TV/Movies Megathread

[The Minsky Moment]

Scathing review of Roland Emmerich's Day After Tomorrow with Some Additional Commentary About Chimpanzee Language Training, Japanese War Crimes and the Movie Midway :

https://www.militarytimes.com/off-duty/military-culture/2019/11/09/everything-about-blockbuster-midway-sinks-faster-than-japanese-carriers-at-midway/

Fixed to be a more accurate description

[The Minsky Moment]

I don't think it's very convincing to complain about details like saying "won" a Navy Cross as opposed to "was awarded" while also arguing that the Japanese sailors at Midway were responsible for massacring 20 million Chinese civilians.

[Berkut]

I mean, a lot of his complaints are not wrong, per se. The dialogue is pretty bad, and there are too many characters, and the portrayal of Best is almost cartoonish in its stereotypes.

But he rates the dialogue "0.5/10" and it is really like 6/10. Its poor, and if you want some great dialogue, this isn't the movie for you. But it isn't THAT bad.

[Admiral Yi]

The trailer did nothing for me.  A bunch of shiny mannequins in period outfits over emoting dumb dialogue. 

[Sheilbh]

I quite enjoyed Kermode's review of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMfbV1z3aA8

[viper37]

Saw Pompei.  Another NSFV movie, albeit no nationalistic propaganda here. 😀

Well, so, this movie is very loosely based on the real story of Pompei, how this great vacation colony for rich romans became the most well known archeological finding of the Roman Empire.

A Briton of the "Horse People" (why were they more horse people than other tribes of the Boudicca rebellion is still a mystery) is captured as a child, after witnessing is parents' death at the hands of the Romans.  17 years later is gladiator in Londinium (NOTE: even without sering the city's name, having people watching a fight under rain and a Roman compl à ining of the weather, it was obvious :p ) where he gets noticed by a lanista who wants him at Pompei.  Why therr and not Rome is a mystery.

Then a horse falls during travel, where apparently a group of gladiatorial slaves are walking in the same convoy as a rich roman girl who insists she's not roman...
Anyway.  He catches the eye of the Roman lady after addressing directly his dottore and looking at the girl dirctly in the eye...
Then he joins other slaves and despite being all of the same ludo, they are apparently all figthing against one another and the new comer will fight the reigning champion.

Quite coincidentaly, a Roman purple srnator arrives in town with his purple bodyguard and purple escort, and it so happens these are the same guys who killed our hero's parents.  Talk about fate!

And then there are some fights, some dialogues between the slave and the not roman from Pompei, a city on the brink of rebellion, apparently.

Some decent arena fight reminescent of Gladiator, but everyone follows our hero for whatever reason.  After a big fight where only our hero and his new friend thr betrayed champion are left standing, the hero takes a shot at the baddy and his soldier friend goes into the arena to fight him.  The baddy as the girl locked in the cellar, then Vesuvius explodes and all the city is engulfed by lava.

Not how I remember that history, but oh welll...

So, good acting, good special effects, good fighting, but extremely poor scenario and a complete disreguard for roman history, how the people of the time behaved, how their culture worked, and how the Vesuvius erupted so that we still have something to see today.

I recommend you watch the 80s mini series "The last days of Pompei" instead, much, much better.

[Berkut]

I would have loved to see a lot more time dedicated to the nitty gritty of the work that the PH intel team did. But I know that I am probably the exception there.

The loss of the Yorktown was also dealt with in a very trivial manner. Just kind of "OH BTW THE YORKTOWN WAS LOST BUMMER".

I suspect the more I think about the movie, the less I will like it, but at least my initial reaction was that I enjoyed the two and half hours.

They really did screw up the Best character. He was kind of a douchebag.

[The Minsky Moment]

I mean, a lot of his complaints are not wrong, per se. The dialogue is pretty bad, and there are too many characters, and the portrayal of Best is almost cartoonish in its stereotypes.

But he rates the dialogue "0.5/10" and it is really like 6/10. Its poor, and if you want some great dialogue, this isn't the movie for you. But it isn't THAT bad.

No idea, didn't see it.
But that reviewer ground enough axes in a pretty short review to outfit an entire Viking raiding party.

[Valmy]

Saw Pompei.  Another NSFV movie,

I appreciate being a benchmark for historical quality!

[Barrister]

Disney+ is out today.  I want to subscribe just to see The Mandalorian, if nothing else.

[viper37]

Saw Pompei.  Another NSFV movie,

I appreciate being a benchmark for historical quality!

You're welcome!

[Habbaku]

Disney+ is out today.  I want to subscribe just to see The Mandalorian, if nothing else.

Since they're staggering the release dates of the episodes, I plan on subscribing for one month (hopefully a free trial) in December just to watch it all.

[Sheilbh]

Well the new Sonic trailer looks better.

I was away - but was CdM here to react to the Cats trailer?

[Eddie Teach]

I believe he cried tears of pure joy.

[Admiral Yi]

Skins.  A gang of English school kids, including Samwell Tarly's squeeze, engage in numerous shenanigans.

They're attending a college.  What exactly does that mean?