TV/Movies Megathread

[celedhring]

I was going through my peak action-figure age when the He-Man cartoon burst into scene, so naturally it left quite an impression on me. I still keep loads of the action figures. Same with the GI Joe cartoon.

Incidentally, me and my brother used our GI Joe figures to create our first miniature tactical wargame 

[celedhring]

Watched Us yesterday. The whole conceit doesn't make much sense once you devoid 30 seconds to think a little about it, but if you take it in stride (which you perfectly may not) it is a great film. It's more a straight slasher than Get Out - and probably there are better ones out there in the pure scare/thrills department -, but the last twists and the social commentary elevate it without being openly preachy (it is much less so than Get Out). The script is excellently crafted.

Again, though, the conceit is so convoluted and nonsensical that I can see people just not buying it.

[frunk]

The Ringer's Best Movies of 1999, Part 1

The most egregious rankings so far:

So, I have issues almost right from the start.  Bowfinger way down at #49?  They barely mention Eddie Murphy's fantastic performance (his best comedic one in the past 25 years).  Terrence Stamp is great in it, but Murphy is phenomenal.  It doesn't help that the Pokemon movie shows up at #47.

Looking further down, Galaxy Quest at #43, right behind The Mummy.  What?  It looks like comedy is getting less respect than bad animation and bad action movies.

#41, Ghost Dog behind Superstar, a cheesy ripped from SNL movie.  OK, comedies are ranked higher if they are terrible.  Ugh, this is getting me way too worked up.

#29, Deep Blue Sea.  Another crappy action movie rated too high.


Movies that haven't been mentioned yet but I'm dreading:
Phantom Menace
Blair Witch Project
Wild Wild West
Mystery Men (I'm conflicted on this one)
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me

Movies that probably won't show up and I'll be disappointed:
The Thirteenth Floor
The Ninth Gate
Three Kings (hmm, not sure)

Movies that are locks for the top 25:
Fight Club
The Matrix
Office Space
The Iron Giant
South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut
Toy Story 2
Being John Malkovich
The Sixth Sense

[Eddie Teach]

I liked The Mummy and Austin Powers ok.

Do you remember the year for every movie? 

[frunk]

I liked The Mummy and Austin Powers ok.

Do you remember the year for every movie? 

List of American Films of 1999

[celedhring]

Lots of great stuff in that Top 25 list - 1999 was quite a good year, at least compared to what we get nowadays!

And yeah, Bowfinger was the last good Eddie Murphy comedy.

[The Larch]

2nd part, the Top 25, is out: https://www.theringer.com/movies/2019/3/26/18277205/1999-movies-ranking-top-50-part-two

Movies that haven't been mentioned yet but I'm dreading:
Phantom Menace
Blair Witch Project
Wild Wild West
Mystery Men (I'm conflicted on this one)
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me

Wild Wild West and Mystery Men aren't, the others are all in.

Movies that probably won't show up and I'll be disappointed:
The Thirteenth Floor
The Ninth Gate
Three Kings (hmm, not sure)

Three Kings is in, at #13. The other two aren't.

Movies that are locks for the top 25:
Fight Club
The Matrix
Office Space
The Iron Giant
South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut
Toy Story 2
Being John Malkovich
The Sixth Sense

All of them in, indeed.

The Top 10:

1) Fight Club
2) The Matrix
3) Office Space
4) Magnolia
5) The Talented Mr. Ripley
6) Election
7) The Blair Witch Project
8) 10 Things I Hate About You
9) The 6th Sense
10)  American Pie

[celedhring]

The 13th Floor had the bad luck of being released two months after The Matrix, which is the far better version of the same concept. But it is a decent film.

[frunk]

The 13th Floor had the bad luck of being released two months after The Matrix, which is the far better version of the same concept. But it is a decent film.

I think the plot in Thirteenth Floor is better, although the execution isn't nearly as good.  There's a lot of goofiness in The Matrix that is taken very seriously, much of that cribbed from martial arts movies that are a lot more fun.

