TV/Movies Megathread

[frunk]

I remember seeing UHF way back in the day... that is a movie that needs wider release on streaming somehow.

It's free on Youtube right now, at least in my area:

[Duque de Bragança]

Am I just too young or did he never make it this side of the Atlantic?

He's definitely more famous in the US, I think, but he's still a cult figure thanks to the internet. In the 90s some of his stuff made it over here (I remember watching the video for "Fat" on tv, for instance), and he also appeared in some spoof movies (he has a cameo in one of the Naked Gun ones, and sings the title song for a minor Leslie Nielsen one).

Pretty well known over here, even shown on ARTE, the Franco-German cultural channel.
To this day, I still prefer

to the original.
Beat it

is still a close call as well but you really have to appreciate the original to get it.

[Barrister]

Since we're discussing Weird Al, I did want to point out he's not just an 80s-90s retread.

His last album, Mandatory Fun, wsa released in 2014 and went to #1 in the US charts (his only album to do so), led by songs like Tacky (Parody of Happy), Foil (Royals), and Word Crimes (Blurred Lines).

[Eddie Teach]

To this day, I still prefer

to the original.

Ok boomer.

[Duque de Bragança]

To this day, I still prefer

to the original.

Ok boomer.

Nirvana is the original one, so older, boomer. 

[crazy canuck]

Actually more of a Gen X thing.  But I am sure some of the younger Boomers enjoyed it too.

[The Larch]

I have a soft spot for "White & Nerdy".

And "The Saga Begins" is possibly the best thing that came from the Star Wars prequels. 

[Syt]

Full size: https://i.postimg.cc/tyzpTjQK/image.png

Better Call Saul this week is taking a trip to Germany this week, and presents us with this shot which I assume is a composite of stock images/CGI. They try to create a generic German residential street, but it still feels "off" to me.

E.g. the front lawn on the right hand side. It seems unlikely that the fence would not run along the edge between lawn and sidewalk. Alternatively, leave the area open (but also not too common IMHO). The bike lane - I would expect it to be on the right hand side, parallel with the traffic in the same direction. (It's unlikely to be a one way street going left to right, because of the signage for the pedestrian crossing. I suppose it could be possible that the street is one way for cars right to left and for bikes left to right? But for a two lane road it seems too narrow.

Speaking of cars - neither of the two houses seems to have a garage or parking space. Considering how common car ownership is in Germany, esp. if you live in a single house and/or a somewhat nicer neighborhood you would see a place to park cars for the people living there. (Actually, maybe the red strip on the far left is where you could park at the left hand house?) There's a tram line in the foreground  (the show one going through the scene at one point - it's blue, likely a Munich model?). Unclear what the sign warning of the tram is to indicate - normally it warns that either a tram might be crossing, or that a tram might share the road with you.

The house behind the one on the right seems a bit off somehow. Maybe because of its location making it unlikely that it's directly next to street access (of course it might be away from the street), and where is that little path going? We see that there's a a bigger city in the back, which makes sense, because otherwise it's unlikely it would have a tram. There might be a TV/radio tower on the right between the trees, but it seems too short/low. Hard to tell if they used a real city, though, or just composited it from generic assets. I could probably go on about this, but I'll stop here.

It's a bit like if the designers had gone with, "How do we make sure people understand this is Germany?" - "Bike lane! Trams! No cars!"

[The Larch]

It's a bit like if the designers had gone with, "How do we make sure people understand this is Germany?" - "Bike lane! Trams! No cars!"

As anyone who has watched "Alarm für Cobra 11 - Die Autobahnpolizei" knows, you need LOTS of cars (good guys drive BMWs, baddies drive foreign cars) to have a proper German show. 

[Syt]

It's a bit like if the designers had gone with, "How do we make sure people understand this is Germany?" - "Bike lane! Trams! No cars!"

As anyone who has watched "Alarm für Cobra 11 - Die Autobahnpolizei" knows, you need LOTS of cars (good guys drive BMWs, baddies drive foreign cars) to have a proper German show. 

Addendum: in the German pub (which didn't look very German) a young couple was playing on a quiz arcade machine from the 90s or so - the show is set in 2004, so that tracks (actually, older machines would still have worked ), though the machine looked to be in mind condition. And the main German character ... she spoke good German, but it sounded just a little bit off. She's from Hungary and seems to mostly play Germans in American productions.

[Syt]

Actually, I always find it fascinating how foreign productions fictionalize other countries (i.e. not filming on location but trying to dress up some other place to look like what it's supposed to be). Vienna is known for it. The Moscow scenes for the Clint Eastwood movie Firefox were filmed in Vienna. Likewise, Vienna stood in for Prague in a Bond movie. In Young Indiana Jones, on the other hand, Prague stood in for 1908 Vienna, so - balance?

[Barrister]

Actually, I always find it fascinating how foreign productions fictionalize other countries (i.e. not filming on location but trying to dress up some other place to look like what it's supposed to be). Vienna is known for it. The Moscow scenes for the Clint Eastwood movie Firefox were filmed in Vienna. Likewise, Vienna stood in for Prague in a Bond movie. In Young Indiana Jones, on the other hand, Prague stood in for 1908 Vienna, so - balance?

Also count in how Vancouver / Toronto have stood in for countless US cities...

[Sheilbh]

Yeah - Liverpool does a weird side-hustle as New York Captain America, Florence Foster Jenkins, Jack Ryan all used Liverpool and The Batman made it Gotham.

Although with the action films I remember reading somewhere that shadows play havoc with CGI, so I think the regular cloud cover is also helpful.

[Syt]

Actually, I always find it fascinating how foreign productions fictionalize other countries (i.e. not filming on location but trying to dress up some other place to look like what it's supposed to be). Vienna is known for it. The Moscow scenes for the Clint Eastwood movie Firefox were filmed in Vienna. Likewise, Vienna stood in for Prague in a Bond movie. In Young Indiana Jones, on the other hand, Prague stood in for 1908 Vienna, so - balance?

Also count in how Vancouver / Toronto have stood in for countless US cities...

You mean how like 90% of X-Files was shot in Vancouver? It can work if they use "generic" views and buildings that aren't immediately recognizable unless you know the place. However, I recall how in The Dark Knight Rises I was completely taken out of the movie when the action moved to Pittsburgh's Heinz Field and featured the then current roster of the Steelers. 

[Syt]

Oh, and let's not forget how Cleveland stood in for Stuttgart in The Avengers.