TV/Movies Megathread

[Tonitrus]

I don't think you were meant to feel sad for them so much. I think the point is to show that they were just normal good people too and that the environment changed them to what they became. And, the bigger, all encompassing theme, of course, is is "our group" heading down the same path?

I find it very hard to see how people can go from what they were to [spoiler]taking their silly mantra so literal as to start eating people[/i].

I see your point, but [spoiler]it is not really any worse than the graphic novel version, which was mostly "we suck at hunting animals, so lets go for easier-to-catch people".  And I see your point in the Tyrese thing, but sure, he could think that the due would kill the baby anyway...but if he didn't leave, he could tell the way the guy talked that he definitely would right then.  Splitting hairs, but I think I'd have made the same call...take you chance killing the zombies and hope he hesitates on killing a baby, then ambush him.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]And on the now/then segments...I kinda agree, they did not make me sympathize with the cannibals...but if you didn't have them, you're just left with a bunch of cold, evil motherfuckers that went that way without any explanation.  But then I guess you could say the same about the rape gang... [/spoiler]

[CountDeMoney]

Yeah, I can appreciate what they had lost, what they went through and what it took to get it back--but in no way did that justify what they became.  Like g, I was not compelled to empathy by the "Then" scenes, either.  All it does it tell me not to put up signs.

[garbon]

All it does it tell me not to put up signs.

Yeah don't be naive about human nature - particularly when society is/has collapsed.

[Savonarola]

P.S., I read about the ending to Pandora's Box.  Wikipedia is fucking with me, right?

No, no it is not.  That's (more or less) the ending of the play (and opera) as well.  Pabst uses his medium well and has cross cuts between a dead Lulu, a furtive Jack, Alwa in a parade and Schigolch drooling over a Christmas pudding.  It's a twisted ending to a twisted film.

[Ideologue]

Well, I guess it's no worse than the part in Network where the naked SLA stand-ins kill Howard Beale.

[Ideologue]

Man, Dial M For Murder is such a great movie.

[Ideologue]

The Third Man (1949).  Roger Ebert asked, "Has there ever been a film where the music more perfectly suited the action than in Carol Reed's 'The Third Man'?"  The answer, of course, is "all of them."  Yes, The Third Man is replete with what may be the most inappropriate, poorly sound-edited, and even inherently ugliest score in cinematic history.  Nonetheless (and despite an overreliance on dutch angles for absolutely ordinary scenes which do fit into the atmosphere but get a little silly, and a certain repetitious nature to its plotting when it should be moving ever faster), The Third Man is, as they say, pretty excellent, boasting great performances, a fantastically effective exploitation of Vienna's post-war suffering, and a lovely mystery that I solved, or would have solved, if I hadn't already known, but which is perfect and satisfying all the same.  It also features the 1940s most advanced special effect illusion, with whole shots where it almost appears that Orson Welles is running.  B+

[celedhring]

The Third Man is replete with what may be the most inappropriate, poorly sound-edited, and even inherently ugliest score in cinematic history.

You do that on purpose, right?

The score is one of the greatest parts of the film. You can't do post World-War Vienna with your typical orchestrated thriller music from the 1930s or 40s. There's been a war in there, half the sets you're shooting are ruined buildings. Nothing like street music to evoke the feeling of the streets of the city, and give the story that feeling of reality despite it being a noir that uses a lot of the noir cliches. Using that music is a stroke of genius by Reed.

[CountDeMoney]

Nonetheless (and despite an overreliance on dutch angles for absolutely ordinary scenes which do fit into the atmosphere but get a little silly, and a certain repetitious nature to its plotting when it should be moving ever faster), The Third Man is, as they say, pretty excellent, boasting great performances, a fantastically effective exploitation of Vienna's post-war suffering, and a lovely mystery that I solved, or would have solved, if I hadn't already known, but which is perfect and satisfying all the same. B+

Stop, using, so, many, fucking, commas, all, the, time, god, dammit.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

Aside from all sorts of ZOMG THAT CANT HAPPEN IN ZERO G physics shit that probably freaked out NASA pencilnecks, I thought the final device for George Clooney's character was done very well.

I don't remember anything particularly glaring that was wrong with the movie.

[CountDeMoney]

Thank you, Mr. NASA pencilneck. 

[Malthus]

Aside from all sorts of ZOMG THAT CANT HAPPEN IN ZERO G physics shit that probably freaked out NASA pencilnecks, I thought the final device for George Clooney's character was done very well.

I don't remember anything particularly glaring that was wrong with the movie.

The heroics about the Clooney character dangling from a wire and letting go. It wasn't obvious why that was necessary. There would not be much actual pull, unless there is some force acting on Clooney I'm not aware of.

[Admiral Yi]

I don't remember anything particularly glaring that was wrong with the movie.

When Sandra Bullock is dangling from the wires.  What force is pulling her away?

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

I don't remember that scene in detail.  I will need to re-watch the movie.

[Viking]

I don't remember anything particularly glaring that was wrong with the movie.

When Sandra Bullock is dangling from the wires.  What force is pulling her away?

Plot convenience.