[frunk]

Biggest problem with part 2 is the revelation that they are going off US release dates.  So we get Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (great), but they left off Princess Mononoke.  Well, other than the Austin Powers sequel and the Phantom Menace are list so high or at all.  I should complain about Blair Witch too but apparently it's a revelation.

[celedhring]

Blair Witch was huge at the time, and spawned an era of awful "found footage" horror flicks. It should burn in hell, but if they are going off "cinematic relevance" I guess it has to make the list.

[The Larch]

Blair Witch was huge at the time, and spawned an era of awful "found footage" horror flicks. It should burn in hell, but if they are going off "cinematic relevance" I guess it has to make the list.

Knowing the website, they surely took into account each film's relevance and impact, not just its quality.

[Josephus]

I liked Blair Witch.

I saw it at a preview, before it was released, and before I knew anything about it. So without the hype, I thought it worked quite well and was one of the few movie that literally kept me on edge.

Hasn't worked so well on successive watchings. And the sequels......god...

[celedhring]

I saw it in a horror film fest in Prague, on Halloween Eve, with a bunch of drunken Czechs. It made the experience more enjoyable than it would have otherwise been, but never liked the movie to be honest. It's quite stupid. "I gave you the MAP!!!!!!!"

[Syt]

On Supes and Bats killing people in the newer movies: https://www.vox.com/2019/3/26/18282194/zack-snyder-batman-kills

Armed with the nefarious kind of energy that compels children to tell other children that there is no such thing as Santa Claus, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice director Zack Snyder wants fans of Batman and Superman to grow up and know that the characters kill people.

"Someone says to me: '[Ben Affleck's] Batman killed a guy,'" Snyder said during a Q&A after a Watchmen screening event, as seen in a video posted to Reddit on March 24. "I'm like, 'Fuck, really? Wake the fuck up.'"

Comic book fans complain to Snyder about the dark tone of his movies, he said, airing frustrations about how those heroes have killed people without any kind of remorse or conscience, especially in Batman v Superman.

Then he explained how Watchmen, his 2009 film, is about the gritty reality of superheroes — in no uncertain, or family-friendly, terms.

"Once you've lost your virginity to this fucking movie and then you come and say to me something about, like, 'My superhero wouldn't do that,' I'm like, 'Are you serious?' I'm, like, down the fucking road on that," Snyder said.

"It's a cool point of view to be like, 'My heroes are still innocent. My heroes didn't fucking lie to America. My heroes didn't embezzle money from their corporations. My heroes didn't commit any atrocities.' That's cool. But you're living in a fucking dream world," he added.

Granted, Snyder has a point: Plunging superhero stories into reality blurs the line between the "no kill" credos of the most enduring and beloved superheroes like Batman and Superman. And even if superheroes are not outright killing people, if you take a realistic view of their powers, they've probably caused some life-altering injuries.

But the "dream world" that Snyder is so down on is literally a dream world — one called fiction. There are decades upon decades of comic books where these characters have existed with a no-kill edict, and Snyder's movies are ostensibly based on them.

And in dream worlds, you're allowed to suspend disbelief and believe your heroes don't kill, don't steal, and are morally good.

Batman's no-kill edict may have been an editorial choice, but his decision not to kill is what separates him from the criminals he captures. If Batman were cool with killing, then why does Arkham Asylum, the psychiatric prison where all the bad guys go, exist? And not killing people is why it's such a shock when Wonder Woman actually does kill, like when she killed a man named Maxwell Lord (Wonder Woman No. 219).

Killing has always been painted as the last resort for these heroes, not an intrinsic element to their heroism. And since their creation, superheroes, including the ones Snyder has depicted in his movies, have shown that morality and heroism are intertwined.

Clearly, Snyder doesn't believe in this. Though if you watch his superhero movies, it's not that fans have any reason to think otherwise.