TV/Movies Megathread

[Ed Anger]

You know what affected me profoundly? When Heydrich was killed in SS A Protrait of Evil

I cried. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[Caliga]

My first serious GF never returned my Velvet Goldmine DVD after we broke up. B****. 

Love that film (and most stuff Haynes has done).

My first serious girlfriend never returned my copy of When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler by David Glantz.

[Sheilbh]

I thought the film was weak though, some strong acting aside. Tom Hopper's approach to musical seems to amount to "really long takes really close to the actor's faces so it looks REAL".

And then quickly lifting to a panoramic view of Paris as Russell Crowe has to hold a note for more than three seconds.

He's not a good director based on this and the King's Speech. Maybe he'll get interesting at some point.

Cossette has a very annoying voice and I hated Anne Hathaway and, to a lesser extent, Eddie Redmayne.

[CountDeMoney]

Incidentally, thinking of Cloud Atlas, I just realised that "flawed movies that affected me profoundly" (V for Vendetta, Cloud Atlas, Matrix, Priscilla Queen of the Desert) have one thing in common - Hugo Weaving. 

How exactly is Priscilla, Queen of the Desert a flawed movie, other than you saying it is?

[celedhring]

I thought the film was weak though, some strong acting aside. Tom Hopper's approach to musical seems to amount to "really long takes really close to the actor's faces so it looks REAL".

And then quickly lifting to a panoramic view of Paris as Russell Crowe has to hold a note for more than three seconds.

He's not a good director based on this and the King's Speech. Maybe he'll get interesting at some point.

Cossette has a very annoying voice and I hated Anne Hathaway and, to a lesser extent, Eddie Redmayne.

Adult Cosette? I think that's because that romance plot is easily the worst part of the musical, imho.

Jackman was great, I thought. The girl playing Epónine was also a standout.

[Sheilbh]

Adult Cosette? I think that's because that romance plot is easily the worst part of the musical, imho.

Agreed. Child Cosette is perfect however. I think part of the problem of the romance in the musical is that it wants you to like Marius. In the book Marius may have been based on Hugo, but he's still basically a bourgeois prig who just happens to rough it by choice. He's not a romantic hero. There's no there there.

The musical can't really invent enough substance for Marius, but you're meant to be on his side.

Having said that I do like the bit when he revisits the barricades

Jackman was great, I thought. The girl playing Epónine was also a standout.

Agreed on both. I love Crowe and Gavroche as well. Eponine played Cosette for years in the London version apparently.

[Sheilbh]

Also WOLF HALL!  

Release the Rylance!

[Malthus]

The first Matrix movie isn't flawed at all. It's routinely used as a textbook example of a "hero's voyage" movie in film courses.

It always struck me as odd how the Wachowskis could put out such a well-crafted script for the first one, and such a mess for the others.

I enjoyed the (first) Matrix, but the 'robots use us for batteries!' thing was profoundly stupid and took me right out of the movie a bit. Why not 'the robots use our brains for some purpose robot brains cannot provide (say, some aspect of creativity)'?

[Malthus]

Finally watched Cloud Atlas (2012) after it'd been sitting on my shelf for a year.  It has some issues.  The 1970s sequence doesn't dovetail very well with the themes of slavery/incarceration.  The 2012 sequence is weirdly comic in an otherwise extremely po-faced picture.  And of course the Neo Seoul sequence is such a blatant rip-off of Blade Runner it actively hurts.  It also looks the worst, thanks to its derivative and poorly thought-through conception and design, and--of course--the profound failure of the film's yellowface technology--Weaving and Sturgess look more like aliens than Asians.  (Strangely, the whiteface is somehow really good.  I guess East Asian eye construction is easier to hide than to supply.)  Nonetheless, as a whole, it's really wonderful, and even the weird bits get subsumed into an overall great experience.  My favorite part was the far future, with its weird quasi-English, as it was the most Tom Hanks-centric narrative.  Is it an A?  Sure, an A, that sounds about right.

I really liked the movie (haven't read the book) and yeah it is one of those things where you can look past the flaws because, as a whole, it is so beautiful (both aesthetically and ethically).

By the way, I wouldn't say the overall theme is about incarceration/slavery (although I can see it featuring prominently) but rather oppression/liberation, and how a small act of rebellion/kindness/moral courage can actually make a difference. It is closely related, sure, but slightly different. Also, I didn't think the 2012 sequence was out of place - it was more comedic, sure, but it underlined the today's oppressive treatment of the old and the infirm - something that is not getting much notice in culture.

Do read the book. It is I think a masterpiece.

I enjoyed the movie as well - about as good an adaptation as you could get, of a book that I would have thought totally un-filmable.

[Ed Anger]

Guess what I had to watch again?

Frozen.

Olaf is no longer amusing.

[Syt]

DVR'ed that from Disney Channel a long time ago but haven't watched yet.

[Valmy]

Guess what I had to watch again?

Frozen.

Olaf is no longer amusing.

One cute sidekick I can tolerate.  Two is insufferable.  So glad my kids just want to watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episodes all the time.

[garbon]

Incidentally, thinking of Cloud Atlas, I just realised that "flawed movies that affected me profoundly" (V for Vendetta, Cloud Atlas, Matrix, Priscilla Queen of the Desert) have one thing in common - Hugo Weaving. 

How exactly is Priscilla, Queen of the Desert a flawed movie, other than you saying it is?

Well there is also the open question of why one be profoundly moved by that or Velvet Goldmine.

[Martinus]

Guess what I had to watch again?

Frozen.

Olaf is no longer amusing.

Do you want to build a snowman?

[Ed Anger]

Guess what I had to watch again?

Frozen.

Olaf is no longer amusing.

Do you want to build a snowman?

For you? Yeah. A Hans Frank snowman.