TV/Movies Megathread

[celedhring]

Also, when did John Cena become an actor in real movies?

I see his character even got his own spinoff show, too.

[Admiral Yi]

My immediate thought was Alan Rickman in Galaxy Quest.  Exact same expression.

[The Larch]

Also, when did John Cena become an actor in real movies?

I see his character even got his own spinoff show, too.

He's been at it for a while, he's surprisingly good in comic roles.

[Barrister]

Also, when did John Cena become an actor in real movies?

I see his character even got his own spinoff show, too.

He's been acting for years.  Lots of voice work too.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1078479/

[Eddie Teach]

He was always a professional actor.

[Berkut]

I thought the orphanage stuff was some of the best part.

Same, especially the small personal tragedy that is revealed later on [spoiler]with both not getting to see Mr. Shaibel or paying him back[/spoiler].

Yup - it is key to her developing her humanity.

I love the way they depicted her character in this show. They don't tell you that she has been traumatized and that this has damaged her. They show you her flaws and how she manages to overcome them, at cost, with the help of other people.

I think her relationship with Mr. Shaibel is the best part. He helps her, but even as a kid, he refuses to take her crap - he gives her the respect of taking her seriously, which includes not putting up with her bad behaviour. In turn, they beautiful depict his mixture of excitement and almost fear as he realizes just what her abilities are.

I've really enjoyed this, so thanks for everyone recommendations.

I especially like the way her and the adoptive mother's relationship developed, somewhat complex and depicted subtly. 

It really is a great show.

I loved how believable it was, and how subtle.

[celedhring]

Also, when did John Cena become an actor in real movies?

I see his character even got his own spinoff show, too.

He's been acting for years.  Lots of voice work too.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1078479/

I know, but he had been mostly confined to shitty action B-movies until the last few years. Seems Larchie is right and he seems to have found his niche with comedic roles.

[viper37]

I didn't know there was a prequel series ordered for The Witcher!
https://www.thewrap.com/the-witcher-blood-origin-jodie-turner-smith-eile/

It looks interesting.  Can't wait for season 2, in the meantime

They must be really confident that the Witcher saga will catch on.

Gotta say I thought the first season was very hit and miss. Big fan of the books/games, though, so I hope it can get better (like GoT did).

I liked it better than the books, but I was very confused for a little while, with all the back&forth.

[Syt]

So finished watching the new The Stand. Avoid this. See if you can find the early 90s one instead.
The final episode of this version was a whole new addon that had nothing to do with the source material and was really stupid.
[spoiler]Flagg appears to a group of unspoiled primitive tribe members in, I guess, South America, and brings them "evil." to their innocent ways. Mother Abigail rescues Frannie when Frannie falls into a well and fortells her future. [/spoiler]

[spoiler]Not sure about the Abigail/Frannie bit, but I recall the Flagg scene showing up at a tribe of primitives was in the book (the expanded 1990 re-release, at least).[/spoiler]

At any rate, 90s The Stand's first movie had the best intro after the teaser:



Though I always wondered [spoiler]if the super flu kills people within a week or two, how come everyone in the base was killed seemingly in seconds in the middle of whatever they were doing? Or did they just sterilize the base with gas or something to make sure the virus doesn't escape?[/spoiler] It's been a while since I watched/read the Stand.

[Syt]

Watched the Suicide Squad trailer. I wanted to hate it, but I thought it looked interesting and actually made me laugh (John Cena saying he'd eat ALL the dicks). Almost feels like a return to James Gunn's Troma days.

[Savonarola]

The Cheat (1915)

Fannie Ward is a spendthrift society woman; her stockbroker husband, Jack Dean, objects to her extravagance and her friendship with ivory importer Sessue Hayawaka.  Fannie gets a hot stock tip and embezzles the entire Red Cross Fund (of which she is treasurer) in order to play the market.  Of course she loses everything, and her husband has all his money tied up.  Hayawaka, being Asian (and this being an American movie from 1915), is sneaky and lusts after white women.  So he offers to help her if she pays THE PRICE .  Out of options she agrees with Hayawaka scheme, but immediately thereafter her husband's deal comes through and she's able to get enough money to pay off Hayawaka.  He rejects her attempt to buy her way out and brands her to show his ownership of her.  She shoots him with Chekhov's gun, though Sessue lives, and her husband takes the rap.  A high profile court case follows and the jury finds him guilty, but just as he's about to be dragged away Ward leaps up to the front of the courtroom, shows her brand and admits that she shot Sessue.  The courtroom erupts in violence and mayhem and it looks like the crowd is going to bludgeon Hayawaka to death.  The police barely manage to restore order; all charges are dropped and Fannie and Jack walk out arm in arm.

The film is incredibly racist; not just by today's standards.  Even at the time the film was banned in Australia and The United Kingdom for its portrayal of Asians (though it was a big hit in France.)  In the 1918 re-release Hayawaka's country of origin was changed from Japan to Burma as the US was allied with Japan at that point and there weren't enough Burmese in the United States to complain.

This film is of high historical importance.  It's one of the first to use lighting to set mood, it made Sessue Hayawaka a star and it made Cecil B. DeMille's reputation.  DeMille would try to make more muted films, but those were always bombs.  His gift was to take a key scene over the top; the branding scene and the mob justice scene in this film aren't quite as outlandish as the Golden Calf scenes in either version of The Ten Commandments or the party on the zeppelin in Madam Satan, but they're not that far behind.

Fannie Ward was a Broadway actress (at the time the film industry was mostly located in New York.)  This is one of her first films (her film career wasn't very long since she was over 40 at the time she made this.)  She does a great job, managing to over-act just by moving her eyes in the stock tip scene - a feat that I though only Bela Lugosi was capable of.

[Admiral Yi]

There are two versions of The Ten Commandments?

[Oexmelin]

1923 and 1956.

[mongers]

I've really enjoyed this, so thanks for everyone recommendations.

I especially like the way her and the adoptive mother's relationship developed, somewhat complex and depicted subtly. 

It really is a great show.

I loved how believable it was, and how subtle.

The 15 minute making of documentary on Neflix is worth a viewing.

[Josephus]

So finished watching the new The Stand. Avoid this. See if you can find the early 90s one instead.
The final episode of this version was a whole new addon that had nothing to do with the source material and was really stupid.
[spoiler]Flagg appears to a group of unspoiled primitive tribe members in, I guess, South America, and brings them "evil." to their innocent ways. Mother Abigail rescues Frannie when Frannie falls into a well and fortells her future. [/spoiler]

[spoiler]Not sure about the Abigail/Frannie bit, but I recall the Flagg scene showing up at a tribe of primitives was in the book (the expanded 1990 re-release, at least).[/spoiler]

At any rate, 90s The Stand's first movie had the best intro after the teaser:



Though I always wondered [spoiler]if the super flu kills people within a week or two, how come everyone in the base was killed seemingly in seconds in the middle of whatever they were doing? Or did they just sterilize the base with gas or something to make sure the virus doesn't escape?[/spoiler] It's been a while since I watched/read the Stand.

I don't think people died instantly. I don't think it took weeks either. Days, perhaps.  Also, flu does affect people differently.  But, in the book, for instance, which I'm re-reading now, Patient Zero, drives from California to Texas before he dies.[spoiler]I think the scenes you remember in the base of people dead at their desks--they wren't allowed to leave, they were in lockdown, so I guess they died at their desks.[/spoiler]