it was a satirical treatment of a missing wife.  Does David Fincher, with all his experience in satire, happen to make it more obvious in the film?

Yes, absolutely.  It works on the surface level (no matter if it would be intensely problematic if that's all it did), but it gets so over-the-top (and encyclopedic in its scope) that it is clearly an intentional satire of misogynistic tropes.  I don't know if the novel itself is like that, though since Gillian Flynn wrote both I suspect it must be.

Also I feel like you're being sarcastic with "all his experience in satire," but the most direct comparison you can make with Gone Girl is to Fight Club.

I could explain further but I really don't want to accidentally spoil anything.  You're going on the ad campaign, which I agree does seem more soberly serious; the movie is definitely not the marketing.

Well, it's true.

[celedhring]

Oh, celedhring...found the offense.

Nah, I agree that Burton's Batmans haven't aged gracefully. Batman Returns was always my favorite anyway.

Congrats, you made The List.(tm)

And you're supposed to be an artist.   

That was the one, yes. Was it the fact I like Batman Returns more or the fact I don't think they seem as great as they did 20 years ago?

[celedhring]

Sholay (1974)

I decided to give a rewatch to my favorite Bollywood movie (yeah, I have such a thing). The thing is 3h 30m long, and at the same time it's possibly one of the most awful and most amazing films I've ever seen.

It begins like an idiotic buddy comedy, with terrible jokes, acting and of course, songs, as two rogues flee from justice and encounter several hijinks on their way, including being jailed in a prison where the warden (and I'm not speaking metaphorically) does an awful impression of Adolf Hitler.

Yet the two rogues get a chance at redemption when they are enrolled in protecting a rural village from a local bandit. Then the film (which is set in 1970s India) morphs into an stylized and kickass epic western the kind Sergio Leone would have been proud to work in - in fact several sequences an ideas are ripoffs of his films, including a poncho-wearing fallen hero with a secret. There's an amazing and twisted villain, tons of great backstory they don't hesitate to tell you via long flashbacks, high drama, great shootouts, cats and dogs living together...

It's magnificent and terrible, there are like 3-4 different films in it, and it really feels like the cobbled together scripts from different movies; a feeling that's common in Bollywood movies. If you can see the whole thing in one go (not easy given its length and bizarre plot non-sequiturs) it's a fucking trip like you'll rarely experience.

[Ideologue]

OK, sold.

I know Syt was interested in this, although it was not in the slightest the movie which was advertised.  Luckily, I knew that going in, and now you do too:

In space, no one can hear you psychologically fracture

Space Station 76 (2014).  Wacky fun times in the stupid future our parents imagined!  Smoking!  Valium!  And just look at that silly poster!  Ha ha!

B+

[celedhring]

You know, I started watching Deadwood the other day, and I was reminded of how much I like seeing Jeffrey Jones in stuff, and made me realize he's practically disappeared from the scene.

A google search reveals that he was arrested for solliciting a minor and his career has obviously declined since; such a pity.

[lustindarkness]

Yesterday I watched Transformers Age of Extintion, it entertained me, some funny stuff, cool robot fights, robotic dinos, and Marky Mark should have been part of these movies from day one.

[CountDeMoney]

Was it the fact I like Batman Returns more or the fact I don't think they seem as great as they did 20 years ago?

The correct answer is "All Burton Batman movies suck ass except certain scenes from the first one, as Tim Burton is an over-the-top director who lacks nuance in his set design with the exception of Edward Scissorhands, and even that's stretching it, so really, the only movies he's ever made worth watching were Ed Wood, Beetlejuice and Mars Attacks and the one with the Santa and the evil pumpkin that all the Assburgers love for some reason, and don't even get me started on how he raped my childhood with that Willy Wonka abortion, but Big Fish was sweet and works as a date movie."  So you failed.

[celedhring]

Was it the fact I like Batman Returns more or the fact I don't think they seem as great as they did 20 years ago?

The correct answer is "All Burton Batman movies suck ass except certain scenes from the first one, as Tim Burton is an over-the-top director who lacks nuance in his set design with the exception of Edward Scissorhands, and even that's stretching it, so really, the only movies he's ever made worth watching were Ed Wood, Beetlejuice and Mars Attacks and the one with the Santa and the evil pumpkin that all the Assburgers love for some reason, and don't even get me started on how he raped my childhood with that Willy Wonka abortion, but Big Fish was sweet and works as a date movie."  So you failed.

You run some pretty difficult quizzes, man.

Ed Wood is his best film by a mile, that's for sure. And Big Fish did work for me as a date movie.

[garbon]

Umm, Corpse Bride was lovely.