TV/Movies Megathread

[lustindarkness]

I chose to waste some time today watching some mindless violence, and I knew The Purge sucks... Well, I was not disappointed, it sucked.


I guess I'll have to watch The Purge Anarchy later this afternoon.

Anarchy was a lot less bad. Enjoyed it.

[celedhring]

It's strange but I can't remember what happened after the thunderdome.

Wacky hijinx, mostly.

Aliens and Raiders of the Lost Ark are IMHO the two best action movies. Though Fury Road is a candidate for being up there.

T2, Die Hard too. But yeah, Mad max deserves to be in the canon.

[Ideologue]

It's strange but I can't remember what happened after the thunderdome.

Wacky hijinx, mostly.

Aliens and Raiders of the Lost Ark are IMHO the two best action movies. Though Fury Road is a candidate for being up there.

T2, Die Hard too. But yeah, Mad max deserves to be in the canon.

The first?  If you say so.

Agree with the others, however.  I'd add The Raid to consideration, along with The General, The Untouchables,* the first* and fourth M:I films.  I like Temple better than Raiders, but both are essentially perfect.  (Oh, you have to listen to Kate Kapshaw scream at animals for like two minutes.  I found that scene intolerably boring too--when I was ten.)  Obviously, the first three Star Wars pictures are at the very top of the pile, if they count as action.

Gravity, if it counts, is the absolute best.

*I've been rewatching a bunch of De Palma classics.   (And sub-classics, I suppose.)  Untouchables, Casualties of War, Snake Eyes, and Body Double are all either masterpieces or extremely close.  Raising Cain and Femme Fatale are... ah, well, they're interesting, anyway.  They're completely successful as BDP films, if not on any normal level.

Thinking about putting Carlito's Way on for another spin.

[katmai]

*I've been rewatching a bunch of De Palma classics.   (And sub-classics, I suppose.)  Untouchables, Casualties of War, Snake Eyes, and Body Double are all either masterpieces or extremely close.

Did you eat paint chips as a child?

[Ideologue]

So katmai hates The Untouchables.  Sounds like kind of an asshole, doesn't he?

[katmai]

Untouchables is a good film, and probably the only good DePalma Film there is. And I give more credit to Mamet script than his direction.


Casualties of War is  decent and Body Double has its moments but is just a sexed up Hitchcock attempt. Neither are "Masterpieces or close"
And I won't even dignify to bring in the piece of crap that is Snake Eyes.

[Ideologue]

Everybody hates Snake Eyes.  It's a masterpiece of thriller filmmaking, if nothing else, and it splits the difference extraordinarily well between Goofy and Serious Cage.

Body Double, admittedly, is a fans-only movie.  But it's got so much for the fan to enjoy, without topping itself into enjoyable bullshit like Raising Cain or Femme Fatale, which also seem to exist solely for BDP to play around with technique.

Casualties of War is just great, displaying that he can deal seriously with mature themes without abandoning his flamboyant idiom.

Untouchables being his "only good" one leaves out some pretty well-regarded movies.  Everybody likes Carlito's Way, everybody likes Carrie, everybody at least enjoys the first Mission: Impossible, and Phantom of the Paradise is enjoyed pretty passionately by many.

[dps]

everybody at least enjoys the first Mission: Impossible

Hardly.  I thought it was crap, and haven't bothered to see the sequels.

[Ideologue]

Your loss.  Well, you didn't miss much with M:I 2.  Everybody (or maybe I should say "most everybody") agrees that it's kind of crap.

[PDH]

Did you eat paint chips as a child?

[citizen k]

[Eddie Teach]

Untouchables is a good film, and probably the only good DePalma Film there is.

[Eddie Teach]

My votes:
Outstanding Drama Series- Game of Thrones (And I think Walking Dead and Tyrant deserved nominations, especially over that weak final season of Mad Men).
Outstanding Comedy Series- Silicon Valley.
Lead Actor, Drama- Odenkirk. I like Spacey but his character's a bit too cartoonish at times.
Lead Actress, Drama- pass. Don't watch most of those shows and the ones I do, not wowed by the performances.
Supporting Actor, Drama- Dinklage or Kelly.
Supporting Actress, Drama- Headey.
Supporting Actor, Comedy- Braugher (Samberg should have at least been nominated for lead, but I guess letting him host makes up for it).
Supporting Actress, Comedy- Bowen.
Writing, Drama- Game of Thrones.
Writing, Comedy- Silicon Valley.

Looks like American Horror Story's found a way to cheese its way into some barely contested categories. It really should be getting snubs in the Drama categories.

[celedhring]

Everybody hates Snake Eyes.  It's a masterpiece of thriller filmmaking, if nothing else, and it splits the difference extraordinarily well between Goofy and Serious Cage.

It's a sterile formal experiment. Works as a curiosity I guess, but if you take away the first shot, what remains (characters, plot, etc)... is extremely unengaging. The problem with De Palma is that he gets trapped by formalism and technique, and his films end up being enjoyable constructs, but devoid of any sense of reality to them. Whenever he's been able to shed that away (or was forced to by the Hollywood machine), he's made his most well-rounded films: Untouchables, M:I, Scarface...

One of my teachers used Untouchables as a model film in his screenwriting classes, by the way, it is a wonderfully well crafted classic story.

[Ideologue]

Sure, it's Star Wars.